Chapter 12: The Plot of the Princess Stepmother

Okay, now let’s continue to talk about the Stephen family. This family was a pivotal Great Noble family in the Kingdom of Griffin. Their family produced high-level Alchemist for generations, and Rafat Stephen was one of them. And Alchemy was undoubtedly extremely important in this generation; a large part of the country’s armaments had to come from the hands of Alchemists. For example, the equipment of the Magic Guide Legion, as well as the various equipment of a few elite Legions, and so on.

Thus, relying on the Stephen family’s Alchemy advantage, coupled with generations of painstaking management, naturally made their family the most important producer of high-end Alchemy Products in this country. The family head had always served as the country’s Minister of Industrial Production, responsible for all production and manufacturing affairs of the Kingdom.

Undoubtedly, this was an extremely enviable position, and the Stephen family’s production factories made people drool. You know, in this turbulent era, every country would spend huge sums of money to buy equipment. The orders given to the Stephen family alone almost accounted for 5% of the national tax revenue! Needless to say, this was definitely an astronomical figure!

However, although so many people were envious, due to the power ful deterrent existence of the Old Mage who was a Magic Saint, no one dared to have designs on the Stephen family. Even the current Kingdom Emperor was nominally the Old Mage’s student, so naturally, he didn’t dare to easily offend the Old Mage. So in order to win over the Stephen family, the Emperor even went so far as to marry his younger sister to the Old Mage’s only grandson, the wretched fat man in front of him.

However, this matter made the Old Mage very dissatisfied. Because in this world, the defense between men and women was not taken very seriously, and the Royal family was extremely unscrupulous, so much so that when the Princess married over, she was actually two months pregnant, and the child’s father was obviously not this fat man, but a Pretty Boy guard in the court. Of course, to preserve the face of the Royal family and the Old Magic Saint, that Pretty Boy was eventually secretly executed, but this still could not change the fact that the bloodline of the Stephen family’s eldest son was impure.

Obviously, such a bloodline absolutely could not inherit the Stephen family’s unique Lightning Element talent. In fact, this eldest son was simply an idiot-like guy, with no magic talent and no Battle Qi talent, but he was oily-faced and very glib, just a Pretty Boy! Undoubtedly, this was a disposition inherited from his biological father.

Such a guy might be passable in other families’ eyes, but in the Stephen family, he was undoubtedly a waste-like existence. The Old Mage never regarded him as his great-grandson; if not for the Royal family’s sake, he might have secretly got rid of this shameful guy.

To maintain the continuation of the family bloodline, the Old Mage strictly ordered his precious grandson to mess around everywhere, ensuring he must have an heir who could inherit the clan’s talent. With the Old Mage backing him, the wretched fat man naturally had a great time, living the life of a breeding pig every day, even the Princess wife couldn’t interfere.

However, what depressed the Old Mage was that the fat man worked hard in the circle of noble ladies for several years but failed to produce a single blade of grass, making the Old Mage almost crazy with anger. Eventually, the fat man finally got his wish during an affair in the Barbarian Wasteland.

At that time, the fat man went to the wasteland to buy a batch of rare materials but accidentally took a fancy to a tribal chief’s daughter. The fat man, tired of playing with noble women, was suddenly attracted by the wild character unique to Barbarian women, so he used a hundred Refined Steel Battle Axes to exchange that woman from the chief.

The Barbarian woman was tall and incredibly strong, much stronger than the fat man. The fat man found unprecedented pleasure in her and eventually successfully had a child of his own, who smoothly inherited the family’s Lightning Element talent.

The Old Mage was overjoyed at the time and immediately designated the child as the family heir without any hesitation, and no one could object. He didn’t care who the child’s mother was, as long as she could give birth to a family heir. He even thought at the time, could it be that his family members could only have children with strong women? Should he stipulate in the future that all descendants must marry a Barbarian wife?

However, the Old Mage was happy, but the Princess was not. Seeing her son’s status change from the family’s first heir to the second heir, she was naturally extremely angry in her heart. A jealous woman is terrible; not long after, she secretly played tricks and quietly poisoned the child’s mother to death.

She even wanted to attack the child, but unfortunately, the Old Mage who had been watching her discovered it. Finally, the Old Mage who had long been dissatisfied was truly angered; he not only personally killed hundreds of Guards around the Princess but also imprisoned the Princess for more than half a year, giving her cold water and bread to eat every day. In the end, the Emperor personally came forward to plead for her before she was released.

Later, although this woman restrained herself a lot, the resentment in her heart grew all the time. As time passed, the Princess, relying on her status, gradually controlled some real power of the family again. Although she didn’t dare to deal with that poor child openly this time, she used many shady tricks in secret. Although the Old Mage and the fat man noticed something, after all, there was no solid evidence, so it was not good to attack her as a Princess again. Thus, it eventually led to such a tragedy.

It turned out that the fat man’s younger son, because his mother’s status was bad and he didn’t look very likable, and was a little dull, was discriminated against by everyone around him. Actually, speaking of it, his magic talent was quite good, and he was willing to work hard; he became a junior Mage at a young age, considered outstanding among his peers. But because of his mother’s Barbarian bloodline, his body was extremely sturdy, looking not at all like a thin Mage, but similar to a strong Warrior, so those classmates called him the Gorilla Mage.

Under the intentional or unintentional instigation of his Princess stepmother, the noble children around this child took pleasure in bullying him. Because doing so was equivalent to helping the Princess vent her anger, they would get various rewards from the Princess. In such an atmosphere, this child’s childhood was naturally full of darkness. Although under the deterrence of the Old Mage and the fat man, no one dared to beat the Stephen family’s first heir, verbal insults were always unavoidable; this humiliation accompanied the child almost his whole life.

As the child grew up and showed more talent in magic, the Princess became even more restless, because the child’s existence had seriously threatened her son, and even her own position. Thus, under her conspiracy, a plot against this child unfolded again.

Just three days ago, a group of noble children blocked the pitiful Little Stephen in the school under someone’s instruction, and then several strong noble Guards blocked him, while other little nobles swarmed up and beat his study companion, a pitiful little boy, to death on the spot. The so-called study companion was a commoner child found by nobles for their children to accompany the noble children in reading. Generally, Great Noble children had such study companions.

Because Little Stephen’s status was a noble after all, and also the Stephen family’s direct heir, those nobles certainly didn’t dare to touch him, because it would invite huge trouble, especially the Old Mage’s wrath. But if they only killed a commoner study companion beside Little Stephen, those noble children had no worries at all; even if it was investigated later, at most they would just pay a little money. The Old Mage couldn’t possibly trouble the nobles for a lowly commoner, right?