Foiling the plans

The fire was everywhere. No matter where I would direct my eyes, a thin layer of fire covered the entire mass of the floating rubble. Even though it was burning incredibly slowly, from how the metallic parts of the ruins continued to blush more and more, one could tell that its temperature was no joke.

"Okay, let's do it…"

The one good thing about having those remnants floating around me was complete privacy that it gave me. With its constant whining, concrete shattering and metal snapping, no one could hear what I said under my nose. With the fire covering it all, one couldn't watch my actions even from the bird's eye.

But that didn't lessen my presence at all.

With the stage set, there was no point in waiting. Steeling myself for what was about to come, I focused my entire self on the strange mixture of both repulsion and attraction. Something that would be illogical and impossible for a simple witch, I was now capable of as a true mage.

One could say that the emotion-based magic was easier for women, while numerical and categorised part of it was easier for men to conquer. In this kind of situation, the true magic would be a mix of the two, inviting the mystical element of emotion to the spells and formulas, all the while introducing some practical senses into the emotional side of things.

And right now, this mix of both repulsion and attraction, allowed me to keep condensing the hot rubble. From the volume akin to how big the entire house was before the disaster, it slowly eroded in a thin ring, not even half a meter high. From then on, I continued to push it together, all the way to the point where I finally turned most of the ruins into a huge boulder, before placing it right beside the entrance to the basement.

Darkness.

Once I let go of my emotions, I realised how insanely tired I was. Given how this was my very first time of using the magic at such a large scale, I was unable to monitor how much of my own energy I was using up. But as tired as I was, I couldn't rest easy yet.

For now, the position of the boulder protected the underground stairs to the basement from anyone's attention. And right now, this attention was something that I finally had to take care off.

"Your deaths might be untimely, but your souls will rest in the Lord's grace forever."

Bringing one of my hands up to my face, I hanged it parallel to my nose before lightly nodding my head towards the boulder. Nothing concrete. As soon as I would try to do something too openly, people would notice that I wanted them to assume something. Right now, I had to limit myself to small gestures that someone would do when celebrating something perfectly alone.

"I hereby claim this land to be the sacred ground for the Boruta's cult. May our guide's blessing be aplenty on the land where his apostles lay."

This time, I allowed my voice to be a bit louder, just hearable enough for the first rows of the crowd to catch on.

Turning myself to the said crowd, I acted as if I only now realised that someone was watching my actions. Putting up an angry expression on my face, I looked at them before slowly uttering.

"I guess you guys did exactly the same thing when their fate was fulfilling. Standing by the side and doing nothing…"

Speaking loud enough for the majority of the crowd to easily hear me, I could see how my words could be compared to a burning match thrown at a pile of dry wood. In one instant, sparks started appearing, fighting for the dominance in turning the crowd into an explosive, angry mob.

"Disgusting."

This wasn't a part of the plan that I discussed with Baskar family. According to our deal, I was just going to say some stuff that would bring the attention of the eye of the public to me.

But meeting with my former teacher changed my mind a bit. Just a few moments worth of talking with him made me remember all the stuff that he would talk about while throwing me around the gym with no mercy.

Yet, how come calling an entire mass of the people 'disgusting' could contribute anything towards my plans? That question was something that only someone incredibly naive could ask. After all, one would need to just glance over the history of politics to realise that no matter the place, not the man who wanted to better everyone's lives would rule, but the one who would promise to make the life of the others worse.

Listening to the great ideals, noble thoughts and grandiose speeches was something that worked pretty well in the history books, not with the people standing right in front of one's face. When dealing with a crowd, the rules of propaganda were fairly simple.

"Anyone who will dare to step on this sacred land without the blessing of Boruta will be met with the retribution of our glorious cult. And we have no mercy for those who are daring to take the title of the enemy of the people!"

Point the one responsible for one's misery, and he will fight him with way more energy than he would put in improving one's life. As much as having a benevolent ruler who would truly care about important problems was nice to brag about to others, when it came to the deepest levels of human nature, having a burly guy with a heavy log in his hand was still and would remain for the years to come, the main archetype of a person that people would like on the throne.

That was the influence of humanity's long years of tribalism. As much as we would like to aspire to be better than that when the push would come to the shove, no one would care about highly moral ideas, devolving back to the bunch of mindless cavemen only oriented at eating, fucking and surviving.

"Now, then…"

Giving the crowd a moment long enough for them to generally calm down and let their curiosity of the reason behind my actions take the better of their anger, I suddenly smiled and looked at the people with expectations in my eyes.

"Who would like to get the job of building the sanctuary here?"

This was finally the part where the Baskarian people should come in and take the job. The job of rebuilding this place into a new residence for me and my imaginary cult was already paid for with that condensator I offered to them. Now, all I had to do was wait for their people to volunteer for the job.

"I'll gladly take the job. "

Hearing the voice, I felt my entire body twitching. But it was impossible, was it? There was no damned way that he would appear here and wreck my plans right now, wasn't there?

With the crowd parting in order to let the volunteer come in, I had no other choice but acknowledge the fact that my master ended up messing up my plans in the end.

"I hope you didn't dare to think that I would miss on such fun?"

With his accomplished smile decorating his face as he dragged the same bodyguard that I put my guards up around when back in Baskar mansion by his collar, my master threw the lifeless body of the Baskarian man before turning around to the crowd and spreading his arms to bring all of the attention to himself.

"Velian company now officially takes the request of this man to turn this ruined area into the greatest temple that ever graced those lands! May it be known to all, that any attempts at sabotaging this job will be taken with full seriousness as an act against the VarkaVelian corporation!"