"AAAHH, Catherine, my daughter!" Duke Lucas hugged Catherine's corpse tightly and wailed.
Lifa was also feeling at a loss in the face of this sudden development.
Right now, what worried Lifa the most was the fact that Catherine was also the most popular socialite in the Noah Kingdom.
Her death would definitely cause a stir in the entire kingdom.
Moreover, as Duke Lucas' only daughter, Duke Lucas doted on her.
The palace would surely suffer the frenzied revenge of the Lucas family.
However, since things had already reached this point, Lifa knew that there was no turning back.
Therefore, facing Duke Lucas who was on the verge of going berserk, Lifa passed down the order, "Men, apprehend Duke Lucas and lock him in the imperial capital prison!"
"How dare you! You little bastard, I'm going to kick you off the throne!"
Duke Lucas had lost his mind after seeing his daughter die in front of his eyes. He glared at Lifa and Rennes with hatred.
Especially Rennes. He looked as if he was ready to eat Rennes alive.
"No need for the trouble!"
Rennes smiled faintly, and a trace of coldness appeared on his face. He snapped his fingers casually.
Less than a second later.
Lucas did not even have time to scream before he was engulfed in a terrifying red flame. He vanished along with Catherine's body.
It all happened in an instant. It was like a miracle.
Everyone there was stunned.
The dozen or so guards in the hall gulped. Their eyes were about to pop out.
"You killed Duke Lucas?"
Lifa covered her mouth in shock, her beautiful eyes filled with astonishment.
She could understand and accept Catherine's sudden death. After all, Catherine had insulted Rennes. She deserved to die.
But Duke Lucas' death had truly stunned her.
Duke Lucas had a very special status in the kingdom. As the richest man in Noah, he was a high-ranking aristocrat of the kingdom and leader of the conservative nobility faction.
In the era of the previous King, even the Chief Consul had to listen to Duke Lucas. He had immense power.
But now, this powerful person had died just like that, not even leaving a corpse behind.
One could foresee what kind of waves this would make across the kingdom if news of it was to spread.
If the entire nobility were to rise in rebellion, the royal palace would not have the power to suppress it!
This was what worried Lifa the most at the moment.
She could only choose to deal with it calmly. When the news could not be suppressed any longer, she would step forward and handle it.
Besides, the nobility's power had grown too strong. It was time to clean up the rot inside the kingdom!
Lifa was already prepared to declare war on the entire Lucas family!
"Don't worry, Lifa. I, the Honorary Consul of the Noah Kingdom, will take care of everything!"
Contrary to Lifa's worry, Rennes had a relaxed expression on his face.
At some point in time, a golden spot of light had appeared within Rennes' body.
With the appearance of the mysterious spot of light, Rennes found that his power, which had stagnated for a long time, and which he thought had reached the pinnacle, once again begun to grow, slowly.
Thinking about what had happened in the past few days, Rennes suspected that it was related in some ways to his actions in changing the world. The greater the degree of change he caused, the more spots of light there would be, and the stronger the power he would obtain.
That was the real reason why Rennes had killed Duke Lucas and his daughter!
Although the yield from killing them was not as much as the yield from killing the Archmages from Raytheon, it served to confirm Rennes' suspicion.
This unexpected discovery made Rennes very excited. At least now, he had a reason to stay in this world.
The next morning.
Lifa got up early and went to the room next to the reception hall.
She was ready to inspect the result of the ten young men's training after a day had passed, and was looking forward to it.
She walked into the room.
The ten young men were huddled together and were discussing something enthusiastically. There were dark circles under their eyes.
Evidently, in order to complete the task given to them by Her Majesty the Queen, they had stayed up all night.
At this moment, when they saw Lifa walking in, they all stopped talking at once.
Then, they stood in a row and looked at Lifa with gratitude in their eyes.
Lifa nodded slightly at them and said, "Those who have officially advanced to the realm of a mage apprentice, take a step forward!"
Thud!
As soon as she said that, the young men took a step forward in unison. Their expressions were filled with excitement.
"One, two, three... Nine!"
The success rate was 90%! Lifa was very satisfied. A relieved smile appeared on her face.
A short, blue-haired youth who was positioned at the far right side of the group, was the only one who had not stepped forward. He said with much shame, "Your... Your Majesty, I'm almost there!"
"It's all right. Keep working on it!" Lifa smiled, indicating that she did not mind.
Whether the last one succeeded or not did not matter to Lifa anymore.
She was already excited enough with the knowledge that Rennes' "Introduction to Magic" had a 90% success rate.
The entire population of the Kingdom of Noah currently totaled 3.2 million people.
Most of them were concentrated in the southeast region with the imperial capital at the center.
Excluding the elderly, children, and women, there were about 600,000 people of suitable age for enlistment.
These 600,000 people, even with just a 90% success rate, would allow the Kingdom of Noah to give birth to 540,000 new mage apprentices.
Those were 540,000 new combat strength! They only needed a little bit of guidance.
In a few years, half of them would advance to become proper mages and begin to master real magic.
270,000 mages? What kind of concept was that?
Even at its peak, the Raytheon Empire only had 300,000 mages in their army.
In only a few years, the Noah Kingdom would reach close to the level of the Raytheon Empire at its peak.
What an exciting future to look forward to!
Lifa took a deep breath to calm herself down.
Then, she summoned Thomas, the captain of the guards, and gave the order to make the proper arrangement for these ten youths, as well as to start implementing the policy of teaching magic to all the citizens of suitable age.
After watching them leave, Lifa picked up the manuscripts on the table and rushed out of the room. She wanted to tell Rennes the good news as soon as possible.
At the moment, Rennes was reading a book.
In fact, he had been reading for the past few days.
Through reading all kinds of books, Rennes now had a rough understanding of this world.
This world was immensely vast. The Noah Kingdom was located in the easternmost part of the magic continent.
In the eastern region, there were more than a dozen countries that were similar to the Noah Kingdom in size. There were countless smaller duchies a well.
However, there were only two nations that could be called empires in the entire eastern region. One of them was the Raytheon Empire.
Of course, this was only the situation in the eastern part of the continent. If one were to cast one's gaze further, one would see that, in the other regions of the magic continent, epics and legends were being written every moment.
Beautiful beastkin girls, elegant elven women, evil dark mages, powerful dragons...
They created countries, they promoted the advancement of magic, and together with the humans, they weaved wonderful stories...
This was a truly wonderful world. It filled Rennes with anticipation.