Fanatics of the Magic Academy

Chapter 100 The Court of Reason

Rose walked down the street, head down, lost in thought.

However, a strange sensation suddenly crept up the back of his neck; it was the sensation brought about by his heightened senses due to his heightened rationality.

An inexplicable, instinctive alertness.

Without hesitation, he chanted "Perception Enhancement," and the surrounding world instantly flooded into his mind, forming a three-dimensional image in Rose's brain.

Rose immediately noticed the source of the anomaly: a man wearing a hat, jacket, and sunglasses was secretly watching Rose from a secluded spot.

Rose observed his waist, where the outline of the holster was clearly visible.

First of all, the other party's attire clearly didn't belong to a gang, and they also didn't seem like police officers.

Rose's nerves tensed abruptly, and the chanting of "Bombardment" was already quietly prepared in his mind.

His senses locked onto the figure; though the figure's steps appeared unchanged, the muscles throughout his body were already taut like a bowstring.

The man in the jacket observed for a moment, then pulled a gun from his waist, raised it above his head, and pointed it at the sky. Rose judged this to be a signal flare. He then drew another gun from his waist, stepped out from behind the wall, pointed the gun directly at Rose, and roared, "No..."

"

Before he could finish speaking, three [bombardments] were unleashed in succession.

Three air blasts, invisible to the naked eye, hurtled toward the target with astonishing precision. The first blast shattered the gun pointed at Rose, the second destroyed the flare gun aimed at the sky, and the third blasted him away, his back slamming heavily against the wall, cracking the bricks.

At the same time, Rose took out the small knife he always kept at hand from his pocket, and the chants of "Transform into Cloud Form" and "Storm Blade" followed immediately.

An unseen wind swirled around Rose's body, and sharp wind blades wrapped around the dagger in Rose's hand.

In the next instant, [Transform into Cloud Form] turned his figure into a blurry afterimage, and he was already in front of the jacket-wearing man in an instant.

The man in the jacket felt a gust of fierce wind hit him in the face. Instinctively, he pulled out an ID card from his pocket, held it above his head, and said in a trembling voice, "Magician, this is a misunderstanding..."

'

Before he could finish speaking, and even before he could pull out his ID and hold it above his head, Rose had already brought down the knife.

The dagger, wrapped with wind blades, pierced his arm as easily as cutting tofu, severing it at the root.

"ah!!!"

He clutched his severed arm and let out a painful scream.

Rose subtly adjusted the wind swirling around his body, gathering it at the soles of his feet before stomping on his face.

His foot hovered two centimeters above his skin, but the high-pressure wind within it twisted his face, clenched his teeth, and even stifled his screams.

Rose stepped on him, bent down and picked up the document from the ground. The document was covered with a black leather cover and read: "Court of Reason".

Below the words "Court of Reason" is written: "Flames purify the body, reason judges the soul."

The label also reads: "The rational order must not be defiled by foolish faith."

Based on some historical information and data he had previously gathered, Rossai roughly determined that this was an organization specifically targeting believers and deities.

Rose suddenly remembered that on his first day in the slums, three people had tried to kidnap him.

When Rose revealed his identity as a believer, one of them excitedly shouted that he would capture him alive, and even said that a believer was worth a full 2000 marks.

This suggests that the Magic Federation has an agency for arresting and reporting believers, which is very likely the current Court of Reason.

He then opened his ID, which showed a headshot of the man in front of him and his name: "Ethan".

Rose frowned slightly, thought for a moment, then dissipated the wind pressure under her feet, stomped on his face, and ground her foot twice before saying, "Tell me, what happened? Logically, even if I committed a crime, it shouldn't be your business. It should be the 'Management Bureau' that's here."

Although Rose doesn't even know the full name of the Bureau, that doesn't stop her from mimicking the group of mages she observed at the gathering.

Despite the excruciating pain, Ethan said, "I'm so sorry to have disturbed your enjoyment; I mistook you for someone else!"

Rosena's youthful face showed dissatisfaction with his answer, and she said, "You mistook me for someone else...?"

Then, the wind pressure, which had transformed into cloud shape, began to gather again beneath his feet, pressing heavily onto his face.

Rose knew that his true identity might not have been exposed yet, otherwise the person who came would not be the one in front of him.

