Byron couldn't take it anymore and erupted with anger.
" How dare you, impudent child speak to the Duke in that manner, first you question the honor and abilities of the main line and then insinuate that his grace who has ruled this lands since he was eighteen years old and has survived countless battles is being manipulated.
I should have your head for this! "
" Be quiet all of you. " The Duke spoke loudly and the entire hall fell silent again. He then turned to Max and asked
" Explain what you know boy? "
" Word must have spread about the death of Sir Ude who was said to be killed by my touch and so someone whom you felt obligated to cautioned that I may be a threat to the succession of your true born children and in order to cement their rule, I must denounce any claims of inheritance.
Does what I say sound vaguely familiar your grace? "
The tension in the hall was unpalatable, the Duke couldn't agree that he had been so obviously manipulated by his wife and so he avoided the question and so he brought up something else.
" I see, since you want to be named heir so badly why don't you prove your self, face off against your half brothers in a duel and based on your performance you might be allowed to compete for my throne. "
" I'm sorry your grace, I do not want to succeed you.
My talents lie in academia and so I would like to request that I go back to Valum so that I may concentrate on my studies.
I have no interest in court politics. " Maximilian replied.
The truth was that Max had realized that everything that was happening here might as well be an elaborate trap.
No one here was on his side including the Duke and any mistake he made here could as well cost him his life. If he needed to survive then he would need to be able to protect himself.
Crossbows and Katanas could not do that for him , there couldn't strike fear into the hearts of his enemies and so he decided to retreat.
Back inside the great hall three groups had formed , those who wanted to work with Maximilian, this who wanted to destroy him and those who were just apathetic to his existence.
Immediately Maximilian entered Valum he began his research mostly about magic.
He had purchased a pouch containing ten magic stones for one hundred gold coins.
Magic stones were a specialty item, their energy could be absorbed by a mage whose magic was depleted, it could also act as a secondary magic bank for spell casting and finally it can me used in the making of magic weapons.
So he thought,' if mana has a solid and a gaseous form, it could also have a solid form.'
So he started working on a project that would probably change everything in this world.
Right inside an uninhabited part of a forest, a research cabin had been built for Max away from prying eyes.
Using mythril, he started constructing a vacuum which would suck in mana from the air, compress it, turning it into liquid to be deposited into a vial or storage device.
The runes etched in the vacuum enabled for the presise filtration and compression of mana.
When he was done with the construction of the device which was as big as a large fire extinguisher he knew that it was going to work.
But he didn't expect that after two days all he could get was a thumb sized vial of liquid mana.
It worked but it was slow, too slow but there was a silver lining, he succeeded, even though the regular mana stones were between three to five times denser than the liquid mana, it was still cheaper to produce than buying mana stones which were sold at exhorbitant prices and were solely controlled by the imperial family.
This project took him two weeks to finalize, he had just created a new form of energy and so many ideas were just blooming inside his head for their usage.
Immediately he called a meeting of all top personnel, this included Captain Kyle whose rank had been updated to Colonel while the two others lieutenants had been promoted to lieutenant Colonels.
" Gentlemen, before we begin the contents of this meeting are highly classified, nothing said in this room must be revealed to a third party unless with my authorization. Is that clear? "
" Yes my Lord. " They all replied.
" Good." Max then put his hand into his pocket and brought out a vial containing the purplish-golden liquid mana.
" I have just successfully turned mana into a liquid form.
It is not as powerful as the regular mana stones, but it still bypasses the hassle of procuring mana stones isn't that right. "
Maximilian saw as there expressions went from amazement to absolute horror within seconds.
He was about to ask what was wrong but Colonel Kyle spoke up first.
" My Lord, this is no doubt a fine innovation but word of this will eventually get out , people would want to either buy or steal this from you and that is not the worst part, the imperial family controls all three know magic Stone mines in the empire, it is their main source of wealth and it is what have kept them in power for centuries.
If they found out that you have found an alternative to magic stones, you might lose your life and not only you, the entire town of Valum would be wiped out alongside."
" We cannot stop growing because we value our lives, he who chooses to not grow chooses to die.
You have seen the effects of the crossbows and the steam engine, you have seen our new construction capabilities.
Do you not still believe that anything is possible?
In that case, I have new weapons in mind but first of all we need to build a scaled up version of this my device, I'm sure that you will thank me later."