novelUnexpected
| ← Ch.300 | Ch.302 → |
Chapter 301: Unexpected
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
Peaceful utopias did not exist in this world. There was no lack of idiots who were without common sense. Reality was always stranger than fiction as fiction still needed to be logical to attract readers. In reality, it was forever impossible to understand just why some people could be so impossibly idiotic.
All the older mages knew just how much power the Emblem of Endless Truth represented. However, many members of the royalty or nobility were amongst the younger student mages. To them, they were the absolute bosses in their own territories, daring to say and do whatever they wanted. They were at a young and impulsive stage of their lives when they were found out to have talent as mages and sent here to the Cloud Tower—a place where countless geniuses gathered. They were basically like the legendary protagonists in Chinese FreeWebNovels, as they wouldn't stand for suffering the slightest grievances.
Of course, the cruel world would soon teach them a lesson to help them learn just where they stood. During the process of learning, they would often turn from the bullies into the victims.
If they were fortunate, they would naturally mature. However, the prerequisite was that they didn't enrage someone who was beyond their ability to handle.
"Emblem of Endless Truth? It's an academic award? So what? Roland? Never heard of him! He's probably just an academic who stays in his experimental laboratory every day, and he dares to not sell his products to me! My granduncle is the archmage Andrei!"
Well, that was a common example of what those idiots were thinking. They would typically be polite when they first arrived, and when they discovered that politeness wouldn't help them obtain the right to purchase an Iron Horse, they would start trying to use money. When they discovered that the money they were offering was still insufficient, they would resort to arrogant declarations that always ended in angry roaring threats. It was a complete and perfect example of how the rich and powerful typically behaved in a feudal society.
Yawen would then take out her dragonslaying sword and viciously teach them about the mage's mortal enemy—an Underground elf who had full points in magic resistance!
Although gray elves were indeed weaker than dark elves in magic resistance, that didn't make any difference since Yawen was merely facing a bunch of novices who hadn't even mastered two-circle magic spells.
Of course, just getting viciously beaten up wouldn't make these rich young masters give up so easily. They would always want revenge and bring us various small troubles. In the past few days, we had already suffered from four incidents of arson. This was another reason why Cher was glaring at me in such a fashion. Not only did we break the records for number of incidents caused by us, we also broke the record for needing to call the police as well. Especially since the arson incidents typically happened at 1 or 2 a. m. in the morning, which really annoyed the police mages when they were called to the scene.
"Who the hell is it this time?!!"
Alright then, judging by how explosive Cher's tone was, it seemed that she was truly pissed off at this arsonist who had the unfortunate timing of making trouble while she was here.
"With two more incidents, our 'Annual Excellent Public Order Reward' money will be no more!!"
Alright then, it seemed that there was a concrete reason behind her anger as well.
"The archmage Andrei's grandnephew? Andrei, the vice leader of the Sword of Order? This is quite problematic."
Unfortunately for Cher, her subordinates arrived with a report that caused her to frown. No matter what, a current Truth Overseer would definitely be difficult to deal with, even if he currently wasn't at the Cloud Tower. The Sword of Order and Mystical Blade had a bad relationship with each other to begin with. In fact, it started from when the organizations were established—they intentionally competed with each other even with how they named themselves. If she didn't deal with this situation well, it might escalate into a huge conflict between two of the most powerful mage organizations.
Even though Cher had excellent moral boundaries as an enforcer of the law, she still knew that some things would be quite difficult to deal with. Her status as a public order mage would only be internally useful within the Mystical Blade as well as medium and small mage organizations. However, other large mage organizations wouldn't care at all about her status, nor would the mages care about the pitiful strength of the police forces.
"Let me go! Do you know who I am!? My granduncle is Andrei!"
Even though this young master—who resembled a monkey—was tied up tightly, he remained as arrogant as always. Apart from him, several of his arsonist accomplices had been captured and tied up as well along with large stockpile of oil and fire powder that had been found with them. As for his "accomplices, " they were basically all rich scions that were mere mage novices who hadn't learned the cruelty of the world. They were blissfully unaware about the consequences of their actions.
Truth Overseers were indubitably influential. Typically speaking, in such a situation, Cher would notify the person's family elders to severely hand out a punishment. However, the person that these young troublemakers antagonized was an archmage with two Emblems of Endless Truth. Cher found this situation quite difficult to deal with, not knowing if archmage Roland would simply let things go.
"Um, archmage Roland..."
Although Cher felt quite humiliated at having let the criminals get off so lightly, she still considered it part of her work to minimize any potential dangerous large incidents before they started. There were things she needed to say. However, the archmage that always had a helpless expression and lowered his head to apologize to her didn't even pay her any attention. Instead, he had an icy expression as he spoke in a low voice.
