Promotion and Speculation

Calista, the mage who had once followed Iris's orders and taken Fran to the banquet, stared blankly at the special device in her hand.

"You mean this device is for communications, and it only costs 1.99 Gold Coin?"

Calista recited the somewhat tongue-twisting amount of money. She wasn't shocked by the amount of money the device cost, but rather by the fact that a Communication Device only required so few Gold Coin.

"Of course, I can say that this thing can indeed allow mages on both sides to communicate, but it has some minor drawbacks."

Camilla said with a smile, holding another communication terminal in her hands.

This was a special terminal design that Fran specifically gave to the Felistin Family. It removed all modules that communicated with the system and instead allowed the terminal to connect via magic essence pipes and send text messages.

That's right, it's text information. Fran could actually develop a real-time communication system, but the function of converting call materials and encoding into speech is quite difficult, so she can only put it in the next upgrade of the terminal.

In the next upgrade, I've upgraded the voice system. Hopefully, that will attract some mages to switch.

"This Communication Device requires this cable to function... Don't worry about the cable; we've already received approval to install it throughout the Floating City."

Camilla found a specially positioned connector on a cable as thick as an arm, connected some thin wires to the protective pinhole, and then to the groove on the terminal.

"Here, connect this cable to this terminal, and then log in to this trial account."

Calista hesitated for a moment, but still followed Camilla's instructions and connected the thin thread.

Calista entered her trial account and password through the crammed, easily mis-pressed mechanical buttons, and entered an interface with input boxes and 'Recent Contacts' and 'Frequent Contacts' sections.

"Type these characters into the input box..."

Calista pointed to the string of random characters in the upper left corner of her terminal display and had Camilla type it in.

Then I entered a blank interface with only an input box at the bottom and a square circled by a straight line at the top.

Just then, a message popped up at the top of the box, showing that it was sent from the device that Calista had just entered the string of characters.

"Hello."

Calista instinctively looked at Camilla, who immediately held up the terminal in her hand, allowing Calista to see its contents.

Incidentally, she also demonstrated how she typed and sent the message, which piqued Calista's interest.

Finally, Camilla demonstrated to Calista that all the ports on the cable, including those on the second floor, could transmit information.

"Hey Calista, could you do me a favor and buy one for your old classmate?"

Camilla asked Calista, a smile in her eyes.

Calista hesitated for a moment, but still said:

"Give me one... no, four... can you build cables all over the Floating City?"

"Would you like to see this application certificate? It's a photocopy..."

"Oh, right, there's one more thing. You need to apply for a unique account over there and set a password. Each account has a certain amount of free communication credit. If you want more, please come here to purchase a package."

"Also, once we leave here, this terminal will require your Mental Power to power it..."

Calista took the four terminals and went outside. She paid without hesitation, only clarifying with Camilla when the cables would be laid near her residence.

After learning about the specific functions and limitations of this new type of communication device, Calista had no reason not to buy several copies.

Because she could see that all the facilities set up for the terminal were designed to enable it to function as Communication Device.

This proves that the Communication Device is genuine. Even if it were fake, the loss of only eight Gold Coin would be acceptable.

It's important to know that other Communication Device either only work within a 20-meter radius, or only at specific times each day, and their communication quality is often less than ideal, sometimes even making it difficult to hear what others are saying.

The best Communication Device available on the market were actually pirated versions of the Alliance communication system, which used some old communication codes to allow them to connect to the Alliance's communication system.

However, the Alliance has also discovered these pirated devices and is currently cracking down on them.

In a situation where all mages lack a decent Communication Device, the emergence of this well-organized communication system is nothing short of a game-changer.

Even though it belonged to her old classmate Camilla, a member who had escaped from the Felistin Family, she still thought it was worth buying.

As expected, this Communication Device will soon spread throughout the entire Floating City and become the mainstream Communication Device.

These Communication Device were made by Magic Artisan trained by the Felistin Family, and it's said that there are currently fewer than a thousand units left in the warehouse...

On the other side, Camilla looked at her subordinate's report and blinked in disbelief.

"Sold out? That's nearly eight hundred terminals?"

"Yes, Lady Camilla, our plan to advance funds to sell these items was completely useless..."

"Some mages seemed to have foreseen something, purchasing our highest-level monthly supplementary service for six Gold Coin, extending it for another six months, and requesting priority for the cabling to be laid to their residences..."

