A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 277 The Decaying Empire

A magnificent melody filled the air as specially trained bards loudly praised the deeds of the Knight King.

Jiang Shuzhou and the others were placed in a position very close to the center, just after the forty-second elector.

In theory, these electors could also become emperors of the empire, but this is only in theory. After thousands of years of inheritance, the Augustus family had long ago firmly grasped the power of the emperor.

At the same time, they also put in a lot of effort to use alliances and other means to firmly restrict the power of the electors.

Therefore, the title of Elector was merely superficial; the Elector only had the right to choose, but no right to be chosen.

In some ways, this has already violated the original intention of the Knight King in establishing the nation.

According to legend, this great conqueror and founder of the empire was once a poor peasant.

He was ruined by exorbitant taxes, but eventually rose up in rebellion. After a series of legendary events, he finally rose to legendary status and established the Ovi Empire.

The empire's tax revenue was only 4% back then, but now it has increased 20 times.

All I can say is that time changes everything.

Did that once mighty knight king ever imagine that tens of thousands of years later, his descendants and his kingdom would become like this?

The King of Knights once swore a blood oath with all the knights, agreeing that if any of their descendants became a tyrannical and incompetent ruler, then anyone else could take his place.

Unexpectedly, as time goes by, even with various methods of forcibly passing on the legacy or absorbing fresh blood through marriage, only 42 of the 72 knights remain.

Furthermore, these forty-two men now lack both the demeanor of knights and the kindness of yesteryear.

They were already noble lords; being a knight was merely their profession. Chivalry? That was something lower-class knights had to follow; we were the ones who made the rules!

"Covenants are truly wonderful things."

Jiang Shuzhou couldn't help but sigh.

"Young man, you are absolutely right."

One of the electors standing nearby laughed heartily and said...

He was tall and robust, looking like a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties, his eyes filled with the vicissitudes of life after years of experience.

"The alliance is the very foundation of the empire's strength!"

"You're right."

Jiang Shuzhou was very disdainful. The alliance was indeed the foundation of the empire, but it was not the foundation of strength, but the foundation of decay.

Unchanging, nobles will always be nobles, commoners will always be commoners, the seventy-two sacred families will remain unchanged, and the bloodline of the Knight King will forever rule this place.

The empire is rotten; it is only the alliances that sustain it, that keep this decaying corpse afloat, allowing it to eke out a living.

However, Jiang Shuzhou had no intention of giving any reminders or making any sarcastic remarks.

What if these people understand what I mean?

They understood and thought it was good that Jiang Shuzhou was just being unreasonable. But if they really changed their minds, how could Jiang Shuzhou then invade the empire and ruthlessly reap the wealth that these people had accumulated over thousands of years?

Gods are like giant treasure chests, storing tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years' worth of wealth within their divine kingdoms. Whoever can conquer a divine kingdom will obtain this immense wealth.

The same applies to these nobles. Although they don't have tens of thousands of years of accumulated wealth, they still have a thousand years of it, so they can be considered small treasure chest monsters.

Furthermore, legendaries are much easier to defeat than gods. After all, once gods retreat into their divine kingdoms, mages can't do anything to them. Unless several floating cities join forces, there's no way to break through their shells.

These legendary knights are different. Although they possess the power of the Covenant, it's not a big problem. The Covenant is merely a man-made will, far inferior to something like the will of nature.

Besides, the alliance is not without flaws.

Rosemary will soon demonstrate to Jiang Shuzhou how to circumvent the alliance and cause trouble through various means.

"Haha, young man, how about coming to the Empire? The Royal Magic Academy is short of a dean. If you come, I'll do you a favor."

"Thank you for your kind offer, but I believe I lack the knowledge to accept it."

Jiang Shuzhou politely declined such a request.

The Royal Magic Academy of the Ovi Empire once trained many mages, but in recent years, with the establishment of the Mage Alliance, most of them have left.

After all, the Ovi Empire doesn't belong to them. They didn't leave before because they had nowhere else to go. Now that the alliance has been formed, instead of going to be big shots with their mage brothers, are they going to put up with a bunch of idiots in the empire?

This has led to a decline in the empire's mages year after year, a lack of successors, and even a complete break in their ranks.

Most mages leave as soon as they graduate, or rather, they leave when their contractual service period ends, unwilling to stay here for even a moment longer.

Those who remained were mostly mediocre people who, with the mindset of "better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond," stayed in the empire.

Although these people didn't become the heads of the chicken, they were at best chicken wings, serving to save face for the empire and make up for its shortcomings.

"That's a real shame, but if you ever change your mind, you can come find me anytime. I am Kosoroya Archimonde, the patriarch of the Archimonde family."

Jiang Shuzhou nodded to indicate that he understood.

"Our Augustus family..."

Crown Prince Midtas began to boast about the great achievements of his ancestors.

From the founding of the kingdom by the Knight King to the relocation of the capital and the establishment of the city, there is a long list of legendary deeds that follow.

Jiang Shuzhou treated it like listening to a storyteller, half true and half false, which was quite good.

Two hours passed, and Midtas on the stage continued to speak eloquently.

Jiang Shuzhou, however, was too lazy to listen. He focused his attention on the main body of the tower and began to read the book.

Trank and Morris were about to curse; this guy was talking too much.

"How much longer do you think this Crown Prince will have to talk?"

"Who knows? This guy is already so talkative before he's even taken the throne. I don't even want to think about it if he does take the throne."

Jiang Shuzhou interjected.

"Ha, they're all fabricated lies, only good for fooling those who don't know any better."

As a man over two hundred years old, Trank was a firsthand witness to certain historical events.

"Tell me more about it?"

"Take what he just mentioned, that so-called policy of his grandfather back then."

"Don't be fooled by his nice words now, talking about boosting birth rates and lowering food prices, as if he's talking about something wonderful."

"Back then, his grandfather caused widespread suffering throughout the empire, resulting in the starvation of countless people."

"What policy?"

"The idea of ​​the empire officially purchasing grain and setting a fixed purchase price every year, then selling it at a high price to those in need sounds good, but in practice..."

"Countless farmers were forced to sell all their grain and then use the money to buy more grain at high prices. What's even better is that this way they could pay taxes twice."

Jiang Shuzhou felt that he had underestimated the corruption of the empire.