Croshere Advanced Magic Academy.
A rare occasion, Gray Mage was visiting his friend’s advanced magic academy.
But, he did not come to Croshere Advanced Magic Academy openly. Instead, he had sneaked his way inside.
He was glancing left and right. It seemed like he was confirming that he was not being followed.
He was also constantly reminding the owl on his shoulder to keep quiet.
Even though he was already an old man, he revealed exceptional stealth maneuvers. Noiselessly, he arrived at the heart of the academy, the building where the Headmaster’s Office was located.
Gray Mage Lursk lightly knocked on the Headmaster’s Office. After he heard ‘come in’ from across the door, he finally pushed it open and entered.
“What brought you here this time around?”
Having just returned from the Law Enforcement Agency, Yellow Mage looked at the old man who could only be described as ‘totally unkempt.’
“I brought over a good stuff for you, old partner.”
Gray Mage quickly walked over to Yellow Mage’s desk. He put his hand into the long sleeve of his robe, took out a completely white originium crystal and placed it on the desk.
“Don’t need it.”
Yellow Mage raised the book in his hand. He didn’t even bother to glance at the so-called ‘good stuff’ mentioned by Gray Mage.
The two of them knew each other for many years. But, instead of friends, it would be more accurate to say that Yellow Mage viewed Gray Mage as his arch-enemy, his rival as both an advanced magic academy’s headmaster and as a mage.
But, Gray Mage never considered him an arch-enemy. Every now and then, he would sneak into Croshere’s magic academy for a get-together or tea session with Yellow Mage.
“This originium crystal contained the recording for ‘Léon: The Demon.’ These things known as the ‘movie originals’ are extremely precious in Norland! Didn’t you mention a while back that you want to see a movie with law enforcers?”
Gray Mage’s words triggered Yellow Mage. After returning to his magic academy, Croshere has been intertwined between the invitation from that demon and the banning of television.
At a time like this, Yellow Mage appeared out from nowhere to ruthlessly expose him. Yellow Mage couldn’t help his eyebrows from throbbing nonstop. Annoyed, he waved his hand at Gray Mage.
“Not interested! Take it away! I’m busy; I still have an inscription lesson this afternoon!”
“You can keep it to watch tomorrow. You can store it together with the orignium crystal that contains the recording for ‘Beauty and the Demon,'” Gray Mage stroked his beard in a proud manner.
Gray Mage’s words triggered Yellow Mage again. The owl standing on Gray Mage’s shoulder suddenly spread its feathers out like a peacock. Its two eyes were open to their maximum. As a bird, it was able to instinctively sense danger.
“Croshere, even if you’re angry, it wouldn’t be able to change anything. Likely, there will only be one or two dozen students present for your afternoon inscription lesson. Why not take this opportunity to...”
Before his old buddy could finish speaking, Croshere clapped close his book. The sound was so loud that it interrupted Gray Mage’s speech.
“If you came here to humiliate me, you should return, Lursk!” Yellow Mage’s voice was ice-cold. If he was confronting other young mages or even that Chaos Demon, he would take note to restrain his strength.
But, facing Gray Mage, someone who was also one of the Seven Sages, Yellow Mage would not hold back his strength in the slightest.
“How could I be here to humiliate you? Old friend, you know that I have the same viewpoint as you,” Gray Mage let out a soft sigh, “If I came here to humiliate you, wouldn’t I be humiliating myself in the process?”
“Then why are you here? Are you feeling proud that you’re standing on that demon’s side?”
Yellow Mage did not care about his image at all before his peer. He unleashed his anger without holding back anything.
“I actually came here for the sake of discussing a very important matter with you,” Seeing that his old friend was becoming more and more angry, Gray Mage stopped joking, “Our academies’ students are acting too presumptuously lately.”
“Presumptuously?”
Yellow Mage placed his book down on the desk. He looked at the unkempt old man with a serious expression.
“Sure enough, that arcanotech device has affected your students too. Did you find it intolerable too? So, you’re agreeing with my proposal now?”
“To ban that arcanotech device throughout Norland... forgive me but I will not be able to accept that. Croshere... the effect television will have for Norland, no, for the entire world, is something inestimable,” Gray Mage shook his head.
