Wizard Alchemist

Chapter 620 Divide and Conquer (2-in-1)

"Latest news from the Giant Bear Kingdom..."

Kairiando met with his former master, Adela, and humiliated him.

However, they still found him a lucrative position in the military, where he started a military supplies business.

Meanwhile, the former Nine Southern Commanderies and nobles of the Gray Eagle Kingdom intervened in various sectors of the Giant Bear Kingdom, including people's livelihood, mining, and energy, drastically encroaching on the social niches of wealthy citizens and tycoons, thus exacerbating conflicts between the old and new elites and between internal and external forces.

……

The events that occurred in the Bear Kingdom did not escape the wizard's notice.

The three high-ranking wizards, who always placed great importance on intelligence work, received a steady stream of reports from their spies.

Meanwhile, Roy and the others also learned about and roughly understood what had happened over there.

However, several more months have passed since then.

It has been a year since the Gray Eagle Kingdom was destroyed.

Roy and the others couldn't worry about that for the time being, because they had been given a new mission.

"From now on, each of you will be responsible for a group of children who originally belonged to the Grey Eagle Kingdom, and from them you will train great knights, and even advanced apprentices and elite apprentices."

The mission objective is to train 30 Grand Knights, 10 Advanced Apprentices, and 3 Elite Apprentices within 10 years…

When Roy and the other wizards who were called upon learned of their new mission, their faces showed a hint of sorrow.

"Training apprentices?"

"Wizards are not like mages... how do you train them?"

"Where would we find so much free time?"

Fayte listened to everyone's complaints and said seriously, "It's not like you have to treat them like disciples and do your best. You just need to maintain a level above the passing grade."

However, one thing to note is that these children were carefully selected from the Grey Eagle Kingdom and the Nine Commanderies of Southern County. Although, in principle, the methods of raising Gu poison from the Black Witch era are permitted...

However, it is best to establish a solid and reliable teacher-student relationship and show kindness and gratitude.

In addition to developing their abilities, you are also responsible for guiding their thinking and ensuring their loyalty to the Governor's Office and to Wizel!
This is the ultimate method for conquering colonial territories. Only by overcoming difficulties, investing heavily in education, or simply wielding the butcher's knife and wiping out the entire population, can this land be completely taken over.

This is not just about assigning tasks, but also about giving face-to-face guidance.

These direct descendants of the Wizard Tower quickly connected the task with things they had heard or seen in the past.

I finally understand where all the otherworldly wizards and colonial regimes I've seen in the past came from.

It will take a great deal of effort to benefit the common people.

They simply cannot do it.

However, through economic and resource plunder of the colonies, some financial supplements can be obtained.

By promptly selecting local civilians and discovering and shaping new interest groups, people's hearts can be won over quickly through small favors.

This class doesn't need to be too large in number, nor does it need to be too powerful; it only needs to maintain a balance with the forces of resistance.

It would be perfectly acceptable to maintain the existing lifestyle of the broader neutral class, or even to subject them to more sophisticated exploitation.

What followed was a long period of indoctrination and exploitation.

Language and culture are naturally the first things to be affected.

Over the past year...

In fact, it wasn't just this year; going back even further, the conquest had been going on for two or three years since the beginning of the war and the capture of Salo City.

The wizards have established a governor's mansion here and, in its name, have trained a small group of children of appropriate age who have some knowledge of the Vizel language and basic cultural knowledge.

What is about to take place is a more advanced education, at the level of applied witchcraft.

According to the wizards' experience, this combo can basically establish an effective rule at the level of a kingdom or even an empire.

After that, through institutions such as the Governor-General's Office, comprehensive control was exercised over multiple areas, including military, political, economic, cultural, educational, and livelihood aspects.

A single high-ranking wizard and his team are enough to completely control the entire world.

……

"Now I finally understand how such a vast colonial territory was maintained..."

The key is to find a balance of interests so that it can grow bigger and bigger, like a snowball rolling downhill.

After the meeting, Roy began to study the materials he had obtained, and suddenly many thoughts came to mind.

Although this new task is troublesome, the newly established governor's office attaches great importance to it, recruiting capable wizards and allocating sufficient funds.

Furthermore, there are rewards for completing the tasks.

