A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 47 Post-Event Handling

After the trial concluded, everyone else in the courtroom left, except for the three sorcerers who remained seated in the dock.

All the other parts are complete; now there's only one last item left.

Accountability must be pursued.

The case has deteriorated to this point entirely due to the fault of the judge in the first instance; it's time for a reckoning.

As Jiang Shuzhou opened the documents and looked at the information of the judge in the first instance, his tightly furrowed brows relaxed instantly, and a relieved smile appeared on his face.

As expected, two of the judges in the first instance were women, including the presiding judge, and one judge was a man. This male judge was also the only one who disagreed with sentencing the man to leave with nothing.

Now I understand.

"I suggest we thoroughly investigate these two female judges."

Pointing to the names of the two female judges on the document, Jiang Shuzhou spoke to the other two.

"Seconded" ×2

Naturally, no one objected to this suggestion, and both monks were very supportive.

"The main focus of the investigation should be on bribery. I can't even imagine how much bribery they received to get the case judged like this."

"I have a different view. We might as well investigate the trial results of male and female defendants in the cases they have handled, and investigate whether they have a clear bias."

"Venerable Navis, are you saying that women are more likely to bribe judges?"

"It's not that serious. After all, men and women are equal. If men can be bribed, women can be bribed too."

"I'm referring to special privileges granted based on gender identity."

Seeing the two looking completely bewildered, Jiang Shuzhou had no choice but to clarify the matter.

He's usually quite clever when learning magic, so why does he become so stupid in this situation?

Perhaps they were too naive and never imagined such a thing could happen.

"Sir, I have found the case records of these judges' previous rulings."

Just as the atmosphere was becoming increasingly awkward, a waiter brought in a large amount of information. This information consisted of detailed files on the cases in which the three judges had each been involved.

With Jiang Shuzhou's reminder, the two monks immediately began to review the verdicts of the two female judges.

"That's really true!"

"How could that be!"

Clearly, Jiang Shuzhou was right.

At the beginning, the female judge's rulings were relatively equal to those of both men and women. However, recently, the female judge's rulings have shown a clear bias towards the women.

This situation is becoming increasingly apparent, and the degree of bias is also increasing. To date, there have been a total of 18 cases, of which 12 cases showed obvious bias in the judgments, while the remaining cases did not show bias because both parties were male.

"Why is that? Could it be that they accepted bribes?"

"Is this sexism?"

Master Javi was somewhat incredulous, while Master Gian began to speculate, trying to find out why this situation could occur.

"It's about identity recognition," Jiang Shuzhou replied.

"Identity? What do they have to identify with?"

Master Jiawei still seemed very puzzled.

"I see!"

"Just as we mages formed the Mage Alliance based on our pursuit of truth, so too do the slaves of the gods collude in the name of faith to form the Alliance of Saints."

"They build connections based on gender!"

Compared to Javi, the younger Gian clearly had an advantage, and he easily figured out the reasoning behind it.

"is that so?"

Jiawei muttered to himself, feeling as if he had truly grown old and was falling behind the times.

"That's exactly right, and this kind of phenomenon absolutely cannot be allowed to spread in our arbitration bureau!"

"If this continues, the law will be disregarded, more people will choose extreme paths, and our work will become even more demanding!"

Gian said that it was obvious he didn't care about the first half at all; whether the law was respected or not was none of his business.

However, increased workload is a different story. The pursuit of truth is already very time-consuming, and the mages wish they could make one day last two. Such events that increase workload should be prevented.

"Let's discuss the punishment, then hurry up and get back to pursuing the truth."

Jiang Shuzhou wasted a whole hour here. If it weren't for the thousand gold coins he was given as a reward, he definitely wouldn't have given him a good look. Now that he knows the truth, the best course of action is to quickly come up with a solution and then end the overtime.

"death penalty."

As a conservative, Javi clearly despised these people, so he didn't hesitate to choose the simplest strategy.

"death penalty."

As a radical, Ji'an's attitude towards these people was that they should have been dealt with long ago! They were negligent in handling cases and unfair in trials; what use were they?

"He might as well be dead."

As a centrist, Jiang Shuzhou just wanted to finish working overtime as soon as possible. He didn't care whether the two judges were alive or dead. In order to reach an agreement as soon as possible and avoid wasting time arguing, he did not hesitate to choose the option with the most people in agreement.

"Okay, I've sent all the case details and information to the person in charge. We can go home now."

As expected of a mature and experienced mage, Jiawei is incredibly fast at writing reports before leaving get off work.

With a rustling sound, the three monks stood up in unison, walked out of the courtroom together, and then parted ways at the door; they were off duty.

Overtime is impossible unless there is overtime pay.

Just kidding, I slack off even if there's overtime pay.

Jiang Shuzhou hailed a carriage and headed to the "Big Beard Blacksmith Shop." He wanted to pay extra to speed things up; the faster the weapon was forged, the better.

This way, Jiang Shuzhou can practice his combat skills more. If he were to be forged normally, he would only have a few days left to practice after obtaining the weapon.

I didn't choose to pay more money before because I was poor. Now that I've become an arbitrator, I've realized that being an arbitrator is actually quite lucrative. Apart from being a bit time-consuming, there are no other downsides. I just don't know why no one is signing up.

"Sir, we've arrived."

The driver's voice rang out, and Jiang Shuzhou got out of the car. Sure enough, Old Bick came out again.

Can't this guy just properly forge me weapons? Or is he just a middleman?

"You're here again? You can rest assured, Old Bick, I'm a reliable person! You can't go wrong!"

Hearing Old Bick's words, Jiang Shuzhou's lips twitched. This guy had no sense of self-awareness at all. He probably just drank two jin of horse urine and got all tipsy.

"I'd like to ask, if I pay more, what's the latest you can finish forging it for me?"

Jiang Shuzhou didn't beat around the bush either, after all, dwarves have limited emotional intelligence, and if he said something tactfully, they might not understand.

"Just add 500 gold coins as a service fee, and it can be done in three days, not counting today."

When he heard that more money was needed, Old Bick's eyes lit up immediately, which almost made Jiang Shuzhou think that he was not a dwarf, but a more robust goblin.

Why is this dwarf so greedy? Aren't dwarves supposed to be honest and kind, with no flaws other than a love of boasting and drinking? They're not supposed to be greedy or lustful.

Is this some kind of mutation? Why does it value money more than anything else?

"Here's 500 gold coins. I require that the work be completed to a high standard. If the quality is not up to standard, I will not pay the remaining balance."

Jiang Shuzhou shouldn't have been worried about these things, because given the dwarves' character, they would never allow themselves to forge a defective product.

However, although Old Bick looks a lot like a dwarf, he is not quite the same in many ways. Therefore, Jiang Shuzhou still plans to use the deposit as leverage to prevent any shoddy workmanship from happening.

"Please rest assured, Old Bick never uses inferior materials; we rely on genuine technology."

Old Bick took a large bag containing 500 gold coins, which was a reward from Jiang Shuzhou for participating in the trial.

"That would be best."

After saying that, Jiang Shuzhou hailed a carriage. He was preparing to return to the Mage Guild, where he was temporarily residing, and he also left his meditation method there.

I'm burning the midnight oil tonight to study meditation techniques!

From then on, meditation replaced sleep; he stayed up every night and never rested.

Why sleep so much while alive, when you will sleep forever after death?