The most shameless alchemist in history

"Let me go, let me go right now! This is a misunderstanding, it's absolutely just a misunderstanding!" the man said with a mournful face.

"We'll find out in a bit whether it's a misunderstanding or not." Du Lei wasn't buying it.

Just then, an army surged over from not far away. They were quite numerous, all of them young and strong guards, all carrying weapons.

"Where are they? Where are all those troublemakers?" the leading officer shouted. He was known for his volatile temper and was notoriously difficult to deal with in Frost City.

“Leopard Tail, what brings you here?” Dure recognized the officer and asked him.

"Why can't I come? I heard that someone is trying to mess with you, taking advantage of the fact that the main force of your inspection team is not here, and they want to surround the inspection department. After receiving the news, I rushed over immediately, and I also brought my newly trained soldiers with me. This is a good opportunity to conduct a live-fire exercise."

Leopard Tail rolled up his sleeves as he spoke.

"Alright, these are all minor matters, there's no need for any real-world drills." Du Lei waved his hand.

He and Hyo-Tail are old acquaintances. Nine years ago, when Winry was sent as an envoy to the Mountain Kingdom, he and Hyo-Tail were both members of the guard.

"How can this be a small matter, Du Lei? Now you are the Inspector General. Anyone who dares to surround you is openly defying the laws of the Snow Kingdom. Watch how I deal with those who disrespect the law," Leopard Tail said viciously.

“Alright, that ruthless side is for dealing with the enemy, not for dealing with your own people. You just came back from the front lines, right? How's the situation outside now?” Du Lei patted his shoulder and immediately asked.

“You know I just got back to Frost City and haven’t even had a sip of water yet. I heard you’re in trouble, so why don’t you treat me to a meal? We can talk while we eat,” Leopard Tail chuckled.

"Alright, what do you want to eat today? It's on me. I'll also invite Uncle Kotetsu and Ape Arm." Du Lei thought for a moment and readily agreed.

This is a long-awaited meeting.

()

833 Temporary part-time job

In Frost City, several large-scale demonstrations against the Inspectorate, especially against the newly appointed Inspector General Dure, were all suppressed by Dure. He did not compromise because of these gatherings and disturbances. After strict investigation, nearly half of the officials were convicted and imprisoned.

This tough stance made the officials in the capital uneasy, because they all knew that Lord Dure had not risen to his position through his relationship with Winry and Liana; he was a ruthless character, and for a time no one dared to provoke him.

There were some bold ones, the family members of those convicted officials. When all their efforts to persuade them failed, they decided to take a risk and send assassins to kill Du Lei. They thought that once the inspector general was dead, a new one would be more cautious and wouldn't dare to suppress them.

However, after sending more than a dozen waves of assassins, none of them returned. Later, rumors spread that the Chief Inspector had recently tested his strength at the Magic Power Association branch in Winter City, demonstrating the power of a six-star Dou-rank, which shocked the nobles of the capital.

Even in a military superpower like the Land of Snow, the highest combat strength is only at the level of a two-star king like Restia.

A country already has only a handful of experts with the strength to fight at the highest level.

These people were either kept by various families or were military personnel.

However, it is absolutely unbelievable that a civil official like Du Lei possesses such formidable personal martial prowess.

To deal with such a master, sending out those assassins wouldn't even be enough to fill their teeth!

Two weeks later, things finally calmed down in the capital, since no one dared to provoke that formidable Inspector General.

After a period of rectification, the atmosphere in the capital was finally cleaned up. Officials who used to frequently gather now stayed at home, afraid that the chief inspector would find something to use against them and summon them to the Ministry of Supervision for questioning. Even things that were originally nothing would be questioned into something.

"Chief Inspector, these are today's documents." Inside the Chief Inspector's office, a young secretary brought over the documents that needed to be processed that day.

"Is there anything in particular that needs to be dealt with?" Dure asked as the Inspector General.

"It's nothing special, just routine work. After all, you've already resolved the thorny issues recently, and now the atmosphere in the capital has been completely transformed. No one dares to cause trouble, and everyone is praising your skill as Chief Inspector!" the secretary replied.

"I'm afraid they're not saying I'm shrewd, but rather that I'm cold-blooded and ruthless, and that countless people want me dead?" Du Lei knew that her words had been filtered, and he was fully aware of how the outside world viewed him.

