Requesting Aid

Fran entered Iris's room carrying a large stack of papers. She had been preparing these documents ever since she and Anna returned on their Black Horse ride the previous day.

Iris sat at the table, looked up at Fran with a puzzled expression, and wondered why Fran had brought such a large stack of papers to see her.

Fran placed all the papers on the table in front of Iris and then said:

"President, could you please sign this for me? My application needs the signature of the current regional administrator before it can be submitted."

Iris didn't do as she was told immediately. Instead, she blinked, rummaged through the papers in front of her, and glanced at them briefly.

"What are you doing...?"

She pulled a piece of paper from the pile and pointed to the map on it, saying to Fran:

"You want to submit information about the Antir Region to the Alliance? What are you doing?"

When Iris saw an application form for the expansion of the Alliance's territory, she couldn't hold back anymore.

"Are you trying to convert the Antir Region into the Alliance territory? The Alliance has no interest in that rotten land; besides its large population, it has no rare resources whatsoever."

The Alliance's expansion strategy follows the pattern of finding rare resources. For example, the Grey Soil Province where Fran was previously located was because it contained a large amount of Grey Soil that could enhance the strength of Undead.

It took the Alliance about a century to bring the Grey Soil Province into the Alliance territory.

Furthermore, the same is true for the Highland Province Highland Province next to the Grey Soil Province, which has a large amount of White Mountain Copper, with astonishing reserves.

That's right. The reason why the raw material for the dagger Fran used to make the dagger in the City of Apprentices was so cheap was because the Alliance owned an entire White Mountain Copper Mine White Mountain Copper.

However, there are no areas north and west of the Grey Soil Province that can significantly improve the supply of the Alliance resources.

The fact that only a few countries at the highest tier 3 exist in these places is enough to show that they are not good places. How could good places have so few high-level Profession?

If it weren't for the fact that occupying these resource-rich areas would make the mages' research smoother and the purchase of supplies cheaper, they would have stayed in the Floating City forever.

"Even if you win the Silver Alchemy Award, the Antir Region is simply too vast. The Alliance simply cannot recoup its costs, and the higher-ups will not approve this application."

Iris thought it was impossible for Fran, as the Silver Alchemy Award winner, to demand that the Alliance send Battle Mage Corps to occupy the Antir Region.

"If you had won the Gold Alchemy Award, there might have been room for negotiation, but given your current situation, at most you could only ask the Alliance to help you occupy something like Snow Bear Territory..."

She knew that Fran had recently been heading towards Snow Bear Territory, so she specifically hinted at this. If Fran submitted her application to occupy Snow Bear Territory, the matter would most likely fall to the Northern Lands Society.

Then, the Northern Lands Society will be able to enjoy another round of subsidies from the Alliance...

Fran smiled and then said:

"Society President, you've misunderstood. I'm not asking for the Alliance's all-around assistance; what I need is the Alliance's political support..."

Iris looked at Fran in disbelief and blinked.

"You want the Alliance's political support?"

"That's right, as long as the Alliance recognizes the territory I conquered as belonging to the Alliance, that's fine..."

While Fran could ask the Alliance to help her clear a small area, Fran could also use her status as Silver Alchemy Award winner to apply for another form of assistance: political support.

Fran deliberately shifted her political support to the entire Antir Region, thus legally making Antir Region of the Alliance. When Fran conquers it, it will become the Alliance territory.

Although this means Fran will have to share a portion of the profits from the territories she conquers with the Alliance, it has the advantage of allowing her to leverage the Alliance's reputation.

It wasn't even fake; Fran had all the paperwork and proof. Even if the Alliance's Investigator came, they could only admit that Fran was developing land for the Alliance.

Iris looked Fran up and down, then said:

"Did you discover any rare resources in the Antir Region? Tell me, maybe I can help you?"

In this matter, Iris could only guess that Fran might have discovered rare resources in the Antir Region on her way to the Northern Lands Society, which is why she made the application.

Otherwise, she really couldn't understand why Fran would risk such significant losses to seek political support from the Alliance.

While applying for political support from the Alliance may seem insignificant on the surface, the cost is that you apply and then fail to take any action, thus damaging your credibility. The Alliance will then give your application more serious consideration next time.

Otherwise, as a Fourth Order Mage, Iris could not only request political support from the Alliance for the Antir Region and several surrounding kingdoms, but also for the entire Northern Territory.

As long as she dares to apply, the higher authorities will approve it and even send her a lot of supplies as support.

