2023. March 27.
Professor Bernard
GASP AS THE WORLD CHAMPION ESCAPIST BREAKS OUT OF HIS UNDERWATER PRISON!
As the new Golden Age of Magic dawned, Bernard Drudson, a well-known artisan of locks in Magoria, received more and more peculiar requests from the city’s performers. Being a man who is always up for a challenge, these tasks delighted him endlessly. One day, he had a dispute with an upstart magician who claimed that Bernard’s shackles were flawed and that he almost drowned because of the mediocre craftsmanship. Bernard argued that the tool was working perfectly - it was rather the upstart escape artist’s skill that is mediocre.
The magician was outraged and challenged Bernard to a duel, which he accepted under the condition that it shall be a duel of magicians. With both of them using the same generic shackles underwater, the first to emerge to the surface wins, and the loser is due to give a public apology and must forfeit his trade forever. The haughty magician accepted. The next day, when a huge crowd gathered to watch the duel, Bernard showed his unmatched understanding of locks, freeing himself in mere seconds. The audience was awe-struck, and the priggish magician left Magoria ashamed, never to return. It wasn’t long until Bernard was invited to perform on stage, and his show was met with thunderous success.
From then on, young magicians flocked his workshop, begging him to teach them his ways with locks, and Bernard, being a teacher at heart, agreed. Decades have passed since then, and Professor Bernard - as he is known now in the magicians' world - became incredibly versed in dozens of tricks and is, to this day, the world record holder of the fastest Water Tank Escape ever performed.