The Seven Towers Alliance will compensate the wizards for the time and effort they have put in.

They even provide special knowledge of witchcraft.

This also lays the groundwork for recruiting real students and training direct apprentices from Wizel in the future.

Because after they are promoted to high-level wizards, they must accept a mandatory mission to train a formal wizard within a specified period.

Or perhaps, as a high-ranking wizard, one could govern a world.

Without sufficient experience, one is bound to mess up these tasks and be punished.

Roy thought about it and decided it was worth a try.

"However, I don't need to do it myself!"

He felt that his time and energy were still quite precious, and even if he used them to rest, he could still seek greater benefits in the future.

He simply handed the matter over to the AI ​​Celine and his alchemy assistant Freya.

Thanks to his previous experience teaching primitive people in Audivis, he also gained some experience in guiding wizard apprentices.

In addition, several colleagues, sharing the same plight, discussed the matter and decided to share their knowledge and compile a suitable teaching material.

These things alone can actually be developed on their own by relying on the intelligence and wisdom of indigenous children.

They only need to make choices, pick out the more talented ones, and focus on cultivating them.

After thinking it over, he realized that this might not be enough, so he spent his own money to issue tasks and used the funds allocated by the higher authorities to hire some apprentices or followers of other wizards who had free time to act as teachers.

……

In the blink of an eye, several months have passed.

Roy found the wizard in charge of managing supplies and exchanged them for a batch of materials needed to brew the potion of knowledge.

Then he returned to the alchemy room and began a series of alchemy processes.

"Gurgle..."

Bubbling and churning like a carbonated beverage, the magic potion was thus created.

"Knightly knowledge..."

It's relatively simple!

In this world, many places are embroiled in constant war. After extracting the relevant memories, they can be refined into magical potions, and even muscle memories can be simulated.

This feeling of innate knowledge allows apprentices to easily learn the combat skills necessary to become high-ranking knights or even great knights.

In contrast, becoming a senior apprentice or even an elite apprentice is much more difficult.

Roy waited a while, letting the potions settle completely, and then took them outside.

In an open space in the manor area, a group of teenagers were listening to a lecture given by a teacher they had hired.

******
"As I've taught you before, the Willpower Rune is the foundation for meditation. Today, we'll focus on the 16th rune, Soviro (…), pronunciation…"

Sunlight shone on the small stone square, which was originally the estate of a nobleman of the kingdom. After the wizards invaded this world, they killed him and took it over, but did not change the layout of this place much.

So at this moment, everyone is here, enjoying the warm sunshine while listening to knowledge that could change their lives.

The young lecturer from another world gestured with his hands, using his mental visualization skills to outline a three-dimensional pattern of "", while reminding the student, "Don't look with your eyes, but sense with your mind."

Transform consciousness into an invisible pen, following the trajectory of the runes, sketching...

Once you've mastered it enough, you'll feel as if you're truly experiencing something, receiving feedback from your spiritual power.

The apprentices either buried themselves in taking notes, began to follow along with the gestures, or closed their eyes slightly, earnestly trying out what he described.

Roy did not disturb the lecturer's class, but waited for a while until they stopped and the lecturer took a break before beckoning him over.

"Lord Roy, what brings you here?"

The lecturer immediately bowed respectfully.

"These are the knowledge potions I recently concocted. Select a few of them who have made sufficient progress and bestow them upon them as a reward."

Roy pulled out a potion and said to him.

He then briefly explained the specific effects.

"There are such amazing things!"

For them, this was a life-changing opportunity.

The lecturer remarked with emotion.

Speaking of this, I can't help but think, "We didn't have these conditions back then."

"If you put in the effort, you'll reap the rewards in the future."

Roy glanced at him and roughly guessed what the man was thinking, then said to him leisurely.

The lecturer readily agreed.

……

In the days that followed, the apprentices continued to teach.

In addition to knowledge of witchcraft, there was also an essential element of ideological education emphasizing loyalty to Vizel and the Wizard.

Wiesel did indeed make concessions to these selected quasi-elite groups.

Future prospects, knowledge, strength...

Whether it's worldly power, wealth, or anything beyond the ordinary.

As long as you are willing to work hard, you will have the opportunity to obtain it in the future.

