A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 458 Attitude towards Rorschach

Lucas led the way for Rorschach for the second time, but by this time he was already one of Rorschach's employees. Along the way, he was in an awkward state, wanting to say something but unsure of what to say, and he was overly diligent in small details.

You can't help but feel that Lucas is being overly attentive, like he's always been too businesslike. He used to be all business, but now he's all "Sir, this way."

So on the way, he took the initiative to inquire about Lucas's business.

"There are now eight mutual aid groups of varying sizes, all of which have started using your new system of magic. I have counted 156 users, of whom 21 have already uploaded spells."

The Tower of Arcane Arts has only eight hundred apprentices in total, and the number of mages it has trained is even less than the average of other regions.

Rorschach roughly estimated that the penetration rate within a month was acceptable. He affirmed Lucas's work. Lucas then raised a problem: many people were hesitant about the underlying principles, and some, with apprenticeial bias, believed it was cheating.

Some apprentices even reported the existence of the "new system of spells" to the professor. Rorschach didn't care. Currently, the "Spell Cloud" uses a whitelist system for secrecy. When promoting it to apprentices of the Arcane Tower, the individual's magic power cannot be too high, except for their own people. Moreover, the teachers of the Arcane Tower are at least intermediate mages and will not be allowed to access it.

However, the current situation and the status quo of the magic cloud need to be changed. How exactly to change this will depend on the upcoming talks.

Rorschach breathed a sigh of relief. The arcane tower perched on the edge of the cliff came into view again. Two gargoyles came out to greet him early on, and curious apprentices came out of the tower, wanting to take a closer look at the young mage.

The Red Dragon Tower Spirit remained seated in the hall, grunting at Luo Xia and turning its head away.

Rorschach felt completely bewildered.

"The mage Elizabeth has been gone since your last visit, so the guardian might have a little bit of a problem with you," the gargoyle explained considerately.

"It's not like we're friends. Her choice to stay in Würzburg has nothing to do with me; it's her personal choice." Rorschach didn't bother explaining further; if the dragon's cervical spine was strong enough, it could just keep tilting its head.

When they reached the central hall of the tower, the gargoyles immediately bent down and pounced on the ground, seemingly wanting Rorschach to step on them and fly up. Rorschach ignored them, took off directly, and flew towards Feuerbach's office.

The Banking Association forms the financial foundation for the Arcane Tower and the magic guilds within Bain, paying enormous sums to these two institutions annually. When this practice began is unknown. In any case, the magic guilds and the Arcane Tower provide protection and endorsement, granting the bank independence before the King and the City Hall, and the bank itself is sufficient to support the noble spellcasters of Bain.

Until a troublemaker entered the fray. Without Rorschach, the past few years since the war would have been nothing more than a few tough times for the banks, tightening their belts along with the less important guilds to ensure the Arcane Tower's continued operation. But now, a three-way stalemate has emerged, one that will severely damage the banks' foundation regardless.

That is, it damages the material basis of the Arcane Tower.

Regardless of whether the insurance company pays out, the bank will either be overwhelmed by bad debts and go bankrupt; or it will stand by and watch most of Bain's properties fall into the hands of the Special Administrative Region. The existence of the insurance company proves that the Special Administrative Region can pull out its own financial system and kick the severely damaged bank aside.

Another, albeit less significant, factor is that due to the "alchemy industrialization" within the Special Zone, Rorschach's factories have become major buyers of various alchemy materials, driving up their prices. Many sellers are even more willing to prioritize supplying the Special Zone. As a result, the Arcane Tower finds itself in a situation completely contrary to "increasing revenue and reducing expenditure."

If the banks hadn't taken the bait, if they hadn't recklessly lent money, if they hadn't used depositors' money to speculate in securities—if only so much more—but driven by greed, no, by instinct, all the banks did it, and the supremely wise mages in the Arcane Tower tacitly approved and enjoyed the momentary revelry.

Feuerbach, who was waiting for the visitor, sighed. He never wanted to deal with messy mundane affairs, but as the chief of the Arcane Tower, he had an inescapable responsibility.

The door opened, and the young man strolled in. Last time, he had come with questions, while Feuerbach had casually discussed the spell [Reverse Ray] with Rorschach. This time, however, Feuerbach saw him as someone with ill intentions.

Generally speaking, one should not cut off someone's source of income. Luo Xia even considered whether the Archmage might do something rash, but since he had extended an invitation, he shouldn't act impulsively, right?

Rorschach's trip had one purpose: Feuerbach, I'm here to negotiate!

Therefore, upon arriving at the office and seeing the Archmage's gloomy expression, Rorschach felt he should first calm the other man down. After the standard greeting, he immediately began his persuasive speech: "Actually, things didn't come to this point on our end, did they?"

The Grand Master's blood pressure rose by one percentage point.

What Rorschach was really referring to was the interference of the royal family and the city hall. If they hadn't blocked the deal, Rorschach would have been happy to expand his business empire and recycle the remaining junk. He continued, "If we don't want this stalemate, we can choose a middle ground that's acceptable to all parties."

"The bank's predicament, to put it bluntly, is that it has no money. On one hand, it has too many bad debts, and on the other hand, depositors are inclined to withdraw their funds. If the insurance company fulfills its obligations, Byrne's bank can weather this crisis."

"The kingdom is unwilling to accept this, so we promise to classify and repackage the debts. The ones with better credit will be relisted on the market, and the ones that are determined to be unpayable can be taken over by a multi-party joint-stock company. The remaining assets will be liquidated and integrated. The capital injections into the Tower of Arcane Arts and the City Hall can be delayed, and we will bear all the initial investment."

The Kingdom's core demand is that Rorschach not be allowed to fully acquire those debts. Rorschach is willing to compromise with both sides and release them, and he is also willing to use some of the insurance company's cash to save the bank.

Did they lose money? If so, the turnover and premiums from that month's transactions alone would have been a huge source of income. Between Valencia's professional long and short positions, the money borrowed by many retail investors actually flowed into the hands of the biggest market manipulators.

If the kingdom cannot agree to the compromise, then as long as the Tower of Arcane Arts agrees, both sides can simply tell the royal family: "Get out of here!"

Rorschach wasn't there to do charity, and Feuerbach knew it too. After listening to Rorschach's rambling, he finally spoke: "I don't care about these things. Just state your conditions. What price do you want us to pay?"

"Master, don't you think the apprentices of the Arcane Tower are too pitiful?" Rorschach shook his head. "They waste their youth in the tower, and may have to delay or fail to graduate at any time. I think this reflects the lack of teaching resources in the Arcane Tower. Would you be willing to cooperate and have my Mage Tower jointly train apprentices with the Arcane Tower?"

(End of this chapter)