Faced with Stephanie’s doubts, Roland explained, “Building a floating city requires a very secretive environment, otherwise the initial construction of the floating base can easily be destroyed. The world has no shortage of particularly jealous people.”


  Stephanie thought that Roland’s concern was natural.

  If she knew that someone she didn’t like was building a floating city, she would definitely think of a way to destroy it before they became too powerful.

  Not to mention that there were quite a few people who didn’t want others to succeed.

  “I see.” Stephanie played with the long hair by her ear with her right hand, curling it for a short while. She said, “I’m announcing to the public that I’ve hired you as my royal Mage and that you’re responsible for the security of my territory. This way, I will not arouse the suspicion of outsiders when I send you large quantities of magic materials. At the same time, if you are in charge of the security of my territory, you can decide the layout needed to build the floating city without having to specifically ask for my opinion. How about this?”


  “Then it’s troublesome for you,” Roland said quite gratefully. She had thought it out for him, so a little gratitude was in order. Stephanie stared at Roland for a moment, then smiled and said, “You’re welcome, we’re partners now.”


  Roland finished the cake in a few bites and said, “Then get ready, we’ll leave later when I return from the Magic Tower.” He knew well that women always had something to carry, and it wasn’t convenient for them if he watched from the sidelines.

  “Okay.” Stephanie nodded. After finishing the milk, Roland went to the Magic Tower.

  After Roland left, Stephanie’s face, which was quite impassive, suddenly showed a delighted expression. When Andonara saw this, she smiled and said, “It’s strange that you are willing to cooperate with Roland. Last night, you were clearly saying how ungentlemanly and unmanly he was.”


  “A floating city, that’s a floating city.” Stephanie looked at Andonara with an astonished expression instead. “A Mage who can build a floating city is right in front of you, only a fool wouldn’t work with him!”


  Andonara was even more puzzled. “Do you believe Roland now? Aren’t you afraid he’ll lie to you?”


  “He could create a multiple teleportation magic array, so the floating city is not unexpected.” Stephanie smiled smugly. “Although I’m not very good at internal affairs, and I don’t have much of a broad view, I’m not so stupid that I can’t see who the real future talent is. I’ve studied with my father for more than a decade and couldn’t learn anything well, but I’m very good at investing.”


  Andonara looked up smugly. “Not even close to me, you’re just a partner, Roland is all mine.”


  “You have it backward, you are Roland’s.” Stephanie shook her head.

  Andonara shrugged indifferently. “Between husband and wife, there’s no need to distinguish so clearly.” Stephanie was speechless, and once again felt bitter. Roland arrived at the Magic Tower and checked on the recent affairs first. Vivian had managed everything here quite well and with the help of Christina the vampire, everything was on track. The students at the magic school were studying diligently: one-fifth of them had become magic apprentices and two had become official mages. Everything was on track. Roland and Vivian chatted for a while, and when he prepared to go back to the manor, a group of bats suddenly flew in from outside and hung upside down on the ceiling A dozen pairs of red eyes stared at Roland.

  Vivian was used to it, and after she went to close the window to block the sunlight from outside, Christina came down in her human form.

  She looked at Roland rather unhappily. “Master, is it proper for you to leave the running of the Magic Tower to us two women when you run around outside every day?”


  “I have a feeling you like it quite a bit,” said Roland, bluntly.

  Christina choked on her words.

  Vivian smiled lightly beside her.

  Just as Roland had said, the two of them quite liked this job.

  In this world, this feudal era, the status of women was relatively low.

  The ones like Stephanie who could become a queen were irregular. After all, the Fareins Kingdom had the tradition of a queen being in power, so the status of women was relatively high.

  But only a little higher.

  There was no such tradition in Hollevin, where it was hard for women to get ahead.

  For a woman like Vivian, to be in charge of a Magic Tower and influence half the city was already an unimaginably high status for her. So she cherished this status and diligently managed the Magic Tower and the city. Sixty percent of her motivation was to help Roland and the other forty percent was for herself. …… Realizing the value of her own life. That was probably how it felt. “Vivian, apart from work, you have to find time to practice magic,” Roland said plainly. “Just as I delegate my work to you, you can also delegate some of your work and power to other trustworthy members of the Magic Tower. In this world, if you want to become a leader, you need a certain amount of strength at the end of the day. The Magic Tower will get bigger and bigger, and there will be more and more people, and if you can’t keep up in strength, you will only be able to manage a hundred or so people.” Vivian was stunned for a moment, then she thought about it, nodded, and said, “I understand.” Christine sighed. “I know that this is quite a good position to be in, one we never would have imagined being in before, but…… We don’t always feel very safe when you’re away. After all, out there, there are always different ideas and opinions about women, especially beautiful women.”


