Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 82: Chapter 73 On Haifa’s Last Day_2

Hill looked at the grand entrance of the Kaplan Mage Association and drove the carriage right through.

A few mages stood in the hall, their expressions bitter.

It seemed that the people outside were mainly looking for them.

Hill stepped down from the carriage, and the mages stood up and bowed slightly to him in greeting.

”Good day to you all,” Hill nodded slightly. ”What’s happened outside? Which one of you is from the Mage Association? I’m sorry my carriage could only come in and park here.”

One person stepped forward. ”I am. It is an honor to greet you,” he said bitterly. ”Recently, the mages who went to Cortez took with them numerous methods for making Alchemy Potions.

The nobles in Cortez, they all hope to get more alchemists from the nobles who passed through Haifasar.

If they can bring them mages, Cortez’s nobles can vouch for them and save a large amount of money.

Now, we still have those who stay here, who can afford official mages?

So they wait outside the Mage Association entrance for someone to take and make payments.”

Hill thought coldly, ”There are no mages in Cortez who can make those potions, right? Is this the first time the nobles have seen such down-to-earth mages?”

”I don’t want to go to Cortez now,” one mage said with a bitter face. ”They might think all mages from Haifasar are like that!”

Another added, ”I went and came back. Once they knew I was from Haifasar, people from the Mage Association wouldn’t even speak to me.

They detest the mages from Haifasar, and it’s like their status has fallen from an altar to hell.”

Hill could tell all present were orthodox mages who wouldn’t stoop to making those potions.

He asked everyone to sit, and he himself conjured a sofa and sat down.

”You could go to Saral,” he thought to himself how good his people were, leaving Saral but still recruiting for William. ”Saral needs mages. His Majesty the King has established a Mage Academy.”

”A Mage Academy?” someone asked in surprise. ”Is it an institution for cultivating mages?”

”Yes, it only requires low-rank mages,” Hill replied. ”It’s not the traditional few apprentices; you have to teach ten or so people at once. But you needn’t take on more responsibility than teaching spells.”

Although saying something like this here might offend the Mage Association, Hill thought they wouldn’t mind, and it’s better to quickly send these few off.

Too many people were surrounding outside, it’s not possible to kill them all.

Moreover, at most he is an Archmage and branch head; he can’t kill that many people. After all, they are knights!

These people can’t be foolish enough to even think about bribing the head of a branch of the Mage Association, can they?

A mage said in pain, ”Anyway, I don’t want to go to Cortez anymore. Might as well go to Saral?” He looked up earnestly at Hill, ”With so many Magisters from the Undead Tribe, does His Highness of Saral still need us low-rank mages?”

”They are all high-level mages, and they don’t have time to teach the children of Saral.

Besides, they don’t like to do the same job for a long time, but Saral has always lacked low-rank mages to handle daily affairs.”

”Was it lacking before too?” a mage huddled in the corner suddenly asked. ”I wanted to go before, but with so many Legendary Mages in Saral, and supposedly many Magisters and Archmages too, there was no place for a Junior Mage.”

Hill was somewhat surprised. ”How could that be? The nobles can’t even hire mages. Ordinary mages were all heading for the Great Magic Towers. Archmages could become Court Mages.”

”Haifasar’s nobles really can spread rumors!” the mage exclaimed. ”It’s unclear when this notion started spreading.”

”The King who founded Saral had offended many nobles back in the day and tricked several Court Mages,” said the man from the Mage Association. ”He didn’t care about not having mages follow him.

Especially since one Court Mage who had left with him, with his substantial resource provision, had become a Legendary Mage quite early.

By the time the Goldshine Stone mine was discovered, he had a Legendary Knight by his side.

So the legendaries that came after could only honestly sign contracts with the Saral Royal Family.

Those deeply offended back then neither had the face to take advantage nor could stand giving him a step down, so they spread many rumors.”

Thinking about Charles, Hill understood.

He had fallen from being the first successor to the throne to now only being able to go out and establish his own territory.

He was indeed powerful, but his emotional intelligence was decidedly low.

However, he was very good to his subordinates. Fran had said once that he had taken many people under his care, and to date, not one was missing, and even the children were well protected.

It had been over a year, and he was still wandering! It seemed he planned to head from the north to the western mountains.

If he found a good place, it wasn’t out of the question to establish another Saral.

As for Edward, there’s not much to say, those who followed him were now each looking out for themselves.

According to Fran, there were always mages relaying back to check on them.

Many junior mages made a decent amount of money by sending them messages and purchasing daily necessities for them.

Edward still had some of Fran’s former students with him, sadly none had become an Archmage, only able to follow behind a few court mages who had once followed Edward from the start.

Adrian sometimes inquired about their news.

Those junior mages also doubled as information dealers.

As for Count Pelast, Hill knew there must be news, but he lacked the interest to inquire, and Adrian hadn’t brought it up on his own either.

He turned to the mage and said, ”I came here to buy books.

If there are magic books, that would be best, but those of the nobles will do too.”

The mage happily replied, ”Please follow me upstairs! May I know who you are?”

”Hill Polanio,” Hill said indifferently, ”Magister.”

”Ah! You’ve become a Magister? Congratulations.” The mage immediately wore a broad smile, ”How are Master Fran and Mr. Adrian doing? I am Frey Commins, the president here.”

Hill nodded, ”Thank you. They are well. My grandfather has been in seclusion these past few years.”

”I heard Master Fran built a giant airship for His Majesty the King of Saral. He obtained many space crystals,” Commins said quietly, ”People from the Mage Association are quite envious, always hoping to get some.”

”The president of Saral visited my grandfather’s Mage Tower a year ago trying to bar his door,” Hill bluntly killed any hopes Commins might have, ”My grandfather knows him well, all the extras were sold to him.”

”Ah!” Commins said regretfully, ”I knew he got some, but he sent them back to the headquarters. We Archmages have a hard time getting hold of them.”

Hill chuckled and nodded, ”Nothing can be done about that. My grandfather is an Alchemist Master; he needs these crystals. For juniors like us, it’s enough just to wait for the finished products.”

At a loss for words, he led Hill to a drawing room that was packed like a mountain with books, causing Hill to take a deep breath.

”Mr. Polanio, these are books left by the nobles. Please choose. I’ll get the magic books,” he said.

”Alright,” Hill muttered.

While Hill was buried in the pile of books, Fran too was thinking about this grandchild who had gone out traveling.

He was holding a piece of paper, headache-inducing, sitting in the study with a hand at his forehead.

Adrian ran in, ”Teacher, has something really happened to Pelast?”

”Hmm,” Fran discarded the paper in his hand, ”When they were camping, they encountered a magical beast. It’s said to be of Magister level and had a group of followers with it.”

Adrian quickly picked up the paper, gasping after a long pause, ”Not dead! If he’s not dead, there’s no need to inform Hill.”

Fran shook his head, ”After all, he is his biological father. If he truly died, Hill couldn’t just stand by.”

”With that waste Edward, they definitely wouldn’t end well,” Adrian tossed the paper aside, grumpily saying, ”Why didn’t he follow Ramsden?”

”He followed Edward because of Helen. Ramsden would be insane to take him on,” Fran said coldly, ”He’s just a Grand Knight, hasn’t moved a muscle in years. If it weren’t for Manton finally becoming a knight, thinking of that Kral lineage on him, he’d have been kicked out of Edward’s camp a long time ago.”

”I’ll contact List. If Hill contacts him, just give him a heads up. There’s no need to initiate an emergency communication for such a matter.”

Fran nodded, ”If he died, Hill must also arrive on time for the mourning, and then there’d be no more issues.”

”Yes.”