Chapter 386: The Mage in Randt City
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Have you heard? The team that published the Declaration of the Freedom of Magic are going to publish a paper soon."
In a quiet home in Randt City, to the south of Fereldan, a mage by the name of Norman flung open the door to his best friend’s room excitedly.
"A paper? For real?"
Norman’s friend, Aiden, was surprised.
Freelance mages were not in the habit of reading the papers. The few newspapers that were circulated in the nation would be the Fereldan Times, Business Talk, Daily Star, etc; all of which were catered towards officials and merchants. Normally, only the higher uppers among the mages would enjoy reading the papers.
A few weeks ago, when the ban on the Church was first lifted, the Fereldan Times started holding the church in church high regard. This led to huge dissatisfaction among the mages.
Needless to say, the mages did not think too highly about the papers now.
"That’s right. A lot of the mages are talking about it - looks like it might be the real deal. I believe the news was officially released by that team and not from some random source." Norman replied.
"But... Why a newspaper though? Wouldn’t a book be much better?" Aiden was puzzled at the idea of it.
The way he saw it, the newspaper industry in Fereldan was pure rubbish. It contained mostly gossip and talk for money-grabbing organizations. It got worse when the decree was announced, now all they did was kiss the church’s bottom. He couldn’t understand the thought process behind publishing a paper over a book.
After all, the Declaration of the Freedom of Magic and those rubbish papers were two totally different animals.
Aiden experienced firsthand the transformative abilities of the booklet.
He could still remember that amazing feeling after first reading the Declaration of the Freedom of Magic just two weeks ago.
At the time, he had just had a physical conflict with an evangelist priest on the streets. He was just about to teach that scumbag a lesson when suddenly a troop of soldiers and over ten priests marched down the street and cornered him. Clearly outnumbered, he was taunted by the group and even fined ten coins for "disrupting the peace".
"You follower of the fallen angel. You may be free to do what you want for now, but justice will always prevail. One day, the light of God will shine over this world and you will have no place to hide."
The priests spat at him as they left.
He was filled with rage and even began questioning the meaning of being a mage. He felt that it was pointless for him to spend all his time and energy to learn magic. Magic had become a sin and people were humiliating him for it.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He was dying to take out that weak whistleblower of a priest after the soldiers and priests dispersed. Then, he would see if that son of a bitch would still be so prideful.
Aiden felt that he got the short end of the stick.
Why was it that all these priests banded together so that when one of them started a conflict, everyone else jumped in to help? And yet, not a single mage came to his aid.
By right, mages should help one another to kick those fake priests back to Helius!
It was by pure coincidence that Norman came to look for him that very day and handed him the book.
"What is this?"
Norman patted him on the back and said, "Don’t fret, you’ll know once you start reading. Nowadays, mages all over the place are making copies of this book but this is an original copy. You won’t regret reading it."
Aiden had mixed feeling as he brought the Declaration of the Freedom of magic book home. However, his whole life changed the second he opened the front cover.
It would have taken many years before he could learn all the incantations that were recorded in the thin booklet. Not to mention that law of meditation included inside! He tried it and found that it was far better than the law of meditation he had been practicing up until now.
At that moment, he realized how valuable the book was.
But even without all these tips and methods, the Declaration of the Freedom of Magic spoke to him in another way.
"There is no just and no evil in magic. The supposed fall the Church constantly speak of was created just too sway public opinion. Even if the world had evil magic, it is from the actions of an individual, not because magic can inherently be evil. No one can charge a gun with murder, likewise, magic cannot be called the instigator."
This made Aiden recall his encounter with the priests. He grit his teeth and clenched his fists. He was overflowing with emotions.
That’s right, he did nothing wrong. Who gave these priests the right to point and jeer?
Not only that, the Declaration of the Freedom of Mages also let him know that even if he was a nobody right now, he could change his status as long as he worked for it.
At that point, he felt a desire to fight flare up inside of him. He wanted to join the team that wrote this booklet but found it hard to find out more about them. He soon heard that the publisher was not working in Landt City, so he was forced to put the thought aside.
However, that didn’t stop him from looking for his mage friends and contacting other mages who were dissatisfied with the Church. That night, they used the explosive spell to blow up a church that just laid its foundations in Landt City.
The next day, he and the other participating mages had the time of their life watching the priests and construction workers in utter disbelief at the site.
But this was the full extent of actions. They did not dare to directly at the priests or chase the priests away. Occasionally, they would vandalize the Church to delay the church’s construction or pull pranks to make life hard for the evangelistic priests. They were now a large group, so they need not worry about the priests and soldiers using a numbers advantage to overpower them.
Slowly, they even started feeling like some sort of secret society. Every once in a while, they would gather and discuss how to make life hell for the Church.
Their admission process was to flash the Declaration to the Freedom of Magic booklet.
After the series of murders that made nationwide news, Aiden deduced that the legendary "Triangular Spirit" was the same group of people that wrote the booklet. He really wanted to get in touch with them. It was a shame, however, that the group was so mysterious that doing so would be impossible.
The news about the publication of the papers was the first news he had heard about them in a long time.
He was a little letdown.
"I too am unsure why they chose a paper. However, they were the ones who were brave enough to enlighten us with Declaration of the Freedom of Magic. They must have their reasons."
Aiden gave it some a thought and regretted judging them so soon. After all, they were the ones who wrote the Declaration of the Freedom of Magic!
"There’s something else." Norman spoke again, "I heard that for the distribution of the papers, they would need to build a secret network in every city. Perhaps, we can finally meet them!"