The Cornflower Witch

Book 3: Chapter 41: Reflections on Order

On the second day, the students took a boat, sailing down the river and admiring the scenery along the way.

Everyone chatted and laughed the whole journey, until the small boat docked at the river bend that was the end of their trip. Here, the water flow was tranquil, and large stretches of Wind Chime Trees grew along the banks.

It was early spring. The leaves hadn't grown out yet, and the branches were covered in large clusters of bright yellow Wind Chime Tree flowers, filling the gaps between the branches, lush and beautiful.

The students carefully jumped off the boat and walked along the forest path paved with fallen leaves. Overhead were vast clusters of bright yellow flowers, as if they were in a fairy-tale scene.

Without having to think too much about life's troubles and trivial matters, simply taking in this beauty that overflowed their vision and strolling within it was a kind of peaceful happiness.

A relaxing day passed joyfully. In the evening, the students boarded the carriages waiting by the roadside and began their return journey.

This was a hillside not far from the river bend and the woods. Standing by the roadside, they could still see the vast sea of bright yellow Wind Chime Tree flowers below.

"Time to go, Hedra~" Lovier waved from ahead, calling to the girl behind.

"Mm." Sylutia nodded, looked back once more at the scenery below, and prepared to leave.

Just then, a golden-haired girl walked past her. As she passed, her footsteps paused, as if she was waiting for her. When Sylutia drew near, she lightly waved her hand."Hello there~ I'm Xinke." She introduced herself generously. Her beautiful red eyes were quite lovely in the evening's afterglow.

"Hello." Sylutia was slightly taken aback for a moment, then came to her senses and nodded in response.

Xinke, huh. She had already remembered; this was the student secretly rated number one by the instructors in the Asra District.

"I'm at School No. 24. If you have time in the future, you can come over to play."

"Oh, right. There's an ice cream shop next to our school that I really like. If you come, I can take you to try it." She smiled and waved her palm, then bid farewell to Sylutia and boarded her group's carriage with her companions to leave.

Several minutes later, when Sylutia and her two roommates were sitting in their carriage, the two couldn't help but curiously ask what she had talked about with that golden-haired girl earlier.

"Nothing much. She said I could look for her to play and make friends in the future, and that there's a very delicious ice cream shop next to their school." Sylutia recounted the content.

"Is that so? But that's Xinke. I heard she's extremely impressive." Lovier thought for a moment, also developing a bit of interest in that golden-haired girl from earlier.

"How about next time, we all go take a look together?"

Sylutia thought it over and nodded in agreement.

If Lovier hadn't said that, she probably wouldn't have taken the initiative to go. After all, her nature wasn't one to actively seek out socializing, unless it was an invitation from an acquaintance.

After returning to the Asra District, Sylutia's life returned to its usual state—the three-point line of school, dormitory, and laboratory. Now, she had already started trying to use the laboratory's equipment to make some simple mechanical props.

"So this is the automatic watering flowerpot Hedra made? It feels kind of cute." Lovier looked curiously at the small flowerpot on the windowsill. Its base had a container for collecting water, which would pump the water up at regular intervals and sprinkle it on the soil.

"It's still in the experimental phase. Not sure how long it can work automatically." Sylutia fiddled with it a bit, adding water to the inner container.

"I'm going out this afternoon." There were no classes today, and Sylutia had thought of something.

"Where to?"

"Agate Street." She hadn't been there for almost a month and wanted to go see it this time.

In the afternoon, Sylutia took a carriage to this familiar street and walked into it.

After coming and going quite a few times, she was mostly acquainted with the residents here and remembered their names. Quite a few people greeted her when they saw her.

"Long time no see, Hedra."

"Miss Hedra, good afternoon~" These were the more normal greetings.

"Hedra-sama!" A tall beastman saw her and stood at attention.

"You've returned, Hedra-sama." These were the fresher, newer ways of greeting.

Ever since that spring outing where Sylutia defeated the genius Maluo from School No. 19, her reputation had spread further within the Asra District. Now, even ordinary people in the beastman neighborhood had heard her name.

"Mm, hello." Sylutia responded a bit awkwardly, then quickened her pace and arrived at Uncle Duss's home.

