The new master of the Borderland had secretly left during his tenure, secretly visited his old haunt of the Kema Duchy, then domineeringly abducted the duchy’s future marchioness.

The future marchioness, for the sake of national stability and family prosperity, tearfully passed the marquis position to her brother, then lightly packed and left alone with the terrible third-rank wizard.

Since then, there has been no news.

…

Sitting steadily on the giant bird Diu Diu’s back, Saul occasionally looked down to check flight coordinates. When he looked back up, he saw Keli smiling strangely while writing something.

He craned his neck to glance over and his mouth twitched speechlessly.

“What are you writing?”

Keli didn’t look up. “You know I often had to attend noble activities in the Kema Duchy. At those events I couldn’t do experiments or read magic books—it was extremely boring. So Grand Duke Kira gave me two knight novels. Later, whenever I attended such activities, I’d put one in the back to pass time.”

“Then later you started writing your own?”

“No, I was just inspired today.” Keli finally looked up, her eyes crinkling with laughter. “In the knight novels I read, wizards are mysterious and great beings. But do wizards really care about ordinary people’s lives? I think they’re the truly evil characters. Anyway, after reading the book you gave me, I’ve had a constant headache, so I might as well write out the fun stuff in my head.”

This included insulting him too?

In terms of novels read, Keli definitely couldn’t compare to Saul.

“I already warned you not to keep reading…” Saul muttered, then rarely discussed entertainment with Keli. “Are you going to write me as the villain and yourself as a princess waiting for a knight’s rescue?”

“No, you’re just a legend. But the Kema Duchy will be stimulated by you to develop desperately, eventually becoming a powerful empire that even wizards wouldn’t dare easily blaspheme.”

“Deep down you still respect wizards.” Saul voiced his thoughts. “Why don’t you just write that the Kema Empire developed unprecedented new technology that can use machinery to resist powerful wizards? Use precise, lightweight, highly lethal yet affordable standard weapons against ordinary wizards.”

“Against powerful high-rank wizards, use weapons with enormous power, extremely high technical content, and destructive force sufficient to level a city.”

“Against fourth-rank immortal wizards, use special biochemical weapons that directly target and eliminate their power sources through targeted contagion.”

Keli’s mouth fell open. She felt vaguely terrified but was also extremely curious.

“What about fifth-rank and above wizards?”

“Fifth-rank and above wizards are hard to handle. You’d probably need to harness more terrifying natural forces beyond human capability, like forcing fifth-rank wizards into lightless celestial bodies where they could never escape. Of course, this would also involve enormous sacrifices.”

Keli twirled her quill pen. “You’re quite ruthless when it comes to killing your own kind.”

Saul turned back around. “Just talking nonsense. The first and second tiers are fine, but the third tier of anti-wizard biochemical weapons…”

He suddenly looked down at his left hand, somewhat dazed.

Wasn’t there exactly one right here?

“Could it be that anchor points, Black Tide, and the Abyssal Eye are actually targeted weapons specifically designed by some civilization to exterminate wizards?” Saul was suddenly somewhat shocked by his own imagination.

…

Grand Duke Kira had once again dealt with various unreasonable demands from different nobles.

Though physically unharmed, she was mentally exhausted and returned to her chambers during lunch break.

Even though she was already a second-rank wizard and had pushed most work and social obligations onto other royal family members.

But as the country’s true decision-maker who could make final calls, she still had many matters to handle daily.

Since the first war with the Kenas Duchy, the two countries had never achieved true peace. There were always small-scale conflicts in local areas.

However, Kenas probably didn’t have the confidence to challenge the Kema Duchy in the short term now.

Having resolved one major threat, Kira wasn’t much more relaxed.

The Kema Duchy still had troubles to resolve on other borders.

Now, for Kema, the most troublesome existence was Caugust City at the very south of the duchy, which had separated part of Kema’s territory.

A city belonging exclusively to Bayton Academy.

This wizard force tucked away in a corner had suddenly begun expanding recently.

This expansion was initially covert.

They just kept promoting to surrounding civilians how wonderful Caugust City was, how easy it was for residents there to make money.

Kira, who was confronting the Kenas Duchy, had no energy to deal with Bayton Academy’s affairs. She also didn’t want to escalate conflicts and face enemies on multiple fronts.

But now, Bayton Academy was almost openly stealing people.

Several small towns near Caugust had already been emptied. According to reports from investigating wizards, residents of several towns including Blue Water Bay had all been forcibly relocated to Caugust regardless of status.

This was something Kira couldn’t tolerate.

Now that Kenas’s problem was temporarily resolved, she could spare resources to see what exactly Bayton Academy was trying to do.

The former Bayton had third-rank wizards leading the way, but now even their second-rank dean was aging. Kira was confident she could suppress him.

The beautiful grand duke of the Kema Duchy wore comfortable sleeping robes, lying on a soft mattress nearly three meters wide, but her posture was abnormally rigid and stiff.

Not at all like someone wanting to enjoy comfortable sleep.

Moreover, her exhausted brain refused to rest. As soon as she lay on the pillow, various thoughts came flooding in.

She couldn’t rest properly at all.

Just as Kira helplessly sat up, preparing to give up on napping once again, a woman in a red velvet cloak pushed the door open.

She moved elegantly and quietly, her red velvet cloak barely stirring as she walked.

She closed the door, came before Kira, removed her hat, revealing a cold and harsh face.

“I told you, your energy should be focused on advancing to third rank, not being consumed by these trivial matters.”

Kira sat on the bed without immediately responding.

She looked at that face across from her.

She had once thought this face was extremely familiar to her, one she would never forget.

But in the end, memory still lost to time.

“Yura,” she paused, “I took you in, not to have you interfere with my governance.”

Yura’s chest heaved violently. “I’m your sister, and I’m one of this country’s heirs. I have the right to participate!”

Seeing Yura about to explode again, Kira silently turned her head away, no longer arguing with her.

The woman before her was completely different from her sister in appearance, temperament, and behavior.

But the mental power fluctuations emanating from her clearly told Kira.

This person was her sister.

Seeing Kira yield, Yura began chattering endlessly again.

Things like “As long as you become third rank, it doesn’t matter if everyone in the royal city dies.”

But Kira remained unmoved. She only said steadily and forcefully during gaps in Yura’s speech, “I want to protect my country.”

Yura slammed her palm on the bed. “Remember this—the weak cannot bear shields. Without becoming strong, you can only be bullied and toyed with!”

(End of Chapter)

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.