When A Mage Revolts

"Now, the number of magical potions that the academy can produce daily is approximately two hundred bottles. Half of them will be handed over to the businesses outside, for sale, and the other half will be stored in the warehouse for the students and the teachers. Recently, a lot of merchants have come over to the Kingdom of Helius to seek asylum. Some of the magic potions have been distributed out, so now there are about two thousand magical potions left in the warehouse."

"The magical instruments that have been crafted so far have all been left in the academy, for our internal department’s usage. There are too many types of instruments for us to record down easily, however, the number of unused items should have surpassed a four digit number."

"As for the various magical beast materials, and the plant products..."

In the director’s office, Varys was reading out of the booklet in his hand, page by page, reporting the current production results of the academy to Benjamin.

As the academy progressed towards becoming more established, they had also begun to gather up many sorts of precious products relevant to magic. From the potions that the students had successfully refined, to the magical beast materials they had obtained after going out for their practical, a huge portion of the outcome was handed over to the academy.

This could not be considered as an exploitation, because, after all, many of the students had not yet paid off their tuition fees. They had already sold many years of their labor to the academy.

After ten minutes into the report, these messy bunch of things were finally over with. Closing up the booklet, Varys could not help but let out a long sigh of relief, massaging his temples. He was slightly confused as to why Benjamin had suddenly thought of asking him about this.

"Varys, do you think that, with our current production rate, it is possible for us to build a sales network spanning the three countries?" After listening to the report, Benjamin nodded and suddenly opened his mouth to ask this question.

Varys was somewhat surprised.

This idea... Was rather sudden, was it not?

"Director, business is not such an easy feat." He shook his head, saying, "Even though the things we are producing now are quite adequate, there would still be a lot of difficulties to face if we extend our sales outside. We do not have shops, no employees, no branding, and no public reputation... It’s not like the case that we only have to announce to the other mages that we have items for sale here, and they would surge into the academy to buy them."

"I know." Benjamin, however, nodded, and said: "What I mean is, we invite someone else to help us with the sales."

Hearing that, Varys could not help but furrow his eyebrows.

…...What was the director thinking?

"Mage Vinci, Howl... Aren’t these the merchants that have investments with the academy? We have passed some sales rights to them for management, splitting the sales profit in half." He asked doubtfully, "Do you mean that we should solicit for even more resellers like them?"

"This is different." Benjamin immediately answered his question in the negative, saying, "They are big businesses. Even if the products in their shops are ours, the brand being sold is still theirs. The Academy of Magic isn’t very involved."

"So you plan to..."

"The merchants that have been taking refuge here from the Kingdom of Helius these past few days, you have met quite a few, yes?" Benjamin gave a soft smile, speaking slowly, "I think that we can maintain this model in the long term, and distribute a portion of the sales rights to these small businesses, letting them help us sell our products."

Varys did not understand: "How is this different from handing over the sales rights to the larger businesses?"

"Of course there’s a difference." Benjamin replied immediately, "The money the big businesses share with us is little, and there isn’t any advantage at all for the reputation of the academy. As for the small businesses, they are scattered, and a vast influence can only be created with the brand of the Academy of Magic being spread by all of them, together."

"This..."

Varys was beginning to lose track of his understanding.

Why was there constantly so many weird ideas in the director’s brain?

"You are talking about the so-called ‘academy business’, right? Director, please don’t take their words seriously, they are only using the reputation of the academy to boost their sales." He advised hurriedly.

"I know they are borrowing our name." Benjamin smiled, saying, "But... The name of the academy, how can it be simply borrowed by anyone? Have you not noticed? When more and more people use the name of the academy to sell their products, the Academy of Magic has slowly become a brand."

Varys was startled.

This... Was not unreasonable.

He had definitely heard some news from the outside— the merchants from the Kingdom of Helius had been spreading news everywhere, causing many people to think that the Academy of Magic was really going into the military business.

Truth be told, he was rather annoyed at such a phenomenon.

The merchants had come over here for asylum, some of them good, but some bad, and had even pirated the name of the Academy of Magic. If they ruined the reputation that they had built up with so much effort, would they not incur a heavy loss?

Nevertheless, he was unable to rebut what Benjamin had just said. This mix of good and bad merchants from Helius had, indeed, slowly propagated the brand of the academy.

—Although it might not be a brand of good reputation.

"So... Do you mean to employ a huge number of such small merchants to help us do this, director?" Thinking thus, Varys opened his mouth to ask.

"No, we should not use the term employ. We have never been in an employer-employee relationship. They are still their own boss." Benjamin gave a smile, however, and said, "I prefer the word ‘cooperation’."

Varys’s eyebrows wrinkled up.

Cooperation huh...

This was a concept that he had never been familiar with, but Benjamin was always throwing out these new ideas; this, he was long used to.

Just that, he was uncertain whether this plan could work.

"If, according to what you said, we build a sales network that spans many nations, we would definitely need a large number of merchants to cooperate with this so-called ‘academy’s business’." Varys asked, "How do we guarantee that these people do not tarnish the name of the academy?"

"We don’t have to guarantee it, those merchants will." Benjamin rubbed his hands together, saying, "If they want to use our brand, other than paying a consistent royalty, they must also pay a certain sum of deposit as a guarantee. If those merchants do anything that hurts the academy, we will cut off the cooperation ties with them and confiscate the deposit. After publicizing the news to all the countries, we will kick him out."

"En..."

Varys rubbed his chin; although he was somewhat puzzled about this ‘cooperation’, which he had never heard of before, but for the time being, he could not think of any further questions.

It seemed... That this idea possessed a certain degree of possibility. Only, if they really wanted to make such relations official, a detailed agreement, with no loopholes would be a must.

It being so crucial was also a headache.

"If there are no further questions, let us begin." There seemed to be two golden dollar signs flashing in Benjamin’s eyes, "It is definitely not enough to have only the merchants from the Kingdom of Helius. Ferelden, Icor... There are countless small merchants everywhere, and I believe that they are all very willing to cooperate with the Academy of Magic, and cooperate with the academy’s business."

After some thought, Varys nodded.

"Alright, I will pass this news out as soon as possible."

As so, he turned and left to begin busying himself with the new matter. Benjamin rubbed his hands eagerly, as though mountains of gold and silver were waiting before him, nearby.