"Where is everyone? If you don't let me in right now, I'm going to burn this shop down!"
A slightly aged voice was cursing outside the net cafe.
Burn the shop?
Wayne felt like he hadn't heard those words in a long time; for a moment, he actually felt a strange sense of nostalgia.
He glanced at Amy, who was still immersed in the world of Harry Potter, intending to tell her he would handle it. To his surprise, a look of panic and embarrassment flashed across Amy's face. Her figure vanished from the movie world a step ahead of him—she had clearly already taken off her goggles.
Wayne assumed Amy was frightened. Wondering which crazy old man was interfering with his business, he quickly took off his goggles and headed outside, with Little Tess hiding behind him.
The two of them arrived at the entrance of the net cafe and sure enough, saw a grey-haired, balding man in his fifties standing there, looking like he was there to demand accountability.
Little Tess: "Boss! It's him! Not only was he mean to me, but he also said he'd burn the shop down!"
Wayne: "Uncle, what are you trying to do?"
The balding man shouted, "Are you the boss here?"
Wayne nodded.
The balding man looked left and right, seemingly not wanting to make a huge scene. He thumped the staff in his left hand against the ground and asked in a low, angry voice: "Where is my child?!"
Wayne: "Who even are you? How would I know where your kid is..."
The balding man's brow furrowed even deeper, clearly displeased. He pointed his right finger at the gold-bordered inscriptions on his outer robe but said nothing.
Wayne couldn't understand those strange inscriptions and didn't know what the man meant by pointing at them.
At that moment, Rainier, seeing that Wayne hadn't returned, walked out of the shop. He happened to catch the gesture toward the gold borders. His brow furrowed slightly as he said to Wayne, "That is the insignia of an Archmage. Only an Archmage is entitled to wear a robe with such markings."
"An Archmage?! Him?"
Wayne looked in astonishment at the angry, balding man before him. Two tufts of greyish-white hair on the sides of his head were slicked back with hair oil, kept tight against his scalp so they wouldn't be messy even in the wind—as if he were clinging to his final shred of dignity.
However, the filthy Archmage robe he wore indicated that this person didn't care much for his overall appearance.
Seeing that Rainier recognized his insignia, the balding man couldn't help but tilt his head up slightly, a glint of pride showing through. His tone softened just a fraction: "Since you recognize it, bring my child out immediately."
Although the man didn't know Rainier, he recognized the insignia on Rainier's tabard. The gold-trimmed Golden Lion represented the status of a military officer.
The man was puzzled as to why an officer of significant standing would appear in a place like this, but that wasn't his concern at the moment.
Wayne and Rainier exchanged a confused look.
However, Wayne was no stranger to this kind of scene. Parents getting off work, seeing their child hasn't returned home, and rushing angrily to a game center or net cafe to find them—usually a teenage boy—was a standard occurrence for a net cafe owner.
Wayne: "Uncle, national law stipulates that minors are not allowed in the net cafe. Your kid definitely isn't here. Go look somewhere else."
As soon as he said this, Rainier beside him and Little Tess behind him both let out a confused "Huh?"
The former was wondering when the Kingdom of Stormwind had ever passed such a law, while the latter was wondering if she wasn't a minor herself.
Wayne glanced at Little Tess and explained to the man, "Uh... this is my shop's waitress..."
But in the eyes of the balding man, the boss before him was simply a hoodlum full of lies.
He ignored Wayne and turned to Rainier instead. "Are you going to protect him? Since when do the Kingdom's soldiers collude with such scum?"
At these words, not only Wayne but even Rainier got angry.
Rainier: "Even if the most powerful mages of the Kirin Tor came here, they would first have to understand the importance of being polite."
Just as the atmosphere was turning explosive, the door was pushed open, and a soft, timid voice rang out:
"Father..."
Now, the "Huh?!" of surprise rose again, but this time Wayne joined in.
Amy nodded with a flushed face.
Wayne still found it hard to believe and asked, "Archmage Marlin?"
Amy nodded again.
Wayne, Little Tess, and Rainier couldn't help but look at the balding, hollow-eyed Marlin—who wasn't ugly but certainly couldn't be called handsome—and then back at the exceptionally elegant and beautiful Amy. They could hardly believe they were father and daughter.
If Marlin weren't currently fuming with rage, Wayne would have surely asked if the two were related by blood.
Marlin didn't care about his daughter's dignity and directly criticized her: "I am so disappointed in you! Instead of studying hard at the Sanctum of the Wizard, you came to a place like this to mess around!"
Amy: "Father... it's actually not what you think..."
Amy's explanation failed to diminish Marlin's anger. Instead, he felt his daughter was openly contradicting him, which severely damaged the "good girl" image she had always held in his heart.
Marlin: "You dare to make excuses! Come home with me right now!"
Amy was a bit scared and instinctively took a small step forward. But when she thought about the wonders of the Harry Potter world and how her mana had increased slightly after watching the movie for most of the afternoon, she was loath to leave.
Seeing his daughter's footsteps stop, Marlin's rage flared even brighter. He turned his fury back on Wayne:
"You unscrupulous scum! You deliberately tricked my child into coming here just to play your deceptive tricks, and you even spent the allowance she saved up behind our backs! I am going to teach you a proper lesson today!"
Apparently, while waiting outside, he had seen the wooden sign with the rules and prices. The exorbitant costs undoubtedly fueled his anger further.
With that, he twirled his staff with his left hand and began to mutter an incantation. He raised his right hand, palm up, and visible pale blue Arcane energy quickly gathered in his palm!
"No!"
Amy and Wayne shouted simultaneously!
Amy saw that Marlin was about to cast "Polymorph" to teach Wayne a lesson. Wayne, although he didn't know exactly what Marlin was doing, knew that once the spell was released, it would immediately trigger the net cafe's defense system. At that point, Marlin would be the one to suffer. Given the stubborn old man's personality, once he suffered a loss, today's matter would likely never end.
"Stop!" a shout from the distance drew everyone's attention, but it didn't stop Marlin's casting. However, in less than a blink of an eye, a figure with a "whoosh" sound instantly rushed to Old Marlin's side and pinned his hands. Almost at the final moment when the old man raised his hand to release the finished incantation at Wayne, the figure interrupted the spell.