Merlin just received the message from Ahri and he stormed towards the arcane university spire, apprentices and master mages alike tried to greet their archmage, but when they saw his face they stapped back out of his way, they had never seen him like this before and did not want to know what was going to happen to the poor soul who pissed off the most powerful mage they knew.

Merlin waved his hand and the grand doors slammed open, once of the apprentices wanted to say "that was locked, you're supposed to use the key, but another more experienced mage quickly covered his mouth.

Once inside Merlin stood in front of a panel with glowing runes circling in a seemingly random pattern and touched a few. A moment later the ground beneath him started to give off a dim purple light and Merlin vanished.

He appeared again inside a spherical room with no openings, the walls were completely covered in soft glowing runes, the only thing inside the room was a small box off to the side made of gold.

Merlin activated his storage ring and thrust a dozen mana crystals inside the box and cast a spell, the soft purple glow from a moment ago returned, except this time it was far denser, then he disappeared again.

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Merlin appeared in a similar spherical room a moment later, he touched a set of runes on top of the box and then reappeared in a smaller version of the room with a door.

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Swadia's king sat in his personal chambers reading and signing documents when a section of the wall swung open, Merlin appeared, The King was about tell him to wait for him to finish this page, however, Merlin spoke before he could "call an assembly, its time you cleaned up your house"

The King was startled by the abruptness of the request and asked "why now", then he finally looked up and saw Merlin's face, just like the apprentice mages he had never seen Merlin like this either. It appeared the situation was more serious than he thought.

Merlin spat "The Dutchy very likely attacking in full force now and the bloody nobles that you refuse to rid of are trying to screw the entire Kingdom with their stupidity."

Abruptly receiving new of an impending attack from their enemies was surprising, The King narrowed his eyes and asked "how sure are you"

Merlin answered "sure enough" while glaring at the King, he did not find his student's attitude amusing.

Sensing the severity of the situation the King replied "I will call for an assembly after Kede's wedding, most of the nobles will be in the city then so it will be easier"

Merlin flicked his finger and all the documents on the table instantly turned to ash, Merlin growled "you may be King in these lands but remember I am what made you boy, I said to call an assembly. Which means NOW understand"

Annoyed that all of today's work went up in flames the King rebuked "was That really necessary, if the situation is so serious then explain it to me, we both know I don't work very well while blind"

Merlin retorted "Finally in the mood to listen, fine, do you know of the dungeon that just opened... that is what the Dutchy is going to take--"

The King interrupted "Yes I know of the new dungeon, I'm the one who sent a mercenary band to verify and protect it. And I am the one that hired the best city planner on the continent to design and build the city being constructed on top of it. And I am the one who sent his personal army to guard the entrance and keep the city's order, as well as to keep out any of the unmentionable guilds and groups that like to take root inside cities. And lastly, I am the one who maneuvered the city lord that is secretly under my banner into his position under the noses of the Noble's faction."

Merlin smiled slightly and replied "you have improved quite a lot in these few years, if it was the you of now back then, there wouldn't be a nobles faction. However, you still fail to grasp the seriousness of the situation, do you think I would come here just for the petty games of fools who think they have real power, no. I'm here because Swadia is going to be washed away by the rivers of time if things continue this way"

The King slammed his fist on the table shattering it and sending the ash on the table everywhere, he growled "stop speaking in riddles this is not magic training anymore, so just tell me what is happening so I can deal with it"

"for various reasons I can't tell you very much, however, I will tell you that if the city falls so does Swadia along with it."

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The next day.

The king sat on his throne gazing upon all the nobles below him, the nobles waited to be addressed by the king while kneeling, they wanted to know why they had been called her on such short notice, but they couldn't speak first because that honor was solely for the King himself, so they waited on sore knees while sending glares towards their opposing factions.

However unbeknownst to the nobles the King was also waiting for Merlin to appear, but he was late and the idea that a mage who could freely teleport anywhere in the Capital being late was ridiculous, this caused the King's frown to deepen the longer he waited and the Nobles, in turn, glared at their opposing factions with ever increasing enmity as they tried to pin the blame of having to kneel on the hard marble to the other party with their glares alone.

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Finally, Merlin burst through the door and again nearly took another door off its hinges, he stormed in front of the everyone and the King quickly announced the start of the gathering before Merlin would speak out of turn.