“Inestimable? You mean how it has caused the young mages to lose their most important desire for knowledge?!” Yellow Mage questioned loudly.
At this moment, Gray Mage waved his hand. A large quantity of magic network interfaces suddenly appeared all around him. He once again waved his aged fingers.
Hundreds of interfaces started to rapidly disappear. In the end, only a single magic network interface remained.
“I believe that, compared to banning television, it is more effective for us to change the way we manage our academies,” Gray Mage pushed the magic network interface to Yellow Mage’s face. It was a post from the Mage Forum.
“...”
Yellow Mage was about to open his mouth to ridicule his old friend again when his attention was captured by the post on the forum.
“Grading system, electives, clubs...”
Yellow Mage was staring at the contents of the post. He started to subconsciously read out loud the things written on post. In the end, after reading everything, he became silent.
“What do you think?” asked Gray Mage.
“It’s a shallow theory. A portion of it is identical to our current academic systems but there’s also a lot of fascinating details. For example, course credits and clubs. There’s also those so-called electives.”
The overbearingness and anger was no longer present on Yellow Mage’s face. He put on his glasses and started to discuss with Gray Mage.
“While it is indeed shallow, it’s very sensible... Our advanced academies are too lax with our rules. But, if we are to expunge students for minor mistakes, it’ll be too harsh too... Course credits and grading system is an optimal solution to determine if a student is performing properly. It will also serve to encourage them to work harder. As for the electives, we have a similar sort of system in our academies already. But, they’re all courses that are related with magic. Croshere, do you think humans are only seeking knowledge just so that they can become powerful mages?”
“No, it’s not only so that they can become powerful mages...” Yellow Mage murmured those words.
Advanced magic academies. As the name implies, the academies were established to nurture mages. Because of that, all the courses were related to magic: alchemic study, magic-based pharmaceuticals, rune inscriptions, etc...
While the students might consider becoming a mage as a lifetime career, a portion of them do not view magic as their interest, their passion. Instead, they viewed them as a means to obtain status and survival in the world.
“The clubs will serve as a means to encourage this system. Organizations created by the students... At that time, the academies will definitely be bustling with noise and excitement,” Gray Mage was already imagining what the academies will be like.
Yellow Mage did not say anything. He continued to browse the content of the post. The post only provided a concept. It seemed like the person who wrote it was not a professional ‘educationalist.’
The poster only knew about those concepts. Or perhaps, they only knew about those interesting ideas and were using a rather shoddy method to illustrate and promote them on the Mage Forum.
But, to Yellow Mage and Gray Mage, that shoddy method was no different from an apocalypse. Reading the contents, Yellow Mage was able to instantly realize the corruption of the advanced magic academies — their overemphasis on nurturing powerful mages.
As Yellow Mage read to the latter half of the post, he couldn’t help but feel awe and admiration toward some of the concepts mentioned in the post. He felt like shouting ‘amazing!’
But, at the end of the post, the poster proposed something that had nothing to do with education.
“Once a year, a prize is presented to the world’s greatest inventor, an intelligent organism that has provided the greatest contribution to the field of magic inscriptions, alchemy, arcanotech or magic research.” Yellow Mage carefully read out loud the last paragraph of the post. It was the concept of awarding a prize to the ‘world’s greatest.’
“What’s the difference between this prize and being exhibited on the World Expo?” Yellow Mage turned to look at his old friend and expressed his confusion.
“In my opinion, they’re practically no different,” said Gray Mage, “It’s just that the ones that appeared on the World Expo are all inventors of arcanotech devices. As for the people that discovered new magic inscriptions, created new magic-based pharmaceuticals and other magic related discoveries... they are all people who brought great and important progress to humanity’s knowledge of magic. There are countless great magic academics, alchemists and pharmacists in this world. It’s quite inappropriate to only reward the inventors of arcanotech devices with the ability to be on the World Expo.”
When Gray Mage’s words reached this point, he noticed his old friend Yellow Mage’s hands were trembling. Gray Mage was surprised by the sight.
“Croshere, are you alright?”
“All these years, since the establishment of the Law Enforcement Agency, I’ve not felt this excited in a very long time.”
