Ezekiel

Ezekiel's face was pale as he retreated a few steps, moving away from Lawrence.

He then exclaimed, "Atherforge Elixir? What the heck is that?" 

It was clear that Ezekiel chose the feigning ignorant act, a typical option for the cowardly or those who wished to deny something.

"Sure, I guess you don't know what that is." Lawrence clasped his hands and nodded. "Recently, I've just caused some troubles in the Tatum Academy, and the queen might summon me for an audience. I'll tell her about this shabby shop at that time." 

With that said, Lawrence turned around, seemingly ready to leave the shop.

Ezekiel might not give a damn if it was someone else that had said such words, but based on Lawrence's actions throughout their interaction. There was one thing he could confirm.

The young man in front of him is insane and unpredictable.

And when he calmed his mind, Ezekiel realized that the time right now should be the Tatum Academy doing an affinity test. 

So how was it possible for this young man with the academy uniform to show up here? 

The answer was simple– this young man had outright ditched the affinity test and disrespected the queen. 

After all, even if one was immensely talented, the test would still take at least an hour or so. There are no exceptions, and that was including the royalties or those with high ranking in the Royal Court. 

With all those thoughts in mind, it might actually be true that the young man in front of him would be summoned to the queen. By then, if Lawrence truly talked about him, then he would be screwed.

'Damn it, why did I proclaim my name to him?' Ezekiel stomped the floor in frustration, having realized he had played himself. Had he not revealed his name, then he wouldn't have cared at all.

"Wait a minute, let's talk about this patiently." Unable to think of the aftermath, Ezekiel extended his hand and shouted, hoping that he would stop leaving. 

However, little did he expect Lawrence to be gone already.

"He actually left that quick??!" Ezekiel was stunned and dumbfounded by the situation. Although he might have thought quite a lot, it was only for a very brief moment. 

Just when Ezekiel was about to chase after Lawrence, he heard a glass-clinking sound behind him.

Turning around, Ezekiel had his mouth wide open when he saw Lawrence grabbing a high-grade rank 2 booze.

"What are you doing?" Ezekiel asked in panic. "No– I mean how did you even get there?" 

"Oh, I went behind you when you were making a somewhat hideous facial expression. Seriously, you need to work on your expression if you're going to keep overthinking." Lawrence explained, opening the booze without his permission. 

Lawrence had long expected Ezekiel would give in and stop him from leaving. 

Of course, he wasn't afraid Ezekiel would be attempting to kill him to silence him. 

It was not aligned with his personality, plus Ezekiel wasn't dumb to kill a student of the Tatum Academy. 

The uniform he was currently wearing. It looked simple and nothing much on the surface, but if he was to be harmed in a way that threatened his life. 

The uniform would essentially turn into a signal and transmit the real-time event to the Royal Court. Meaning if a student with a uniform was harmed, the Queen would instantly know and order an arrest of the culprit. 

This was also the reason why bullying might occur in the Tatum Academy, but the victim was never physically harmed, only emotionally. 

Aka Emotional Damage! 

Only the weak-willed individual would be affected by emotional damage. 

But that was merely a single point, with the main goal of the uniform being to protect students from being harmed outside of the academy.

The students are the future generation of pillars for the Tatum Kingdom, with many resources dumped into them.

As if the Queen was going to let some Tom, Dick, and Harry get away with harming the students. 

And before anyone started questioning about what if it was the student that provoked others first? 

There are mana embedded in each uniform, so if there was ever a case, there are special crystal balls that could replay a scene. Hence, the student can't try to use their uniform as an advantage to provoke others, because they would be severely punished. 

Now that you have gained this little knowledge, you can somewhat understand Lawrence's confidence and why the people he asked to punch him earlier retreated in fear. 

Because despite all of that, Lawrence was still a noble in the end, and we all know a law is as good as a fart when being put to actual use. 

Ezekiel also seemed to have realized Lawrence's plan, so he could only gnash his teeth in frustration. 

Watching Lawrence opening his booze and pouring it into one of his precious booze glasses that he made sure to clean daily despite the rest of the interior being below-average, frustrated him deeply. 

"You really got no respect, do you?" Ezekiel questioned him. 

"Respect is earned, not given." Lawrence took a sip of the booze and said, making an "ahh" sound due to the alcoholic content. "As expected of a low-quality booze. It kind of stings the throat, but I guessed it's to your liking, Old Fool." 

Having gotten somewhat used to Lawrence's carefreeness, Ezekiel ignored his remarks and asked further, "Who are you exactly?" 

Till now, he still hadn't gotten a name as to who the young man in front of him was. 

"Right, you didn't ask for my name, so I thought you would have known by now since you tried to sound mysterious previously. Like, don't all those people that tend to act mysterious attempt to be a bigshot and be the know-it-all all type?" Lawrence chuckled softly and cracked some peanuts to enjoy along with his booze. 

With peanuts still in his mouth, Lawrence introduced himself. "My name is Lawrence Von Carrion, but you can just call me Lawrence or Law. Whatever you prefer, Old Fool~"