A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 457 A Severe Settlement

June is the time when the sunlight begins to turn scorching.

After spending thirty years in Munich and achieving great success, Varen couldn't resist lighting a cigarette and looking down at the street scene from the insurance company window.

Mortgage-backed securities are now called "golden goose securities" because buying them guarantees a price increase, much like a legendary goose that lays golden eggs. However, retail investors don't realize that initially, the price rose because they could actually break even, but now it's rising because retail investors are stubbornly pushing it up.

Do banks know? Yes, but they're making money too, and it's never been easier.

On one hand, banks are lending money freely, with someone willing to take the fall and cover the losses. On the other hand, banks are getting involved themselves, taking depositors' money and investing it in Jinji Securities.

In the frenzy, even the royal family got involved. Many people were dizzy, not understanding why everything was going up, and just blindly took out loans and bought stocks.

In reality, the few orders that Rorschach deliberately released were not enough to reverse the workshop's decline. What truly spurred them was the banks' rampant lending. Obviously, the amount of physical currency was very limited, so there were more bills of exchange for large transactions. There were also small pieces of paper secured by Kempson Steel Company shares that quietly circulated in the market, and even the warrants of "Golden Rooster Securities" could be used as equivalent.

After finishing his cigarette, Varen couldn't help but laugh—if he dared to act like that in Valuvana now, the locals, who had already been beaten once, would surely put him on the guillotine. So simple, the people of Byrne are truly so simple.

He almost couldn't resist smoking another one, but as soon as the second one passed his lungs, a rhythmic, sharp pain shot through his chest. It was his symbiotic "lungs" protesting. It seemed that Varang and his symbiote had reached a "gentleman's agreement" to smoke no more than one cigarette a day.

The city hall did not miss the opportunity. With the royal family's approval, a new round of recruitment was launched to recruit "unstable individuals" who had lost their jobs in the past into the military camp, while also placing new orders on the workshops.

If the Kingdom of Bain were given more time to convert the debts of the workshops and the royal family into unified war bonds, it might actually be possible to pay them off by plundering Valois's wealth.

Valen would never give such an opportunity.

He felt as if he were bound to financial disaster, but it didn't matter. In the past, Varen would have been fearful, but now he would only enjoy it and open his arms to the hot market—let the explosion come even more violently!

The only pity is that he didn't have the authority to decide whether to detonate it.

In mid-June, the left flank of the Empire and the Valois National Guard clashed. To everyone's surprise, the National Guard won a great victory, and the Imperial troops deployed in the coastal areas withdrew to the lowlands, exposing the flank of the main Imperial force.

At the same time, many workshops in Bain suddenly found that raw material prices had skyrocketed, and the Special Economic Zone announced that new production capacity had been put into operation in steel mills, food factories and other facilities. The city hall then transferred subsequent orders to the Special Economic Zone.

Under the double pressure, a large number of Bain Workshops defaulted, and "Golden Rooster Securities" reverted to its original form—a bunch of packaged junk loans that are now worthless.

"Gentlemen, according to the contract terms, we should indeed take action, but one gentleman has something to say," Varan replied with a smile to the menacing bankers.

Indeed, it was not impossible for the "Bain Stability Insurance Company" to cover the losses based on the margin and the original share valuation of the steel mill. However, an unexpected situation occurred: Prince Otto arrived in the conference room.

His face was grim as a group of city hall officials poured into the conference room, representing the Kingdom of Bain to prevent the insurance company from fulfilling its promises.

The reason is simple: if the debt is transferred, nearly 80% of Bain's workshops, 50% of its wineries, and a large amount of land used as collateral will be renamed. Moreover, since securities are discounted according to the terms when packaging debt, this transaction will allow Rorschach to acquire most of the Bain Kingdom at a low price.

The leverage extended by the banks became an all-encompassing scythe. Even if many of those workshops might go bankrupt, the city hall and the royal family feared that Rorschach would reassemble those "ruins," at which point the "special zone" would be unable to be contained.

To avoid this situation, a scapegoat must be found to take the brunt of the damage. This could be either a bank or the insurance company itself. For the royal family and the city hall, one side belongs to the Tower of Mystic Arts, and the other side belongs to the special zone. As long as they can negotiate and resolve these junk bonds, it won't cause too much loss to the kingdom or the royal family.

After waiting for a month, Rorschach received an invitation from the Tower of Arcane Arts.

"Sigh, it's really not easy to undermine the Tower of Arcane Arts," he complained.

In a small mountain village at the foot of the Arcane Tower, Lucas met with an apprentice from the Mutual Aid Society in a tavern.

This was his job: to generously treat the apprentices in the mutual aid society to beer, and undiluted beer at that. Now Lucas was a salesman for "Spell Cloud".

The apprentice couldn't believe it: "We can really learn first-circle spells? Senior Lucas, I remember you're from the Magic Guild."

"They're gone!" Lucas said calmly. The guild's finances had improved recently due to the bank's huge profits, but he had no regrets. The reason was simple: Rorschach had given them far too much!

His salary is now several times that of the guild, and more importantly, Rorschach has given him renewed hope of becoming a full-fledged mage.

Now he wanted to bring hope to the other apprentices, so they would no longer be ruthlessly exploited by the Tower of Arcane Arts. Lucas took out a scroll: "Look, this is the scroll for the [Transformation] spell. It's much simpler than those obscure and difficult concepts. I believe some of you will definitely be able to learn it."

"A second-circle spell!" "Is it expensive?" "What if I don't learn it?"

The sounds of inquiries were incessant; all the apprentices of the mutual aid society were ambitious and eager to learn—they were the target customers. Lucas explained the rules of "Spell Cloud" to these apprentices in detail:

"The methods taught by the Arcane Tower are outdated! The new spellcasting system can greatly reduce the difficulty of casting spells. Even if you are not yet formal mages, you can still learn second-circle magic. Yes, I'm not wrong. I can even provide you with spellcasting scrolls for free, and other spells are also discounted. Both the difficulty of learning and the price of the scrolls are far lower than the old system."

Engaging in a price war in the magical sense was just the most superficial first step. Seeing that everyone was quite interested, he continued to launch the "senior member" service. If anyone could learn to "edit old system spells into new system spells", they could exchange for higher-level spells for free, and he encouraged mutual learning.

"This is the bright path to becoming a mage!" A wave of bitterness surged through Lucas's heart, which was reflected on his drunken face: "No need for any bullshit theories, no need to grovel before professors, as long as you put in the effort, you will be rewarded immediately!"

"Think about it, how you can stand out from your peers, while others are still struggling with meaningless academic exams, you'll already be able to cast second-circle spells."

The beautiful scene captivated the members of the mutual aid societies. Thanks to Lucas's efforts in acting as both salesperson and after-sales representative, many of the "Apprentice Mutual Aid Societies" in the Arcane Tower had transformed into "Spell Cloud Research Groups." Among them, some truly talented individuals had mastered the technology of translating and uploading spells. Although most of the time the spells they submitted did not create new nodes, there were still some small gains for the Tree of Spells, with new branches sprouting.

Whether these "Spell Cloud Research Group" users can move from underground to open use and bring in other apprentices depends on what results Rorschach's visit will yield.

(End of this chapter)