Chapter 105 Thesis paper
On his trip to Anvilmar this time, Xu Yi had done many important things, but the most important thing was still clearly his audience with the king.
He didn’t participate in the Magicians Guild’s exam the next day, so Xu Yi cancelled all his plans. He rejected Erwin, Rooney, and Bob’s invitation and calmly prepared himself in the office.
After eating breakfast, Xu Yi had a rare moment of rest. Then he began thinking about his meeting with Palmes Eren last night.
When he first saw Anke Eren at the Magicians Guild, Xu Yi had just treated him as a magic genius who had become an arrogant child because of it. However, after learning from chatting with Viscount Leslie that this fellow was the son of the Lampuri Kingdom’s Magicians Guild’s president Palmes Eren, Xu Yi began to think about this matter.
After meeting that fellow at the exam yesterday, Xu Yi had deliberately angered him, creating a hole for him to jump into to injure him without holding back. Actually, this was all for creating an appropriate reason for meeting Palmes Eren.
With Xu Yi’s current identity, even with the special recommendation of Great Magician Camilla, it was impossible for him to go meet the high up Magicians Guild’s president.
So after injuring his son, Xu Yi had obtained these qualifications.
After hearing that Xu Yi was there to meet him, Palmes Eren met Xu Yi without any hesitation.
He wanted to teach Xu Yi a lesson to help vent for his son, but after Xu Yi came with full sincerity and adding in the fact that he had brought a rare gift that was worth over three hundred gold coins, Palmes Eren found it hard to vent his anger.
In the end, this matter was Anke Eren’s fault to begin with, so he couldn’t complain to Xu Yi at all.
Xu Yi’s attitude had been shown, so Palmes Eren could only suppress his anger to seriously talk to Xu Yi.
Having this rare chance to talk to the president of the Magicians Guild, Xu Yi quickly changed the topic to his real goal. That was hoping that the Magicians Guild could protected Magic Arrays with patents.
Xu Yi had raised this request to the Magicians Guild before through Great Magician Camilla, but it had been directly rejected.
Now that Xu Yi was mentioning this in front of Palmes Eren, naturally he wouldn’t be direct. He smartly first proposed a Magic Fan Magic Array protection patent, which meant that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could pay the Magicians Guild a certain fee each year. He didn’t directly propose a complete protection patent plan.
Although Palmes Eren didn’t give any explicit indications, Xu Yi could see that this Magicians Guild president was very excited about the patent protection fee that Xu Yi proposed.
After seeing this kind of reaction, Xu Yi didn’t continue discussing this matter.
This was his first time meeting Palmes Eren, he didn’t want to decide such a long lasting event on the first meeting.
It was good as long as the president was excited. Xu Yi believed that after Palmes Eren and the Magicians Guild learnt that these protection patents can bring large amounts of profit to the Magicians Guild, Xu Yi wouldn’t need to do anything else and they would put in all their effort to make this bill pass.
This point was also applicable to Xu Yi’s meeting with the king.
Xu Yi in the end was just a small merchant from Banta City and him passing the Primary Grade exam didn’t add much to his status. With his identity, it would be impossible for him to see the king in a normal situation.
The reason why the king took the initiative to summon him was because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s agricultural magic machines did indeed change farmland. It raised had a great effect on increasing the efficiency of farming.
Although Banta City had only undergone a single fall harvest, the role the agricultural magic machines had played was something that no one could ignore. Therefore the sharp eyed Count Sean Samo had reported this upwards.
To the Lampuri Kingdom, agriculture was without a doubt the most important thing. Anything that could increase the efficiency of farming would be viewed as important to the king, so Xu Yi had obtained the chance to have an audience with the king.
Xu Yi was very clear that being summoned by the king this time, it would greatly affect him and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce in the future.
If he could obtain the support of the king, it would help the Frestech Chamber of Commerce develop in the long run.
But to receive the support of the king, clearly he had to show something that gave the king great benefits.
For the king, this benefit is the increase in farming efficiency.
“Perhaps I should raise the importance of increasing farming efficiency in increasing national power?” Xu Yi stroked his chin and looked at the half finished plan in front of him, filling his heart with doubt.
The plan that he was prepared to submit to the king only mentioned the changes to farmland with the agricultural magic machines, thus increasing the farming efficiency. He only went as far as mentioning the increase of harvest and didn’t go any further, only mentioning the influence freeing up the farming workforce could bring.
