Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 162 The Doubts That Were Put Down

The initial agreement?

Neither of them...will delve deeper?
Thales looked puzzled and confused.

"Magic energy is the foundation and basis of our existence—and the reason why we are called magic masters."

“Never, never, ever ask another mage about their understanding of magic, and never reveal your own understanding of magic to any mage,” Ashida said coldly, emphasizing his stance with three consecutive “never”s.

This is what is meant by "not investigating each other too deeply".

“Magic energy? Your understanding of magic energy?” Thales raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. “So that’s the weakness of magic users. Once your ‘foundation and essence’ are figured out, you’ll be vulnerable to attack from another magic user?”

However, Ashida simply maintained his cold gaze, staring fixedly at Thales.

For several whole seconds.

"What's wrong?" Thales felt uneasy under his gaze.

“Is my understanding of magic a weakness, a foundation, or the very essence? What you are doing now is trying to probe my understanding of magic,” Ashida finally spoke from silence, but what he said shocked his audience: “Among magic users, this will be considered a declaration of war.”

Thales was startled and instinctively shrank back.

Is this considered... a declaration of war?
Thales immediately recalled the words of the Blood Mage—the civil war among mages.

"Alright, alright, I won't ask," the second prince could only shrug nervously. "So, magic users can't talk about magic? Then our daily interactions are just a greeting, 'Hello,' 'Goodbye,' 'Have you eaten?', and then we go our separate ways, never to see each other again..."

"This is no joke."

Ashida interrupted him coldly.

"The three covenants of the mage are the result of countless experiences and examples summarized by our predecessors throughout history. Violating any one of them," the air mage's eyes flashed, making Thales's back feel slightly cold, "will bring terrible, serious, and unpredictable consequences."

Thales was stunned, and asked blankly, "What...what the consequences will be?"

“You will know,” Ashida shook her head. “For now, all you need to remember is the First Covenant and that it must never be violated.”

Thales sighed: "What about the two major treaties?"

“You are far from being at the level to know them,” Ashida shook her head mysteriously. “When you become a mage and find your own ‘threshold name,’ I will tell you—don’t ask me what a ‘threshold name’ is, you will find out then.”

Thales, who was about to speak, could only lower his head in disappointment upon hearing this.

"Okay, then at least... can you help me answer one of my questions?"

Ashida nodded slightly, her expression seemingly relaxing a bit.

“When I use that—what you call ‘magic power’,” Thales said with a worried look, “the effects are different each time, but almost every time I experience severe pain after using it. Recently, it almost killed me.”

As Thales spoke, several scenes that worried him flashed before his eyes.

In the dungeon of the Wild Grass Manor, Rolf is bound by shackles.

In front of the Fuxing Palace, there was the young superhuman assassin, and his warm, beating...heart.

Red light scattered everywhere in front of the Black Sand Territory's magic gun, and Alaka's Immovable Bow.

Thales clenched his fist inwardly: "What's going on?"

He suddenly noticed that Ashida's eyebrows furrowed slightly after hearing his words—magicians usually had a calm expression, which only highlighted his unusual change in expression.

"'Use'?" After a moment, Ashida squinted, shook her head, and chuckled, seemingly disbelieving his words:
"You haven't even scratched the surface of a magic user, how could you possibly use magic power?"

Thales was slightly taken aback.

"Well, do you remember that time on Red Street? You squeezed me..." The Second Prince rubbed his hands awkwardly, observed Aishida's expression, and decided not to go into details about that night, "Anyway, we blew up a house, and you discovered that I had the physique of a magic user or something... that was the feeling..."

"Later I discovered that it seemed that as long as I bled, I could use that power, and it felt the same way..."

Ashida's expression changed slightly again.

The room was silent for a few seconds. Ashida stared at the ground, seemingly deep in thought.

“No,” after a moment, the air mage raised his head and said seriously, “Your performance that night, we usually call it…”

"'out of control'."

Ashida pursed her lips.

"Yes! Out of control!" Thales clapped his hands in sudden realization. "I remember now, you used that word that night..."

out of control……

The next moment, Thales' face turned pale, and he didn't continue speaking.

He suddenly understood what the mage meant.

out of control.

