Suppression

The Felistin Family mansion was shrouded in a somber atmosphere.

The elders in the family learned of the Alliance's current attitude towards them, and family meetings repeatedly descended into arguments, with no one able to come up with a solution that satisfied everyone.

Only a few young people knew this, but recently they have been having a lot of bad luck. Approvals that would normally be easy to pass were immediately rejected, and the channels they usually relied on through family members' connections were all cut off.

The servants became extremely cautious in their movements just from seeing those terrifying faces.

Camilla arrived at the third floor of the mansion, where a tall, mature-looking man stood before her.

"Master."

Oliver slowly scanned Camilla's entire body with his eyes and nodded gently.

"Excellent, you handled the etiquette matters very well this time."

He was referring to Camilla's current attire, because he had never liked her previous outfits; he thought the colors of her accessories were wrong and kept telling Camilla to change them.

Now that Camilla no longer wears any accessories, he actually finds it to his liking.

Camilla remained silent. In the Felistin Family's upbringing, a mage like her, who did not hold an important position within the family, was not allowed to speak when the patriarch was speaking.

Even if she is a Second Order Mage, a promising young person who has become Second Order Mage at the age of forty.

She has a much greater chance of reaching the third stage, at least much greater than those centenarians whose physical functions have already declined.

But according to family rules, she had to obey.

As for the reasons, such as her family treating her well or having a deep emotional connection with her family, none of that matters.

The real reason is that the benefits of disobeying the family's orders are far greater than those of obeying them.

That's why she's here, bowing her head to a branch family head of the Felistin Family and the Number Nine Floating City.

From another perspective, it's about making a promising mage bow down to a weak mage who is obsessed with rules and family and is not good at magic.

"Camilla, how is that mage Lai?"

Camilla snapped out of her reverie and spoke softly.

"That mage Lai, is quite... strange..."

Camilla certainly thought so; for some reason, the other party accepted the Felistin Family's proposal to take Philly out for instruction.

In the past, this would have been considered a strong indication that the mage had seized the opportunity with the Felistin Family and was seeking a closer connection with them.

Those who are not willing will not even attend the initial banquet, and many who do attend will refuse to attend.

But those monks who accept private activities such as teaching young people, attending dances, or accepting advances from family members,

At this point, only a few mages remain unbonded to the Felistin Family; for most, it's simply a matter of time before they truly commit.

But ' Lai ' was different. When Camilla sent new banquet invitations, or invited him to teach the family's apprentices and First Order Mage, ' Lai ' had only one answer.

"I'm leading a very important experiment with Philly and I can't get away at all. I'm so sorry."

Camilla went to check on Fran herself once, and waited at the door for a long time before she saw Fran return alone. When Camilla invited her to come back, Fran refused very decisively.

Camilla was so decisive that she felt Fran would still refuse her without hesitation if she came again next time.

"According to family tradition, it's time for us to offer those mages a reward, but no matter how I hinted, she refused."

Previously, the approach was to build closer relationships with those mages. Once those mages accepted, according to the common procedure for families to win over mages, it was time to provide some resources to solidify the relationship.

However, when it came to Fran, this step was firmly blocked. Camilla felt that even if she explicitly stated that her family would provide some material assistance, Fran would still refuse.

Oliver had never seen anything like this before, he said slowly.

"Did she suggest bringing Philly back?"

"No, on the contrary, she praised Philly's work ability, saying it was very helpful to her."

Oliver frowned, not understanding what Fran meant.

Judging from the following sentence, isn't Fran praising Philly a way of expressing her willingness to get closer to the family?

But why did she refuse?

"Let's leave her be for now. She probably has her own ideas, but she's bound by orders from the School, so this is the current situation."

"Given the current the Alliance's targeting of families, any mage willing to maintain relations with a family is invaluable. Let Philly stay with her."

This is something neither of them can understand. As things stand, they either have to distance themselves from their families or fully embrace them.

But you're now standing on the boundary between these two approaches, pulling back and forth. What does that mean?

The Felistin Family will neither urge nor refuse, nor will they offer any assistance.

Meanwhile, those in the Alliance targeting the Felistin Family don't care about any of this; they're going to take action.

You won't reap any benefits, but you'll definitely have to bear the consequences.

