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Chapter 322 Chapter 322 Rumors Abound

"Of course, I don\'t. Who can claim to know you better than I do? I just wanted to tell you that you don\'t necessarily understand the current situation of the city. After the top family was dismantled, there is bound to be chaos and the rise of many new forces can be expected if the Smith family fails to take up that spot in time. Therefore, you need to be in liaison with not only the Smith family but also the other major families."

"Why do I have to make it so complicated? Can\'t I just support the Smith family into taking over the city? It would eliminate the hassle of dealing with the other families entirely."

Prince Olaf sighed before continuing his explanation.

"My dear sister, wars aren\'t waged with people or armament. Wars are waged with money, a lot of money. A business hub like the Byzantium city is one of the major sources of wealth in the Empire. You can\'t let the entire city crumble just because you want to show your appreciation for one of the forces. Being a part of the royal family, you can\'t overtly discriminate among the noble populace of the city or there would be unneeded friction. Try to support the Smith family but you have to appease the local forces as well. They need to know that we are not biased against them."

Princess Candice could only roll her eyes in response to her brother\'s ranting, but Prince Olaf didn\'t look like he was done even after she revealed her take on his advice.

"You should keep in mind as to why our royal father chose to send YOU there instead of any of our other siblings. Obviously, this is very important to our royal father. He probably intends to make an ally out of the dark mage and is looking forward to future collaborations that employ his genius. Make sure to live up to his expectations or you know what might happen if you fail to do so."

Prince Olaf sounded genuinely concerned for her and Princess Candice also got the hint of it.

"Relax brother, I know what to do. You should focus on dealing with those vulgar cowards on the western frontier and stop worrying so much."

Princess Candice seemed confident as if she had no doubt regarding her ability to get the job done. She was treating it like she had received a rare vacation outside the capital.

…

Although it had already been some time since the incident that sunk Greenland but there were still people whispering and gossiping about the sudden rain of destruction that took the whole city by surprise with its beautiful appearance but deadly intentions. Some believed it to be the wrath of some deity while others believed it to be a happy and beautiful coincidence.

But only a select few believed that the incident was due to the machinations of the dark mage of the Smith family. Of course, they weren\'t right either.

Most of the common populace though, was completely unaware of the cause of the sudden meteor shower and the destruction it brought along with its landing. Therefore, they only considered it a slightly dangerous but beautiful phenomenon that they would remember for the rest of their lives. They would probably even tell stories about it to their children and grandchildren about it one day.

Andy was one of those people who believed that the meteor shower was the result of an SSS-rank spell that Zach cast in order to eliminate his enemies, the Hunter family at its root level. Of course, his belief was based on what he considered facts as the knowledge of the incident he had come from personal observation and the Windsor family leader who was a close ally of the dark mage and his contact with the latter.

Still, listening to others formulate their own conclusions and reaching closer to the truth based on their speculations and weird reasoning that was far away from semantics was enjoyable to him. Therefore, he often visited public places like taverns, markets and restaurants just to enjoy the different versions of the story.

Currently, Andy was in a tavern, drinking out of a large wooden mug. But this time, he was not alone. There were close to a dozen of his colleagues from the police station who had pulled him to the tavern for an after-work drink.

Andy didn\'t care for it, but his colleagues wouldn\'t let him leave without a drink in his system no matter how much he tried to deny their invitation. As a result, he ended up in the tavern surrounded by a bunch of other police officers and quite a few patrons who looked like they were regulars in the place based on how familiar they were the with the staff and the owner of the bar.

Despite having come at the invitation of his subordinates and colleagues, he wasn\'t the least bit interested in spending the evening with them. Instead, his ears were all perked up as they picked up on all kinds of conversations taking place among the patrons of the bar.

"That family...they really came out of nowhere. I heard that they followed the dark mage here." murmured one of the patrons secretly as if he wanted to keep anyone from hearing him even though the whisper was loud enough to buzz the ears of everyone in the tavern.

"You mean the Smiths, right?"

"Who else could it be? Do you know any other prominent family that appeared out of thin air and replaced the top family of the city overnight?" The whispering patron found his voice as soon as he received attention from his listeners.

"I heard someone say that those people used to live in the wild before this and that they are beasts in human form." The speculations were endless as there were as many stories as there were people in the tavern. Andy had long since gotten used to it and had grown to enjoy every little perspective no matter how far it might be from the reality that he had dug out with the help of the Windsor family leader.

The others around the man rolled their eyes simultaneously at the absurdness of the notion. They couldn\'t bring themselves to believe in a make-believe story like that. At most the story was good enough to scare children.

"Oh...please. Don\'t be ridiculous. We all know how outside the realm of possibility that is. Obviously, those people are followers of the dark mage and were probably brought by him to help with his citywide domination plan. I just hope that the city government wouldn\'t give in to his demands." One of the patrons finally got up and spat out the words in his mind. This person appeared to be quite optimistic about the government as he was still hoping for the government to take action against Zach who was aiming for complete domination in the city like a full-blown tyrant.

"I don\'t think so. I believe that it all has to do with that meteor shower that shook the city. The Smith family arrived not too long after that incident. Maybe they had something to do with it?"

The people in the discussion group seemed to be an odd bunch as every single one of them had a distinct opinion of their own. If not for the fact that Andy knew the topic of discussion and had extensive knowledge on it, he might even have believed them to be learned scholars debating about politics and the affairs of the kingdom based on how serious they looked as they fought off each other\'s ideas repeatedly.

"Yeah...and did you forget that the Windsor family is responsible for the rains that occasionally fall, and the other two families have dominion over the seasonal changes? Just how delusional do you have to be to come up with something like that? Can\'t you accept the truth already?" sarcasm was evident in the tone of the speaker.

"For once I have to show my agreement. No matter what, we can\'t deny the fact that the dark mage seems to be too young to be an SSS rank mage. I am a common scholar and even I know how rare an S class mage is let alone someone who can unleash SSS rank magic on a whim. There is no way such a young man is capable of pulling off something like that. In my opinion, the dark mage must have used some kind of trick to give that impression. He might have received the aid of a true expert; probably his father. From what I gathered; his father was the dark mage who terrified the city in the past by snubbing the nobility single handedly. All the current family heads used to be his toys back in the day. It could be that the meteor rain was a product of his magic, and the father was only paving the way for his young one."

The person was one of those overly talkative ones who lack the ability to stay on the topic and are unable to end a conversation after starting it. He didn\'t stop talking until everyone in the room was glaring at him murderously for hounding the limelight for so long.

Despite how lengthy the argument was, the other patrons couldn\'t help but think along the same lines. His semantics were extremely sound.

"You just might have stumbled on the truth. The dark mage couldn\'t have been so strong."