Throne of Magical Arcana - Chapter 117

Under the moonlight, the many beautiful flowers in the garden looked a bit hazy.
Lucien and Rhine were walking through the flowers side by side, both of them remaining silent.
A while later, Lucien could not hold himself back anymore, "Can you tell me where the headquarter of the Congress of Magic is now, Mr. Rhine?"
Rhine looked at Lucien and smiled, "What do you think? Take a guess."
"I thought about it." Lucien nodded, "I thought it was on the other side of the Dark Mountain Range, or at least deep in the mountains. After all, the Church failed to march further westward across the range. Does it make sense?"
"A good guess," Rhine grinned, "but if you go there, what you can find deep in the mountains will be a bunch of crazy and gloomy sorcerers and sorceresses who survived the violent suppression, or say, slaughter, done by the Church. People call them ‘ancient sorcerers’."
"Really? How come they live that long?" Lucien was a bit surprised.
"They are survivors." Rhine explained, "They managed to survive because they are powerful. Many of them are archmages and even legendary archmages. They’re cruel and crazy. You can easily become their subject for experiment if you piss them off and die from their brutal torture."
"Then… is the headquarter in a certain country? I mean… in one of the countries which doesn’t follow the God of Truth?" Lucien made another guess.
"Nope…" Rhine shook his head again and again, "Have you ever heard of the Kingdom of Holm?"
"Yes, I did…" Lucien did not quite get it.
"The headquarter of the Congress of Magic is in the Kingdom of Holm," said Rhine, "or, to be more specific, in the floating city called Allyn, close to the kingdom’s capital, Rentato."
"Allyn… in Sylvanas it means sky." Lucien murmured. Then his eyes suddenly opened wide, and he said, "Wait… it’s impossible! The princess’ mom came from Holm, and this is a country that follows the God of Truth! The grand duke even visited it many years ago! How come…"
"I knew the answer would shock you, Lucien." Rhine slowly explained, as if he was telling a rather interesting story, "Among all these poems and stories and music works that praised the romantic love between the grand duke and the princess’ mom, neither of them specified why and who was trying to separate them. Don’t you feel strange?"
"I never thought about it…" Lucien was confused, "Was it the congress? But why?"
"If you had ever learned about the philosophy of ruling," the corner of Rhine’s lips curled up, "you’d understand that it’s all about the balance between nobles."
"Can you explain it a bit more, Mr. Rhine?" Lucien had some thoughts but was not quite sure.
Rhine walked slowly, "In the last two hundred years of the War of Dawn, the power of the Church reached its peak. Even the emperor needed to kneel down in front of the pope and kiss the pope’s shoes. At that time, the Church could easily dethrone an emperor, not to mention deposing those dukes, counts and viscounts."
"So, those nobles…" Lucien rubbed his chin a bit with his fingers, "they decided to support the cardinals who wanted to separate from the Church?"

"Good point." Rhine turned his face toward Lucien, "Although we still don’t know why those cardinals back in the days decided to betray the pope, what we know is that some local nobles in the north were more than willing to support them. However, these nobles were clearly aware of the fact that, if these cardinals that they supported gained the core power and overthrew the pope, a new pope would come out among the cardinals on their side and the whole situation of the nobles would not be changed at all."
"So the nobles leaked the secret plan on purpose to let the pope be relatively prepared!" Lucien’s brows frowned slightly, "Thus, the north and the south became two sides on a balanced scale. And the balanced situation made the nobles’ power rather important. The side that gained the support of more nobles would obviously have the advantage."
"You’re really smart, Lucien. The first half part of your reasoning is correct, but the second half was not really what happened." Rhine smiled, "The fact was that, after the division of the Church, the southern Church was still way stronger than the northern. However, the north Church gained the support from the elves, dwarves, many magic creatures and even the ancient sorcerers in the northwest of the Dark Mountain Range. Like the old saying goes, ‘my enemy's enemy is my friend’. When they were involved, the northern Church finally managed to withstand the violent attack launched by the south."
"Then, the situation on the whole continent looked more balanced. The south was not in such a dominant position anymore." Lucien contemplated, "Something else must have happened afterwards in the south… say, another division."
