Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
Lucien did not expect that the ring from the Holm Crown prize would be given to him so fast, after all, the ring-maker, Morris, was very unwilling to give him the ring. It was only two days away from the weekend.
Unlike Aalto, in Allyn, weekend always referred to Sunday.
Florencia’s voice in the electromagnetic message magic sounded amused, “You were taken away in the Will of Elements’s headquarters, and my teacher, Morris, feels very embarrassed. That’s why.”
After pausing a bit, Florencia then sounded more serious, “At least, with the three Holm Crown rings and the magic robe from the Immortal Throne, you will be able to survive when facing a senior-rank sorcerer.”
“Really?” Lucien was quite surprised. As the leaders of the Will of Elements had no idea of the fact that his cognition world had been primarily substantialized, how could they be sure that the rings could help him so much?
Florencia giggled, “This time, the magic spells enchanted in the rings are precious. My teacher’s being generous and the two spells match each other very well. Of course, he regretted immediately after the rings were made. And he even tried to cancel the banquet on the ceremony to save some tiny money.”
Lucien asked curiously, “May I know what the two seventh-circle spells are?”
“Umm… It’s a secret. You’ll see.” Florencia laughed. “Keep your curiosity, so you can stay young.”
Then, the electromagnetic signal was cut off. Lucien could not help his curiosity and so he started to leaf through Astrology and Magic Elements and Senior-rank Magic Book, guessing what two enchanted magic effects would be given to him.
At the other end of the office, Alferris was lying on the couch, counting its salary for this month.
…
In a retreat room in Radiance Church.
Rakers, the leader of the noble parliament, King’s Griffin, was having a meeting with the grand cardinal Philibell, the leader of the Inquisition Vaharall, and some other leaders from the Church.
“Rakers, I know what you mean, and I do agree with you. I’ll report this to the Holy City.” The usual anger on Philibell’s face had disappeared, but only tiredness was left.
In the Kingdom of Holm and the rest of the three countries, the Church’s power was inferior to that of the Congress of Magic. After all, most of the Congress’ legendary archmages were in Allyn, while the Church’s powerful leaders were mostly spread out, and gathering them together was not an easy thing, as there were still other threats that the Church had to take into consideration.
Although the leader of the Knights of Grail, Stone, had always been a supporter for launching the war, right now he was rather calm, “We’re more assured now, knowing the nobles’ attitude. We hope that once the opportunity is available, you can be prepared. We’ll handle the rest of the things.”
Stone was not a fool. When the Congress was fully prepared, launching a war against it was obviously not an ideal thing for the Church to do.
Although Vaharall and Varantine were definitely not happy with the result, the changing attitude of the nobles was still a comfort to them.
“But according to what I know, some of the major nobles such as James and Russel are still more on the Congress’ side. Do you have any suggestions, Rakers?” asked Philibell about the inner division among the nobles.
Rakers nodded seriously, “The so-called Liberal nobles are in fact not too big of a threat. They don’t have many people on their side… only about ten percent. Their power is not even half of the power of the nobles who support the Church. As for the rest of the nobles, although they claim themselves to be neutral, I’m sure that they don’t reject the Church. They can join us if the offer is generous.”
As a knight, Stone knew the nobles better, “Rakers, you’ve forgotten the fact that most of the nobles are still on the same side of their lords. You’re neither the king of Holm nor the successor.”
If the offer was not generous enough to make the nobles crazy, they were still going to support their lord. Without the lord, sooner or later they were going to fall apart. And once they had to rely on the Church, it would be almost impossible for them to gain independence again.
Rakers remained silent for a while and his voice became deeper, “I’ll convince the king.”
“King Feltis is old now, and his knight level isn’t high. In a few years, maybe he will receive the call from God. Can you find the opportunity in the next few years?” Philibell shook his head. As the grand cardinal who was responsible for providing medical care to the king, he knew the king’s health condition very well.
Looking gloomy, Rakers did not deny.
Philibell looked at the rest of them and said in a plain tone, “But the prince is too partial to the Congress.”
“…The prince is too partial to the Congress…” repeated Rakers in low voice.
…
At eight o’clock on Sunday night, the division of the Will of Elements in Allyn was brilliantly illuminated. The grand hall was filled with the sound of glasses clinking against each other.
“Lucien, Morris isn’t in a good mood recently, and I don’t think he’ll recover in a short period of time. If there’s nothing special, you’d better stay away from him.” Holding the glass, Gaston joked.
On the other side of the hall, Morris forced a smile on his face and was being busy with greeting other senior-rank sorcerers.
