Welcoming the Apprentices

"It's finally finished."

Fran looked at the makeshift lathe in front of her; at least she had actually managed to make it.

She had initially thought that since this thing was small, it would be easy to make, but she never expected that it would be the most difficult one.

This is much more difficult than anything she's done before. The blast furnaces and coal processing lines she made before could be made to a similar standard as long as the materials were strong enough, she could copy some designs, and with the help of worker training.

However, when it came to the lathe, her progress slowed down considerably because the lathe had too many moving parts, and the buttons and joysticks needed to be matched with precision.

She managed to produce a few that were roughly the same size, but later she realized that if these lathes were used to produce parts, it would be normal for the sizes to vary.

With no other option, Fran had to start over, carefully checking the precision of each gear. After spending some time establishing standards for each part, it took another three days to finally get the lathe working.

Fran was carrying three parts she had made herself using the lathe. These were the parts she had just tested, and the results were very promising.

Logically speaking, with this thing, any ordinary person could easily craft a musket by now, but...

"My God... they still need to be trained."

Now, Fran realized a major headache: it seemed only she knew how to use this thing, and she didn't seem to have the time to teach the workers how to use it.

This thing isn't like the old ones, where you could just get it working after a couple of days of training. Its complex structure and numerous knobs mean that without proper training, it's just a piece of junk.

However, Fran also thought of another solution. She remembered that the time was almost up, which meant that the day when the School of the Forge School would arrive was fast approaching.

"Your Proxy, the lord has sent a knight."

A worker who had converted to Christianity knocked on the wooden door of Fran's room. Despite the constant siege by the believers arranged by Fran, quite a few workers had already effectively converted to Christianity.

Although Fran thought their faith was still rather shallow, it was a good start nonetheless.

Now, half of the workers participate in prayer activities.

So they, like the believers, called themselves His Excellency the Proxy, even though they didn't know where this title came from.

"Okay, you can go back to your post now."

Although the worker had mentioned a knight, he was actually a Knight Attendant, which is a significant difference in their identities.

However, it's not surprising that the worker misspoke, given his position; he probably wouldn't understand the intricacies of the situation.

In their view, almost anyone wearing armor and riding a horse could be called Knight Master, and there was no difference between them.

The Knight Attendant was already waiting at the edge of the Base Camp. When he saw Fran come out of the house, he hurried over to greet her.

He knew Fran, because the Knight Attendant had seen Fran come to the castle to see Finley several times, which is why Finley sent him.

"The lord says: Lord Mage Lai, the people you were to receive have arrived."

The Knight Attendant relayed the lord's message verbatim, without adding any extra information.

"Good..."

Fran responded, initially intending to have the Knight Attendant return to inform Finley that she already knew, but then she reconsidered.

Now she can go to White Flower City, and her Black Horse seems to be faster than the Knight Attendant's horse.

So Fran simply responded, then quickly mounted her Black Horse and rode away.

"Where is Fran?" Elan, wearing a robe engraved with the Forge School's logo, followed Finley to a small house outside the city.

Elan was very puzzled. The other party was the lord of this place and had a letter with Fran's mental fluctuations, which was why he brought these apprentices here with him.

He was quite puzzled, though. Logically, since the other party was a lord, shouldn't that town be a good place to receive him?

Why did we bring them to this little cabin outside the city?

"Your Excellency, please forgive me, I do not know who you are referring to as Fran, but it was Mage ' Lai ' who sent me to receive you."

Fran had Finley host Elan and his party, naturally taking into account Lucy's influence.

Fran knew that Lucy was the head of the Grey Soil Province, and although she had never met Lucy in the City of Apprentices, she had heard that the head of the Grey Soil Province Transmutation School had visited the City of Apprentices.

In this situation, Lucy may have met Elan, and Elan and his group may even have been wearing the robes of the Forge School.

Fran simply had Finley lead the group outside the city. As long as Lucy didn't see Fran and Elan's group interact, she could guess whatever she wanted. She probably wouldn't guess that Fran was actually a mage from the Forge School.

"Lai ..." Elan murmured the name to himself. He remembered that this was the name of the apprentice who had gone to Harbos with Fran in the [Weapon Forging] course.

