004 - New Regulation

A few days passed after the incident at the park.

"Today, at 3 AM a fire is seen in the western forest of D City. As of now, the fire department has been able to extinguish the rampaging fire. The fire department is still trying to find the cause of the fire but it is believed to come from some wild magical beast."

The sound of a female news announcer on the television can be heard in the living room.

"We have here the expert of the magical beast from Mana Particle Research Bureau, Magical Beast Division. Good morning Mr. Brown."

"Good morning."

"So Mr. Brown what do you think about this incident? Do you also think that the cause of this big forest fire is a magical beast?"

"First, I want to say a good job to all the people—especially the fire department—that helped in extinguishing the fire. Please get some rest after this. We know that a forest is an important place for many species living there, and it is also a vital place for us humans. So, it is good that we can somewhat limit the damage to the forest.

"Second, I want to talk about the hypotheses on the magical beast as the cause of the fire. As we all know, many magical beasts are evolving these last few days. Many magical beasts can evolve in silence, but some can't and they release their abilities unconsciously. We have heard about many people injured by some abilities the magical beast released when they are evolving.

"This might be what happened in the forest fire today. A wild magical beast evolved into some kind of fire-wielding magical beast. That evolving magical beast can't control their ability and accidentally caused the forest to burn," explained Mr. Brown on the television.

"So it is likely some magical beast is the cause?" The news anchor asked again to make sure.

"Yes."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Brown. We will talk to you again after we greet our other guest here…"

As Evan only wanted to hear what the expert on magical beast said, he decided to move from the TV. These last few days there is much news regarding magical beast evolution, so Evan always turns on the TV.

Just like what is said by Mr. Brown on the TV, there are many instances of magical beast evolutions in the last few days. Some of them even injured innocent people in the process.

"With all the evolution I wonder what the government will do about this. There is no way they will ban magical beast as a pet right?

"There is no reason to think about this as they will announce the new regulation later today."

Evan moves from his living room toward the shop area.

"Milky, is there no customer today?"

Milky chirped indicating that no customers have come today.

"I see, thank you for keeping your eyes on the shop."

As a magical beast, Milky is more intelligent than a normal bird. It can understand most of Evan's talk. Only on a longer sentence will Milky get confused.

"There is no customer here, want to play something?" Evan has nothing to do so, he asked Milky. Milky look at Evan before turning its head toward other places.

"Not interested huh…"

There is not much to do when there are no customers in the store, so Evan usually plays with Milky to pass the time. Looks like they played too much to be bored of playing.

Getting rejected by Milky, Evan decided to play with his phone.

* * *

The door chime tinkled when the door to the shop opened, indicating someone is coming into the shop.

"Good morning, Evan" a man wearing a blue t-shirt walk inside the shop. He then added when Milky replied with a chirp, "Good morning to you too, Milky."

"Morning, Ains. Anything you need today?"

"I brought the food supply for this week, how much do you need?"

This man is Ainsley Covington. He works for one of the pet supply distributors. Evan knows him from the contact that the old owner has. Both hit it off with each other because they are close in age. They become a friend in no time at all.

"I don't need that many, so the same amount as last week." Evan moved from the counter toward the front of the shop. "Let me help you carrying that."

Ainsley inputted the amount that Evan want to his phone, "Okay, let's go pick them up."

Both of them walked toward the truck parked in front of the shop.

"Have you heard the rumor?" Ainsley opens the conversation while carrying the pet supplies inside.

"About what?"

"The new regulation."

Evan gets a little surprised when he hears that. "No, what happened?"

"It is said that all magical beast pets should get checked and registered in Mana Particle Research Bureau."

"Eh? That is a lot of work right? Will they really do that?"

"Who knows, this is still a rumor after all. But they might really do that… You know with all that happened."

"You know what will they check?"

"Not really, maybe mana density and things like that?" Ainsley put the last bag down before continuing. "Well, we can only wait about this."

Evan and Ainsley started to check the number of supplies brought into the shop. "Yup, all okay. Then, I will go first. Good luck selling more so I can get a bonus for more sales. Tell me if your stock emptied in the middle of the week."

"Sure, I also hope I can sell more."

* * *

Later that day, the Mana Particle Research Bureau announced many things including the new regulation regarding the magic beast.

The announcement can be summarised in 3 points.

1. Magical beast as a pet need to get registered, checked, and tested regularly at the designated place.

2. As the government don't have that many people to check all pet in the country. The government will work with existing pet shops and pet clinics throughout the country to establish magical beast registering, checking, and testing places.

3. Who is eligible to open that place will be detailed at later date.