Steel and Wizards

In the classroom.

The young teacher arrived a full ten minutes late and hurriedly announced the start of class with an impatient look on his face.

Intimidated by Bo Ning Academy's rules, the students said nothing.

The young teacher introduced himself as Ma Haohai. He had been teaching beginner classes at Bo Ning Academy for exactly three years, and reportedly had a good reputation.

What Ronan did not know was that the moment Ma Haohai entered the classroom, he silently recited Ronan's name three times before taking out the roster and beginning attendance.

After the tedious and boring self-introductions, class officially began.

This was a general history class. Ma Haohai was responsible for explaining the historical changes of the Empire since the Final Battle. Of course, everything had to begin with the time before the Final Battle.

In the Steel Empire's textbooks, wizards were portrayed as cruel, bloodthirsty lunatics, violent criminals with terrifying powers, insane patients who conducted human experiments in the dead of night.

Naturally, the wizards described by Ma Haohai were no better. Although Ronan found his claims deeply unpleasant, he had to admit that the young teacher was quite eloquent, or at least highly captivating.

At first, everyone had been rather dissatisfied that this teacher was late for his first class. Gradually, however, they became immersed in his impassioned lecture.

Their eyes brimmed with righteous indignation—as though the humans enslaved for thousands of years in Teacher Ma's account were themselves.

Only Ronan's eyes revealed a trace of boredom.

The things written in the Steel Empire's textbooks... in his view, they were at least thirty percent true and seventy percent false. Crescent Prison contained countless banned books. When it came to the Final Battle, Ronan likely knew more than Ma Haohai did.

Still, out of a student's duty, he sat up straight and put on an attentive expression.

Ma Haohai held his notes and spoke passionately, but his gaze kept drifting toward the student he called "the one who came in through the back door." Although the principal had soothed him by every means possible and persuaded him to finish this class first, and although he himself felt that one piece of trash should not affect the education of the other outstanding students, he had ultimately chosen to compromise.

Yet the thorn in his heart remained impossible to remove.

He was a commoner.

He knew full well how much effort an ordinary commoner needed to put in to get into Bo Ning Academy. Back then, he himself had nearly had his place secretly bought out from under him by a noble. Fortunately, during the academy's senior review, that noble descendant's Guaranteed Admission had not been approved, giving him the chance to study at Bo Ning Academy.

He had worked incredibly hard to earn the recognition of the academy's higher-ups and remain at the academy as an instructor after graduation. Only afterward did he learn that someone had nearly taken his place. In the office, people often joked that he was lucky, and he would laugh along carelessly.

Yet only he knew how much lingering fear filled the depths of his heart!

What if that senior review had passed? Would he have permanently lost the right to study at Bo Ning Academy? Would he then have followed his parents' arrangements and become a repairman at a mecha service station?

Because he had experienced it himself, he especially hated such behavior.

This young master Ronan had obtained a place at Bo Ning Academy through Guaranteed Admission. Then which pitiful youth had studied through countless sleepless nights, only for it all to come to nothing?

"I absolutely won't let someone who came in through the back door remain at Bo Ning Academy!"

Ma Haohai silently swore to himself. Perhaps he could not directly make Ronan leave, but he could make Ronan lose face.

One scheme after another to target Ronan surfaced in his mind, yet none of it affected the smooth flow of his lecture.

"...Therefore, the Kindling Tome is the source of humanity's victory over those evil wizards..."

"We all know that the founding emperor, Chen Butcher, obtained the method to restrain wizards from the Kindling Tome. I believe any student with even a little basic knowledge should know this, right?"

At this point, Ma Haohai's eyes suddenly shifted. "I'll ask a student to answer."

He paused slightly before finally saying that name. "Ronan."

Because of the disturbance Lin Chenluo had caused earlier, Ronan had immediately become the center of attention in the beginner class. Ma Haohai's seemingly casual roll call secretly ignited everyone's emotions.

Everyone's gaze instantly focused on Ronan.

Ronan calmly rose to his feet and said in an orderly manner, "Steel has a fatal restraining effect on wizardry. That is common knowledge."

"That is also why the Empire is named after steel."

Steel had a fatal restraining effect on wizardry.

Seven hundred years ago, a man surnamed Chen who worked as a butcher for an elven family discovered this fact. He then rose in rebellion and, with the help of the Kindling Tome, extensively developed refined iron extraction technology and steel-forging factories throughout the Eastern Star Region. The many modern weapons produced afterward were completely immune to wizard magic and could even cause low-level wizards to lose their ability to use magic!

That was why the Wizard Alliance suffered such a crushing defeat in the Final Battle.

That was everything written in the Steel Empire's history books, but Ronan knew none of it was the truth.

Steel truly had a terrifying weakening effect on wizardry. As a wizard himself, Ronan had experienced it deeply. But the true reason the Final Battle had succeeded was that man.

The man who had refused to reveal his name throughout history.

He was the first emperor of the Steel Empire.

He came from a butcher's background, yet concealed his real name. To ensure that his descendants would forever remember their ancestor's former circumstances, he used only one name throughout his life: Chen Butcher.

Ronan had seen his portrait in some secret records. The founding emperor had an ordinary appearance and was said to be a man of few words, but he was in fact a rare genius! From the Kindling Tome, he comprehended the method of creating mechas, discovered the iron element, and built mechas capable of restraining wizards. Starting from a small planet, he eventually swept across the Eastern Star Region.

