Demacia, the capital.
Grand Plaza.
Night had already fallen, but the plaza was brightly lit and packed with people. Several high-powered electric lamps illuminated the vast square until it was as bright as day.
All across the plaza, discussion rose and fell without end.
Even though the place was already packed, an endless stream of citizens from the capital continued arriving from every direction.
Usually, when so many people gathered here, it meant something major was about to be announced.
A magnificent statue stood at the far end of the plaza. Countless people had personally witnessed him speak with a human voice and spread his wings to soar.
It was Galio, the Colossus!
An ancient yet living colossus. Even simply standing there, he gave people quite a shock.
Galio looked down over the crowd in Grand Plaza. He could not remember how long it had been since he had last seen so many little Demacians.
These were the people he wanted to protect. Today, he had successfully protected them again, and a smile bloomed across Galio's face.
Lux's magic was flowing out of his body. His eyelids felt as if they were fighting each other, about to close at any moment.
But even before he fell asleep, Galio still wanted to look at them for a little longer.
On the other side stood the mages, led by Sylas. When counted, there were roughly several thousand of them. They waited quietly, ignoring the gazes cast toward them one after another.
"Why are these mages still here..."
"What is the king going to announce?"
"It must be related to the mages' rebellion today."
"Not just that. Some of it is about the Mageseekers too."
"You'll know soon enough."
Amid such repeated discussion, several thunderous drumbeats rang out, echoing above Grand Plaza.
The voices on the square quieted down unconsciously. Everyone raised their heads and looked toward the front.
On the open-air terrace of the castle at the front, Jarvan III slowly walked out in solemn attire, wearing his crown and holding the king's scepter. With a grave expression, he faced the masses.
He looked at one expectant face after another and spoke in a deep voice. "I have summoned all of you here because I wish to give everyone an explanation for today's events."
"The mages raised a rebellion, but the root cause of this matter did not begin with the mages."
"Here and now, I solemnly announce something to all the people of this nation."
"From this day forward, on March seventh of the year 679, all mages throughout Demacia are officially pardoned."
"From now on, mages may live normal lives in Demacia like everyone else."
"At the same time, I announce that from this day onward, the Mageseekers are officially abolished."
As Jarvan III's voice fell, an uproar instantly rose below.
On the other side, behind Sylas, the mages unconsciously raised their staffs and burst into cheers.
Sylas's eyes flickered, then finally returned to calm. His loosened fist unconsciously clenched, then loosened again.
The king had not broken his word. He had indeed pardoned all mages, and he had even abolished the Mageseekers.
His fifteen years in darkness had ended with an outcome like this.
Was this what he wanted?
This was what he wanted.
And yet, in this moment, Sylas suddenly felt as if he had lost his goal in life.
Originally, he had imagined that he would raise an unprecedented rebellion and hold face-to-face negotiations with the king of Demacia on equal footing. In the end, the king would have no choice but to pardon the mages.
But it seemed that many steps in the middle had been skipped, and they had arrived directly at the final one.
From what he had seen that afternoon, he had also learned that the matter of banning magic truly could not be blamed on Jarvan III.
In that case, now that he had left that cage, what should he do from now on?
Confusion, like most people who stopped before a fork in the road of life, Sylas felt utterly lost.
Below, the matter of pardoning all mages and abolishing the Mageseekers had already ignited the entire crowd. The boiling discussions simply could not be stopped.
At that moment, a resonant clang rang out as a bell sounded, and the entire plaza immediately returned to silence.
"As king, I know that an apology that comes so late has no sincerity to speak of, but I still wish to say I am sorry to the mages whom Demacia once harmed."
Jarvan III removed his crown and solemnly bowed. When he stood again, his expression carried some sorrow. "It was my indulgence and my willful blindness that allowed the Mageseekers to act with such bold recklessness and do things that stained Demacia's justice. To those mages harmed by the Mageseekers, I offer my deepest apologies."
Below, some uninformed people were still curious about what the Mageseekers had done that was so outrageous.
It had actually made Jarvan III bow and apologize to the mages, and even directly abolish the Mageseekers.
As the citizens who had followed them earlier and knew the truth began to recount what they had seen, one filthy scandal after another from the Mageseekers' secret base was revealed.