As someone who had transmigrated from earth and was very familiar with the history of the industrial revolution on earth, Xu Yi could guess in advance the changes this would bring. But for the people of the Sines Continent who were living in a half slave and half feudal society, this was completely new ground for them.
Industrial revolution? Greatly increasing productive power? Technological innovation?
These words didn’t have any meaning on the Sines Continent, so naturally the people of the continent didn’t understand what these words represented.
After seriously thinking about it, Xu Yi decided to mention a few more trends.
Showing that he had good foresight to the king was a good thing, this could make the king attach great importance to him.
Of course, his foresight couldn’t go too far.
There was a sentence that said that one step ahead made one a genius and ten steps ahead made one a lunatic.
The plan proposal came to less than five thousand words and Xu Yi spent most of the morning finishing it.
During this time he had amended it three times, even going over every word of the plan, in order to ensure that they could properly demonstrate his words as best as possible. He had to allow the king and the staff members under him to completely understand the meaning of these words.
After finalizing everything, Xu Yi carefully looked it over again. After making sure that he didn’t miss anything, he carefully reorganize this plan proposal.
Seeing a blank area on the top of the paper, Xu Yi thought about it before finally writing the title “the importance of liberating farming workforce”.
After he finished the title, Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling.
After adding this title, this plan proposal seemed more like a thesis paper.
Although Xu Yi had written quite a few thesis papers since starting university, most of his thesis paper had been related to mechanical engineering. This was his first time writing this kind of sociological thesis paper.
Carefully putting the plan proposal away, Xu Yi looked at the sky outside the window and found that it was close to noon.
There was still an hour before lunch. Xu Yi thought about it before walking out of his room and heading to another room not far away.
Opening the door to this room that was quite a bit smaller, he saw Sancheli sitting at a desk, heaving out sighs as he faced a blank piece of paper.
There were abandoned scrunched up balls of paper all over the foot of the table, it seemed like Sancheli had been working quite a bit already.
“How is it? You still can’t write it?” Xu Yi asked with a smile.
Hearing Xu Yi’s voice, Sancheli suddenly looked up and after seeing Xu Yi, he looked like he was going to cry.
After being in this yard for two whole days, not only had Sancheli changed into clean clothes, he had also washed up and cleaned his hair and beard, making him look like a new person. Other than his face looking a bit pale from being malnourished, he was no different from a normal person.
But now that he had a long face, adding in his skinny face from being malnourished for so long, it looked a bit ugly and a bit shocking.
“Sir chairman, didn’t you say that you wanted to hire me to research magic? Why are you having me write this damn theory? I don’t know what this is about at all.” Sancheli said with a sigh.
Xu Yi picked up several scrunched up paper balls from the ground and found that there were some incoherent words written on the papers, as well as some drawings. If one looked at each piece of paper, no one would be able to understand what each paper meant.
After comparing the things written on several pieces of paper, Xu Yi thought about it before looking at Sancheli to say, “It seems like you don’t understand what I mean. How about this, I’ll say it again. Sancheli, the Magic Array that your crystal ball uses, it was researched all by yourself, right?”
Sancheli nodded, “That’s right, I discovered it alone and no one helped.”
“Since you discovered it alone, you should understand the details of this Magic Array, right?” Xu Yi then asked.
Sancheli immediately patted his chest, “Of course, I’ve gone over that Magic Array over a thousand times and I can remember any line on it.”
“Then why can’t you write it down?” Xu Yi looked at him with a frown, “I want you to write the difference between your Magic Array and a normal Magic Array, and since you have such comprehension of this Magic Array, why can’t you write it down?”
Actually, what Xu Yi wanted to obtain from Sancheli was why he was able to set the function of his Magic Array before it was finished.
If he could discover this point and develop on it, it would definitely create a leap in magic machines that Xu Yi hoped for.
Chapter 106 Visit to the royal palace
However, even if Sancheli was the person who discovered this Magic Array, he didn’t seem to understand why it was like this at all.
Moreover, he didn’t understand the important meaning this Magic Array had, so naturally he couldn’t comprehend Xu Yi’s meaning.
Even if Xu Yi tries very hard to explain it to him and Sancheli worked hard for an entire day, he still couldn’t write anything.
