Fatty Xin's proposal to buy insurance ultimately went nowhere.
Nor did Zheng Qing's worries come to pass.
Although from that day onward, the young publicly funded student had prepared himself to keep his head down, he soon discovered that the young wizards of First University—including his classmates in Astronomy Class 08-1—were more focused on the Merfolk Tribe in Linzhong Lake than on some male wizard who had been disciplined by the school for acting on his own during the spring outing.
More precisely, First University's students were more concerned about the merfolk's parade around the lake on Magic Ban Festival.
This disturbance in the Merfolk Tribe was actually tied to several clashes between merfolk and wizards at Linzhong Lakefront a few weeks earlier. These included the initial incident in which wizards dealt with merfolk who had come ashore without informing the Merfolk Tribe, as well as the later incident in which suspected radical merfolk raided the shore and smeared excrement on the doors of Book Mountain Hall.
The latter, in particular, provoked enormous outrage among the faculty and students of Jiuyou Academy, making it difficult—indeed impossible—for the academy to suppress the matter. And so, the rift between the two sides grew increasingly severe.
Under normal circumstances, Jiuyou Academy was heavily guarded, with wizards constantly coming and going, spellbooks hanging at their waists or wands held in their hands.
But on Magic Ban Festival, tradition required wizards to refrain from using magic.
Some young merfolk of Linzhong Lake's Merfolk Tribe perhaps felt their chance had arrived. That morning, these savage creatures that normally lurked deep beneath the lake surfaced in unison. They did not come ashore, but circled the edge of the lake, loudly roaring protests against wizards interfering with the Merfolk Tribe's independent status while wreaking havoc to their hearts'