A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 45 The Last Graduate of the Hermitage

"Let's go." Rorschach wanted to leave quickly. Pascal grabbed Paulina and ran away as fast as he could.

Grasping at this lifeline, Varang tried to shout, "My friend! He is Fa!" But then he felt his mouth being firmly covered, and he could no longer utter a word.

This gambling addict, knowing I'm a mage, still wants to cling to me. Rorschach didn't waste any words, and used [Mage's Hand] to deal with it.

The crowd of onlookers gathered again. "Where did all these idlers come from?" Rorschach didn't know that the casinos in Valuwana were like fresh meat attracting flies; those who had squandered their money and possessions would blindly waste their lives nearby.

"How much has Varang made since his sudden stroke of luck?"

"This guy saved Valon at noon!"

"Did this guy teach Varang a move?"

Unexpectedly, the young man was a celebrity in the casino. He was once a noble young master who had a glorious past when he first entered the place. Unfortunately, after his father died and his family went bankrupt, his "hobby" drove him to attempt suicide by jumping into the river. After surviving the jump, everyone suddenly discovered that his luck had become unstoppable. Starting from the self-service table with two copper coins, he snowballed his winnings to hundreds of gold coins in just one afternoon.

After the others finished speaking, two of the burly men who had been holding down Valon also stepped aside and walked towards Rorschach. Just as Rorschach hesitated about whether to cast a spell in public, an elderly man in a black priest's robe grabbed him without warning, and the others made way for him. Rorschach was led into an adjacent building.

"It's a church?" Rorschach was astonished to see the emblem of the god of light and order. It was not visible from the outside at all, and the doors and windows were tightly closed this morning.

Inside is a hall beneath the holy emblem, simply furnished with three rows and two columns of chairs, with bookshelves on both sides. The ceiling is painted with believers and angels bathed in light.

"It's not a church, children, it's a monastery." The old man corrected them and gestured for them to sit down. "It's where I and other priests study, live, and practice. It's not open to the public. I invited you here because you've run into trouble."

"A monastery built next to a casino?"

"The casino is located next to the monastery." The old man smiled helplessly. "Ignorance is no excuse, and I quite like it this way. The casino is full of order."

"It's all about probability games."

"But we are bound by the order of light and darkness. Under the light of the Lord, we are all rolling the dice of fate, and whether it is a good or bad die, the Lord's order determines it. The casino's henchmen are far inferior to the paladins, but they are all maintainers of order."

Rorschach was deeply shocked by this blasphemous comparison: "But casinos seem to be in a terrible state. That Varon guy seemed to have won too much money and refused to pay it out. Wasn't that a violation of the casino's rules?"

"Heh, making money for its boss and His Majesty the King, that's the biggest order in that place. And they'll question whether Varon, suddenly invincible, won money through unfair tricks and violated the rules first. This also constantly reminds us that not all order means brightness and justice."

"Don't even mention it, Father. Even the mages think your theory is flawed, and no monks would come here to cultivate." The man who had been sitting in the first row with his back to the newcomer stood up, leaning on his cane, and limped over with each step he took.

"Your Majesty the Bishop."

"Just call me Deplesie as always, Father." His hawk-like eyes swept over Rorschach, a flash of golden light appearing in his pupils. "What did you bring in? A mage, and an Imperial one at that."

Just when he thought the other party was about to cause trouble, he unexpectedly extended his hand to Rorschach: "I am Archbishop Deplesi of St. Miller's Church."

Rorschach shook hands with Deplesi, whose hand was unusually cold. Rorschach still didn't know what the bishop of this church meant to the kingdom. The man's tone and gaze annoyed Rorschach; that was the aura he exuded.

"Rorschach, the mage of the Tower of Stars."

"Seeing you become a mage at such a young age, are you thinking of gambling away your salary at the casino after you get paid from the tower, huh?" Before he could retort, the bishop continued, "Don't look at me like that. Okay, you're a decent young man. Aren't you wondering how I knew you were from the Empire?"

He tapped Rorschach's feet with his cane: "You have both a mountain accent and the intonation of the capital. It's said that your emperor likes to scout out talented children from the countryside and train them. Here in Valuwana, most of the fools, upon hearing your accent, will arrogantly assume you're country bumpkins from the provinces. That's exactly what they are."

The next question caught Rorschach off guard: "How did you get here? By airship?"

"We took on the job of escorting a caravan, and we traveled by land."

"Interesting. And then there are the thankless mages; I'm starting to suspect you're a spy." The archbishop chuckled and continued, "Did you encounter any paladins harassing the caravan when entering the city? Was the entry tax the six percent stipulated by kingdom law?"

He then asked the officials at the checkpoint if they were "gluttonous" and whether the road to the capital was easy to travel.

Rorschach answered the questions with great surprise; the questioner seemed less like a high-ranking clergyman and more like a benevolent ruler.

"That's enough, it's almost time. The busybodies outside should have left. Father, please take this uninvited guest out the back door." After saying that, he took out a small notebook and an exceptionally fine charcoal pencil from his robe and began to write something down.

"No offense intended, are all bishops of the God of Order like this?" Before leaving, Rorschach couldn't help but ask the priest.

The priest glanced back at the man sitting in the hall and smiled. "Here, he is my student, the last graduate of the monastery. Go out through this door, he is the bishop of St. Miller's Cathedral, and Cardinal Deplesie of the Holy Kingdom. Alright, child, you don't belong here. Go."

A royal carriage bearing the insignia of the palace was parked prominently in the backyard, and the coachman had been waiting for the cardinal for quite some time.

Necker Jean, hailed as Valois’s most distinguished banker, is currently riding high on his success.

His Majesty the King heeded the advice of the chief of guards, appointing "the wealthiest and most decisive man to manage His Majesty's treasury, the kingdom's coffers," and the one to receive this lavish praise was none other than this young man, still sporting a full head of hair. Necker was to become the Royal Treasurer!

Necker had just met with the cardinal, this eccentric fellow who insisted on having his first meeting with him far from the financial district and the palace, in an even stranger monastery next to a casino.

The banker convinced the Prime Minister with an ambitious plan, or at least that's what he thought. But he had one more powerful remedy to hide, known only to His Majesty. "Your Majesty, you no longer need to be manipulated by the Papacy and the Magic Guild!" Instead, you should be governed by money!

Thinking of this, Necker smiled. He was already in the carriage when he saw the commotion at the casino entrance.

The poor young man was being brutally beaten. He asked the people around him and learned that he was an unlucky kid, and unlike what he had imagined, he was not in debt, but had won too much and the casino had turned against him.

"Valon?" It was a young man he knew.

"Sir? You know me?" A new lifeline appeared, and Varon crawled from under the fist to the feet of the exquisitely dressed man: "Help the poor soul! Help me!"

The afternoon classes aren't easy, so I won't be able to write. The evening chapter will be updated at 8 PM. Sorry (:>)|￣|＿

(End of this chapter)