Cato sat at the back of the wagon and tried not to wince every time it went over a bump. Right beside him, facing away with her legs dangling over the edge, Landar hummed to herself happily, drawing messy circles on her notepad. She looked like a little kid drawing with crayons.
For that matter, Cato was feeling rather childish himself. The bright blue sky and nothing but forest around them, without the pressure of having to maneuver around the Minmay merchants seeking advice, support or currying favour, he was able to lose himself in the research and problem solving with Landar. Was it really three weeks already? It seemed like just yesterday when they had set out from Minmay city.
Cato looked back at the pile of boxes in the wagon behind theirs. It was a productive two weeks indeed. Cato suspected the contents of their experiments would probably change the world in ways that were unpredictable. The magic circles, Landar changed the name again, were going to change the face of how alchemy was done. And the big fish, the discovery of the magical weather that created magic circles and how to tap that gradient for magical power, that was going to change the world.
Quite apart from the two major discoveries, there were a raft of minor tweaks and improvements to magical devices like the spell cannon and shields, as well as some of the uncommercialized projects. Plus the attempts at composite materials had yielded a method for arbitrary compound separation using elemental Water. Which would do wonders for the metal industry for controlling impurities and for the nascent chemical industry that Kalny was still trying to build.
On top of that, they had found out just how hard it was to actually make even the old style device enchanter. Landar had made enchanting the threads look easy but the struggles of the knight party showed Cato just how much he had been taking her skill for granted. They were going to have to think about more advanced alchemy education.
... Hm. Had it only been three weeks? Come to think of it, that was rather a lot of work that had been done. And now his holiday was over.
Landar continued to hum a tune that existed only in her head as she began to draw yet another circle. Her smallish body, the sharp chin and general droopy eyes looked Chinese though. The evening sun dodged past the edges of the wagon covering and lit up her messy black hair with a golden aura. They were tied up in a ponytail anymore, Landar had gotten fed up trying to make her frazzled hair behave without proper soap. The soft light highlighted stray strands with lines of fire that seemed to burn around her like a halo of an angel.
Cato wished he had a camera to capture this moment. But of course, he hadn't gotten around to inventing it. Perhaps it was time to start looking into silvered compounds and photography.
Landar rocked and twitched her head from side to side as she thought and hummed before drawing a new line. Funny how he noticed all these little tics now, the small motions that most people made even when sitting still.
Almost without thinking, he reached out and patted down the hairs that stood out from her back. They were nice to look at but Cato still thought that having straight black hair down her back would look better. At least they didn't make one itchy. Come to think of it, Kalny was supposedly working on hair conditioner, wasn't he? Something about oil formulations.
Landar froze in the middle of drawing a circle but didn't turn around. So Cato continued to pat down her misbehaving hair, trying to comb them into some sort of order with his fingers.
A few moments later, he caught sight of the knight driving the wagon behind theirs. He was grinning at Cato and gave Cato a wink.
Cato coughed a little and turned away, trying not to blush.
After a long frozen minute, Landar resumed her humming and scribbling on the notepad, but Cato noticed later that the entire second half of the notepad had mysteriously gone missing by the time they got back to Minmay.
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"If you're curious, I'll drop off your crates at the university for you," Quinn said kindly to Landar. She stopped her craning and nodded hurriedly before leaping off the wagon.
Cato thanked him and tried to give him a coin but Quinn merely shook his head and laughed, patting the magical box behind him, "you've taught us how to make spell cannons, we can't possibly take more from you. "
"Just remember our agreement," Cato bowed and jumped off as well.
"No problem, we look forward to all the money we can make from teaching it!" Quinn waved goodbye as his party drove past.
Cato hurried along the two lane street. The noise of the midday business was lively, with market stalls lining the street and brick and stone shops behind the pedestrian paths.
"What's up?" he asked when he caught up with Landar.
She pointed at one of the big double-lot shops. It was new, the building's cement and mortar still uncured. In fact, most of the street was new, this extension of the market had been under construction when Cato had left.
The shop had total lack of a display out front, not even showing its business, but there was a constant trickle of people going in and out, a few at a time. What was more interesting was the magical signature coming from inside the shop. And from some of the customers. They weren't even nobles or rich merchants, some of them looked distinctly haggard.
They went in. The flat stone floor of the inside was new and dusty but that did not conceal the fact that it was busy. The shop had been divided into two, sharing a common area much like how the guild hall of the knight order was structured. In the common area stood rows of people queuing up on the left and a much smaller group on the right. The difference between the two groups was clear, with the smaller right hand group obviously much richer than the left.
In the center, at the far end, stood a massive floor to ceiling board. Two large numbers were scrawled on it in chalk, four and six it read.
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"Welcome to the Minmay magic guild," an employee hurried up to them. Cato noted with surprise that she was wearing some sort of uniform, a flowery frilly thing like a cheap version of the ridiculous noble outfits. Uniforms in a business. Actually, the woman's uniform had a bit more decoration on it. Was she some sort of manager?
