Chapter 730 — The Merchant
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
Film was still watching Kode with some nervousness. In truth he could not quite tell apart the relations and characteristics of nobles, merchants, citizens, and the Civil Administration Hall under the new order of the Southern Region. He supposed that this great merchant before him might well count as one of the South's new nobility. Film and his family had served nobles for many years, and in the presence of a figure as grand as Kode, he could feel only nervousness and unease.
As for two thousand gold coins... that was already enough to lift his father's troupe out of crisis; he might even use the funds to found a troupe of his own in the Southern Region. To him, this was the starting point of his struggle in this strange southern land.
Kode withdrew his gaze and sighed faintly within.
Two thousand gold coins... this young man from the north could not begin to imagine how much money flowed each day among the new-style companies of the Southern Region, nor what future the new thing he had created might hold under the system of magical industry.
The great merchant unconsciously clenched his fist, staring hard at the crystal and the rune device on the table.
For a mere two thousand gold coins—for a mere two thousand gold coins!!
He might not even have to pay a single coin, for this was no complex technical creation—it was only an idea, an idea easy enough for a great merchant like himself to realize!!
His fist slowly loosened, then slowly tightened again.
The silence grew so heavy that even Film became uneasy.
In that silence, Kode gazed at those crude, outdated rune base plates, at that artificial crystal that might well have been discarded stock from some southern factory.
He remembered the first heating platform he and his friends had built.
He remembered the machine tool salvaged from a junk warehouse.
He remembered leading his workers through countless hardships to buy a batch of cheap rune base plates from Kant's factory, only to haul them back and find that, because the standard had been mistaken, not one plate could be used—and the despair and blank confusion of that moment.
He remembered standing all day at the gate of the Technical Academy, only to persuade a single magic-mechanical technician to come cast one glance at his factory.
In his daze, he seemed to hear a clear and lovely voice saying to him: Mr. Kode, Xuanque City is paved with gold.
Kode clenched his fist and tapped the table lightly, as though tapping upon his own heart.
Film was startled by the motion. He was about to ask, when he saw the great merchant before him gently shake his head: "Child, I do not intend to buy it."
Film spoke at once: "Sir, you may reconsider..."
"Child, I have not finished," Kode said, waving a hand. At the same time he drew two blank sheets of letter paper from a drawer of his desk, took up a dip pen, and began writing swiftly, speaking as he wrote: "I will not buy it because it is worth more. I shall write you two letters, and these two letters ought to be of great help to you..."
Film watched Kode's actions with some bewilderment. Before he could ask, he heard the great merchant opposite him say: "Have you decided what to name this new thing you have created?"
"I call it 'Magic Shadow Theater,' sir," Film said quickly.
"Good. I shall write it down."
After a burst of swift writing, Kode sealed one letter, closed it with wax, wound it about with specially made magic thread, and handed the other, unsealed, directly to Film: "This is a certification letter. Take it, along with your 'Magic Shadow Theater,' to the Civil Administration Hall and find the 'Patent Registry.' The sooner the better. This other one is a letter of introduction—take it to the Magic-Net Communications Bureau and find the Grand Consul, Her Highness Hedy, or go to the Ministry of Magical Energy and Technology and find Her Highness Frostbloom... Trust me, they will see you."