A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 138 Inquiry

Drouot led Rorschach down the corridor, speaking as they walked:

"First thing: Midterm exams are coming up, and I hope you can provide the teaching and research group with a test paper before next month."

"Do I have to create an entire exam paper?" Rorschach remembered having other basic alchemy teachers, so why did he always have to do everything himself?

The two walked towards the office area, passing by other students going against the flow. Because Rorschach was too young, they all greeted Drouot as their teacher.

Drouot explained to Rorschach, "Because your class scored highly in the evaluation, the teaching and research group hopes you will take charge of the main points." However, someone was thinking to himself, "You just finish your class and go home every day, and your colleagues will just pile all the work on you after discussing it."

"Okay, I'll try, but if it's rejected, I won't be responsible for making any changes."

"We all believe in your abilities." The officer continued with the second matter, which turned out to be his salary: "You haven't received your salary for two months. You can go to the registrar's office to collect it; it's 50 to 12 livres a month." That's eleven large bills.

There's money to be made? I thought it was just Kano's subsidy. Rorschach realized he was missing out on a lot by going back to the Tower of Stars every day. Well, not a lot. With the dividends from "Hercules," the rewards, and the money from the Blue Light Barrier, he was indeed well-off.

Seeing that Rorschach didn't react much to this "huge sum of money," Drouot, the former artillery academy instructor who had once run out of food, secretly sighed, "As expected, mages are just as rich as the prostitutes at the Moulin Rouge."

"Finally, we've arrived. Venerable Luo Xia, please come in. I have class to attend to, so I'll be leaving now."

Completely bewildered, Rorschach pushed open the door and entered. The empty office contained a few chairs, and several teachers were already seated there. Rorschach glanced around; there was a natural history teacher and a grammar teacher. These teachers were either magicians or priests, and they were chatting idly in a circle.

"Master Luo Xia?" A monk who was more familiar with Luo Xia explained the situation: there was a matter concerning students that required the teachers' cooperation in an investigation, involving questioning by the school board. Was there school bullying? That was Luo Xia's first thought. Faces flashed through his mind and then disappeared. To be honest, Luo Xia was a little troubled. Although he and the students were the same age, they didn't really interact much.

Don't let yourself wrongly accuse a student or let a demon go unpunished.

"Professor Rorschach has arrived? Please come to the next room." The priest-like teacher came in and called Rorschach out.

From Rorschach's perspective, it was immediately clear which teachers at this school came from the church and who had once been instructors at the artillery academy; they all possessed distinctive, label-like characteristics. For example, this teacher exuded a calming power in his every gesture, and the man who brought him here reeked of tobacco.

I wonder how our monks are viewed by both sides.

After knocking, Rorschach was allowed into a small room where two people, both dressed in purple mage robes, were huddled behind a desk. They were a man and a woman, both old enough that wrinkles etched their faces. They ignored the young mage who had entered, preoccupied with flipping through a stack of papers, a rather unpleasant sight.

"Rorschach? Please have a seat." The chair in front of the desk was a makeshift piece pulled from the classroom, so rudimentary that it was only different from a stool in that it had a backrest. Sitting in this chair, the person being questioned might wonder what mistake they had made and be subjected to interrogation.

"You two are..."

"I won't waste time introducing myself. If you are familiar with your workplace, you will know that we are the school board members representing the will of the guild of higher teachers."

Isn't it a waste of your time to emphasize that you're a board member? Rorschach was getting increasingly annoyed: "As far as I know, only the Arcane Senate represents the will of the guild."

The female school board member didn't continue, but simply adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses and asked in a cloying voice, "Master Rorschach, what impressions did you have of a student named Andre during your teaching?"

The male school board member added, "Blonde hair, blue eyes."

"If I don't have only one Andrei among my students, then this gentleman's description is invalid. The entire school and all of Valuvana could probably form a group of blond, blue-eyed Andres," Rorschach replied sarcastically. "He's nothing special; if I had to name him, I'd prefer 'Andrew.'"

"That's it?"

"Yes, this is the third time we've done the experiment, and he still forgets that he needs tweezers to move the weights."

"We want to know if student Andrei has displayed any magical talent in your class?"

"Oh? That's interesting." Rorschach persisted in pressing for details, and the male and female school board members finally stammered out the truth: Rorschach had a promising student among his students who had yet to be discovered, and who had actually comprehended a minor spell on his own.

Perhaps it wasn't even magic, just a trick: this student somehow managed to set his textbook on fire during grammar class. This piqued Rorschach's interest even more; he hadn't expected there to be a fellow member of the Five Fireball Cult?

The grammar teacher was a priest, and Andrei successfully startled this old man who could hypnotize everyone. The incident escalated through the ranks, alarming the school board, especially representatives from the church and guild. It turned out this kid came from a monastery's free school, which was quite awkward. The church would ask, "What kind of school is this? Why did my student suddenly change professions? Are you secretly teaching magic?"

