my armed maid

Chapter 22 21. Application for topic
This quite feasible plan was immediately finalized by him.

Yuna was going to focus on training archery from today on, so she sent her back to the workshop to train on her own. After that, Nolen took a car to the Alchemy Society alone.

In a blink of an eye, more than ten days had passed since the original alchemist qualification examination. This was his first visit to the society as an official alchemist.

After arriving at the Alchemy Society, he went straight to the front desk and asked the receptionist there:

"Excuse me, is Director Wilson here today? I have something to visit."

The receptionist's eyes lingered on the Ouroboros badge on his left chest for a moment, she lowered her head and glanced at the schedule and said, "Wait a moment, let me confirm - the director is here today. Do you have an appointment?"

"No."

"Please tell me your name?"

"Noren Vishers."

"Already registered for you, Mr. Nolen."

The receptionist pointed to the stairs aside, "Go up from here. The director's office is on the left side of the third floor."

"Thank you."

Nolen nodded to her, walked up the stairs, and followed the instructions to find Wilson's office.

The door to the office was open, and he looked around, but there was no one inside.

Where have people gone?

Nolen walked into the office and sat for a while. Wilson's desk was filled with various documents.

After a cursory glance, they were all documents related to the internal management of the Alchemy Society, as well as documents commissioned by external organizations to the Society.

The Alchemy Society itself also needs to make a profit in order to operate. One of its profit points is to earn rewards for completing commissions.

However, unlike ordinary mercenaries and individual alchemists, the Alchemy Society mainly undertakes large-scale alchemy commissions, such as making a batch of hundreds or even thousands of alchemy props.

This kind of large order cannot be accommodated by individual alchemists, so they can almost only be handed over to the Alchemy Society, and then the Alchemy Society will gather capable and willing alchemists to complete the commission together.

Most of the people who issue these commissions are not individuals, but large organizations and forces, one of the typical representatives is the City Lord's Mansion.

The city lord's palace itself will not employ a large number of alchemists, which will greatly increase the city's financial expenditure.

Whenever they have a need, they will issue a commission to the Alchemical Society.

Although organizations such as the Alchemy Society remain neutral in name, the Roland Empire has laws that stipulate that if the local imperial agency asks for help from a commission, the neutral organization is obliged to cooperate fully to complete the commission.

It was not a polite thing to peek at internal documents. Nolen glanced at them briefly and then looked away.

The hands of the clock on the wall clicked by, and just when he was getting a little impatient with waiting, there was a burst of messy footsteps outside the door.

Several alchemists filed past the door, and then Wilson returned to the office with a stack of documents. When he saw Nolen, his eyes lit up and he smiled:

"Oh... Nolen! You're here."

"I haven't seen you for a while, Mr. Wilson." Nolen smiled and nodded: "Were you in a meeting just now?"

"Yes." Wilson threw the document on the table casually, picked up the water glass on the table and took two big sips. "The City Lord's Palace has issued a new commission. We have been quite busy recently."

"Busy, it's good to be busy. At least you can make money."

"Sigh, the City Lord's Mansion's commissions have high requirements and low rewards, but they are notoriously messy."

Wilson smiled bitterly, "For the same entrustment, you can earn at least [-]% more by taking on private work outside, so many people are not willing to accept the entrustment from the City Lord's Palace, but this is a hard task, and I am very reluctant to put it in my hands. Difficult to handle.”

Nolen immediately changed the subject tactfully: "Mr. Wilson, I am looking for you this time because I want to apply for a research project from the society."

The so-called project research can be seen as a kind of help and investment from the Alchemy Society to alchemists.

For example, if an alchemist wants to invent a compound alchemical metal, but he does not have the financial resources to pay for the consumables during the experiment, he can seek help from the society and apply for research projects.

After the application is submitted, the society will review its personal ability and research progress, and will provide certain financial, human and material support after passing the review.

In return, of course, the alchemist's research results will be shared with the Alchemical Society.

For example, the high-grade composite alchemical metal "Ceramic Steel" he plans to purchase this time is said to be the experimental product of a genius alchemist who collaborated with the Alchemy Society to conduct research before he became rich.

After successfully creating "Ceramic Steel", the alchemist himself and the Alchemy Society both gained fame and wealth, making a lot of money. This is a very typical example of a win-win situation.

