I made up magic and taught a world-destroying witch?

The maidservant whispered a reminder, "Your Highness, it's time to go."

In the distance, Joseph and Mia had already boarded the academy's ordinary carriage.

Mia leaned halfway out and waved vigorously at her.

Grace pursed her lips, regaining the calm expression befitting a princess.

"Let's go."

The carriage door closed, and Grace took one last look at the public carriage that was slowly heading towards the academy gates.

free……

The curtains were drawn.

It was only when the academy's carriage drove out of the north gate that Joseph truly saw the world outside the Royal Academy for the first time.

This sounds strange, after all, he has been in this world for half a year, and theoretically he should still have memories of the outside world.

The problem is that memory is not the same as actually sitting in a carriage and seeing the wind blowing through the roadside grass, or hearing a vendor yelling and cursing.

Moreover, spending too much time at the Royal Academy can easily create the illusion that the world is supposed to be that way.

White stone spires, magical streetlights, cleaning brooms slowly drifting by in the corridors, animated portraits on the walls that are so old they've almost forgotten they can move, and a group of professors who constantly talk about magical structures.

It sounded magical, and it looked magical, but as soon as the carriage left the academy, the real world seemed to change.

The road outside the academy wasn't very clean, nor were there rows of magical streetlights fueled by 800,000 gold coins. On both sides of the road were low houses and warehouses, as well as some signs that were battered by the wind. The wheels made a crunching sound as they rolled over the bumpy dirt road.

  

The Royal Academy is located on an old magical node in the north of the capital. It is said that in the old days, this place was a large teleportation hub. Mages, nobles, caravans, foreign envoys, and craftsmen from all over the country could directly reach this place through the teleportation gate and then transfer to enter the capital.

Back then, the Royal Academy probably really did have some resemblance to an old magical holy land.

Students are eating bread in their dorms in the morning, then being dragged by their tutors to the North to see the snow at noon, then thrown into the Elven Forest in the afternoon to identify mushrooms that can curse, and finally writing a 3,000-word reflection when they come back in the evening.

Back then, there was no need for roads at all; magic was the road, and space was the carriage. As long as the nodes were lit up, the distance was almost the same as outside the door.

Unfortunately, as the old magic declined, large teleportation arrays failed one after another.

Materials that used to be delivered in the blink of an eye now have to be dragged along the muddy road for half a day on wooden wheels. After all, if a civilization's portal breaks down, no matter how much the great mage misses the old days, he will eventually have to admit that goods don't grow legs on their own.

Thus, Grey Pigeon Town outside the academy became increasingly important. Originally, this place was where a group of people who did odd jobs for the academy lived. Later, as the old magic declined more and more, the academy became more and more dependent on real-world logistics, and more and more sheds and courtyards were built, eventually squeezing into a town.

Joseph sat in the carriage, watching the road slowly receding outside the window, and suddenly felt a pang of emotion.

In the end, all that old-world magic glory and the continent's top academies still depend on horse-drawn carriages to deliver vegetables, workers to carry boxes, and coal to cook soup.

It's all magic and mystery; from a distance it looks very mysterious, but up close it's just a bunch of bills.

Mia didn't share his many random thoughts. The carriage became much quieter without Grace, though this quietness only lasted until Mia pressed her face against the window.

"Sir, look over there!"

Joseph looked in the direction she was pointing.

On the right side of the road, there was a row of low warehouses with walls that were mottled from wind and rain. A large pile of boxes and sacks of unknown contents was stacked at the entrance, and several workers were carrying boxes onto a horse-drawn cart, cursing as they did so.

The complaints were roughly about the driver being late, the boxes being too heavy, and the people at the academy writing the order in a way that was like gibberish; anyone who could understand it should just become a professor.

Further ahead was a soup stall with steam rising from it. An old woman stood behind the stove, stirring a large pot with a wooden ladle. As soon as the lid was lifted, a warm and fragrant aroma wafted into the carriage.

A few orange leaves floated on the top of the soup, with a hint of blue light at the edges. They looked a bit like the bright color of mushrooms that could easily kill someone just by looking at them, but in this other world, they might be a local specialty snack.

Joseph couldn't help but take a second look.

The old woman noticed his gaze, immediately smiled, raised her spoon, and called out to the slowly moving carriage:

"Sir, would you like a bowl of soup? It's freshly made! It'll prevent seasickness, coughing, and headaches from the sea breeze!"

Joseph was about to shake his head when Mia whispered an explanation:

"That's Chao Ye Tang (a type of herbal soup). People who work near Baige Wharf really like to drink it. I've had it! It tastes a bit bitter, but it warms your stomach after drinking it."

Grey Pigeon Town isn't exactly by the sea, but it's not too far either. Continuing southeast from the town, you'll reach White Pigeon Wharf, which connects to the Tidal Canal. The canal runs through the outer city of the capital and eventually flows into Silver Tide Bay.

When the weather is nice, you can actually see the airships slowly drifting by under the clouds.

Although they are called airships, they are not as magical as depicted in old murals. Nowadays, airships don't float very well anymore. Those big machines that could fly at high altitudes for days in the old days can now mostly only move slowly along the bottom of the clouds. If the wind is strong, they have to descend. If there is a rainstorm, it is even more troublesome. They may have to temporarily dock at the pier to recalibrate the buoyancy core.

But no matter what, it's still a floating ship. In a world where magic has faded and everyone has started to honestly repair wheels, it can still be considered a remnant of romance.

Joseph sat in the academy carriage, watching the floating ship slowly move past beneath the clouds in the distance, and a very subtle feeling suddenly arose in his heart.

This world is actually quite interesting. The old magic is not completely dead, and the new things are not growing properly. So everyone continues to live in this half-dead, half-alive gap.

It was a bit down on its luck, but also a bit lively. Of course, no matter what, Joseph's main purpose for going out today was still very clear.

Let's try some snacks from another world first. Since we're already here, we can't just leave without experiencing the local life, right?

Then he'll see if he can find any cheap magic recording devices, since his haphazardly tinkered project still needs to be properly funded before the association's review in a month...

The carriage continued forward, getting closer and closer to Grey Pigeon Town.

Mia suddenly became excited again and almost bumped her head on the car window frame.

"Sir! Look! That's the abandoned teleportation portal over there!"

Joseph looked in the direction she was pointing and saw that the carriage had just passed a gentle slope, below which was a huge circular stone platform.

The stone platform was cracked, its edges overgrown with weeds, and several broken black stone pillars leaned against it. In the center of the platform was a half-collapsed archway with iron chains wrapped around the frame and a wooden plaque hanging below the chains.

Several gray pigeons stood beside the wooden sign, as if they were the rightful heirs to this relic from a bygone era.

"Was it really possible to teleport there before?" Mia asked.

"Theoretically, yes."

Joseph nodded, looking like he knew it all.

"Large spatial structures from the old magic era relied on stable nodes and high-concentration magic tides. Now that the nodes are decaying and the spatial anchors are unstable, forcibly activating them would be gambling with our lives."

Mia listened with a look of awe.

"No wonder the old folks in town all say not to go near there at night, because sometimes they can hear someone knocking on the door."

Joseph was about to say that it was probably just the wind, but he swallowed the words back.

Forget it, randomly raising the banner of materialism in this world doesn't sound very auspicious, especially for someone who can't even light up their own Great Mage Badge. They should have some basic respect for the unknown.

Beneath that abandoned portal, the area was bustling with activity, hardly resembling a ruin, because the Grey Pigeon Market had gradually grown around this abandoned portal.

The carriage stopped outside the market.