The Cornflower Witch

Book 3: Chapter 6: Rainy Reverie

In the classroom, the instructor was lecturing on knowledge that Sylutia had already mastered long ago.

Sitting by the window, the young girl opened her own notebook, her gaze drifting outside, occasionally jotting down a few lines.

It had already been a month since she arrived in the Asra district, and her life was gradually stabilizing. With deliberate modifications to her appearance under Ailofeis's guidance, it was now difficult for others to connect her with the Sylutia of the past.

Not only had her hair color changed, her bangs and hairstyle were altered, and her brow line slightly modified, but also paired with simple light and dark makeup changes. Although the current Sylutia was still quite good-looking, she no longer reached that level of stunning, unforgettable impact upon first sight as in the past, her demeanor much more reserved and low-key.

Furthermore, the best way to hide a candle is to place it among a group of candles, or beside a larger flame or light source.

With Lovier and Aurora helping to divert attention from Sylutia, her life had now become much more normal.

"Lovier, Aurora, after school today, I'm going to Wasp Street to buy herbal ingredients, so I won't be going back with you."

"Okay." Aurora nodded upon hearing this, then relayed the message to Lovier, who was on the other side diligently taking notes.

Among the three, the one with the highest apparent talent was undoubtedly Aurora. She was now 'Second Tier·Slumbering Winter', and her life force, abilities, and profession were basically all constructed, very close to stepping into the Third Tier.

Although Lovier was 'Second Tier·Scorching Sun', there were clearly many areas she still needed to fill in, such as mid-stage Secret History Knowledge and powerful abilities.As for Sylutia, she currently presented herself externally as 'First Tier·Secret Word', but when Aurora learned she had been studying the Secret Word Path for less than a year and had already achieved her current results, her eyes held only admiration and surprise.

On ordinary days, aside from playing and sleeping, Lovier spent all her other time studying. This young lady was unexpectedly the diligent type, probably due to the characteristics of the 'Scorching Sun' Aspect. She was also the most energetic of the three.

At four in the afternoon, Sylutia, having gotten out of school early, bid farewell to her two friends and boarded a public carriage bound for Wasp Street.

The tall draft horses were 'First Tier·Bloodline' creatures. With just one, they could easily pull a carriage seating twenty people, advancing along the road.

Sitting by the carriage window, Sylutia watched the pedestrians on the roadside with interest, slowly analyzing in her heart.

The Transcendent cultivation system of the Mage Alliance was completely different from that of the Hidden Grove. Or rather, the Hidden Grove Alliance was a more primitive organizational framework, akin to scattered artisans who, upon seeing suitable materials by the roadside, would pick them up, take them home for processing, and carve them into decent works.

The Mage Alliance's method, however, was to mark all suitable timber in a forest, fell it, send it to a sawmill, uniformly cut it, and then process it according to an assembly line. This resulted in the proportion of Transcendents in Mage Alliance areas being far higher than in Hidden Grove Alliance regions.

Regas, among the various countries of the Hidden Grove Alliance, was a relatively small nation. Roughly 150 Regas kingdoms combined would be equivalent to the Hidden Grove Alliance's sphere of influence. When Sylutia first awakened, the number of Third Tier Transcendents in Regas was approximately 400, with half being knights and nobles, and the other half comprising various professions.

Expanding that by 150 times meant over 60,000 Third Tier professionals. Considering Regas was in a mountainous region and not very developed, other prosperous areas would have even more Transcendents. Adjusting for fluctuation, that meant over 100,000 Transcendents at the Third Tier or above.

The Mage Alliance recruited nearly 200,000 new students annually. Of these, one percent would become Third Tier professionals within ten years, and one-tenth would reach the Third Tier within their lifetime. Considering overly aged mages had limited usefulness, taking a median value of five percent.

This meant the Mage Alliance's annual intake of 200,000 new students could add nearly 10,000 Third Tier professionals to the entire alliance. The lifespan of Third Tier professionals was generally longer, reaching up to 80 years. Taking 45 as the median age for reaching the Third Tier, this meant they could serve the Mage Alliance for nearly 35 years. Coupled with the previous data, this allowed the Mage Alliance to normally maintain over 350,000 Transcendent professionals.

In fact, this calculation method was conservative. Considering the Mage Alliance's various technologies and capabilities were advancing, probably 500,000 Transcendents at the Third Tier or above represented the Mage Alliance's peak state.

This meant that while the Mage Alliance's sphere of influence was only 1.5 times that of the Hidden Grove Alliance, it had a more than fivefold difference in the number of Transcendents. Moreover, this gap would continue to widen in the future. This was precisely what left the Hidden Grove Alliance without confidence to resist.

"Well, it's probably like industrialized production methods after the industrial revolution crushing old-style handicraft workshops," Sylutia privately compared in her heart.

However, this model wasn't something other powers could easily imitate. The Mage Alliance had shattered all royal authority within its sphere of influence and brought it under its own control. Whether taxes or talent, all were managed by the Mage Alliance. If other forces wanted to do the same, internal conflict would surely erupt first.

The annual education and cultivation of 200,000 new students represented an enormous expense. Relying solely on the students themselves, they simply couldn't pay the astronomically high tuition fees. Becoming a Transcendent wasn't about rote learning; it required vast resources and practical experience to achieve.

Take, for example, the various resources required for Sylutia herself to advance to a Third Tier gardener, such as Clear Spring Water, gemstones, plant seeds. If an ordinary Second Tier professional tried to save up money to buy these, it would probably take nearly ten years.

Furthermore, even with these resource materials, how would an ordinary person know how to coordinate the compatibility of the various special plants within the manor, making them coexist harmoniously? All of this required a sea of experience and insight, which also needed time and effort to accumulate. One had to be exposed to the cultivation of various Second and Third Tier plants in advance, which in turn required various resources, such as higher quality soil, purified water, etc., to cultivate the plants to higher tiers, accumulating experience in the process. Every step consumed resources.

Currently, to supply the advancement of its many internal new forces, the Mage Alliance had invented various large-scale machinery, excavated mines within its sphere of influence, explored various resource nodes in the Shadow World, cleared out and plundered various Twilight Monsters, researched the resources these monsters could be converted to provide, and also utilized the shattered and confiscated royal authority to provide assistance to students of the 'Secret Word' and 'Castle' Aspects.

Under such circumstances, the resources within the Mage Alliance were being consumed at a very rapid pace. And the day they became insufficient, external expansion and launching wars would become unavoidable.

However, if it were merely a problem of resources and efficiency, there were actually still solutions. The more severe issue of tearing and division was occurring in every corner of the Mage Alliance, only it hadn't erupted yet, nor had it attracted the attention of the Mage Alliance's high-ranking officers.

If the Hidden Grove Alliance wanted to learn from and reform in the future, could they avoid these problems?

Wasp Street has arrived.

Amidst the driver's announcement, Sylutia raised her umbrella and stepped off the carriage. The sky had turned gloomy now, with scattered, faintly cool raindrops drifting down, dampening the hem of her clothes.

At a corner of the street, several beastman laborers were huddling with their arms crossed under an eave to avoid the rain. The shop clerks, not wanting these people to affect the store's image, came out with brooms to drive them into an alleyway where passersby couldn't see.

The development of industrialization would tear apart the simple warmth of pastoral idylls. When everything pursued high efficiency, it inevitably became cold and ruthless, whether towards others or towards oneself.