High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1266: Chapter 13 Legal Risks of the Northern District Wizard

Korma had created ”Sacrificial Magic”—or rather ”Sacrifice Magic,” ”Life Magic”—the principle of which was to sacrifice life, converting life force into magic power, thereby enhancing the Trickster’s casting abilities.

Long, long ago, when wizards’ moral standards weren’t so high, such crude sacrificial magic had emerged. But as the Outer Gods were forced to retreat into the depths of starry sky, and wizards found more effective ways of casting, they abandoned these bloody and brutal spells.

Even today, such forbidden materials could not be seen even in the depths of the library at First University.

Perhaps only ancient beings like Satoguya still retained concepts of magical rituals involving sacrifice and feedback.

Listening to the introduction to Korma’s ”Sacrificial Magic,” Zheng Qing, for some reason, was suddenly reminded of the feeling he had when he entered North Beta Town—whenever he stepped into this district populated by Tricksters, it always felt like moving from sunlight into shadow, making one instinctively wrap their cloak tighter.

Even at high noon, when the sunlight was at its brightest, this district still gave off an eerie aura.

Even though they now had ways to perform real magic, those methods still sent shivers down one’s spine. It was as if this part of the world was undeserving of radiant sunlight; any treasure or beauty that entered this district would become distorted and deformed.

”This is indeed a problem,” Jiang Yu’s agreeing voice broke the young cost student’s train of thought. He only noticed it briefly before catching up with the pace of the conversation in the bar—two witches were discussing the legal risks associated with using Sacrificial Magic.

Because Korma’s ”Sacrificial Magic” required the killing of innocent animals during its use, this behavior was in clear conflict with the relevant animal protection regulations in the ”Wizard’s Code.”

For instance, in certain emergency situations, if North District Wizards needed to use magic and there happened to be no frogs around, but only a rabbit or a mouse, it would be very difficult to prevent the life of these small animals from being affected by the wizard’s use of magic.

”The Wizard’s Code states that only ’maliciously’ killing small animals constitutes a crime,” Korma clearly had studied the relevant regulations, and he responded with ease when discussing this issue: ”Furthermore, the harshest penalty is only second-degree murder... In times of danger, the law’s constraints on wizards are not greater than those of morality. They have the right to choose to sacrifice animals to save themselves.”

This was like the well-known trolley problem, a moral paradox—whether to pull the track lever to sacrifice one person in order to save a group of people, or to do nothing and let the train run over the group. If you pull the lever, does that make you a murderer? Are your actions malicious?

Zheng Qing never liked to fuss over such questions.

He’d rather imagine himself having the courage and strength of Hercules, capable of lifting the oncoming train over his shoulder and placing it safely on the roadside.

Everyone would be happy.

Of course, reality does not permit such romantic notions to occur.

”Malice comes in many forms,” Jiang Yu said, now playing the role of a stringent Danghag prosecutor, wracking her brain to find the flaws in Korma’s logic. ”For example, ’subjective malice,’ ’objective malice,’ ’actual malice,’ etc. The moment the Northern District Wizard chose to use sacrificial magic, they were naturally branded with the stamp of ’actual malice,’ and this isn’t something that can be simply dismissed with excuses or the right to self-defense.”

”Killing a rabbit might be considered second-degree murder according to the Codex, but the Codex doesn’t cover all cases. Sir Brexton, a wizard from 18th-century Britannia, once cited ’Principles of Malice Supplement’ in the ’Wizard Codex Exposition,’ which includes ’Malice Supplement by Age,’ ’Malice Supplement Soul,’ ’Malice Supplement Contract,’ etc. As long as the judge during the trial deems your malice sufficient, then it is entirely possible that the sentencing could exceed the limitations of second-degree murder.”

Zheng Qing sat dumbfounded in his leather chair, blankly listening to the two witches argue over various complicated terms. Although his life as a wizard for over half a year had taught him a lot about this world, it wasn’t enough for him to truly integrate into it.

This had nothing to do with stupidity.

After all, just completing the homework assigned by professors and becoming familiar with new content introduced in textbooks consumed most of the time of a hardworking, financially subsidized student. With a bit of free time, he still had a pile of troublesome matters to attend to, like his off-campus shop and the school’s cat colony.

Even when tired from studying, he would pull one or two light reads from the library, such as ’Werewolves and Bloodties in the Moonlit Parliament,’ ’Days Dancing with Dragons,’ and ’Dwarf Historical Research,’ books akin to tales of wonders, to pass time. He certainly wouldn’t waste his precious rest time on heavy professional tomes like the ’Wizard’s Code’ full of twisted sentences and obscure vocabulary.

You see, he had never studied courses such as ’Wizard Jurisprudence,’ ’Britannia Legal History,’ or ’Danghag Criminal Procedure.’

Maybe today, he thought it might have been a good idea to drag Doctor Xiao along to the shop. Zheng Qing sat listlessly on the stool, listening to the witches chat and suddenly had this idea—it was a very natural thought; he had reason to believe that Xiao Xiao, who could recite the entire ’Wizard’s Code,’ would fit into this conversation with much more ease.

By the time he finished his fifth cup of Green Bee and his cheeks began to swell, the witches’ debate finally came to a temporary halt.

”After I go back, I will consult the family attorney and hear their opinion on this matter,” Jiang Yu said as she lifted her falling hair behind her ear and spoke softly. ”And grandma... I will also ask for her opinion.”

”I need to re-examine the provisions in the ’Wizard’s Code’ as well,” Korma stretched out, then laughed at herself with self-deprecation: ”Originally, coming downstairs was meant to take a little break, but who knew the mental energy spent here would not be much less than upstairs... It’s truly a life of toil.”

”I can lend you Doctor Xiao,” Zheng Qing finally found a chance to butt in and immediately offered eagerly, completely forgetting he had no authority to ’lend out’ a wizard with a complete personality, even if that wizard was a member of his Hunting team.

”Doctor Xiao?” Korma didn’t immediately connect the term to the wizard’s name—at First University, the most common title for wizards was doctor; it was said in jest that ’if you start counting every person you meet on campus, you’ll find that one in ten is a doctor.’

”Oh, it’s student Xiao Xiao,” Jiang Yu explained with a smile: ”A special recruit in our class, it’s very likely he’s memorized the entire ’Wizard’s Code’ and ’Encyclopedia of the Wizarding World’... His nickname in the class is ’Doctor.’”

”That would be wonderful,” Korma accepted the young subsidized student’s offer cheerfully while also winking at him: ”If Doctor Xiao can help out this time, when you come to the shop during the winter break, the ’Magic Ritual’ I mentioned is still on.”

Zheng Qing was taken aback for a moment and then broke out into a sweat.

Jiang Yu then cast a curious glance at the young man, wondering what had put him on edge again.