Chapter 571 — Expansion

This was his "Corde Factory," but it was not the first workshop he had built. His first workshop had actually been somewhat farther north, beside his own mansion, but a rune-loss-of-control accident had burned most of it down and spread panic among the nearby residents, and only then had he been forced to move the equipment and the personnel here.

All of this had consumed nearly half his fortune. The wealth he had accumulated since he began trading had been poured out like water onto these machines and workshops. Many people thought he had gone mad, that the dazzling illusions of the magic-net broadcasts had addled his wits, so that at his age he would still undertake such a risky business...

But in the end, his first batch of magic-drive heating plates had sold two thousand sets—the slightly wealthier upper-class townsfolk could not refuse such a convenient thing, not only because it was novel and useful, but because a life free of firewood and smoke was a mark of respectability.

The principles behind Corde's "products" were in fact all very simple. Just like that first clumsy method, he bought complex magic-drive devices and then took them apart to see what simple technologies inside them he could master himself, or else he studied the courses taught in the schools in search of ideas and methods.

Magic-drive technology at this stage was not so very complex; many of its basic principles could be understood and grasped by ordinary people. And the civilian field was so blank that any slightly convenient invention had enormous room to be used—and the first thing Corde had to do was find the "points of demand" among the common folk.

His method was not complicated—it was simply to study the lives of nobles and extraordinary beings, to study the convenient and comfortable parts of their lives, and then to search magic-drive technology for the means to realize them.

The nobles and extraordinary beings of this world had always lived comfortable and convenient lives, convenient to a degree beyond the imagining of commoners.

They had magical lighting, comfortable environments of artificial temperature and humidity, instant communication, artificial-intelligence servants, and could enjoy any delicacy in any season...

As a great merchant born a commoner and enriched through trade, Corde knew both how commoners lived and had seen the lifestyle of high society. By pushing this advantage to its limit, he had in effect found countless business opportunities—

Mages could heat food with magic flame, so he could make a heating plate for civilian use; mages kept a spell fixed in their towers to make the four seasons feel like spring, so he could use rune base plates and ventilation ducts to produce a similar effect; nobles could eat ice in summer and eat fresh meat at any time of year, so he would build a cheap and convenient container that could also make ice and preserve food...

And the success of Corde Household Conveniences had drawn the attention of others. Now, in Carroll and the surrounding region, many merchants had roused themselves; all were preparing companies of their own, and no few acquaintances came to Corde seeking his experience. It was as though people had finally noticed a truth that should have been obvious all along:

Magic brought a convenient life, and whoever could bring a convenient life could seize the business opportunity.

A burst of voices came from the factory gate. Corde raised his head and saw his eldest son, Parr, coming in with several workers pushing a handcart—they were carefully guarding what was on the cart, and what they guarded was a large crate packed with wooden slats and straw rope, on which the mark of the Cecil Rune Foundry could be seen.

The new magic-net unit array had been bought back—laboratory grade.

Corde hurried forward to meet them, calling the nearby workers over to help unload, but his eldest son, Parr, drew him aside. The young man, just back from the city center, wore a trace of deliberately assumed inscrutability on his face. "Father, there's news for you..."

Koder glanced at his son. "What news?"

"Duke Cecil already knows about your company and what you're producing. Guess what happened?"

A sudden tension gripped Koder's heart.

What had happened?

It was as though he suddenly realized that what he was doing carried another layer of risk—that what he was touching and copying was the lord's prerogative. True, he was only tinkering with simple "little gadgets" in the "small domains" the lord had not attended to, but dismantling the magical devices Cecil produced, building new machines, hiring magical technicians—were these acts in themselves... a violation of some taboo?

The officials of the Administrative Hall had not stopped him before; Cecil's laws seemed to contain no statute forbidding such conduct; and the lord had always said he would act in strict accordance with the law. But... this involved the lord himself after all. Would the lord truly abide by those laws? Would he be angered by these bold ventures of his?

For a moment Koder's mind raced through a great many things—so many that he quite forgot the advertisements he had placed on the Magic Net must first have been reviewed and approved by Cecil's Supreme Administrative Hall. Pal, meanwhile, had noticed his father's nervousness; the young man suddenly burst out laughing, fished a carefully rolled-up sheet of paper from his breast, and cried, "Father! A commendation signed by Duke Cecil himself!! And you're about to be knighted!!"

Koder froze, rooted to the spot.

Two seconds later he snatched the commendation from Pal's hands, opened it with trembling fingers, and read every word on it carefully, sentence by sentence.

At the end of the commendation was the order of knighthood.

He read it over and over, and only at last did he notice the smile Pal could not suppress.

"You wretch—you dare to make a fool of your own father!"

"Oh, Father! Don't forget your knightly bearing!"