It’s snowing.
Kode, with a pipe in his mouth, stood behind the wide floor-to-ceiling window of his office, staring blankly at the falling snowflakes outside and the slightly hazy factory buildings amidst the swirling snowflakes.
In this northern country, the first snowfall always arrives very early, often visiting in advance even before winter officially descends.
In the past... actually, it wasn’t that long ago, the early arrival of snow was often seen as a bad on, even associated with death.
The premature drop in temperature ant the early cessation of outdoor activities, making it difficult to store fuel. Commoners had to use limited food and fuel to withstand a longer winter. For the poor, who had to economize every stick of wood and piece of bread, an extra day of winter often ant the difference between life or death.
Therefore, people even have a special term for this premature snow: the White Death God.
But that’s in the past, at least in most regions of the southern borders. In Kode’s eyes, the landscape of the first snow was gradually covering his mind’s conception of the "White Death God"— the scenery was nice.
Just hoping that the snow’s coverage is not too extensive, especially on the Plains of the Holy Spirits... after all, this country still has many areas unable to withstand the might of the White Death God.
Kode bit on his pipe, the red glow flickered in his pipe, the dense smoke slowly dispersing, and his thoughts scattered with it without him realizing.
The wind swirled the snowflakes against the large pieces of crystal glass. In the past, this kind of crystal clear material always associated with expensive, scarce, and rarely manufactured in such large sizes— the technology for cheap, large-sized white crystals was long monopolized by the Typhon Empire, and transportation difficulties plus deliberate blockade from the Typhon side led to Anzu era buildings having standard window sizes never exceeding half a ter. It wasn’t until a year ago that the Cecil Clan’s alchemy factory managed to crack the Typhon’s secret of making cheap white crystals, leading to large-sized crystal glass gradually appearing in various southern buildings.
The ergence of large-sized crystal glass, combined with the new architectural style brought by Emperor Gawain Cecil, led to the "floor-to-ceiling window" as a new architectural elent gradually gaining popularity this year.
As for how the technicians at the alchemy factory cracked the Typhon technology without samples or data... as a rchant, Kode knew nothing about it.
The rare leisure ti didn’t last long, a rhythmic knocking on the door interrupted Kode’s wandering thoughts, and he heard the voice of his eldest son, Pal, from behind: "Father, soone is looking for you."
The big rchant turned his head: "A representative from the Marlin Trading Company?"
On this snowy day, it was quite early for them to arrive.
However, the young man at the door shook his head: "No, it’s a young man from the north, calling himself Philem. He says he has sothing very important to show you, and that you will certainly be interested."
"A young man from the north?" Kode blinked in surprise, "Traveling long distances in such cold weather is not easy, perhaps he’s here trying his luck by riding on the Highlander..."
The big rchant mumbled, filled with so emotion.
Having strangers co to visit was not surprising to him. As the increasingly renowned owner of Kode’s Household Affairs Company and leader of the Carol Regional Business Association, his visitors were constant, including many brave young people with dreams— the new order brought by His Majesty Gawain Cecil seed to have invigorated the land. Among the vast sea of people, young people were always the most courageous, bringing novel ideas and seeking various opportunities on this rapidly changing land, and Kode undoubtedly offered opportunities.
But most of the ti, brave young people were just brave, lacking knowledge and experience, so many of the ingenious ideas in their minds couldn’t be put to use. However, Kode would still try his best to et them— from a rchant’s interest perspective, Kode’s Household Affairs Company had to cultivate an image of inclusiveness and attract talent to continue recruiting gifted people. From a personal sentint perspective, those with novel ideas and daring challenges reminded Kode of himself, of his reckless first comrcial endeavor in his youth, and of the renewed passion for challenges over the past two years.
Just didn’t expect a stranger from the north to visit... that young man must have made so inquiries upon arriving here.
The scheduled business partner hadn’t arrived yet, so eting the young man wouldn’t hurt.
"Let him in," Kode nodded, "tell him in advance, only twenty minutes."
"Yes, father."
His eldest son Pal left the room, and a mont later, a young man with a blue coat and blonde hair appeared before Kode.
Out of habit, Kode first assessed the young man’s attire and deanor—
A sowhat decent coat, made of wool, though it looked quite old, was clean, tidy, and well-kept; his smile was warm and courteous, with a seemingly ingrained humility, lacking any upper-class or aristocratic air.
He appeared to be a middle-class citizen with good upbringing, perhaps serving nobles before, maybe in a job requiring frequent interactions with those of higher status, clearly able to afford a middle cabin ticket on the Highlander.
"Hello, very pleased to et you, Mr. Kode," the young man smiled, a hint of excitent on his face, "I co from Balon, you can call Philem..."
"Pleasure to et you too, Mr. Philem— please close the door," Kode nodded, gesturing with his chin towards the seat reserved for guests, "make yourself comfortable."
Philem quickly closed the door and sat down on the high-backed chair with soft cushions. He heard the famous rchant asking, "Mr. Philem, I’m not very familiar with the North. Balon is..."
"Oh, it’s a town near St. Soniel, not very well-known," Philem replied with a smile. Due to his father’s teachings and his experiences in the Old Capital, he knew the importance of maintaining a smile, but being young, he couldn’t fully conceal his nervous excitent, speaking faster than usual, "It’s to the west of the royal capital, luckily spared from that war..."
