Punishment

Once the dot on his wrist disappeared, Yves did not know what to do and came to look at Raphael. The captain suddenly avoided his gaze and turned so as not to see him which filled the governor with a sudden rage.

He had elevated him to the rank of captain when he was just a simple soldier with no chance to rise in rank. He had rewarded him greatly and was that how he repaid him?

The governor suddenly ran his hand over his belt before unsheathing a dagger expertly concealed in his clothes before launching forward towards Raphael with his back to him, the dagger aimed at the back of his target's neck.

But as he was about to deliver the killing blow, a powerful force seized him, rendering him completely still. Incapable of the slightest movement, the governor turned his gaze as best he could to Isaac, who seemed to point him with a finger with a huge smile decorating his face.

- "For your punishment," said the elf before pausing.

He didn't have too many ideas of punishments. What should he do? He had never done that. Give punishment to a Governor? It would be like punishing a mayor in his old world! Corruption, murder, these are things that the police take care of in normal times.

So, to punish the governor, Isaac decided to opt for an approach relatively close to that of French law. Slightly modified, but quite close.

Isaac then began to concentrate mana in his voice, causing panic to appear in Yves' eyes before he spoke.

- "You will transfer the ownership of all your tangible and intangible goods to the city of Erivia as public goods. Also, you will carry out works of general interest for the city for ten years. Therefore, during this period of time, you are prohibited from leaving the city walls without the permission of the city. You will also have to compensate the people to whom you have consciously caused harm directly or indirectly. And finally. "

Isaac then leaned closer, whispering in Yves's ear, without anyone being able to hear him.

- "If a person comes to you to submit a request if his request is benevolent, you will have to offer him your help without any conditions. But only if he says to you: Please."

After that, Isaac stood up, laughing lightly, a long smile forming on his face before he began to trace a rune at Yves' feet.

A few seconds passed before the rune came to draw lines on the body of the ex-Governor before disappearing completely.

Visibly happy with his job, Isaac then flew into the air with the rest of his group. Without any further noise, the Archmage vanished from the city, leaving the population and the soldiers speechless and unable to know what to do.

Without wasting another moment, Isaac headed for the sanctuary at high speed. He had to hurry and prepare for the arrival of the Magus of the court.

On the journey, Artiel, Iracuz, Rebecca, Kiril, and Rita were confused. Why was his punishment that simple? Normally, the nobles would make him a slave or worse, torture him for life.

Why hadn't he done the same? Maybe because he was an elf. None of them knew the answer, after all, they were just humans. How could they understand?

For his part, Isaac was totally focused on where he was going and what he was going to do. He didn't want slaves or prisoners. He didn't want it in his old world, why would he want it now?

Here, right now, all he wanted was to go back to his research and continue his advance of magic. He had so much to do.

However, he wasn't naive either. Yves Leatrix will probably want his revenge and that was why Isaac had placed an observation rune on him.

Much like Rebecca's stone for recording conversations, the rune traced on the ex-Governor constantly collected information around him and then stored it.

He had also left a little surprise in the rune of logic he had summoned over the city. A plan for the Magus of the court. As he reveled in his improvised "plan", a voice rang out behind him, forcing him to turn.

- "Isaac! What are we going to do?" Artiel suddenly asked in midair.

Isaac looked at him thoughtfully for a long moment before shrugging and turning his gaze to Rita and Kiril.

- "How did you escape the prisons? I guess you were captured, right?" he asked.

- "Shadow magic. We are from the Shadow Village after all!" Rita replied proudly.

She placed her hand over her heart, lifting her chin slightly, solemnly showing the pride she felt in being a part of Cram.

Isaac smiled when he saw her like that. A patriot, proud of her origins and respectful of her traditions. She was an elder after all.

- "May I know how?" he asked suddenly.

He was curious. When he saved them, a black chasm suddenly appeared in their alley. At first, he believed they were being pursued but on second thought, none of Erivia's soldiers and those around them seemed to have any magical abilities given the magical power they emitted.

Apart from Rebecca, Iracuz, and Rita.

- "Do you want me to show you?"

Immediately Isaac nodded his head frantically up and down and accelerated towards the sanctuary.

Several tens of minutes passed before they reached the shrine. Immediately, Isaac came to rest in the center of the plain and turned to a Rita, still surprised and blown away by the scene. The place was beautiful, serene, and peaceful.

Also, she had never felt such a large amount of mana in the air, except around Isaac. Something in this place was emanating a powerful and divine presence.

As if this place had been blessed by the gods. But she couldn't dwell on it any longer as she watched Isaac's attentive eyes fixed on her.

She coughed lightly before looking around. The sun was probably going to rise soon but it was still dark which left her a lot of shadows to work with.

With the surrounding abundance of mana and energy, manipulating shadow magic was much easier. So, in a few seconds, Rebecca's shadow suddenly extended around her taking a total black tint.

Like a chasm or a black hole. Isaac stood still, watching carefully what was happening in front of his eyes.

Once her shadow was extended, Rita came to turn to Rebecca and did the same with her shadow. Then the elder motioned for Kiril to step into one of the shadows.

Isaac stood watching before his eyes widened when he saw Kiril disappear into a shadow and reappear in another shadow.

"A portal! IT IS A PORTAL!" he thought excitedly.

His excitement was felt all around for several tens of meters when his aura suddenly spread. All around, golden threads appeared before they began to spin around Isaac, Rita, and Rebecca, scanning every nook and cranny of the two shadows.