Yellow Mage was staring at the last paragraph of the post. Even though it was a simple concept of an award, even though it was something similar to how the nobles will award others with titles and medals, he couldn’t help his excitement, his long stagnant blood from burning hot again, as he imagined the future after the awards were established.
“That’s right. We do need a medal to commemorate those great inventors, creators and discoverers! This medal will only be awarded to the greatest in the world. This meant that... it will become one of the greatest honors to obtain in the world, far superior to obtaining a title from a king! Countless mages will become tempted by it!” Yellow Mage seemed to be speaking to Gray Mage. Yet, he also seemed to be speaking to himself.
“In the end, we are all people who pursue after fame...”
Seeing his old friend’s excitement, Gray Mage couldn’t help himself from sighing.
Having reached the height of becoming a Sage of Norland, Gray Mage no longer holds any desire for wealth, greed or lust. With the paramount glory of being a Sage of Norland as his title, he was incapable of feeling much joy even if he managed to achieve new accomplishments. But, the award to the greatest, merely the concept was enough to have Gray Mage regain his competitive spirit.
He was certain that his old friend must be feeling the same way as him.
“But, in order to let the mages of the world learn about this award, we’ll have to wait until the next World Expo.”
Even though Yellow Mage was feeling impatient and desired to inform the world’s mages of the creation of an award to honor the greatest in the field of magic, the proclamation must be done in a venue with enough reputation. Right now, the only method he could think of was to do the awarding ceremony on the World Expo.
“There’s no need for us to wait till then,” Gray Mage picked up the originium crystal placed on the desk, “Television and the magic network are stages not inferior to the World Expo.”
“Television...”
Once television was mentioned, the passion and excitement immediately disappeared from Yellow Mage’s face.
“Lursk, do you know the poster? Firebringer... I have no impression of that username.”
At this moment, Yellow Mage decided to shift the topic of their talks. He took a glance at the poster’s username... Firebringer.
He immediately started comparing the username with the great mages he knew.
Even though Norland’s Seven Sages were people standing at the apex of humanity’s magic, there existed many mages in the world that could match Norland’s Sages.
Those mages would either become kings’ assistants or vagabonds who searched for the unknown.
The knowledge those wild mages possessed were things that not even he, a Sage of Norland, dared to look down upon.
But, after comparing the username with the wild mages of his memory, Yellow Mage was unable to match ‘Firebringer’ with any of them.
“It’s natural for you to have no impression of that user. The reason for that is because the user is a demon,” Gray Mage spoke with a smile on his face.
“Demon...” The image of the Chaos Demon Joshua immediately appeared in Yellow Mage’s mind, “How could it be....”
Yellow Mage couldn’t believe that the Chaos Demon who began his career with entertainment and music would propose this many exciting concepts.
Whether it be the guidelines to transform education or the award presented to the world’s greatest in the field of magic, they were both grand notions.
“No, it is impossible,” When Yellow Mage’s gaze landed on the originium crystal on his desk, he suddenly felt relieved.
From the records he saw in the Law Enforcement Agency, that Chaos Demon had created miracles after miracles after coming to Norland. Perhaps now, he was set to create some new miracles.
Suddenly, while his old friend was mumbling to himself, Gray Mage said, “Croshere, I plan to tear down the ‘television’ in the magic arena and put ‘televisions’ into designated classrooms.”
“...” After hearing Gray Mage’s proposal, Yellow Mage grew silent again. He seemed to be making a difficult choice. But, after a short few minutes...
“Add me in. I’ll inform you of the classrooms for the ‘televisions’ later,” said Yellow Mage.
With that, Yellow Mage and Gray Mage started discussing the concrete details for a course credits, grading system and clubs. They also discussed what sort of extra courses they should add for the students to choose from. Their discussion lasted deep into the night. Yellow Mage even postponed his afternoon lecture.
It was only when the headmaster’s office was piled up with papers with various different proposals that the two Sages reached some unanimous verdicts.
“It would appear that we’ll not be able to create the new system in only one day,” said Yellow Mage while holding a pile of waste papers.
“But these concepts are indeed feasible. I’ll continue to research them upon my return to my Sage Tower tonight.”
Gray Mage was planning to leave. However, he was suddenly stopped by Yellow Mage.
“Lursk... do you know how to obtain something called ‘originium crystal record’ for the previous World’s Singers competition?”