Chapter 399

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 399: Higher Than the Clouds (1)

After returning to the Magic Tower, Oscar first went to find Sasha.

Knock knock.

Even after knocking on the door and waiting for quite a while, there was no response.

“Hm.”

He couldn’t even tell whether she was inside or not.

By default, the Tower Master’s room blocked detection magic like 『Scan』.

Of course, if he used spatial movement, getting inside itself wouldn’t be a problem.

‘But barging in like that feels a bit wrong.’

Though small in stature, Sasha was now a fully grown adult.

On top of that, she also held the position of Tower Master.

Just because she treated him with utmost respect as her master didn’t mean he should forget that fact.

‘Maybe she has urgent business or something.’

He had thought he might greet her since he had returned after so long.

Suppressing his disappointment, he boarded the elevator.

A moment later, the doors of the descending elevator opened, revealing a familiar face.

“Hm? Isn’t that Oscar?”

“Elder Fidelina?”

The woman in charge of the White Tower’s finances stepped inside and spoke.

“It’s been ages since I last saw you. At this rate, I’ll forget your face even though we live in the same tower, kid.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, if you’re busy, that’s good news for me. It means you’re out there earning money for us somewhere, right?”

“……Haha.”

Fidelina, who had been watching him laugh awkwardly, checked the floor number.

“Seeing as you came down from above, did you have business with the Tower Master?”

“Yes, but she wasn’t there.”

“You didn’t know? She went to Evemir with the mages.”

“Evemir? Don’t tell me you mean that artificial island? Why would she go there……?”

“Why else? The Night of the Mages is being held.”

The Night of the Mages?

Hearing something he had never expected, Oscar slightly opened his mouth.

“It feels like just yesterday that I participated in that, and you’re saying it’s already been a whole year?”

“Time really flies.”

“Wow, seriously. It feels like a year passed in the blink of an eye.”

“Hoho, you’re too young to be saying things like that already.”

“I genuinely hadn’t even thought about it. Nobody told me anything.”

“Well, of course not. You’re a Master now.”

Last year, he had participated as a 4th Circle mage, yet in merely a single year, he had become a 7th Circle high-ranking mage.

Naturally, participating in the ‘Night of the Mages,’ where only 4th, 5th, and 6th Circle mages could participate, was impossible now.

Oscar shrugged.

“So much for winning tournament MVP two years in a row.”

“You can just win another Oscar Award at the White Night Festival.”

“This year…… wouldn’t that be a little difficult?”

Last year, he had major achievements like the Cadena Flu and being MVP of the Night of the Mages.

And to top it all off, there had been the unveiling of the airship at the White Night Festival presentation.

Compared to that, this year… well, he had mostly been focusing on personal training, so his accomplishments were rather modest.

“True. You’ve been busy with personal matters lately, haven’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you have any new ideas these days? A new potion would be nice, or maybe magical items like the airship.”

“Nothing really comes to mind.”

“Can’t you make something like a hair-loss cure? You’d sweep in money by the rakeful, not to mention win another Oscar Award.”

Without realizing it, Oscar nodded.

But that was something no one had ever successfully accomplished.

Setting aside his own time for such slim odds was absurd.

“That’d probably be difficult. But why all of a sudden? Is the financial situation still that bad these days?”

“Well, not quite that bad. We’re just preparing for the future. To be honest, we’re not making as much profit as we did last year.”

Fidelina laughed weakly.

“Recently, the Blue Tower has been improving the quality of their potions and lowering prices, so there’s barely any room for us to squeeze in. The lazy giant monopolizing the market finally woke up.”

“They even lowered their prices…….”

Of course, from the Blue Tower’s perspective, that alone would already be a considerable loss.

They must have invested enormous funds into research to improve quality, yet they lowered prices on top of that.

Still, they managed to prevent customers from leaving because of it, which was an undeniable loss for the White Tower.

The market share they should have naturally gained remained unchanged.

“Then I guess the potion side will barely maintain the status quo for a while.”

“That’s exactly what Lena wrote in her report.”

It truly was unfortunate that the potion department’s steep growth had stalled.

Oscar asked,

“How are the Wind Tribe doing?”

“That side is actually sailing along smoothly. Quite a few companies tried copying us by using horses or automobiles to deliver food and things like that, but before long, every single one of them went bankrupt.”

Just as expected.

The White Tower was the only one across the continent that had built that kind of infrastructure.

To begin with, unless someone had flying bikes, comparison in terms of service was impossible.

“So these days we’re putting more focus on the Wind Tribe, but as you know, that side can’t help but expand slowly.”

“……Right. We need to continuously modify the bikes, and we also have to recruit and train people.”

In other words, unlike potions, it wasn’t something that could just be mass-produced endlessly—it inevitably took time.

“The problem is that our fixed expenses have already grown quite large.”

“Fixed expenses?”

“This year, we recruited 324% more mages compared to last year. A lot of talented kids came to us.”

That was definitely a good sign.

It meant the White Tower was regaining its former prestige once more.

In the long run, those talents would grow and bring tremendous benefits to the White Tower.

‘But if you only look at the immediate present, the expenses must be huge.’

An increase in mages meant an increase in mouths to feed.

The facilities they used required maintenance, and magical books had to be purchased.

On top of that, with so many beginner mages joining, the campus would likely start operating again this year.

To do that, they would need to invite highly reputable instructors and professors from outside.

‘And this is already how much money goes into just the beginner mages alone.’

Oscar asked,

“The money going into intermediate and advanced mages increased too, didn’t it?”

“That’s right. Last year, we shifted the delivery department over to ordinary workers, so a lot more mages started focusing on research. Naturally, the proportion of research funding paid to them increased significantly.”

