Mage? Magic Engineer!-Chapter 39 - 36: Arson at the Chamber of Commerce Building
"Rorschach Mage, Rorschach Mage, your beloved mentor, Chief Professor Kano, summons you to his office!"
"Rorschach Mage, Rorschach Mage..."
The young man’s face twisted, and everyone else in the tower’s dining hall was looking at him.
HOT, HOT, HOT! In his haste to finish eating, he had successfully burned his tongue on the soup.
The moment he finished eating, Rorschach fled the dining hall. He felt like he had been the center of attention far too often since coming to Valuva. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦
"Is there a way to contact me without using the broadcast system?" This was the first thing Rorschach said to Kano.
The slightly plump Master had a look of pure innocence on his face. "It was so hard for me to become Chief Professor. Of course I’m going to use the tower-wide broadcast authority I gave myself."
’This childish old man...’ Rorschach was furious.
Perhaps sensing the young man’s simmering indignation, Kano made a concession. "I’ll give you a new card. When it heats up, look at the back. It’ll show my location, which means I’m looking for you."
He took out a silver-gray metal plate, far more exquisite than the previous card. "These are very difficult to make. I don’t just give them to anyone, you know."
"Oh, thank you so much! By the way, what did you need me for?" Rorschach found a chair and sat down. ’As expected of the Chief Professor’s office,’ he thought, ’even a random chair is incredibly comfortable.’
"On the very first day of classes, you beat up the second son of the most prominent family in Valois." Kano’s expression was complicated, his emotions impossible to read.
"Isn’t the royal family the most prominent?"
Kano finally broke into a smile. "Duke Melovinca is a blood relative of the King."
’Alright, so I just kicked a hornet’s nest,’ he thought. ’No big deal.’
"Master, please understand. First, he provoked me and initiated the duel. Second, I didn’t use my fists, I only used Magic to incapacitate him. Third, the injuries he sustained were from falling down on his own. Everyone saw it."
"Alright, alright, I’m not here to reprimand you. To be honest, a Mage from the Empire like you really doesn’t need to be intimidated by some Duke or Count."
Then, Kano grew serious. "Philippe went to the infirmary. We discovered he’s in an abnormally agitated state. It’s unclear if it was induced by herbs or some kind of mental Magic."
"No wonder he was acting so foolishly during the second class," Rorschach said, also frowning. "If he continues to be this reckless, I can only worry about whether he’ll even be able to graduate."
"Someone is instigating things between you two. It’s unclear if they’re targeting you as an outsider or targeting the ever-arrogant Philippe. In any case, you need to be careful."
Rorschach recalled that someone in the crowd had been chiming in, constantly fanning the flames. ’Were they targeting me, or were they using me to get to Philippe?’
Rorschach briefly recounted what had happened to Kano.
"Thank you for the warning."
"Sigh... anyway, try not to get into any brawls while you’re here. I’ll give you a little something... an intangible perk."
"Huh?"
"The authority to deduct points! Normally, substitute teachers don’t have it, but hey, your mentor just happens to be the Chief Professor, right?" Kano said smugly, magically pulling a box of candy from a cabinet and starting to eat.
According to Kano’s explanation, Apprentices had two types of points. The first was academic points, earned through classes and examinations. Only by accumulating enough of these could an Apprentice apply for the Mage assessment.
The second was the very important disciplinary points. All teachers had the authority to deduct these points for poor student conduct.
"However, a teacher can only deduct a maximum of five points from any single student per year, and they can rescind the deduction within ten days. If an Apprentice loses a total of twelve points, they’re expelled. The points reset every year."
In other words, no single teacher could get an Apprentice expelled directly. That would require a formal disciplinary action, where the Dean of Education would decide how many points to deduct—and there was no limit to the points deducted by the Dean.
Kano led Rorschach to a small room on the third floor. Before they could enter, he had to undo five seals and open a heavy iron door.
Inside were rows upon rows of Pocket Watches, fixed to shelves, so neatly arranged and numerous they were impossible to count. Each watch had only a single hand and a nameplate beneath it. As Rorschach walked further in, he saw a familiar name: "Pascal Ely."
"Any teacher with the authority—which now includes you—can just state a student’s full name and the number of points to deduct, and the Tower Spirit will record it in this room. When someone’s points are about to run out, the Tower Spirit notifies the Dean of Education."
They ventured carefully deeper into the forest of watches. "As for why there are so many protections and seals... one year, some audacious fellow blew this room to bits, forcing that year’s disciplinary points to be reset ahead of schedule."
"The infuriating part is, he was proficient in the Defense System and Prophetic Spells, so the Tower Spirit somehow failed to record who did it."
Kano lowered his voice. "Truthfully, there are only one or two Apprentices with that level of skill. But we don’t want to expel someone who is both audacious and capable. That’s what being a Mage is all about, right?"
’So you just reinforced this room instead, huh?’ Rorschach found the Pocket Watch for "Philippe de Melovinca."
The hand pointed to 8 o’clock.
’He’s in execute range.’ Rorschach quickly banished the thought. ’I’m a teacher, after all. How can I target my own student like this? Wouldn’t that just make me a power-tripping admin?’
Composing himself, Rorschach followed the Great Mage out of the heavily fortified room.
...
The Lowe Commerce Association headquarters in Valuva was magnificent. Not only was it covered in gilded decorations, but the retro-style building, designed in the fashion of the Old Empire, was a full story taller than the buildings on either side.
Across the street was an inn, and in a guest room on the fourth floor, Brother Xiao and Brother Jun were at work. On the table lay several crude blueprints of an interior, marked with charcoal sketches and notes—blueprints of the Lowe Commerce Association headquarters.
"Ascertain... contents... dest... roy... leather goods?"
A Scroll spread open on the bed still glowed with a residual Spiritual Light. Forest Patrol Falcon opened the small, teleported tube and deciphered the encrypted directive.
Night Owl rolled up the Scroll. "He couldn’t have said so sooner! It’s been days!"
"What if we apply for a job? Can you still do an out-of-province accent?"
Brother Jun pulled out two forged documents, which identified them as upstanding citizens of the Holy Kingdom.
"Too sudden, too risky." Night Owl unscrewed a section of his walking cane, revealing it to be a monocular Telescope.
He observed the association’s entrance, musing, "Let’s work from the outside. We could try posing as street cleaners for this block..."
Just then, a young man wearing simple trousers walked into his Telescope’s field of view, approaching the main gate. His attire was far shabbier than that of the others entering and exiting the building, and he carried a pack on his back.
The young man was stopped by the guards, and the two spoke and gestured for a moment. The man opened his pack to show them its contents, and a guard then led him to a side door and let him inside.
BOOM!
"By the boss’s bald head! What’s happening?!"
The target of their stakeout was now billowing thick smoke. Guards and a few people from inside stumbled out, wreathed in it, while others cried for help from the upper floors. Flames were visible through the association’s windows, and they were growing more intense by the second.
"Seriously, this is our chance," Brother Xiao said, pulling out the layout for the basement level—where the storeroom was located.
"Are you trying to die? Want to end up as a Valuvan roast pig?"
Night Owl hesitated for a moment, then pulled two Scrolls from inside his coat. "Elemental Resistance..."
Forest Patrol Falcon’s eyes went wide. "You had something this good!"
"They’re expensive! Very, very expensive!" Brother Xiao said, his voice laced with the pain of the expense. "We’re out of time. Let’s go in through the side door now."
The two hurried downstairs. As they passed the janitor’s closet, they saw its door was wide open, revealing a dark brown leather Cloak inside.