Seeing Sancheli distressed and speechless appearance, Xu Yi took a deep breath and thought that perhaps he was being too forceful and hasty.
The magicians of the Sines Continent didn’t care about this aspect at all before, forcing them to have the same ideas as him was completely impossible.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi calmed down and said to Sancheli in a slow voice, “How about this, don’t worry about what I said before. From now on, you just have to record every detail of this Magic Array. I’ll make it a bit more simple, you just need to teach this Magic Array to me and let me grasp every aspect, do you understand what I mean?”
Sancheli thought about it, “This…..Sir chairman, if I teach this to you, will you still need me?”
Seeing Sancheli’s anxious appearance and the cunning look hidden in his eyes, Xu Yi couldn’t help knitting his brows.
This fellow, when he was dead inside as a beggar, he didn’t care about anything. Why was it that after being full for two days, he had completely changed?
Xu Yi didn’t like this kind of people, but he knew he couldn’t just tell him to scram now. So he coldly looked at him and said, “What are you afraid of? You think I would go back on a promise?”
Sancheli didn’t say anything, but the expression on his face disclosed the thoughts that he had.
“Blind fool!” Xu Yi gave a snort in his heart. He dug into his chest and threw ten gold coins onto the table.
“Here, this is the first month’s wage paid in advance, take it now. If you can let me understand this Magic Array, I will give you five gold coins as a reward. Other than that……” Xu Yi took a paper from the table and took the pen from Sancheli’s hand as he quickly drew a Magic Array on it, “This is a Burning Magic Array, study it and then make changes to it based on my request. If you succeed, you’ll receive another ten gold coins as a reward.”
Sancheli’s eyes instantly lit up, “Sir chairman, what are your requests?”
“It’s very simple. You should have seen a standard Burning Magic Array before. A weak flame will appear after the Magic Array is activated, but my request is to have this flame burn in this Magic Array for five minutes before it extinguishes itself.”
Sancheli was stunned, “Then just cut off the magic power supply.”
“Let me finish. My meaning is to have the flame extinguish, but to have the array still active. After two minutes, the flames will appear again and will extinguish after burning for five minutes. Do you understand what I mean?” Xu Yi said with a serious face.
Sancheli thought about it before revealing a difficult expression.
“This…...To have the Magic Array remain active while not letting out flames…...Sir chairman, what about the heat of the Magic Array? It can’t be that you want to have the Magic Array make the heat disappear, right? That would turn this magic array into a completely different magic array.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help giving a nod of praise. Although Sancheli was a bit greedy and a bit sly, his mind was sharp enough.
“No. My request isn’t to have the heat of the Magic Array disappear, but to maintain the heat without needing the flame, do you understand?”
Sancheli let out a sigh of relief. After thinking about it, he said with a smile, “That is much simpler. Sir chairman, give me a bit of time, I should be able to complete this task. But…..” Sancheli hesitated a bit before revealing a flattering smile, “Sir chairman, this…...Can you pay these ten gold coins to me in advance as well? If you can do ten, five is also good……”
Xu Yi looked at Sancheli for a while, forcing him to lower his head before taking out ten gold coins and putting them on the table.
“Sancheli, as long as you can contribute to the company, money is not a problem. But I hope that you will not hide anything from me.”
“Of course not, I definitely wouldn’t hide anything from sir chairman.” Sancheli gave two dry laughs. There was no hesitation at all in his hands as he swept those ten gold coins into his pocket.
Xu Yi looked at Sancheli with a forced smile on his face with knitted brows. If it wasn’t for the fact that this fellow could control Magic Arrays by programming them, he wouldn’t be willing to hire him at all.
After eating lunch, Xu Yi continued to discuss this matter with Sancheli.
With Xu Yi’s magic talent and deep knowledge of Magic Arrays, he quickly grasped the Wind Magic Array Sancheli had placed on the crystal ball.
It had to be said, the Wind Magic Array Sancheli discovered really was unique. Although it wasn’t as complicated as Xu Yi thought, only being a bit more complicated than a normal Revolving Wind Array, there were many details that were different.
And it was because there were these minute differences that made large changes to the manifestation of this Magic Array.
But after grasping these details, it didn’t mean that Xu Yi had completely grasped this Magic Array.