"Impressive, Lucien." Rhine looked a bit surprised with Lucien’s insight, "Yes, there was another division in the south later. Since the nobles in the south saw the great improvement of the status of the nobles in the north, while most of them decided to negotiate with the Church, a small part of them chose to secretly support the mages, in order to turn the sorcerers and sorceresses into a new trouble for the Church, while they stood in the middle and benefited from their confrontation."
"Who were the ‘small part’ of the nobles? What they were doing was very risky." Lucien murmured.
"Yes, it was." Rhine shrugged, "They were the nobles from the four kingdoms across Storm Strait. And what they did not expect was that a great mage named Douglas evolved the ancient magic system and initiated a huge revolution in studying the laws of the universe. Hence, the power of the magic congress started to soar, and countless great archmages came out. About a hundred years ago, the congress integrated several scattered major magic organizations and became the second most powerful institution in the world."
"Douglas…" he still remembered the name. Lucien was pretty sure that Douglas was still alive, since such a great sorcerer like him must have many ways to prolong his lifespan. For example, there was a magic ritual mentioned in Astrology and Magic Elements that could prolong one’s lifespan to a thousand and five hundred years.
"Mr. Douglas, one of the most powerful men in the world, the greatest arcanist ever in history, the chairman of the Continental Congress of Magic, and the founder of the journal called Arcana." Mentioning his name, even Rhine looked a bit awed, "So now, in the Kingdom of Holm, the existence of the magic congress is almost a half-revealed secret, and the power of the congress is way stronger than that of the southern Church. Without the support of the local nobles, the Church might have been rooted out long time ago."
"That’s why the Church here made the grand duke visit Holm many years ago. The purpose of the grand duke’s trip was to rebuild a solid relationship with the nobles there to fight against the congress’ power," Lucien nodded. "So, the grand duke married the princess in Holm, good for him."
"Well… I bet that was out of the grand duke’s expectation." Rhine smiled. "The marriage caused a stir across the continent. Many nobles opposed it and tried to obstruct the marriage in every possible way, since the union of the two young people might easily change the tripartite power relations among nobles, the Church and the congress. The congress, obviously, would not easily allow the marriage to happen as well."
Seeing Lucien’s eyebrows frowned tightly, Rhine paused a bit and waved his hand casually, "Anyway… you don’t have to understand all the complicated stories in history. What you should think about is how to get to Holm. Storm Strait has been blocked by the Church for a long time, and only the nobles and businessmen with a special permit can pass. Or you can pass the confrontation border of the northern and the southern branches of the Church, traverse Schachran Empire and reach the lands to the far north, after which you can enter Holm from its northern border."
"I don’t think I can even make the first step, passing the confrontation border…" Lucien shook his head, "I wonder if the congress has its own special path. After all, I know there was a sorcerer from the congress who came to Aalto before."
Rhine nodded, "Yes, I was just about to mention this. It is said that the congress has a liaison in Sturk, the Bright Pearl of the Sea, but I don’t know who is it, and you would still have to sneak through the confrontation border, which is very dangerous. So what I suggest is that you first become a real sorcerer and then set off for your destination, to have a better chance at protecting yourself."
"A real sorcerer…" Lucien’s brain was working fast. He could not take the risk to use the Professor identity again right now to go back to the apprentice meeting, and the only way that he could become a first circle sorcerer as soon as possible would be to visit the magic lock, "But isn’t it a trap set by the Church?" Lucien murmured.
"If you become a middle-rank mage and learn how to fly, you basically won’t have to worry about all this stuff." Rhine continued, "The Church can block the water and the border, but it can never completely control the sky. Smart as you are, with the help of the potion called Silver Moon, I believe you can soon make a breakthrough, Lucien. By the way, the Church has been pretty busy recently and they’re less likely to pick on you, I think."
"You seem to know everything, Mr. Rhine." Lucien was surprised, "Who are you? Why did you want to help me?"
"I’m only an observer, an outsider." Rhine’s smile was mysterious, "You’re an interesting person, Lucien. Getting you involved makes the whole thing even more interesting. Of course, when the game becomes attractive enough for me, I’ll join it as well."
Then Rhine directly turned around and left the garden through the small gate, leaving Lucien standing alone in the darkness.
Unexpectedly, Lucien now felt more relaxed than excited, as if Rhine just removed the heavy rock that had been sitting for so long on his heart.
At this time, Lucien suddenly felt his soul swelled a bit and started to approach his power limit.