18. You definitely won’t be sleeping well in the future after seeing your medical bills.

Luz moved his head out of the water before removing the mask that supplied him with oxygen, just to say in a croaked voice: "Food."

The latter nodded before increasing the nutrient intake tremendously while draining the water from the tank.

The loud gurgling sound of water was heard, and Luz immediately got overwhelmed by cold and fatigue even though he wanted to stand up and leave the tank. Weakly he pointed his finger towards Simon while muttering: "I'm freezing."

Simon smiled gently and whispered into the latter's ear: "Luz…I hope you sleep well since you definitely won't be sleeping well in the future after I show you your medical bills."

Fortunately, Luz could not hear any of Simon's words as he fell asleep in the fetal position.

After whispering the price tag of Luz's medical bill into the latter's ears, Simon put a coat over Luz's wet body that would dry and keep him warm while he called Brian.

As expected, Brian appeared right in the room before Simon could even blink. The first thing the Master did was to gaze at Luz. Only then did he turn his gaze back to Simon. Instantly, Simon sensed the disapproving stare of the mansion's owner and immediately initiated the conversation.

"Yo Brian…" stammered Simon before announcing proudly, while showing the latter some graphs: "Luz woke up for a short while before falling asleep again. Also, take a look at his measurements."

The lord of the mansion raised an eyebrow before muttering: "It seems like everything has returned to normal. We should still observe him for a week before letting him continue working."

Simon nodded in agreement before remarking: "Yeah, I already prepared a room for him in my mage tower. Also, you better not doubt my skills again, hehehe. I'll be sending you all the research data I got from the young boy and all the further data."

Brian sighed while maintaining a straight face: "Well, I don't doubt your skill. I just despise your recklessness. One can't always be successful, my dear Simon."

Simon nodded before yawning loudly.
Seeing that, Brian commented casually: "Go take a nap. I'll be taking over from here."

The latter immediately left the laboratory while Brian took a seat, opening the notes to deepen his understanding of Luz's situation.

Hours passed, and Brian got so bored by the data that he threw it aside to pick the newspaper. What awaited him there made his eyes immediately narrow.

The title in question: "FATAL CASUALTIES. OVER 80% OF THE BEGINNER MAGES DIED DURING THE BATTLE. WHAT WILL THE PROVINCIAL LORD DO TO COMBAT IT?"

The headline made Brian uneasy, and he immediately lost interest in reading the article. Sighing, he put the newspaper aside before pondering with a somber expression what the provincial lord might be up to next as he stood beneath him.

"I feel pity for them. The young ones fight wars that got started before they were even born. They've been told that they are fighting for the honor of the country when in reality, they are fighting for natural resources."

Hours passed, and Luz woke up with a groan. Hearing the noise, Brian slowly stood up to greet the young troublemaker.

Luz stretched his limbs while loudly yawning as he inspected his body in hopes of finding anything different from the norm. Unfortunally, his body hasn't much changed, except that he lost fat and muscles, making his body thinner than he was.

'Yeah, I gotta eat more from now on," Luz thought as another yawn escaped his mouth.

"Yo," commented Brian with a smile, shocking the half-awake Luz in the process, as he didn't expect his Master at al.

"Master Brian, what are you doing here!?" asked Luz while covering his naked body.

The latter grabbed Luz's cheeks while saying: "Am I not allowed to care for a troublemaker?"

"Argh, it hurts," whimpered Luz grabbing after Brian's hand. Next to his Master, Luz was like a feeble child, as he couldn't defend against the latter.

After annoying Luz, Brian began lecturing him for an hour about why his action was stupid. Luz should have asked him for advice instead of making such important decisions with little to no afterthought.

"Fine, I promise. I'll never do something like that again without asking you," sighed Luz with red cheeks.

Brian nodded before stating: "troublemaker… you gonna stay here with Liv for a week before your work will start. Till then, you are forbidden from leaving the tower. Also, that girl should teach you some basics."

After stating that, Brian unplugged most of the tubes responsible for mana, nutrition, and air supply, before changing most of the measurement sticks with ones that were the size of grains.

Only after that did he bring Luz to his new guest room before leaving the tower altogether.

The door to the guest room reserved for him was made out of mahogany wood that had a warm touch. After taking a deep breath, Luz opened the door and was immediately amazed by what awaited him. It was twice as big compared to the one he shared with his four siblings while also being decorated with exotic objects he had never seen in his life.

Of course, the room had the basic stuff such as a bed, a few closets, and a desk made of brown ebony wood. Above the desk was a shelf filled to the brim with books.

But that wasn't all. Over the bed was a goddamn monster head embedded into the wall. Luz couldn't care less about the monster head, whose species was unknown to him if it wasn't for it moving its gaze from time to time.
Gulping, Luz ignored it before grabbing a random book off the shelf so that he could kill his boredom till he fell asleep or till someone visited him. After holding a small but thick book, Luz immediately jumped onto his new bed, which felt like heaven compared to the ones from the mansion.

"Hmmm… A Mage's memoir and the truth about mages. Yeah, that sounds interesting. Let's see what the author has to say," Luz commented upon reading the book's title.

But what Luz didn't realize was that he picked a banned book that was neither meant to be in Master Simon's hands nor meant to be in the guest room. It was a pure coincidence that he found the book of a madman who got executed by fire in the middle of the capital.

Even though the book didn't contain any pieces of information about forbidden magic spells, it contained truths that were generally concealed from beginner mages and mortals.

The penalty for reading such a book as a beginner mage was a complete mind wipe. However, if one owned such a work, the punishment would be way more severe than a simple mind wipe. On would be executed on the spot by the local authority with no due process.

"Mages are not free and are, however, slaves. They may stand above the peasants, yet they carry shackles that bound them to the local provinces," Luz read before shaking his head.

"Yeah… the book is trash. Everyone knows that mages are free and live luxurious lives. Let's pick a more interesting book," commented Luz while standing up and taking another random book with the title: "What awaits outside the human kingdom? An introduction to the countries surrounding us."

"Yeah… that sounds way better," Luz commented. But unfortunally, someone ripped the door open before he could even open the book.