Chaper 4

"But what are all these for?".

"Well, the standard book of spells by Miranda Goshawk is simply for study, while the other books are for certain classes like herbology, dueling, The dark arts, etc..." Mrs. Shang replied to Jack as she went to Fenghuang as well.

"Dueling, I'm going to be dueling people, awesome" Jack quipped.

"Yes, you will be, only, because it is a required class, if not then I wouldn't allow it" Mrs. Shang was furious at the thought that her son will be fighting other students, but there wasn't much she could do as the student's curriculum is made by the emperor himself.

"Alright, alright I think we both know how the world is getting more and more dangerous, so it's not a bad thing that he will learn how to defend himself" Mr. Shang had a different view on the dueling class, and while they both could debate it they silently decided to just go on with the shopping.

Once entering the clothing store dozens of people were either going into fitting rooms or walking to the people who sat behind different stands. There was only one stand currently open so all three of them went to it.

"Let me guess year one Fenghuang student robes" the man behind the stand was sitting down with his head in his hand while having his eyes closed.

"No, a custom order, please" Mr. Shang replied to this seemingly lazy person.

"Ahh, Adrian it's good to see you, how have you been" in an instant the man's demeanor changed.

"Li, I have been very good my friend, I hope you have been the same".

"I've been doing pretty good, landed myself a job as a deputy manager here," Li said with a toothy grin "Yep heard you got yourself a promotion co-smack".

"Mr. Shang it truly is good to see you but it would be best if you didn't distract our very capable staff when they are on duty" a feminine voice could be heard sounding out each word slowly behind Li after the crisp smack.

"Sorry about that Mrs. Qiu, we need a set of year one robes for Jack, all of it enchanted" Mrs. Shang replied while shaking her head at Adrian's stupidity, considering there was a line of people already forming behind them.

"Are you sure about it being enchanted, depending on the enchantments and how many it could be in the hundreds maybe even the thousands of galleons" Li responded with slight concern?

"Don't worry, one of the perks of being a marquess means the emperor personally pays for all school supplies for year one no matter what they are," Adrian said with a shit-eating grin.

"Ohh, that is clever, but still don't go crazy as the ire of an emperor is never a good thing to have" Li returned Adrian's grin with one of his own "So what enchantments will the robes have".

"An unbreaking charm, a self ironing charm, a self-cleaning charm, a heating and cooling charm, a defensive charm, a feather-light charm, a fitting charm, extension charms for the pockets, and lastly put every defensive charm and spell you could possibly put on it; also we need a pendent with a Locking Charm, a Transfiguration Charm, a featherweight charm, a Heavy Spacial spell, and an unbreaking charm" Mr. Shang quickly answered.

"Holy Shit, you are really milking this aren't you" Mrs. Qiu was shocked at the ridiculous amount of charms that they wanted on some simple robes for school, in fact, this was the most heavily charmed set of robes their store had ever been requested to do, and that's not even considering the pendent "Even if you don't have to pay for it, it's still not a good thing to make the government pay for this".

"What's the price," Mrs. Shang asked with a cold sweat already forming.

"13-13… 132...74 galleons" once Mrs. Shang asked for the price everyone looked at li who was looking at a handheld list of charms, spells, and enchantments while listing prices on another piece of paper, taking the longest for the pendant; after a minute he began to sweat after two minutes he was wide-eyed. Once Li was finally done listing prices a whole 5 minutes later he looked as pale as a ghost, so when he finally mustered the strength to tell them the cost he was stuttering the whole time.

During the entire time that they were there, jack hadn't said a word, mostly because he was still new to the magical world and he wasn't the person to socialize with people he just met, therefore he just stayed there and didn't say anything.

But even for the shy kid that Jack was he still couldn't help but ask "How much is that in Yuan" as if it was a 1 to 1 from yuan to this galleon then he didn't really see why they would be so deathly shocked and they are the ones who made them that expensive.

"It's 567 thousand," Mrs. Qiu said before Mrs. Shang could even think about it, "What, I don't need anything that expensive" to Jack that was so much money to spend on simple clothes that he wanted to puke immediately protesting to it.

"Honey, I think he is right, we went a little too far, we shouldn't do this" Mrs. Shang Said seriously "This is stupid and unneeded".

In response, Adrian just leaned over and whispered "It's fine, our son tamed the thunderbird, there is nothing they would do against him, and because he tamed it he should be protected by the greatest equipment" somehow Li heard his dead whisper which turned his pale face colored again, to which he put a sign on the desk that said, "Line closed for fitting".

The people behind the three were furious at this, they waited for 10+ plus minutes for no reason no they would have to find different lines which had at least 5 people.

After putting up the sign Li dragged Qiu, jack, and his parents into one of the fitting rooms.

"You shouldn't be saying that in public, Him taming a Thunderbird I mean," Li carefully said "every year a bunch of "parents" you could say, from the magical schools of japan, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, India; they always watch for talented first-years".

"They are always watching, and waiting to poach the students of Fenghuang, and any truly talented students will disappear" Li added after stopping for a second.

"Why?" Jack asked fearfully.

"Well, Jack it's mostly because of the sheer amount of wizards that china has, very easy to have some of them disappear before they are into the fold. Not only that but every year most of the Asian schools have a competition called the tournament of merit for each year, so year ones will face other schools year ones, year twos will face other year twos, etc..." Li replied before getting a measuring tape, to get Jack's measurements "And Because china puts such an ungodly amount of money into Fenghuang, they always win because they have better teachers, better school equipment, and just better schooling in general".

"And by poaching the best students, they would at least have a margin of a chance to win"

"If it's so important then what do you get for winning?" Jack once again asked but this time it was with curiosity.

"For the individual, it's for fame, money, glory, and power in your own country, for your country whoever wins the most years they get to represent the whole of Asia in the international wizarding community" Li once again replied before asking jack to hold out his arms.

"Yes, and it will be something that you will not be taking place in, Do you understand me?".

"Yes, mom I understand," Jack said all the while thinking "I'm totally doing that all 6 years".

After 2 or 3 minutes of measuring jack, Li was done "all alright, the robes will be done in 3 days, the pendent will be done in 7 hours".

"Three days why will it take so long?".

"Well, that's because we have to weave 7 enchantments, 12 charms, and 4 spells into it it's bound to take a while".