Chapter 639: The Turn of Events at the Banquet
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After listening to what the System said, Benjamin made a weird expression.
He could not understand what was going on. It was quite shocking to have other people sneaking into the banquet, but... Sneaking in a bunch of commoners, what was the point of it?
"Are those mercenaries?" Benjamin asked again.
The System said instead: "Some of them are mercenaries, while the others...are the most common commoners, no great spiritual energy like the mages, no physically strong body from professional training, certainly seemed like they pose no threat at all."
Benjamin felt even certain that something was off.
"How many of those fake mages are there?"
"Around a hundred of them, which is not a lot if compared with the whole proportion of mages here. Other mages seem rather normal, people from the Mage Guild."
Among the total amount of few thousand people, a hundred of them certainly did not mean anything. But if they were all spies for the commoners, a hundred spies would seem a lot.
Initially, Benjamin suspected if the Church was planning to stir up something during the birthday banquet, and it happened to clash with his plan. However, sending mercenaries and commoners did not seem like the usual approach of the Church.
Thus in the end, he could only inform all of that to the Guild Master in a low profile.
"Commoners..." The Guild Master did not seem very pleased after hearing what he said, "It’s not an easy thing to sneak into the banquet, with that amount of people, only a really high positioned official can pull that off."
"Will they be able to affect our plan?" That was the most important question that Benjamin wanted to know.
The Guild Master shook his head and answered, "Let me take a look first."
Right after that, he headed towards a few commoners disguised as mages that were the closest to them.
Benjamin watched aside silently to see how things were about to go.
"The both of you seem rather unfamiliar, are you new mages to the guild? I don’t recall seeing the both of you before." The Guild Master walked over, nodded then shook hands with then, and asked.
However, those people seemed to recognize the Guild Master and greeted him one after another, they did not look nervous at all.
"Nice to meet you, Guild Master. We’ve only joined the Mage Guild this month and always heard that you’re a busy man so we couldn’t find the time to meet with you. I apologize for our discourtesy."
Upon hearing that, the Guild Master nodded then said: "If that’s the case, then... What magic do you specialize in? We can probably exchange our knowledge in the future if we have the time."
With that, their faces finally appeared to be reluctant.
"... With the Guild Master’s standards, how can it be placed on a par with small-time mages like us? We shall not show our inadequacy."
"How can you have that mentality?" The Guild Master quickly grabbed the chance and fired back, "Mages should constantly improve through exchanging knowledge. I, as the Guild Master, naturally bear the responsibility of leading the next generation."
"Honestly, you don’t have to worry about us too much, Guild Master..."
"It’s alright, you don’t have to be shy. You can just tell me about your feelings or thoughts during meditation, maybe I can give you some pointers."
"This..."
Just when the situation slowly became awkward and there were more onlookers, suddenly, a shadow walked in through the entrance and interfered the conversation between the Guild Master and those fake mages.
"Guild Master, long time no see. Have you been doing well? What have you been up to?"
It was a man with crutches who wore a suit, he had a smile on his face, looked very calm and composed, and was about to shake hands with the Guild Master. The Guild Master’s demeanor changed, but he still held his hand out and did not show his temper.
"Mister Prime Minister, it has really been a long time."
The man laughed and said: "Guild Master, there’s no need for the formalities, you can just call me Ethan. Those times of us establis.h.i.+ng Icor together are still so vivid in my mind, there’s no need for you to sound so distant."
Upon hearing that, the Guild Master only laughed and did not say anything. He continued looking at the fake mages.
"Mister Prime Minister, do you know any of these new mages of the guild?"
The man shook his head and said: "No I don’t, what’s the matter?"
The Guild Master nodded and looked rather surprised: "Because...these people aren’t even mages, they’re spies who have sneaked into the banquet!"
As he said that, he sounded really loud. Moreover, there were already onlookers who were paying attention to what was happening so when he said that, it caused an uproar.
The faces of those fake mages immediately changed, among the crowd around them, other men disguised as mages started exchanging looks and showed odd expressions.
Nevertheless, in the end...they still remained calm.
Benjamin noticed all of that and felt weird as well. When the Guild Master revealed their ident.i.ties so quickly, it was like they would be dead for sure, why did they still look so composed instead?
There were just a hundred of those commoners, being surrounded by thousands of mages, how could they be so calm?
"Guild Master, what’s going on here?" A mage who was walking past asked disbelievingly.
"What’s going on? I want to know too." The Guild MasterGuild Master looked really unhappy, he looked at the Prime Minister who walked in at the right time and said, "The security in the Palace is very strict, how can a non-mage sneak into the banquet? Mister Prime Minister, don’t you have anything to say?"
The man smiled instead and said something that made many people frown:
"Sorry to have offended you, Guild Master, it is actually the Her Majesty the Queen who requested to have these people dressed up as mages and attend the banquet."
Instantly, the Guild Master’s face became very odd: "... The request of Her Majesty the Queen?"
"That’s right, we’re just obeying the orders of Her Majesty the Queen, pretending to be mages at the banquet, please forgive our actions, Guild Master." Those fake mages moved closer and said calmly, as if they found someone to back them up.
Watching from afar, Benjamin felt that something was not right too.
The situation was far from what they had expected. What was the purpose for the Queen to send a bunch of commoners into the mage banquet? Was that an April Fools game? Or some sort of entertainment?
Although there was no proof, but his instincts told him that it was definitely not just a simple surprise.
"Why does Her Majesty want to do this?" The Guild Master stared at the Prime Minister and asked with a not-so friendly tone.
The prime minister smiled instead and answered: "Relax, Guild Master. Her Majesty has her own plans as she’s doing this, you’ll understand in a while."
"You..."
The mages around looked at each other, many of them were confused. What was up with Her Majesty the Queen? What was wrong with the Guild Master too? It was just a birthday banquet, right? What other hidden secrets were there?
As the situation became rather awkward, was Her Majesty the Queen not planning to show up and explain?
In the corner, Benjamin held his chin and cracked his brain, suddenly a thought crossed his mind.
They... Seemed to have missed out something.
Previously the Guild Master just told him that the absentees for the banquet this year increased, but it was not really odd so they did not worry about it. However... Considering these hundred fake mages, the absentees would actually be quite abnormal.
A hundred fake mages, maybe they did not come to stir things up, but...it was to fill up the numbers so that it did not appear to the others that there were more mages absent this year.
So... Where did those hundreds of missing mages go?
Benjamin suddenly felt a bad premonition, but at that same time, the transmission woodpiece in his pocket sent out a weak magical vibration, which dragged him out of his deep thoughts.
He quickly hid in the corner and activated his transmission woodpiece.
"Teacher Benjamin, we were suddenly surrounded by a bunch or mysterious mages and soldiers, they’ve surrounded the Academy!" It was Frank, from the woodpiece, a sense of nervousness was vaguely heard through his tone.