Jarvan III gave them plenty of time for the matter to spread by word of mouth.
Jarvan IV and Luke were already in the room behind the terrace. Both brothers stood quietly, surrounded by Roy and the other ministers.
After some time passed, the anger of the crowd across all of Grand Plaza had been ignited.
Their rage was uniformly aimed at the Mageseekers. They truly had done things outrageous enough to offend both man and heaven. As long as one was a Demacian with upright character, there was almost no way to tolerate it.
"Clang!"
With another ringing of the bell, the plaza quieted once more. Yet the furious eyes of every person spoke clearly of their feelings at this moment.
"I will not let a single person involved escape punishment. The rebellion raised by the mages in the capital today was also secretly plotted behind the scenes by Tourt, representative of the nobility, and Eldred, commander of the Mageseeker Corps. Their only purpose was to secure political power. Their actions trampled over Demacia's dignity again and again."
As Jarvan III spoke, his gaze grew cold. "Here and now, I swear that I will not show leniency to any person involved."
As he spoke slowly, figures were escorted forward onto Dawn Walkway in the middle of Grand Plaza.
At the front was Hesbeth. Behind him were the main Mageseekers involved in the affair. After them came the nobles secretly connected to Tourt and the others, as well as some people whose crimes were already clearly proven.
There were many of them. Every one of them looked filthy and defeated, heads lowered as two strong soldiers restrained them and escorted them forward.
In front of the people of the entire capital, these people could not even raise their heads. They turned away, avoiding everyone's gazes.
"You animals!"
"Traitors!"
"You damned bastards!"
"I can't take this anymore. Hit them!"
At that moment, the anger of the masses happened to need an outlet.
After a rotten egg flew first from the crowd and struck Hesbeth's face with perfect accuracy, the entire plaza erupted in the next second.
Countless pieces of trash, stones, rotten eggs, and even shoes, anything that could be thrown, were all hurled at those people.
Inside the room, Luke saw this scene and clicked his tongue. "If someone went down there to sell eggs right now, they'd definitely make a fortune."
Everyone around him was silent.
"I've realized you have absolutely no sense of timing."
Lux glanced at him speechlessly. "Is this really the time to say that?"
Luke asked, "Then what should I say instead?"
Lux thought for a moment, then glared at him. "Can't you just stand there properly?"
Luke sighed. "If you people hadn't stopped me, I'd definitely be down there throwing eggs right now. If I don't throw something at those scumbags a few times, I won't feel right."
"True."
Lux nodded in agreement, then looked at Luke.
The same thought appeared in both their minds at the same time.
Without needing to say anything, they prepared to sneak away and join the trash-throwing army in the plaza.
Unfortunately, the moment they turned around, they saw Augatha blocking them with a stern face. "At a time like this, don't run around causing trouble."
What time was it already? And these two were still thinking only about making a scene.
If the two of them showed their faces outside right now, the situation would probably become even more chaotic.
Today, the people being discussed most fervently in the capital were Lux, who had summoned the colossus, and Luke, who was said to have countered Tourt and the others' conspiracy in one move.
Luke and Lux could only return resentfully and stand there without another word.
Outside, the crowd's fury was immense. Most importantly, Dawn Walkway was very long, which meant even the soldiers responsible for escorting the prisoners could not avoid being caught in the crossfire.
The ones worse off were Hesbeth and the other people who had committed serious crimes. By now, they had long since been battered until their heads were bleeding, looking miserable and wretched.
Yet no one sympathized with them.
If one were to speak of misery, which mage inside that secret dungeon had not been several times more miserable than them?
More importantly, each and every one of these people was a parasite gnawing at Demacia. There was even less reason to pity them.
It was just that there were not many things people could throw. Some people even wanted to throw their own children up there to vent their anger.
The objects being thrown gradually lessened in the second half of the walk. Seeing this scene, Jarvan III did not stop them from beginning to end. He simply watched calmly the entire time.
Only after those people were escorted to the innermost end of Dawn Walkway did the people in the plaza consciously quiet down.
Jarvan III then said coldly, "Each and every one of the following people has brought disaster to the nation and the people. Their crimes are unforgivable. They treated Demacia's teachings as nothing and stained the noble soul of Demacia. I hereby announce that they will be publicly beheaded tomorrow at noon."
