Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 88: Leaning against a big tree to enjoy the shade

"Mr. McCaughlin? Why are you back in the office so late? Is there something urgent you want to deal with?" The young waiter at the front desk on the first floor of the Ministry of Magic came forward and warmly greeted Fran who had suddenly returned.

The front desk waiter, who was still a magic apprentice, felt very confused. In the past, this deputy director of the affairs department was the last one to come and the first one to leave in the department every day. How come today, he took the initiative to come back to work overtime after get off work for the first time?

Is this the sun coming out in the west?
Fran gave a perfunctory nod and hurried upstairs to her own private office.

Summoning the hand of a wizard, he moved piles of thick paper documents down from the top of the filing cabinet and piled them all on the desk in the office.

Fran snapped his fingers lightly, and dozens of files piled on the desk suddenly opened up automatically without any wind, as if they were being quickly flipped through by a pair of invisible hands.

This is a modified spell created by Fran, an advanced auxiliary spell of the Mage's Hand - "Maccolin's Phantom Hand"

According to the name provided by Mr. "Kel'Thuzad", he quickly began to search the files among the piles of documents, and soon found the target in a file book marked with the emblem of the Federation's combat department.

"Harvey Floyd, research spellcaster, junior necromancer, graduated from..." Fran took a quick glance and immediately found the problem.

"How could a research spellcaster, and a junior necromancer at that, be included in the combat department's support list?" Fran frowned and muttered to himself.

In the past, when the fighting in the Evil Moon Mountains was tense, there had indeed been cases of temporarily recruiting spellcasters to reinforce the battlefield, but this was limited to recruiting registered combat mages or natural spellcasters who were good at healing spells.

He seemed to have never encountered a situation where research-type necromancers were recruited into the army. Moreover, judging from the order of the list and the time of submission, it seemed that Mr. Floyd was the unlucky guy who was suddenly added at the last moment when the document was signed and confirmed.

"It seems that this Mr. Mage has offended a mid-level or senior member of the Federation?" Fran, who has extensive work experience in official departments, keenly saw the possible problems.

Judging from his resume, he was born into a commoner family, not a family of spellcasters or nobles. He studied at an unknown Undead Academy in a small principality in the central part of the continent, and did not study under any teacher with a prominent reputation in the Federation.

His honest and down-to-earth background and mediocre academic record meant that... he could only have come into contact with members of a local union branch after graduation, and perhaps suffered discrimination and unfair treatment, thus becoming enemies with them and causing this unprovoked disaster.

Fran was very satisfied with his inference, which showed that he could intervene in this incident at will without worrying about offending any senior members of the Federation.

And the reasons are very legitimate. The problem can be easily solved by simply pointing out the illegal recruitment in this document and comparing it with past practices.

Fran then took out a piece of white paper and fluently wrote a few lines of work approval with a feather pen. Then he signed his name, clipped it to the recruitment document, and threw it on his secretary's desk.

The secretary should find this approval document as soon as he comes to work tomorrow morning, and this violation should be resolved within a day.

"I can help Mr. Kel'Thuzad solve this minor problem by just signing my name. 20 points are easily earned. Hahahaha!"

As for why this forum member, who is a high-level alchemist, has a family descendant who is a junior necromancer, Fran did not want to delve into the answer.

Maybe it's the issue of illegitimate children caused by some romantic debt...

Harvey looked at the reply message sent by Mr. "Fa Shield" on the forum and smiled with satisfaction.

It turned out to be a senior manager within the Federation. He solved his most worrying problem so quickly and also kindly revealed to him that there might be some violations in this temporary call-up.

Mr. "Fadun" was hinting that he might have offended someone inside the Federation.

Even if Harvey used his knees to think, he could understand the reason. It must have been done by the faction to which Burco belonged, which discriminated against necromancers.

"It's easier to get things done when you have someone higher up..." Harvey leaned back in his chair and stretched, unable to help but sigh.

After successfully escaping this unfortunate battlefield conscription, the remaining problem is how to negotiate with Earl Fagan, the lord of Grizzly Castle who changes his orders every day, about the issue of taxation in the pioneering territory.

When facing ordinary nobles, Harvey would not be so cautious. Although the other party was a noble earl, he had obviously violated the laws of the kingdom, so he could just refuse to pay taxes without caring about it.

But it is obvious that the nobles have always resorted to force when dealing with such matters of exploitation of others. Next, Harvey only needs to be on guard against the other party and may send soldiers to attack the territory.

He immediately summoned Reiner and asked him to send half of the wolf spider beasts responsible for daily patrols and vigilance in the territory to the forests of Jackdaw Ridge, so as to predict in advance whether the other party had the intention to attack.

"Send a message to Pierce again and have him send a clever junior officer, disguised as a servant buying supplies for me, to the teleportation warehouse I opened in Jackdaw Town and keep an eye on the movements there..."

Harvey watched Reiner diligently taking notes, and suddenly asked curiously, "Reiner, why haven't you installed the robotic arm I designed for you?"

He suddenly recalled that whenever Reiner needed to go out to work or work in the municipal department, he did not wear the mechanical prosthetic limbs he designed himself.

Reiner heard Harvey's question and put away his pen and paper awkwardly, mumbling, "Uh... uh, sir, I really like the mechanical prosthetic limbs you designed, but... but Egno and the others said... they all said that after I put them on, I looked like a monster..."

"But I... I would equip them when I worked in the laboratory and the magic arsenal, and they were really useful..." Reiner seemed very afraid of hurting Harvey's feelings, and tried desperately to explain and make amends.

Upon hearing this, Harvey burst into laughter as if he had suddenly realized something. He walked over to Reiner and patted his shoulder to comfort him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't even consider the appearance when I designed this set of equipment." He paused, suppressing a smile. "Don't worry too much about other people's opinions. You have to know that in ancient times, the first wizards who learned to manipulate magic and cast spells were also called servants of the devil and evil monsters by the people of the time..."

He couldn't help but imagine Reiner equipped with six snarling metal tentacles, walking in the territory and scaring the people into trembling and avoiding him. He still found it a little funny.

Although the image of Doctor Octopus in my mind is indeed that of a villain, he is really handsome!
They just don't know how to appreciate it, okay?

(End of this chapter)