Not long after, in the Xiongdu Palace.
On the way back to the palace, King Jarvan was still able to maintain the demeanor of a benevolent king, with a loving father and filial son, and a harmonious relationship between the ruler and his subjects.
However, after returning to the palace, away from the sight of the outside world, the already subtle atmosphere between him, the prince, Garen and Lux ​​immediately turned cold.
"You have to give me an explanation for what happened today." King Jarvan sat high on the throne, looking gloomily at the three young men who were "standing" in front of him.
"Uncle Garen~" Lux pouted, trying to ease the atmosphere with her childish and cute face.
"Call me Your Majesty!" But the old king didn't buy it at all.
"Laxana, don't act dumb in front of me." The old king looked sternly at the girl who suddenly made him feel strange.
Lux is only 14 years old now, and seems to be the little golden-haired girl in his memory.
But her title as a crown guard and her actions today were enough to make a king feel apprehensive: "You are now a general of Demacia. You should know what you did today!"
"Hmm..." Lux lowered her head in embarrassment and stopped talking.
Although she knew that everything she did today was just.
But she did feel a little guilty for stabbing her uncle, the king, who had always taken care of her and her siblings, in the back.
"Tell me--" At this time, King Jarvan pressed on: "What exactly do you want to do?"
Lux stammered, unable to speak.
Garen, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, pretended to be stupid and refused to answer.
"Okay! If you don't want to tell me, then I'll ask Peter and Ogasha who are hiding behind you to tell me—"
"The dignified Crown Guard family, the Shield of the Kingdom, is this how you protect your king now?"
King Jarvan mentioned the names of the Pitts directly, which was rare. He had never lost his composure like this when the Crownguard family was engaged .
The three young men all knew that His Majesty the King was really angry.
"Father!" Finally, Prince Jarvan stood up.
He stood in front of his brother Galen and sister Lux without hesitation and said in a deep voice: "This matter has nothing to do with Uncle Peter and Madam Ogersa, nor with the Crown Guard family."
"Everything that happened today was my idea alone!"
Prince Jarvan straightened his chest and bravely took on the responsibility.
"You?" The king's face froze.
"Yes!" Prince Jarvan nodded solemnly.
The old king: “…”
There was a delicate silence.
"Bastard! How can you do that!" The old king became even angrier.
This child is truly hopeless.
He didn't even realize that he was being used as a pawn, and yet he took the initiative to stand up and take the blame for others.
If this continues, if the Crown Guard family asks him to abdicate to Garen or Lux in the future, this silly son of his will probably obey, right?
"Call Pete and Ogasha over!" The old king became more and more angry.
But his "silly son", Prince Jarvan, was so calm at this moment that it was totally unlike him: "Father, please calm down!"
"Think about it carefully. If this matter was really planned by Uncle Pete, how could he dare not discuss it with you in advance?"
"Aren't they afraid of offending you and being retaliated against by you in the future?"
"This..." The old king's eyes suddenly became complicated when he looked at his son.
Indeed, if you think about it carefully, you will know that with the political acumen of Pete and Ogersa, they would never have done what they did today.
This is not to say that there is no possibility that the Pitts could lead their army alone and threaten the king.
They're just not that naive.
If they did something like this, they would definitely do it to the extreme - just like Swain did to Darkwill.
Instead of being like now, after openly threatening and blackmailing the king, he still expects the king to forgive him in the future.
"Did you really plan this?" The old king looked at his children in disbelief.
"Yes!" Prince Jarvan nodded solemnly.
"Why?" asked the old king.
"For my comrades." Prince Jarvan said: "They are heroes, and they should be treated as heroes."
It’s still this high-sounding reason.
The old king's eyes were gloomy and uncertain.
"To seek fairness for your comrades... is it that simple?" Since Prince Jarvan didn't seem so stupid now, the old king couldn't help but suspect that the child had other political purposes.
"Fairness is not a simple word, father." Prince Jarvan replied: "Those mages may have entered through the Arc de Triomphe, but they are still criminals in chains."
"But what crime have they committed? Possessing magical powers?"
"When we fought in Ionia, magic was in every breath we breathed. But magic did not bring destruction to Ionia. It was the greed of Noxus that brought destruction to Ionia."
"This experience of fighting at sea has taught me that magic itself is not evil. It's only humans who are evil."