In other words, Fran might be using a pseudonym instead of her real name. Elan seemed to realize something as she thought about this.

He seemed to have forgotten that Fran was Harbos's disciple. Given Harbos's current reputation throughout the Alliance, Fran should also use a pseudonym to hide her true identity, otherwise she would attract too much trouble.

Thinking of this, he immediately changed his words.

"Oh, his name is Lai. I was wrong. I thought that mage Lai would use this pseudonym again..."

Finley didn't care about Elan's explanation; all he was asked to do was host a small group like this: a First Order Mage as the leader, and three apprentices.

Elan's squad was configured exactly like that. Since the other party knew that someone would be there to receive them, he didn't need to worry about the name; it wasn't important.

Furthermore, regardless of the circumstances, Elan's identity as a mage is absolutely genuine, and he should personally come to receive them.

But Finley seemed to remember something, and he turned to Elan and asked:

"Oh, right, Master, I forgot to ask your name."

Finley felt that a mage should be addressed with some respect; one couldn't just call every mage "Your Excellency, Mage."

In this way, his subordinates wouldn't know who the so-called "Master" he was referring to was, and there was even a possibility of violating a so-called master's taboo. In general, it's more appropriate to use the other person's name plus a respectful term.

"Just call me Elan," Elan replied casually, only to see Finley staring at him with wide eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, it's just that the name is exactly the same as one of my friends, which I think is quite a coincidence."

"Oh, could you tell me more about this friend?"

Elan became somewhat interested. After leaving the City of Apprentices, the journey had been quite boring, and the apprentices had nothing to talk about with him.

After all, the apprentices' true foundation lay in a system established by Fran, while he was still entangled with the Law School and had little to say about magic.

He was waiting for Fran to arrive, and Finley had told him that even when sending Knight Attendant, it would take a full two hours for a fast horse to arrive, so he knew Fran wouldn't be here so soon.

Finley for a moment, then slowly said:

"He's different from you, Master; he's an Adventurer..."

After Finley recounted the story of ' Elan,' Elan seemed thoughtful.

He initially thought Fran was impersonating him again, given Fran's past history of using her apprentice's name.

However, the Elan they mentioned seemed to be a warrior, and the Combat Technique he used were the kind that could be found in the Adventurers Guild. He didn't seem like a mage at all.

This would invalidate his guess, since he was aware of the barriers between Profession systems. There are Profession in the world that can combine the two, but Fran is definitely not one of Profession.

"By the way, my friend ' Elan ' seems to still be working for that Mage Lai, and it seems he's become one of his followers."

"Oh..." Elan was slightly surprised, but upon closer inspection, it seemed reasonable, even though the coincidence seemed somewhat odd.

However, if it were him, upon encountering an apprentice named ' Fran ', he would probably teach her more about magic.

Fran must have bumped into someone with the same name as her, and that person took Fran as a follower, either for fun or for some other reason.

Just then, there was an urgent knock on the wooden door. Finley apologized to Elan and went to open the door.

A guard was leading Fran to the doorway, and Finley, upon seeing her, immediately turned around and said:

"Lord Elan, Mage Lai has arrived. You may leave now."

Elan walked to the door and looked at ' Fran,' who was so different from the person he remembered, and was a little confused. He even wondered if he had mistaken her for someone else.

Fran looked completely different from what he remembered. Her face only resembled his by a third, and her tall figure was much taller than he remembered.

He felt that the Fran in front of him was a head and a half taller than he remembered. Could he have mistaken her for someone else?

Behind Elan were two apprentices who had actually been taught by Fran before, and they had seen what Fran looked like.

Kahn and Ocien whispered among themselves, thinking that this was not the Fran mage they knew.

Seeing the expressions on Elan's and the apprentices' faces, Fran knew what the problem was. She said helplessly:

"Elan, it's me. I still remember when we sold the Pharmacist Association's Energy Potion ..."

This was something that almost only Elan and Fran knew; the customers Elan dealt with were unaware that these potions had all passed through Fran's hands.

In Elan's mind, Fran's "friends" would never know that Fran sold the goods to him, the middleman. After all, Fran was also a middleman at the time, and if those "friends" knew, how would he make money?