A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 78 I've been waiting for you for a long time, kid.

Sabins sat in the discipline chief's office, a place he hadn't visited in a long time. Before him lay piles of documents; he used to be intolerant of such a situation, but now he was powerless to concern himself with the affairs of the college.

Click, click. Unconsciously, the man opened and closed the cap of his pen, staring blankly at the doorway.

Since the attacks on the palace and the Imperial Parliament building, Sabins hadn't slept well. To make matters worse, the attackers brazenly used a mass destruction spell in the Empire's capital.

Magic! Magic! Damn magic!

Despite lacking magical abilities, Sabins single-handedly established the Imperial Military's special forces defense apparatus, demonstrating his exceptional talent. Following a brutal secret operation, Lieutenant Colonel Sabins lost many of his comrades—the mages who killed them—never treating them as equals.

So he came to this magic academy as the discipline master, researching and attempting to tame these magic-wielding boys; so he advocated for a defensive force loyal to His Majesty the Emperor, protecting these lawless fellows. He did a great job; within the academy, Sabins was synonymous with terror, the continental defense agencies developed rapidly, and he actively recruited capable mages.

However, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse during this period.

On Sabins's desk, the result of combining prophecy with some kind of alchemical technology, lay a scene: on the day of the attack, enormous vines violently burst through the gates of the palace's outer courtyard and the council chamber, billowing thick smoke. The scene was colorless, but Sabins knew from the report that it was green poisonous gas; those who inhaled it would suffer ulcers at best, and paralysis and death at worst.

Who was the attacker? Nobody knows. What's worse, this gilded piece of paper that Rorschach would call a "photograph" was obtained by Sebins from His Majesty the Emperor, and in doing so, incurred His Majesty's wrath.

The attack was suspected to be a natural-type attack; the intelligence Sabins possessed came from the people he was waiting for today. However, the so-called "Return of the Mother" cult and those foolish nobles who colluded with them had already been purged, and the retrial was yielding no progress. Was it retaliation? Was it some kind of declaration?

He then thought of the Magic Guild. The Imperial branch and the Arcane Elders had been lukewarm in their cooperation with the investigation, and had only superficially cooperated with the spellcaster review bill passed amidst the senators' outrage. Knowing these arrogant and eccentric individuals, Isabins was certain they weren't as honest as they seemed; they were definitely up to something behind the scenes.

A knock sounded on the door, followed by the boy's voice. The person he was waiting for had finally arrived: "Is the Discipline Master here? I'm Rorschach."

"Enter."

Rorschach pushed open the door and entered. Rocket's return to the academy after advancing to intermediate mage put him in a great mood: "As a good student, this is my first time in your office. I heard you've been out for the past few days, so it's wonderful to run into you like this!"

Boss, you look much more haggard than I've seen in a while. The man behind the desk has dark circles under his eyes, making his bald head look even shinier.

"I'm here because you came to the capital. I received your entry report and rushed over."

"Sorry, sorry. I went to the guild to update the spellcaster information after I got here."

"You've advanced to intermediate spellcaster?" Sabins counted in his mind. This kid hasn't even graduated from the academy for half a year. Is it because the Imperial Magic Academy is good at teaching, or does the Tower of Stars have some secret formula?

"Yes, he had an epiphany after going out. Isn't that how monks are?"

Iron-blooded Muggle Sabins didn't care about such frivolous remarks, but if any other spellcasters overheard this nonsense, they would probably spit out blood.

"This is my report. Valuwana in the Holy Kingdom has been quite lively lately." Rorschach took out a stack of materials in a brown paper bag from his storage ring. Inside were details of his two contacts with the "Return of the Mother" cult on the road, how the magic guild made a fortune from the Starlight Torch Tower, how a desolate secondary plane was turned into a gold mine by financial geniuses, and a brief record of a group of social activists in Valuwana carrying out "small activities".

Sabins frowned as he took the document: "You should have written it after you entered the country. It's unsafe and unprofessional." There obviously wasn't enough time for Rorschach to write a long essay since landing here, so it was best to write it in the Holy Kingdom.

"Yes, yes. Did you find the manuscript on that leather armor?" Luo Xia guessed that the goods he delivered, apart from the three that were salvaged, should have been burned. No, the remaining three should have been destroyed by Brother Xiao and Brother Falcon.

"You want to know? Wilhelm van Leipzig's manuscripts."

"Viscount?"

"You know? His viscount title was self-proclaimed. I don't know the rest. The military's spellcaster unit has blocked all information about him." Sabins remembered that the man died of tuberculosis in his early years, and the documents he left behind were blocked by the military. He didn't care about that; he only cared about arresting the spies who stole the blocked information.

"My current supervisor's research uses one of his papers, about energy-magic transformation."

"I wouldn't understand even if you explained it to me. All I know is that the guys who leaked information from the military are in trouble because I was in charge of it."

Rorschach nodded and asked about the attack and the new bill.

"Here you go." A piece of paper was pushed from in front of the chief of staff to in front of Luo Xia and turned around.

A black and white photograph? Rorschach had never seen the original appearance of the Parliament Building's main entrance, and the black and white image of thick vines and poisonous gas was utterly abstract to him. "What is this?"

"The alchemical slips of paper you people concocted...you tell me what they say they contain: the scene of the Imperial Parliament building being attacked. What did you see?"

"What's your view on the 'Return of Our Lady' church?"

"The authorities think so too, but we've already arrested a number of these lunatics, including nobles. They were all in jail when the attack happened, so we couldn't find any clues. Because it involves high-ranking nobles, the authorities are also under a lot of pressure."

The new bill concerns the restriction and censorship of spellcasters. It passed by a large majority, His Majesty signed it, and the Magic Guild offered no protests. That's it.

"I told you to go bald, now you don't even have any hair to pull, right? The Magic Guild probably thinks it's just toilet paper."

"I agree with you on this point, but it's a necessary gesture to show the public His Majesty and the Imperial Diet their firm stance against you after the attack."

Alas, Emperor, alas, members of parliament. "It's as if we're the murderers."

Sabins dropped the subject; it would be a waste of time if he couldn't get relevant information from Rorschach, who had just returned: "What are the follow-up plans? You should have ten days of vacation."

"Twenty days. I'll go home first, and then organize a joint expedition to the Black Forest on behalf of the Tower of Stars and the Tower of Forest."

"Forest Tower, could you investigate Forest Tower while you're at it?" Sebins suddenly felt that the best thing he had done in the last six months was recruiting this country boy. Not only was he cheap, but he would also appreciate in value. Now he had provided a new opportunity to investigate the clues.

"You mean the Forest Tower is also a suspect?"

"It's not about any magic tower, but rather a suspicion about the people inside, since we've seen this." Sabins tapped the vines on the photograph.

"I understand, but I can't guarantee there will be any leads."

"It's good enough to have this opportunity to investigate." Sabins' organization has grown rapidly over the years, but it still can't get to the Magic Guild or the Thirteen Magic Towers. The very name "Defense Agency" reveals the organization's weakness. If they could really get the Forest Tower to cooperate with the investigation, wouldn't it be simpler to just set up "Spellcaster and Supernatural Power Management Bureau"?

After saying all that, Luo Xia revealed one last thing: "Chief of the Organization, you're really a bit ruthless working for the Holy Kingdom."

He tossed out a bag of gold coins—Rorschach, who was now quite wealthy, had never used the money issued by the Pacharuca Trading Company, thus preserving the "evidence" intact.

"He gave me as much as I could get. As for why it was only a one-month supply, the trading company executive told me before I left that it had been converted into share capital—even though I didn't sign a single word or see a single ownership certificate."

(End of this chapter)