When Downs returned from his master's, he immediately galloped off to find Earl Ramanque.
The moment he walked in, he blurted out a warning.
"Your Excellency! Please make sure to warn the examinees that they must answer honestly. If they try anything funny, there's a good chance they'll end up dead! My master gets angry, and nobody can handle him."
"Dead?" The Earl couldn't help asking.
"Ah, back when I first became my master's disciple, he electrocuted me on my very first night. I felt like I nearly kicked the bucket." As he spoke, Downs vividly described how horribly he'd been shocked. At the same time, he flipped his right hand over, and several twisting, writhing Thunder Serpents sprang into his palm. The crackling electricity was terrifying.
(Some master: So you're just never going to mention that you were half-asleep and touched the electric switch yourself, huh?)
The spectacle Downs had just put on shocked the Earl every bit as much as the first time he met Lein, when the "Master" had toyed with a Tesla coil and sent his mind reeling.
The Earl suddenly understood. No wonder Downs, despite being only High Level, had just defeated a Master Level Sorcerer.
"Ah, I see..." The Earl was breaking out in a cold sweat. His residence had been packed with visitors for days. Countless "relatives" with connections so distant they could barely be called relatives had come asking him to bend the rules, and he hadn't known how to turn them down. Now, at least, he had an excuse.
As he helped Downs make the threat, he also prayed that certain young nobles wouldn't do anything stupid.
The White Dragon came to provoke them, and lost its head.
The devils came leading a team, and got smeared across the walls.
A