Arson at the Merchant Guild Building

"Wizard Rorschach, Wizard Rorschach, your esteemed mentor, Chief Professor Kano, summons you to his office! Wizard Rorschach, Wizard Rorschach..."

The young man's face twisted slightly as everyone else in the Tower restaurant stared at him.

Hot, hot, hot! In his haste to finish eating, he successfully scalded his tongue on the soup.

As soon as he finished, Rorschach fled the restaurant. Ever since coming to Valuana, he felt as though he had become the focus of attention a little too often.

"Is there any way to contact me without using a broadcast?" This was Rorschach's first question to Kano.

The slightly plump master looked utterly innocent. "I worked so hard to become Chief Professor. Now that I have the authority to broadcast across the entire Tower, of course I have to use it."

This old bastard... Rorschach was furious.

Perhaps sensing the young man's barely contained indignation, Kano compromised. "I'll give you a new calling card. When it heats up, look at the back. It'll show my location, which means I'm looking for you."

He took out a silver-gray metal card, far more exquisite than the previous calling card. "These cards are difficult to make. I don't give them out lightly."

"Thank you very much! By the way, what did you want to see me about?" Rorschach pulled over a chair and sat down. As expected of the Chief Professor's office—every chair was exceedingly comfortable.

"On your first day of class, you beat up the second son of Valois's most prominent family." Kano's expression was complicated, his emotions unreadable.

"Isn't the royal family the most prominent?"

Kano finally smiled today. "Grand Duke Merowinger is the king's blood relative."

All right, he had pulled a key boss. Not a big problem.

"Please judge fairly, Master. First, he provoked me and initiated the duel. Second, I didn't use my fists. I merely used magic to render him unable to move. Third, his injuries were from falling down himself. Everyone saw it."

"Fine, fine, fine. I'm not here to hold you accountable. Honestly, as a wizard from the Empire, you don't need to be scared of this grand duke or that count."

Kano then turned serious. "Philip went to the infirmary. We discovered that he was in an abnormally excited state, though we still don't know whether it was caused by herbs or mental magic."

"No wonder he acted so stupidly in the second class." Rorschach frowned as well. "If he remains this reckless, I can only worry whether he'll be able to graduate."

"Someone was egging you two on. We don't yet know whether they were targeting you as an outsider or targeting Philip, who has always been arrogant. Either way, you need to be careful."

Rorschach recalled that someone in the crowd had indeed been backing him up, constantly fanning the flames. Were they targeting him, or using him to strike at Philip?

Rorschach briefly described what had happened to Kano.

"Thank you for the warning."

"Anyway, don't go around fighting and killing here. I'll give you something useful that you can't see or touch."

"What?"

"The authority to deduct points! Substitute instructors normally don't have it, but who told you that your mentor is the Chief Professor?" Kano said smugly, pulling a box of candy from a standing cabinet across the room and beginning to eat.

According to Kano, apprentices had two types of credits. One was academic credit, earned through classes and assessments; only after earning enough could they apply for the wizard examination.

The other was the important disciplinary credit. Every teacher had the authority to deduct points when a student performed poorly.

"However, a teacher may deduct at most five points from any one student per year. The teacher may revoke the deduction within Ten Days. An apprentice who loses all twelve points is expelled, and the points reset each year."

In other words, no teacher could directly expel an apprentice. Unless there was a formal disciplinary action, the dean of Academic Affairs decided how many points would be deducted, and deductions from academic disciplinary actions had no limit.

Kano led Rorschach to a small room on the third floor. When they entered, they undid five restrictions and opened a heavy iron door.

Inside were rows upon rows of pocket watches fixed to racks, neatly arranged beyond counting. Each watch had only one hand, with a nameplate beneath it. As Rorschach walked farther in, he saw a familiar name: "Pascal Eli."

"As long as a teacher with the authority—including you now—states the full name and how many points to deduct, the Tower Spirit will record it in this room. When someone's points run out, the Tower Spirit will notify the dean of Academic Affairs."

They carefully ventured deeper into the sea of clocks. "As for why there are so many defenses and restrictions... one year, some bold fellow blew this room apart, forcing that year's disciplinary points to reset early.

"The infuriating part was that he was proficient in defensive magic and Divination Magic, so the Tower Spirit didn't even record who did it."

Kano lowered his voice. "Actually, there are only one or two apprentices capable of that, but we didn't want to expel someone bold and capable. That's what a wizard should be, right?"

So they reinforced this room afterward? Rorschach found the pocket watch labeled "Philip de Merowinger."

Its hand pointed to eight.

That was the execution threshold. Rorschach hurriedly banished the thought. After all, he was going to be a teacher. How could he target his own student like this? Wouldn't that make him a power-tripping bastard?

After collecting himself, Rorschach followed the Archmage out of the heavily guarded room.

The Luowei Merchant Guild's headquarters in Valuana was exceedingly grand. Not only was it adorned with extensive gilded decoration, its Old Empire-style retro building stood a full story taller than the buildings on either side.

Across from it stood an inn. Brother Owl and Brother Falcon were in a guest room on the fourth floor. Several crude floor plans lay on the table, marked with charcoal notes and sketches. They were plans of the Luowei Merchant Guild headquarters building.

"Find out... contents... destroy. Leather goods?"

The scroll spread open on the bed still glimmered with spiritual light. The Scouting Falcon opened the small tube that had been transmitted over and deciphered the encrypted instructions.

Night Owl rolled up the scroll. "Why didn't he say so earlier? It's already been days!"

"How about we apply for jobs? Can you still imitate an out-of-province accent?"

Brother Falcon took out two forged identification papers. They declared that the two of them were fine, upstanding citizens of the Holy Kingdom.

"Too abrupt. Too risky." Night Owl unscrewed a section of his cane, revealing a monocular telescope.

Observing the Merchant Guild entrance, he calculated, "We'll start from the outside. Let's try the street cleaners in this area."

Then, through his telescope's viewfinder, he saw a young man without trousers approach the main entrance. His attire differed greatly from everyone else entering and leaving the Merchant Guild, and he carried a bundle on his back.

The youth was stopped by the guard. The two spoke and gestured for a while. The youth opened his bundle to display something, and the guard led him through a side entrance.

Boom!

"By the boss's bald head! What's going on?!"

Smoke was already rising from the target they had been watching. The guards and some people from inside the building ran out through the smoke, while others cried for help from the upper floors. Flames were visible through the Merchant Guild building's windows, growing fiercer and fiercer.

"Seriously, our opportunity has arrived." Brother Owl pulled out the layout of the basement level, where the storerooms were located.

"Do you want to die? Become Valuana's fragrant roasted pig?"

Night Owl hesitated, then pulled two scrolls from inside his clothes. "Elemental Resistance."

The Scouting Falcon's eyes widened. "You have something that good?"

"It's expensive! Expensive, expensive!" Brother Owl repeated painfully three times. "There's no time. We're going in through the side entrance now."

The two hurried downstairs and happened to pass the cleaning room. Its door stood wide open, revealing brown-black leather cloaks.