Volume 6 Chapter 139 - Not for them to control

The middle aged man was surprised before looking over Sinner and revealing a look of understanding.

“Oh, right, this is your first time here, it’s no wonder you don’t know how strong the three kinds of wine are.” He nodded after this and continued, “Right, I work for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, but I’m not one of the important researchers of the magic research facility, I’m just a pitiful Second Grade Magician that draws Magic Arrays all day.”

Sinner revealed an even more interested look. He looked at the remaining red wine at the bottom of the middle aged magician’s cup before having the bartender bring two more cups of the same wine over, sending one over to him.

“What are you doing?” The middle aged magician looked at him in surprise, “Are you treating me to a drink?”

“Un, I want to ask you a few things.” Sinner nodded with a faint smile.

“Ask a few things?” The middle aged man was clearly a bit drunk, but his eyes were still clear. He looked at the cup of wine Sinner slid over and gave a laugh, “I am only the most common Low Grade Magician in the company, what can you get from me?”

Sinner came closer and reached into his chest, taking out a small badge.

“Second Grade Magician?” The middle aged magician recognized the meaning of this badge and looked at Sinner in surprise. After thinking about it, he took a sip from the cup of wine, “Alright, what do you want to ask about? I’ll tell you now that there are some things that can’t be told to outsiders.”

“Of course.” Sinner quickly smiled along with him, “I still haven’t asked……”

“Just call me Luther.”

“Alright, Luther, you can see that I’m the same as you, we’re both Second Grade Magicians. Moreover, you can see…..that I’m not doing that well right now……” Sinner spread his hands.

Luther looked at the clothes that Sinner was wearing and saw that the material wasn’t that good, so he gave a nod.

“And then? You want to work for our Frestech Chamber of Commerce?”

“I wanted to ask about this, only……”

“Only what?”

Sinner looked around before coming in closer and lowering his voice, “I think that you should have heard that the Magicians Guild headquarters has given that announcement saying that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce is…..ke…..a swindler. They aren’t good at all to Low Grade Magicians, so I……”

“Bullshit!” Luther suddenly slapped the table in front of him and with how loud his voice was, everyone in the tavern suddenly looked over.

Sinner was scared by this before quickly pulling Luther down and smiling at everyone in the tavern.

The others saw that nothing was happening, so they didn’t care about it.

Sinner let out a sigh of relief before asking Luther, “Why are you this agitated? Is the headquarters wrong?”

“Nonsense! The fellows at the headquarters are all full of nonsense, how could it be correct!” Luther seemed very indignant, but his voice was smaller than before, so it didn’t attract as much attention in this crowded tavern as before.

“Is that so?” Sinner looked at Luther with a bit of doubt, “That means that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce is very good to Low Grade Magicians?”

“Of course they are.” Luther said in a firm voice, “Other than the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, is there another company that will give Low Grade Magicians a wage of twenty gold coins a month?”

“Twenty gold coins a month? That really isn’t a small amount.” Sinner was silent for a bit before asking, “But the headquarters said…..that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce is forcing Low Grade Magicians to do meaningless things, drawing Magic Arrays all day long, which doesn’t help them with increasing the level of their magic…..”

“Bullshit!” Luther angrily shouted again, but this time there weren’t that many people who looked over, “Other than giving us a high wage each month, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce gives us many benefits. For Low Grade Magicians like us, as long as we’re willing, we can apply for a set of magic materials each month to study magic with. Is this not good enough?”

“Un, that is indeed not bad……”

“Then again, the company will invite the High Grade Magicians or even a Great Magician to guide us Low Grade Magicians from time to time, helping us increase the level of our magic. Tell me, other than this place, for Low Grade Magicians like us, where else can we receive the guidance of Great Magicians?”

“This……” Sinner was silent again, but then he changed the topic, “But I also heard that…..the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s Frestech Academy isn’t teaching the Low Grade Magicians about magic at all…..”

“Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!”

Luther angrily cursed three times before suddenly standing up and looking around the corner. Then he grabbed Sinner’s arm and brought him to a table over in a corner.

The people at the table looked at Luther and Sinner who suddenly came over in surprise. One of them who was around the same age as Luther and had the same Second Grade Magician badge on his chest looked at Sinner before asking Luther, “Hey, Luther, what is it? Is this your friend?”

“No, we just met.” Luther casually said before pushing Sinner in front of them and pointing at them, while saying to Sinner, “These fellows are the same as me, they graduated from the Frestech Academy with me last year. You can ask them if the academy is as you said it is.”

