The recent compliments were nice, but Bardeelus was happy that he didn't sign a slave contract here. It would be ironic considering what his powers were, he was supposed to be the slave-master and not the other way around.
Anyway, once he eventually focused on Mikana's words, plenty of things didn't sit right with him. He wanted to point something out from now, so these sects wouldn't plan any unrealistic requests in the future.
After pushing the signed parchment away, he expressed. "I'm not a big fan of politics, you gotta understand that? A shit ton of people are starving, and my town saw five 'elected' kings in two years already; They're looking like clowns at this point."
Bardeelus caught their attention, quite violently, so he continued speaking. "Politics aren't a mage's trump card, not typically at least. We're seeing new branches of magic every year, wars are just a side-effect of that."