"Mr. Philem, let’s talk about why you ca to see ," Kode interrupted him. "It’s no easy journey from St. Soniel to here. What brings you this far from ho as winter sets in?"
"Yes, sir, it’s indeed far. If not for the ’Highlander,’ which travels much faster than ordinary ships, I might still be on the Gorgon River, and even then, I’d have to trek part of the way on foot — after all, the river is about to shut down," Philem said as he opened a small box he carried with him, carefully placing its contents on the table in front of Kode. "I ca to show you sothing... I inquired with so people in rocky ridges Town, and they said if you have novel ideas, you could try your luck with the president of the Carol Regional Business Association. They said you’re always generous and insightful, often buying young people’s good ideas..."
Kode paid little attention to the flattery in Philem’s words and instead focused on the small box, but the contents made him frown slightly.
It was just a crystal, a mory Crystal. Judging by its shape, it seed to be a man-made crystal from the southern borders, and not of high quality. But as a magical thing, it would still be quite expensive in the North — from how carefully Philem handled the crystal, it was clear it was very precious to this young man from the North, likely the most valuable item he owned.
After all, unlike the southern borders, magical items were still quite rare and valuable in the North. Although recently, the new transportation lines composed of chanical ships and Magic-guided Vehicles have started to ship magical things and various affordable man-made crystals from the South to the North, the quantities are limited, and it hasn’t yet changed the high price of magical items in the North in the short term.
But either way, the mory Crystal was not a rarity for Kode... So, the value must be in what it recorded?
He looked up at the young man standing before him: "What’s inside this?"
"Yes, sir, please allow to show you..." As Philem spoke, he took out several tal plates with magic symbols from the box — magic symbol triggers, but without official stamps and standard clasps, perhaps imitations produced in small factories in the North established during the "Anzu Reform." Philem assembled these items together, fiddling for quite so ti, finally getting these less-than-standard magical devices to run successfully. Then he placed the southern-produced mory Crystal on the magic focal point of this heap, "It’s almost ready, sir."
Kode wanted to say he had an advanced Magic Web Terminal here, a new model with universal slots that could play the contents of the mory Crystal directly without such hassle, but in the end, he watched the young man complete the setup with curiosity and patience.
He saw that subpar crystal finally start to glow, and then an image appeared above it.
A man dressed in flamboyant and exaggerated clothing appeared in the projection, loudly praising soone off-screen.
A woman in a long dress entered the fra, disputing with the man.
After a comical argunt, a third person stepped into the center of the fra, seemingly trying to diate the conflict, yet ended up being attacked by both the man and the woman...
Kode stared blankly at the scenes in the projection, and only when the brief drama ended and started repeating did he finally murmur to himself, "What is this..."
"’Lady of the Butterfly Manor,’ ah, that’s a popular play in the royal capital... I an the Old Capital, in recent years," Philem spoke rapidly, full of enthusiasm, with all traces of nervousness gone. "Of course, it’s just a short clip, and I made so adjustnts... after all, a crystal isn’t a stage... ah, sir, I should have recorded a longer segnt. There’s a very exciting fight and debate scene afterward, but unfortunately, in the royal capital... the Old Capital, you only get less than ten minutes per queue at the Magic Web Terminal. I had to put in a lot of effort to persuade the staff to help record the scene with the mory Crystal... and I couldn’t let my father know about this..."
Kode felt his mind racing, in a whirl of thoughts, and instinctively asked a question, "Your father?"
"Yes, his na is Balna, a well-known playwright in St. Soniel and its surrounding areas, with his own theater troupe... though here, no one would know him..." Philem spoke with pride and a bit of awkwardness in his voice. "We often perform for the aristocratic, but now... you know, the nobility seem to have little energy to watch our plays, and there are fewer nobles in St. Soniel now... If my father knew I turned his most treasured script into this and took his actors to perform in a square, he wouldn’t be very pleased..."
"Child," Kode suddenly interrupted Philem’s slightly rambling explanation, his gaze intense, locking onto the young man’s eyes, "how did you co up with this? I an, recording the play on a crystal..."
"I went to see the Emperor’s coronation ceremony," Philem smiled shyly. "Though I stood far away, I could only see the enormous images rising above the square — then soone told , those were from southern Magic Web Terminals, different from the Mage illusions, Magic Web Terminals seed to be everywhere in the South, placed on street corners..."
At this point, the blond young man paused awkwardly before continuing, "Sir, our theater troupe is not doing well now — everyone’s not doing well. Half of St. Soniel’s theaters have closed."
The wars in the northern regions changed many lives.
Hence there is the ’Highlander,’ and Philem saw the myriad human experiences on the ship.
The stubborn father is waiting for the aristocratic to return to the theater, while the brave young man goes out, wanting to see the world, to witness the birthplace of those incredible ancient magical devices.
Perhaps when the aristocratic recover, they will visit those elegant and majestic theaters again, but watching the crystal playing the repeated scenes, Kode knew—so things were about to change.
He even felt a bit trembled.
He wasn’t the only one who thought of installing heating symbols on iron plates or placing Ice Cones in food storage boxes.
How much could this thing be worth?
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