Investigating the News

At eight o'clock on the night before her Magic Duel with Edmund, Fran once again stepped into the Silver-Scale Manor, the place where she attended her first banquet since arriving in the Floating City.

This time, unlike before, she wasn't wandering around aimlessly, searching for anything that might be useful.

This time, she came with a purpose: to find one of the goals she had initially set for coming to the Floating City —a clue to her Profession advancement.

As the Silver-Scale Manor serves as the venue for various banquets every day, the waiters are naturally very busy. However, this busyness has also honed their powerful memory, which is difficult for apprentice-level Profession to possess.

The waiters breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Fran walk through the door and rushed to greet the distinguished guest, guiding her to the side of the hall.

As for why he breathed a sigh of relief, the reason was naturally that he knew this monk seemed to have some peculiar habits; he liked to arrive at the banquet before the time specified on the invitation had arrived.

In addition, given Lai's recent fame, the waiters were well-prepared, but they waited here for a long time without seeing him.

So when Fran arrived right on time, the waiters breathed a sigh of relief.

Fran entered the hall without attracting much attention.

The reason, of course, is that not many people inside this hall recognize Fran's appearance, or rather, they don't associate her appearance with that ' Lai '.

Fran's eyes darted around, looking at the small groups of people gathered in twos and threes, trying to find a place to go in and explain her needs.

But when she saw a figure to the side, her pupils contracted slightly, and she went straight up to greet him.

"Mage Calista, I didn't expect you to be at this banquet."

Calista turned to look at Fran, her face full of complex emotions, and for a moment she didn't know what to say.

Her friend, unaware of this, noticed that Calista remained silent and directly reminded her:

"Calista, is this a friend you know?"

Calista finally reacted, nodded stiffly, and then replied:

Yes, this is a friend I know.

Then she focused her gaze on Fran and said softly:

"Master Lai, it's been a long time... May I ask what brings you to this banquet?"

"I'd like to find some information about Profession advancement, any type of advancement is fine, but it has to be at least level two or three."

Fran stated her request frankly, and after a moment's thought, Calista slowly said:

"That's a strange request, but the Alchemy School on the second floor with the blue longsword can help you. His name is Ivan."

This is the greatest significance of social interaction among mages: mages have powerful memories and can remember information provided by other mages, so they can easily find their target by asking other mages.

Fran thought it would be better to just put up a notice board outside, where anyone who wanted to sell a service could simply post a notice.

Instead of having to come here to ask a Fran, as is the case now.

And it wasn't enough for her to just ask the question; she also had to chat with the other monks to avoid appearing impolite.

However, Calista seemed to know that Fran disliked this kind of socializing, so she went along with it and helped her out.

"Master Lai, I'm sorry, we were actually discussing some very private matters, so please understand."

Fran blinked; she was more than happy to avoid wasting time talking to the mage in front of her, so she readily agreed.

"It's alright, I can go find that Ivan the Mage now."

She headed up to the second floor, and after Fran left, Calista's friends expressed their incomprehension of this behavior.

"Calista, why do you say that? Is that mage not good at talking to us about what's in the newspaper?"

This is an insulting joke, because in the social circles of monks, they usually don't talk about the contents of the newspaper unless the content is really too shocking.

They would usually talk about what was happening in their neighborhood, using this as a way to pass on information, discussing news that even apprentices could read in the newspapers, a behavior that many monks considered foolish.

Calista's friends were clearly unhappy with her abrupt dismissal, since in the social etiquette of mages, even if they disliked someone, they should at least exchange a few words.

Calista turned around, ignoring the sarcastic joke, and slowly explained:

"If you knew who she was, you probably wouldn't have said that."

This piqued the curiosity of his friends, who immediately pressed him to reveal the identity of the monk.

"As I just mentioned, you might not have noticed, but her name is Lai... from the Northern Lands Society."

Some of Calista's friends suddenly widened their eyes, some realized what was happening, and others looked completely bewildered.

Who is this?

There was a moment of silence before Calista answered him:

"It's all in the newspapers; the latest issue is basically all about this."

"No, you guys really read the newspaper? I thought it was fake."