"Yawen, Little Red 232, the two of you were injured?"
The gray elf shook her head, indicating that she was fine. However, the sword injury on her shoulder actually had a smell of corrosion. The fact that her injury had already decayed to such an extent despite how recently she received it was the best evidence of how highly toxic the poison must have been. However, it seemed that Yawen would be fine after receiving healing magic from Divine Arts in time.
"Father, wahhh! My hair has been burned off."
Meanwhile, Little Red 232 hopped over to complain. Roland gently patted her on the head, while even Cher was quite angered when she saw the depressed little girl who had a patch of scorched hair on her head.
"Were there any damages?"
"We discovered them quite quickly this time so the fire was put out almost immediately. The warehouse wasn't damaged at all. Out of our people, Yawen was the most seriously injured. However, they set fire to the kitchen, and our hired chefs were unable to escape in time..."
Considering how we intended to add a café addition to the Thorn Garden shop, we hired some local residents as chefs. Since the chefs were only ordinary people, not mages, it seemed that they didn't manage to make it out of the fire alive. Perhaps these rich scions even killed the chefs off on purpose in order to kill any witnesses that could point them out for their involvement...
"According to the Mage Country's laws, what's the punishment for intentional arson that leads to people's deaths?"
Cher paused in surprise when she saw that Roland was talking to her, finally noticing that he was asking her as an officer of the law. It was just that his typically smiling expression was replaced by a rare one of seriousness.
"... According to the Mage Country's laws, it should be execution by hanging, but..."
His bright eyes suddenly dimmed, and the next moment, Roland's eyes seemed to Cher like they were black holes that could devour everything. Without a hint rage or hatred within them, he seemed like an emotionless machine. Cher felt chills run down her spine when she was looked at by those eyes. She found herself unable to tell him to be merciful.
Cher suddenly recalled that she had wanted to investigate just who this Roland person truly was. However, her direct boss, who was considered as someone muddleheaded due to old age by all her coworkers, suddenly came and warned her personally with such a serious expression.
"There's some things and some people that you're simply better off not knowing about. If you would like to live a long and good life, there are some lines you definitely can't cross."
To be honest, Cher was quite disappointed when she heard her direct boss tell her that. When she thought about how Roland didn't have any other achievement emblems at all apart from the two Emblems of Endless Truth (the graduation emblem wasn't an achievement emblem), and how he always spoke so softly and acted so cowardly to a normal public order mage like herself, she kept feeling like the upper-ranked members of the Cloud Tower weren't as pure as she thought.
Her direct boss, the elderly mage Charlie, used his authority to allow Roland to mysteriously be able to take his subordinates out of jail every single day so easily—Cher's compatriots viewed this as further evidence of his confusion due to advanced age. It also caused Cher to view this "weakling who must have gotten his highest-level emblems through backdoor connections" with great displeasure. However, when she saw Roland's completely unemotional icy gaze today, she felt like she was actually the criminal who was to be judged, instead. She felt like a frog being gazed at by a snake, frozen, unable to move. She realized that she had likely made a huge mistake, treating a tiger as a gentle housecat. This Roland person was definitely someone highly dangerous.
"Oh, since the law states that the punishment should be death by hanging, in that case, there's no need to trouble the police mages any longer. Let's just execute them right here and now."
Roland suddenly smiled as if his heartless emotions from earlier were nothing but an illusion. He seemed just like the same kind person who always apologized helplessly. The words he said just now still made Cher feel like she was dreaming.
"Hang them? Hang them all right here? There are more than ten archmages' descendants here! One of them is even related to the Sword of Order's vice leader! Just how many mage organizations are you intending on antagonizing all at once?"
"Wait a moment, my granduncle—I apologize! I'll pay you for all the damages incurred, don't kill m—ahhh!!"
Cher hoped to god that Roland was only trying to scare the young criminals. However, she soon discovered that his words were no mere threats. His subordinates brought out several ropes that they put on the arsonists' necks and then dragged them outside. A few pitiful screams later, everything suddenly fell silent.
When Cher regained her senses and hurriedly rushed outside, she inhaled deeply when she saw the scene before her.
No matter if it was a tall centaur, a young knight, or a cute wood spirit, all of them carried out the executions with practiced movements, successfully hanging the arsonists onto the trees in a single try. There was no pity and no wasted words. It was as if this was just a daily task to everyone.
"Hang them all up at the entrance. Send that Andrei's grandnephew's head to the Sword of Order's main headquarters and tell them that Roland is waiting for Andrei to come and receive his descendant's corpse."
