The Most Arbitrary Wizard

Chapter 133: Chapter 84: 12 Million

Zajik’s heart sank at Higgins’s deeply meaningful gaze.

He had already received warnings and doubts from his family after his plans at the hospital were foiled by Sean—a Wizard who had just acquired Magic Power.

A Tier Five losing to a Tier One was something no one would believe if they heard it.

If Sean’s strength came from those strange Magic spells, it would be one thing. But if his skill lay in Puppetry Art, then Zajik was in huge trouble.

Puppetry Art, one of the twelve great paths from the Era of Polymath, had always been "safeguarded" by the Florist Family. Only true family members or loyal subordinates who had made significant contributions were qualified to learn it.

So why did Sean know Puppetry Art?

It was hard not to read too much into it.

If one assumed Sean had been one of their people all along, then everything would make sense—

The Florist Family had its own "ideas" and was secretly cultivating Sean. Whether it was the failed pursuit at the Old Segal City book signing or the late-night attack at Holkaydo Hospital, it was all an act for others to see. In reality, they had failed on purpose.

What those ideas actually were didn’t matter.

What mattered was that they "had" ideas.

Naturally, one couldn’t find evidence for something that didn’t exist. But often, evidence wasn’t a necessity.

Once suspicion was born, the crime was already established.

Even without evidence, this affair would be like a rusty nail driven deep into the Florist Family, impossible to pull out, impossible to wear away. From this day forward, they would never be trusted again. In a more severe scenario, they might even be immediately replaced by another family.

The most crucial part was, if one were truly to look for evidence, such "evidence" was not entirely nonexistent.

Because the Florist Family had indeed "cultivated" Sean.

Sean’s rise to fame as a writer, his ability to hold a book signing on the first floor of a mall in Old Segal City, and his success in writing best-selling works were all thanks in no small part to their machinations behind the scenes.

It was undeniable that Sean had some talent, but in this era, talent alone wasn’t enough. Capital was more important. Without the Florist Family fanning the flames, Sean could never have achieved what he had today. He would have been just like other writers and Poets, only gaining recognition after death when their works could be imbued with greater value.

’If it was discovered that they had helped Sean build his network, how would they explain it?’

The real reason was that they wanted to use him to hunt more Wizards.

Ever since the Witch Hunt Operation began, the Elderidge Cathedral had given each family a number every year, telling them how many new Wizards had appeared in the world. At the same time, this number was also a quota. By the end of the year, each family’s hunt count had to reach a certain amount. Otherwise, they would be deemed incompetent and useless. After the new year, they could expect punishment and be sent back to the countryside to farm.

The Cathedral’s demands on the great families were extremely strict, with no room for sentiment. And Wizards were not that easy to find. If they were determined to hide, not even a Smell Crow could easily discover them. That was why they had used Sean’s novel to spread the news that the Spring of Enlightenment was hidden in the Black Fruit Rainforest. This would cause more people to awaken their consciousness and become Wizards, making them easy prey to be hunted to meet the Cathedral’s quota.

This situation had been ongoing for several years, and by now, a complete "industrial chain" had formed.

Holkaydo Hospital was one part of it.

But this method actually went against the Cathedral’s original intentions.

The Cathedral wanted them to reduce the number of Wizards—ideally, to kill them all. But their actions had instead turned many people who were not originally Wizards into Wizards. Even if they completed their quota on time every year, when you added the new and subtracted the old, the actual number of Wizards had not decreased. At the very least, it hadn’t achieved the effect the Cathedral desired.

’So... is this something we can actually admit to?’

’There’s no way to explain it!’

Once the Cathedral found out they had been using this method to meet their quotas every year, it would be far more than a simple matter of incompetence. They would be charged with the crime of being disloyal to the "Master"—a capital offense!

And it wouldn’t just be his death; the entire Florist Family would be implicated.

The thought of becoming the family’s greatest traitor in history made Zajik break out in a cold sweat.

’Damn you, Sean! You’ve ruined me!’

If Sean had used any other kind of Magic today—no matter how bizarre—instead of Puppetry Art, none of this would have been brought up. The Witch Hunt Operation was already in its final stages and would soon be over. By then, no one would have known that the Florist Family had a problem with their quotas.

Zajik had never imagined that what was supposed to be a simple, ordinary exploitation would one day become a sword hanging over his head, leaving him so terrified and uneasy.

He didn’t even know how to explain why Sean knew Puppetry Art.

Outside the bank, police teams that had assembled after receiving the alarm call were already flooding into the lobby. They split into three groups: one to check the surveillance footage, one to question the manager and other staff, and the last to distribute "mineral water" to calm the crowd and erase their memories of being in the bank as much as possible.

Higgins’s gaze, however, remained fixed on Zajik.

It was the way one looks at a criminal.

"Have you figured out your answer?" he asked.

Sweat poured down Zajik’s face as he hurriedly replied, "Director Higgins, Sean didn’t use Puppetry Art."

"Oh?" Higgins glanced at the wooden figure on the floor. "Then what is this?"

Zajik scrambled for an explanation. "I mean, his Puppetry Art is different from our family’s Puppetry Art."

"You saw it yourself just now. I knew nothing about this. I only wanted to capture Sean alive."