The monk scratched his head and then asked directly:

"So can someone explain in detail what that mage, Lai, did to elicit such a strong reaction from you?"

Just then, a monk who was holding a booklet suddenly realized what was happening. He opened the "Sandglass Cup Youth Competition Winners Special Issue" in his hand and turned to the last page.

"You can look at the last page."

When the special issue was handed over, it drew a collective gasp. At that moment, the monk who had previously refused to read the newspaper scanned the crowd with an exaggerated look.

"Holy crap, a Legendary review..." He quickly flipped to the very beginning of the Paper and, as he had hoped, saw the name ' Lai '.

"A mage of this caliber actually came to our banquet..." someone couldn't help but exclaim.

Although they are all Second Order Mage, there are various strata among them. There are second -Second Order Mage with great potential who can be promoted to the next tier soon, and there are second-tier mages who are still far from being promoted and can only get by and save money.

Their small group, while not entirely the latter, was also far removed from the former, which is why the mages present were surprised by ' Lai's' arrival.

"Calista, how did you meet?" someone asked curiously.

Calista answered:

"It's a matter of the School's internal lineage system. I received the task from my mentor, which is how I met that mage Lai."

"Then why didn't you keep them here so we could have a proper chat?" someone asked, a question that expressed the sentiments of the monks present.

They still wanted to get to know a mage of this level. Calista frowned, and was about to explain when a friend who knew the inside story said:

"It's right not to let us know... Look at the second name on that Paper!"

The moment the word "Felistin..." was uttered, everyone knew why Calista had sent Fran away.

They were all minor mages, and given the current complex situation, the best course of action was to avoid getting involved with the Felistin Family. By now, they had heard far too many stories of mages being suppressed.

Fran went up to the second floor, looked left and right, and finally found the mage Ivan in front of a table. He was chatting with a strangely dressed person.

The reason it was described as oddly dressed was that the person was not wearing the mage robes that mages typically wear to banquets, but rather a grayish-yellow overcoat and a small, dark green round hat.

He didn't look like a mage at all, and Fran could also sense that the mental fluctuations emanating from his body were far from those of a mage.

However, Fran didn't dwell on this; the other party's open and aboveboard appearance suggested they must have been invited.

She walked directly forward, stood in front of the table, and waited for their gazes to fall upon her before speaking to Master Ivan:

"Hello, Master Ivan, I've heard you have something interesting on hand. Could I spare you a moment?"

Ivan blinked and spoke loudly:

"It's alright, sit down first. We can chat for a bit, no rush."

After Fran sat down, just as she was about to get straight to the point and state her request to Ivan, she heard Ivan speak first:

"My fellow Alchemy School, let me introduce you. This is Alwen, an Alchemist from outside the Alliance. I think you should know the difference between Alchemist and us, right?"

Alwen smiled back at Fran and took off his small round hat, revealing a head of messy blond hair.

"My name is Lai, a mage from the Alchemy School," Fran emphasized her identity.

Ivan immediately assumed she was an Alchemy School because she was still wearing the alchemist's robes from the high- Alchemy School High-Order Mage banquet she attended with Iris last time.

"I know that you mages all wear the robes of your own School, which makes you easy to identify, but we Alchemist, apart from certain large organizations, don't have a unified uniform."

Alwen seemed very kind and was very welcoming to Fran's arrival. He explained to Fran the purpose of his visit to the Floating City.

"I am here at the behest of my mentor—the word 'mentor' should have the same meaning where you are—to attend the recent Golden Alchemy Awards ceremony."

"I'd like to know, as an indispensable branch of Alchemist, what kind of achievements would mages offer as trophies?"

Do you know which works might be selected for the Gold Alchemy Award?

Fran blinked but didn't answer. Ivan, on the other hand, gave Alwen a briefing on the works that might win the Gold Alchemy Award, excluding the two Paper that modified Fourth Order spells.

"Uh... this is a little different from what I expected. I thought you would award it to some finished alchemical products, but I didn't expect you to be so selective in your award recipients..."

"Tell me about these achievements. Let's start with that Fireball. I'm curious why you included a Paper related to an apprentice-level spell on this list."

Fran raised her hand and said:

"I believe this Paper will win the Gold Alchemy Award."