“Out of control,” Thales murmured, his expression one of shock. “Out of control?”

Ashida watched him silently, her expression unreadable.

"You mean, this power, this so-called magical energy..." Thales frowned, his breathing quickening, "is something that cannot be controlled on one's own?"

"I can't actively 'use' it?"

Ashida narrowed her eyes slightly, seemingly surprised that Thales had reacted so quickly.

“At least at your current stage,” Ashida shook her head, confirming Thales’s conjecture, “no.”

Thales looked at Ashida with a puzzled expression.

“That’s impossible. I can use it every time I bleed,” Thales gritted his teeth and rubbed his head. “It feels like I’ve had a chaotic dream and then woke up…”

At that moment, the magic master's expression changed.

He suddenly raised a finger.

The next second, Thales's voice trailed off, and he felt the air around him freeze, and then he could no longer breathe!
Thales stared in shock at Ashida, who had raised her finger!

However, the mage simply stared coldly at the prince.

Not a word.

how?

Thales clutched his neck, opening his mouth wide, but still couldn't get any air.

It was as if the surrounding air had frozen solid.

Am I going to suffocate?
Thales opened his mouth in vain, but could not make a sound. He could only make an angry face at Ashida until his face turned red from lack of oxygen.

Just as Thales was about to reach for his dagger, Ashida finally slowly lowered her fingers.

The air began to flow again.

"Huff..." Thales finally took a breath of air, slumped in his chair, and gasped for breath.

"Why!" Thales, now able to breathe again, looked up at Ashida with anger and resentment.

"Have you forgotten so quickly?" The mage leaned forward, staring into his eyes, his expression unchanged but his tone icy: "What did I just tell you?"

"What did we say? We only just met..." Thales paused, then realized, "Uh, we just..."

“Okay, yes,” Thales murmured, recalling Ashida’s words.

“The Initial Pact of Magical Power,” he sighed, his face falling.
"Let's not delve into it further."

Damn.

Ashida gazed intently at him and slowly nodded.

"Don't forget again."

"And don't tell me again—what your magical power feels like."

The mage gave Thales a deep look before sitting back in his "seat".

Having just experienced what happened, Thales was in a very bad mood and continued to calm his breathing.

At the same time, we must raise our vigilance, which had slightly decreased, back to its highest level.

hateful.

This guy... as expected, you can't treat him like a normal person.

While Thales was silently grumbling to himself, Ashida kept her head down, her expression unreadable. An eerie silence fell between them.

“Besides your feelings and understanding of that state,” Ashida finally spoke after a long pause, “tell me the background and conditions of the several times you deliberately ‘lost control’.”

Thales sighed and began to recount the events from the Wild Grass Manor to the Dragon Fortress in detail.

A few minutes later.

“Except for Red Town Street—the rest doesn’t seem out of control at all.”

"To be able to use magical energy in the 'contact' stage without any awareness?" Ashida murmured. "That's strange."

"This is the first time I've ever heard of such a thing—in fact, there has never been such an example in the history of magic users."

"Is it also accompanied by gradually increasing damage and burden on the body?"

Ashida's eyes flickered, as if she was deep in thought.

For a fleeting moment, Thales dared to swear that he saw a glimmer of blue light flash in the eyes of the mage.

Thales slowed his breathing, a growing tension rising within him.

The feeling was like waiting for a doctor to read out a diagnosis.

“However, every mage is unique,” ​​Ashida finally raised her head, her expression calm. “Perhaps you are one of the more special ones, who knows?”

“But don’t use magic power again before we proceed step by step—I don’t want you to become a corpse before you even become a magic user.”

A rather unique individual?
Why, why am I so special?

Thales sighed inwardly.

At this point, Thales suddenly had a thought.

He thought of something crucial.

“By the way, Mr. Ashida,” Thales began hesitantly, “may I ask…”

Ashida squinted, waiting for him to ask a question.

“If you’ve lived this long, you must know your kind… well, your fellow practitioners,” Thales paused, then finally gritted his teeth, “Do you know a mage?”

“Her name is…” He took a deep breath:

"Seranjelana".

Ashida's expression remained unchanged.

