Chapter 12: Southern District Commercial Street

Chapter 12: Southern District Commercial Street

On the way, Louis and Helen sat on a magic carpet, constantly moving through the magic castle. Everything he saw along the road felt very novel to Louis.

It looked like a world from the 17th-18th century, but many paintings on the walls were in a surrealist style, and there were even some in Picasso’s style.

The lamps here were large and beautiful, but they didn’t seem to use electricity. Instead, they used a magical creature called a ‘Filament Worm’.

Louis also saw those old-fashioned antique telephone booths.

Many students were lining up in front of the phone booths, calling to report this year’s exam results, preparing to go home for summer vacation.

Near some spiral staircases and corridors, students could be seen standing before the railings, changing out of their wizard robes into tailcoats, shirts, and the like. They seemed eager to go home already.

This made Louis curious about what transportation these people used to get home. There seemed to be some magic fireplaces in the academy, but the transportation methods probably weren’t limited to just those.

Maybe there were trains.

Soon, the magic carpet began to fly higher, heading towards a large ‘window’ suspended in mid-air. Looking carefully, it turned out to be a portal.

After entering, it was an area surrounded by many tall buildings. These buildings looked like little five or six-story Western-style houses, but they were all Gothic. In the farther distance, many towering high towers could be seen, as well as floating islands suspended in the air.

Holy Oak Academy could be considered an Academy City. Each of its college districts connected to a small town, with a permanent population reaching over 70,000 people. Including foreign races and international visitors, the number exceeded two hundred thousand.

These people were basically all wizards, or at least Squibs. But their skill levels varied greatly; most probably only knew some everyday magic spells.

The street underfoot looked somewhat like a commercial district, one of the more bustling areas in the Academy City.

Many shops could be seen here, the roads were crowded with people, and many people wearing top hats and monocles could be seen. They were leading some children, probably parents who came to pick up their students.

Here, Louis also saw many Faeries, and people dressed in very exotic styles. There were even some three-meter-tall giants, and some small magical creatures that wizards carried like pets.

Louis also saw some Red Dragon hatchlings; they looked like some people’s pets. Those people were sometimes wizards. Others were dressed very strangely – they had very tall decorations on their heads, looking like they were wearing a pair of horns covered in ornaments.

This should be the Southern District.

Although Louis had never been to this famous Southern District, he heard from Helen that it not only had many foreign orc visitors but also magical creatures, dragonkind, and Faeries. This area was mainly responsible for cooperating with the Ministry of Magic to receive all sorts of strange people and handle all sorts of strange matters.

However, Louis didn’t see any ‘orcs’ on the street. Instead, the people on the street were all very handsome and young-looking. This struck him as a bit odd.

Soon, the two stopped at a small square with a little fountain. Helen tossed the magic carpet a beautiful little silver coin.

This little silver coin was engraved with a small raccoon-like head portrait. That was a Yordle, and this kind of small silver coin was called a Silver Yordel.

After the magic carpet caught that Silver Yordel, it actually bowed respectfully and even danced a little.

It seemed this one Silver Yordel was a decent tip. Its purchasing power was probably equivalent to 20-50 yuan.

Helen didn’t seem to care about this pocket money at all, after all, her father ‘Duke Oren’, excluding sea trade and commercial income, just the income from his domains amounted to 50,000 Gold Galleons per year!

So Helen was a genuine little rich girl. And her cousin Ocris was the big rich one.

Helen pulled Louis along to browse around. The commercial street had many fortune-telling shops and mystery houses. The entrances of these mystery houses usually also had some stalls selling all kinds of strange little trinkets, mostly entertainment items, and also books.

The main customers of these shops were lower-grade children or couples, and the like.

Helen bought a newly published Potioneering book by the famous master potioneer, Professor ‘Dylan’. Louis saw her toss the shopkeeper seven delicate, small gold coins. The shopkeeper gave Helen a few large, exquisite silver coins with a humanoid fox head portrait, and some Silver Yordels.

Those gold coins had a dragoness pattern and were named Gold Galleons. One such gold coin weighed about 4-5 grams. It wasn’t pure gold. Louis estimated its value was around one thousand. The silver fox coins should have purchasing power equivalent to 100-200 yuan.

The value of one book reached 7 Gold Galleons. It seemed books were very expensive in this world.