But that didn't stop Rose from probing for intelligence.

Ethan quickly added, "Yes! Do you remember? A six-year-old cult member ran away from the nearby observation point a few days ago!"

Rose nodded without hesitation, "That's true. But didn't the authorities say they've already caught him?"

Ethan quickly said, "That was just a scapegoat the authorities found under pressure; they didn't actually find one. This gentleman..."

Ethan considered for a moment and continued, "This magician, you also know about the 'Castration of Gods Plan,' right? In order to sweep the gods into the dust of history, the Magic Federation imprisoned all the gods and severed the supernatural foundation of believers. The appearance of that cultist means that there is still an unknown god, which is something that the people above cannot tolerate."

So even though the case was closed and a scapegoat was found, the search for that cult member did not stop in secret.

They simply withdrew the bounty, causing the civilian bounty hunters to stop, but our tribunal has been secretly searching for them, determined to find them alive or dead.

Although most people believe that the cultist died somewhere after making a deal with the evil god, and that the alienation of the deceased believer's body would dissipate and he would return to his original human form, perhaps the body was already picked up by some homeless person, dismembered, or sold whole.

There's nowhere to look for it!

However, I think it's different for me. I believe that cult member might have used some means to conceal his identity. I've looked at the information, and the cult member's physical changes might be minor, possibly limited to his eyes. Of course, it's also possible that the physical changes weren't as prominent as his eyes, causing witnesses to subconsciously overlook them. If my guess is correct, as long as he concealed his eyes, that cult member could likely survive in the slums. And that's how I saw you. Your build and age were similar to that cult member's, and the location you appeared in was quite coincidental..."

Rose chuckled in exasperation and said, "So you suspect I'm a fucking cultist?!"

Rose lifted her foot, grabbed his collar, stared straight at him, and said, "Come on, see if I'm wearing any blindfolds?! Are you fucking blind?!"

Ethan trembled, avoiding Rose's eyes, and said, "I...I'm sorry, magician, it was my oversight, it was my oversight...As someone who has been through this, Ethan already knew before coming that magicians in the slums are generally a level more monstrous than those in normal areas. After all, they are a group of people who have been abandoned by society and are on the verge of death, so it's not surprising that they do anything. Their mental stability is generally very poor, and the way Rose behaved was similar to the slum magician group in the information he had read before."

As for the idea that Rose is actually a believer who can use magic, no one would believe such a shocking idea.

Because it takes a long time for a mage to master a spell and raise their sanity to the corresponding level, it is definitely not something that can be achieved in just over a month.

In the blink of an eye, Rose had already demonstrated three first-level spells, spells that would take a normal mage two or three months to learn.

He had already determined that Rose was not the cultist the moment he saw Rose cast her first spell.

Not to mention that his ability to anticipate Ethan's appearance means that Rose also possesses a second-circle perception spell, which further confirms Ethan's thoughts.

He had previously tested Rose because if Rose was a cultist and displayed the methods of a believer, it would mean he had gambled correctly, and he could immediately fire the flare gun, all he needed to do was drag his nearby colleagues over.

If not, taking away a healthy child under the pretext of suspected cult members and then selling him for money would be a considerable profit.

Even if the child's parents come, they can be easily dismissed by the tiger skin of the "arbitration court" and accused of trying to protect believers.

He never expected it to be a magician's peculiar hobby; he'd run into a tough opponent.

Rose slammed him to the ground, cursing, "Fuck! What a damn bad luck, it ruined my whole day."

Ethan lay on the ground whimpering in pain. After a long while, seeing that Rose was completely gone, he scrambled to his feet, cursing, "Damn it! What a load of crap! How old is he, still acting like a kid! I really don't understand people like that. Can't he just be a normal human being?"

He picked up his severed arm from the ground, salvaged the shattered wreckage of his pistol and flare gun, and then cursed, "Damn, repairing this arm will cost a fortune, sigh..."

Afterwards, dejectedly carrying his severed limb, he left the place with a limp.

Rose continued walking down the street, cursing and swearing.

After a while, Rose returned to normal.

Rose realized that he could skip buying materials and equipment, but at least for now, he couldn't stay in the slums any longer; moving was imminent.