I made up magic and taught a world-destroying witch?

Chapter 84 Believers, Starting with Hitting Someone

As it turns out, one shouldn't have overly naive expectations of the world in a place where the security situation seems quite flexible.

Mia walked ahead, arm in arm with Grace, her eyes sparkling as she looked around. The main floating bridge was even more bustling than it appeared from afar, with all sorts of stalls lining both sides. Some sold grilled fish cakes, others old ship nails, and a few vendors displayed piles of things that looked like they'd been salvaged from an underwater garbage dump, making them look like treasures.

Grace was a little reserved at first, but after Mia took her to look at a few stalls, she gradually became more curious.

Joseph followed behind them. The main pontoon bridge was indeed wider than he had imagined, but it was still pieced together from old ship planks and various pieces of wood salvaged from who-knows-where. With so many people, the bridge creaked and groaned underfoot from time to time.

The sound made it hard not to wonder if one was participating in a local lottery event in Yachao Bay, where the prize was falling into the mudflats.

Just as Joseph was about to remind Mia not to get too close to the edge of the pontoon bridge, a figure suddenly bumped into him from the crowd.

Joseph: "?" No, not again?

He instinctively reached out and pressed his hand against his coat to check if his wallet was missing. This time, his defensive strategy was very successful; at least he wasn't robbed twice in the same way.

Joseph had just breathed a sigh of relief when he found something being stuffed into his hand. Looking down, he saw it was a small bag wrapped in dark oilcloth.

The person who bumped into him was a young man of about seventeen or eighteen years old. His face was red from the sun, his hair was messed up by the sea breeze, and he was wearing an old, faded coat.

"Professor! We will definitely follow you!"

  

Joseph: "————What?"

"Those old masters of magic can no longer prove themselves!" the young man said, growing more and more agitated. "From today onward, we will spread true magic for you!"

Joseph: "————Huh?"

He seemed to understand every single word, but the way they were put together was so frightening. Before spreading this, couldn't you at least ask the person being spread about it if they knew about it?

"Please believe me, we are not just people who shout slogans; we will take action!"

"No, wait a minute," Joseph immediately interjected, "Who are you—"

The young man clearly didn't give Joseph a chance to ask questions. After speaking, he turned and disappeared into the crowd, vanishing in a few swift movements like a fish familiar with the current.

Joseph stood there, still holding the oilcloth bag, momentarily unsure whether to be shocked or call the police first.

No, this doesn't seem like the place to call the police; we should be calling the patrol team.

But that's not right either. If this thing is really related to him without his knowledge, wouldn't him reporting himself to the patrol team be the same as reporting himself?

For example, if you tell them that he is a professor at the Royal Academy and that a young man who seems mentally unstable just claimed to be spreading real magic to him and even put a small bag of unknown origin in his hand, should he be considered a victim or a suspect?

"Sir?" Mia's voice came from the front.

Joseph looked up and saw that Mia and Grace had stopped and were both looking back at him.

Mia first looked at the oilcloth bag in his hand, then at the direction the young man had disappeared in, and a hint of hesitation appeared on her face.

"Sir, do you know Carl?"

Joseph: "Who?"

Mia blinked: "Karl, it's that guy from earlier."

Joseph looked at her, his expression genuinely blank for a moment. Mia seemed to finally realize that he truly didn't recognize her, and the confusion on her face became even more pronounced.

"It was that guy who laughed at me at my family's blacksmith shop," she whispered. "Does the gentleman remember? He was like Joseph: ————"

He remembered that on the day Mia first truly comprehended the furnace light, there were indeed a few young people around the blacksmith shop who were eager to watch the excitement. However, he didn't have a deep impression of that person's face, since at the time his attention was entirely focused on how to package Mia's breakthrough, which seemed like an accident, as a teaching achievement.

The problem is that he didn't have any worthwhile contact with that Karl.

Why would someone who once mocked Mia suddenly come to Crow Tide Bay, bump into him, and then say with a fanatical expression that he wants to follow him?

What happened in between that he didn't know about?

Grace also looked at Mia: "Why is he here?"

"I don't know either." Mia shook her head. "He should still be working near the blacksmith's shop—why would he be looking for the master?"

At this point, Mia's gaze fell again on the oilcloth bundle in Joseph's hand, and she asked, "Sir, what did he give you?"

"have no idea."

Grace frowned slightly. "Should we open it now?"

Joseph looked down at the oilcloth bag, his reason telling him that it was best not to open something of dubious origin on the street.

Especially in a place like Yachao Bay, who knows what might be inside?

Just then, a gruff voice suddenly came from behind, yelling, "Hey! Are you guys coming or not? If you want to date, go do it on the side, don't block the main pontoon bridge!"

Mia: "!"

Grace: "————"

Joseph: "————"

Joseph turned around and saw a burly man pushing a cart full of wet fishing nets looking at them with displeasure, water still dripping from the sides of the cart.

"The main pontoon bridge is only this wide. Are you standing in the middle expecting the tide to wash you away?"

Joseph decided to postpone discussing whether he and the big man pushing a wet fishing net were actually dating, and he didn't want to dismantle the oilcloth bag on the main pontoon bridge, which didn't look very safe at all.

"Let's go back first." Joseph tucked the oilcloth bundle inside his coat. The three of them quickly returned to the floating cabin. Joseph deliberately chose the chair next to the table in his room and sat down. He also opened the window slightly to make sure that if the thing suddenly started smoking, there would at least be a chance to throw it into the sea.

Of course, this is only the worst-case scenario. A mature archmage should remain calm, cautious, and have basic escape routes when facing unknown objects.

Joseph placed the oilcloth bundle on the table and examined it carefully. The oilcloth had no obvious runes, and the knots were tied very simply. It did look like something that a poor student or a young dockworker had casually wrapped up.

Joseph then reached out and untied the thin rope, opening the oilcloth to reveal a black crystal slightly larger than a thumb, with faint, water-like patterns around it. When the sunlight streamed in through the window, those patterns seemed to tremble slightly, like an eye slowly opening in deep water.

Mia was stunned at first: "A gem?"