The airship was about a quarter of an hour from docking at Platform Two in the Central Port District. A waiter in a bow tie walked up to a passenger, calling out to him while gently tapping a bell on the table.
That bell was originally for passengers to summon an attendant, but now it was the other way around. "Sir? Sir, wake up. The airship will be arriving in fifteen minutes."
The passenger had fallen asleep, slumped over the table. He wasn’t very old. His left hand rested on an open book, while his right still clutched a fine charcoal pencil. The draft paper in front of him was covered in diagrams the waiter couldn’t comprehend, with text squeezed into every available space.
Sunlight stread through the porthole, casting a glow on the young man’s profile and illuminating his long, thick eyelashes. Passing travelers who rembered their school days couldn’t help but smile—by convention, the Saints’ Day Festival was always followed by exam season. This had to be a student.
The book left open in public was, of course, *Standard Magic Array Geotric Analysis*. Rorschach would never be so careless as to take out the books from the Elf Village.
Rorschach woke up and wiped the corner of his mouth, a little embarrassed. "The winter sun just makes you so sleepy." In truth, the textbook also possessed a magic that could lull its readers to sleep.
The waiter offered an understanding, professional smile. "The fact that you could fall asleep is a testant to our service. It proves this sky-journey was smooth, safe, and comfortable."
’He’s a smooth talker,’ Rorschach thought. He asked the attendant for a cup of licorice tea and opened his panel as he drank.
After the Black Forest Divine War, Rorschach’s panel had once again gotten stuck in a spinning update loop, and it was still spinning now. He had no idea where this increasingly long update ti was coming from. ’Was the panel’s backend maintenance outsourced by "Microhard" to so Indian coders?’
There was another change. As long as Rorschach focused his gaze, he could faintly see a Magic Aura. It seed that [Magic Detection] had beco a permanent part of his vision. He wasn’t sure if this change ca from observing the Original Layer in his dream.
The quarter-hour passed in a flash. The airship docked at the platform, secured itself, and opened its cabin. Passengers then entered the "Sky Tree" building to go through arrival procedures.
While waiting for the lift to descend from the tower, Rorschach leaned against the airport’s viewing window. Outside, he could overlook the edge of the Valuva City Wall. He noticed that the area between the Royal Capital and the Central Port District was no longer farmland, but endless construction sites.
These construction sites spread out along the Seine River, filled with wooden scaffolding and cranes. Ant-sized workers scurried back and forth. All in all, it was a dusty and bustling scene of feverish activity.
"Young master, you must be from out of town? As you can see, those are all workshops under construction down there." Rorschach had run into an overly familiar man in a trench coat.
’Workshops aren’t surprising,’ Rorschach thought. ’Most production machinery now relies on hydropower, and being along the river also allows for transporting raw materials and finished goods by water.’
Without waiting for Rorschach to reply, the man in the trench coat suddenly threw open his woolen overcoat. Don’t get the wrong idea—he wasn’t so pervert with a special fetish. Rorschach only saw that the inside of the coat was lined with docunts and colorful promotional flyers. The colored ink used for printing wasn’t cheap these days; this was quite an extravagant expense.
The man pulled out an exquisite flyer and handed it to Rorschach. It was printed with the company’s na, address, and various articles of clothing. "The Valois United Clothing Workshop, co-founded by the three largest cloth rchants in the country. Our new factory is in one of those construction sites you just saw. We’re currently in the public offering stage. Interested in buying so initial shares? It’s only three Lang a share..."
The stock market craze in Valuva had yet to fade. Nowadays, you didn’t even need to ntion dividends or rates of return when pitching stocks. Everyone just assud that stocks were a guaranteed way to make money.
"No, thank you." The salesman was clever, though, coming here to make his pitch—passengers who took the airship to save ti were generally rich or noble, and he had mistaken Rorschach for the young master of so wealthy family.
Rorschach left the port and rented a horse-drawn carriage into the city. He saw that the traffic was noticeably heavier than the first ti he had co. People on the streets all hurried along, the n often clutching leather briefcases full of docunts.
’In any case, has the Holy Kingdom’s economy really improved?’ Rorschach could only observe the surface for now. At the very least, the carriage he was riding in was brand new, its seats upholstered with patched cowhide instead of the bare wooden planks common in rental carriages of the past.
