Chapter 621 – How Things Develop

“Yeah, just a moment ago I kept feeling like it wasn’t right to cause trouble for the Goblins over this, but letting it slide felt frustrating too. This way is just perfect.” Sylph and Lilith agreed.

“Of course it felt frustrating! Our reactions were all within the Goblins’ calculations. They didn’t leak the information early so we could prepare—they did it so we wouldn’t hold them accountable!”

Mo Lan sighed.

Witches were simply too reasonable. They would never make things difficult for others just because of some nagging feeling in their hearts.

This was precisely why the Goblins dared to spread the news about the Pyrotechnic Sorceress even though they knew it would offend the Witches.

Goblins made their money with their heads on the chopping block, but their belts were fastened very securely indeed!

Her companions were still too kind-hearted.

“Is that really how it is?” Vasida and the other two had a sudden realization, then said proudly, “But there’s no way they could have predicted that we also have a Goblin Sorceress who’s even better at scheming than the Goblins!”

Mo Lan pressed her palm to her forehead. “That accursed title—how do people still remember it after all these years!”

“Pfft!” Lilith said, “Soon that title will spread across all of Valen along with your announcement and the friendliness reward-and-punishment system.”

“…” Mo Lan protested indignantly, “When that time comes, shouldn’t everyone be calling me something like ‘Mistress of the Dawn Society, Rising Star of the Wilds, the Great Card Sorceress Moira’?”

Sylph looked at her with an expression of pity. “Moira, did you know? When I was in the Elven Woods, many members of the Dawn Society privately suspected that the Witch Script name on the contract was fake.

Pure-blooded Elves have always believed that Witches have integrity as noble as their own, and business acumen not much better than theirs either. The Dawn Society’s terrifying model of propaganda—spreading across all of Valen within just a few years and making every spellcaster dependent on it—didn’t seem like something a Witch could have come up with.

But the name was indeed written in Witch Script, which no one besides Witches could read, so it could only have come from a Witch. In the end, the Elves reached a conclusion…”

“What?” Mo Lan asked curiously.

“The Elves believe that the founder of the Dawn Society took a Goblin as a magical familiar, and that all the Dawn Society’s various rules and strategies were devised by the Goblin familiar.” Sylph said.

“…” Mo Lan said lifelessly, “To this day, I haven’t even seen a single real Goblin! The Elves’ imaginations are about to rival the energy vortex of the Well of the Sky!”

She was now genuinely worried about her reputation.

But no matter how worried she was, what needed to be done still needed to be done.

Thanks to the Goblins, the old BeastmanProphet’s prophecy had already spread across nearly all of Valen without the Prophet himself even knowing!

As she had expected, there was no movement from the Angels. On the Dragon side, only the lord of Delicacy Island, Krotack, was actively lobbying the Culinary Witches to weigh and upload their exclusive recipes using Knowledge Scales Cards. When he met resistance, he resorted to threats of “Anita can no longer protect you.” The other Dragons showed no signs of activity.

Only on the human side were there constant reports from Society members “tipping them off,” “casually” revealing things they had recently observed during chats with friends. Some said that all the grain cards on the market had been bought up by the Imperial Mage Council. Some said that the Academy had launched a new event exchanging Gem Coins for merit points, encouraging students to meditate more and accumulate psychic power to trade for Gem Coins. Some said that Grand Duke Clara, who was friendly with the Witches, had been secretly transferred to the Imperial Capital by the Council, and a new commander had been parachuted into the mage corps at the southern border of the Duchy of Lance. Some said they had seen large numbers of Acolyte contingents from the northern diocese assembling in the southern diocese. Some said that large batches of Preparatory Acolyte training class students had undergone their third blessing ahead of schedule and been promoted to Acolytes. And some said they had seen human mages in the Land of Chaos posting high-value bounties for warriors to venture into 《The Witch’s Wilds》.

There were quite a few cases of people privately changing their attitude toward the Witches around them due to the rumor that Lady Anita had fallen, and conflicts had even broken out because of it. But the only ones who truly had designs on the entire Wilds appeared to be the humans.

Both the Mage Empire and the Yala Empire had ideas about this fertile land to the south.

The Mage Empire’s nobles wanted to acquire new territories here, enough to establish duchies and kingdoms. The Yala Empire’s nobles wanted to raise more commoners on this land to cultivate more Acolytes.

Moreover, they had originally expended great effort to monopolize magical knowledge in order to maintain their ruling positions. After Mo Lan had taken all the magical knowledge she learned at the Imperial Magic Academy and put it up for public sale in the Dawn Society’s Card Shop in the form of Magic Cards and Knowledge Cards, their positions had become increasingly precarious.

In recent years, more and more talented commoner mages in the Mage Empire were no longer willing to sign exploitative contracts, selling their freedom to join noble Mage Towers in exchange for magical knowledge.

Even the commoners on the Yala Empire’s side had gradually grown suspicious of the Temple, thanks to the common-knowledge Knowledge Cards and one-time Magic Talent Appraisal Cards secretly distributed by Dawn Society members. Many commoners had begun secretly helping their children evade the Temple’s blessings and baptisms, using the Dawn Society to embark on the path of legitimate mages instead.

At a time like this, learning that the Witches’ most powerful protector, the Pyrotechnic Sorceress, had fallen, they would naturally want to take the blade to the Wilds.

Mo Lan had even seen Temple mages from the Yala Empire talking about finding the owner of the Dawn Society and secretly bringing the Dawn Society under the Temple’s control, converting all Dawn Society members into Temple followers. She had no idea where they got such confidence.

Little did they know that most of the commoner mages who relied on the cards in the Dawn Society’s Card Shop to acquire magical knowledge and resources had absolutely no desire to see anything happen to the Witches behind the Dawn Society.

After all, it was the Dawn Society that had broken the status quo of magical knowledge being controlled by the nobility, giving them a clear path of advancement where they could slowly accumulate resources simply by saving up Gem Coins on their own.

What the Dawn Society had given them was far more than what the Mage Empire or the Yala Empire ever had.

Their interests were now completely intertwined with the Dawn Society’s.

It was just that most of them either lacked exceptional talent or hadn’t yet had time to grow strong enough to openly oppose the top-tier nobles who controlled the majority of resources within the empires.

After all, the Dawn Society had only been in existence for a little over a decade. That was nowhere near enough time for a commoner mage to go from Apprentice all the way to Peak level—the level where one could command real influence—let alone beyond Peak level.

But they hadn’t sat idle either, finding all sorts of ways to secretly pass information to the Witches.

It was precisely because of these people that Mo Lan and the others had a much easier time gathering intelligence and keeping track of how the situation was developing.

Now that both the Mage Empire and the Yala Empire had begun making their moves, it was time for Mo Lan to release what she had prepared.