The AI Archmage - Chapter 31

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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AI Archmage Episode 31

 

The Blue Tower was currently undergoing major changes.

 

And the fact that Sion Rostery, who was once a scoundrel, was at the center of these changes was an undeniable truth.

 

And today, an old senior had returned to the Blue Tower alongside Sion Rostery.

 

“S-Senior!”

 

The Vice Tower Master, Serentia, welcomed Barean with tears welling up in her eyes.

 

“I never thought I’d see you again, Senior.”

 

“Neither did I.”

 

Barean smiled bitterly and carefully continued speaking.

 

“I came back because you told me to, but honestly, I’m not sure if it’s okay for me to return to the Blue Tower. If the Council finds out about this…”

 

“Senior.”

 

At that moment, Sion chuckled and said.

 

“Whether you’re here and we get screwed, or you’re not here and we get screwed, it’s all the same thing.”

 

“…Is that so?”

 

“The Council is already beating the hell out of the Main Tower. Adding one more person won’t make them stop what they’re doing, so is there really a reason to obediently follow the Council’s words?”

 

“That’s true as well.”

 

Barean nodded and continued speaking.

 

“Then are you planning to bring back everyone else too? Even those bound by contracts with other Magic Towers or noble houses?”

 

“Of course. The more talent we have, the better.”

 

Barean expressed his concern at Sion’s words.

 

“Unlike me, those bound by contracts won’t be easy. Noble houses and Magic Towers won’t willingly release mages they’ve bound with contracts.”

 

“I’m well aware of that. But I have a method in mind, so don’t worry too much. Contracts or whatever, I’m confident I can make them offer up their necks willingly.”

 

“Haha…”

 

Barean let out a hearty laugh.

 

If it had been anyone else, he wouldn’t have believed them.

 

But Sion was different somehow.

 

Though he hadn’t known him for very long, he could tell that Sion was far from normal.

 

And judging by the expressions of the other two juniors, they seemed to accept it as natural.

 

“Sion.”

 

“Yes, Senior.”

 

“Pursue your dreams to your heart’s content.”

 

Even if he told him not to, it didn’t seem like he would stop anyway.

 

He swallowed the rest of his words.

 

Sion chuckled and replied.

 

“I’m already doing that.”

 

“I see.”

 

Well, if this wasn’t him pursuing his dreams, that would be somewhat frightening.

 

Anyway, Sion decided to get back to the ‘main point.’

 

Retrieving the other Blue Tower mages was a matter for later.

 

What’s important right now.

 

“The residents.”

 

“…Residents?”

 

Serentia tilted her head.

 

“Ah, Vice Tower Master, you haven’t heard yet. As of today, we have some residents moving into our Blue Tower.”

 

“What?”

 

Serentia looked at Sion with an even more confused expression.

 

Sion chuckled and said.

 

“Shall we go then?”

 

“No, explain first…”

 

“You’ll understand when you see.”

 

“…?”

 

And so Serentia was dragged along by Sion’s hand.

 

* * *

 

Land not far from the Blue Tower.

 

“So this is the place.”

 

Hans, a resident of Alhaio Village, looked at the vast land spread out before him with deep emotion.

 

Just as his benefactor had said, it was plains vast enough to be called expansive.

 

Even the soil quality didn’t look bad.

 

While it wasn’t fertile enough to be called rich, it was incomparable to where they had lived before.

 

And most importantly.

 

‘I didn’t see a single monster on the way here.’

 

There were no monsters.

 

Even if they couldn’t immediately farm to secure food, they were certainly safe from the threat of monsters.

 

“Dad.”

 

Just then, his son Jimmy came over carrying something in his arms.

 

“Are we going to live here from now on?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“…But there’s no house? No fence, nothing at all.”

 

“That’s right, there’s a lot we lack. But still…”

 

Hans stroked his son’s head and said.

 

“This place is safe.”

 

“Safe…?”

 

“Yes, there’s someone here who will protect us.”

 

Of course it was only a verbal promise, but he trusted Sion.

 

And so the people from Alhaio Village gathered in one place.

 

“For now we’ll have to make do with tents. It’ll take some time to build a village.”

 

“…Will it be alright?”

 

“We couldn’t continue living on such land.”

 

Among the Village Residents, there were quite a few who felt anxious.

 

No matter how much safer this place was compared to before, there was nothing here.

 

Previously, they had everything necessary for survival including homes and farmland, but they had abandoned all of that and come here empty-handed.

 

It was while the Village Residents were making various plans for the future.

 

“Have you looked around the land?”

 

A familiar voice.

 

Sion Rostery, who had guided them to this place, approached.

 

“M-Mage!”

 

Hans hurriedly approached Sion and bowed his head.

 

“Have you decided on this site? It’s fine if you want to look at other places.”

 

“This place seemed the most suitable. I’ve finished discussing it with the others as well.”

 

“Good. Then we should prepare houses for you first.”

 

“Houses… you say?”

 

“Yes. You don’t need to build the houses yourselves. You trusted me and came all the way here, so I should at least do that much.”

 

“B-But the manpower…”

 

“It’s fine. Where do you think this is? This is the Magic Tower.”

 

Sion smiled broadly and looked somewhere before gesturing with his hand.

 

Then at that moment.

 

Rumble rumble rumble.

 

The ground shook, and something began approaching from beyond.

 

“Wh-what is that?”

 

“It looks like a rock, but it’s moving? Is it a person?”

 

Sion explained their identity to the confused residents.

 

“They’re Golems.”

 

“G-Golems!”

 

For the Villagers who had lived in a frontier village, Golems were something they had never seen in their lives.

