Even after the Duke and his seductive secretary laid in the wakes of their aggressive cuddling, he still hadn’t hit that eureka moment of why Duke Wright would be so mad at him for such a small business to the point of personally sending a derogatory painting.
Besides, judging by how his secretary had described it, he was beginning to have fewer reasons to believe that it had anything to him personally, and more like his name was being used as a cover-up for the interest of a few lesser nobles who just happened to suck up to him.
Regardless, the Southern Duke had ordered his secretary to investigate the case more thoroughly; If there was any clash of interest between his men and Duke Wright’s, just let the old man have his day. After all, “He’s dangerously close to the end of his mortality, which might fuel him with a kind of bravado that compels crazy behaviors. We really shouldn’t attract his ire!”
Of course, whatever the Dukes were thinking had little influence on Baiyi’s daily life. After the kids had gone to sleep, he sat silently in his room to mark their assignments. The errors had been pointed out with a circle, with the correct tips attached at the side. Then, as he grouped and calculated their total errata, he wrote their deserving punishment: “Feather Duster x3”, or “Stand in a Corner (10 Minutes)”, or “Copy The Correct Answer x3”, or even “Cheek Pinch”.
The next morning, he did as he had planned: he rounded up all of the students and gave them a briefing about what had transpired. The students’ eyebrows were soon clumped together, upset at the injustice their mentor had suffered.
“Alright, so today, we’re going on a practical class field trip. The name of this trip is —’How to defend your law-protected rights using legal means’. I’m going to teach you how to fight for justice, so that in the future, you may know how to do it yourself. For today’s assignment, I would like all of you to write a reflection on this topic after our trip. But first, we shall depart to the Sorcerers Association building.”
The students got up into a coach provided by the Wright family. Slight expressions crossed Vidomina’s face as she recognized her family’s transport, but she didn’t act out any differently as she followed her friends.
Once they left their coach, Baiyi brought his freakshow-candidates students to the Sorcerers’ Association building, enduring the fascinated fixations and gaze from the public.
They approached the front desk. As the receptionist eyed the bizarre posse, Baiyi turned to his students and said, “First lesson: As we are here to defend our legal rights, justice and legitimacy are on our side. Therefore, we may, and should, show strength and confidence in our pursuit of justice — like this.”
He turned back to the receptionist. The order in his hand, he smacked it down onto the desk, and announced loudly, “I am here to file a suit against this ridiculous decision!”
His voice was strong enough to rise above the ding, so in a flash, everyone turned to watch him. In fact, he went a little too strong on their desk as it split into half and crashed onto the floor.
The young receptionist was barely holding her screams in.
The students were speechless. This… This is way too strong, okay?! Besides, even if Nota the fairy tried to scream at the edge of her lungs, she still wouldn’t be able to reach Baiyi’s volume.
“Dear Sir, please do not vandalize public property! We urge you to leave!” A man who looked like security had come hurrying forward with four mechanical magical marionettes — the standard, basic security measure of every Sorcerers Association building.
Even though the Church had been spreading stories of Baiyi’s achievement vigorously, their method of making news viral was still nowhere as entertaining and eye-catching as the ones on Earth with its pictures, texts, and share buttons. So though everyone knew that Baiyi was a savior, they didn’t know exactly how did the Soul Armature even look.
At the security’s insistence of leaving, Baiyi turned back to his students calmly again, and said, “Alright. Lesson two: when push comes to shove, don’t shun violence. Use it for self-defense!”
Then, a formation flashed in his fingertips.
Immediately, the security guard was locked onto the spot, unable to move, while the marionettes jerked like it was being shocked before clanging back onto the floor.
It’s easy to imagine any remotely powerful sorcerer from using a binding spell on a mobile human, but what happened to the famously-known-as-reliable marionettes? Was that a sudden technical issue?
The bystanders had started talking among themselves by this point. This cantankerous Soul Armature just got a little bit more enigmatic…
“Huh?! How many years had this supply system been used? Goddamn it, this is just lazy! Even if these were low-class marionettes, they should have long changed into a more efficient system, come on! This generation of blacksmiths suck! ” The Engineer cried out in lamentation from the Void.
These security marionettes were all produced by The Association of Blacksmiths, and as the former head and lead blacksmith of the association, The Engineer knew everything about these automatons. It was through his suggestion that Baiyi assessed the knowledge of their structure from his mind so that he could short-circuit their supply system using his mana.
That sounded theoretically easy, but it was a challenging feat. Not only must one understood the inner workings of a magical marionette, but they must also have an acute control of their mana.
In truth, if a sorcerer had already reached such a level, then they probably could eliminate them in an easier, less roundabout way. Baiyi chose this only to show a little more might.
He began again to his students, “The third lesson: since that our context is legality, we would need to know the law. For this particular example, we need to understand the laws that govern the Association. And according to their rules, if we would like to protest against an issue order, we would need to have a Master-level or above sorcerer within the Association to raise the issue before having it reviewed since I don’t have any Master-level sorcerer friends…”
He turned back to the shell-shocked receptionist, “I would like to have a Power Level Examination, so please start on the procedures!”
“Y-yes s-s-sir,” The receptionist stammered as she tried to find the required forms from the scattering and flying heap. “P-p-please fill this up first…”
Baiyi took the paper from her and started writing using his mana. At the same time, he said to his students, “Here’s a small tip though: we should always remain polite and civil in our exchange. That way, everyone feels happy!”
The bystanders stood in gawking silence, as the same thought crossed all of their minds. ‘ Yes, very polite and civil indeed, sir.’