Thales raised his head, looking directly into Ashida's eyes, his gaze intense:
"It might be my mother."

"And the reason why I am so special."

Aishida leaned back in the void.

There was another silence between the two, lasting more than ten seconds.

In the stillness, Thales could even hear his own heartbeat.

But he didn't urge her; instead, he looked at Ashida with trepidation, waiting for her answer.

This could be a great opportunity to unravel the mysteries of one's constitution and origins.

Thales looked at the mage and thought to himself: We can't waste this opportunity.

Moreover—he had long suspected the identity and race of his birth mother in this life.

As Thales drifted off into thought, Ashida's voice slowly rang out.

"Why do you think so?"

The mage said calmly, "Why would you think your mother is a mage?"

Thales was slightly taken aback.

"The only possibility is that I inherited the physique of a mage from her, isn't it?" Thales scratched his head, saying nervously, "And I've been wondering, if my mage physique is hereditary, could my mother also be one..."

and also……

Thales worriedly recalled his strange and rough physique, his unusually fast recovery, his abnormal brain capacity, and those past life memories that he often retrieved piece by piece in the form of flashbacks.

More than these.

From King Kessel, Gilbert, and Ginny's reluctance to discuss their mothers, to the suspicious conversation between King Kessel and High Priestess Lisia during the bloodline ritual, to the High Priestess's fear and hatred towards her mother, and Yodl's words in the Hall of Mindis that she was "entangled with calamity"...

Doesn't all of this foreshadow—

"impossible."

A clear male voice rang out, and Thales was taken aback, looking at Aishida in front of him.

Ashida looked into his eyes and shook her head seriously and decisively.

“First,” Ashida said calmly, “the constitution of a mage is not inherited and has nothing to do with bloodline. There was an experiment once conducted by mages who divided five thousand pairs of men and women into five groups—well, you don’t want to know about that. In short, magehood is not hereditary.”

Thales frowned slightly.

“Second,” Ashida closed her eyes, then slowly opened them again, “magicians are no longer ordinary creatures—once we become fully magical, we undergo a tremendous physical transformation. Each person is different, but one thing we all have in common is that we can no longer reproduce with other races.”

Thales stared in astonishment, his mouth agape.

“Third,” Ashida said solemnly, her tone resolute, “besides you, there are fourteen other magic users in the world—including those who are sealed away. I have met each of them, but none of them have this name.”

Thales stared at him blankly.

Fourteen magic users.

so little?
Moreover, none of them are...

"Anyway."

“Your mother,” Ashida shook her head with absolute certainty, her tone resolute, “could not be a mage.”

Upon hearing this, Thales paused for a full ten seconds.

Then, he nodded absentmindedly.

It turned out to be the case.

“So, no mage is named Seranjerana,” Thales exhaled, feeling a strange sense of relief, as if a taut string had been released from its tension.
"And magic users are incapable of having offspring?"

Feeling disappointed by the unexpected discrepancy, he leaned back in his chair, pondering the mystery of his origins.

A few seconds later, Thales exhaled and gave a self-deprecating smile.

This puts one of my doubts to rest.

A question that has been lingering in my mind for a long time.

But at the same time, Ashida shook her head again.

“However, strictly speaking,” Ashida crossed her hands, pondered for a moment, and then slowly uttered, “there is still a mage who has the ability to create life—although I don’t think it is ‘reproduction’ in the true sense.”

Thales felt a chill run down his spine.

The second prince's pupils contracted, and he slowly raised his head: "Who?"

Ashida separated her clasped hands and raised her head.

“A grumpy lady, who is also one of my partners.” Ashida smiled clearly.

Then, the mage said a name.

A name that made Thales turn pale.

“Giza Trillman,” Ashda said calmly.
"Blood Mage".

I've been playing Dota 3 lately and I've been getting wrecked by Monkey King—he's a god-like opponent on the opposing team, but a terrible teammate on our side.

Okay, actually I'm a pretty bad teammate too.

I had absolutely no idea how to lane against the Great Sage, no idea how to team fight against him, no idea how to gank or chase him down, and no idea how to find him in a dark forest...

Then, the new map is like a maze!
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(End of this chapter)