“What is it?” The middle aged magician was even more confused, “Hey Luther, what did this fellow say about the academy?”

“This idiot actually believes the lies from those fellows at the Magicians Guild, saying that we are all fools that were tricked by the Frestech Academy, not learning any magic at all there!”

“Ha?” These people all looked at Luther with a surprised look and after looking at each other, they all burst into laughter.

“Ha, ha, there’s actually people who believe such laughable things.”

“Right, I thought that there wouldn’t be anyone that dumb that would believe lies that could be seen through right away.”

“I say, are you joking? Don’t you know that the Lampuri Kingdom branch specially explained that the Frestech Academy treats us Low Grade Magicians very well? How could they not let us study magic?”

“Right. If we couldn’t study magic at the academy, how could we work for the company after graduating? You can’t even think through such a simple concept?”

“Ha, ha……You really are stupid……”

……

Hearing these people not holding back in laughing at him, Sinner’s face turned white and blue. After a long time, he finally forced this down and asked, “Then based on what you said, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce treats you very well? They teach you magic?”

“Nonsense! The company started this academy to let us Low Grade Magicians grasp some basic knowledge of magic machines and then lets us choose a direction to focus on, which is something that we can use once we graduate. If it doesn’t teach us magic, how could we do anything now?”

“Right, although our company has a lot of money, it can’t just waste it, right? Then again, the chairman is such a smart person, how could he do something that has no meaning. Don’t you all think so?”

“Of course.”

“That’s right.”

……

“But…..the things that you’ve learned, they can only be used for working at the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, right? It doesn’t help increase the level of your magic at all……” Sinner asked in a confused voice.

“Hey, I say, how can you be this stupid?”

A younger magician who seemed to be around thirty years old with the badge of a Third Grade Magician on his chest looked at Sinner with a look of disdain.

“Think it through, we’re already this old, but we’re still at this low level. Do you still want to increase the level of your magic and dream of becoming a Great Magician? Stop dreaming! Let me tell you, at our age, our livelihoods are more important than anything. We can’t do anything in other places with our bit of magic, but at the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, we can receive a wage of over twenty gold coins a month. This is good enough for us to live a life that we never dared to think of before. If it was you, would you want to do all those useless things?”

“Right, what raising your level of magic, it’s all empty. If you have things to eat, you can live on, that’s the truth.”

“It was like this before. We aren’t fellows who come from noble families who have all that money to buy materials to study magic, it’s real that we have to think of a way to keep on living first. Do you know how grateful I am to our company? If it wasn’t for such a good job, I would have already starved to death, how could I even study magic?”

“But……But the guild has clearly given a warning and if you keep working for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, you might anger the guild. Then…..We’re all magicians, so it won’t be good in the future……” Sinner said without giving up.

“Pei!” That younger Low Grade Magician spat out, “Those fellows at the guilds can say these fine words, saying that this is out of consideration for us Low Grade Magicians, advising us to stay away from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. Pei! If we leave the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, can the headquarters give us a wage of twenty gold coins a month? Can they give us the same good lives we’re living now? If they can’t, then it’s all nonsense!”

“Right, we’re finally living a good life relying on the company and the headquarters don’t want to let us live a peaceful life, just what are they thinking?”

“Humph, those fellows keep proclaiming that it’s for the benefit of all the Low Grade Magicians on the continent, I think that they’re just thinking about themselves! You think I don’t know? Those fellows clearly can’t beat the chairman when it comes to the patents, so they are retaliating against our company!”

“Damn, this bunch of fake villains!”

……

Seeing their agitated appearance, Sinner was speechless.

After a while, they finally calmed down a bit and Sinner asked, “But everyone…..we are all magicians registered at the guild, so if we don’t listen to the guild, I’m afraid…..it will be much harder in the future……”

“Harder?” The younger Third Grade Magician gave a cold laugh and looked down at the badge on his chest. He suddenly pulled it off and threw it onto the table, “Those fellows don’t care about me at all, why do I care about them. At worse, I’ll just leave the Magicians Guild and stop letting them manage me!”

Sinner was stunned. He wanted to say something, but he found that the people around him, including Luther had all taken off the badges from their chests, either putting them in their pockets or throwing it on the table.

There were seven badges there that released different coloured glows, looking quite dazzling.

Sinner looked at those badges that were still spinning on the table, looking stunned.