Chapter 9 - Entrance Ceremony
“We have a lot of responsibilities as a magician. And you as the young generation would also feel that soon. But being a mage not only gives you the burden of responsibilities, but you will also receive the special treatment you deserved as one”
Oof, the headmaster's speech seems to be always boring no matter what world it is. The first day in the magic academy starts with an entrance ceremony and of course, there would be speeches from the headmaster of the academy and from one of the students with the highest social standing.
The headmaster of the magic academy is not someone who has high achievements in magic, nor he is someone strong. Those kinds of people couldn’t be bothered with taking care of the academy as they have better things to do be it research or self-training. That’s why the headmaster of the academy is someone elected by the kingdom to take care of the academy.
Still, even if he is not as strong or as smart as the real mage hidden behind the academy, he still has a lot of influence on the outside of the mage’s community. He is the one bridging the gap to the mage’s community after all. One of his main job as the headmaster I guess.
But then again, I could feel the start of decay in this place because of that politically oriented headmaster. This academy should be a place of meritocracy. A place where your result is above all else. But the academy actually invites those with high social standing to do a speech instead of the one with the best result in the entrance test.
No no no. I am not jealous because they don’t invite me to do a speech. I won’t even be bothered to do a speech if I am really invited. It’s just that this place’s legitimacy value starts to dwindle in my eyes. Well, I guess the magic academy is not really ready to receive a tier 3 magician as their new student.
What I’m actually worried about is more to what this academy can offer to me to improve myself. If the norm inside the academy had turned from respecting the one with great ability to respecting one with high social standing, this place might not be the best place to learn magic.
Then again, I can’t really blame the people behind the academy. I am doing the same thing as them after all. Here I am busy trying to ‘strengthen’ myself and learning magic while I entrust my employee with my business idea.
My business idea has been getting along swimmingly though. Be it the preparation of the ranch, the hunter guild, or the orphanage had all achieved some success.
Maybe I am too harsh with the academy people. Delegating work is indeed important. The right person for the right work. But the one you are delegating your work would still need the stick beside the carrot. Humans or maybe also other intelligent races would start to ‘rebel’ against their employer if they get too comfortable with their work.
At least I will try to get my employee not to forget about that fact. I heard a lot of stories where the employees think that they could do things as they wished because they think that they are irreplaceable for their employer. With that knowledge, I can avoid having my relationship with my employee turn to the worst.
Anyway, meat price is at an all-time low now in Whitecastle. Uhh, that’s the name of the capital city by the way. Have I ever mentioned them before? I forgot. Anyway, again, the capital city Whitecastle is being flooded with meat right now. My troopers, worker, and slaves are doing their best to subjugate the tusk plains. Those that can fight will face the monsters while those who can't will transport the carcass to the base camp and process those there.
I also choose to build my ranch / slaughterhouse / meat processing factory in Tusk Plains because of its name. A large stretch of flat land without many trees is a perfect place for a ranch. Moreover, the reason the place was named Tusk Plains is because the plains are filled with herbivore-type monsters that have some kind of tusk in their body. The monsters that mainly live in these plains are horn rabbits, charge boar, bladed deer, shield ram, spear horses, hulking cows, and the overlord of Tusk Plain, the one that gives the plains its name, the tusk mammoth.
There might be other monsters I haven’t mentioned hiding in the depth of the plains. That place is simply a heaven for those herbivore types monsters. I won’t be surprised if there are more.
I have a few monster tamer in my army. They must try their best to tame some usable husbandry animals. From the report, it seems that they have secured a few shield rams that have a lot of fur growing all over its body and a few of the hulking cows. We might be able to produce wool and milk soon.
The ranch team had also been sending me any unused flesh product they have to me after I learn about my flesh stock and devour magic. The ranch team mostly sends me the head, feet, tail, bones, and organs to me as those are hard to process or not familiar with eating. The meat is abundant anyway why would anyone try eating the tripe and other animal organs? Though, I still told them to keep the liver as it is one of the most nutritious foods to eat. Maybe I need to give my troopers the recipe to cook a delicious liver later.
Ah yes, Almost forgot about the horse as I kept focusing on the food. I’m a foodie so please don’t blame me for keep on talking about food. Anyway, the horses. It is called spear horse but it is more to a unicorn in my eyes. Those horses have a singular horn that they use to stab their enemies like a spear thus their names. I also want to tame a few of them and breed them so I could have my own cavalry but we don’t have enough people to tend the horse yet sadly. The ranch team is already full dealing with subjugations and taking care of the shield ram and hulking cow at home.
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Next up is the orphanage. And as I predicted before, the condition of the orphanage is beyond bad. My team immediately buy out the orphanage and start working on to make it a better place.
With support from the ranch, we can feed the orphans all-you-can-eat meat every day. That should be enough to guarantee them to grow up into strong people. And of course, the orphanage team did the same thing I did to them before, giving them training and life lesson as stories. It was a success for them before so why not repeat the success again?
My orphanage team also worked together with the other team inside the capital city to round up any stray child in the street. Those that still have parents are returned if those parents are the responsible type and the rest are taken to the orphanage to be well, corrected.
Yes, this operation is bleeding money in the short run. It might still be bleeding money in the long run. But the manpower I can get from them in the future is worth it for this investment.