Camilla rubbed her forehead. After learning that Fran had asked her for help, she knew that this thing definitely had great potential.

However, to everyone's surprise, even under the negative influence of the Felistin Family, the mages managed to sell out all the pre-prepared inventory in just three days.

She recalled the contract she had signed with Fran. According to the contract, Fran would take 20% of the Gold Coin earned from the sales, and after deducting the cost of the materials they produced, they would split the profits 70/30.

In fact, the total cost of their materials, the wages paid to the Magic Artisan, the rent for the venue, and the advertising expenses didn't even add up to two hundred Gold Coin.

She had anticipated that her family wouldn't lose too much in this matter, which was why she signed the profit-sharing agreement. After all, the materials themselves weren't worth much.

Those Magic Artisan are even worse off; they're all apprentices, and their monthly wages won't exceed 50 silver coins. How much loss can they bring to the family?

Now, however, the situation has changed. Even with such low profit-sharing agreements, they are still able to make money from this.

Camilla's feelings were complicated. She had initially thought that the mage ' Lai ' had come under some pretext to extort some Gold Coin from their family.

But now, she was truly confused. What exactly did that mage, ' Lai, ' want?

Aside from failing to build a closer relationship with the family, that mage ' Lai ' did almost everything a family member could do.

Winning two Golden Hourglass Award for the family will enhance the family's reputation and bring a promising, profitable project that can serve as the foundation of the family.

However, even after doing all this, she still didn't mention how to get closer to the Felistin Family, and even said this time that she wanted to hide her identity and not use her name.

Even if Camilla was slow to realize, she now understood that Fran definitely had a more important goal.

After taking these actions, she treated the Felistin Family like a stranger, neither getting close nor distancing herself.

So what exactly is it?

Camilla could never have imagined that Fran's initial reason for doing all this was to use Philly's identity to participate in the Champion Mage Challenge.

She couldn't even imagine that Fran would use Philly's identity, because even if a normal person used their identity, they could simply hide Philly in the lab and keep their distance.

Why did ' Lai ' put Philly's name as the second author on the Paper? This wasn't a step that was necessary to exploit her position.

"Lai's behavior started after Philly went with her. Before that, Lai was just a research mage at the Northern Lands Society who had won the Silver Alchemy Award."

"Prior to this, Lai had not shown any willingness to get closer to the Felistin Family."

"After the Gold Alchemy Award ceremony, Lai can stay in the Floating City or return to the Northern Lands Society..."

"The key seems to lie with my sister..."

Camilla felt that this speculation seemed somewhat coincidental. After her sister went to ' Lai's ' side, ' Lai ' seemed to have gone crazy, doing a lot of things that seemed illogical to outsiders.

However, after thinking of her younger sister, an extremely bold and ingenious idea popped into Camilla's mind.

"Does Lai have feelings for my sister?"

Upon realizing this, her pupils dilated, her lips parted, and she suddenly understood.

"I should have realized I was being misled by family members who didn't want the marriage alliance."

It's untrue to say that the family members like the mages who want to get closer to the family; conversely, the mages feel the same way about these family members.

Perhaps after the arranged marriage, they will develop feelings for each other, but initially, most of them do not like their arranged marriage partners.

But what if that ' Lai ' is an exception, and has a slightly different orientation?

"That explains everything. Lai didn't actually want to cooperate with the family."

In Camilla's understanding, ' Lai ' never liked cooperating with the family from the beginning, but Philly was a member of the family.

Furthermore, as a smart man, ' Lai ' never considered the traditional family cooperation model.

Her thought was whether she could sever ties with the Felistin Family while still getting Philly.

This is the reason why ' Lai ' acted so awkwardly, and also the reason why she refused Camilla's request to see Philly last time.

"But what should I do?" Camilla thought to herself in distress.

Even knowing this, it seems there's almost nothing she can do now.

As clever as ' Lai ' is, he must have already figured out how to sever ties with his family, and the family, given the current situation, will dismiss Camilla's words as nonsense.

How could a mage give up so many benefits just because he fell in love with another mage? That's simply a fantasy.

The authorship of the Paper and the provision of a money-making project for the family were enough to convince them that ' Lai ' wanted to get closer to them.