"(James Schwarz POV)
In all my years of being alive, this was the first time I've heard of a public arrest of a mage.
I had always wondered why this was the case, but thanks to Jules, my curiosity was sated. It was all propaganda to ensure the image of mages couldn't be destroyed.
But now what is the government planning after revealing this information? This a direct attack on mages saying they now will be held accountable for their actions.
Some mages would probably become upset, but it's not like they could do anything about it. They cannot say "Hey, let us commit crimes without being punished."
They have no foothold to stand on meaning they could only deal with it. The government doesn't care about the image of mages.
Heck, they want there to be fewer mages. That's why they accepted fewer students than last year.
'Then what does this mean for our future and Ataxia?'
Tried as I might, but I couldn't figure out what would happen in the future. I'm not an analyst. I would overcome future challenges as they occur.
***
At school all everyone could talk about was the morning news. I wasn't the only one to realise that these were the first mages who had been publicly arrested.
In the past, some mages had caused some incidents, but they were quickly suppressed by the government and the news was stifled.
Being the first incident, it caused shockwaves through the continent. Regular citizens who had been victims of mages were finally speaking up, revealing their crimes to the world.
Several more mages have been arrested in the recent hour as the government sweeps through cities.
Each of the teams in charge had S or A ranks spearheading meaning that the mages that have acted out of line were swiftly captured.
Even still, the purge has resulted in several casualties and millions of Sonas in property damage.
On the train to school, I saw people who used to look at us with respect now with faces of fear and disgust. It was understandable as the true face of mages has been revealed.
With arrests and the victims speaking up all at once, people were connecting the dots that the crimes of mages were being covered up.
The government was receiving a major backlash from the citizens because of this with many taking to social media to complain.
At school, this news was all that everyone was talking about. Even if they hadn't turned on the TV, everyone has least heard about it from a friend.
Before classes started I was chatting with Jules and this topic was brought up.
"What do think will happen now that the government is now acting against mages?"
Julius nowadays was hard to talk to. I had to constantly pester him before he responded.
"Well, I know that things will get more chaotic than it already is. Ataxia will definitely benefit from this chaos. They easily take advantage of the chaos and the hate toward the government to gain more supporters."
"And I'll have more work than before, meaning that I will have more work than before. And that means less sleep. It pisses mean off!"
For an instant, I felt Julius unleash his {Haki}. It was terrifying. It was simultaneously extremely bloody, yet as pitch black as the abyss.
"Sorry about that."
Julius apologised for his outburst. I noticed my {Haki} got more powerful after killing all the soldiers at Ausburn. So many people has Julius killed to gain a killing intent as powerful as that?
"If that scares you, then you'd better not experience an S rank's {Haki}. They've killed several times more people than me."
Julius spoke offhandedly, as he got up and walked away.
"Come on, wait!"
I tried to stop him, but he moved away too fast. Recently he has become more anti-social. Whenever we tried to invite him out, he would always complain he was busy or use some other excuse to avoid us.
Violet and Amina, entered the classroom at the moment and approached me as Julius left.
"Well if you want to go out with him, you at least have to be on speaking terms. And getting him out of his emo phase."
Violet commented as she leaned against my desk. I heard about the romance that happened between Jules and Amina. I would've teased them for it, but I felt bad about Amina's rejection.
"Can we stop talking about that?!"
Amina replied distressfully. She was still upset over the events that occurred previously.
"Okay then, so what do you think about the news?"
I questioned both of them.
"Well, we just have to wait and see. Whether it will bite them in the ass, only god knows."
Amina replied back.
"Have you seen the riots that are going on? Everyone is denouncing the current government and hate toward mages is at an all-time high."
Violet pulled out her phone, showing a video of people rioting on the street.
People held up signs as they created havoc. It was anarchy. Police were struggling to contain the people.
"God, it's a mess. With all the recent events occurring in a short span of time, humanity is at a breaking point. With all the hidden backgrounds fanning the flames, it will all come crashing down soon. It might cause a civil war."
When Amina mentioned that, everyone in the room became quiet. The prospect of a civil war right after the Human-Demon war ended was a difficult pill to swallow.
"You could have spoken quieter."
I sarcastically commented.
"Sorry about that. Anyway don't worry about that. This is just my theory."
Amina tried to assuage everyone's worries but a lingering negative aura hung in the room.
We were the next generation of mages and we would be the people who would take the brunt of this. The public would tear us apart.
We all collectively agreed that we would be better off having to deal with the demon race than dealing with whatever chaos was currently happening.