"If only there were no nobles, this place would truly be like heaven!" Susan couldn't help but say.
"Heaven?" Ivina did not know what expression to make, nor could she imagine that this word would actually be used to describe a land governed by a wizard.
Just as Ivina was hesitating, the tightly-shut granary doors finally swung open, and upon seeing this, Susan and others imdiately gathered around, eagerly speaking.
"Wizard, how much has the wheat price dropped today?" "Is the council's food reserve still sufficient?" "This is so wheat I've saved myself; it's not much, but please do accept it."
The hundred or so villagers gathered in front of the granary were chattering, handing over their wheat wrapped in various cloths, so even feeling that the three als provided by the council were too much—they believed that one al a day would suffice, saving a substantial amount of food.
In the midst of the people's enthusiastic hopes, Pearce did not take the wheat; instead, he spoke with much regret. "Thank you for your help, but starting today, the council will no longer purchase wheat!"
"Why, Wizard? Is it because the reserve funds are insufficient?" Susan hastily inquired.
The rest of the villagers had worried looks on their faces.
"No, it is not what you think!" Pearce chuckled, shaking his head, then a proud expression appeared on his face. "In fact, Lynn the Dean has completely solved the food shortage problem... from now on, no one will have to worry about famine anymore!"
Lynn... the star of magic?
Ivina was quite surprised; in Fire Oil City, she had heard this na countless tis; it seed that all changes in the Magic World could be linked to him.
Now, even more incredibly, this magic star claid that he had completely solved the famine problem.
Ivina could not be certain for a mont whether this was false news released by the council or if it was actually true.
Susan and the others also showed expressions of astonishnt; they were sowhat disbelieving.
"If you're interested, why not go see for yourselves..." Pearce gestured toward the train station direction and spoke teasingly, "The train is operational today!"
Ivina, completely confused, left the granary, along with Susan and others who were also embracing doubts, and headed towards the old church—now the train station.
The place was already packed with people, tens of thousands of villagers crowded in the square before the station, each one on tiptoes and craning their necks to glimpse the inside.
Ivina, driven by boundless curiosity, wanted to enter and see. With the wizard's badge hanging on her chest, the villagers spontaneously made way for her.
Soon, several enormous silvery trains appeared before the young girl!
They were over three ters high and stretched seventy ters long, like serpents coiling within the city...
Their streamlined bodies made every wizard and villager who saw them for the first ti exclaim from deep within their hearts.
Such a beautifully crafted creation...
What shocked Ivina more was the mountainous pile of cargo boxes inside the train station; with her keen vision, she could clearly see the unsealed boxes filled with loaves of bread and a white powder.
Not recognizing starch, Ivina mistook it for flour made from milled wheat.
The first ten huge train cars were already packed full. The laborers inside the station were still busily transferring more cargo boxes onto the rear cars.
The wizards actually had so much food!
Everything Ivina saw was beyond her expectations.
The constant noise of discussions and exclamations around her continuously reached Ivina's ears. So were amazed at the wizard's new creation, while others were hysterically crying over the heaps of bread and food.
However, many more voices were praising the new invention of the magic star, holding the "Magic Daily" in their hands, discussing how to use magic to make bread...
Ivina furrowed her brows, almost doubting if she had heard wrong. Creating bread out of thin air using magic? What a joke!
Even the Pope himself couldn't achieve such a feat, perhaps only the Moon Goddess could accomplish this miracle.
"Sir, may I take a look at that Magic Daily?" Ivina couldn't help but ask.
A male wizard, who was interrupted in his discussion, turned his head with displeasure, but upon seeing the young girl's refined appearance, he imdiately adopted a more amiable deanor and generously said, "Of course, no problem. Here, you can have it; I've already morized what I needed."
Ivina politely thanked him, and upon glancing at it, was imdiately struck by the heading!
[Research and Analysis on Plant Photosynthesis—On the Feasibility of "Creating Bread Through Magic"]
The author was none other than the Star of Magic, Lynn!
As for the lengthy article below, spanning thousands of words, Ivina couldn't understand it at all, fortunately, the male wizard beside her eagerly explained it to her.
The first half of the paper discussed how plants perform photosynthesis, converting elents into nutrients absorbable by the human body; the second half researched how to replicate this process through magic.
Perhaps due to secrecy, no specific magical model was provided, but the importance of three things was emphasized.
The simplest thod to produce food required only water, carbon dioxide, and electricity!
"Master Lynn is truly deserving of the title Star of Magic, to think of such a thod to solve the food shortage problem," the male wizard spoke with great admiration.
Ivina hadn't expected that wizards had actually managed to create food using magic!
She had taken chemistry classes and understood well what carbon dioxide was; indeed, everyone was like a machine producing carbon dioxide in bulk, so there was no need to worry about a shortage of raw material.
Not to ntion water—the kingdom was not lacking in water, and wizards could control lightning, which ant, if they wished, they could continuously produce massive quantities of food. The piled-up crates inside the station were proof!
However, those who reacted most strongly to this were not Ivina but the nobles and wealthy rchants who had previously bought large quantities of food!
So were collapsing on the ground in dismay; others were screaming hysterically.
Everyone knew that once those trains filled with carts of bread reached the major cities of the kingdom, the wheat in their hands would beco worthless in an instant!
Even in the best-case scenario, their assets would likely shrink by hundreds of tis!
A tycoon was even contemplating blowing up those trains and burning all the accumulated bread to ashes.
However, the twenty airships, five fighter planes, and over fifty armored vehicles guarding the trains, and their nacing cannons, were enough to quell any restless thoughts amongst the crowd!
The cries of despair from the nobles and rchants did not evoke any sympathy; instead, they received mocking, disdainful glances. In fact, many townsn were cheering for the Star of Magic's na, celebrating the victory.
Just five hundred ters away, Lynn, whose na was being chanted by the crowd, stood on the roof of a civilian house, watching the giant trains roar toward the distance!
The seven trains carried a total of six thousand tons of starch and bread, plus the five thousand tons of sustenance already released, enough to be the final straw that broke the cal's back!
"Notify Laud to start collecting the debts," Lynn instructed.
"Yes, Chancellor Lynn!" Ailoke, standing by his side, spoke admiringly and then transmitted the electromagnetic signal to collect the debts.
In the past month, through utilizing nurous rchant teams as proxies, the council had mortgaged loans totaling several tens of millions of imperial Gold Coins to those rchants and nobles—the money they had initially spent to buy the food!
Ultimately, the money circulated back into their hands, but this ti including their assets, manors, slaves, and even their citizens!
Lynn reflected to himself about the dangers of gambling; once caught up in it, the result was ruinous. The prospect of a hundredfold profit was enough to drive a person mad into irrationality, voluntarily upping the stakes, jeopardizing everything for a victory that was never guaranteed...
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