novelMaking Effort
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Chapter 241: Making Effort
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
Inside room no. 14, on the thirteenth floor of Allyn Magic Tower.
Florencia was wearing a light blue dress today, which style was close to that of Tria or Aalto. In this dress, she looked even hotter and more charming, in a slighty more mature way.
Right now, Florencia was sitting opposite Lucien, with her left hand supporting her head, and her long blond hair gently falling over her shoulders, listening carefully to Lucien, who was explaining his purpose in coming. Then, her green eyes looked at Lucien when he finished his words, and she put on a smile.
"Evans, do you think this proposal can get approved within the Affairs Committee? You know... a proposal that can increase the cost and cut down their profit..."
Her attitude remained ambiguous with this question.
Lucien did not know her well, so he tried to be careful with his answer, "Possibly, I think. Firstly, the cost can be shared and spread out on the prices of the final products, and secondly, I'm sure that many members in the committee understand Astrology. They can see the possible future of our next generations with their own eyes if we do nothing right now. Thirdly, it's also a great chance for us to show our friendly manner to elves and druids, which is beneficial to the development of the Congress."
"What an eloquence..." Florencia made a bit fun of Lucien, then she got more serious, "But any increase in price will definitely affect the sales volume, which is directly related to how much money can actually go into many sorcerers' pockets. As a sorcerer, Evans, you know that we always need more money... for materials, for experiments, for magic rites... I'm afraid that not many sorcerers really care about the long-term future as much as you do, especially when it comes to their own interest."
After a short pause, Florencia continued, "I admit that Astrology might help a bit, but there are so many spells that can be used for sorcerers to protect themselves, or they can just go to other dimensions for good. Not everyone can see long-term interest, and what they can see is just the a few meters right in front of their feet. With no doubt, you're very talented, Evans, however, you're still too naive. Even if the committee decides to be on your side, many sorcerers would find their own ways around it anyway, not to mention the fact that pissing off their big supporters is the last thing those committee members want to do."
For a moment, Lucien did not know what to say.
Florencia reorganized the documents in front of her again, and said, "Evans, your idea of using Elemental Swirl to deal with pollution is great, but my question is, again, did you ever consider its cost? Enchanting your ring, Element, with the spell, cost us a lot, and it can only be cast few times in a day. Even if the hydroelectricity magic tower in the alchemical factory could provide enough power for simplifying the spell to fourth or third circle, and even if the recycled pure elements could be reused, the cost is still there. Thus, the price, just like what I mentioned before, is still the biggest problem."
Lucien had no idea how to refute Florencia. After a while, he looked at Florencia sincerely, "Ms. Florencia, the cost is not that much."
"I know, but for many wealthy people, they would rather waste their money than invest the money in the future." Florencia nodded, "As this proposal is related to our cooperation with elves and druids, I will bring your proposal to the committee meeting, but I don't want you to have too much hope with it."
Her implication was clear. The reason why Florencia was having this conversation with Lucien was that Lucien was a young, talented sorcerer from the Will of Elements, and the reason why she was willing to bring proposal to other committee members was the cooperation relationship between the Congress and the elves and druids.
Promising as Lucien was, at this stage, Florencia was not going to spend too much time or effort on supporting this young second-circle sorcerer and level four arcanist.
"I really appreciate it, Ms. Florencia." Lucien knew that he was not some kind of big potato, thus he was aware that the outcome of this conversation was already not bad.
"Then, as a gentleman, " Florencia smiled, "are you gonna invite me to dinner tonight?"
"Ah.. ? Yeah... I mean... of course." Lucien nodded. In fact, Lucien was about to visit Raventi later to see if members of High Tower could do anything for this issue, after all, High Tower had quite a good relationship with the Will of Elements, however, Lucien knew that he should obey Florencia's will right now.
"Ha..." Seeing Lucien's facial expression, Florencia grinned, with her hands covering the lower part of her face, "Don't be nervous, Evans. I was just joking. My husband, Oliver, will be back tonight from the other dimension, and we'll be having a nice dinner together."
Florencia simply liked making jokes of young and single males, but that was it, as she did not really mean anything.
...
Hearing from Lucien that Florencia was going to put forward the proposal, both Iristine and Arcelion were a bit relieved. At the same time, they also sent a message back to Stroop forest in order to gain more support.
Then, they came to the Royal Magic Tower of Holm with Lucien, to visit Raventi.
Raventi, who was wearing a gray magic robe, embroidered with mysterious symbols of elements, said to Lucien, "Evans, for you, I'll try to talk to the members, but honestly speaking, I don't understand why you care this much about it. Alchemical factories indeed do damage to the environment, but there's no difference between this and farmers cutting down forests to grow crops. We can make the factories stay away from cities as far as possible, so human beings would not be affected that much."
Although Raventi valued Lucien way more than Florencia did, and he knew Lucien's talent well ever since Lucien first put forward the periodic table of elements, unfortunately, Raventi knew nothing about being environmentally friendly.
Lucien tried to explain the consequences to Raventi, and in the end, he concluded, "Mr. Raventi, I admit that there is nothing to really worry about for archmages and senior-rank sorcerers like you, but please think about our apprentices and human society as a whole. What would they be able to do when the environment got really damaged?"
