With a hint of surprise, Roland continued reading.
As it turned out, Leitlin was a promising young talent at the Fornier Wizard Tower. As a resident wizard, he had become Professor Kingsley's student to further his studies.
Professor Kingsley clearly thought highly of him. Not only did he fund his experiments, but he also intervened personally to try to secure better terms.
For example, a reduced royalty rate.
Ovesto explained, "Kingsley and I go back a long way, so he approached me about this. But since these are your arcane findings, you needn't take my relationship with him into account.
"I'm not just saying that to be polite. I want you to understand clearly that this power to make decisions can sometimes also give you authority over the development of Arcana.
"By adjusting royalty rates, you can support or shut out certain people and the development of certain fields."
Roland considered this for a while, then said, "I lack a solid grounding in alchemy myself. If I want to advance Bronze Script, lowering the royalty rate is unavoidable.
"If we can set the rate for Spell Scrolls at around fifteen percent, then for alchemy it can only be around ten percent. For your sake, Professor, I wouldn't mind giving Leitlin an even greater discount."
Products in the Lower Tier like these were highly sensitive to price. The royalties he waived might well constitute their only profit. If he wanted to attract others to contribute, it was only right to give something up to gain something else.
Ovesto nodded, quite satisfied with Roland's answer.
"There's one more thing. Kingsley plans to... no, I should say Leitlin himself wants to come here to study.
"He has verified his conjecture and believes that the inscriptions derived from Bronze Script will be extremely important