This beastman had previously accidentally broken the school's glass, had money deducted by 'Four Fingers', and nearly had his daughter taken away. If Sylutia hadn't intervened, he probably would have been beaten half to death long ago, with no hope for the rest of his life.

Fortunately, Duss was home today. Seeing Sylutia arrive, he immediately stood up to welcome her and even called his daughter Mirica out.

"Make some tea for Hedra-sama." He instructed, then came before Sylutia and recounted the recent situation.

During this period, he had recovered from his injuries, returned to work, and found a job in a restaurant's kitchen.

"Although it's quite tiring, I can take home the leftover food each day. That saves a lot on meal expenses, and occasionally I can even have a decent meal." He explained.

Afterwards, Sylutia interestedly asked him many questions about his job—things like how wages were settled, how many people a restaurant needed to hire, how much ingredients to prepare, and roughly what the loss rate was, etc.

If you went to ask a restaurant directly about these things, they definitely wouldn't be willing to disclose them. But from Duss, you could get a quick and convenient understanding.

After listening to Duss's description, Sylutia pondered slightly.

"It seems opening a restaurant in the Asra District is still quite profitable."

"That's right. Many people have this idea, including many on Agate Street." Duss answered.

"However, actually succeeding in opening a restaurant isn't easy."

"First is the qualification issue. You need to obtain an official business license. Getting that application approved isn't easy. According to black market information, an ordinary business license costs several thousand gold coins."

"Additionally, you need a stable supply channel for ingredients. This link is controlled by the underground gangs. If you don't handle it well, they can easily add something else to your ingredients or cause some sabotage, making it difficult for the restaurant to operate. Among them, the headman 'Fire Pig' is the one in charge of this."

"Then, considering the need to prevent people from causing trouble, you also have to maintain good relations with the headmen who control the laborers."

"If the relationship isn't good, will they cause trouble to make the restaurant unable to operate?" Sylutia became curious.

"Yes, but not by directly causing destruction. Instead, they'll constantly have some things happen that exhaust you and are disgusting to deal with."

"Most of the people working in restaurants have low salaries and are easily bribed by competitors. Just cause a little accident, make a distinguished guest dining at the restaurant uncomfortable, and the restaurant's reputation is ruined."

"But relying solely on the laws of the Asra District, these workers can't be severely punished. They'll plead that they were just careless."

"However, if these people are laborers assigned to the restaurant by the headmen, then it's different."

"They will guarantee these laborers don't cause major problems. If a problem does occur, they will carry out internal punishment. This kind of punishment is naturally illegal, but its deterrent power is extremely strong. Ordinary people don't dare to disobey."

"Hearing you say this, it seems you don't actually hate 'Four Fingers' and 'Spicy Face' and that bunch." Sylutia remembered the previous incident.

"That incident... it was indeed my mistake. Can't blame others, sigh."

"But for Mirica's sake, I was still willing to pay any price. Thank you very much, Hedra-sama. If you hadn't intervened back then, I'm afraid she..." Just then, Mirica brought over the brewed tea, making Duss stop his following words.

Taking the tea from this cat-eared girl, Sylutia slowly pondered.

Although the Mage Alliance had already established relatively decent laws, they were far from perfect and difficult to enforce one hundred percent. There were too many reasons for this: limited manpower; powerful Transcendents were naturally stronger than ordinary people, making people fear retaliation; the many supernatural means used for crimes made it hard to trace the source; and finally, the various hidden groups at the bottom level had their own internal order framework, making it difficult for the outside world to infiltrate and interfere.

No matter how well things are designed and planned on paper, transforming them into implemented policies and actions encounters countless complex problems, leading many people's ideals to shatter, ending up broken and giving up entirely.

What is truly great has never been seemingly perfect systems, but rather that group of people with firm beliefs and willpower who follow and implement them.

Unfortunately, such realizations are not understood by the current Mage Alliance officials. Or perhaps, they understand but don't care, because in this world, this is how ordinary people on every continent live, and no one finds it wrong or bad.

It has always been this way, so what's wrong with it?

This is not an era that praises ordinary people and promotes a people-centric view of history. It is a world that relies on individual heroes and the strong to change the course of events.