Having cut through the tangled mess with a swift blade and reaped an unexpected gain, Lin Qi quickly left the VIP room under Esco and Farland's lead. Guided by Romero, they headed for the Mage Tower's Finance Department. According to the Mage Tower's unspoken rules, if a family wished to hire Mage Tower mages as its retainers, it had to pay a certain price to take them away, based on the mages' strength and years of service in the Mage Tower.
Half of that price went to the Mage Tower, while the other half had to be handed over to the Vias government's treasury.
After all, these mages had been supported by the Federation for so many years within the Mage Tower. Every year, they consumed immense quantities of magical materials and gold coins, and they had signed fixed service contracts with both the Mage Tower and the Federation. If they wished to terminate those contracts, they had to pay the price.
Moreover, only nobles of the Vias Commercial Federation could take these mages away from the Mage Tower. In principle, nobles from other nations were not even allowed to set foot inside the Mage Tower. The Mage Tower provided these mages with lavish conditions, but it also placed certain restraints upon them.
Merome himself was the Mage Tower's current finance steward, in charge of its income and expenditures. Of the personnel inside and outside the Mage Tower's Finance Department, seventy percent were either Merome's disciples or unaffiliated mages dependent on him.
Thus, with Merome personally stepping forward, the Mage Tower's Finance Department swiftly processed the procedures for Esco, Farland, and their disciples. After Lin Qi paid an astronomical sum of gold coins by ordinary standards, along with a considerable amount of magical materials, he formally signed service contracts with