Starting with the defeated female knight

Tentacle turned its gaze back to Dawn City, watching the second wave of caravans depart.

Compared to the last time, this time the caravan left with some different goods.

Tools, materials, and some technical information.

After much discussion and witnessing the quality of goods in Dawn City, and at the urging of the original investigation team members...

The noble families all sprang into action, preparing to emulate the model of Dawn City by establishing workshops or even factories on their territories, and thus acquired some extra goods from Green.

The crimson roulette wheel began to spin.

[Hopefully they won't suffer a severe setback.]

Tentacle prayed for those young people who truly hoped to change the empire and make things better.

Unfortunately, this time, even his prayers were in vain.

They're unlikely to be of much use anymore.

------

PS: 13,000 words completed, will continue tomorrow.

Book 1: Chapter 96: But what is the price?

With the arrival of spring, all things begin to revive.

The empire's industrialization also began.

This sounds a bit strange.

Because Green's side has only just developed the magic-powered steam engine, and it's still under construction. Dawn City hasn't even completed its industrialization yet, so how come the Empire has already started?

The answer is simple: the Magicians' Association.

As mentioned many times before, the empire is not lacking in technology; it's just that the truth is held by a minority.

And for various reasons, they simply didn't want to, and never intended to, promote it.

The nobles from the original investigation team weren't fools, and they never expected to be able to replicate Dawn City entirely based on Green's experience.

After all, if it were that easy to do, the eldest daughter of the Stuart family would have done it long ago.

As for contacting the Mage's Association, this was actually an idea that existed long before they consulted with Grimm.

After all, they had personally participated in the formation of Dawn City and knew the role those neurotic mages played. In fact, it could be said that most of Dawn City's technology was developed and provided by them.

Although the mages in the investigation team were considered elite in the capital, they were ultimately only a small fraction of the team.

Especially because of the existence of the academic clique system, the mages sent out were mostly those with no real background.

Not only do they have to pay for their own tuition, but they also have to collect their own experimental materials and pay for their own knowledge. Their knowledge reserves and experimental experience are far inferior to those of the school of mages.

Since Dawn City can produce so many new and good things with the technical support of those mages, the mages in the Mage Guild know more and are more capable. Even if they can't produce better things, they should be able to do something similar, right?

In particular, although they failed to obtain the specific technology from Green, or rather, even if they had, it wouldn't have been useful.

After all, most of the materials are local specialties from the border region, and they don't have the processing equipment for those that aren't.

However, some of their ideas are the same.

For example, you could set up a workshop, gather people together, give them basic training, and then have them operate certain things...

Even if someone of inferior bloodline is mentally challenged, surely they can still do some repetitive manual labor, right?

Then, once everything is in place, it's time to ramp up production and popcorn...

Of course, not all nobles only care about immediate interests.

Some people have also thought, what if producing too much stuff drives down prices and we can't make as much money anymore?

"No matter what, the price of processed products can't be cheaper than that of raw materials, right?"

"It's not like we only have the capital city; at worst, we can lower the price and sell some in other towns."

"Nobles from small towns are fine too. Those bumpkins who have the name of nobility usually look at things from the capital like lapdogs. They would be overjoyed to be able to buy something better."

"If that doesn't work, we can trade with other families, or simply produce some with a longer storage time and keep them for later use..."

There are always more ways than difficulties.

That's what they think.

Moreover, after the New Year, seeing that other companies had started to take action, even though they felt there were still some strange things they hadn't figured out, they had no choice but to start taking action themselves, driven by profit.

However, despite their good intentions, they encountered problems in the very first step of the operation: finding an association to cooperate with.

"What do you mean by this price? You even want a cut..."

"Don't think we're unaware of your tricks. Even buying the complete set of knowledge wouldn't cost this much, would it?"

"What? Other families have approached you, and even offered higher prices? This..."

After much difficulty, he finally made up his mind to temporarily set aside his aristocratic status and cooperate with the group of self-important high-bloodline members in the association.

They were even prepared to cede some of their interests in order to entice the other party to help them.

However, the academic cliques' exorbitant demands exceeded their expectations, especially after realizing that there were far more noble families than academic schools within the association. They then became even more unscrupulous in their pricing, making the nobles' eyes blaze with anger.

For a time, amid the struggle and exchange of interests, the entire capital was rife with undercurrents, and the atmosphere was so tense that it seemed as if a civil war was about to break out.

Fortunately, while the academic cliques may not be good at other skills, they excel at exchanging benefits and negotiating.

After experiencing exorbitant asking prices, haggling down the line, and various attempts to build connections, claiming that "I'm only giving you such a low price because of our past relationship," etc.

They basically completed the transactions at prices that a nobleman would reluctantly accept, and they almost all demanded a share of the profits.

After reaching an agreement with the group of opportunistic mages, the nobles were not very satisfied; in fact, they were quite annoyed.

But thinking that these people have started to support him, he decided to start setting up a factory, and once the technology and machinery arrived, he could just put money in and start printing money.

but......

Why haven't the machines arrived yet?

"What do you mean the blueprints aren't even ready?"

"Why do we need to change the requirements? Didn't we agree on the materials used for production beforehand?"

"Those things you mentioned all belong to other families. They were indeed cheap originally, but do you know how much they cost now?"