"What is this place?" Landar leapt on her like a cat on its prey, "I feel magic from here!"
"Oh, you're a mage?" the woman smiled nervously, "well, we trade in magical crystals and magic power. This firm is run directly by the Minmay government so you can trust us. If you like, shall I give you an introduction as to what we do here? We are always eager to know useful people. "
Landar could not have nodded faster.
The woman lead them over to the long lines on the right, "here is our appraisal team. Over here, we buy stored magical power in the form of crystals or enchanted items. Anyone can sell magic, in any amount, as you can see. There is a transaction fee however, so as you see, most people will only sell if they have a reasonable quantity. "
Cato nodded appreciatively. So it had really happened. Minmay had finally opened a magic market.
"Since you are a mage, miss, if ever you need some money, you are free to sell stored magic here. For a small fee, we can teach you how to do it, you should be able to learn quite quickly since you don't need the basic magic training," the woman said, "if you're strong, it can even come to quite a large amount. The current rate is four rimes per thousand magic power units. "
Landar's eyes sparkled, "you mean something like this?"
She held up a small empty wand and positively flared with magic, baking it into the wood with sheer brute force to bind the magic quickly. It was inefficient, Cato knew, but efficiency and Iris did not go together.
That flare drew eyes from all over the floor. The people lining up did not look particularly rich or powerful, but judging from the small bags containing alchemy enchantments, Cato could tell that they were probably some of the first peasants who had been taught how to produce magic. Landar, who was probably one of the strongest people in Minmay if you considered only raw magical strength, outclassed everyone present to a ridiculous degree.
"Ah," their guide gaped in shock. She took the wand and examined it closely. "Ah. I'm sorry, miss, but we don't buy wands here. You'll have to do that the Academy branch. That's over-"
"Excuse me," Cato interrupted. They looked at him. "I'm watching the trade at the counters, what are those metal balls he's giving the appraiser? I understand that's what is being used to store the magic but surely those iron balls can't be cheap. "
"For beginners, we'll usually loan them the cheapest iron to enchant, failed batches from the Ironworkers really," the woman explained, "we accept anything made of iron however and can trade an equivalent amount for it. So you will see quite a number of people use scrap as a medium of transfer. For the miss here, I think if you want to sell magic, you might have to buy your own steel staff. And we'll have to make special arrangements for payment. I'm sorry but we really aren't set up for such large trades. Perhaps if you tried the University branch. "
Landar laughed, "haha, a steel staff? Nah, not even I'm that powerful. It'll take me all week to fill it up. "
"One staff a week?" the woman blinked. Clearly she had just been trying to flatter Landar but well, the Iris tended to exceed expectations. "If you're interested in sale, we could certainly make arrangements. It could be a few Rimes a week even. What do you say?"
Landar shook her head, "I have my own projects that cost too much magic already. And I'm a fully trained alchemist too, so I'm more on the buying side. "
The woman looked at Cato expectantly. He just shook his head with a small smile, "I can't use magic. And I'm on the buying side as well. "
"Oh but if you're looking for a good source, I know a bunch of crazy people who are happy to burn all their magic each day. They're even stronger than I am. I'm sure they'll be happy to take money for it," Landar perked up.
Er.
The woman raised her eyebrows, "by all means, we would welcome such an opportunity. But I haven't heard of any such group in Minmay. "
"The Iris family," Landar said, "they're in the Central Territories. It's a two week trip by wagon but I'm sure that'll be more than worth your while. "
"Iris..." the woman sighed and shook her head, "I'm sorry but the summoners have better things to do. Most of the knights won't bother with us. I doubt they would even listen. Sorry, even as a joke, I can't-"
"If you have my letter of introduction, I'm sure some sort of arrangement could be worked out," Landar said casually.
The woman did a double take and peered at Landar more carefully, "you have connections to the Iris?"
"Of course," Landar grinned, "I'm Landar Iris after all. First daughter of the third branch family. "
The woman sputtered a bit then suddenly looked at Cato. "So then this must be..." she muttered and seemed to look even more shocked.
Cato took pity on the woman and interrupted with a hand on Landar's shoulder, "sorry, this probably ought to go through the chancellor himself. "
The woman recovered admirably, given the circumstances. "I... ah, true. I'm sorry, to not have recognized such esteemed people like you," she bowed.
"Say! Why don't you show us the buying side?" Landar said excitedly, not even paying any attention to the woman's apology.
Cato caught the woman sighing a little. He hoped Landar wouldn't go too overboard with her excitement when they got around to the stockpile of magic items that was clearly for sale in the corner.
Then he noticed some of the alchemists behind that counter hastily unpacking some of the for sale wands, with the yellow coded band that was the Guard's standard marker for defensive wands.