The Magic Guild was also confused, which led to this inquiry. Some people suspected that the teachers had included too much "magic-related content" in their teaching.

Luo Xia thought it was ridiculous. "You guys reviewed the teaching materials and lesson plans in the first place. What does it have to do with us if a student suddenly learns to play with fire?" he asked. "Is there a problem with Andre awakening his magical talent? Why don't we recruit him as an apprentice in the Tower of Stars?"

"It's not that simple! If more students awaken spellcasting abilities later, are we supposed to accept them all? What will the church think?" The male school board member seemed to be provoked by Rorschach and slammed his hand on the table.

"Then let the students choose whether they want to be mages or charlatans. Besides, there's no necessary connection between being able to cast spells and being able to receive divine grace. What right does their church have to interfere?" That's what he said, but Rorschach knew that things weren't that simple. The Tower of Stars wasn't a place that anyone who could cast spells was allowed to go.

"Is the Tower of Stars a place you can just go to whenever you want? It's getting more and more outrageous now, with all sorts of people trying to get in." The male school board member's words trailed off, turning into an angry mutter.

Hearing her classmate's "nonsense," the female monk quickly brushed it off: "Monk Rorschach, we have reviewed your lesson plan again and found some inappropriate content. I believe you don't understand Andrei, and his awakening has nothing to do with you."

However, we cannot rule out the possibility that your teaching content may inspire him and other students on their magical path, and we believe that continuing to adhere to this standard is not advisable at present.

"I refuse." Rorschach was very decisive at this moment. Seeing the slightly surprised expressions on the faces of the two people opposite him, he replied firmly: "I will never change my teaching plan. I personally do not believe that my content involves too much magic, even if it does."

He unbuttoned his jacket, revealing his badge: "I personally don't think these are any serious issues that would make you all act like this is a major threat."

"The current process is based on the guild's consistent policy! We insist on controlling the spread of magical technology! This has been the case for centuries!"

"Stop using the guild as an excuse. You might fool those merchants, but you dare claim to represent the guild in front of us? You two are old and barely even mid-level mages?" Luo Xia's disgust reached its peak.

"I'll say it again: the only people I recognize to represent the guild are the Arcane Elders. Coincidentally, my teacher is one of the committee members, and I'll discuss this matter with him myself."

Luo Xia stood up on her own, and the male school board member also jumped to his feet: "Fine! Since you don't respect the guild, I, in the name of the school board member, order you, Ms. Luo Xia, your lesson plans must be reviewed!"

"Then I won't be a teacher here anymore. The little money they pay me isn't enough to keep me patiently listening to your nonsense after class." The boy slammed the door and left.

Rorschach didn't return to the Tower of Stars; instead, he went straight to the research building. He knocked on the door of an office on the top floor, and Kano was indeed inside. Pascal was also there, carrying a large stack of documents and about to leave when he was startled by his junior's dark expression.

"So what are they?" Rorschach asked, still fuming as he sipped the tea that Cano had poured for him.

Master Kano chuckled, "These two have been in Valuwana for so long, with no hope of advancing to archmage. We were just discussing arranging a place for them to retire, weren't we?"

The guild of mages is ultimately an organization that values ​​strength. The man and woman had neither hope of breaking through nor the research ability to make any contribution, so they gradually became marginalized. Kano still remembers their ecstatic yet forced composure when they became school board members: "Even if they are just one of the school board members, they should savor the taste of power."

"What happened to that kid who awakened magical abilities, Andrei?"

"Our people have spoken to him. He just fell asleep in grammar class and had a nightmare, so he unconsciously set his book on fire."

"He's talented, but unfortunately he's too old." Rorschach took another sip of tea. Kano wanted to say something about how he was too old, but looking at the intermediate mage who was less than two years older than the person in question, he had to swallow his words.

"So what does the guild plan to do?" Actually, Rorschach understood that the annoying school board member was right; at least in the Holy Kingdom, the guild had always opposed the spread of magic. He still vividly remembered his first conversation with Cano during their "seven out of ten thousand" meeting.

"Don't do anything. Just scare that student a little, tell him he's missed the age to learn magic, and that he'll burn himself to death if he tries to cast a spell without permission. Tell him to attend class normally and stop thinking nonsense." Kano sat down and drank his tea. "Don't bother with those two board members either. The other board members have a very high opinion of you. Just continue teaching as usual."

Rorschach stared at his teacup: "I'm starting to understand Professor Caroline better and better."

Kano stood up and patted the somewhat dejected Rorschach: "Build your own magic tower, recruit whoever you want as an apprentice, even those without magical talent."

"real?"

"Really, like I said before, the guild will fully support you."

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Sorry for the wait. This chapter is about 3 words, so does that count as an extra chapter? But there's a lot of dialogue, so I'll leave it as an extra chapter.

(End of this chapter)