Merlin raised his voice and projected it with mana so everyone could hear it clearly, "The arcane university is going to move locations, but I have only received half of the requested magic crystals to do so", then he boomed "The request was made by your King anyone who has yet to hand in their crystals has committed treason"

immediately people on the Noble factions side of the room jumped slightly, even the King was shocked, he didn't think Merlin would start off the assembly like this.

An older man from the nobles faction stood up and angrily retorted "treason.. treason your mother, It takes time to gather together the absurd amount of crystals you require"

When everyone was agreeing with him he continued "And what reason do you need to move the university, our distinguished families have had good business with your university for generations, why do you want to muddy the waters with these baseless accusations"

Throughout the nobles faction, there were individuals whispering to each other, and the people they whispered to would start to raise their voices in protest and soon half of the room was yelling at Merlin. The king paid particularly close attention to these people and committed them to memory.

When the noise was getting out of hand the king shouted "SILENCE" and easily overpowered the crowd with his voice, the air shook and many of the weak nobles who live lives of comfort felt their chest impacted, causing them to take a half step backward.

Now that the room as quiet again the King stated "Merlin, arch-mage of the arcane university you accuse these men of treason what proof do you have of this crime"

Merlin expected this and casually replied "they admitted it themselves"

Several people in the nobles faction stood up and argued "we have never admitted to anything of the sort, your misleading the King which is treason", once that was said they had smug looks on their faces as they thought they had gotten one over on the archmage of the university.

Most of the older generation just shook their heads at this, they knew something was going on and these fools that chose to argue directly with Merlin without knowing anything are going to get themselves killed.

Merlin sneered at those people who argued with him and said "You people said that you had not given the magic crystals the king requested. I guess you're not well read enough to know.. When this Kingdom was created the King had a similar problem as now, so he created a law that all the magic crystals in the Kingdom belonged to the royal family, so refusing to give something that belongs to the King to him is treason. Thus you people admitted to treason with the King as witness"

The people in the older generation had their assumptions proven correct and everyone in the nobles faction paled, they had always gone behind the kings back secretly but they never confronted him directly. Challenging the Kings authority directly was simply asking for death.

One of the nobles who had just entered high society yelled back "Noone but you would know about a rule that is that old, it's not treason if we didn't know about it."

Merlin chuckled "ignorance does not equal innocence, if it did, all the jails would be full of empty air because everyone claimed they didn't know the law, besides you're a noble whose job it is to govern the Kingdom so the idea you don't know the Kingdoms laws is ridiculous. Even still if you got punished for it and actually were ignorant of the laws I don't think it's a huge loss to lose a fool."

The man who just spoke kneeled back down while grinding his teeth in frustration and anger.

Seeing the nobles faction miserable was quite refreshing for the King, but, he still had a kingdom to rule and had to "mediate" the situation before it got out of hand, he said "While it is true that certain peoples actions are guilty of such a crime... however, since it was a request, not an order and that law has not been in practice for so long it is unreasonable to assume anyone would remember it, I will let this pass at my discretion..."

At this point everyone on the nobles faction breathed a sigh of relief, however, the King continued speaking, "but... you will provide the asked for mana gems as soon as possible... and anyone who continues to stall..."

The sighs of relief the nobles faction breathed out suddenly were sucked back in as a cold chill went down their spines.

Merlin gave an almost imperceptible nod towards the King to signal his approval, although he wouldn't have minded if the king decided to kill a few of them as a message.

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Later that day.

Merlin walked into the King's chambers once again, only this time he wasn't as angry. The King was the first to speak "I was wondering what you would do to make them obedient, the way you scared the crap out of them could be considered art as far as I'm concerned"

Merlin only smiled slightly saying "such things come with experience, even I ended up chasing my own tail several times when I started in the political arena"

The King suddenly remembered something and asked "oh. Your not old enough to have seen the start of this Kingdom, where did you learn about that magic crystal law"

Merlin laughed "what magic crystal law"

[The King]...

Merlin reassured "don't worry, most of the library was destroyed during the revolt with the old king and no one can check the records so our little secret is safe. oh and now you can claim all the magic crystals in the Kingdom which is a nice bonus, however, since I'm creating the law lets make it so my university is exempt from it"

[The King]...