The Taboo Of The Curtained World

Seeing the change in the police officer was like his switch was flipped. Daniel was amused at the result, but still not amused enough to let them go.

"Oh, Aren't you arrogant just a few seconds ago?" Daniel teasingly asks.

"Have mercy lord! I don't really know that you are a new mage who just came to this city!" The Police officer spoke up, trying to defend himself.

Hearing what the police officer said Daniel immediately put his mind into the mindscape and thought.

[He said he didn't know that I was the new mage in the city. Is this information supposed to be known to the police? Is he just saying it because he doesn't know he is going to kick an iron plate or… he said it because it was the information he's supposed to know and he doesn't know?]

[Am I too paranoid?... no matter. Let's bait him.] Daniel decided then moved his mind out of the mindscape.

"You said you don't know? Oh… and why is THAT?" Daniel asks the question, it was a normal question but his voice was full of sarcasm and disdain as if he asked because he knew that it was the duty of the other side to know this kind of thing.

In this way even if it's not the case that it's his duty to know. It'll sound like he is just being an ass and asking him sarcastically and trying to provoke him.

"Sir! It's… It's because our network might not be updated yet. If… if you were to arrive at this city today It is normal. It's still not past midnight after all." The police explain.

[Is this a similar system to the visa for the mage? And the new mage that comes to the new country or area needs to get something to ID themselves from the local authority?] Daniel pondered, then decided to play along.

"Yeah, I just arrived here," Daniel replied.

"Ah! As expected." The police officer let out a smile and stood up. Trying to look humble as much as he can like he was some kind of a hotel receptionist.

"Since sir mage just arrived here, let me tell you a little bit about the rule that was different than the other place. First, our grace period of not having an ID is 5 days. It's much shorter than other places I know but since It's his majesty the king's decree. It can't be helped." The police officer explained, trying hard to improve the mood of the powerful mage in front of him in hope of getting off lightly.

"Decree?" Daniel repeated in curiosity, then asked.

"Why is that? Tell me, during that time I was still cramming all the things about creating the artifact into my head and buried myself with a lot of boring research." Daniel lied as he tried to get the information he didn't know that was related to the Curtained World.

"Err… that's" The police officer stuttered, his reluctance was clear to see.

[This means that he should know something that might be bad or looking bad for the royal family or it was a shameful matter of that damn crown prince. No, He's already a king isn't he, heh… no matter, he is just a scumbag who is lucky enough to be born as a sperm in the king's ballsack.] Daniel thought in disdain. His face clearly showed his annoyance.

"If you don't want to then, don't bother. I'll see it myself." Daniel said as the dark aura appeared on Daniel's hand.

Suddenly the wave of pure dark magical energy intrudes into the police officer's brain.

Inside Daniel's mindscape, he just uses the card that he finds interesting on how it would be actualized in the real world.

Card: Mind Reading

Picture: A hand covered with dark energy touching the head of a bald man.

Rarity: Common

Type: Spell

Mana Cost: 1 Dark

Description: Target players need to play with their hands open until the caster's next turn.

Flavor text: Speaking can be tainted with lies, reading the mind shows only the truth.

The thousands of memories of the police officer appear within Daniel's mindscape like the thumbnail on a Net-Tube video. He could choose which one to play but he didn't care about the other much, so he chose to see a specific one.

He wishes to know what made that scumbag king issue the decree such as reducing the grace period and common knowledge about mages and the Curtained World as much as he could.

The reason why the grace period was reduced is less than satisfactory. It was because this shitty police is in the lower part of the pyramid in the royal family power structure.

He only knew that 5 years ago there was a very powerful unknown mage who came from a foreign country and massacred the royal family members. The only survivor of the royal bloodline was that shitty king and the member of the main branch of the royal family.

After that, the shitty king declared this decree with the approval of the Hightower.

How this conflict ended and why that damn king's main branch survived was unknown to this police.

As for the common knowledge about the mage and the Curtained World was more fruitful than the first topic he wished to know.

To summarize, the mage is basically the noble that could do anything they want as long as they didn't reveal the existence of the Curtained World intentionally, such as going to the TV station and showing them the magic.

Or cause trouble large enough to make the people outside of the Curtained World know about the existence of magic and the Curtained World.

For example, a fight between the mage or the existence in the Curtained World that spills to the eyes of the masses and can't clean up the mess or having a large and risky fight that might expose the existence of the Curtained World without the approval of the Hightower.

All in all, if you do anything that exposes the existence of magic or the Curtained World toward the masses, it will be a serious issue that will trigger the enforcer from the Hightower to come after any mage who did this. It's a very serious taboo for the Curtained World.

A deathly serious.

As for the Hightower, they are basically the UN of the Curtained World that governs and enforces the law of the Curtained World. The information about the Hightower was short as the police officer was not a mage and only had clearance to know about the Curtained World.

What Daniel found useful is that he knew that the royal family of Tessia Kingdom was considered a mage family. Their status was not high in the eyes of the Hightower council, they can't even compare to the middle size mage family in Europe. At most, they would be on par with a small mage family.

[So they are a mage family, that explains the ritual.] Daniel pondered as his mind wandered back to the day he died 10 years ago.

Daniel then tried to search for some more useful information in the memory but there was nothing useful. The only thing that catches his eye is that this scum of police uses his authority and connection with the royal family to prey on the weak. He even lost count of the victim as it was more than he could remember.

Daniel wants to kill him but stops himself as this police scum has already reported their position and mission time estimation. If they don't return to their master then there will be a lot of trouble.

He still doesn't know how strong the court mage of this damn royal family is, nor is he able to fight them, he didn't even know about their number and who to watch out for.

If he were to kill him, the court mage might come after him, and since he didn't have the mage ID card it would be worse if the mage authority found out about him.

Then Daniel read about the current situation and why these people came to arrest Murphy.

Turns out, Pete has ratted them out and told them that Murphy was the former police forces commander that dared to gather evidence of the human trafficking in this country and found out that the royal family was the one who supported it.

After Daniel had finished with the memory reading, he got his mind out of the mindscape and released the police officer.

"Did you… did you just read my mind, lord mage?" The police officer clutches his head and asks in confusion.

Daniel nodded.

"Yes, This way, you wouldn't have any trouble with your higher-up because of telling me something you shouldn't. Because I read it directly from your mind and you wouldn't be able to stop it either." Explained Daniel.

"Oh! Thank you for your mercy lord mage!" The police officer said with a sigh of relief.

"Don't thank me so soon, Mr. Officer. You might not like what I'm going to say next."

What Daniel said quickly dampened the excitement of the police officer and his SWAT team. They thought that they had survived the calamity.

"I have a contract to fulfill, I've been tasked by my teacher to give shelter and protect those two men. Including his evidence." Daniel pointed at Murphy and Murphy's other friend who was still in a cuff because he tried to help Murphy.