The next letter that arrived detailed everything that had happened today, giving further information about what everyone had seen in the golden crystals.
And just like yesterday, the losses of Duke Whirlwind's forces were still at zero.
Even though everyone had expected it, seeing that Duke Whirlwind had taken over two Zones without fighting personally and without losing a single person was shocking.
On top of that, Duke Whirlwind also publicized the names of the High Mages that joined him.
Not counting Duke Whirlwind himself, Duke Whirlwind now had six High Mages.
That wasn't a powerful army, but it was still more than he had started with.
Two days of war had passed, Duke Whirlwind had conquered two Zones, and instead of his army becoming weaker, it was becoming stronger!
Usually, during a war, both sides would lose soldiers and would become weaker, but Duke Whirlwind was becoming stronger instead of weaker during the war!
And the Skythunder Kingdom?
They had lost around 30 High Mages already.
That was nearly 10% of all the High Mages in the entire Kingdom, and there had even been five Mid High Mages amongst them!
One of the Mid High Mages had even been a Duke!
Not only that, but they had also killed a Late High Mage, Duke Torrent.
A Late High Mage was someone that could be in the Council if they so chose to!
The entire Skythunder Kingdom only had a bit over ten Late High Mages, and that included both Councils!
By now, the True Mages and High Mages started to believe that Duke Whirlwind actually had a shot at winning.
They hadn't believed it up to now. After all, the Council had been their rulers for an eternity, and they had always been the symbols of power.
How could anyone fight against that?
But now, they had to accept reality.
The Council might actually lose.
An hour after the letters arrived, the Council gave its answer to everything that had happened today.
The first thing they did was to show that the golden crystals had been tampered with.
They explained in detail how one could see the faults in the recordings on their own, and sure enough, the people noticed the faults.
They could verify that one scene had been swapped in.
The Council immediately denounced Duke Whirlwind for using such despicable means to ruin the image of the Council and said that they would never threaten anyone with their family.
They publicized the names and locations of Conny's family, and everyone was free to check up on them. They were all free, and they were all healthy.
Then, the Council said that the only reason why Duke Whirlwind hadn't lost anyone yet was due to the Council having to focus on the borders. The Magic Purity Kingdom and the Grandmountain Kingdom were still problems.
If the Skythunder Kingdom weren't threatened by two other Kingdoms, they would have crushed Duke Whirlwind long ago.
That had been the answer of the Council.
But it failed miserably.
Yes, everyone could see that a scene had been swapped.
Okay.
But that wasn't the issue!
That was not why everyone was mad!
So what if that scene was swapped? The actually important scene hadn't been doctored!
In a way, the Council had proven the authenticity of the important scene while trying to invalidate the entire recording by focusing on an error in an unimportant scene.
Also, what would the health of Conny's family even prove?
That only proved that Duke Whirlwind's plan had worked!
He had publicized this recording specifically to protect Conny's family!
Most of the High Mages had waited for the Council's answer, but the Council's answer had not been to their satisfaction.
Instead of bringing out actual proof that they hadn't threatened anyone else's family before, they tried to invalidate everything the recording showed by highlighting a fault in an unimportant part.
This could be likened to two people having a discussion, and one of them started to criticize the grammar and method of speech of their opponent instead of addressing the actual argument.
It was sneaky, shady, and cheap.
True Mages were not stupid, and nearly all of them noticed this.
Of course, breaking the loyalty built over decades for so many people was immensely difficult...
But it still worked on many of them.
So many High Mages had been on the fence before.
The only thing that had stopped them from jumping to Duke Whirlwind's side was that they had to undergo a Mind Read.
A Mind Read would unveil all the secrets a Mage had.
It would show how they trained, what sort of techniques they used, what Spells they had created, what shady things they had done, how they managed everything, how much wealth they owned, where they stored their valuables, and so on.
It showed everything!
Would the High Mages trust Jerald to keep all these sensitive secrets safe?
Of course not!
That was why not that many people had switched.
But now, the option was way more enticing.
After all, they might actually die if they didn't convert to Duke Whirlwind's camp.
The High Mages that had gone against the warriors in the past put a lot of pressure on everyone out of fear.
They proclaimed that they would never betray their Kingdom, but deep inside, they were just angry that they didn't have the option to do so.
Slowly, the High Mages started to gather their things and families.
The Council noticed.
What did the Council do against that?
Well, what could they do?
They had used the Mages to suppress the warriors in the past, but now these very Mages were leaving them.
A rich person could command their service staff to throw a guest out, but if the service staff rebelled, who would be left to throw them out?
Only the owner.
And the Council certainly didn't have the manpower to stop all these High Mages from leaving. After all, most of them were stationed near the frontlines and couldn't leave easily.
That was until one of them volunteered to do something drastic.
The Council gathered and listened to that person's plan, and in the end, they all agreed.
The Council might not be allowed to get directly involved in the war, but they were still allowed to police their own people.
Even more, the plan also included a surefire way to deal with their biggest problem, Count Sword.
As one High Mage after the other was leaving, the Council was preparing their counterattack.
And tomorrow, they would put it into motion!
