Saving Money Requires Reverse Thinking

Rorschach left the office with the letter of introduction Teacher Caroline had written for him.

He still owed someone a favor. As for Teacher Caroline, Rorschach was not overly resistant to it. She had taken good care of the original owner of this body, and seeing her gave him an unusual sense of warmth.

His final days at the academy were utterly idle. Rorschach, Bart, and Richard had a proper drink together. Rorschach came to a major conclusion—the Empire's drinking snacks were either sausages or potato-like tubers. Due to the lack of spices, they tasted far worse than those in his previous life.

Besides magic, what Rorschach liked most at the moment was Dianburg's surroundings. The castle and the surrounding woodlands occupied nearly half the Queen's District. Dian had been the Moon Goddess of this land during its tribal wilderness era. After the Old Empire was founded, she fell asleep and no longer answered her followers. Yet as the goddess of the moon and hunting, she had become deeply woven into the culture of the Empire's north. As Dianburg's name showed, it had been a hunting residence built during Grand Duke William Sr.'s time, when the Imperial Capital's Queen's District did not yet exist.

Then Duke William Jr. donated it. Could this young noble have suffered some childhood trauma in the castle and simply decided he did not want it anymore? Rorschach walked through corridors lined with suits of armor, passing painting after painting depicting the history of the Empire and Mages—he had confirmed that the figures in them did not move. What a pity.

With the mindset of a warped tourist, Rorschach spent what little remained of his academy life. During that time, the dean gave a speech to all newly promoted Mages who had passed the assessment.

"Today, you take pride in the Empire and the academy. Tomorrow, the Empire and the academy will take pride in you!"

"Hmph." That was Bart's disdainful snort.

"Pfft." At the same time came Rorschach's suppressed snicker.

Other than that, the speech had nothing worth mentioning, making Rorschach deeply realize that there were some things even wondrous magic could not change. Standing in the early-summer courtyard and sweating beneath his formal Mage robes, Rorschach dearly wanted to hit the speaker with a purple-quality Fireball.

What kind of unskippable-story first-person open-world trash game was this?

After receiving the offer from the Tower of Stars, Sabins came looking for Rorschach again.

"This is the first payment. Another twelve coins have been sent to your parents." The Discipline Chief first laid out twelve gold coins, then took out thirty silver coins. "These silver coins are for the journey. Do not spend gold coins casually before reaching the royal capital, or you will invite trouble."

"Understood." Rorschach accepted the money, bagged the gold coins, and stored them in his Storage Ring—a farewell gift from Bart, who claimed it was to thank Rorschach for helping him avoid failing a course for four years. He tucked the remaining silver coins into an inner pocket beneath his Mage robes. "Our organization's benefits are pretty good."

"His Majesty does not mistreat talent." The Discipline Chief once again revealed that unnatural, stiff smile. "Especially useful, loyal talent."

Rorschach only cared about taking the money, not whether his boss was offering carrots or sticks.

"I think you trust me a little too easily, sir."

"Not easily. We know you. We began learning about you and watching you before you enrolled... Of course, the organization watches many children, but few can become qualified Spellcasters. That is why you are worth this price, Mage Rorschach."

"Very well, sir."

Sabins also taught Rorschach how to contact the agency in an emergency while in the Holy Kingdom, as well as what counted as an emergency, including but not limited to the Holy Kingdom declaring war on the Empire, the Holy Kingdom's dwarf king dying, or the Mage Guild convening a council of elders...

With funding, Rorschach could take an airship reinforced by magic formations and maintained by low-level Mages, reaching the Holy Kingdom's capital in as little as a week.

However, the Tower of Stars thoughtfully gave him two months. He only needed to report in before winter. Besides, Rorschach was not exactly flush with cash, and he might need to spend more once he reached the royal capital.

"This is when reverse thinking is needed."

Rorschach strode proudly into the Adventurer's Guild.

Traveling the same route, he would have to pay others as a passenger; if he became a Mage guard for a merchant caravan, others would have to pay him.

The continent's two largest and wealthiest nations might have somewhat strained relations, but as long as they had not gone to war, trade would remain frequent. Rorschach examined the recruitment board, where there were indeed plenty of merchant caravans heading to the royal capital seeking guards.

Most of the commissions on the recruitment board were escort missions, with a small number seeking teams for adventures and investigations. For example, Monich University's archaeological expedition was recruiting investigators to explore mountain ruins... Rorschach suddenly felt that joining such a group meant nine deaths and one madman.

All in all, the Adventurer's Guild was a job market. The people who came here were broke guys with enough combat ability to pick up temporary work, while the teams were mostly tomb raiders from another world who liked to call the burial mounds of ancient nobles and Archmages "ruins."

"Welcome! Is this your first time visiting the Adventurer's Guild?" The boy who entered looked only seventeen or eighteen, and he looked around as soon as he walked in, every inch a newbie. But he was wearing the robes of the Imperial Royal Magic Academy. The receptionist did not dare neglect him and approached with a professional smile.

"Are you here to post a commission or accept one?"

"I'm here to take an escort mission."

The receptionist first had Rorschach fill in his name, age, and country of origin, then inspected his Imperial Spellcaster certification and the first-tier Mage Emblem issued by the Mage Guild—the former was a steel plate stamped with special patterns, while the latter was a mithril badge bound to Rorschach.

Rorschach removed the badge. Engraved upon it was a nine-node Magic Circuit. He injected mana into the nodes in an order known only to himself, and the badge immediately lit up with blue arcs. Blue for tiers one through three, purple for tiers four through six, and dark red for the upper three tiers. It was a rather clever encrypted identity card.

"A Junior Mage, tiers one through three, is equivalent to a Silver Adventurer. These are the missions you may accept." The receptionist specifically removed several recruitment notices for him, treatment that other Silver Adventurers did not receive. Skipping the Iron rank, where one could only keep taking small commissions, was an enormous convenience.

A spellcasting lord was still a lord. Nothing else about it!

"I only accept escort missions from the Imperial Capital to Valuana, the Holy Kingdom's capital."

"This route is rather long, and the goods requiring escort are generally very valuable. There are not many commissions a Silver Adventurer can accept. Let me look for you..."

In the end, Rorschach chose a suitable mission: escort a shipment of fur garments and leather goods, made by the Imperial Capital's finest craftsmen using materials from the Black Forest, to the Holy Kingdom's capital. The time limit was one month.

They needed to contact the employer, so the receptionist first invited Rorschach to the guild's second-floor reception room—a place that, in principle, only Gold Adventurers could use. But Rorschach had the "I'm a spellcasting lord" buff and was automatically upgraded.

The employer was a middle-aged man dressed like a steward. Everything from his handlebar mustache to his polished leather boots had been meticulously maintained. Matching his refined, well-fitted clothing, every gesture he made conveyed propriety and elegance.

This representative of the Luowei Merchant Guild gathered all interested adventurers at the guild's training ground, questioning them and testing their abilities.