"Although I appreciate the thought, I already decided not to steal from others anymore unless they try to harm first."
Gale refused his mother's offer to get him so mages to get stronger quickly without thinking twice.
"That's a bad ntality. We can easily find bad people who deserve to lose their magic; It might even save so of your beloved commoners."
"I'm not a judge, and I'm not going to rape them only because they deserve to lose their magic. I don't want to force myself on other won."
"Fine. Then why are still getting married to that viscount girl? She isn't talented enough to keep up with you."
"I don't know myself. I thought it wasn't necessary anymore, but Lena insisted."
"Hm, Lena did?"
She thought for a mont and suddenly laughed.
"I guess it ans the rumors are true. You'll be fine, don't worry."
Gale started getting frustrated; everyone understood Lena's plan except for him, and he was the most crucial person for that plan!
"Let show you sothing you need to know first. Try to charm into doing anything."
She said before he could complain. He didn't think much of it.
"I'm your son, you can trust ."
She nodded in return.
"You can trust , you have no reason to hide secrets from , mother."
He decided to take the charming process in small steps, as she was a stage higher than anyone else he had ever tried to charm before. He emphasized the word "mother" to remind her of their special bond.
"I want to get to know you better, please tell what stage you are in."
He decided to ask the question that he wanted to know the most. He looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to fall for his charm, and only realize later his charming abilities are far beyond the standards.
"I'm just a Novice Magician."
She said and rubbed his head as if praising him.
"Your charm ability is much better than I thought. Even I felt a small urge to tell you the truth. However, I hope you learned your lesson not to ss up with people you can't deal with."
Gale smiled bitterly; he didn't expect her to resist it so easily, he thought she was underestimating his charm. He decided to ask sothing else without the charm powers.
"So mother, why did you marry dad if only power matters?"
"He used to be one of the most talented people in the empire. Sadly, he got sick because of a bad potion he consud. Otherwise, how could he be so old only at the age of 152?"
She said with a bitter voice. Gale knew those details before, so apparently, his mother didn't plan on giving him more information on the matter.
"You may leave now."
She signaled him to leave the place and turned back to read sothing.
Although he was forced by his mother, he learned a good lesson from this encounter; he should be careful when trying to charm older mages with better ntal capabilities.
Gale headed toward Donne's study room to talk to him. He arrived in front of his door and knocked.
"Co in."
Donne's voice was heard, and he went in.
"Hey Donne, I'm here to fix our relationship."
"It was never broken."
Donne looked up from his docunts and looked at Gale who just entered the room. Gale thought he was just trying to make it easier to nd their relationship but still felt sour about Donne's plans to abandon him.
"What about when you told you'll abandon when you beco the earl?"
"When did I ever say that?"
"You said you wouldn't provide for anymore, and you also don't have a job to offer ."
"I said I won't support your charity anymore, and you'll have to get money for that yourself. The part about having no job for you is true."
Gale was startled. He was pretty sure it wasn't what happened.
"That's not what I understood from your words."
"I can't banish you from the family, Lena would destroy the place."
It did make sense; even Donne wouldn't dare to anger Lena. In fact, Gale always suspected that Donne feared her in secret.
"Is that all you've co for?"
"I guess…?"
"Do you want a job now that you're a magician too?"
Gale planned to leave the kingdom long ago, he wouldn't remain in a place where the strongest was only in the Mage Phase with his unlimited potential.
"I don't, I plan to leave the kingdom and reach beyond the Mage Phase."
"That's perfect. If both you and Lena can achieve that, my promotion is all but guaranteed."
"Your talent isn't much behind Lena's, why do you want to remain here?"
"Our families have been nobility for generations, and I won't let it end now. Having a family here will always guarantee the safety of our family and will be a place to retreat to in case future generations don't have a Magus to protect them. I don't know if you're aware of it, but Maguses are being suppressed by the empire. They get good treatnt, but the empire makes sure they can't get out of their control."
"I didn't know it. But how are you planning to beco a marquee? Their numbers are fixed."
"Our grandfather's title. He is going to pass it to our uncle, that's why father only got the earl title. I'll make sure I get the marquee title, and I will pass the earl title to my second son with the princess. Grandfather doesn't even contact us ever since father beca weak, I will make sure he'll regret it."
Gale was surprised to see the fire in Donne's eyes. He could tell that Donne carried a strong resentnt toward their grandfather. Their grandfather, Marquee Stormborn, has given a lower title to their father when he got sick and never talked with them ever since.
"All right, but I don't plan to be suppressed. I plan to beco stronger than anyone on this continent."
Gale left and went back to his mansion and t with Nina and Celty.
"Let's go outside, we have one month to train before the wedding takes place."
In the next month, Gale stayed at his mansion and learned from Nina fire magic, and darkness magic from Celty. Aside from his previous spells he also learned to make his fireball explode.
Unlike Lena's fireballs, their explosion wasn't about damage. It was about spreading and igniting, due to his different affinity with fire. Once his fireball exploded, it would send small flas in a 5 ters radius sphere, causing everything that gets caught in it to catch fire.
He also improved greatly in using his shadows assimilation and noise cancellation spells, and he could easily pass behind Nina's back without her noticing him. At night she'd need a maximum of 20 ters distance from him to see him, and the less moonlight present, the closer she'd have to be in order to be able to see him.
One more thing he improved was his reflexes; he had Nina shoot at him from close range to improve them. He trained his dodging skills by having her shoot at him while he had to dodge. He practiced his aiming by chasing Nina, and he learned to double cast spells from the sa elent, so now he could shoot fireballs with both hands at the sa ti or use a ring to deter others in a fight while shooting a fireball to attack.
He couldn't use fire spells and shadow spells at the sa ti; Lena could do it only after a lot of training as a mage. So he also learned simple thrusts with daggers and the right places to stab if he would ambush from behind.
A month soon passed, and his wedding ti arrived.
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