19 Centralized Power

Just as the sun started to get hotter, Dandell left with an expression of fascination and excitement.

He went straight to the palace and met up with the other two magical deities, Zimmer and Betty. Together, they met with the Queville Empire's eleventh ruler—Kessan. They reported the result of their negotiation simply to complete the mandate process symbolically.

Having said this, one had to talk about the Queville Empire's government.

Being an empire where violence defined the order, its authority and resources were virtually in the grasp of the mages!

The relationship between the royalty, nobility and the mages was similar to that of the professional managers and shareholders.

Of course, in reality, the boundary between the two was more undefined.

There would be mages born among the nobility.

Powerful mages also had the right to obtain noble titles and domains.

The royalty was in decline at the moment. Although it was deemed as one of the Four Main Pillars of the Empire, they could only rely on special magical tools and years of heritage. Hence, the Empire's final say would naturally land on the three magical deities.

That was also why Dandell could act as the representative of the Queville Empire to negotiate with Yu Sheng'an.

Back to the topic.

After obtaining the nominal authorization, the magic towers in Willis City began to light up again.

Orders after orders were sent to all the big cities via the magic towers.

Accompanied by waves of magical ripples, the great social revolution that had been building up for a long time had finally begun!

…

…

At the Queville Empire's border, Tuva City, a seven storey magical tower was located right smack in the city center. Theodore the Grand Mage was plunged into a state of shock after he read the Joint Signature Order from the Empire's Four Main Pillars in it.

As a mage that guarded a corner of the Empire, even though he was far removed from the power circle, he was still quite aware of the important affairs that happened in Willis City.

Especially the Internet Divine Skill that had just emerged recently and had taken the capital by storm. He had been following its development.

Taking his personal opinion out of the picture, he only saw two outcomes of that incident:

Either the Empire bans it strongly…

Or it lets the skill flow freely.

But he had never expected for the Empire to choose collaborating with the Internet Deity!

No, that was not a collaboration. This was obviously yielding to the Deity!

Although the Empire had signed a strict contract with the Internet Deity about not building churches, no peeking at mages through the divine skill and such, a contract could be renegotiated and signed again.

Given the Internet's propaganda ability, once it became deeply-etched into people's hearts, the Internet Deity could always use that opportunity by then to force the Queville Empire to sign a new contract.

Theodore's scalp felt numb as he thought of that.

He couldn't understand it. Why did the three magical deities agree to sign this collaboration?

However, it was already too late to say anything at this point.

He knew that the times had changed.

The Internet Deity was an existence that could very possibly override the Empire in the future.

He was just a grand mage, who fell short of the best but was still better than the worst.

He couldn't take part to decide the Empire's fate, but he could decide his own fate. In the wave of that coming era, as long as he chose the right direction, maybe he could do more with less.

Bearing such complicated feelings, he activated the Internet Divine Skill.

Immediately, a familiar illusory scroll unfurled in front of him.

However, there was a new module on the main page this time. It was actually the symbol of the Great Queville Empire—The Circular Tower of Magic.

After he clicked on it, a new parchment-like window that jumped out had shocked him straight away!

Different from other functional modules, the Empire's official website was divided into numerous large or small squares.

The row of squares that were at the very top of the page displayed the administrative agencies of the Empire in sequence.

In the bottom square, the Empire's latest decrees, news, announcements, etc. were publicized.

In the column of the latest decrees, the two newest decrees that he had just received were found there.

One. Spread the Internet Divine Skill.

Two. Administrative units at all levels shall begin building schools for literacy, immediately.

Theodore browsed through the Empire's official website with a numb scalp and his thoughts went wild while he was browsing.

It was obvious the official website that had just gone online only had a main frame. Many modules were almost empty when he clicked to see them.

Even so, that main structure still shocked him to the core.

For example, the adjudication department module had a detailed publication of the Imperial Code.

It was foreseeable that once the Internet Divine Skill had spread out and everyone could log into it, it would greatly restrict the administrative officials' right to explain the code to the citizens.

In other words, that was also going to restrain and supervise their power.

Apart from this, the government complaint module had shocked him tremendously.

He saw a huge number of anonymous complaints under the Willis City's complaints module.

There were trivial matters such as a lack of wells in the slums, someone was bullying somebody… etc.

However, there were also matters that didn't look important but in fact were quite serious.

For example, someone was accusing the noble Langs' private butler of oppressing, bullying and taking advantage of the peasants.

Theodore knew, even though the Lang Clan seemed massive, the family had been going downhill ever since Ferro Lang the Mage Instructor passed away.

They had still been able to depend on the personal connections left behind by the late Mage Instructor in the first few years.

However, as Ferro Lang's son—Erman Lang—couldn't step into the realm of mage instructors, people began to become jealous of the resources that his family had hoarded.

At the moment, this accusation could very likely be the trigger of the Langs' downfall.

Theodore took in a deep breath. He had long noticed the Internet's ability to control the public opinion, but he still had to admit that he had seriously underestimated it.

One had to know that dogs bite in every country.

Who could claim and promise not being completely without a fault?

Nobody.

Of course, the mages' power came from strength. As long as they were strong enough, no amount of public opinion could topple them.

But the public opinion would one day become the excuse to topple them.

Theodore finally understood why the three magical deities chose to collaborate with the Internet Deity.

In the era of public opinion, everyone had to choose their teams and their leaders. Otherwise, the upper crust would have a reason to take them out by simply leading the public opinions on.

In other words, the power of the empire would be concentrated to an unprecedented degree!

A second thought suddenly inspired profound fear in Theodore as he looked at the website's complaint features.

He discovered the control and public opinions were the scariest. The scariest aspect was that power was going to reach the base directly. That was the real drastic measure.

Before that, even though people respected the magical deities, they weren't overly fearful.

Come to think of it, even when the public opinion was incensed, if the person involved was a grand mage instructor who controlled an area, they would normally turn a blind eye to maintain stability.

This happened because the Empire always needed people to manage it. It would make concessions in certain aspects to ensure that there would be people to manage it.

But, everything was different after this.

The grassroots subjects would be able to reach the upper crust easily, using the Internet Divine Skill. A decree from a magical deity could directly control the power of the grassroots subjects. In other words, the middle management was no longer important.

When the supply and demand relationship changed fundamentally, would they still dare to be so confident?

What?

Wasn't there a limited number of mages? The magical deities were also unable to punish and kill as they liked, right?

Hoho. Didn't they see the basic magical knowledge shared on the Internet?

The foreseeable future with the spread of the Internet Divine Skill would bring an exponential rise in the number of mages.

When there were too many looters for the limited wealth, who would dare to be so confident?

Nobody!

What a terrifying and calculative move!

Who came up with that?

An honorific title instinctively popped up in the mind of a panic-stricken Theodore—The Internet Deity!

No wonder he was able to convince the three magical deities.

Theodore became silent as he gazed at the Internet page.

He was thinking about his future.

After a while, his eyes suddenly lit up.

Because he had discovered that the emergence of the Empire's official website had ushered in the worst era for the traditional aristocrats.

But to the capable poor people, this was probably the best year ever!

When the information was openly shared, capable people wouldn't be too far away from success, right?

"Praise You, Great Deity of the Internet!"

Theodore couldn't help but praise!