When the Final Battle erupted, he was already the only verifiable Level 16 Mecha Pilot in history.

Level 16 was the so-called Legendary Realm.

With one man and one mecha, he crushed the Wizard Alliance's most elite wizard legion, forcing thirteen Mia-level Great Wizards from the Wizard Alliance's upper ranks to activate the mutually destructive Black Dragon Project.

It was also that Black Dragon Project that caused the Kindling Tome to collapse and shatter, leaving behind only a few incomplete pages. A Great Vortex appeared between the Eastern and Western Star Regions, and the Wizard Alliance retreated to the west. From then on, the two sides did not invade each other for nearly a thousand years.

Had there been no Black Dragon Project, Chen Butcher might have unified the entire galaxy.

What followed was the rebuilding of human civilization. Chen Butcher was severely wounded after that great battle and died not long after becoming emperor, but the constitutional monarchy he had personally established continued unchanged.

The Chen family became the imperial family, while the Ten Knights and the Great Sage families formed the Upper House. Local nobles and commoner representatives formed the Lower House.

This political structure had endured to the present day.

It was difficult to imagine that a single human could leave behind such dazzling brilliance in such a vast galaxy.

Ronan had always admired Chen Butcher. Though within the Steel Empire, this man had been somewhat excessively mythologized.

Ronan's answer could be considered proper and conventional. There was nothing wrong with it, but nothing remarkable either.

Ma Haohai gave him a serious look, as if he wanted to etch the boy firmly into his memory, before slowly telling him to sit down. He had no intention of making things difficult for Ronan immediately. He merely wanted to test the waters first.

He still had the basic common knowledge. The current lessons were relatively simple, so there was probably no way to start from there... Better look for another opportunity later.

Thinking this, the young teacher suppressed his emotions and continued teaching.

Time flew by. The morning's three classes finally ended amid Ma Haohai's spray of saliva and the Steel Empire's long history.

Yet for Ronan, such lessons contained no nourishment at all.

I'll listen a little longer...

After class, he left the classroom alone.

Whether it was the commoner faction or the nobles, both kept their distance from him. These youths seemed to be deliberately isolating Ronan, the one who had "come in through the back door."

Ronan did not take that to heart at all.

To him, Su Jie and Lin Chenluo were nothing more than two little brats.

The things he wanted to accomplish were simply beyond the imagination of children like them.

Among the items on his list of goals, the easiest was probably the one he had added most recently.

"Defeat Li Nanbei..."

The moment that thought arose, Su Xiao's faint smile and clear voice involuntarily appeared before his eyes.

She should have already set off by now, heading for the unknown Dragon Capital Province.

He shook his head, casting those thoughts aside, and quickened his pace back to the dormitory.

After lunch came free time.

Thanks to his roommate's coldness, Ronan did not need to exchange pleasantries and simply returned to his room.

"Noah, help me find out how I can obtain a large amount of Primal Stone as quickly as possible!"

"And search the Azure Ring Island local network. See if there's any news about wizard manuals!"

After connecting the Pocket Watch-like intelligent lifeform to the computer in his room, Ronan spoke quickly.

Very soon, Old Madman gave him a response.

"Although Azure Ring Island is an Academy District, there are still large amounts of Primal Stone for sale. The problem is that all of it is civilian-grade, meaning X Series. The energy replenishment they provide me is negligible, and they're extremely expensive. The high-quality Primal Stone you gave me last time meets the Steel Empire's military standards. It belongs to the S Series and isn't sold on the market, though it can be found on the black market at outrageous prices."

"As for wizard manuals, there is no information at all on the Azure Ring Island local network. However, I found similar traces on a Dark Web. I may need some time to locate and analyze them. The Empire is extremely sensitive toward wizardry and regulates it harshly. Although many people are interested in wizardry and secretly trade wizard manuals, they are very careful. At the current pace, I'll need at least a week to crack the Dark Web's channels."

Ronan frowned slightly.

For him, the most important thing right now was increasing his strength. Personal strength grew slowly and required accumulation over time, while external power was relatively easier to obtain. If he could acquire a large amount of Primal Stone, Noah would undergo a projected advancement, and its power would become even greater.

And Ronan desperately needed it to be stronger.

However, Primal Stone was the foundation of the Empire. It was not so easily obtained.

"When all is said and done, you need money."

Old Madman summed it up sharply. "You spent so many years in prison that you have no concept of money at all. But as far as I know, the most important thing in the human world is still currency."

"Money?"

Ronan glanced at his Rose Card. It contained the twenty thousand Eagle Horn Earl had given him for living expenses.

However, Noah's search results showed that even the cheapest civilian X Series Primal Stone cost several hundred each. As for S Series Primal Stone on the black market, the price was usually over one hundred thousand.

The money he had on hand was nowhere near enough to replenish Noah's energy.

Unable to take a single step without money, Ronan, newly emerged from Crescent Prison, felt troubled for the first time.

Good morning. Today's post on the WeChat public account is Galaxy Encyclopedia: The Imperial Structure. It contains some setting-related material, so interested readers can take a look. Remember to leave a like while you're there. Send over some recommendation votes!