In such circumstances, no matter how much money they have in their pockets, they're rely holding it for the King and Dukes; it doesn't truly belong to them.
Dorian understands his position clearly. His entire family serves as the nobles' white gloves for amassing wealth, to be discarded once sullied.
Though money can buy him luxurious estates and beautiful won, even the nobles' fake smiles, it cannot buy real respect or a sense of security.
He knows all too well that, in this hierarchical Divine Right Kingdom, the fate of the Gage family is already inscribed in the Holy Word Book.
Their only way out is to bypass this rigid feudal system and gain a universally recognized "hard currency" across the Empire—a status as an Academic State Mage.
It's one of the tickets to the "road of prominence," and unlike the path of the knights, it's not fraught with danger, nor does it tempt like the seemingly enticing pie of the adventurer's path.
If the unattainable "Void Realm Treasure" is Minos's lifelong quest, then fitting his uneducated, poetizing eldest son Marco into the mage team is his greatest wish this lifeti!
Otherwise, earning more money is still earning it for others.
However, he underestimated the arrogance of the Academic State.
Too many attempted to "use the back door" here, and as an untitled rchant, he didn't even rank in front of the Mage lord.
The Imperial Baron's recomndation letter he spent a fortune to get fell into oblivion upon submission. It wasn't until winter enrollnt approached that he learned his son still had to honestly participate in the apprenticeship assessnt, his connections not as strong as imagined.
After all avenues failed, Dorian Gage ultimately decided to take a gamble and use the tool he's most familiar with—money—to pave the way.
In his view, everything in the world has a price. Since power can be traded, a re scroll is certainly no problem.
As long as the price is right.
Thus, a down-and-out apprentice who sold his principles for a future, and a wealthy man who trampled over rules for his family...two souls that originally had no intersection, intertwined by fate's red thread.
With dusk falling, in the Adventurer's House tavern at the Traveler Camp in Eagle Rock Territory, Dorian's steward Yankov adjusted his coat and pushed open the creaky wooden door.
Since the admission list on the stone tablet was announced, the Adventurer's House tavern in Eagle Rock Territory's Traveler Camp beca a place where two extre emotions converged.
So celebrated in revelry here, while many more drowned their sorrows in drink.
Steward Yankov, passing through these unrelated joys and sorrows, found the person he had awaited in a secluded corner of the tavern.
Watching the old steward walk towards him, Minos leisurely savored a costly mug of ale, his face bearing a smile of having everything under control.
Yankov sat opposite him.
At the sa ti, an inconspicuous burlap sack slipped from under his cloak, stealthily dropping at Minos's foot under the shadow of the table.
"Sir, you've dropped your item." Yankov said in a muted voice, as if exchanging a secret code, "…please count it."
Minos didn't even glance at the money bag down at his feet, rely dismissing it with a wave.
The simple, unadorned storage ring on his finger briefly glead, and the money bag on the ground vanished without a trace, as if never existing in this tavern.
The storage ring was loaned by a senior for him to conduct business.
"No need, I trust you." Minos sipped the ale, lazily saying, "After all, your young master is still in the Academic State, you know what I an…this establishnt hasn't opened just today, nor is this money solely mine to earn."
"Yes, I understand, and please trust the reputation of the Gage family. My master has built such a substantial business relying exactly on the ancestral motto of integrity."
Yankov nodded slightly; he certainly understood these rules.
But then, his gaze involuntarily fell on Minos's storage ring, paused briefly, couldn't resist, and politely asked, "Just asking, hope you don't mind, do you have another storage ring? My master has always wanted to purchase one."
Minos acted as though he'd heard an enormous joke, scoffed, and flatly refused, "Then you can let him dismiss that thought; it's not sothing your master is suited to possess."
Harsh words, yet Yankov couldn't refute them.
No longer ntioning the ring, he nervously glanced around before lowering his voice for final confirmation, "Alright, I was rely asking. Additionally, my young master's matter...it won't be exposed, will it?"
"Rest assured." Minos took another sip of the aromatic ale, lazily waved, "All failed scrolls were entirely burnt to ashes that night at the 'burn point,' the ditty your young master wrote is already beyond proof. As for the passed scrolls, actually not many seriously read them; do you expect those professors to personally peruse those juvenile works?"
At this point, he paused montarily, secretly placed a piece of paper on the table.
"By the way, just in case, I've transcribed the content of that scroll; make sure your eldest young master morizes it, so even if questioned by professors he'll manage to cope."
With these words, Minos leaned back in the chair, carefree, savoring the ale, eyes twinkling with calculating brilliance.
The swapped scroll was carefully selected by him, lacking anything noteworthy in professional examiners' view.
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