With the signature of the Archmage, the new building for the Oak Grove Clinic was vigorously constructed. Garrett even had a specific request:
"Could we paint the maternity ward... brick red? Or just the roof would be fine!"
"Of course, that’s easily done and it won’t cost extra."
Mage Valerna looked at him in surprise and then simply spread out a color chart for him to choose from. Painting exteriors was nothing new; magicians were accustod to decorating their own towers or residences with murals, astrological charts, and magical configurations.
However, red? For a male magician, that was an uncommon choice:
"Oh, I understand now. You’re doing this to make the mothers and their families feel more comfortable, right? Such a thoughtful healer..."
Garrett smiled without responding. His reason wasn’t that; firstly, it was to make the maternity ward more noticeable, and secondly...
It was to commorate his grandmother, who was born in a ’red house’ hospital in his previous life.
Mage Valerna, along with the construction crew, busied themselves building for Garrett. anwhile, the portly old man in the Alchemy Workshop, upon receiving Garrett’s design, imdiately sought out the legendary mage, Lord Ripley of the Erald Crown:
"Master, master! Look at what young Garrett has co up with, sothing quite extraordinary!"
Lord Ripley, the legendary mage, remained silent. He did not indulge in his disciple’s boasts, instead, he ticulously examined the spell configuration and nodded slightly:
"An interesting concept. Alleviate Pain is not a rare magic, but the modifications here are quite exceptional. Hmm..."
Renowned for his expertise in ancient alchemy, as titled in the “Erald Records,” his mastery was evident. He could understand the purpose of a spell at a glance, identify its magical basis, and note the improvents made.
Nonetheless, that didn’t stop him from examining the construction plans, then the blueprints, and finally the specification docunts. After reading them once, he went through them again, and then sighed deeply:
"Where do you plan to sell it?"
"It’s definitely needed by our own people." The old man began counting on his fingers:
"This spell model isn’t difficult, the mana crystals can be made into cartridge forms, keeping costs below 100 gold coins each, with a crystal costing 10 gold coins. We’ll sell it for 500 gold coins, many magicians would carry one during their expeditions;"
Thinking further, he counted off another finger:
"The council’s army could use it too, perhaps one for every thousand-man troop. At critical monts, it would greatly enhance combat effectiveness. It’s a pity our fleet has already sailed; having this earlier would have given us an edge."
"No matter, it’s not a big issue." The legendary mage nodded with a smile, "And then?"
"Then, we sell to the nobility... All over the country, every noble, big and small, would want one of these. And temples, especially the War God’s Temple, I can guarantee they’d want it..."
"And then?" Lord Erald Crown remained impassive, continuing to press. The old man took a deep breath, puffing up his chest:
"Then, I’d like to sell across the strait—"
His plump, short fingers pressed on the table and swept forward, as if crossing the tumultuous strait:
"Those nobles, their wives, sisters, daughters, even they themselves, would they truly endure the pain of childbirth? Knowing there’s a way to avoid it, wouldn’t they seek all sorts of thods?" ṟÀNꝋВЕŝ
Lord Ripley smiled faintly. Each wrinkle on his round, doughy face stretched, resembling a stead bun:
"However, the doctrine of the Radiant Church states that won, because of their original sin, must suffer during childbirth. For this reason, even female clergy won’t provide divine support for childbirth."
"If soone tries to use this to lessen childbirth pain, well, using magical devices violating doctrines, combining the two cris, it would certainly stir quite a commotion... Creating more fractures between the nobility and the clergy is always good for the council."
"Have the little guy write a paper quickly. No need to explain the magic principles, just make the pain-free childbirth clear. Write it soon, publish it soon, and we can sell our product sooner. Oh—"
His fingertip gently tapped on the blueprint:
"Have you thought about how to prevent it from being hacked?"
The old man’s face suddenly fell. After a mont’s thought, he pulled over a piece of paper and began to draw:
"Add an anti-tampering structure here, the outer shell will self-destruct once opened..."
"Include a system to counteract the Radiant Church’s holy light. If the holy light touches the internal spell model, it will also trigger self-destruction..."
"Right here..."
With each stroke, his cheeks trembled. Garrett’s spell configuration wasn’t large—being a novice-level spell, it didn’t require many magical lines—but the cost of making it hack-proof was even higher than the original!
Every stroke added was a cost to the Alchemy Workshop, pressing on their profits!!!
Garrett had not considered the issue of profits. In fact, he hadn’t even thought about anti-hacking asures—
Once the spell configuration was handed over, the Alchemy Workshop, for its own benefit, wouldn’t spread it around. Moreover, they wouldn’t shortchange him a penny:
A prepaynt of 6000 gold coins (internally accounted, imdiately invested into hospital construction) and a 8% profit share (since the workshop would handle product design, this percentage could not be higher) were very generous terms. So generous, in fact, that he was willing to spend ti advertising:
"I can write ‘Exclusive supply by the Alchemy Workshop! Quality assured!’ on the pain pumps. What, you need to advertise, but in a different way?"
Writing a paper?
"I’m good at that! But I need so ti, gather more cases, at least a few hundred to statistically demonstrate the safety of this thod!"
No further discussion on whether spell-induced painless childbirth could prolong labor or slow contractions without a broad data comparison—I’m not comfortable with that!"
"Hurry and write!" The old man urged him without courtesy:
"Lord Erald Crown said to have it written this month, get it published in Magic—speed up, there’s a whole series of tasks waiting!"
Really, others would break their heads for a chance to top a publication. To have him write one, and to top it off, to advertise his product in the publication, and he’s still hesitant!
As for why it was Magic, it was because only Arcane and Magic had strong enough persuasiveness to push the advertisents across the strait...
Oh, they really don’t lack such opportunities. Just this year, Arcane and Magic together have published several papers. Now it’s not about him wanting to write, but the council urging him to...
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