"You..." The old king was speechless.
It's over. A trip abroad has turned this silly son into a naive yet radical idealist.
Of course he knew the principles his son was talking about, but banning magic was actually neither right nor wrong.
The Leader had already made it clear in the article - the purpose of the Magic Ban was not to ban magic, but a means of ruling that Demacia adopted to divert internal conflicts when it was unable to expand outward.
Knowing this, what the royal family should do is not to talk about reason or debate right or wrong, but to prioritize maintaining their own rule.
But Prince Jiawen...
"Jarwin, I asked you to read more books by leaders and learn how they look at the world and understand politics. Didn't you read them?" the old king asked helplessly.
"Uh..." The prince looked a little embarrassed.
"I read it."
"I've read it, how can you still say such childish things?"
Isn't it that the royal family read "Jana" to use it in reverse? Why did you use it in reverse?
"Father." Prince Jarvan said solemnly, "Times have changed. The Magic Prohibition Case may have been beneficial to us in the past, but now..."
Now the Demon Hunter Corps has become too powerful to be eliminated and has become a threat to the royal power.
The result is that the magic ban plan is still beneficial to the rule of the aristocracy, but it is seriously detrimental to the rule of the royal family of Jarvan.
"You've also been thinking about abolishing the Magic Prohibition Act, haven't you?"
"Oh?" The old king was a little surprised.
Being able to say such things, it seems that this silly son's political level has indeed improved.
"But you should at least inform me in advance! How dare you make your own decisions on such an important matter as today?"
"Father," Prince Jarvan asked, "If I tell you about the plan in advance, will you agree?"
The old king: “…”
Of course not.
The enemy he is most worried about now is no longer the domestic anti-magic sect, but Zaun's Leaders Association.
When he formed an alliance with the Leader due to the pressure of war, he never imagined that the Leader would develop into a world power in less than half a year.
The same goes for those Noxians... These Imperial guys got beaten up in Baruo, and after returning, they started pretending to be dead.
I don’t know what Commander Swain is thinking.
As the leader of the world's number one hegemony, if he doesn't take the lead in fighting, does he still expect Demacia to take the lead?
Anyway…
Given the current turbulent international situation, King Jarvan no longer has the heart to play the "pacify the country before fighting foreign enemies" game.
Things that are not conducive to unity and conflicts that affect the united front of the anti-wind class must be put aside.
Putting aside disputes and working together to resist the storm is the top priority.
Therefore, King Jarvan did not want to go to war with the domestic anti-magic faction at this time.
"But since you knew I would not agree, and you could guess why I would not agree, then why did you do this?" The old king looked at his son in confusion.
"Because I think differently from you, father." Prince Jarvan said: "You think now is not the time to deal with the Forbidden Magic Sect, but I think now is the best time to deal with the Forbidden Magic Sect."
Now the leader is the biggest concern of the nobles.
With powerful enemies outside, the royal family has no intention of infighting. Do the nobles of the Anti-Demon Faction have the will to fight among themselves?
"Now is the time when their resistance is the weakest. As long as we offer the right conditions, I think many of them will not resist to the end, but choose to compromise with the royal family as soon as possible."
In the eyes of the nobles, the Leader is as threatening to humanity as the Void is to humanity, a world-destroying disaster.
If you join the royal family early, everyone can unite to fight against foreign enemies and retain your noble status in the future.
But if we resist to the end and both sides suffer losses, then when the leader comes, everyone will have to go to Zaun to work on sewing machines.
Therefore, by taking advantage of the strong threat from the Leader, the Jarvan royal family can more easily undermine the fighting spirit of the forbidden magic nobles by provoking internal strife at this moment.
The old king thought about it carefully and felt that this statement seemed to make some sense.
"But..." He said sharply
The premise for the prince's theory to be valid is that the nobles are willing to put aside their past grudges and unite in the face of a "world-destroying disaster."
But can the nobles, or human beings in general, really unite in the face of a world-destroying disaster?
Is this overestimating them?
"Don't forget, kid." The old king reminded with a dark face: "Now it's you who are the first to break the unity."
"You have already ignored the overall situation and started internal strife, so how can we expect them to consider the overall situation and compromise with us?"
Prince Jarvan obviously couldn't make any guarantees about this.
After all, this was an excuse he used to cover up his real purpose and convince his father to support him.
