Law of the Devil

Located not far from the southern fortress city of the capital, this compound that is soon to be the magic academy was constructed decades ago for the military. Other than the annual spring drill, this stronghold is practically in an idle state of abandonment due to neglect.

During the picking phase for the location there were a lot of variables considered, but more importantly, it was to save money for the empire. Considering the current finances of the empire, creating a compound from the grounds up is not practical and a heavy burden even pushed forward. Therefore, this stronghold near the southern fortress city became the perfect scapegoat for the royal court.

Far away from the capital and the magic union’s grasp of control, this place is located right next to a city with 20,000 soldiers stationed there – this idea is clearly coming from Prince Son.

That’s not all though. Outside the military stronghold that is now used for the school, there are large tracts of green space and gardens planted in the field, perfect for training purposes. And inside, the rows of barracks that once housed thousands of soldiers during the spring season is now transformed into a school for educational purposes.

As a school of magic, the base for the empire’s future magical talents, another 1000 soldiers were stationed in the nearby vicinity using the excuse of secrecy.

Like this, no more than a hundred students became enrolled in this place during the beginning.

Here’s the breakdown of the entry list: Magic Union 30%, Royal household 40%, and 30% from other forces.

Through many negations and deals, this ratio will continue to be used in the foreseeable future while the court and magic union went through another fierce battle behind the scenes to achieve their goals.

On the Magic Unions side, they wanted to turn this school into a breeding ground for “traditional” Mages.

You might be asking, what is a traditional mage?

Simply put: high in status, mighty, honorable, and old fashioned.

Of course, this evaluation was said through Prince Son’s mouth. In the regent’s view, such a outcome can never be allowed to happen. The reason he established the magic academy is so the empire could breed a new generation of mages that do not follow the old ways and could help serve the army and its people!

From the past till now, all those noble giants would always expend enormous wealth just to attract one or two mages under their wing. Even then, this does not necessarily mean the Magician in question would help.

For Prince Son, this cannot be allowed to continue!

“What I want is not a bunch of lords! What I want is a batch of people that could serve the Empire and its people!”

But Prince Son’s view was strongly opposed by the magic union because in these old Mages mind, their profession should naturally be held in high esteem.

Under the collision of these two opposing ideology, Du Wei suddenly went into the palace on a particular day and provided a solution.

“Why are magicians held in such high esteem? Why are they superior? The answer is simple: they are far too few in numbers. If their numbers grew to the size similar to the knight’s profession, then…..” Du Wei said it like this: “When I was in the slave market the other day, I noticed many warriors seeking jobs on the street. They are neither farmers nor beggars. Each of them is equipped with the status of a low ranking knight, so why are they living with the dignity of a beggar? Don’t you see? The reason is because there are too many warriors on this land! If the numbers of magicians reached a certain level, then their existence wouldn’t be so unusual in everyone’s eyes.”

“The establishment of the magic academy should be able to significantly alleviate this problem. Once the institute is up and running, the number should naturally increase with time.” Prince Son answers.

“This is far from enough.” Du Wei shook his head: “In my view, there lies a great issue with the current state of how a magician is trained.”

What came next is Du Wei explaining a couple of points and this was greatly agreed upon by Prince Son.

“Over the years, the transference of knowledge between apprentice and master is through a one on one session. This portal of learning is very strict and doesn’t necessarily mean the new generation would be able to absorb all the secrets of the previous generation. More importantly, there is a bigger problem at hand. In the field of magic, there is no distinction between a ‘user’ and a ‘researcher’.”

“Every magician spends most of their lifetime exploring the mysteries of magic, but this is where the problem lies….. Because each of these individuals hoards their research like it was their own life, there is little communication in the magic community, hence the ridiculous phenomenon where we see multiple mages coming out with the same result in their life’s work. What we need is a bunch of people that knows how to use magic and not a bunch of researchers.”

This is a very simple reasoning. In Du Wei’s past life, students from a university may not necessarily understand the theory behind a science topic, but as long as they know how to put it into practice, then that’s good enough.

Everybody knows that one plus one equals two, but there is no need for everyone to study the “Goldbach Conjecture”, right?

But that’s just how it is right now. Even for a low leveled magician, these fledglings have to work out the mysteries behind the most basic of the basics – this included the omitting of words in a long spell chant and so on….. This technique might have been mastered by their mentor from the start, but because they are so stingy with their knowledge, they won’t even tell their own disciple and would rather take it to the coffin with them!

Spending an entire afternoon, Du Wei explained all of this to Prince Son and used the simplest of words to point out the method of teaching from his previous life.

Upon understanding his points, Prince Son’s eyes lit up with enlightenment and when he stood up due to being overly excited, this regent nearly grabbed hold of Du Wei and gave the poor guy a kiss. Luckily, Du Wei dodged in the nick of time, or else he might have really fallen into the guy’s grasp.

