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After arriving at a castle in the Noble Realm, Edward saw someone that seemed to be waiting for him.
"Are you here for me?"
"Yes," replied Captain Deleon.
"Oh, what can I do for you?"
"I'm here to apologize."
"Having regret that you did not pick me up for your squad? Unfortunately, it's too late now."
Deleon shook his head: "Although I have regret, it is not for this reason. I've been thinking the past few days thinking what would happen if someone as talented and powerful as you left the Clover Kingdom because of the discrimination.
"This kingdom would lose such a powerful wizard. No, we would create a mighty enemy for ourselves."
Edward did not say anything but Deleon did not mind; he was lost in his thoughts as he spoke.
"I realize how the inequality between nobles and commoners almost ruined this kingdom. So, I wanted to change it. Unfortunately, this problem is so ingrained in this kingdom that even as royalty, there is nothing I can do."
"So, you're just going to give up?" asked Edward.
"I decided to tackle this problem through the next generation. I have two children, and I will ensure none of them share my outdated ideas. I hope they can influence the people around them to continue this change cycle."
Deleon looked directly at Edward's eyes.
"Plus, I feel that you will be the key to this change."
Edward looked at him up and down before laughing slightly.
"Maybe, you're right."
He patted his shoulder before heading to the castle. Soon, someone referred to themselves as the Wizard King's Aid led him to a meeting room where a middle-aged man dressed in a lavish robe waited.
The moment he walked into the room, he felt an intense mana pressure trying to intimidate him. With a calm look, he releases his mana, instantly destroying that pressure.
Additionally, all the tables in the room instantly shattered, and cracks appeared in the walls.
"How dare you?" said the aid with difficulty as he knelt on the ground. Edward ignored him before activating his grimoire. Then, using a Repair Spell, everything returned to normal.
"Hahaha, it is incredible how much magic power you have. It is unbelievable that you're a commoner."
"If you think about it rationally, it is not," replied Edward calmly.
"Oh, how so?"
"Well, at some point, weren't you nobles just commoners?"
"Don't you dare insult the nobility," said the aid. However, the 27th Wizard King, Spield Kira, waved his hand to calm him down. He then invited Edward to sit down while serving tea.
"So, what do you mean by that?"
"Nobility is nothing but a social concept. At the beginning of human civilization, such a thing did not exist. When our race first discovered magic, they probably used it as a tool to survive against dangerous magical beasts or other more powerful races.
"Back then, the people with higher magic power were hunters and protectors, so they had high status. At some point, humans discovered that by mating only with other people of higher magic power, their descendants could inherit their magic and their mana capacity. So, this practice was encouraged.
"After a few hundred years, all the people with high magic power in a specific area intermarried and formed families: the nobles. So, it is not wrong to say all of you are descendants of commoners.
"And it is not impossible for commoners to be as lucky as your ancestors and have high magic power. Unfortunately, all of you still ostracized or even killed them once they challenged your authority."
Spield was momentarily quiet before saying: "What an interesting theory. Unfortunately, there is no concrete evidence. Otherwise, this could be considered a great achievement in the field of magic history."
"If there were evidence, you people would have hidden or already destroyed it anyway," replied Edward.
"Anyway, let's talk about the issue at hand. The Magic Council disagrees with you to take over the Purple Pistol Shrimp Squad."
Spield remained quiet while Edward elegantly drank his tea.
"It seems that they do not care about the life of the Tarte family's heir. Mastering Mana Zone at a young age, he had a bright future."
Spield frowned after hearing this.
"You can enter any magic squads and slowly rise to the rank of Captain."
"All of you nobles control the rising ladder, and given your attitude towards commoner, how many years do you think it would take me to become "Captain" if at all?
"What you want is nothing but for me to sell my life to you while keeping me at the bottom of the food chain. This is not happening."
"So, what do you want?"
"I want my own magic squad. Anyway, I proved that I am powerful enough."
"And if we don't agree to your terms?"
"The other kingdoms are always a choice. I heard that the Heart Kingdom is ruled by a powerful and benevolent Queen who does not judge people by their birth."
In the past few days, he gathered basic research on the other kingdoms to find another way out for him. His current choice is either the Heart Kingdom or the Spade Kingdom. But he was leaning more toward the former.
However, for some reason, Edward was not willing to leave until the last minute.
After pondering for a while, Spield agreed to his terms. And in exchange, Edward had to nullify the contract. So, on that day, the Blue Ravenclaw Squad was created.
"Sir, why did you compromise with that peasant?"
"This kid is a monster. I'm afraid that even I'm no match for him," replied Spield with a sight, causing a great shock to the aid.
The news of the 10th Magic Squad soon spread throughout the entire kingdom. And commoners in both the Common Realm and the Forbidden Realm were very excited that a commoner became a captain.
And when Edward stated recruited commoners into his squad, people from all over the kingdom traveled very far to participate. And he was very strict in the process.
He understood that commoners did not have a large magic power pool nor could they increase their mana, so he lowered the value of such criteria. Instead, he focused on individuals with unique magic and who have the potential to train to use the Mana Zone.
He created training regiments for all the members of his squad based on what type of magic they had. He tried to make potions to increase magic power. However, he discovered that this was another taboo field in which he could not succeed.
Instead, he created special training with diets to ensure fast mana recovery in training and high physical stats. Although commoners had limits compared to nobles, with his method, he could bring out the maximum potential in all his squad members.
Additionally, all his squad members had Mana Recovery Potions to aid them in battles, so they still had some advantage. On top of everything, Edward created some Mana Skills to compensate for the gap in mana and increase their battle strength.
Of course, Edward did not only choose commoners for his squad: a few nobles were also selected. However, these nobles were usually ostracized by their own kind and were people whose ideologies had not been entirely twisted.
Edward did this to somewhat appease the nobles of the kingdom so that they gave his squad peace of mind to grow and develop. Although he could suppress the entire kingdom with his power, he felt that it was unwise to do so–at least not now.
Furthermore, he could still use the influence of the minor nobles in his squad to his advantage.
The second most important thing that he did was to create a newspaper. Newspaper existed in the kingdom, but it was a monthly thing. More importantly, it was controlled by the noble.
His newspaper was highly cheap, released every day, and exciting. It contained news regarding the kingdom–especially the gossip regarding the lives of the nobles.
All their dirty dealings were included in that newspaper. Additionally, Edward had a story section where he serialized a novel. He had a fashion section to give tips on beauty and clothes to both men and women.
There is a section where Edward would release tips on how to use magic or control mana better, educating the people or the commoner, to be precise.
More importantly, this newspaper can reveal all his legendary exploits and portray him in a better light. He did that to prevent the nobles from one slandering him or reducing his merit to this kingdom.
Some nobles tried to imitate his business model, but they all failed miserably. For one, their newspaper was never as interesting as Edward's.
Secondly, they could not print as fast as him, nor could they transport it all over the kingdom in a short time. Additionally, they could not make the price so cheap with how greedy most of them were.
In the end, a few of them decided to take his business for their own. Unfortunately, all the nobles who tried had a terrible curse placed on them that would make them suffer pain deep in their souls.
The Magic Council placed Edward on trial for what happened to these nobles, but they could not find any evidence. Even when they read his memories, they discover that he was innocent.
So, the nobles were forced to let him be and never interfered in his business again.
Just like that, many years passed by. And Edward finally regained his memories.
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Title: Curse