The members of Review Board naturally gathered together, and they were surrounded by their students and friends.
Right now Lucien was standing with Larry, Ulysses, K, Lazar, and the other sorcerers from Atom Institution.
Lucien shook his head and grinned, “Now the gate of the micro-world has been opened, and more great findings are following. Mr. Morris has to be prepared.”
“Is that right?”
It was Morris’ voice, light as a ghost’s. There was definitely hatred in his voice.
After greeting the important sorcerers, Morris walked back and he happened to hear what Lucien just said. He felt that there was a sharp arrow in his heart.
“Of course, this is a brand new field, a field that involves the deeper secrets of the substances.” As if Lucien just completely ignored the hatred in Morris’ voice, he said to the rest of the board members honestly, “I think Holm Crown prize should be given out every year.”
“Impossible!” Morris raised his tone and looked very serious.
Florencia grinned and looked at Lucien, although she did not understand why Lucien wanted to piss Morris off. The rest of the senior members of the Will of Elements also looked at this direction, feeling quite amused.
Lucien did not care, “If no one’s qualified, the position should remain vacant. If there is more than one qualified sorcerer, the prize should still only be granted to one sorcerer for only one achievement. And the time for granting the prize should be settled in each year, so we can look forward to it.”
“That’s a very good suggestion!” Morris hurriedly agreed.
“The problem is… this can just postpone the time, but it can’t help saving the warehouse’s loss.” Florencia reminded her teacher. She wondered what Lucien was thinking.
She would not believe that Lucien was just talking without any specific purposes.
Lucien slightly swirled the wine and smiled, “Neither the materials nor wealth can grow themselves in the warehouse, but doing investment is different. If the time of giving the prize can be deferred by one year, the investment payback should be very considerable. The prize is always going to be someone else’s, but the profit can always stay.”
“What do you mean?” asked Morris. He was not a fool.
Lucien grinned, “I’ve talked to Mr. Arthur Doyle, and he is very interested in generating electricity using water current. He also mentioned to me that the process of making a magic crystal light can be simplified and thus be popularized among the nobles, and we can lower the requirement for using the Electromagnetic Message spell by turning the magic for keeping one’s voice into a manufacturable alchemical product, and meanwhile building more magic towers for transferring signals.”
The sorcerers knew that Lucien made quite a fortune with his strange-named product, Jinkela, so they all nodded and believed that it was a good idea.
Lucien smiled and continued, “What was more important was that once the nobles and the common people are used to the usage of magic in their daily life, they will not follow the Church this closely anymore. Indeed, we sorcerers don’t usually associate with the common folks, but as the Church has been preaching to them all the time, we must take away the things they need from them. And when the foundation of the Church is shaken, the end of the Church can be seen. Anything in the way of the development of magic will be crashed into pieces.”
“We shall talk about this later.” Morris was definitely persuaded. He turned around and said to the other leaders of the Will of Elements.
Lucien cheered in his mind. The Church would for sure take the revenge when Lucien’s alchemical product was spread everywhere. If Lucien took all the profit and was not willing to let the other sorcerers take a share, when he was in trouble, no one would help him out.
However, the Will of Elements would get on board now.
A person could be greedy but also had to be smart.
Morris was in a better mood now and he said to all the guests:
“Ladies and gentlemen, the development of arcana and magic is like a speeding steam train, and the changes brought by it are unprecedented. Today, we present Holm Crown prize to the two distinguished arcanists for their outstanding contributions to the field of Element and Alchemy. Let’s welcome Mr. Lucien Evans from the Will of Elements first.”
When Lucien walked on the stage, Morris started to read the award speech, “He found the new particle. He has opened the gate of the micro-world. His contribution to the school of Element is ground-breaking and significant. He has led us to a brand new era!”
Morris took out a specially designed ring of two crossed silver circles, at the center of which there was a crystal-blue, brilliant precious stone.
“To honor his outstanding contribution, the No. 30 Holm Crown ring, Electron, is given to Mr. Lucien Evans.”
The No. 28 ring was Origin, and No. 29 was Ionization. Therefore, Lucien first got the Electron ring. Origin would be given to him later.
In the warm applause, Lucien accepted the ring. In the inner side of the ring, it wrote: “Year 819, Holm Crown, to Lucien Evans’ contribution.”
Lucien immediately left his spiritual mark in the ring and got the information in it:
“Holm Crown ring, Electron, level seven perfect rank magic item (one layer of seal). A sorcerer whose spiritual power reached the senior rank could unseal the ring and the full power could be released.
The unique ring is very powerful because of the enchanted seventh-circle spell, Anti-magic Ray!”