"Fifty Imperial Gold Coins!"

"Are you guys even capable?!"

To the disbelief of the nobles, the mages they had hired at great expense were of a school of mages whose theoretical strength far surpassed that of the Dawn City mages.

After receiving the money, they failed to produce any results for quite some time.

The nobles, especially those from the original investigation team, found it unbelievable.

Because they knew how the Dawn City mages, whose trust was built from scratch in less than a month, managed to accomplish so much under even harsher conditions, with meager incomes, and even under the watchful eyes of the ancient gods, alongside a group of inferior bloodlines.

But now we've moved to the capital, got better mages, a better environment, and paid higher prices, and after half a month, there's still not a single result?!

"You're not trying to scam me, are you?"

The nobles' faces gradually darkened.

"We allow you to name your price because we still consider you human. If you think you can fool the noble bloodline with such clumsy tricks, then we..."

"No, no, no, absolutely not."

The Buddhist monks from various schools of thought who came to exchange ideas wiped their sweat and smiled apologetically.

"The main problem is that there was an unexpected incident within the association. If we can give it some more time, we can reduce our share, and the money from before can be refunded according to the overdue percentage."

"Really, if we give it a little more time, we can definitely get it done."

This is not an excuse being made by the Buddhist masters of different schools.

In fact, because they also received a share of the profits, and because the mages spent far more money on certain research and enjoyment than the nobles, they were even more anxious about this matter than the nobles.

The problem is, with math, if you don't know it, you just don't know it.

Originally, they thought the same as the nobles: the mages in Dawn City had no background and no knowledge, so there was no reason why they couldn't do what the mages could do.

It's not just a matter of whether it works or not; they also need to create something even better in a shorter time to thoroughly humiliate those scumbags.

But as it turned out, once they actually started operating, they discovered that things weren't as simple as they had imagined.

"Great, the association has models that can be used directly. Let me see the requirements... How much?!"

"Let's switch to regular materials... What? You've tried that? Even medium-grade materials aren't up to par?!"

"Alright, alright, finally found a suitable one, time to begin... What do you mean no craftsman can do it?"

As it turns out, not every place is Dawn City.

The members themselves were all screened by the Demon Tide; while they may not all possess unique skills, they are all at least somewhat capable.

In addition, it was only after Green painstakingly supplemented his basic knowledge that he was able to catch up with the efforts of the Dawn City mages.

As for the mages of Dawn City, although their qualifications on paper are pitifully few, they not only have ridiculously strong hands-on skills because they have to do everything themselves and survive in the cracks between different schools of thought, but they also generally have some understanding of other skills.

However, although the mages in the association possessed more knowledge, they had hardly ever put their knowledge into practice, and most of their achievements were extracted from academic slaves.

Accustomed to a life of ease and comfort, they lose the motivation to learn and improve, becoming self-absorbed in endless flattery, even deluding themselves into believing that others' theories are their own...

Under such circumstances, it would be a miracle if they could even come up with a solution to the actual demands of the nobles.

Of course, the academic cliques weren't fools; some of them also kept a group of research slaves who were better treated than other academic slaves, specifically for research and production.

But while the nobles were still haggling with them, the number of 'research slaves' began to decrease for some reason, and by the time they realized what was happening, they had almost completely disappeared.

The guild leader, who was secretly manipulating things and stuffing the new piglets into the third wave of caravans, was also curious about this issue.

"Yes, that's strange, why is that?"

But in any case, the promise made to the nobles must be fulfilled.

It's not just a matter of interests. Because the previous demands were too outrageous, if they really can't meet the demands, those nobles who value face more than profit will likely face a situation that can't be resolved with just compensation.

Having lost their research capabilities, they were naturally unable to complete the project. Furthermore, the loss of the research slaves only exacerbated their frustration.

And finally, they turned their attention to those numb lambs.

"Go, recruit people. Use whatever means necessary to get this stuff out for me!"

As a result, the association suddenly lowered some of the tuition fees and increased its publicity efforts, recruiting more members from the capital and even outside the city.

As a result, the former academic slaves were recalled to the laboratory and subjected to various forms of coercion and enticement, demanding that they produce results.

So, before the factory was even built, the lower-level mages of the association got a taste of the test server content.

At the same time, due to the struggles and precautions among the nobles.

After the products ceased to circulate, prices in the capital and even in various territories began to rise slowly.

At first, the effect was very subtle and went unnoticed, but as the ban was implemented, prices began to fluctuate significantly, and in some places, it even triggered panic buying.

Because the capital city enjoys the support of the entire empire, the price increase is not so outrageous, but even the middle class has begun to complain bitterly, not to mention the poor at the bottom.

But the nobles didn't care about these things.

After all, the poor die and that's it; at least they can purify the capital's environment. But if they lose their money, they won't be able to buy beautiful jewelry and clothes.

Then, some time passed, and before the nobles' patience wore thin, the magicians finally produced some results.

The results are soaked in the smell of blood and sweat.

Even so, even though the academic slaves have been exploited to the extreme, and even caused many deaths.

However, the results they achieved still couldn't compare to those of Dawn City.

After all, time was tight and the task was heavy, and the nobles had a lot of additional requirements. High-end magic technology was too expensive, so in the end they could only make a counterfeit.