BXBX NOVEL Chapter 419: The Paper Country
After some verification, Benjamin felt that the identity of these people were quite likely, and they did not seem to be people with ulterior motives. Thus, Benjamin even prepared some space for them to take a break.
Of course, Benjamin took the opportunity during the preparation to know more about the ‘Tide of Beasts’ that they were mentioning.
These plains were populated by various wolf-like magical beasts. They could spit ice and fire, and they have become one of the characteristics of the plains. However, whenever they multiplied until a certain extent, they would fall into a crazed state and attack every living thing that lived in the fields in large groups. Thus, the people who lived in the plains named this phenomena as the ‘Tide of Beasts’.
After Benjamin understood what was happening, he no longer concerned himself too much with this. There are so many mages camping here. They could probably handle an airborne attack from a herd of griffins. Wolf-like beasts were not that much of a threat, really.
"Ah, don’t worry. We’re mages, and we’re not afraid of magical beasts, no matter how many of them came knocking." He told the group of people.
What he did not expect was the answer he got from the people.
"What..... Is a mage?"
Judging from their lost eyes, they probably never heard of the word ‘mage’, much less understanding the meaning behind the word.
Puzzled, Benjamin immediately asked, "Have you even left the fields in the years you lived here?"
"No, we haven’t." The tall man in the lead shook his head. "There are quite a few towns outside the fields that would trade with us regularly. We would exchange our beef and mutton with some groceries. Don’t belittle us, sir, we’re not totally sheltered from the outside world."
"..."
There was no other way. Benjamin used an Ice-Breaking Spell right in front of the crowd, and when they saw the ice arrows shooting out of Benjamin’s hand, the colour drained out of their faces and they immediately fell to their knees. They were mumbling something incomprehensible under their breaths, and they were mere centimeters away from worshipping Benjamin like a God.
At that moment, Benjamin realized that these people really did not have the concept of ‘magic’ and ‘mages’ in their minds.
How could this be?
This situation was way creepier than when they were in the Kingdom of Helius. There, even though no one really saw a mage before, everyone would still know the existence of mages and magic. However, in Carretas, or at least at the edges of the plains in Carretas, there was nothing about mages. No stories, no rumors, nothing. Benjamin could not comprehend this situation.
It was not like there was no mages in this country. The Mages Freemasonry even had a branch here, would it be possible for them to be so unnoticeable?
No matter how many questions he had, these few nomads who were running from the Tide of Beasts will not be able to provide him the answers. Benjamin took quite a long time to convince them that he was in fact neither a God nor a demon, but a mere human like them. In the process, Benjamin finally felt the advantages of accepting them into their camps - he gained a much deeper understanding towards Carretas as a country.
The atmosphere in this country.... How should he phrase this? It seemed to be quite.... arbitrary?
This may be due to the fact that the princess and the second prince who snatched up all the good land, and left a helpless first prince with the leftover pieces of land where he formed Carretas. After the country was formed, the first prince who became king seemed to be a person lacking ambition in the political department. He rarely issued political statements, nor did he care much about how the country was doing. As long as the taxes were collected properly, he could not be bothered to even know the current events in the country.
Benjamin sighed. That was the typical behavior of a child of the rich who was good-for-nothing.
Thankfully, no major tragedy had ever befallen Carretas since its founding, and the people still managed to survive. Or else, this country would probably fall into chaos in a blink of an eye.
All of the circumstances caused the people to only have a vague idea of the king. They had no idea how life was before the separation, and even the rebuilding of a country after the separation seemed to be nothing but a minor event. Essentially, their new broom completely skipped the phase of sweeping clean.
Hence, this country seemed to function under an ‘Actionless Governance’. Benjamin had no idea if this was a tactic for an easier takeover from the church, but at least the Carretas now still prohibits any missionary work, and the church was not out in the open yet.
Benjamin was just lost at the magic aspect of the situation.
"Great. Even the concept of magic was not known to the world here, how do you plan to start your job?" The System popped out of nowhere and asked excitedly, giddy at the turn of events.
"What are you so ecstatic for? This probably happens only in the suburbs that are far away from civilization," retorted Benjamin, "The kingdom separated only 10 years ago. It was impossible for the people here to be absolutely clueless about mages when the people from the other two countries practically lived with mages."
The System heard and was quiet for a moment. "Alright, I could not come up with a reply for that yet. We’re at a tie for now."
:...."
Benjamin shook his head, very put upon.
Although the situation was not as grim as what the System said, he must admit that judging from these graziers’ reaction, magic would be less of a thing among people as compared to the other two countries. He did not know if the church had a hand in it, but Benjamin felt that this might not be completely a bad thing.
This was just like praising an academically failing student to have ‘a very high potential’. To Benjamin, Carretas, which has the least understanding of magic, has the highest potential for it among all three countries. The opportunity for the people to come into contact with magic decreases if the distance between magic and the people increases; but at the same time, this meant that there would be a large number of magically gifted people, hidden in plain sight.
Benjamin’s rule of action was to let mages walk safely under the sun, proudly parading their abilities to the eyes of the public. Hence, this country was not only extremely suitable; it was basically a gold mine!
Benjamin felt his heart pounding in his ears as he heard of that. At that moment, he even used the water elemental sensing technique to sense the 30 graziers. Unexpectedly, he managed to find two that was gifted with magic!
Immediately, Benjamin stopped his sense and smiled, satisfied with the results. This was a good start!
Without hesitating, he exited his tent and came to the place where the people were resting. At the shocked looks of the two who was gifted with magic, he lightly tapped their shoulders.
"Young men, do you want to learn magic?"
These people were chewing on jerky around the fire they built. When they heard what Benjamin was saying, the two men turned around, their eyes bewildered. The jerky that was still stuffed in their mouths nearly fell to the ground, laced with saliva.
"What are you stunned for? Say something." Benjamin shook their shoulders. "Magic, yes, the skill that could let you wield fire balls and wind blades like the magical beasts. Do you want to learn that?"
The two of them only snapped into reality when the jerky in their mouths dropped to the ground from the trembling.
"C-can we learn it....?" They asked in disbelief.
Benjamin nodded. "Of course. I just checked, and only two of you were gifted among all of these people. This is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so are you interested or not?"
The two practically leaped to their feet as the shouted, "I, I want to!"
With a wave, Benjamin comforted their emotions. "Calm down. As long as you’re gifted, you will come into contact with magic eventually."
The two people still seemed confused, but their excitement would probably lead them to agree at anything and everything that Benjamin says at this moment.
"Okay! As long as sir is willing to teach us, we will be willing to do anything!"
Benjamin was very satisfied with their enthusiasm. He nodded like a master, and the only thing he lacked was a beard to match that look.
Of course, he did lie a small bit to lure this two onto this pirate ship. It was that statement that it was an ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’.
As long as Benjamin was around, more chances like these would come for Carretas in the future.