"Father," he said, "Now the horn of war has been sounded, and we have no way to retreat."
"I hope to abolish the magic ban plan this morning, remove a worry from your mind, and seek justice for the mages. Father, please support me with all your strength!"
King Jarvan was silent.
Indeed, it was too late to question the prince's purpose or reject him.
Eldred and other anti-magic nobles would definitely regard today's events as a declaration of war by him, the king, against the Magic Hunters.
Eldred didn't know what the king would do next.
And the king did not know what Eldred would be provoked to do without knowing what the king would do.
So to be safe, both the King and Eldred will definitely take some action.
And when they see each other's next move, they will definitely take more extreme actions.
…
This deadly mutual suspicion cannot be solved by two people sitting down with a glass of wine and talking it out.
If the chain of suspicion could be broken so easily, there wouldn't be so many bloody tragedies of rulers and ministers killing each other in history.
"Father, please support me." Prince Jarvan nodded deeply and requested again.
“……” The old king was silent for a long time.
Finally, he looked at the child who was familiar yet strange to him and sighed helplessly: "Okay, I'll do as you say."
"Whatever you want to do, just do it."
"Thank you, father!" Prince Jarvan said gratefully.
Garen and Lux ​​also nodded excitedly and saluted the king.
"Okay, you guys go down first. Whatever you do next, just let me know." The old king seemed a little tired.
He waved his hand and asked the three of them to leave.
"Yes, father." Jarvan has acted like a "filial son" and successfully forced the old king to change his policy direction.
At this time, he did not continue to embarrass his father, but tactfully took Galen and his sister away.
The old king stood up from his throne and walked the three children all the way to the palace gate.
Even until Jarvan and the other two gradually walked away along the long staircase, until only their backs, like three small black dots, were left in the distance, he still stood there gazing at them with a melancholy look on his face.
"Your Majesty." His loyal guardian, the commander of the imperial guards, Zhao Xin, slowly came to his side.
"Xin Zhao." Suddenly, King Jarvan sighed, "Tell me, if I hadn't agreed to that kid's request..."
"What will he do?"
"This..." Zhao Xin was shocked.
He didn't expect the old king to ask such a fatal question.
In the end, he could only answer: "No matter what, I will protect your majesty."
"Haha." King Jarvan smiled and said nothing more.
"Your Majesty, you are worried..." Zhao Xin hesitated.
"No, I'm not worried." King Jarvan said frankly, "I'm just a little concerned... This kid wasn't a political person in the past. What he did today is not something he would have done in the past."
"Then..." Zhao Xin asked carefully, "Do you need me to dispatch the capital's garrison troops to the city to strengthen the palace's defense?"
"No need." King Jarvan shook his head again: "Although I don't know why he has changed like this, at least I have confirmed now that he is acting according to his own will."
He confirmed that his son was not stupid.
The prince was not being used by others, he wanted to do something from the bottom of his heart.
King Jarvan couldn't tell what he wanted to do. Was he just seeking justice for the mage, or did he have other purposes?
but……
"I only have this one child." The old king sighed deeply, turned around and walked into the palace: "Let him do whatever he wants to do."
…
Prince Jarvan was unaware of his father's feelings behind his back. He was still completely immersed in the joy of achieving a temporary victory.
Before he could even leave the palace, he couldn't help but say to his good brothers around him: "Garen, Lux, we succeeded."
"Yeah!" The brother and sister nodded secretly.
By provoking internal strife between the royal family and the Anti-Magic Faction and making Demacia have no time to care about the Leader, they have achieved the biggest purpose of their trip.
The next step is to take advantage of the situation and use the power of the royal faction to defeat the Demon Forbidden Faction.
This group of anti-demon factions are so reactionary that they refuse to abide by the feudal ethics of monarch and minister for their own privileges. It is even more impossible to expect them to accept the morality of the leader in the future. So it is better to clean them up in advance.
As long as the anti-magic nobles are completely liquidated, the main force in the court of Demacia's capital will only be the royal faction.
Then it happens that:
Prince Jarvan is the only heir to the royal family, and the Crownguard family is the backbone of the royal faction.
Once the checks and balances of the Demon Forbidden Faction are gone, as long as the prince and the Crownguard family join forces, they will be able to actually control Demacia.
"Now, we can move on to the next step."