That too was a good phenomenon in the long term.

After all, great discoveries came from research accumulating little by little.

“So in short, the money going out keeps increasing, while the money coming in stays the same.”

“Exactly. That’s why expectations for the airship are pretty high. The airports in each city are going to be completed soon.”

Naturally, nobody was even considering the possibility of the airship failing.

That business would bring enormous wealth to the Magic Tower.

Even just selling boarding tickets alone would likely become a major source of income on the level of an ordinary Magic Tower.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

And on top of that, it would undoubtedly create entirely new paradigms in tourism, business, moving, transportation, and all sorts of other industries, so it would be stranger if it didn’t make money.

“Hmm.”

But something about it made his throat feel slightly itchy.

How should he put it—if he just took one more step forward, it felt like something would suddenly click into place.

‘A business connected to the airships that’ll begin operating soon…….’

They had already done practically everything possible.

They had attracted investment funds from the Imperial Family and each city to build airports.

Contracts had already been finalized for all kinds of restaurants and cafés to move inside them.

They had even built hotels nearby, anticipating crowds flocking to the surrounding commercial districts.

In other words, preparations had already been completed to squeeze every possible profit out of the airports.

‘Tsk. Then why does this still feel lacking?’

Back when the other businesses had been booming, he had thought this much would be enough, but now it didn’t feel that way anymore.

Even in his own eyes, Fidelina’s worries were not something that could simply be dismissed as needless concern.

‘The next ten years are the most important for the White Tower.’

Whether they reclaimed the glory of the past, or whether this current rebound ended as nothing more than a fleeting spark, depended on that.

If their finances started wavering again after only a few years, the talented people who had only just gathered would turn their backs on them.

An organization didn’t collapse when it stagnated.

It collapsed when it failed to handle the pace of its own growth and crashed.

“A new source of income…… I’ll think about it.”

“Oh my, you will?”

Ding.

Right then, the elevator arrived at the floor Fidelina had pressed.

Her complexion brightened immediately as she patted his shoulder.

“Then our little lucky charm, I’ll be counting on you again this time, okay?”

“Yes, well.”

Her footsteps had already become lighter as she stepped off the elevator.

And the moment she left, someone else boarded.

“Hm? Well now, look who this is.”

A small figure staring straight up at him.

Somehow, the elevator had become a place for socializing.

Oscar lightly nodded.

“It’s been a while, Hagor.”

“Seeing your face feels harder than meeting the Tower Master.”

“Sorry. I’ve been busy with personal matters these past few months.”

“If you’re truly sorry, buy me a drink sometime later.”

“Sure. How have the dwarves been living these days?”

At that question, Hagor shrugged.

“The human world is entertaining. We can drink as much alcohol as we want, and the Magic Tower facilities are excellent, so everyone seems satisfied. And did you know we started selling weapons and equipment last month?”

“I heard that was the plan, but I didn’t realize it started last month. Has the response been good?”

“Hmph, what a foolish question. We are the best on the continent. There’s no way the response could be bad.”

With his pride swelling to the heavens, Hagor pulled out a notebook and showed it to him.

“These are the transaction records for the items I made. What do you think?”

“Hieeek!”

A soul-leaving sound escaped Oscar’s mouth.

The transactions all started at minimum in the hundreds of millions.

“No, I know the equipment is excellent, but this is way more expensive than I expected?”

“As you know, we dwarves never produce mass-manufactured equipment. Even if something like that were made, we’d smash it with our own hands rather than ever reveal it to the world.”

“I know.”

That was the greatest reason dwarf-made equipment was so revered.

There were absolutely no defective products.

“That’s why every item we put up for sale is something that passed our own verification. Naturally, there are many people who want to buy them. We’re getting tired of selling them one by one, so we’re thinking of changing the method.”

“How?”

“Negotiating with every individual customer feels inefficient, so we’re thinking of holding auctions periodically. It seems like that way would waste less of our time too.”

“That’s a good idea.”

An auction selling dwarf-made equipment.

The moment he thought that sounded like quite a decent business opportunity—

Oscar’s eyes lit up.

“Hagor.”

“What?”

“There’s no particular reason those auctions have to be held only in Sirin, right?”

“Hm. As long as they aren’t sold cheaply to fools who don’t understand the value of equipment, I don’t care. But why do you ask?”

“I just came up with a pretty good idea.”

A method where both he and Hagor—

the White Tower and the White Anvil Tribe—

could both come out winning.

“Sell those weapons and equipment on the airship.”

“……On the airship?”

Hagor frowned as though asking what nonsense he was spouting.

“It’s not as if everyone boarding the airship will be rich people or nobles. I doubt they’d even be interested.”

“No. That’s why we divide it into categories from the start. We sell seats that grant participation in the auction.”

“Hm, not bad…… but would someone with no reason to board an airship really buy a ticket just to participate in an auction?”

“Of course they would. I’d even bet on it.”

Oscar grinned.

He knew wealthy people and nobles very well.

People with high status or great wealth fundamentally possessed a sense of superiority, believing themselves different from ordinary people.

“They’re already people who’ve experienced practically everything worth experiencing. An ordinary auction wouldn’t even catch their attention.”

But what if an event called the ‘Sky Auction,’ held only once every few months and only in the skies, were to appear?

He could guarantee it—

even if they didn’t particularly need dwarf-made equipment,

or even if they had no business boarding an airship,

they would gladly pay expensive ticket prices solely to participate in that auction, in that very place.

“The dwarves get to sell their works quickly and at high prices.”

“And the White Tower earns money by selling boarding tickets for those seats…….”

“Deal?”

Hagor, meeting his gaze in midair, held out his fist.

“Deal.”

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]