Colin stopped, his expression ugly.
The arrogant demeanor of Catherine truly reshaped his understanding of the School members...
And all he did was come to watch the fun, so why drag him into it?!
What it meant to be 'collateral damage,' he had certainly found out today.
"Colin, as a member of the Lap School, can you tell him who killed this fierce beast?" Catherine asked again.
The thin Wizard had initially been looking forward to Colin's answer.
But the next second, upon seeing the same triangular badge on Colin that Catherine wore, his expression changed.
He almost forgot that this month, this whole area was under the patrol of Lap School members.
The anger in his heart gradually faded. Looking at Catherine and Colin, he began to back down.
Although the Male Wizard standing nearby seemed uninterested in intervening, what if he did?
The Lap School always acted overbearingly; it was always their rivals who ended up on the losing side.
"You are right, sir, since the fierce beast died here, it belongs to you. I won't interrupt... After all, we are all Wizards on duty together, which can be called colleagueship; there's no need to spoil the amity."
The thin Wizard forced a smile, feigned a gentle tone, and then slowly began to retreat.
Boom!!
But what greeted him was another Fireball; his quickly deployed Defensive Witchcraft managed to block the burning damage, but the shock wave sent him flying high and crashing hard onto the ground.
"Get lost!" Catherine snorted coldly.
Suppressing the dizziness in his head, the thin Wizard got up, said nothing, and quickly left for the distance.
In terms of status, he was just a Deacon of the Chiwen Gang; in terms of strength, he was far inferior to her, and even if the Male Wizard by her side didn't intervene, he stood no chance.
Staying any longer would have been simply humiliating himself!
Although that was the case, his heart's anger found no solace and instead intensified.
He had already yielded and given her a way out!
"Lap School! Masked bitches!!"
His steps grew heavier, trampling the crops beneath his feet in frustration!
Meanwhile,
Colin was just about to speak up for the thin Wizard, but the words were unexpectedly caught in his throat.
Watching the thin Wizard's fleeing figure, any sense of justice within him shattered abruptly.
He felt it was ridiculous.
'Just leaving like that, swallowing the insult?!'
Colin stood there, feeling inexplicably annoyed.
"Clean up quickly!"
Catherine, standing nearby was urging the City Guards who were dissecting the fierce beast's corpse, her expression arrogant.
As for Colin beside her, she seemed to have already disregarded him.
Colin stood there a while longer, watching the thin Wizard gradually disappear into the darkness. Only after the fierce beast was almost completely dissected did he slowly turn back to his own duty cabin.
...
The next day, the sky was faintly bright.
Colin walked out of the cabin, finishing another day's duty.
Although the Sunlight Breathing Technique had given him plenty of energy, a night without sleep was naturally tiring.
He was looking forward to getting home.
He thought Renee must have prepared breakfast meticulously for him... he wondered what he would have this morning.
After eating, he would crawl back into a warm bed and comfortably sleep a little... life indeed could be satisfying.
But a few steps out, the faint noise from afar caught his attention.
As Catherine's duty cabin was to his left, and so was the city gate further left, he always passed by Catherine's area on his way back to the city.
The noisy sounds were coming from the fields Catherine was in charge of.
Colin looked over.
Before him was an endless expanse of fields, which now bore signs of damage.
He hadn't noticed it last night, but in the daylight, the destruction of the fields was considerable.
The fierce beasts, like wild boars, had rampaged through the fields like bulldozers, overturning crops and splattering mud everywhere, creating a long gully.
Especially where the black-haired wild boar had fallen, a huge pit had formed.
But the pit formed by the carcass of the black-haired boar was not as shocking as another dark, burnt pit nearby.
That burnt pit was at least twice the size of the boar's pit, radiating outward from the center, where the innermost wheat seedlings had turned into black ash.
"It must have been when Catherine used the Fireball to attack the frail wizard last night and didn't extinguish it in time," Colin surmised.
Otherwise, a single Fireball couldn't have caused such a large burnt pit.
Right next to the pit formed by the boar, a group of emaciated farmers surrounded it, with City Guards standing behind them, and the noisy sounds were coming from there.
Snap! Snap!
Every now and then, the sound of a City Guard's whip slicing through the air could be heard.
Colin paused to watch for a while.
The City Guards were urging and directing them to lift and replant the flattened crops.
But it seemed ineffective; only a few of the crops could be salvaged, and most were beyond recovery.
The wheat appeared to be near maturity; at least the wheat seeds on the ears looked almost ripe.
The gaunt farmers picked up scattered wheat ears as they straightened the stalks, placing them in the bamboo baskets beside them.
Colin thought inexplicably of Captain Holt.
If he had been there, perhaps he could have saved some of the wheat.
Unfortunately... in this world, wizards held themselves above all, and who would bother with such trivialities?
The annual crop yield affected only ordinary people.
Even if there were no harvests on the island this year, the wizards wouldn't starve; they had other means to obtain food.
In his previous world, the lower-class people in war-torn countries suffered severe famines, yet the rich lived in luxury.
Such inequality was even more pronounced in this world.
If ordinary people weren't necessary for some reason, wizards wouldn't care about their fate nor specifically protect the fields.
Colin shook his head and continued towards the city.
Soon, his familiar black carriage appeared in front of him.
This time, however, Arthur wasn't the only one standing by the carriage.
"Master," Renee greeted him as she approached.
"Why are you here? Don't you need to look after Demi?" Colin asked in surprise.
"Demi can take care of herself now. I came to bring you breakfast, Master," Renee said with a slight smile, lifting the food basket in her hand to show Colin.
Colin was somewhat surprised; West City was quite a distance from his residence, almost half an hour by carriage.
So, after a night's duty without any food, he indeed felt hungry sitting in the carriage.
In the past few days, he had been eating only after getting home; he hadn't thought to have Renee bring him breakfast directly.
He was pleasantly surprised and praised Renee a few times.
Renee bringing him breakfast meant he could eat on the carriage ride home and go straight to sleep once he got there, saving quite a bit of time.
The two of them boarded the carriage together.
Arthur remained silent throughout, merely bowing respectfully to Colin when he saw him.
"He's a competent coachman," Colin was quite satisfied with him.
"By the way, Arthur, did you finish the thing I asked you to do?" Colin suddenly remembered something and asked Arthur just before stepping into the carriage.
"It's done, master," Arthur replied.
Colin nodded in satisfaction. It seemed Arthur was quite efficient.
What he had asked Arthur to make was actually a wooden target.
To become proficient in witchcraft, one could not rely solely on theory…