As his words fell, a wave of cheers immediately rang out below.
The escorted criminals all turned deathly pale. At that moment, they felt deep despair.
In reality, the number of people implicated in this incident was far, far greater than those currently being shown.
To say nothing of the fact that this was only the capital. If it spread to other places outside the capital, there would definitely also be people who were not clean.
However, those would need to be cleaned up slowly. Of course, cleaning them all out was only a matter of time.
The fact that Demacia had so many scum made Jarvan III feel an indescribable ache in his heart.
On the way back, he had been thinking the entire time about whether he was truly a qualified king.
If he was, then why had something like this happened under his rule?
Or perhaps the current him had already grown old.
In any case, far too much had happened today. Although it also allowed Jarvan III to see a brand-new future, it had also worn down much of his spirit.
This time, no bell rang. Jarvan III merely raised his hand, and the crowd below fell silent.
He turned around, looked at Jarvan IV, and said, "Come forward."
Hearing this, Jarvan IV stepped forward and appeared before the crowd on the terrace.
Then Jarvan III turned back again, continued looking at the people, and spoke in a deep voice. "From this day onward, I officially announce Jarvan Lightshield IV as the next heir to the throne. This command shall not be changed, and it shall be declared only once."
As soon as his words fell, Jarvan IV beside him could not help freezing.
The crowd below also erupted into another uproar.
Although many people had expected Jarvan IV to be the heir to the throne, and had believed so from the very beginning,
there had also been some who, after seeing the Second Prince's performance before this, felt that he also had a chance to compete for the throne.
After all, who would sit in that position in the future was still up to Jarvan III.
But after today, now that Jarvan III had said this in front of everyone, the matter was basically certain.
There was no longer any suspense over who would inherit the throne.
"Father..."
Jarvan IV came back to himself and hesitated, as if he wanted to say something.
But then again, after confirming his succession to the throne, the first thing he felt was not joy, but a heavy burden.
In truth, during this time, he had considered many things. He had such an outstanding younger brother, and he felt that perhaps Luke was more suited to inherit the throne.
As for himself, he could freely lead troops and fight wars on the border.
If the two brothers worked together, one governing within and one commanding without, would that not be a powerful alliance, unstoppable wherever they went?
What he did not know was that after hearing Jarvan III's words, Luke had quietly let out a sigh of relief.
The throne and power were things many people coveted, but to Luke, they were not as satisfying as a good little barbecue meal.
Being king looked exhausting at a glance. Just looking at his father, who had to deal with so many matters every day, was enough. Usually, he could do little more than take a stroll. He could barely squeeze out any leisure time at all. It was simply too heartbreaking.
If Luke had to live that kind of life, he might as well be killed outright.
Recently, there had always been some scheming people spreading rumors outside that he was going to snatch away the position of heir, and it had made him want to personally step forward and dispel those rumors.
Now everything was fine. There would be no more rumors after this.
Moreover, he could tell that his older brother was not being honest either. The way Jarvan IV looked at him always carried the feeling that he wanted to throw the identity of heir onto Luke, then run off and enjoy himself freely.
How could Luke possibly tolerate that?
If that really happened, wouldn't everything be reversed?
That absolutely could not be allowed.
Jarvan III looked at Jarvan IV's complicated gaze and said softly, "I know what you mean, but this decision is one I made after careful consideration. You brothers both possess the talent to inherit the throne, but you are still more suited to this position."
During this period, Luke had naturally displayed extraordinary talent. If one spoke of inheriting the throne, he was certainly qualified.
But to put it plainly, once Jarvan III thought of this boy's usual laziness, combined with his habit of never being serious, he still could not feel at ease handing the position to him.
He was afraid that if this boy sat on the throne, he would pull some kind of stunt.
And at that point, there would be no taking it back.
By comparison, Jarvan IV, whose temperament was clearly steadier, was still more suitable.
There was another reason as well. Jarvan III had suddenly made such a solemn announcement today because he wanted to end the rumors spreading outside.
From this point on, he hoped the entire nation would be united in purpose.
The lessons he had learned today were truly far too many.
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