Selling

A soft sound came from the doorway, and Great Mage Camilla did not even need to raise his head to know that the person entering was his precious granddaughter, Stille.

Other than her, no one else in this magic tower dared to rush in without even knocking on the door.

"Grandpa, I'm back." Stille's lively and youthfully vibrant voice rang out before Camilla.

Camilla smiled and raised his head, looking indulgently at Stille standing prettily before him, though his gaze involuntarily drifted from Stille's face to the oddly shaped... iron lump she held in her arms?

"What is this?" Great Mage Camilla frowned.

"A fun little thing I just bought, called a magic fan. Have a look, Grandpa." Stille replied with a smile, placing the object from her arms onto the table before Camilla and casually pressing a protrusion in the middle of the base.

"Clack—"

After a soft sound, the three leaf-shaped pieces that Camilla had initially thought were merely ornaments slowly began to spin, their speed increasing before long and emitting ripples of gentle breeze.

"Is this... a magic array?"

As a three-star Great Mage recognized by the Mages' Guild, Camilla's magical strength was far beyond the likes of Rem and others. The moment the magic fan started up, he sensitively perceived the most crucial point from the magic fluctuations within it.

"That's right, Grandpa. Don't you think this thing is very interesting?" Stille asked.

"It is somewhat interesting." Camilla reached out and tapped the base of the magic fan, instantly gaining a thorough grasp of this magic array from the magic fluctuations, and then shook his head. "It's merely a very simple wind-whirl array, nothing miraculous." With that, he glanced at Stille and said with a stern expression, "Stille, if you have free time, study magic properly and don't waste your time on these messy things."

The reason Camilla doted on this granddaughter—besides Stille's sweet appearance and great filial piety toward her grandfather—was more importantly her exceptionally high magical talent. Three years ago, she had been admitted to the highest magic academy in the Lampari Kingdom—the Lampari Royal Academy, which enjoyed some renown across the entire Sains Continent—and last year she passed the Mages' Guild's qualification assessment, becoming an official mage recognized by the Mages' Guild.

Achieving such feats at the tender age of nineteen allowed her to be called a genius mage across the entire Sains Continent.

Precisely because of this, while Camilla doted on Stille, he was also extremely strict with her, frequently reprimanding her for her fondness for these little trinkets.

"I know." Stille was long accustomed to Camilla's attitude and was not particularly afraid. She stuck out her tongue and quickly retreated.

She knew very well that if she continued to stay here, Camilla would definitely grab her for a thorough lecture.

Watching Stille escape, Camilla shook his head helplessly.

Indeed, he had no good way of handling this granddaughter.

After burying his head back in magic research for a while, a flash suddenly swept through Camilla's heart.

"No!"

Camilla cast his gaze back to the magic fan that Stille had forgotten to take away on the table, pressing one hand upon it as his body's vast magic power slowly poured in.

A pale cyan light surged abruptly within the base of the magic fan, and the blades, which had been rotating stably, spun frantically at a speed several times faster than before, causing the entire magic fan to sway unsteadily as a result.

A moment later, the magic fan suddenly let out a creaking strange sound. The blades could not withstand such violent high speed and detached directly from the rotating shaft, crashing straight into the protective mesh cast from iron bars.

At the blades' current high speed, they naturally smashed into a complete mess, dragging the protective mesh along to be twisted out of shape as well.

Only then did Camilla withdraw his hand, his face full of puzzlement.

The reason he had suddenly taken it into his head to investigate the magic fan was because he had just realized that the wind-whirl array was merely one of the lowest-tier arrays among wind-type magic arrays, and the wind-whirl magic it formed was likewise low-tier magic.

Although casting it directly might produce wind far greater in power than what this magic fan brought, the wind brought by wind-whirl magic should never be this steady; instead, it ought to be violent and unstable like most wind-type magic.

Yet this magic fan had been placed here for over ten minutes, and throughout those ten minutes, the blades had kept spinning while the released wind had remained incomparably steady without any fluctuation whatsoever.

"How was this accomplished?" Camilla frowned and pondered for a moment, discovering that with his strength as a Great Mage, he was actually unable to think of how to achieve this for the time being.

Glancing at the magic fan twisted into a clump, Camilla waved his hand without hesitation, immediately cutting the entire magic fan open from the middle to expose the interior of the fan's base.

Camilla earnestly observed the magic array engraved inside the base, missing not even the slightest detail.

Yet when he finished viewing the entire magic array, he was stunned to discover that there were many parts he simply could not understand!

Perhaps he could perfectly replicate the entire magic array, but why this magic array was structured this way, and how it specifically operated to achieve the effect of making the blades spin stably—he could not figure it out at all!

A heavy doubt rose within Camilla's heart.

"Who on earth designed this magic array?"

Heinz looked at the sparse flow of people on the street outside his storefront, then turned back to look at the magic fan spinning endlessly on the table and blowing out waves of cool breeze, unable to help frowning.

Yesterday, when that young mage named Xu Yi brought these three oddly shaped so-called magic fans over and asked him to help sell them, he had wanted to refuse.

Such strange things—he could not guarantee they would sell.

