At the White Wizard Association branch headquarters in Cloud Marsh Wetland, several wizards in the Funding Division office were processing 131 applications for Special-Grade Funding submitted by the ten major districts.
But the Land of Three Marshes received only fifty Special-Grade Funding Grant slots each year, and the three Wizard Lands had to negotiate how to divide them.
That meant each Wizard Land got only about sixteen slots. If Thunder Marsh Lowland claimed more one year, Cloud Marsh Wetland and Rain-Marsh might get fewer.
Of course, for a single Wizard Land, that was already plenty.
The White Wizard Association normally awarded each Wizard Land between one and five Special-Grade Funding Grants a year. The number of grants the Land of Three Marshes received far exceeded what an ordinary Wizard Land could expect.
Now the fewer than ten Sun-Ring, Moon-Ring, and Star-Ring Wizards in the office, along with a Third-Ring Wizard who served as deputy director of the Funding Division, had to decide which projects would receive Special-Grade Funding.
The high-ranking Second-Ring Wizards worked swiftly through the documents.
A Moon-Ring Witch read out the results the staff had reached after discussing and reviewing the applications together. In her gentle voice, she presented them to the Third-Ring Wizard in charge for a final judgment on whether their decisions were sound.
Of the more than a hundred applications submitted, they had selected seventeen for approval.
Normally, at this stage, they could send the results to the White Wizard Association's sector headquarters in the Starfield Sea, then wait for the funds to be disbursed.
The sector headquarters in the Starfield Sea rarely rejected a list of approved applicants sent by their branch.
The Moon-Ring Witch said, "The application approved by the Rose Council was submitted by Wizard Dukat. His project focuses on the Crystallized