"Oh?" Wilson's interest was aroused as expected, "What research are you planning to do? Do you want to invent a new alchemical potion?"

Nolen studied under Rusty, and Rusty was an alchemist specializing in pharmacy.

Nolen himself even successfully refined the intermediate magic potion in the qualification examination and got full marks in the practical part.

Everyone thought that he must be an alchemist specializing in pharmacy, and the research project he applied for must be related to pharmacy.

Unexpectedly, Nolen scratched his head and replied a little shyly: "Well, it's research related to magic formation."

"Magic formation science!?" Wilson suspected that he heard wrongly, "You also study magic formation science?"

“I dabbled in every subject.”

"This kind of rhetoric will not convince the censors."

Wilson made a serious face, "The Alchemy Society is not a charity, and it is impossible to spend money and effort for an alchemist to do research on topics that have no results and no prospects.

"First of all, you have to prove to the society that you have certain attainments in magic circle studies. Secondly, you have to convince the reviewers that your research is valuable. Only then can you have the possibility of passing the review.

"If what you want to do is to conduct research in the direction of pharmacy, there is indeed a considerable success rate, but in the field of magic array... have you made any achievements so far?"

"No." Nolen shrugged, "I just became an alchemist not long ago. Even if I have the ability, I have to take time to show it, right? In fact, in my plan, this research project will become my first... The first achievement in the field of magic formation."

This young man... Wilson couldn't help but laugh.

As a director of the Alchemy Society and a serious senior alchemist in magic circles, not many of his peers dared to talk nonsense in front of him.

He just thought that Nolen was a newborn calf and was not afraid of tigers. He was about to warn him not to talk so much when he suddenly thought of a good idea.

Letting young people experience failure is always more convincing than a vague admonishment.

Besides, what if he really succeeds?
"Then let me see how good you are." He turned to pull out a stack of documents from the table and said, "Just in time, the city lord's palace issued a commission to us, asking us to send an alchemist who is proficient in magic circles. The magician will go over to help, and I will leave this commission to you."

"no problem."

Nolen didn't ask what kind of commission it was, and agreed immediately, "If I complete the commission, it will prove that I am qualified to apply for project research, right?"

Wilson was also cheerful: "Yes, I can vouch for you."

"What I've been waiting for is the boss's words." Nolen took the document and glanced at it, "Let me see what the commission is... oh, to maintain the five city defense magic cannons on the city wall?

"Hey, this already involves the military secrets of city defense, right? Is it really okay to send this kind of commission to other alchemists outside the city lord's palace at will?"

"The alchemists under the city lord's palace can't understand such an advanced city defense magic cannon."

Wilson shook his head, "Alchemists who are proficient in magic circles are the least proficient in the three disciplines of alchemy. City defense magic cannons are among the top technologies in the application of magic circles. The entire Linfeng City is capable of maintaining them. There are only a handful of alchemists out there."

Nolenqi said: "Isn't there still a clue? The huge city lord's mansion can't recruit even one master?"

Wilson sighed: "It's not that they can't recruit, but the treatment they give is not high. Alchemists of this level will not be easily recruited by them because of this treatment.

"Unlike extraordinary beings, extraordinary beings have strong personal strength. Even if they are recruited and supported, it will be a real force deterrence, which can ensure the stability of their dominance.

"But alchemists are different. If nothing happens, we will be useless nerds to them. They have to pay us monthly salary and reimburse expensive alchemy materials. Obviously this is not cost-effective.

"So they are always used to asking us for help in the form of commissions after discovering problems - you may not know this when you first join this industry, but the current employment situation of alchemists is like this."

Nolen knew it.

Although knowledge is also a type of power, it is not as intuitive and shocking as the real force of extraordinary people. It is also foreseeable that the social status and importance are lower than those of extraordinary people.

He said no more at the moment and turned around and said: "Then I'm leaving. I'll try to complete the commission in these two days."

"Wait, I'll go with you." Wilson packed up the documents on the table and quickly caught up.

"Haha, are you worried that I can't complete the commission by myself?"

"There are also considerations in this regard. After all, it is a commission issued by the city lord's palace. The city defense is of great importance and there is no room for any mistakes."