  This was indeed a problem.

  Because of the customs and traditions of Hollevin, people outside were still instinctively somewhat contemptuous of women, especially those in high positions. If a man did something perfectly, he would get one hundred percent of the credit. If a woman did something perfectly, she could only get eighty percent of the cred at most, and most of the time only seventy percent. Roland thought for a while and said, “Don’t worry, in about a year, I won’t need to run around outside. At that time, no one will dare to bully you.”


  After a year, Roland estimated that he would be able to create the floating city. Although it wouldn’t be large, as long as it stopped over the Magic Tower, it was a proper deterrent. Not to mention the local forces of this world, even if the players wanted to come and cause trouble, they would have to think twice about it.

  “I don’t doubt your potential,” said Christina, shaking her head, “but there is a very troubling matter that you need to deal with at the moment.”


  “What is it?”


  “It’s about the Golden Sons,” Christina said. “There’s a merchant’s guild called Cornucopia that has settled in our area, and at first they were responsible for promoting commerce. But now they have a monopoly on several industries and are starting to drive down prices. Vivian has been trying to work around them, but with little success. Their business tactics are systematic, not too fast, but they are effective.” Roland was stunned. “Cornucopia…… What’s going

  on?”


  His relationship with Cornucopia wasn’t bad at all. More than half a year ago, he even helped their boss make a few pieces of magic equipment. “Here are the specifics.” Vivian came up and explained the situation. It turned out that after the Cornucopia was stationed here, they started doing business using business tactics from Earth. They soon monopolized three things: furs, meat, and construction materials. Now they had their sights on food and magic materials.

  Even more outrageously, they began to contact some local forces that weren’t getting along with the Magic Tower.

  They were even starting to contact the puppet mayor, John Junior.

  After hearing this, Roland frowned. Then he said, “Vivian, take me to the local base of operations of Cornucopia, and I’ll go ask what’s going on.”


  Vivian nodded.

  Ten minutes later, Vivian and Roland took a carriage to the busiest eastern commercial street and stopped in front of the largest building in the center. When Roland got out of the carriage and looked up, he saw a gold-rimmed sign across the gate. Written in both Chinese and Hollevin, the sign read: Cornucopia. Roland walked up with Vivian.

  There were two guards at the gate, and they were surprised to see Roland and Vivian.

  They were even a little timid.

  They knew Vivian, and they knew Roland even better. Although on the surface, John Junior was the mayor, everyone in Hollevin knew that Roland was the real mayor of the city behind the scenes. Even the mayor’s wife and daughter often went to Roland’s manor; it would be strange if there was no knowledge of this fact. Although timid, at the thought of the large salary paid by Cornucopia, one of them still summoned up the courage to walk over, and said after bowing, “Honorable Mr. Roland, I’m glad you can come to Cornucopia. Our sub-branch chairman is receiving guests, could you wait in the waiting room for a moment?”


  “Okay.”


  Although Roland was a powerful man in the eyes of most people in Delpon, Roland himself had no such perception or self-awareness.

  He just felt that he had more resources at his disposal and that everyone was equal in terms of character.

  So he was willing to wait.

  Seeing that Roland was so easy to talk to, the guard was relieved and invited Roland into the waiting room.

  Then he left.

  Vivian sat beside Roland, a little uncomfortable, but Roland didn’t say anything, so she naturally didn’t make any comments.

  Not long after, a player walked in quickly.

  He opened the door to the waiting room, and when he saw Roland, he immediately reached out to shake hands with him and said with a smile, “Almighty Roland, it’s great to finally meet you. Your deeds are truly awesome. You are my idol.” This person was quite enthusiastic and seemed to admire Roland a lot.

  But Roland had been in this society for two or three years anyway, so how could he not see the other party’s business-like enthusiasm. Now he also smiled and said, “It’s nothing, it’s all nonsense, but your chairman is quite impressive, gathering up such a large force in such a short time.”


  “That’s right, our boss is also a capable man.” The player sat down and smiled. “Let me introduce myself. I’m Husso, the deputy chairman of Cornucopia and local branch chairman. Almighty Roland, are you here to do business with us?”