Chapter 30 – An Idea and a Piece of History

This year was the 754th year of the Empire.

In later generations’ evaluations of history, this was a year worth recording, one of profound significance.

First, Duke Tidis led his legion to ruthlessly suppress the last restless small kingdom on the border. The Empire no longer had any noteworthy concerns across the entire continent. Then, the Emperor’s second son, Prince Bolan, held a grand and high-profile wedding, marrying Lady Lavis, who was known as the “Empire’s Most Beautiful Woman.” At the same time, this prince began to appear frequently in the Empire’s council chamber, standing shoulder to shoulder with the first heir, Prince Gregory.

The Nightingale Family, which had once again married into the Imperial Family, naturally triumphed over their old rival, Berlinar, and secured the operation rights for the newly opened canal. What surprised everyone was that the Lavis and Tidis families, who had not been closely related before, began to cooperate closely. The Tidis family’s mining business in the south had originally relied on land routes, but now they gradually established a second fleet in addition to their eastern fleet, frequently traveling along the canal. The Lavis family welcomed this wholeheartedly, even generously reducing the navigation fees for this fleet by half!

With this as the prelude, the nobles and ministers of the Imperial Capital entered a period of anxiety—every family realized that as the old Emperor’s health declined and the second prince began to rise, their expectation of Prince Gregory naturally succeeding to the throne was unlikely to happen. The era of indifference to politics was over, and the critical moment to choose sides had arrived. In many family heads’ studies, one serious secret meeting after another took place, preparing to make their choices.

This delicate period was later considered by historians as the prelude and groundwork for another great era, an era whose crises and glories could rival, if not surpass, those of the Empire’s founding.

In this prelude, another figure who deserves to be highlighted from a different camp was the eldest son of the Tidis family, along with his companions and teachers in that camp.

Scholars studying this period of history are divided into two camps: one believes that the emergence of such an era was an inevitable stage in the development of fate, while the other believes it was a turning point of fate created by a group of wise, far-sighted geniuses and heroes through their own efforts.

For example, the eldest son of the Tidis family and his companion, Master Daniel, played a significant role in establishing trade between the Magic World and the continent!

Trade—it is so important. No friendly diplomatic relationship can compare to stable exchange of interests.

Unfortunately, history is full of all sorts of incredible coincidences. No matter how much later generations speculate, they cannot argue out the truth. The two parties involved had no awareness of doing anything grand. If scholars could travel to this era and learn the origin of the so-called “trade between two worlds,” they would surely open their elegantly closed mouths in astonishment!

In the trade house of the Floating Sky Capital, a figure in green was hopping around a young man in a black magic robe: “Lin Wei—I have to admit it again, you’re such a cunning boy! But I sincerely agree with your idea. If you need crystals, I can lend them to you without hesitation. Of course, you’ll have to let me join in too!”

Lin Wei pressed him down: “Shh… you can’t let others hear this.”

Daniel grinned and nodded.

Lin Wei rubbed his chin with his right hand, sizing up Daniel: “Of course. It seems you’re about to graduate from the academy—so this business will start after you leave. The continent has no shortage of manpower, so you only need to stay in the Floating Sky Capital.”

The two looked at each other, for once in a friendly and harmonious situation.

—This matter started with their lunch in the Floating Sky Capital. Since many mages would linger in the trade house for a long time, there were also places selling food here.

Lin Wei looked in disbelief at the plate of oddly shaped fruits and roots in front of him: “I thought it was because the academy was far out on an island that our food was so bad. I didn’t expect that even in the main city, it’s still this damned thing!”

“I’ve eaten this all my life,” Daniel said with a dazed look at their lunch. “These magical plants used as food grow very quickly, and you only need a little to feel full. We think it’s a perfectly normal meal—but after spending a few days in your Imperial Capital, I can now understand how you feel facing this stuff.”

Haitie also poked at the things on her plate, not wanting to eat: “Lin Wei, how are those amazing foods on the continent made?”

Lin Wei replied: “You saw it on the way here—the farmers, the fields, and the livestock. They’re nothing in terms of magic, but they’re delicious to eat.”

He thought about the mages he had seen and realized there was a reason for this situation: mages were few in number and couldn’t afford to spend as much effort as the continent’s farmers on growing grains and raising livestock. They would kill magical beasts, but their goals were entirely focused on fur, bones, crystals, or specific blood with magical properties. As for magical beast meat—as far as Lin Wei knew, it was saturated with magical elements, and eating it could have unpredictable consequences.

