Chapter 455: Falling, Aosike

In the following days, Xia Duo constantly traveled between his residence and the Fourth Court of Jilan City, even handling a few cases—though, of course, these were merely disputes between ordinary people.

The Judgment Court is subordinate to the Imperial Tribunal; although it is named a "Court," it actually handles many affairs, especially at the grassroots level, where it almost entirely encompasses all duties such as those of police, judges, and administrative officials.

Jilan City has no lord, only a nominal city master, who is served by the head of the Jilan City Judgment Court. Aside from a guard unit led by an Advanced Rank Mage, Jilan City is almost entirely dictated by the Judgment Court.

Of course, with great Permission Level comes great restriction; currently, what Xia Duo does most is write case files and work records, which people from the Supervision Division come to inspect at irregular intervals.

In particular, there is the temporal Positioning—that is to say, when the case files and records were written, and whether they match the time of the events, can all be checked, not to mention the direct inspections of the relevant personnel.

Additionally, once trouble arises in the town, the higher-ups will also impose penalties.

As for the conditions for promotion, besides magic attainment, it is more about not making mistakes and meeting population quotas.

Population is perhaps one of the few requirements the Arcane Empire has for ordinary people and even Mage Apprentices; for this reason, the Empire specifically has a Conservation Department, which specializes in researching issues like reproduction and child-rearing.

Jilan City also has a specialized Conservation Office; as soon as a pregnant woman is discovered, she must be gathered together, and after giving birth, the child is cared for by the authorities until they can speak and recognize characters, at which point they enter the Apprentice School to be introduced to basic Magic Knowledge.

Afterward, they transfer to the formal Magic Academy; if one cannot become an Official Mage before the age of 20, they are a failure, and failures are naturally cast into the common folk.

They are either returned to their parents or start a family on their own.

But regardless, these people are endowed with the responsibility of producing for the Empire; of course, corresponding to this, the more they give birth, the more rewards they receive, ranging from land and servants to Magic Items, and even receiving an audience with a Great Sage, among many other things—the Empire has exhausted its efforts for this.

Therefore, when Xia Duo had just projected here, he felt that this place was even darker than the Main Plane; beneath the appearance of a seemingly developed magic civilization lies the sacrifice of countless ordinary people.

But at the same time, Xia Duo was also pondering a question, which was how feasible his previous idea of universal magic practice really was; the Arcane Empire of this Projection Plane is almost in the state closest to universal magic practice.

It is just that the requirements regarding population are a bit extreme; the ordinary people of the Empire have actually all received Magic Education, and many even became Official Mages on their own after the age of 20, and the Empire did not reject them.

The root of all this lies in the Demon Extermination War initiated by the Arcane Empire; the authorities did not explicitly state this, but this is how Xia Duo understands it—if it were not for the population decline caused by the Demon Extermination War, how could there be such an extreme population policy?

According to the official claims of the Arcane Empire, demons are the natural enemies of humanity; besides luring humans into falling, demons also occupy human land and resources, so even for the sake of future development, the Demon Extermination War must be carried through to the end.

"Falling, indeed—" Xia Duo revealed a bitter smile; in fact, it was here in the Empire that he truly felt the falling.

Just on the second day after he took his post, the Jilan City Conservation Office sent him ten women, saying it was the duty of an Imperial Mage; Xia Duo naturally knew that the Empire had an extreme thirst for population, and even those who had become Official Mages were not spared.

It is just that compared to ordinary people who have absolutely no right to choose, Mages possess a certain degree of choice; of course, likewise, the more they produce, the more hidden merits they have within the system, and they will be given priority during promotion.

As for those ten women, in a sense, they also escaped the doom of constant childbearing; as long as their relationship remained under the name of "Aidi," there would be no forced quotas, and at the same time, they could utilize the spell research environment of the Judgment Court. If they could successfully promote to Official Mage, that would be a leap to the heavens, and they would almost not need to consider the issue of reproductive quotas.

In fact, the fate of women in the Empire is far more miserable than that of men.

Of course, men are not much better off; farming, mining, and ordinary labor all require men to do them.

Perhaps calling the ordinary people of this Arcane Empire slaves or reproductive machines is more appropriate; no matter how brilliant or dazzling the civilization above this may be, and no matter how many helpless choices there are, it is hard to conceal its essential evil.

Human nature is complex; Xia Duo does not know what situation the Arcane Empire is currently facing, and he cannot guarantee whether he would make the same decisions as them if he encountered these things, but based on what he has seen so far, he is very displeased.

The more he understands the Empire, the less Xia Duo wants to understand; fortunately, his goal is not to study this Arcane Empire, which is, after all, a Projection Plane like a dream or a bubble.

What he truly needs to do is to make full use of everything here.

……

The twenty-second day of Xia Duo's employment.

This day, he finally learned all the spells essential for a judge: 【Inquiry】, 【Judgment】, 【Stun】, and 【Command】. Because he had not been exposed to mind spells before, having obtained them this time, he studied them whenever he had free time.

The Arcane Empire set almost no obstacles in spell learning, especially for those who were already Mages; if one wanted to learn something, one only needed to apply.

However, Xia Duo had not actually used this Permission Level yet; the mind spells he was currently learning were all included with the work manual.

Through research, he discovered that so-called mind spells actually do not have a strict distinction from Creation School or Transmutation spells, at least not in terms of the system; they are still within the overall framework of the Arcane Magic System.

Mind spells involve consciousness, will, and Soul, all of which are intangible things, so they appear much more mysterious than other spells, but as long as one clarifies the Principles, they are still quite easy to understand.

Previously, on the Main Plane, in order to advance to Advanced Arcanist, Xia Duo had already been studying "Soul Studies," which has many Branching paths; now, having ready-made mind spells for comparison and reference, he felt like a fish in water.

Over these twenty-plus days, Xia Duo mainly focused on sorting out the Principles and framework of mind spells; the actual learning of the spells took less than five days. These spells were all 1st Circle Spells and basically had no difficulty.

Moreover, because he had already explored the entire line from theory to practice, even without more materials in the future, he could research them on his own and raise the Spell Circle; as for what level he could raise them to, that would be another matter.

After reporting the situation of having learned the Judgment Spells, Xia Duo immediately received a notification that the Chief Judge of Jilan City wanted to see him. After calling Chali to take over his shift, he headed to the First Tribunal of the Jilan City Judgment Court.

The Chief Judge of Jilan City, Aosike, is also an Advanced Rank Mage, but according to Chali, Aosike had already attempted to advance to Advanced Arcanist, only to fail, but he had not given up and was preparing to fight again.

In the Arcane Empire, if Spellcasters are Nobles, then Arcanists are the nobles among nobles; as long as there are conditions, normal people would not give up after one failure.

Xia Duo was still a bit worried about meeting this quasi-Arcanist judge, not knowing if the other party could see through the fact that he had actually become an Advanced Rank Mage.

However, for the sake of convenience when applying for magic materials in the future, he did not want to hide his progress; at least there was no need to hide the mind spells—if asked, he would just say he had good talent.