“Your Highness Helen, would you like to look at anything else?” The shopkeeper seemed to know Helen. He hadn’t seen anyone pay with gold coins in a long time; generally, everyone gave checks.

The shopkeeper introduced some Wands and some Magical Artifacts. Many young wizards who had just graduated, like Louis and them, liked these things.

Those Wands were all very exquisite and beautiful. The cheapest was the kind Louis had in his hand; 2 Gold Galleons could buy a small bundle. Better ones cost 6 or 7 Gold Galleons and had a higher mana capacity. They could release more powerful magic spells.

However, these Wands were things for ordinary wizards. The really valuable Wands all cost over 20 Gold Galleons. They could reduce mana consumption, could be used to block some weaker magic spells, and usually came with some small spells of their own.

They were basically like little handguns.

“Sir, you have a good eye. This oak Wand in your hand is made from a new sprout of the Sacred Oak. The core is unicorn tail hair. Using it not only makes magic spells stronger, but it also comes with a ‘Magic Missile’.”

The shopkeeper boasted, “Look at this mana gem embedded in the handle. It’s enough to let it fire thirty missiles, which could turn a werewolf into a sieve! Much more powerful than the Muggles’ firearms.”

“What happens after it’s used up?” Louis asked curiously. “Can these mana gems be reused?”

“Of course!” The shopkeeper pointed to a person-head-sized, floating prismatic crystal in the shop. “You can spend a little money here to recharge it. Of course, if you are a professor, you can freely use the Crystal Arrays in the wizard towers as well.”

After hearing the price, Louis tossed that Wand back to the shopkeeper. Over three hundred Gold Galleons; he couldn’t afford it.

There were plenty of Wands like this, but most buyers were only one of two kinds of people: very rich Squibs, or super rich wizards.

In short, all very rich people.

As for those Magical Artifacts, there was also a wide variety, but most were low-tier Artifacts. The entire shop only had two mid-tier Magical Artifacts, which were treated as prized possessions.

Although most were low-tier Artifacts, their prices were all over one hundred Gold Galleons.

Although very expensive, new wizards treated them as treasures. According to the shopkeeper, even a Squib, if they had an Artifact on them, could act as a part-time Monster Hunter while traveling abroad, dealing with those werewolves and Vampires.

As for magic treasures — they were all legends.

“Are you sure you don’t want to change your Wand, Louis?” Helen asked.

“I’ll wait until payday,” Louis said, feeling his pocket. Currently, his assets were only a few Silver Yordels.

After browsing for a while, Helen took Louis to a beautiful restaurant called ‘Magic Cat’. The two sat at an outside table and ate a magic feast.

This lunch included beef, fish, bread, black tea, and pizza. Although there weren’t many dishes, they were all exquisite and beautiful. And they could restore mana. After eating, Louis felt his whole body become full of energy.

This meal didn’t seem cheap; it cost nearly a full Gold Galleon. Naturally, Helen paid.

‘Could it be that until I get paid, I’ll have to sponge off Helen? Always spending a little girl’s money, makes it seem like I’m a freeloader.’

Louis became eager for his own salary.

While resting and drinking tea, a small bracelet on Helen’s wrist lit up. The bracelet had a few white teeth from a thunder beast and a thumb-sized Crystal Ball. Inside the Crystal Ball, the image of Ocris was appearing.

It seemed Ocris had already gone to the Ministry of Magic office at Holy Oak. After communicating a bit, Helen hailed a pretty little carriage by the roadside. The two rode the carriage together to the Tower where the Ministry of Magic was located.

“Our future jobs at the Ministry of Magic, the pay isn’t low, right?” Louis asked curiously.

“Hmm…” Helen tapped her cheek with her finger, thinking. “For temporary workers, it’s about two or three Gold Galleons a month.”

Louis opened his mouth, shocked by his own salary.

He remembered academy professors had monthly salaries of 50 Gold Galleons or more!

But what made his jaw drop even more were the ‘sexy female orcs’ over at the Ministry of Magic.

…

This book’s power system is a bit similar to Harry Potter: there are no level divisions, and wizards have their own government.

But the plot is completely unrelated; it is not a fanfiction.

Also, the era background is a ‘steam era’, similar to the period between ‘Victoria’ and ‘the late 19th century’.