And the proud mages, who had always flown over the continent without so much as a glance at the ordinary world, wouldn’t care about their lives. Even if some mage with wild ideas wanted to try human food, they wouldn’t have the continent’s currency to buy it.

Lin Wei thought that if he brought the continent’s food to the Floating Sky Capital, it would surely be welcomed by the mages who had to fill their stomachs with tasteless magical plants—and there were also the noblewomen’s beautiful clothes and jewelry. Just look at the gazes the female mages cast at Haitie, and you’d know they’d also be willing to take out their space rings and spend a fortune on crystals to buy them.

It didn’t matter if the mages learned how these things were made—it wasn’t something they could master overnight, and those exquisite clothes could only be perfectly crafted by families of tailors!

It must be said, this was a novel idea that no one had ever proposed before.

In the past, there had been ordinary people who entered the Magic World from the continent, but few were like Lin Wei, who came from a great noble family, didn’t have to worry about the source of the continent’s currency—gold coins—and had the connections to get the continent’s exquisite food and clothing. Even if they had such “cunning” thoughts, they had never truly acted on them.

The bright future of a pile of crystals flying toward him comforted Lin Wei’s bad mood when facing magical food. He quietly discussed with Daniel how to turn this idea into reality and the prices mages would accept. Soon, they finished their lunch.

Passing through the high-ceilinged front hall and a short corridor, they arrived at the mages’ trading area.

There were more mages in the trading area than in the front hall, but it was very quiet, completely unlike the bustling East District of the Imperial Capital, where transactions also took place. Mages needing to exchange crystals only had to present the price tag issued by the appraiser, and a specialist would open the underground crystal vault to take out the corresponding number of crystals.

Daniel had harvested two hundred high-grade magic crystals this time—fifty of which belonged to Lin Wei.

Daniel held a cyan crystal the size of half a fist up to the light and examined it carefully, praising: “What a pure color! Only a high-grade wind-element magical beast could produce such a perfect crystal—it’s equivalent to ten mid-grade crystals, and each mid-grade crystal can buy ten Purple Sparrow Grass. I’ll need at least a thousand of this lovely little plant next year!”

“A thousand? What are you going to use them for?” Lin Wei asked.

“When I return to the academy, I’ll start formally learning how to make magical healing potions—they’re much more complicated than the potion I used to treat that knight brother in Crescent Town. Purple Sparrow Grass is a necessary ingredient for all healing potions,” Daniel said, curling his lips into a smile, his tone slightly gloating. “My classmates only have the most basic healing potions. If they get injured in the Valley of Ice, those potions won’t guarantee a full recovery—I can already imagine those guys crying and clinging to my legs, begging me to make advanced potions when they return to the academy.”

“Isn’t the Valley of Ice dangerous—Daniel, aren’t you worried about them?” Haitie asked.

“It’s dangerous, but they can still survive,” Daniel said. “There are thirteen of them, with mages of all elements, and they’re led by Teacher Herbert, a high-grade earth-element mage with notable defensive abilities.”

“So, your class has fourteen people… but our class doesn’t even have that many,” Haitie wondered.

“The numbers have been decreasing almost every year, starting from several classes ago. It’s said that all the houses were once full, but now they can’t be filled no matter what,” Daniel shrugged. “The old men are already worried they won’t be able to recruit any students next year. My teacher said they suspect that people on the continent are hiding their magical talents and plan to submit a request to the Magic Association for necessary assistance to investigate magical talents more carefully.”

Lin Wei didn’t respond. The Empire had indeed secretly hidden some mages, so it was best for him to remain silent on this matter…

However, based on his understanding of the ages of the Mage Corps members, even with the mages recruited by the Empire, the number of mages this year still didn’t exceed ten—and that was a problem worth worrying about for the Magic Academy and the Magic Association.

As they spoke, the group had already walked out of the crystal exchange area. Ahead was the place where various magical items could be purchased.

Daniel, familiar with the place, headed toward the area selling magical plants and other alchemy materials, waving at the three of them: “I’m going to fill up my rings—you three kids go look at what you want.”

Lin Wei looked at the various magical items, his eyes shining with pleasure: “I think there are some things in the Magic World that can be brought to the continent…”