A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 124 The Kingdom's Last General

Things magic can't do? Of course, there are many. For example, Rorschach is currently addicted to the internet, so magic probably can't conjure up the entire internet for him to surf.

But the question carried a hint of hostility, perhaps without the student even realizing it. His grandfather was a mage, but neither his father nor he himself displayed any spellcasting abilities. Under the care of their ancestors, they became affiliated with a magic guild, and his father also achieved some success in business.

There are many students like this here. If there truly is a god of magic, then He must be a mischievous god, a fair god, who would never allow spellcasting talent to be stably passed down through generations or refined through bloodline. It is precisely for this reason that most mages only value their own cultivation and do not fantasize about passing down any stable and talented bloodline.

This is also why a great mage like Kano remains single. In addition, his lifespan is beyond that of ordinary people, and he adheres to a principle of sticking to his original intention in relationships—always loving those who are eighteen years old. However, he can occasionally change his taste if he meets someone who is well-preserved. This is quite common in the world of fame and fortune in Valuwana.

Some mages who start families hope to be appreciated by the king and become nobles, so that their descendants can continue to be superior people regardless of whether they have magical powers or not. Others choose to take advantage of the magic guild to let their family members run a business.

Over time, the merchant guilds affiliated with the guilds accumulated an astonishing size, covering all walks of life. They enjoyed preferential tax rates from the king and emperor, but were responsible for the logistics and financial support of the magic tower.

Therefore, the student who asked the question always seemed to have a sense of helplessness and resentment in his family, which he unconsciously expressed in class today.

Rorschach always felt there was no need to separate spellcasters from those without spellcasting abilities, much less to force a "pure technology" approach into a world with magic, creating a divide between the "technology side" and the "magic side." He wasn't the chairman of Academy City.

"Hey kid, have you ever seen an airship?" Rorschach originally wanted to ask if he had ever "ridden" one, but not everyone could afford to ride in an airship, so to be on the safe side, he changed his question from "Have you ever eaten pork?" to "Have you ever seen a pig run?"

Rorschach turned and drew a cross-section of the airship on the blackboard: "Because the huge gasbag inside the airship is filled with lightweight fuel gas, the average density of the airship, including its people and cargo, is close to that of air, allowing it to levitate. This is a truly remarkable alchemical structure of our time, which greatly facilitated trade and exchange across the continent."

After he finished drawing, he turned around and faced everyone again: "Perhaps some of you can understand the principle and some can't. I'll just state the conclusion here: the airship's levitation and propulsion do not rely on magic, and it was built by workers who don't know how to cast spells."

However, airships have significant safety risks; their gasbags are like mobile bombs, so each airship has a mage on board to protect it.

Among the gentlemen sitting behind us is a mage. Mage Snow, have you ever heard of magic that can levitate a 20-ton object?

I've never heard of anything like a floating city in this world, so please don't slap me in the face, Master Snow.

Snow played along, responding to everyone's gaze with a smile: "I'd love to say that magic is omnipotent, but the truth is: it isn't."

Rorschach continued, "Would any of you dare to fly through the air with a mobile bomb without magical protection?"

"I wouldn't dare." This time, the students shook their heads in response. In fact, many of them thought to themselves that even with the protective magic, they wouldn't dare to sit down.

"In my opinion, spellcasters and non-spellcasters have accomplished something remarkable together. It is a collective achievement of all humankind, oh, and the dwarves too. The power plants of their airships and the light fuel gas in their gas tanks are products of their wisdom."

So my answer to that student's question is, yes, there are many things magic cannot do, but since you are all sitting here in a school where mages, priests, and ordinary people can teach you together, you should hold one belief: to strive for the advancement of human wisdom, regardless of whether your efforts include magic or not, regardless of whether this 'wisdom' belongs to the spellcaster or an ordinary person.

It is said that in the university of his previous life, all courses had an evaluation requirement: teachers had to incorporate ideological education into their professional courses. Luo Xia believed that this wave of "sublimation of the theme" would get him full marks in the evaluation.

After finishing the fun experiments and ideological education, Luo Xia reluctantly spread out his lesson plan and began to read from it: "Alright, let's start class. I haven't found a suitable textbook for this course yet, so you need to take notes based on my lectures and the blackboard to ensure you complete the assignments and exams."

Alchemy is an ancient art, upon which the great ancient sages laid the foundation for the idea of ​​the transformation of all things.

Without the "sensory" writing board of the Tower of Stars, Rorschach felt like he was inhaling tons of chalk dust while writing on the board—and it was this world's cheap, low-quality chalk. He needed to learn some "air bubble" magic from the mage Kano to avoid this occupational hazard.

A short passage from the Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major begins, played on a clock designed by the most illustrious clockmaker in a certain holy kingdom. Only that lord could choose music from the empire as the school bell without objection.

"That concludes our lesson for today."

"Goodbye, teacher." The students from free schools and monasteries immediately rose from their seats and bowed, while the other students followed a beat later.

"No more bowing from now on, let's go." College students should act like college students! Luo Xia really wanted to criticize all the students like that.

The old man put away his notebook, nodded to Rorschach, and left.

Once Rorschach had seen him completely away, he grabbed Snow and asked, "Who was that old gentleman? He seemed to have a military background."

"You're from the Empire, so you might not know, but this man is a household name among the older generation of citizens of the Holy Kingdom," Snow introduced to the boy. It turned out that the old man was General Villar of the Holy Kingdom, a famous general under King Charles XIV of the Sun, who once defeated the combined forces of Istani and the Empire in one fell swoop.

"Such a formidable person?" Judging from his appearance and age, the old gentleman should be eighty years old. If he is not a spellcaster or a person of divine grace, he is definitely considered very old.

Snow then changed his words to [communication techniques]:

King Sunfire sought independence from the Church of Order in every aspect, including building the most powerful army on the continent at the time and participating in numerous wars. However, this very act led the kingdom into a deep debt crisis, with both the XV and the current kings successively reducing their military strength, and their dependence on the Church for defense has only increased.

The old general was sent to the Royal Artillery Academy to retire during the reign of Charles XV. Today, His Majesty the King and the Treasurer have almost forgotten about the school. Duplesci is a naval enthusiast and is only generous when allocating funds to "Water Deer".

"In short, the old general and the instructors at the artillery academy were almost out of food, the kingdom's independent forces were being cut back again and again, and a large number of students were unemployed upon graduation. Well, he found that there was plenty of money here, so he brought these people here to beg for a living. The 'engineering' teachers His Majesty mentioned are them."

There was something Snow didn't tell the imperial man before him: according to rumors from the school board, Villar had given the chief of guards something he had kept hidden away. That sycophant immediately reminded His Majesty that there was such a "last general of the Holy Kingdom" who wanted to make the most of his remaining strength, and also to help the teachers of the Artillery Academy maintain their ever-increasing household expenses.

"Your Majesty, you have a very big heart," Rorschach remarked as he walked out of the classroom with Snow.

Sorry for the late update, finally finished writing, time to take medicine and go to sleep!

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(End of this chapter)