Garen and Lux ​​were still a little shy. After all, what they were going to do was to steal Jarvan's girl.
But Prince Jarvan is a son who sells his father's land without any regret. He believes that the leader will win in the end, so even if we don't talk about ideals, the sooner we join the trend, the better.
He is not trying to cheat his father, but to save the Light Shield family.
So, Prince Jarvan took the lead in the discussion and discussed with Garen and his sister how to dig into their own family:
"First of all, we still have to continue to stimulate the Demon Hunting Corps and not give them a chance to ease the situation."
"As for how to stimulate... let's do what we did today and start with public opinion."
Firstly, the deep-rooted discrimination against mages among the people of Demacia requires a war of public opinion to slowly reverse.
Secondly, the change in the direction of public opinion can be the most direct.
"But major events like triumphal ceremonies that draw the attention of the entire nation don't happen every day. The propaganda methods we used today cannot be replicated in the future."
"How do you think we should promote it?"
Prince Jarvan asked his good brother for advice.
"Hehe, I have arranged all this." Garen then stood up shyly with his square face, thick eyebrows and big eyes.
"After today, there will be enough 'bards' in the streets and taverns of major cities in Germany, telling the public the amazing story of what happened in the Arc de Triomphe and the legendary experience of the mages fighting bravely in Ionia."
"This..." Prince Jarvan's eyes lit up.
But he looked over again in surprise, as if he had just learned that his good brother had this ability.
"Haha, this is just some conventional means."
Anyway, they were all comrades in the future, not king and subject, so there was no need to be so cautious. So Galen simply stopped pretending.
"In fact," he analyzed, "this move still has many flaws."
"The capital under the king's feet is fine. In the local area, the power of the Demon Hunter Corps is too strong."
"And the 'bard' is too obvious a target... If we rely entirely on these propagandists to carry out anti-magic propaganda, then the Demon Hunter Corps can easily suppress the public's opposition to the ban on magic by targeting them secretly."
"Indeed." Prince Jarvan fell into deep thought.
Due to the complete ban on magic, the speed of information dissemination in Demacia is extremely slow.
At least the authorities still have the Dragon Bird Knights responsible for delivering important intelligence;
Ordinary people relied entirely on post horses to deliver mail and bards to spread news.
Therefore, as long as the Demon Hunters mobilize their powerful grassroots forces and seize the bards as an important communication node, they can easily control public opinion.
"What should we do then?" Jarvan asked again.
"Learn from Zaun's method." Garen was indeed prepared: "Since the bard's target is too obvious, it is not convenient to spread the information."
“Then we don’t use people to spread ideas, but objects—cultural works—to spread ideas.”
"In fact..."
He has already contacted the comic book publisher in Zaun and customized a batch of comic strips telling the story of the Debon Expeditionary Force.
As long as readers read these documentary comics and see how the expeditionary soldiers rely on each other and fight side by side with the mages, they will unknowingly change their stereotypes about mages and form public opinion against the ban on magic.
"I will send the dragon bird riders of the Crownguard family to drop them into villages and towns of all sizes across Demacia."
"No matter how powerful those demon hunters are , can they confiscate all the comic books hidden in ordinary people's homes?"
"What's more, this comic book set of "The German Expeditionary Force" is a legal reading material supported by the royal family. It is a main theme work about the heroes of Germany... They want to ban it on a large scale, but they can't come up with a suitable reason, right?"
Garen's words reassured Jarvan.
"However," Prince Jarvan still had some doubts: "If we only rely on comics for promotion, isn't the threshold still too high?"
This is not just groundless worry for him.
Although Demacia is a cultural powerhouse with greater humanistic achievements than Noxus, this culture is ultimately the culture of court nobles and urban literati, rather than the culture of the vast majority of the people.
While philosophers in the capital were beginning to ponder the ultimate meaning of life, in the vast territory of Demacia, the poor peasants and serfs, who accounted for more than 95% of the total population, were still illiterate.
For these illiterate farmers, the threshold for comics is already very high.
For comic books to become widely popular, it would have to wait until the era of universal primary education in rural areas.
"It doesn't matter." At this time, Lacus came up with an idea: "If comics are not enough, just use the radio."
"Voice programs always sound like there is no threshold to entry."
Lux felt that it would be entirely possible to airdrop radios to the Demacians, then set up a radio station within Demacia to broadcast propaganda to the entire country.