Although he could completely reproduce this Magic Array, causing the Magic Array to have the same programmed effects as when it was placed on the crystal ball like before, Xu Yi wasn’t very clear just what made this Magic Array different from other Magic Arrays.
What Xu Yi needed was a summary of the set rules of programming Magic Arrays and not to just understand a single Magic Array.
Another part of industry was to popularize and mass produce, not to just create a single exception.
But even Sancheli himself didn’t know what the theory behind this was because he had discovered this special Wind Magic Array by accident, it was not because he had finished a complete set of theories.
So when they were studying Magic Arrays together, Xu Yi supervised Sancheli as he research the Fire Magic Array he had him study, telling Sancheli to clearly state his thoughts when he was researching this.
After researching with Sancheli, Xu Yi believed that he could find a rule that he could compile into a complete theory to apply to other Magic Arrays.
Being lost in research caused time to fly. Xu Yi had only had a slight view of the solution when time had already passed into the afternoon. Someone came from the palace to tell him to enter the palace to wait for his audience with the king.
After confirming that this person did indeed come from the palace, Xu Yi gathered his things and followed that person, leaving the office.
When he had taken strolls in Anvilmar City, Xu Yi had approached the palace before, but he had only take a few looks and had never approached it before.
Now that he had been summoned by the king, Xu Yi could finally openly walk into the palace. This filled his heart with a bit of excitement.
It was not just because he could discuss business matters after seeing the king, it was also because of being able to enter the palace itself.
Although there were many historic royal palaces left in many countries on earth, Xu Yi never had the chance to enter them. He had some understanding of them through what he saw on television and other news sources, but of course he had never personally experienced entering them.
Only after entering the Lampuri Kingdom Royal Palace to the north of Anvilmar City, Xu Yi was a bit disappointed.
This palace didn’t look that big from the outside, being around the size of two-three football stadiums from earth. Xu Yi found that although the inside was decorated quite luxuriously, there wasn’t anything that really surprised him. It was far from comparing to the magnificent royal palaces that Xu Yi had imagined.
Looking at this average royal palace, Xu Yi couldn’t help making estimates in hiss heart.
A royal palace was a demonstration of national power. The reason why the Lampuri Kingdom Royal Palace wasn’t as luxurious is most likely caused by the Lampuri Kingdom’s national power.
As a normal small kingdom to the central southwest of the Sines Continent, the Lampuri national power couldn’t compare to the only two empires on the Sines Continent, the Marlow Empire and the Candra Empire. Even among the kingdoms of the same size, they could only be considered at the medium or low level, so naturally they wouldn’t have a strong national power.
Of course, a palace wouldn’t have to be poor if a country wasn’t strong. For example, there were poverty stricken countries with sky high government official buildings to show off their power, not looking poor at all. Compared to this, even though the Lampuri Kingdom wasn’t that strong, they could decorate the royal palace this luxuriously which still shocked people.
The current appearance was because the Lampuri Kingdom royal family had always been thrifty, leaving behind a tradition seeking effectiveness over appearances.
Adding in the turmoil in the Lampuri Kingdom over the past ten years, greatly decreasing its national power, the king had been even more stringent and didn’t allow any wasteful spending at all. This royal palace hadn’t been repaired in ten years and it was around the same as the manors of some nobles.
Xu Yi’s eyes saw quite a few marks inside the royal palace, with the paint peeling off quite a few walls. He thought that if this king really cared about efficiency more than vanity like the rumours said, his ideas would be more easily accepted by the king.
As a mechanical engineer, Xu Yi appreciated this kind of character because in the machine industry, not a single bit of error was allowed.
After the servant guided Xu Yi into the royal palace, they didn’t bring him far. After going through two corridors, they brought him to a small room to rest for now.
“Wait a minute.” Xu Yi called out the servant who was about to leave, “Can I ask, to have me come this early, is there some special order?”
The servant replied without any expression, “No comment, I am just following orders to lead you here.”
Looking at the servant whose facial expressions were like stone, Xu Yi knew that he couldn’t get anything out of him, so he just waved his hand.
Unexpected to Xu Yi, after the servant left, there was no one who came to call him.
Xu Yi had been alone in the room for close to half an hour and finally couldn’t take it anymore, so he stood up.
When he stood up, he found that the door to this little room had been blocked by something from the outside!
Xu Yi’s face instantly fell.
It seemed like he had fallen into a trap.