Alfons joined the Hartage kingdom army when he was a rank 1 magic swordsmen. There he worked for around 4 years.
But he was forced to resign.He had a dispute with a noble origin officer back then.
This kingdoms almost all important posts are in the hands of the aristocrats. Nepotism is a very serious issue in the army. All important posts of the military is full packed with the nobles. Most of them are incompetent in leading an army.
After leaving the army, he worked in many small organisation and did many odd jobs.
He is now working under 'Hulu Chamber of commerce.'He will work with them for 99 years.
At glance, it may seem harsh but the conditions are far better than others.
He received a lot invitation from many nobles, lot of good, dark groups, organisations.
But he refused them in the end.He he hates noble to the bone, so he didn't want to see thoese shrewd guys.
Lot of small big organisation and business farms big him some conditions that he didn't liked.
As for secret organisations or banned religious factions. He also received a lot invitation with tempting treatment. But he rejected them without a second thought. He don't want to become a criminal nor a bad guy.
But this 'Hulu Chamber of commerce ' conditions are not that harsh. They also let him meet with their rank 4 magic swordsmen. So he finally decided to join them.
'Hulu chamber of committee ' is a famous merchants group in this kingdom. They rank top 10 merchants in Hartage kingdom.So there is no fear of backstabbing .
After living for 121 years, he got used to travelling across the kingdom. He will be paid 1 mana crystals every month.
1 mana crystal is worth 100,000 gold coins.
Mana crystal's are special crystals with full of mana. Mages can use them to replenishes their mana reserves in their body.
After mana tip-off, a human can use mana, but they cannot store mana in their body.
That's why you need mage schools help. They can help you to learn how to store mana ,control it, use mana, learn some class related skills and create mana props.
Before they start teaching you, they will make you take a oath in sacred names to not reveal their teachings to the outsiders without their permission .
So all the mana awakened teens of the Arcadia continent must go to the Adriana subcontinent to embark on the journey to become a mage.
From the mortal point, it may seem harsh of a 99 years of contract may seem harsh and untrainable.
But Alfons knows that this time is just a small nap session for those old mages in Adriana subcontinent.
A rank 1 magi can have a life expectancy of around 200 years.
A rank 2 mage can live almost 500 years
A rank 3 magi can live around 1000 of years.
This however is not the case for these forced awakened knights.
Thinking so Mage Alfons looked at the rank 1 magic knights guarding this big caravans .
Kingdom's army, rich elite's and many powerful organisations make those who didn't had mana tip-off before 15 years of age, to have a chance to become a magic knight.
Magic knights rank 1 forced awakening path is widely available. Adriana subcontinents mages made this formula public millions of years ago to the whole Arcadian continent .
The reason is to appease the mortal kingdoms to let their mana tip-off people to come to the mage subcontinent. Well another reason eveyone knows but dare not to say is that it is a defect path.
The mages succeeded to make mortal with no aptitude to turn them in magi after millions of years worth of painstaking research.But they never succeeded in fixing its flaws.
This paths flaws are very harsh and severe. The success rate of becoming a magi in this path is 1 in a 100 and most of the unsuccessful people's dies after the ritual.
The magi in this path can never see their level becoming 2.They will stuck in rank 1.
And last but not least, Unlike natural awaken level 1 magi who lives for around 200 years, this forced awaken mages will die around 50 years of age.
For mages it may be a faulty and failed product but for most of the mortals it is a very tempting way to improve their lives.
In this age, an average ordinary mortals life expectancy is around 40 years of age only.So they don't really care if they will die at 50. Living to 50 is considered luck among ordinary people's. Only very few can live to 100's.
Becoming a magic knight is both honorable and sought after to ordinary people's. By becoming a magic knight, they can earn a huge sum of money.
Magic knight are a Kingdom's important force, so they received a lot of fame and fortunes.
Adriana subcontinent mages shrewdly used this failed product of theirs to make mortals want to become a mage and also showed their kindness by giving them a chance to become a mage. It is a great chance for those who gave up becoming a mage. It also helped the mages incredibly to increase their numbers massively.
Religious faction strongly forbade their followers to not to follow this evil path in almost all of their sermons.
They say to the ordinary people that they are lucky to not have evil mana aptitude in their bodies because god or goddess want them to not fall in magic paths.
Without those die hard followers, most of the ordinary man just ask for their sin to be forgiven and choose to participate in this forced awakening.
Most of the people in this world are peasant who works hard for a whole day for a single meals for them or their families . So if anyone promise to give them a good life in exchange of selling their souls to the devil. They will happily do so! Not to mention a chance to become an honourable mage!
While lost in these miscellaneous thoughts, he heard this caravans manager Dilam's voice.
"Just now i have received a massage from our chamber.From today, The west of our country has entered in a state of war . I wish if i was in the charge of that region, i could have earned a lot of money."
Upon hearing this, Alfons furrowed his eyes in shocking manner and asked hurriedly,
"Dilam are you sure? Are we really in a war agaist those Hussar bastards?"
Dilam nodded serious and replied,
"Yes lord mage, 4 day's ago the Hussar kingdom imbeciles tried to assassinate our king, but failed to do so. I just received this news.The king has officially declared war against them.Every young men of West of this kingdom from the age 20 - 30 must join in this war!"
Merchants heavily depends on the information network.They must stay up to date to the various information which will affect market price of their goods.
War is a wonderful excuse for them to increase their products price. So dilam ordered the caravan merchants to double their goods price from now on.
If they were in the west region where war preparation is in full gear, they could have increased the price 3 times or more.That's why dilam expressed his dissatisfaction at the beginning.
"How dare they tried to assassinated our king! No wonder they were secretly moving their forces to our border regions for a few day's. They wanted to take advantage of the chaos of this country and send their troops to conquer this kingdom!"Alfons said with red eyes.
Alfons served in the army for a few years, if not for that noble brat back then, he wouldn't have left the army. He also fought against a hussar's rank 1 magic swordsman in a border skirmish back in those day's .
Alfons said seriously,
" If king orders for this All out war' i will definitely join the war and kill thses Hussar bastards.What do you think dilam? Isn't your blood boiling like me too? "
The term 'All out war ' is used when a nation is forced to face It's near extinction by a foreign invaders, they asked everyone men, women, old to join the war for the survival.
Thinking this Dilam started to sweat profusely in this low temperature morning. He smiled wryly and said,
"Lord mage, i am only good at business and entertaining guests. I never killed even a chicken with my hand to this day! I don't think or wish that day to come. We have powerful Novgord empire as our ally, so that will never happen. If that really happen, i can only work at logistics at best. "