Lastly, for the hunter guild, it unsurprisingly got very popular. Hunter guild at its basic is just a job-searching agency so I guess most of the people in the capital could not find a fitting job for them which made them willingly join the hunter guild.
Of course, the hunter guild is open to everyone, even those that don’t have the ability to fight. The hunter guild would also list a few ‘commoners’ jobs which paid less than those ‘warriors’ jobs but it seems that it would help some people in desperate situations.
Right now, most of the jobs in the hunter guild are provided by my army as we need more hands in subjugating the monsters in Tusk Plains. But there are also some shrewd people who start using the hunter guild to find people to do things for them.
For now, I let Jane takes care of the hunter guild. It is still in its infancy after all and there are threats that could kill the hunter guild instantly. Especially, killing its brand name. So I told Jane to harshly punish any member that is found to be causing trouble. Don’t want to let the hunter guild be known as the place filled with ruffians and roughnecks.
The hunter guild also opened a training course for its members. It consists of basic strength training and combat training that is even being used by my army. If anyone could join the training every day, they would become as strong as my troopers in no time.
Sigh. It is such a bad start to study at Magic Academy. The speeches are boring and there are multiple hostile gazes boring at me. Sometimes I wish that I am not that sensitive when detecting people’s gazes but alas, that is a needed skill to survive in this world. I can only bear this uncomfortable feeling for now.
Fortunately, there is one gaze filled with good intentions that I feel. And after tracing the source, it was actually the old mage from before that gave me great advice at the library. I smile and give him a nod. Well, at least I can butter up with one of the famous mages in the kingdom.
Soon after, the entrance ceremony finished. I am about to go to my classroom when someone calls me from behind.
“Young Stadford, do you have a minute to spare?”
Hearing the familiar voice, I quickly turn around and smile.
“Hello again, Sir Thunderweb. I would like to thank you for your advice the other day. Thanks to that, I managed to learn a lot”
“Hahaha, you have yourself to thank for that. You are diligent in your studies. I just show you the road which you need to walk out yourself in the end”
Yes, the one stopping me is actually the old mage from the library, Sir Alfonse Thunderweb. He is a famous tier 6 mage in the kingdom. His family name, Thunderweb, is actually his title in warfare as he can release a web of lightning magic toward the enemy soldier and decimate them completely. There is also one other reason why he is famous in this kingdom. That is because he is the grandfather of the kingdom’s third princess, Princess Isabella. Yes, he has family ties with the royal family. His daughter was one of the king’s concubines. And yes, it was. Because maybe becoming the family of the royal family is not exactly a good fortune for Sir Thunderweb as her daughter got assassinated some years back. There were also rumors about his family's decline which is not really known on the outside but all that is left in his family now is only him and the 3rd princess.
Still, even if his family is in decline, he is still a powerful magician nonetheless. He is still worth currying favor with. And from my brief interaction with him, He doesn’t feel like a bad person.
“I thank Sir Thunderweb for his praise. I am just doing what I need to do. Do you have anything in mind for me?”
“Yes, indeed I actually have something in mind. Do you know my granddaughter?”
“The 3rd princess Isabella?”
“Yes, her. I want to ask you to well, look after her while she is in the academy”
“Of course, it will be my pleasure to help. But won’t the princess have many people willing to help her at any moment? I’m afraid that I wouldn’t have a turn to help her”
“I just want you to keep that in mind. Who knows when you suddenly got the chance to help her, right? She is the only family I have left in this world so I can’t help but be a little bit overprotective when it is related to her”
“If you think so, sir, then I would gladly accept your request”
“Good. Then off you go to your class. I don’t want you to make me an excuse for your tardiness”
“Hahaha, of course, I won’t do that. Good day to you then, Sir Thunderweb”
Sir Thunderweb gives me a nod and then leaves. I also immediately leave the place to go to my own classroom for my homeroom.
Thinking about what had just happened, isn’t I just got a chance to earn some brownie points from a tier 6 mage? That was a rare chance to happen. I need to take this chance the best I could.
Anyway, I just need to watch for the 3rd princess and help her if she needs it. So I need to first focus on my homeroom.
I reach my classroom and find a place to sit with my 5 followers. Soon after my homeroom teacher arrives.
My homeroom teacher is a woman not yet in her 30. A young one she is but she seems professional enough to become a homeroom teacher. She gives us student explanations about the compulsory class and elective classes.
For the compulsory class, there are basic magic casting, basic magic control, basic meditation, etc. Just all kinds of basic things one needs to learn to set the foundation as a mage.
I immediately feel the omen of the boring days that are about to come. I already learned most of it myself or I could never reach tier 2 before. I’m afraid there won’t be many things that could help me grow in these basic classes.
All I need to do today is to choose my elective classes. There are many of them that encapsulate most elemental affinity from alchemy, botany, smithing, and many other miscellaneous things. I just take magic item crafting for my elective class without thinking too much.
I am slightly curious about the current magic item crafting technique and I wonder how I can bring the magic circuit casting method into magic item crafting.
Sigh, here I am back again in school arc. This is gonna be boring.
Well, at least that fatso doesn’t seem to be in my class so at least I will have some peace.
It’s time for another exciting school arc fellas. Yay~... Sigh…