 

The Golems quickly approached them and began moving Materials and compacting the ground.

 

The Village Residents could only stare blankly at them.

 

“D-do we not need to do anything?”

 

“Yes, you don’t need to do anything.”

 

Sion smiled cheerfully.

 

“But you’ll need a place to stay until the village is completed, won’t you?”

 

“Th-that’s true…”

 

“Until the village is completed, you can stay in the Main Tower.”

 

“…!”

 

At those words, the Village Residents stared at Sion with wide eyes.

 

He would even provide a place for them to stay until the village was completed?

 

Hans asked Sion with a trembling voice.

 

“Wh-what could possibly remain for you if you do all this… Lord Mage…”

 

“As I mentioned before.”

 

Sion continued with a benevolent smile.

 

“You will remain.”

 

“Ahh….”

 

The village residents collapsed to the ground and began praising Sion’s benevolence.

 

Serentia, who had been quietly watching from behind, whispered.

 

“Lumia, isn’t that a scam?”

 

“It’s definitely a scam, right?”

 

Lumia had now somewhat figured out Sion’s behavioral style.

 

The fact that he was going this far meant he had something to accomplish through the village residents.

 

What that something was.

 

While she watched with such thoughts, Sion was continuing his scam on the moved village residents.

 

“However, since we don’t just live by digging the ground either, you’ll need to reside in the Main Tower and provide us with some ‘minor’ assistance.”

 

“Wh-what is it! Just tell us, my lord! If you command it, we’ll do anything!”

 

“Haha.”

 

Sion continued with an extremely benevolent expression.

 

“We’ll just be making some things together. It’s not dangerous, and it’s efficient.”

 

“When you say making….”

 

Sion grinned and voiced what he would have the village residents do.

 

“It’s nothing much. You just need to make Magic Tools for us.”

 

“Ma… gic Tools?”

 

Sion nodded as he looked at the village residents who were staring at him with bewildered expressions.

 

“Yes, from now on you will be helping with the work of producing Magic Tool components.”

 

“…!”

 

Only then did the village residents’ eyes widen as they understood what he meant.

 

* * *

 

Naturally, individual production of Magic Tools couldn’t help the Blue Tower’s finances.

 

Moreover, it couldn’t help with the completion of the Magic Craft Tower that Sion was aiming for.

 

The Magic Craft Tower that Sion pursued was a new form of Magic Tower that integrated the Magic Tower and Workshop.

 

In other words.

 

‘A system capable of mass-producing Magic Tools like a workshop needs to be created.’

 

And what was needed for that was manpower first.

 

Manpower capable of systematically producing and managing Magic Tool materials, and even assembling them.

 

[Human, you’ve secured labor to exploit quite naturally.]

 

‘Exploit? You’ve always had a talent for expressing perfectly fine words like crap.’

 

Sion snorted.

 

Exploit!

 

They’re even handling village construction and providing living space until then, so what’s wrong with receiving labor as compensation for that?

 

Moreover.

 

“You will all receive wages according to how much you work.”

 

“W-wages, you say?”

 

The village residents’ eyes widened.

 

The residents of Alhaio were accustomed to being exploited.

 

They had lived in the dangerous frontier lands to escape such treatment.

 

Furthermore, no empire or kingdom on the continent had systematized compensation for labor.

 

Yet now Sion was promising them wages as if it were natural.

 

‘My goodness, he’s saying he’ll give fair wages for the work we do?’

 

‘He’s dividing up the land and even building houses for us?’

 

For residents who had suffered from noble exploitation and bandit harassment as part of daily life, this was nothing short of revolutionary.

 

Now in their eyes, Sion appeared not as a great mage, but like a saint sent by the gods.

 

“W-when you say wages, how much are you referring to…?”

 

“If you work diligently for a month, I’ll pay 5 silver per person.”

 

“5, 5 silverrrr!”

 

Hans roared.

 

“I-is that really true?! You’re saying you’ll give us 5 silver for making magic tool components?!”

 

“That’s correct. For a mage, credibility is life itself. I never lie.”

 

“Huh, huhhh!”

 

Objectively speaking, 5 silver wasn’t a large amount.

 

But for frontier residents who were no different from slash-and-burn farmers, 5 silver was an enormous sum.

 

“Of course, you’ll need to receive systematic education. Making components without knowing anything would be absurd.”

 

“I-if you’ll just let us do it, we’ll really give our absolute best!”

 

All the village residents stepped forward enthusiastically.

 

Sion smiled as he watched such residents.

 

‘As expected, nothing raises motivation like guaranteed compensation.’

 

Sion knew well that nothing motivated people more than certain rewards.

 

Of course, it was a plan to use the villagers as labor for magic tool production, but even that required fair compensation as a prerequisite.

 

That was Sion’s philosophy.

 

[But would it be possible to use people who know nothing for magic tool production?]

 

‘Of course it won’t work immediately.’

 

The important thing was that he had gathered motivated personnel.

 

He had to start from here.

 

‘Starting with this, I’ll educate them and establish a production system.’

 

[Who will do the teaching?]

 

Akasha asked the obvious question.

 

And currently, there was no one besides Sion who could teach magic tool component production.

 

‘It won’t be me, at least.’

 

[Then who? No matter how much I think about it, I can’t think of anyone…]

 

‘Why can’t you think of anything?’

 

Sion said with a grin.

 

‘You can take charge of their education, can’t you?’

 

[….]

 

Akasha fell silent for a moment at the unexpected answer.

 

And a little while later.

 

[…Are you insane, human?]

 

She gave a perfectly reasonable response.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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