However, considering that Xu Yi usually purchased goods at this shop of his, he ultimately agreed.

Fortunately, Xu Yi didn't say he had to sell them either; he just left one magic fan running like this and then stopped caring entirely.

He had to admit that with this magic fan continuously blowing a cool breeze, Heinz did not feel as stuffy staying in this small storefront as before, making it quite a bit more comfortable.

If it really doesn't sell, I might as well buy it myself. Anyway, Xu Yi said a tiny piece of inferior magic crystal can keep it running for a whole three days.

Just as Heinz was secretly plotting in his heart, a tall figure walked into the shop.

"Hey, dear Karl, why are you here so early today?" Heinz immediately greeted him. The newcomer was a regular customer at his shop.

This man named Karl had a head of disheveled and thick brown long hair, a face full of messy beard, a tall stature, and a rough appearance. Hearing this, he waved his hand and said loudly, "Alright, Heinz, stop talking nonsense. Quickly get me a cup of iced ale first; I'm roasting to death!"

Heinz laughed heartily, nimbly pouring a mug of iced ale and handing it over.

Karl took a few large gulps, let out a long breath, and suddenly let out an exclamation of surprise.

"I say, Heinz, how is your shop so much cooler than outside? Strange! Where's the wind coming from? There isn't a shred of wind outside! Don't tell me a miser like you would actually be willing to set up a magic array in the shop?"

"Even if I could afford to set one up, I couldn't afford to run it." Heinz pointed to the magic fan working hard off to the side. "There, the wind is blown out by this magic fan."

"Magic fan?" Karl walked over and curiously sized up the magic fan for a moment. Feeling the cool breeze blown out by the magic fan, he suddenly slapped the table, pointed at Karl—no, pointed at Heinz—and shouted loudly, "Good for you, Heinz! You have good stuff and don't even tell me! Speak, how much for this thing? Don't tell me you aren't selling it!"

Heinz's eyes instantly lit up, and he deliberately dragged out his voice mysteriously, "This... this thing is not cheap."

"What? You think I don't have money?" Karl glared. "Quickly speak, as long as it isn't ridiculously expensive, I'm buying it! Let me tell you, if this weather keeps getting hotter, I was even planning to set up a large-scale frost array!"

Heinz chuckled. Although Karl looked rough, he was very sharp and willing to endure hardship, running a small business of his own. While he could not be called a wealthy man in Bunta City, he was definitely wealthier than the average person. If he resolved to set up a large-scale frost array, it wouldn't actually be a problem.

"Of course it's not as expensive as setting up a large-scale frost array. As for the price..." Heinz hesitated and held up two fingers to Karl.

"Two gold coins?" Seeing Heinz nod, Karl didn't say another word. He swiped into his pocket, counted out four gold coins, and slapped them on the table. "So cheap, give me two!"

Looking at the four gold coins on the table, Heinz was dazed. "Are you sure you want two?"

Karl rolled his eyes. "What? You don't even have two here? I couldn't possibly just buy one, could I? If that brat at home doesn't have one, he'll drive me crazy making a fuss."

"Yes, yes, yes, of course there are!" Heinz hurriedly took out the remaining two magic fans and handed them to Karl.

Seeing that Karl was about to leave with the items, Heinz suddenly remembered and hurriedly called out to him.

"Wait, Karl, there's still something I forgot to tell you. This magic fan also requires magic crystals, or it won't run."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Karl frowned. Although he wasn't a mage, he knew that anything involving magic power mostly required spending magic crystals. "Does this thing burn through crystals badly? If it costs over a hundred gold coins a month like a large-scale frost array, I might as well just set up a large-scale frost array directly."

"Of course not, of course not..." Heinz waved his hands repeatedly. "This thing doesn't burn through crystals heavily. Look, a tiny magic crystal like this can keep it blowing for three days."

Karl peered at the piece of inferior magic crystal in Heinz's hand that was smaller than his thumb, instantly becoming in a great mood and laughing heartily, "Just this little bit? It's practically like not spending money at all."

With that, he waved at Heinz, hoisted the two magic fans, and left directly.

Heinz turned back to look at the four gold coins still glowing on the table, his mind feeling somewhat dazed for a moment.

He had sold two just like that? And sold them for four gold coins in one go?

What did that brat Xu Yi say earlier? He said he could get a ten-percent cut? That meant from just selling these two magic fans alone, he could get a commission of forty silver coins?

You had to know that the net profit of his shop every single day was only around one gold coin...

Selling two to get a commission of forty silver coins—then if he sold twenty, two hundred...

Just as Heinz was daydreaming in his mind, a figure walked in once more.

"Hey, Heinz, I just ran into Karl. I heard you have some magic fan for sale here? How is it? Take it out and let me have a look. If it works well, I'll take two as well."

"Ah?" Heinz was startled. Just as he was about to answer that he only had one left here, another person walked through the door, saying the exact same thing as the previous person—that he also wanted to buy a magic fan.

Heinz looked in astonishment yet pleasant surprise at the increasingly surging crowd pouring in, his heartbeat growing more and more intense.

Could this time... really be his chance to strike it rich?