Upon returning to the Tower of Stars, the Tower Spirit inford the young Mage that Kano had left a ssage for him: go to the research building tomorrow after lunch.
’Damn it, Kano actually got back to Valuva before . Teleporting really is fast!’
"Easy now! Back, back, back... okay, left, turn left..." As soon as Rorschach entered the research building, he ran into a team of workers. Four n were using a wooden fra to carry a large bronze cauldron, while a guy from the Alchemy Departnt stood to the side, both Casting and giving directions.
Normally, four n wouldn’t be able to move a cauldron that size. The guy from the Alchemy Departnt must have been using [Floating Skill] to reduce its weight.
Rorschach saw that the lower three floors of the building had been emptied out. So tal fittings, paper bags, and wooden crates were scattered ssily in the vacant rooms and hallways.
"Did the Alchemy Departnt skip town?" This was the first thing Rorschach said when he saw Kano. The Great Mage was poring over a docunt while devouring a lemon tart, a dessert that had recently taken the city by storm.
"They did. Oh, no, no, the Alchemy Departnt didn’t run off. The ’Energy Potion’ production line was moved out. Squeezing it in here with us was only ever a temporary asure."
"Now the Guild’s subsidiary companies are expanding across the board. The Alchemy Departnt seized the opportunity to pull in so investnt and build a dedicated factory for the Purple Potion." The Master stood up as he spoke and led Rorschach out of the office. They were heading to the laboratory on the top floor.
Thanks to the recent economic boom, many workshops had begun to expand. The most aggressive among them were the various companies under the Magic Guild. Tapping into the Holy Kingdom’s nationwide investnt craze, debt financing had beco astonishingly easy, and factories endorsed by the Magic Guild were especially popular with investors.
"The currency’s value is going to drop anyway, so it’s better to borrow the money and build the production lines first," Kano explained. "We’re mainly counting on exports. In any city where the Guild has a presence, we can guarantee our goods will pass through unhindered. As they say, wherever a Mage goes, our products can be sold."
Rorschach thought for a mont. As a powerful transcontinental organization, the Magic Guild had nurous subsidiary rchant associations. The most important advantage of being backed by the Guild was the ability to engage in international trade and obtain hard currency from other nations.
They could use borrowed money in the Saint Vallova Kingdom to open factories, buy raw materials, and hire employees, then export the products to the Empire, Istani, and the Southern Continent Countries to get real gold and silver in return. Even if ordinary rchants couldn’t play this ga—with their money and resources stuck circulating within the Holy Kingdom—the Magic Guild’s na was enough to make it possible.
The Mages and rchants were certain that the Valois paper currency would depreciate. After the depreciation, debts denominated in Lang and Livre could be paid off with a small amount of tallic currency.
This wasn’t just financing or borrowing; this was picking up free money right behind the Kingdom’s First Alchemist and Minister of Finance, Mr. Nekker.
"That’s why Pascal has been busy as hell lately. There are too many new workshops being set up, so our Low Tier Mages from the Tower of Stars and the Alchemy Departnt have been pulled in to help. You don’t have classes this sester, kid, so besides punching the clock here, you should go check on the sites too. The pay is more than generous."
"Okay." ’It’s no big deal for a ntor to have his student work on a side project. What’s important is whether the student gets a cut after all the hard work.’
Kano finished the last of his lemon tart along the way, then simply rubbed his hands together, and they were clean. In Rorschach’s eyes, a flicker of Magic Aura had just flashed between the Master’s palms.
"But whatever you do, don’t ntion this in front of your senior apprentice-sister. Pascal’s certification assessnt is up in the air again. He’s planning to go work for the Alchemy Departnt and the Guild’s subsidiary companies, and he had a huge fight with Paulina about it. They probably argued while I was away, too."
Kano said regretfully, "Paulina still hopes that kid will beco an Official Mage. Ah, well." He heaved a long sigh and arrived with Rorschach at the top-floor laboratory.
As soon as he walked through the door, Rorschach saw Paulina, who seed to be radiating a dark aura. Her face was taut, and she was silently calibrating the equipnt.
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