"Well... that seems to be true. As expected, nothing can be hidden from you, Chief Inspector." The secretary thought for a moment and nodded seriously.

“Since there’s nothing particularly urgent to handle, you can take care of these documents.” Du Lei thought for a moment and then pushed the documents to her.

"Huh? You're going to let me handle this?" She was taken aback, momentarily at a loss.

"What's wrong, Miss Kaya?" Dure asked her.

“I’m just a newbie, I lack experience…” the secretary named Kaya said hesitantly.

“That’s no excuse. You’ve done a great job these days, and I believe you’re fully capable of handling these documents.” Dure had a lot of confidence in her.

"But the work that originally belonged to you, Chief Inspector, has been given to me. What about you, sir?" Kaya thought for a moment and asked hesitantly.

"Me? I only took this position part-time, to help a friend keep things under control. Now that the major issues are mostly resolved, all I need to do is hold this sinecure, play the villain, and keep those restless guys in check. When the time is right, I'll step down from this position. Right now, I have other things to do," Du Lei said after thinking for a moment.

His words were not wrong. When he returned to Frost City, the situation was chaotic, and even Winry had been assassinated multiple times.

He chose to become the inspector general in order to help Winnie stabilize the situation, and for the past two weeks, his daily schedule has been filled with work.

Now that most things are settled, he can finally relax.

"What exactly is it that you, Chief Inspector, are going to do..." Kaya was curious, but at the same time, she was a little unsure.

Without him overseeing the department, she had no confidence that the work could proceed smoothly.

"I won't tell you that, but if you have any problems you can't solve, come find me at Frost University. I'll be going now." Du Lei smiled and immediately packed his things to leave.

He simply cannot do things like obediently waiting in the office to leave work.

"Frost University?" Kaya was stunned. She wanted to ask something more, but by then Du Lei had already walked away. Through the window, she could see him disappear into the Department of Supervision building in a flash.

"What a capricious adult," Kaya sighed. Since Lord Dure had given the instructions, she had no choice but to pick up the documents and deal with them.

Frost University is the premier institution of learning in the Land of Snow. Its predecessor was the Frost Academy of Frost City.

Frost Academy is a noble academy, with most of its students being former nobles, born into wealth and high status. It boasts the best conditions and the best teachers, and all graduates of Frost Academy can secure key positions in the Snow Kingdom.

Take the financial sector in the Snow Kingdom as an example: 80% of the financial tycoons graduated from the Frost Academy.

As for generals in the military, the proportion is around 70%.

This demonstrates the status of the Frost Academy in the Snow Kingdom.

It can be said that the Frost Academy in the North and the Maple Leaf Academy in the South are mutually reinforcing.

However, as a traditional aristocratic academy, Frost Academy has not only cultivated many outstanding students, but also has many shortcomings.

One reason is that the academy has high entry requirements, making it inaccessible to commoners. Another reason is that the students are all nobles, each with powerful families supporting them, resulting in an overly bureaucratic atmosphere.

Winry, a graduate of the Frost Academy herself, deeply felt the flaws of the academy, which is why she was determined to carry out sweeping reforms.

She changed Frost Academy to Frost University, transforming it into a comprehensive school.

And the students are no longer limited to nobles; ordinary people, and even people from other countries, can enroll.

()

834 Same name and surname

After traveling across the continent, Wenli felt that times were changing and that the Snow Kingdom was in dire need of talent. That's why she offered very favorable conditions, posted advertisements throughout the continent to attract young people to study at Frost University, and invited a large number of scholars to teach at Frost University.

She hopes to attract talent in this way. Although a considerable number of students from Frost University will return to their own countries after graduation, some will choose to work in the Land of Snow. Furthermore, once Frost University's reputation is established, it will also benefit the improvement of education in the Land of Snow.

As a result, Frost University has flourished, attracting hundreds of students from all over mainland China.

Roselle and Freya came to the Snow Country from the Southern Free Federation.

Although they encountered some setbacks when they arrived in Frost City, which dampened Roselle's enthusiasm at one point.

Fortunately, the matter was resolved properly, and Rosell still believes that the future is bright.