However, these places are too barren. If Iris applies for one, she is losing money every second, so not many mages will apply.

"No? Aside from the large number of people, there's nothing there that can be considered a good resource."

Fran only knew that there were many people in the Antir Region, but she didn't know exactly how many. After all, a census couldn't be conducted there now, and she couldn't even make an estimate.

"I didn't discover any resources there; I just wanted to conduct an experiment."

Then Fran saw the smile on Iris's face, which meant that if Fran didn't make things clear, she wouldn't be able to get Iris to sign it today.

Fran said helplessly:

"Okay, I'm going to do a very famous experiment, the one about Territory Resonance."

Fran knew that Iris also had to keep an eye on her for Harbos. If Fran didn't give Iris an explanation, Iris would not only refuse to help her, but might even hinder her actions.

In order to gain Iris's support, she had no choice but to reveal to Iris what she was planning to do.

"When I passed through the Antir Region before, I happened to obtain a territory Territory Token, and my trip here is to reclaim that territory..."

Fran was met with Iris's unchanging smile; her hand remained on her abdomen, showing no intention of signing the document.

Fran's words failed to sway her, because Fran's logic was flawed.

Perhaps there are some fools among First Order mages, but Iris firmly believes that Fran is definitely not a fool. On the contrary, Fran is very intelligent, as many mages in the Northern Lands Society say...

She didn't believe Fran would waste this precious opportunity to apply for aid just because she wanted to try. She knew Fran was always careful with her resources and couldn't possibly be careless about this.

The benefits that the Silver Alchemy Award brought to Fran were not limited to a chance to advance to the third tier. Iris did not believe that Fran would waste her chance on an experiment that had not yet succeeded.

Fran sighed, then took out a stone tablet from her bosom and began to Channeling Spell in her other hand.

"This is... First Order spell from the Law School..."

Iris recognized the fluctuations emanating from Fran's spell almost instantly; it was a very easily recognizable characteristic of a law spell.

Iris could also see that there were no fluctuations indicating the activation of magical equipment emanating from Fran's hands or other parts of her body. This meant that Fran was casting Law School spell on her own!

"This is the Paper that came closest to obtaining the territory's blessing. It used the [Self-Establishment Decree] of the Law School. I also used this method in the Snow Bear Territory..."

"And I have successfully obtained the Territory Blessing. Now I need the Antir Region as my new experimental site. If successful, I will have another achievement..."

This time, Iris didn't laugh, because she knew perfectly well that if what Fran said was true, then it was indeed worth a try.

"Are you sure you really received the Territory Blessing?"

"I'm sure you can go to Snow Bear Territory and find Lord Blake there. Magic Interrogation to see if he knows of a new territory appearing in the direction of the Northern Lands Society, or use some device to detect the existence of such a territory..."

Iris reached out and precisely grasped the two documents that needed to be signed. Then, one could see that the tip of one of Iris's fingers had turned as black as ink.

Iris quickly wrote her name on the documents, along with some unique Mental Power fluctuations.

"Take these things down to Master Philip; he has a special connection to the Alliance that can speed up your application approval process..."

"Okay, thank you, Society President..."

After Fran left, Iris looked at the closed door and gently knocked on the table.

"She purchased a complete set of alchemical equipment, and exchanged it with the Battle Mage Corps for the Transmutation School's Modification Sequence and some Elemental School spells..."

"She just showed me the spells of the Law School, and the alchemical artifact of the Heart of Quicksand that she asked me to make last time seems to have already shown signs of use..."

Although Iris doesn't usually pay much attention to Fran's actions, she is aware of these things about Fran, and much of it is even revealed to Iris by Fran herself...

"She seems to have a knack for every School of magic, and she herself is passionate about the knowledge of all School..."

It was only then that Iris realized that when she first met Fran, Fran's desire to learn about various School of thought was probably not for the purpose of gaining a broader understanding or expanding her horizons.

Normally, no mage would be so enthusiastic about learning spells from other School, not even High-Order Mage like Iris.

Because many spells require specific skills or techniques unique to a particular School to learn, and some can take a very long time.

For High-Order Mage, they may be able to learn low-level spells with a little effort, but they can never learn high-level spells of the same Order. This is why various School are not keen on learning spells from other School.

"Harbos, your disciple seems a bit different. She can learn spells from other School with ease, even if she doesn't advance using the methods unique to those School. Perhaps she possesses some special Talent ..."