"Well... I need to talk to the astrologists from High Tower right now. If they say that the pollution could actually turn out to be that bad in the future, I'm on your side then, Evans." Raventi listened to Lucien, and realized the significance of this issue to some degree. However, this was the furthest Raventi could go at this stage, after all, he was a senior-rank sorcerer, and he understood the world very differently from those elves and druids.
Raventi was the vice president of the Will of Elements, and he could possibly be on their side. Lucien was encouraged, and so were Iristine and Arcelion.
Lucien, Iristine and Arcelion waited for Raventi for a long time, after he left the meeting room and used Fernando's Electromagnetic Message to talk to his old friends from High Tower.
When Raventi came back, he looked quite serious, "According to the several senior-rank astrologists, they could see greenish yellow gas spreading everywhere in the air, human beings and animals dying, forests withering, waters turning black and smelly. Although what they could see was vague and it was only one possibility of future, we should still try our best to avoid it. I'll persuade the several members that I know relatively well in the committee to support you, Evans."
Lucien knew that he got lucky here, as what those astrologists saw was definitely the worst scenario.
When they were about to leave the magic tower, Iristine said to Lucien sincerely, "Mr. Evans, thank you so much for what you've done for nature. Your persistence really impressed us, and you're a real gentleman."
"Well, this is also for myself. There's no way that I'm just gonna let those horrible things happen, and especially when I'm part of it, the person who first found those alchemical elements, " Lucien responded. Right now, Lucien was planning on doing his meditation practice this evening, after all, upgrading was always his priority.
At this time, Patrick, the prince of Holm, walked down the stairs, followed by Arthur Doyle, who was like the prince's personal servant.
Wondering why the prince came to the Royal Magic Tower of Holm so often, Lucien took off his hat and bowed slightly, "Good evening, Your Highness."
After all, he was Natasha's uncle.
Noticing that it was Lucien, a kind smile appeared on Patrick's wizened face, "It's you, Evans. You're making great progress in both of your arcana and magic levels. Congratulations. Why are you here today?"
Lucien was about to visit Arthur tomorrow, but as he met the prince and Arthur here, Lucien directly invited the prince to a spare meeting room and told him what he was trying to do.
"So you want me to introduce the law that all alchemical factories must equip themselves with cleansing magic circles?" frowning slightly, Patrick asked. After several coughs, the prince continued, "I cannot control you sorcerers, and a proposal like this has no chance of passing the noble parliament. Those nobles won't agree on a decision that's gonna sacrifice their interest for something that they don't even care. As for Arthur's factory, don't worry, Evans. You don't have to give up your next year's profit for this. Arthur'll take care of this."
Lucien had just suggested that, regarding the factory that he was involved in, he was willing to give up his next year's profit to place cleansing magic circles in it.
"Yes, Mr. Evans. I got this. The only detail is that placing the magic circles will drag down the following several years' profit, especially since we're in agricultural industry, and the price of those grains can never be really high... Just want you to know this..." Although Arthur did not want to agree on this at all, the prince had already made the decision.
Disappointed as Lucien was, he still said with determination, "I'm not desperate for money right now, but I still hope that Holm Mineral and Harvest can last long and the profit can be consistent. The last thing I want to see is that the company will just shut down in several years because of all kinds of reasons. Besides that, I hope the alchemical products can be available for all farmers, so the price cannot be high. If they still don't have money, we can provide them with interest-free loans and so on."
This would definitely make farmers become less loyal to the Church.
It looked like Arthur started to think seriously. Lucien continued, "Your Highness, is there really no other ways around to introduce the law?"
Patrick slightly shook his head, "In most nobles' eyes, I'm a prince who's always sick, and they do not respect me as much. But actually I have another suggestion—we can turn this into an encouraging thing by offering subsidy to the factories that set up cleansing magic circles in the first place when they are built, and this subsidy can come from the annual profit of my share in Holm Mining Association."
Hearing that, Lucien was totally speechless. He could imagine how big the loss would be for Patrick. Honestly speaking, Lucien felt it suspicious that Patrick, as a prince, was always this nice to him. After all, even though he knew that Lucien was the famous musician and also that Lucien was his niece's good friend, Lucien still could not understand why Patrick was willing to go this far to help him. He was going to be the future king of Holm!
However, on the other side, Lucien had to admit that this was a great idea, and only a sophisticated, cunning brain could come up with something like this. Lucien could suggest this to Florencia, as well as punishment for those factories which accepted the subsidy but refused to follow the regulation.
After making the decision, Lucien looked at Patrick from behind, who was still coughing when he left the meeting room with lots of questions in his mind. Lucien wondered why the prince was willing to support this proposal at such a big cost... Was it because he could foresee the possible horrible future as well?
...
Early Monday morning, Lucien, Iristine and Arcelion arrived at the main hall of the Affairs Committee on the twelfth floor. According to Florencia, she was going to put forward Lucien's proposal over today's regular meeting, and they would vote to make the decision.
As soon as they arrived here, the golem came to them, "Mr. Evans, Ms. Florencia wants you to give a speech later as a special invitee of this meeting, together with our two elven guests."
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