Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

608 608 Palace Tour

With coffee in hand and breakfast burritos secured, thanks to the break room buffet, they were ready to get to work. Wolfe started with the base layer for the multipoint array, and then remembered that he had never asked the Minister what he wanted the array to do.

"We have a couple of options for the alarm. I can have it capture the prisoner in a magical cage, shock them, stun them, light them up with unholy fire, or even summon an elemental sprite to follow them around. What do you want it to do, other than make noise?" Wolfe asked.

"Why was I never made aware that those were options?" The Minister asked, still irritable, as he had been awoken even earlier than Wolfe and Rail.

"It's what I was researching yesterday. If you had demanded it then, these wouldn't have been options, without going for a much more complex array, but I learned a trick to the spell that allows it to produce a secondary effect without a significant increase in casting difficulty." Wolfe explained.

"In that case, putting them in a cage until the guard releases them should be sufficient. I'm sure there will be any number of false alarms in the future as there were in the past, and I wouldn't want it to do anything drastic to them." William sighed.

That was a blatant lie. Even his voice betrayed the fact the Minister did, in fact, wish for harm to come to those who made more work for him, but Wolfe let it slide as they reached the first door to the secure areas, which the common staff shouldn't pass.

"Let's start here, and work our way through the back passages of the palace. I have a copy of the security token that all authorized guards carry, so we can mark who is allowed where." William explained.

"Perfect. Do you have a second token for areas that even the authorized guards don't normally get access to?" Wolfe asked.

"We've never had those on the alarm system. They've always been separately guarded and enchanted. We will leave them from this array as well, so that if the common secured areas are breached and compromised, it doesn't affect the most secure areas of the Palace." William explained.

Rail giggled. "What he means to say is that he's not giving either one of us access to those areas, and he plans to keep the security measures for them a secret. We might be somewhat trusted, but not THAT trusted."

Wolfe smiled at the succubus. "I guess I can't even blame him for that one. You do your best to annoy him right to the limit of the rules, and I'm a work release convict."

The Minister laughed at their exchange. "Not even the captain of the guard gets access to those areas. The spells guarding them are exclusive enough that exceptions are set for individuals on a name by name basis."

Wolfe examined the archway in front of them, then pointed to a spot a metre away. "Would it be an issue to cast the first alarm spell there? I think that if they open the door without triggering anything, it will help put them off guard, so when they pass into the hallway they won't be expecting to be suddenly caged." He suggested.

Minister William looked at the hallway with the trained gaze of a security expert. "That shouldn't be an issue. This whole section is still solid wall, so if you cast it here, they will set off the alarm before they have a chance to drill into one of the surrounding rooms. The door opens out into the other hallway, so it won't set the alarm off either. Your idea appears to be feasible."

Wolfe cast the spell, and the first doorway was ready to go.

"Alright, let's get a move on, I would prefer to be done by lunch if we're going to miss breakfast for the spell creation." He sighed.

There were plenty of doorways to be alarmed along this section of the palace, and other than the first one, Wolfe cast them all in the door frame, where one would normally expect them to be. If an intruder managed to break free of the first cage, they would be expecting the same trick to be repeated, so in Wolfe's mind there was no need to do it again, he had already accomplished the goal of making them paranoid.

"This is the entrance to the Royal Harem wing. Currently, it is unoccupied, but in the future it will need to be heavily guarded. I will ask that you do all the doorways here, and then we will add another spell to keep the guards out of bedrooms later." William explained.

The rooms here had been recently renovated, Wolfe could still smell fresh paint, but from what he could tell they had taken heavy fire damage, and there were still signs of spell and blade damage in some of the stonework.

"I can do that while we're here. It's a simple spell for each of the rooms, and the occupants will be able to secure them for themselves." Wolfe suggested.

"Oh, and how will you do that?" Minister William asked.

"First up, I will mark you as the signatory, so you can set the occupants of the room. Then, once they're assigned, they will be able to activate the spell on the room itself. Nothing too fancy, just a basic Lightning Barrier, but it will definitely draw attention if someone tries to get through the door without them taking that down. Are there Harem Guards, like a female only guard force that keeps the ladies safe in their own quarters, without risk of accidental pregnancy?" Wolfe asked.

William and Rail both laughed, and Rail nodded happily. "There definitely are, but not a unified force. They have their own tokens for the individual members they are assigned to. The palace intrigue makes it unsafe to have them serve the whole group, and a few previous Demon Kings have learned that their consorts aren't above bribing the guards to kill the competition."

Wolfe nodded in understanding. "Then the Minister will have to assign them to the room as well. That's not a big deal. The occupant can leave the barrier down when they want the staff to come in, like to bring a meal or clean."

Wolfe cast the spell, and Rail whistled happily. "I am totally bribing you to make me one of those. No more nosy maids waking me up in the morning." She giggled.

Minister William frowned. "Can you take the consequences of sleeping through a messenger's visit? I heard that Patriarch Noxus already locks his room with a similar spell, and the servant almost couldn't wake him this morning."

"Fine, you might have a point. But I still like the idea."

The minister just shook his head and led them to the other rooms in the Harem wing. By the time that they were finished, Wolfe was beginning to wonder about the virility of the Demon Kings. Who would be able to hold up to two hundred consorts, other than an Incubus? Perhaps it was just vanity, but Wolfe had two official Consorts, and that was stressful at times. Two hundred was far too many.