I didn't even spare a glance for Cher whose face was turning pale as I kicked away the arsonists' explosives. As I expected, I found a black crystal and some bottles containing dark green liquid.
"Black crystal cores. As long as this is ignited, the entire street will go up in an explosion. How truly vicious of them. This dark green liquid is doublelife snake venom—toxic to the extent of being instantly fatal upon contact to normal humans."
From the very start, I didn't think that these youngsters would be able to threaten me. But now, I was faced with the fact that not only did they break past my magical defenses, but they even caused even Yawen, who was at the peak of Gold rank, to become injured. This far surpassed these useless novices' personal abilities. There was definitely someone behind them, egging them on. These kids' rather special statuses were also a way of testing the waters against me, to test how I would react against such a challenge, and to see if I was still the same Yongye from back in the day.
"You all want to see Yongye? As you wish—I'll show him to you. Consequences? Hmm, what's that? Is it edible? This kid's granduncle is Andrei? What a joke. Since when would Andrei dare to act so arrogantly in front of me?"
I knew that this was both a test for me and an attempt to suppress me. If I acted weakly, there would be plenty of trouble for me in the future.
"I don't even need to investigate who's really supporting them. I'll just kill anyone who dares to antagonize me like this."
The next day when Thorn Garden opened, it was the worst day for its business ever since its reopening. After all, all the "dolls" hanging from the front door of the store along with the wooden signs underneath their feet announcing their crimes made most of the customers stop in fear and surprise.
Yet, there were customers who had opposite reactions. The older mages who had a huge amount of emblems on their chest were surprised for a moment, but were then pleasantly surprised that there wasn't a long line of customers that they had to wait through today. They happily smiled and entered the store, and even chatted amongst themselves in an amused fashion as they repeatedly pointed at the corpses.
"Oh, isn't that the youngster from Halin's family?"
"Ha, how pitiful. He became cannon fodder for somebody else?"
"There's even the young one from Andrei's family? Haha, there's going to be a good show to watch later."
"What good show are you talking about? Do you think that Andrei will dare to mess with Roland? Besides, is it worth risking his entire family's lives for the sake of a grandnephew that's who-knows-how-many generations removed from him? At the very most, he'll just say a few words of anger for the sake of saving face, nothing more."
When Cher returned to the police station in a state of confusion, she discovered that she had actually watched a vigilante execution take place. When she finally calmed down and began preparing to summon people in order to prevent something more troublesome from occurring, her boss, the old mage Charlie, stopped her.
"Don't worry about it. With how little strength we have, there's nothing we can do. When he gets angry, nobody can stop him."
This time, Cher was unable to remain silent anymore as she recalled Roland's icy gaze. She instinctively felt that Charlie was correct. Whatever Roland wanted, he was probably capable of doing it. Perhaps not a single person in the Cloud Tower would be able to stop him.
She faintly perceived that Roland who was always smiling had something analogous to a ruler in his heart. As long as one didn't tread on his bottom line, Roland would be able to maintain a thick skin and smile as he retrieved his underlings that always caused so much trouble. But the moment someone crossed the line against him, he would unhesitatingly kill that person even if that person was the emperor of some country.
"Just who is he? Why are you so afraid of him?"
She had already asked this question many times before. But now, Cher was no longer satisfied with just being waved off. If Charlie kept giving her an excuse to not answer, she was prepared to even go to the main Mystical Blade headquarters to ask all the leaders about Roland.
All the police mages sent inquisitive looks in Charlie's direction. Old Charlie maintained his silence for quite a while before he finally pulled out his smoking pipe and began puffing on it.
"... He's probably the most dangerous mage in the entire Cloud Tower. No, change that to the most dangerous mage in the entire world. There's no mistake. It's not convenient for me to say, but if you all go back to your homes and ask any elders in your families who are over one hundred years old, they should all know why nobody should pick a fight with that man."
"Archmage Andrei suddenly returned to the Cloud Tower and angrily stormed off, heading for Thorn Garden!"
This sudden piece of news sent the police station into a turmoil yet again. This time, old Charlie didn't stop the young police mages. However, by the time they hurriedly rushed over to Thorn Garden, they saw an inconceivable sight.
The SemiGod ranked archmage Andrei was actually being fiercely scolded by that young mage in front of Thorn Garden's doorstep, and Andrei was even lowering his head and apologizing.
As for me? The biggest trouble of today was just beginning. Scolding a junior of mine who I used to even be on good terms with for accidentally getting ensnared in a plot due to his foolish grandnephew was nothing. However, I, who had always ranked last in almost all my classes and failed so many as well, was actually supposed to become a teacher and teach a lesson later this afternoon.
That was a far greater challenge.
| ← Ch. 300 | Ch. 302 → |