Today, it was a farmer's camel beast that had been stolen, tomorrow it will be two villages coming to blows over a water source....
These all counted as minor problems, but what troubled Ivina the most was that a formal Wizard had an altercation with someone in the tavern and used magic to kill a townsman!
According to the law of the council, depending on the severity of the act, the murderer was to be condemned to death or sentenced to over twenty years of penal servitude!
The particularity of this case lay in the fact that the murderer was a Wizard, and belonged to a major Wizard's school. Both the newly recruited officials and the village head were advising her that it was just the death of a poor man, and there was no need to judge a Wizard over such a trivial matter and upset a school possessing a great Wizard; it would be sufficient to have the party compensate with some money and let it go.
Wizards are the masters of this kingdom, just like the nobles of the past, and they also wield great magic power, whose value and status are far beyond that of a poor man.
"No, that's not right. A wrongful trial will gradually erode the trust the council has painstakingly built among the common people and will lead more Wizards to become reckless... thereby disintegrating the order of the entire kingdom!" Ivina said firmly.
This was not only a question of whose life was worth more or whose existence was more important between a poor man and a Wizard; it also represented whether the authority of the kingdom's legal system would be compromised!
In light of this, Ivina personally took action to arrest the person... and trouble followed. Numerous Wizard schools came out to reproach and curse her for making such a fuss over a poor man's life and death, concerning a Wizard, and even some councillors proposed to strip her of her mayoral position.
To cope with these criticisms, Ivina was exhausted mentally, but she still withstood the pressure and was eventually recognized by the council. The trial held in the royal capital sentenced the Wizard to fifteen years of compulsory labor and ordered him to pay a large amount of compensation.
Although Ivina felt the punishment was somewhat too lenient, she understood that it was unlikely for the opposing party to pay with their life, and at least enough compensation could save a family.
With these achievements, Ivina was promptly promoted to mayor of Steel City.
And then her incapable and long-lost brother knocked on her door, begging her to ease the way for him, to manipulate the examination for the appointment of officials this year so that he could be successfully elected.
Ivina looked at the familiar yet strange face and couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
Where did she have a brother from?
At this moment, outside the examination venue, all the answer sheets had already been delivered to the conference room, to be evaluated and corrected by eight major Wizards.
The basic questions in front were fine, with standard answers, requiring only consideration of right and wrong, but the applied questions that followed were different—with no fixed answers, they had to assess whether the candidates' decisions were effective, with extreme subjectivity, and discussions about various strategies were endless.
For instance, one great Wizard had a high opinion of Monroe's answer sheet. His decisive and ruthless approach was not quite suitable for an official, but was very good for an investigator.
The issue that sparked the most debate was naturally the punishment for a Wizard who killed a poor man, where the eight major Wizards were almost sharply divided.
Training a formal Wizard was not a small investment in resources; they must be chosen from among the people for their magic talent, and then after years of studying and consuming the Magic Source, they would have a less than forty percent chance of advancing.
Not to mention, by relying on magic, a Wizard alone was equivalent to dozens of laborers and warriors, in every aspect far more important than a poor man, and certainly not worth losing their life over!
"The kingdom is a kingdom of Wizards, so how could we judge a Wizard because of a poor man? In my opinion, according to the standards of Wizard Land, a fine of twenty would suffice," the grand Wizard Sanchez said thoughtfully.
He believed that as an official of the kingdom, one must understand this, and those who gave harsh penalties to Wizards in their answers needed to carefully consider their abilities.
"You should take a look at this answer sheet!" Rafael, with no intention of further argument, directly handed over an examination paper.
Sanchez pursed his lips and took it. However valuable a Wizard might have been, it was far beyond the worth of a poor man, but after casually glancing over it for a few moments, he couldn't help but frown.
This answer sheet did not judge whose life was more valuable; instead, it approached the matter from the angle of upholding the authority of the council's laws, arguing that if this matter wasn't handled fairly, letting off this Wizard lightly would cause considerable negative impact, undermine the trust the council had just started to build among the common folk, and might even lead to a frequent recurrence of similar incidents....
"Whose answer sheet is this?" Sanchez asked after pondering for a long time.
"It belongs to a witch named Ivina," Rafael replied succinctly. "I think her answers are very good and should be considered as the top paper of this session!"
After reviewing the answer sheet, several Grand Wizards also nodded in agreement. Ivina had provided relatively reasonable solutions to most of the practical questions, and her style was very much in keeping with the council's previous decisions.
Or perhaps it was that she had deliberately researched the various strategies they had implemented in the kingdom to come up with similar answers.
The last question, which she thought about from the perspective of maintaining the law, was also a cut above the rest.
Even Sanchez, who advocated for leniency, couldn't find any objections.
While Rafael and the others were engaged in a heated discussion about each exam paper, Lynn was observing how the official Wizards that had been pulled into the Magic Domain were going to handle the various questions they had just answered.
How many were insincere, and how many would stick to their principles.
Doing some things is far more difficult than just talking about them!
Vittorio, who was also monitoring the exam, said with emotion, "It's impressive that you managed to convince the Secret Magic Society to use the microcosm in this way!"
Lynn smiled and did not reply. After all, this was the council's first selection exam and naturally had to be given due importance.
Not to mention that the kingdom's interior was filled with numerous spies from the Church, and there were also many internal opposition parties. The selection of senior administrators had to be extremely cautious.
The principle of this magic is similar to dreaming. Those affected in the Magic Domain will find themselves in a state of muddled memory. It currently has no effect on Grand Wizards, and official Wizards also need to use a ring of secret spells as a medium,
As for the rest of the poor, there's no need to put in that much effort, as the spiritual wizards can handle it with a simple dream-guiding spell.
Compared to taking an exam in a lucid state, this method produces answers that are clearly more reliable. Each person will truly face their own choices in the dream, effectively eliminating the possibility of lying.
Of course, this isn't a one-time solution.
After all, people change. Perhaps someone can maintain their original intentions for three or five years, but over a longer period, faced with the temptations brought by power, there will always be people who can't resist. By then, a relatively perfect supervision and reporting system will need to be established.
No matter what, Lynn had done his best in this selection exam and had even secretly added a little something extra—expanding the intelligence network's computing power. Then he made an unexpected discovery.
Among the seventeen Wizards taking the exam, there was one who was exceptionally special: Monroe!
The smart system couldn't decode his spiritual fluctuations, which astonished Lynn. Even Harrov and Vittorio couldn't resist the smart system's spiritual power decryption, and yet Monroe was merely an official Wizard!
Did he possess some kind of unusual treasure, or was someone providing him with some kind of protection...
Lynn's mind was suddenly filled with information about Monroe.
The man belonged to the Pigeon School, which had been destroyed by the Church. He arrived at Fire Oil City with Ivina, following the Witch Mutual Aid Society. He was mediocre in the Wizard College, even somewhat poor, whereas Ivina's performance had always been quite good.
The smart system had no problem decoding the girl's spiritual power; it was only because of the shortage of time that it couldn't probe her memories.
Lynn pondered for a while—it seemed necessary to keep a closer watch...