The next problem is: how to get the current magicians to contribute their research results?

What followed afterward is Prince Son and Du Wei studying the problem and coming up with a solution.

For a magician, what do they value the most?

Money? No, each magician is equipped with considerable wealth. Just the jewelry and magic crystals in their hands is enough to be considered treasures in the eyes of a common citizen. But for a magician, these items is nothing but magic materials.

Woman? That is even more not so…… Magicians are always focused on their study of magic, so they naturally won’t have time to waste on these sorts of things.

Power? That’s still not it.

Finally, Du Wei came to one conclusion: status and fame!

Mages are very conscious of their status. In many cases, they would deliberately make it hard for the nobilities when being recruited. The reason is because they believe that if they were so easily drafted by others, then then it would be beneath their status.

And reputation is held even higher.

Du Wei even followed up with a vicious argument. In his view, most of the world’s magicians are “pretentious pricks”.

And it’s true, most are like so.

When he said these words, he even forgot that he himself and Prince Son are Mages too!

Magicians like to be high and mighty, putting on air, and make themselves look unapproachable. Their temper is eccentric (maybe it is all pretend), yet they still aspire to achieve great fame while looking indifferent.

If this is not pretentious then what is?

“Therefore, if they want fame, then we can give them fame. If they want status, then we can give them status!” Du Wei began to smile sinisterly: “If we do that, it might be able to attract some of the Mages and have them contribute their research. Once that happens, we can then integrate the findings into a set of fixed study materials for the students. By then, the students won’t have to study from the beginning.”

As such, on the opening ceremony day, Prince Son – the de facto rule of the empire – personally inscribed the schools name “Imperial Academy of magic” onto the school wall. This is also Du Wei’s proposal.

Then in front of the audience consisting of the first batch of students, dozens of court mages, and numerous guests from the magic union, Prince Son suddenly announced a matter outside everyone’s knowledge.

“Besides the establishment of the Academy of magic, I’m happy to announce the establishment of another organization within the empire: ‘the magic society of learning’!”

In nominal terms, the magic society of learning belongs to the magic academy. The difference between this organization and the magic union is that the society doesn’t have any enforcing power. Whether it is the legal or administrative aspect, the organization is very loose without constraints.

The so-called “learning society” is primarily for the discussion of research results between magicians. And the society will give out rewards based on the achievements of the individual.

Of course, the reward is not calculated in the form of money or wealth.

After the main square inside the magic academy, there is a very eye catching long hallway with a striking description of a jade statue along the walls.

This statue is a sculpture of an old magician. With lifelike features, even the wrinkles along the face could be clearly made out.

In the solid gold plate on the bottom is the following lines:

“In honor of Master Gandalf’s contribution to the magic field. Sicilian-Jacques-Gandalf (Empire year-710-960), known far and wide as the Magister of the era, his main contributions consisted of: found 6 different methods to hatch a Dragon egg, discovered 13 new species of rare magical plants, improved upon 7 mid tiered spells and created a new high level ranked magic spell and so on.”

Aside from this, some of the major stories surrounding Gandalf’s life is etched into a stone tablet along the stone corridors entrance. Behind this 300 long corridor, there is still plenty of empty space!

“…… The establishment of the society is not to constrain a magician; this is purely an academic organization for discussion and exchanging of knowledge.” Prince stood atop the tall stage with his signature and unique smile: “Any magician can apply for this society without needing to pay a contribution fee. Of course, there is no obligations attached either. Then again, that is not a certainty. As long as you are a member of the society, you can go through our library of research results contributed by your peers under certain conditions. For instance, as a show of gratitude to Mage Du Wei and Mage Vivian for their contribution to the academies early stage, the two have offered up certain research results from their reservoir of spells. Both of them are direct disciples of the now deceased Master Gandalf, so their research is invaluable…. This is the spirit behind the learning society – the spirit or sharing!”

The audience went into an uproar!

Especially the magicians in the audience!

Able to check the research results of Master Gandalf? This is an extremely attractive condition!

Subsequently, Prince Son announced some of the rules behind the ‘sharing’ concept of the society.

Back when Du Wei and Vivian contributed their part of Gandalf’s research, the spells have already been divided into among the five different grades ranging from 1 star to 5 stars.

From now on, if any new member that wishes to contribute their research result to us, the society will invite renowned senior magicians to assess your findings and give you a star. For example, if your contributions resulted in a three star assessment, you will be rewarded with three chances of ‘sharing’ opportunity. This means you will be able to check out three different findings within the society’s library, of course, this is only three times. Of course, if you received four stars, then you will have four opportunities, and if you have one star, then you have one chance. However, if you want to read more, then you must contribute more of your own research results.

The only exception to this is if your research evaluation is rated at five stars, at that time, you will be eligible for a lifetime membership to freely scan through the society’s entire collection!