Chapter 97: The real Council of Magic
Translated by XianPiete
The men in black uniforms started to shake they motioned with their hands for the other drop knights to stay in the hall. The man who had identified them as War Mages, swallowed hard and said to the lead smarmy looking man, "Sir, these men are really the Council of Magic. I recognize the older woman with them, that's fifth Mage Alicia von Plettenberg, the Empress of Wütendes Menschenreich and sitting by her side should be Emperor von Plettenberg." Wolter glared at them as his identity was uncovered.
The smarmy looking man said, "What are you people waiting for, arrest them. Wütendes Menschenreich is the enemy, these people are obviously in league with them."
Guy cleared his throat and said, "You still haven't answered the question, who the hell are you and why do you think your authority is above mine, the owner of the Ito Conglomerate?"
The man puffed out his chest and said, "I am the general manager of War and Magic, Henri Boothby."
Guy nodded and then said, "very well, present your reports."
"I don't answer to the likes of you, I answer to the board!" He smirked at Guy.
Murphy cleared his throat and said, "Article one of the Ito Conglomerate, when the owner is present all authority rests with him."
The man swallowed hard, he clearly wasn't aware of the bylaw, "No one will follow your orders you know, this is just a futile power grab."
The Council of Magic all started to laugh and then Guy said, "You don't seem to understand what you are up against here. You see, the eight of us 'War Mages' here have killed hundreds of thousands with the snap of our fingers, do you think a few men hiding behind the power of my inferior airships would be able to do anything to us?" He left a long pause before he continued, "the entire Military of the Aumont-Ito Empire are just ants to us and you thought to threaten me?"
Wolter looked at them and smiled, "They also have the backing of my fleet."
Guy nodded at Wolter and then said, "So, think hard gentlemen, who do you work for, yourselves, or me." He casually looked at the burnt bodies and the flattened drop knights.
One of the smarmy looking me said, "Greetings Mage Montfort, I am the General Manager of airship production. We are currently mass producing the new Aumont class battleships you may have seen in the hangars outside. So far for this calendar year, we are seeing a four percent increase in profit, however, we are having a resource shortage."
Guy smiled and opened his hands, "See, wasn't that easy. Go fetch the books, it's time to make changes." He then looked at Henri and asked, "Henri, wasn't it? Are you ready with your report?"
The man stammered and said, "M-m-mage Montfort, the Aumont-Ito Empire has been conducting rebellion extermination missions in the northern part of the continent. Losses have been minimal, but the people continue to uprise. The Council of Magic announced that they are running low on new mages and won't have enough to support the fleet at the current levels of use."
Guy nodded and said, "Go fetch your books, we'll be making changes."
Guy looked at one of the other men who said, "General Manager of Food Production, um, we are running low on food, so the plan to use the poor as a food source has progressed. People seem to be enjoying the product we call 'new pork' as it is very affordable."
Guy slowly facepalmed and said, "You understand already what changes I'll be making, don't you?"
"Yes, um, we'll put a stop to that today." He swallowed hard.
Guy's eyes fell to another man who said, "General Manager of Housing..."
The reports came in one after another, each more horrific than the last. The Board of directors hadn't asked these men for a report in months he learned. After they saw the books they realized the board and the top executives of the Ito Conglomerate had been enriching themselves at the expensive of the bottom ninety-nine percent of the population for years to the point that even those who had once been nobility were living in constant debt. They realized that the problem was even more terrifying than even Alicia had lead them to believe. The Aumont-Ito Empire had been stealing from everyone for years as they watched Sakka games and worried about the evil Wütendes Menschenreich.
Guy couldn't believe that the people hadn't rebelled en masse as he looked over the reports. The pockets of resistance seemed more concerned about things like food shortages, access to entertainment and other trivial matters than they were about the wholesale theft of resources and labor happening in the name of the government. As the sun went down the sky turned blood red from all the smoke in the air. Diggory asked, "We can't fix this, we eight aren't enough. The corruption we are seeing is completely systematic. We need to use that Council of Magic."
Alicia sighed and said, "The Council is just as bad, First Mage Diggory. The few men at the top are just as corrupt as the Ito men were."
Guy's eye twitched and he said, "I think Diggory is right. We can't fix this, the only way we'll be able to put this right, is if we figure out a way to travel back to when we left."
Madeline nodded and said, "Magic. We need to see if there is a spell for this..."
Alicia smiled and said, "Our School of Wizardry has more magic books than you can ever believe, Wolter did an amazing job researching them for me." She leaned against him happily.
Wolter looked very happy himself as he cleared his throat and said, "Yes, I started to gather books of magic in order to fight against you idiots after someone sent a goose to my house."
Guy pretended to clean out his ear. Algernon winced and said, "A goose? You must have really had it in for Emperor von Plettenberg."
Doreen asked, "Could that cloud have been caused by us in the first place? Perhaps it was our spell that caught us in the first place?"
Diggory's eyes opened wide and he blurted out, "Great jumping dragon goat, that's what it must have been!"
Madeline covered her mouth and said, "Then the reason we ended up in guy's world?"
Ella thought for a moment and then added, "Cause the idiot who cast the spell, was thinkin' o' going 'ome."
Guy nodded and said, "Ella is right, if I thought of home it would have been the wrong location."
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