A strange world

Chapter 214 Section 67. Skip

"Do you know how hard that is?"

Olmedo seemed to see a boy with a stick charging at the windmill.

“People don’t waste their precious time on literacy.”

"But it will make them more money in the future."

"You give a commoner a silver coin, or promise to give him a gold coin this time next year, which one do you think he will choose?"

"One silver coin..."

The reality for Northerners is as cold as winter.

Unless Annan recruits them to study at a price of 10 copper coins per day, this will lose the original intention of making money from newspapers. Annan can do this in Xingyue Bay because they are his people. Breeze City can barely do it. What about Bethal City, Fenghuo City, and city-states further away?

When the public cannot read, the value of newspapers as a tool for propaganda and discourse manipulation will be greatly reduced.

Annan also thought of letting everyone learn a common language——

As a lingua franca proficient in first-level spells, an elite mage can cast spells five to fifteen times a day, a master mage thirty times, and an epic mage can barely satisfy a small town with some effort. But the epic mage is either preparing for the impact of the legend or traveling around the world to explore the ruins.

As for where to get so many elite mages... we can do it by emptying the mage tower.

And if you are proficient in Common Language for two gold coins once, given the relationship between Annan and Mage Tower and the small profits but quick turnover, you should be able to negotiate it at a price of one gold coin per person. The entire Xingyue Bay "only" costs about 2,000 gold coins.

It is known that the population of Breeze City is about 300,000, and the tax revenue is about 80,000 gold coins... With less than four years of tax revenue, everyone in Breeze City can be literate.

But there will always be people who are willing to be literate, thus revealing the real reason why Olmedo attacked Annan: "You will cause a crisis for the nobles..."

"The status of nobles comes from wealth and knowledge...and you want to give 'their' knowledge to the 'untouchables' in their eyes?"

"Not even the King in the North?"

"How many professionals does the King of the North have?"

Annan was speechless when asked. If he had trustworthy and powerful subordinates, he wouldn't have to run around. He thought of Lady Winter, she was the Flower of the Snowfield, a cousin of the royal family, her status was like a prince, and she answered all requests in Bethal City.

But without those forces of her own, Mrs. Winter would only have the title of Snow Flower and Royal Cousin.

"You can't do this in Breeze City. You can only let Xingyue Bay do this. Before Xingyue Bay becomes a city-state like Breeze City."

If the newspaper could move and make a sound, then there would be no need to face the pressure from the nobles... It's just that new spells need to be researched. Annan has to find a mage above the master, such as an elf mentor... Mr. Swaro?

"Aren't your magic images very interesting to make? Why do you have to let them learn?"

Olmedo's inquiry suddenly reminded Annan, why couldn't he skip the newspaper and start with the news?

Isn’t the image recording the Philosopher’s Stone more vivid and interesting than the dry text? Although the price is also prohibitively high, Annan has a readily available record of cheap magic stones.

Knock knock knock——

"Come in."

The captain of the guard came back with only a few books left. Annan came back to his senses, and his black eyes glowed.

"Have you thought about it?" Olmedo smiled warmly.

"Well, I'll show you the results in a few days." Annan took the books, "Can I take them away?"

"These are just copies."

Before going out, Olmedo called to Annan: "The Snow Mountain Fortress is open to navigation. It's time for you to prepare a belated New Year's gift for your friends in the fortress."

"The frost giants have retreated?"

"The city guards and mercenaries have been clearing them out in the past few months. They don't dare to attack us anymore."

"Then prepare a box of story books for me, like the Adventures of Oakham."

Annan left the room, and Olmedo stood up, walked around the desk, and stood in front of the window. The carriage with the snowflake emblem drove out of the square. The focus of the pair of light blue eyes returned to the reflection on the window from the distant carriage——

The hat of the child rushing towards the windmill was lifted by the wind, revealing Olmedo's childish face.

"Father, I want to be the city lord. I want there to be no poor people in Breeze City!"

The young Olmedo broke into the study and shouted to his father who was standing by the window.

The warbler nested in her pale golden hair came out and flew along the open window to the distant garden.

"As long as you are willing to bear the price of failure, my child." Augusta turned back and said to her gently, "Just like this warbler. If you want to raise it, you must accept the consequences of its death. Pain. This is a gift from fate to us, and we call it the price."

"Destiny? I don't understand..."

"Whatever we gain, we also lose. I have you, so I lost your mother. What do you have to lose if you want to gain Breeze City?"

…

On the way back to Xingyue Bay, Annan opened the books he brought back. The situation in Grogda, the Howler's hometown, was more complicated than imagined...

Going through it in order, not long after the Howler left, its tribe was invaded by a nearby human kingdom. The lords and farmers wanted to turn the fertile and exhausted swamp areas into farmland. The ratmen also came to take a share of the village built by humans, and the result was... A strange plague breaks out, and vampires spread blood flukes there...

The latest news is that two years ago, Grogda has turned into a battlefield for several races. It doesn't matter who wins or loses, because Grogda's orc tribe has long been finished.

I hope the howler can accept this bad news...

On the seventh day after departure, Annan returned to Xingyue Bay.

Annan first called the Howler and handed the books to it: "The current situation of Grogda is in these books..."

Howler remained silent, as if he already knew the answer.

"What's wrong?"

The howler's saliva splashed on Annan's face: "Why do you think an orc can read?"

Annan thought that the howler was right, opened the portal and kicked it to Breeze City, and then suddenly thought, why should the people of the country spend several months learning literacy and knowledge, instead of directly mastering the common language?

Why go step by step when you can spend money to solve it?

Annan asked the ogre to find the bard and climbed up the low hill again.

The foundation of the future school has just been built, and the blue dragon's nest has begun to take shape. Annan touches the dragon scale and releases a low-level summoning spell to show the blue dragon its future home. For example, there will be more space, and there will be a rock hill to facilitate it. Gold plated.

Perhaps the incident with the dragon hunting team made the blue dragon irritated and it destroyed the portal. After his good intentions failed, Annan opened the portal again and left it to the bard to go to the mage tower to find a group of mages.

"You make a bard as free as the wind work like a worker!"

"So 'Bard as Free as the Wind', how close are you to becoming an elite?"

"I'll go to the Mage Tower to find Michael right away."