Outside of that drama, i am curious about the decline of mages storyline that is going on. I had a thought that maybe its because of the state of the monarcy making it happen? Like you know how in fantasy stories, when the wrong ruler is on the throne, it affects everything? (for example, the pride lands going barren when Scar takes over, and life returns only when Simba becomes king.) We've seen that Sovieshu is ultimately very selfish, like when he let his personal feelings about the Duke get in the way of the big picture about the trade agreement. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I dont think we've seen him do anything outside of large events for the empire, we've only seen Navier put in the work. And from what we know, the mage decline has been going for awhile and his father before him was not much better. I have not read the web novel, but they've mentioned before the Eastern empires military heavily relies on mages, and if they are all gone, then they're fucked. If this isn't the fantasy "the wrong king" trope, then my only other thing i can think if a less magical answer. Like maybe sometime in the past, the emperor made some sort of policy that made schooling for mages far more rigorous or anyone magical amoung commers were to be drafted. Only instead of churning out all these mages for the military, the stress is caused created a sort of magical birth decline. So less and less children are born with magic or just lose it entirely. Considering the military and the idea that Sovieshu may go the war over Navier, plus the end of the most recent episode...that's gonna bite him in the ass, huh?