Rita was surprised when she saw what was going on. What was he doing ?! Had she pissed him off? So she turned to Rebecca before arching an eyebrow.

The young woman was serene, even smiling, and looked at Isaac, patiently.

- "Why don't you panic?" the elder whispered to Rebecca so as not to be heard.

Rebecca turned to Rita, intrigued for a moment before understanding, and leaned forward to whisper in turn.

- "He's always like that when he's experimenting. The best is not to move, not to make noise so as not to disturb him. If you can, avoid breathing" she replied, laughing lightly.

Rita swallowed lightly. So was that why Artiel was frozen like a pole?

A little further on, the young man was motionless. Motionless like a rock statue, he made no movement. His eyes, his extremities, and even his chest did not move. It was like he wasn't breathing like he was dead.

Rita began to run her hand over the gaze of the young man who slowly turned to the old one before smiling at her.

"A ghost, he's become a ghost…" Rita thought before returning her gaze to her shadows again.

Usually, she would be quite tired after summoning two shadows. But oddly, she felt good and her mana seemed to be regenerating quickly so she decided to turn to Rebecca.

- "My mana regenerates much faster. Are you feeling it too?" she asked.

- "Oh! Yes. Everywhere I go, as long as I'm close to the Master, my mana regenerates much faster. I thought he was only doing it for my training, but I think it's because of his aura" replied the young woman.

Rita was speechless. Since when did Rebecca make assumptions like this? She who did everything only according to her emotions and feelings was applying theories?

Kiril was as surprised as the old one. What had become of the innocent and sentimental young woman of the village? Not that it bothered them very much, but it was quite abrupt as a change.

As they were talking, Isaac's voice suddenly rang out with a cheerful tone and smiley face.

- "That's it! Genius! Just genius," he said, recalling his aura towards him and making the filaments disappear.

- "What did you find?" suddenly asked Rebecca, her eyes interested and curious.

The others also seemed interested, except Artiel. The young man already seemed to give up which caught Kiril's attention.

- "Why don't you seem interested?" asked the captain.

- "Trust me, even if you listen, you will not understand anything. I am going to cook" replied the young man while starting to leave.

- "I am coming with you !" suddenly pushed Iracuz.

Everyone had almost forgotten he was there. He seemed to have a gift for stealth, it was almost as if he had Cram's gift for shadow.

Artiel turned to Iracuz, his eyes weary and unconfident, but he accepted anyway. After all, the master had brought him over to cook some sort of food. And so he could know whose cooking was the best.

The two young men then left towards their camp while Isaac began to explain what he had understood.

- "They are energy converters!" he announced.

Rita and Rebecca didn't seem to understand. Let's not talk about Kiril, he was already leaving with Artiel to help them prepare food.

Seeing the incomprehension of the two women, Isaac made a miniature blue figure appear in front of him.

- "How do you get from one place to another?" asked Isaac.

- "We walk ?" Rebecca replied hesitantly.

- "Right! Now, how do you think the shadows transport you from one place to another?"

- "By… magic" Rita answered doubtfully.

She didn't know what was going on. Why think about the "how" of magic? It's magic! Magic does things that are normally impossible, right?

For her part, Rebecca had a revelation.

- "It transfers our energy!"

Part of her answer had been found because Isaac had already given them the answer. "Energy converter". After all her lessons on how magic, mana, and elemental energy particles work, the young woman had learned that everything was made of energy.

That energy could be turned into matter was something her master had explained to her with his rock creation spell.

But that matter can be transformed into energy? It had never occurred to her.

- "Right!" Isaac replied happily. "Ten points for Rebecca," he added.

"Since when did it become a competition?" Rita wondered, looking at them.

- "I do not understand very well," she replied.

Isaac then turned to the old one before pointing to the blue figure in front of him.

- "Matter, body, rocks, trees. Everything is made of energy," he said before looking at Rita to see her reaction.

Until then, the old one followed. It made sense. Everything is energy, everything is spiritual. The world is full of energy, she had seen it through her mana vision the day she awakened her gift.

- "Now, if I tell you that energy can become matter and vice versa" he continued.

The bluish silhouette then suddenly dissipated and took the form of a sort of spherical cloud.

Rita didn't seem to follow. How did something material become immaterial? It just didn't make sense to her.

Seeing the disbelieving gaze of the old one, Isaac began to think and then changed the cloud in front of him into a log of wood.

- "An example of matter which becomes energy. What is fire?" he asked seriously.

- "Energy. Father's energy which warms and bathes us" she answered suddenly with confidence.

Isaac was a little surprised by the religious quote but quickly ignored it and moved on.

- "What is the log?"

- "... matter" she answered before suddenly widening her eyes for a moment.

Seeing his gaze, Isaac smiled.

- "That's right. When you make fire, you exchange matter to create energy or heat. The concept is quite simplified here, but for an introduction, you should be fine."

Genius. Simply genius. She had never thought of it, something as simple as lighting a fire had such deep meaning as that. In all her years, she had never received such a great revelation.

- "And your shadows do the same thing but in two directions. They convert your body into energy, carry that energy to another shadow, and rebuild your body. It's ge-" Isaac said before suddenly stopping.

- "What's going on, Monsignor?" Rebecca continued, seeing her master stop in the middle of a sentence. Every time he did that, it was never a good sign. She was worried.

Isaac was thoughtful for a long moment. He was thinking deeply about the implications this had.

If a body could be transferred into energy and then rebuilt identically, that meant that if he could copy the energy transferred before it was rebuilt, then ...

- "I could clone someone, right?"