“And Walkmans and cassettes!”
"Seraphini's music album!"
As a loyal fan of Seraphine, Lux's suggestions began to have a personal touch.
Don't Demacians think that mages are dangerous and evil?
Well, listen to Seraphine's sweet voice and look at the silly face on the poster - who would have the heart to accuse this lady mage of being dangerous?
This sounds like good advice.
"But..." Garen's mouth twitched: "Lux, do you know how much a radio and a Walkman are worth in Demacia?"
"Uh..." Lux was slightly stunned, and a drop of cold sweat immediately appeared on her forehead.
The grassroots work experience in the past two months made her immediately realize what a stupid suggestion she had just made.
Although radios and walkmans are worthless in Zaun, they are more expensive than gold in Demacia.
Giving this stuff out everywhere is like throwing gold Hexcoins at a bunch of broke beggars.
"No one will be interested in listening to music by then. People will just desperately fight for this treasure that can change their destiny..."
Thinking of the series of bloody conflicts that this might trigger, Lux remained silent.
"Then let's use comics." Prince Jarvan concluded: "Although comics have certain barriers to entry, this is the most suitable solution for Demacia's current national conditions."
"Yeah!" The three of them quickly reached a consensus.
"There's more." Garen reminded, "We've already made our move. I'm afraid the Demon Hunters will also make some moves soon."
"When we discuss our plan, I'm afraid we have to take the enemy's actions into consideration."
Hearing this, Jarvan and Lux ​​couldn't help but nodded secretly.
Indeed, the Demon Hunter Corps could not sit idly by and watch the royal faction erode their living space step by step.
So, what actions will they take?
It’s actually not difficult to guess.
"Our goal is to abolish the ban on magic, so we need to convince the public that magic is not dangerous." Lux tried to analyze, "And the goal of the Demon Hunters is to maintain the ban on magic, so they need to make everyone continue to believe that magic is extremely dangerous."
"And to do this..."
After the last assassination of Silas, Lux is no longer afraid to look at the Demon Seekers with the greatest malice:
"They are likely to artificially create magical terror incidents to arouse the public's fear of magic."
"And this is what President Levi doesn't want to see."
Yes, Levi had reminded Lux, the branch president, in advance that he must pay attention to winning this public opinion war.
Otherwise, if an extreme atmosphere of fear of magic is created among the people of Demacia, then the matter will not be as simple as just dealing with a few absolutist nobles.
Because Levi knew that in the "future" without the leader, it was because of the great mage uprising started by Sylas that the people of Demacia had a collective panic against mages...
Only then would the long-absent demon of fear, Fiddlesticks, follow the smell of fear and reappear in Demacia.
This guy is the leader of the original ten demons. He is a terrifying existence that is a whole level higher than Tam and Lamer.
Levi didn't know how powerful it was, he just hoped that as many gods as possible like this would appear as little as possible.
For example, after the Noxians evacuated, her seal was secretly guarded by Levi's men.
Before Janna becomes truly invincible, Levi will never release a dangerous person like her.
The same goes for Fiddlesticks.
After all, you don’t get gold coins by killing monsters in this world.
Since he has the power of "prophecy", he should find a way to avoid this useless crisis in advance.
"In short, we must not lose this war of public opinion."
"If the Demon Hunters really use such despicable means and try to use magical terrorist attacks to create panic and influence public opinion, then we must stop them at the first opportunity!"
Lux was expressing her determination.
Suddenly, a clear roar of a dragon was heard from the sky.
The three of them looked up and saw a dragon bird rider flying straight into the royal city and in the open space in front of them.
"This..." Jarvan and others suddenly had a bad feeling.
They knew that this was a dragon bird messenger who was specifically responsible for delivering urgent military intelligence.
But the problem is that Noxus has now completely retreated and there is no longer any war in Demacia.
Where does this urgent military information come from?
Could it be that... what they were worried about has already happened?
"No way, so fast?" The three looked at each other.
With great concern, Prince Jarvan stepped forward and stopped the messenger knight who flew off the dragonbird.
"Excuse me, what happened?"
"Your Highness!" The knight saluted him hastily. "It's bad. News has come from the border - Fort Lunwall has fallen!"
"The Noxians are attacking again?" The prince couldn't believe it.
“No, not Noxian—”
"It's a dragon, a demon dragon."