"Dure, Dure, these guys are always talking about Dure, it's so annoying. He's just an inspector general, why do they have to make him sound so mystical?" Rosell said listlessly, sitting on a seat in the school corridor.

Frost University is an open and comprehensive university. Compared with traditional colleges, it is full of young people with very active minds. Rumors about the mainland are transmitted here every day, and students discuss them and have heated debates about the situation on the mainland.

They would propose all sorts of plans or strategies. For example, some suggested integrating the mainland's financial industry and establishing a foundation, while others proposed concentrating all goods in one place for transshipment. There were even some who envisioned conquering the entire mainland. The ideas were varied and numerous.

But recently, the most talked-about topic has indeed been the situation in the Snow Country, especially what happened in the Frost City.

Everyone originally speculated that it would take at least two or three years to quell the situation in Frost City. After all, the old noble forces were deeply entrenched, and getting them to compromise would not be an easy task. This was also the biggest problem hindering the full industrialization of the Snow Kingdom.

Since industrialization is bound to start in the south, southerners will earn more profits, and the introduction of factories will greatly increase productivity. This will weaken the rights of the old northern aristocracy, who will certainly try every means to obstruct it.

Even under these circumstances, the newly appointed Inspector General managed to subdue the old nobles of the north in less than a month.

Several times, news reports have surfaced that the Ministry of Supervision has been surrounded again, and that the Director-General has been assassinated, but the Director-General himself remains unharmed.

Given the inspector's young age, it's no wonder he became a popular figure among the students.

Many people even went to the Ministry of Supervision, hoping to catch a glimpse of the young inspector general, but so far no one has seen him.

Because that young prosecutor was extremely busy, he was always elusive and rarely seen.

"But Lord Dure is only two years older than us, yet he has the courage to suppress the old forces of a country. Isn't that a remarkable thing? By the way, speaking of which, we met a man named Dure on the train before, and he seemed to be about the same age."

Freya thought for a moment and said that in her memory, the man named Dure on the train was always reading a book and did not interact with them.

They only spoke briefly when they got off the bus.

"That must be someone with the same name, right? That's not surprising. In my hometown, there are at least eighty, if not a hundred, people named Rosell." Rosell waved his hand dismissively.

“But Roselle, why do you think they are people with the same name, and not the same person?” Freya asked him in return.

"Huh? You mean that unassuming, skinny guy is the infamous Inspector General? Hey, Freya, what are you talking about? You've heard about it lately, haven't you? That Inspector General is a real menace. They say he has two heads, four arms, and eight legs. Just his appearance alone is enough to scare people." Rosell waved his hand and said.

“Roselle, those are just rumors. How could a person look like that?” Freya shook her head and said.

“You’re right, people can’t grow up to look like that, but I heard that Dure is a very powerful magic user. Powerful magic users are usually tall and strong, how could he be so thin? So it’s impossible, it’s definitely not the same person.”

Russell simply couldn't reconcile the Dure he knew with the rumored inspector general.

“Roselle, what you said makes some sense. There’s no such thing as a coincidence in this world,” Freya said, nodding thoughtfully.

"So, life is really boring. I was really looking forward to it when I heard that the famous Dr. Sarah would be teaching there, but Dr. Sarah is at the University of Seine and won't be coming for another two months. Right now, the teachers at the school are all relatively unknown scholars. Sigh," Rosell said with a sigh.

The atmosphere at Frost University was quite good, but he always felt something was missing.

"Huh, Senior Du Lei?" Freya exclaimed in surprise.

"Hey Freya, why are we still talking about this? Can we change the subject? It's always about Duré and stuff, let's talk about something else." Rosell yawned; he heard that name all the time and was getting really annoyed.

"Freya? And this is... Rosell?" A voice came from the other end, which made Rosell, who was yawning, pause for a moment.

He immediately turned his head and saw a young man walking towards them.

"Huh, you're... Dure from the train before? What are you doing here?" Rosell asked in surprise.

He had been wondering why Freya was calling that name again, but it turned out she had seen Dure.

“Rossel, have you forgotten? Senior Dure said before that he was also coming to Frost University, but it’s been a month and this is the first time I’ve met you, Senior Dure,” Freya said with a smile.

"It seems there is such a thing. Hey Dure, where have you been all this time? I haven't seen you at school at all," Rosell asked curiously, as he had a very deep impression of Dure.