Supreme Magus novel Chapter 260

"Your Ladyship, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?" Lith gave her a bow. Not only Mirim Distar was his sponsor at the White Griffon academy, but she was also his most powerful backer. _{ƒrēewebnovel.com}

"First of all, congratulations are in order. The ranking you achieved brings great prestige to both our households and puts a muzzle on all those who wanted to prosecute me for strong arming Linjos into accepting your application."

"I’m sorry to have caused you so many troubles." Lith bowed again, aware of the meaning of her words. The Marchioness was a busy woman, she would never call him to exchange niceties.

Hers was a business call and she was reminding Lith about how much he owed her before asking him for a favor.

"Don’t be." She dismissed his apologies with a wave of her hand, surprising Lith quite a bit.

"Politics work like that. If you cannot attack someone’s actions, then you attack their reputation. Remember this well, once you have made some powerful enemies, they will criticize you no matter what you do.

It’s something you must get used to, if you ever decide to join the political arena."

"Thanks for your concern, but it’s not my intention. I plan to devote my life to magic and magical research. Wealth and status are just a mean to an end to me. I think the Marquisate is in good, capable hands already."

Lith chose his words carefully. The Marchioness’ game was still unclear to him, so he decided to make it clear that he had no desire to become one of her competitors. Once he became a mage, Lith would receive a last name and a noble title.

Yet unless he also accepted the role and responsibilities that ruling his lands implied, he wouldn’t become a true noble. His title would simply be nominal, giving him status and authority over the lesser nobles, but no wealth or annuities.

Many Professors of the academy had chosen that kind of life, serving their country with their magic rather than as feudal lords.

"Thanks for your kind words." The Marchioness nodded her head in approval.

"Now let’s get down to business. The reason I called you is to inform you about the progress we made with the sealed box and the coded message you delivered to me. Sadly, despite countless hours of studies, my Forgemasters were unable to open it. It detonated leaving behind little clues. If only we had more than one, things could have been different." She sighed.

"The contents we managed to salvage matched your hypothesis. It contained a lot of alchemical tools that could have been used to synthesize and transport the toxin. It also carried enchanted items, but the explosion destroyed them leaving nothing we could identify."

’Damn! I know that already.’ Lith thought. ’If only I had a decent excuse to provide her some of those useless trinkets I found, I could understand the bigger picture. Too bad there was no way to explain my stockpile of boxes.’

"On the bright side, we have finally managed to decipher the message." The Marchioness continued.

"It contained a series of instructions and names. The instructions explain the timing and dosage of the toxin, so at this point is irrelevant information. The names are quite interesting, though. They belong both to members of the academy staff and the students.

"We know from the royal constables’ investigation that only a part of the academy staff listed was involved in the poisoning scheme. The others were simply approached and found ill-suited for recruiting because of their loyalty to the Kingdom or simply due to their cowardly nature.