They couldn't understand what this idea was.

The judging committee for the Sandglass Cup Youth Competition is located in a two-story building that shines like golden sand, just south of the Alchemy School's Hourglass landmark.

There were still three days left until the deadline Fran had seen. After that, she could no longer submit Paper and results.

The winners of this Hourglass Cup competition will be announced approximately five days after the deadline.

That is, Fran will only receive her medal proof of participation in the Preliminaries 54 days before the end of the Champion Mage Challenge Preliminaries.

Meanwhile, the committee was already busy. Although there were still three days until the deadline, it was difficult to produce any Paper that would affect the final result in those three days.

The Hourglass Cup provides ample time, a full three months, and as a well-known academic competition, most mages prepare well in advance.

So at this point, they had already begun to draft the list of winners for this year's competition.

"Pick out all the Paper with the Felistin Family name on them; there's a special policy regarding them."

"Memorize those names on the list. If you know anyone who is a direct relative of those names... I think you know what to do."

Gregory is the main person in charge of this Hourglass Cup. He is a Third Order Mage who recently received orders from within the School.

The mages on that list all had close ties to the Felistin Family, and most of them had either married into the family or collaborated on major projects.

The Alliance, of course, would not let these mages off the hook; those in power believed they should also be punished.

Of course, this is not absolute, because under such high-pressure policies, there will always be monks who make wise decisions.

"Master Gregory, urgent message: Master Aitesas has refused further cooperation with the Felistin Family due to the unexpected death of his wife. It's a project involving five plots of land in the Floating City."

"Very good, everyone listen up, remove Aitesas's name from the list, remember this... If possible, move the winner's position up a bit."

Many mages targeted the Felistin Family not to punish all the mages associated with them or anyone with the surname Felistin, but to weaken the Felistin Family's influence.

A mage who severed ties with the Felistin Family, regained their trust, and was no longer ostracized—isn't that the best propaganda material?

Even better if Aitesas's child were to win the Golden Hourglass Award; that would be tomorrow's front-page headline.

However, not all the judges in the Hourglass Cup were as politically minded as Gregory; some of them were the most impartial academic Referee.

That's why Gregory suggested moving the relevant Paper up if possible, but obviously, the chances are slim in most cases.

The entire committee was shrouded in a tense atmosphere due to political infighting. Just then, Rost, who was in charge of receiving manuscripts that had undergone blind review, received two manuscripts, which greatly surprised him.

It's important to know that only manuscripts that are likely to win awards are sent to the committee, who then decide the final award recipients.

He's usually very busy with work, but towards the final stage, no more manuscripts will be sent over.

These kinds of manuscripts are relatively rare, unlike blind review where all sorts of strange and unacceptable manuscripts are submitted all the time.

Normally, no one would submit a potentially award-winning Paper at this last minute.

Rost put down the list he was working on; he needed to look at the two drafts first.

The blind review was added to ensure fairness after the Hourglass Cup had been held for many years.

During blind review, the submitter's name is covered and the paper is randomly sent to Alchemy School Paper agency.

Reviewers can only see the Hourglass Cup symbol on the paper and make a judgment when they receive Paper.

This process has been adjusted over the years and still influences the selection of the final winning Paper.

For example, when Rost saw the Three-Layer Gold Standard at the end of one of the Paper, he broke out in a cold sweat.

This means that after two rounds of regular review, the Paper was handed over to three highly accomplished mages who had the authority to determine whether a Paper was of the Gold Hourglass Grade.

Only Paper that achieve at least one Gold Label level can be rated as Gold Hourglass Grade. This year's committee received five Paper, none of which achieved the Gold Label level.

Furthermore, because this Paper was submitted too late, other Paper with the gold badge had been reviewed by at least five mages with gold badge review authority.

This is also why many Paper are submitted early. This Paper was only handled by three mages because of time constraints.

"It can't be from the Felistin Family..."

Rost swallowed hard, his hands trembling as he turned to the Paper. Under the current circumstances, this Paper, which had achieved three gold medals, was almost certain to be selected as the Gold Hourglass Grade.

But when he looked at the second name, his heart sank. He knew without a doubt that a name that directly included the surname would cause a storm within the committee.