But apart from these people, the situation was quite different for the other parties in the kingdom.

The capital city, Aquila.

Beneath a small witch tower built with gray, fossilized bones, emaciated civilians formed a long, winding queue.

Several low-ranking knights, who looked like overseers, patrolled back and forth on horseback, each holding a leather whip.

Their eyes were sharp as eagles, constantly scanning the crowd.

If anyone complains, whispers, or has shifty eyes, they are immediately lashed out with a whip without hesitation.

"Shut up, all of you! Eat your food!"

"This piece of junk..."

Watching the foreman walk away, a thin, almost skeletal laborer muttered something under his breath, his face full of resentment.

"Come on, you're lucky to even have anything to eat!"

Several companions squatted on the stones by the roadside, a few yellowed vegetable leaves floating on the thin porridge in their wooden bowls.

The black bread was as hard as a rock, and seemed to be mixed with some kind of sawdust or insect residue.

Even so, the group, who were starving, still wolfed down their food.

This also includes the workers who just complained.

Not far away, a large pot was simmering with soup for the knights. The aroma of cinnamon and pepper mixed with the smell of meat wafted over, making everyone's stomachs churn.

But then several overseers came on horseback to patrol, ringing copper bells to urge everyone to finish their meal and get back to work.

They had to sway as they continued to move bricks, sand, wood, and other materials.

……

"Your Excellency, I do not understand."

We have never lacked power.

I won't go into detail about the use of witchcraft for now.

Many pack animals, as well as trolls and even zombies, are far more efficient at these tasks than human labor.

Why not use those to do the work?

During this time, several wizards accompanied Fayt on a tour of the construction site.

This small, gray, bone-like witch tower will be part of the future defensive forces.

Therefore, even high-level wizards paid great attention to it.

Upon hearing the question from his entourage, the high-ranking wizard smiled slightly.

"Most of the time, the training and use of those troops are for combat. If they are deployed for production and labor, it will inevitably cause unnecessary losses."

Moreover, our original intention was to encroach on the living space of the local indigenous people...

How could witchcraft be used to improve people's lives?

Roy was also among the entourage, listening thoughtfully to Fayt's explanation.

Sure enough, Fayit then gave further instructions.

In most parts of the world, especially in the non-scientific world, the increase in the means of subsistence cannot keep up with population growth; this is an objective law.

Only by eliminating the lower classes through means such as hunger, forced labor, restricting marriage, and war can the effect of this law be weakened.

In nature, this is a competitive relationship; in the human world, at its most intense, it manifests as massacres.

Such tragedies are more likely to occur when a smaller clan bullies a larger one.

"It's precisely because these people pose no threat to us that we've kept them on for a few more years, fully squeezing out their last bit of value..."

However, according to the guidance of His Highness the Great Wizard, we will systematically exterminate this population within ten to twenty years.

Instead, a completely new Grey Eagle Kingdom will be under our complete control!

What happened afterward indeed proved his prediction correct.

In just two or three years, a large number of people have suffered health damage and life expectancy has been greatly reduced due to continuous overtime work and hunger and cold caused by food shortages and lack of supplies.

This was not the kind of bloody massacres of early colonies, but it was even more brutal.

Because the shamans put these natives to arduous labor, 12 to 16 hours a day, 6 to 7 days a week.

This is a proven exploitation model that allows one to fully enjoy the demographic dividend while maintaining it in the long term, thus maximizing profits.

The artificially created gap between the rich and the poor, along with the tiered supply of goods, gradually cut off all avenues for progress in this world, leaving only a single-minded pursuit of profit.

Gradually, it became like the Witch Tower, where the only way to survive was to send their own children to participate in the apprentice selection, hoping that one or two lucky ones would pass through numerous tests and become senior apprentices...

Only then can one completely change their fate, freeing their family members from hardship and allowing them to live a respectable life as superior individuals.

All that they have achieved is the result of hard work and difficulty, making them far superior to their compatriots.

Naturally, one must be doubly loyal and consciously uphold such a mechanism.

Otherwise, wouldn't all the suffering we've endured in the past have been for nothing?
　These last few chapters were actually a bit unpopular, but they form the background and had to be explained. Fortunately, they're over once they're finished, and the situation continues to evolve and the protagonist takes action.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)