Wilson said solemnly, "I will be watching from the side later. You are responsible for maintenance. If anything goes wrong, I will remind you in time. Other than that, I will not interfere.

"Don't worry, your name will be written on this commission. When the time comes, the reward will be a penny, and it will all be yours."

"Okay." Nolen nodded and couldn't help but sigh, "If only..."

"Huh? What did you say?"

"...Nothing, let's go."

……

After getting ready, the two took a carriage to the gate of Lower City. They were greeted by a young officer with bronze skin wearing a dark brown uniform.

"Liner Fojie, the deputy commander of the Linfeng Legion, is responsible for guiding the two of them in maintaining the city's defense magic cannon."

The young officer briefly introduced himself and led Nolen and Wilson up the city wall.

In the Roland Empire, a city-state's army usually had three organizational structures, from high to low: knights, legions, and guards.

Take Linfeng City as an example. The Linfeng Knights are the most powerful armed force in Linfeng City. They are mainly knights and supplemented by mages. All combatants are powerful extraordinary beings.

The Linfeng City guards are mostly composed of well-trained ordinary people. Unlike the knights who need to go into battle to kill the enemy, their mission is mainly to patrol the city and maintain public order.

The status of the Linfeng City Legion is sandwiched between the above two. They are a mixture of extraordinary people and ordinary people, and their scope of responsibilities is also very wide.

The Knights are not easily dispatched, so in peacetime, the legion is not only responsible for scouting and sentry outside the city to ensure surrounding security, but also arranges city defense and maintains city defense weapons such as magic cannons and magic array barriers.

After entering a state of war, the legion also had to cover the charge of the knights, while at the same time detaching some people to stick to the city wall and control the alchemical weapons used to defend the city.

Since he does the most work and has the largest number of people in the legion, the person who can become the deputy commander of the legion must be among the best in strength and brains in the army.

The bronze-skinned officer Reiner in front of him is such a person. He has an upright posture and a serious smile. He has a calm and hidden aura just when he stands aside. He must be a high-level knight after all.

Climbing the city wall, the view suddenly broadened.

Looking outside the city, you can see dozens of defensive trenches dug outside the moat.Further outside, dotted sentry towers extend outward to the end of the flat and open Lebus grassland.

Looking into the city, you can see the bustling houses and streets in the lower city of Linfeng City, as well as the inner city wall that separates the lower city and upper city.

The outer city wall is the main force to resist the enemy. Not only is the wall 20 meters high, it is also equipped with various defensive equipment such as city defense magic cannons.

The inner city wall is only 12 meters long and is not equipped with special defensive equipment. Its main function is not to defend, but to separate the upper and lower city areas.

Being blown by the strong wind on the city wall, the whole person felt refreshed. This was the first time Nolen climbed up to overlook the entire Linfeng City. He couldn't help but admired: "It's really a nice scenery."

"No matter how beautiful the scenery is, you will get tired of it after looking at it for a long time."

Reiner answered casually and came to the nearest city defense magic cannon, "A few days ago, the city lord's palace asked us to enter a pre-war alert state. When we inspected the city defense cannons, we found that these city defense cannons were in disrepair. used."

The city defense magic cannon was fixed on the enemy platform on the city wall. It was as big as a small fortress. Nolen looked at the "black fat mound" in front of him and said curiously:

"In disrepair? Have you never maintained them before?"

Reiner turned to look at a logistics officer next to him. The logistics officer wiped his sweat and said:

"That's right, sir, these city defense cannons have not been really used since they were installed here, and the legion also lacks the technical personnel to maintain them. So..."

Nolen probably understood that Linfeng City was founded 76 years ago, and these five city defense magic cannons are the same age as Linfeng City.

Due to the stability of the empire in the past 76 years, Linfeng City, which was in peaceful times, had no chance to use these city defense cannons, so it naturally forgot about them.

Now that the prairie people have invaded and a fierce battle is imminent, the city lord's palace wakes up like a dream and remembers these city defense weapons, but they have long been unable to be used due to lack of maintenance.

"I know the general situation." He nodded and said, "Open the warehouse door and I'll go in and see what's wrong."

　Thanks to Hanshuang Linyue and sv for the reward

　　
　
(End of this chapter)