“How dare you threaten me, you cow? Because of people like you, my whole village starved. A lot of people I know didn’t make it whereas you traitors keep breathing!” The young mage kept hurling bolts of lightning even after the Duchess fainted.
“Does your fracture still hurt? This is for the pain!” A bolt of frozen air struck the builder with an injured arm, sealing it inside a block of ice that stopped the pain but also almost killed the man of shock.
The light blue fabric of his uniform turned dark as it amplified the air element coursing through the student’s body. The cloudy sky it represented swirled into a storm and the yellow embroideries channeled the bolts of lightning, making sure that not an iota of elemental energy went to waste.
With the bolts of lightning coursing through his body, the wind blades surrounding him, and the chilly air at his fingertips, even a young man looked like a god of thunder.
“The Kingdom experienced two famines in a row. If you were in their shoes, seeing the food you had worked hard to grow being taken away to feed a bunch of strangers while you lived off rations, you would feel robbed as well.NovelFull.com
“Look around. Their city has been destroyed first and now is invaded by strangers who follow their every move, treating them like criminals. Many of them have lost their house and winter is approaching. Can you really blame them?”
“No.” The student grunted in pain but he refused to let his spells fade. “But that doesn’t mean that I’m willing to let them treat me like their servant. I’m a mage!”
“I don’t blame you for defending yourself but there’s a big difference between that and torture.” She pointed at the noblewoman who was having a heart attack. “If she dies, there will be a riot and then you’ll have to cure the injured from both factions.”
“Your Headmaster and if he doesn’t, the Royals will.” Solus kept her tone calm and let him go the moment he dispelled his attacks in shock. “Kid, I don’t blame you for resenting them, but you are acting like an idiot.
“What do you mean?” He asked in confusion.
“No.” The young mage plunged onto the nearest chair, suddenly feeling too tired even to be angry.
“What you talk about as if it was a golden age is one of the darkest pages of the Kingdom’s history. The reason you had so much food even after feeding Thrud’s army is that she enslaved all those she deemed unworthy and sent them to die on the battlefield.
“Even the Forgotten you remember so fondly were nothing but slaves. People who had been robbed of their free will and forced into servitude. Would you still approve of such a thing if you were the ones wearing a slave collar?
The commoners went pale as they were forced to face reality. They had done their best to avert their gaze and not ask questions about the fate of those that Thrud’s Forgotten had arrested in broad daylight.
As for the nobles, it was much worse. They knew the truth from the start but the idea of ending up like the Empire and losing their noble titles was a destiny worse than death. It would destroy not only their lives but also those of their descendants.
“Otherwise the War of the Griffons will never be over and the only change will be in the way it is fought.”
She couldn’t just turn her back to the suffering of the people of Zeska. Some of them were jerks but most of them were just victims of Thrud and her propaganda.
The rest of the shift passed peacefully, with the Healers keeping silent while the citizens of Zeska looked and asked around for their missing friends.
Once Solus was too tired to continue, she asked a guard for information.
