300 Iron Horses (2/2)

*Boom!*

Well, it wasn't really a big deal. Mages were quite well-versed in all sorts of magical traps. This magical seal was designed so that if it was forcefully broken through using magic, a magical keyboard with numbers 0-9 would appear, and the correct 20-digit password needed to be inputted within ten seconds. Even if you knew the password, you would need to have a high typing speed. Since mages were typically non-athletic, this would be quite difficult for them.

Alright, should I say that the mages were quite used to dealing with explosions in the process of their research? Or should I say that Jinya and the goblins had some moral boundaries after all? At the very least, the explosions caused by the breaking of the batteries' defenses weren't very powerful. Not a single mage died from these explosions.

But, from a certain standpoint, mages were truly rich. News soon started spreading that the ”Iron Horse #7” possessed small, portable batteries, and the rather expensive Iron Horses were sold out in just a single afternoon. And then…

During the entire night, explosions could be heard from all over the city. Before the skies even lightened, there was a long customer line of ”blackened individuals” standing in front of Thorn Garden, waiting for it to open so that they could purchase more Iron Horses.

Of course, once top-level archmages started taking an interest in this, the goblins' mechanisms wouldn't be able to obstruct them for long. It would only be a matter of time before they figured out this technology. However, this was a technology I was intending to sell to them anyways. By the time they figured the battery technology out, I would have made massive profits off the Iron Horses.

Meanwhile, for the mages that weren't researching how to take the Iron Horses apart, they naturally tried riding the motorcycles, using the Iron Horses as they were intended to be used. And soon, they discovered additional benefits.

”It's so steady! It's a lot steadier than a horse! And it's so quick!”

Long-distance traveling was considered an unpleasant task as most mages had below average Constitutions. In their eyes, this strange new invention was far more comfortable than a real horse, and it was a lot steadier as well. But if its only use was comfort, that wouldn't be all that important to them.

”I can actually cast magic while sitting on this!”

Total concentration was required for a mage to cast magic. It typically required a few seconds of blocking out the outside world. If a mage was riding a horse that jostled their body back and forth, it would be quite difficult for them to concentrate. The fact that these Iron Horses could be ridden so smoothly attracted many mages' attention.

Mages' biggest weakness was doubtlessly the fact that they themselves were typically quite slow. If a warrior was able to close the distance, increasing that distance between them would be incredibly troublesome. It would be no exaggeration to say that a mage's combat strength would be doubled if they were able to cast spells while moving at high speed.

However, even for combat mages that were specialists in practical combat, it would still be difficult for them to master casting spells while moving. They would only be able to cast spells at slow speeds. If they tried casting spells while riding in a horse-drawn carriage… with those wooden wheels and a lack of shock absorbers, anyone would be constantly jostled up and down. A single bump in the road could be the cause of a fatal magical backlash.

There was indeed one type of steed that was steady enough for mages to sit upon and easily cast spells from: dragons. However, those would be incredibly difficult to obtain…

And so, being able to cast spells while moving at a high speed was considered impractical. Yet the mages soon found out that it was quite easy to cast spells while sitting on the Iron Horse motorcycle or riding in its sidecar. Meanwhile, Thorn Garden's first advertisement for the Iron Horse was published, with the catchphrase being ”Make those muscleheads forever eat our dust.”

In order to prove the veracity of the advertisement's claim, the Four Elemental Swordcasters that came from the Northlands rode some of the Iron Horse motorcycles on the streets. They perfectly displayed the motorcycles' excellent shock-absorbing functions and the possibility of casting spells while moving at such high speeds.

After all, only mages knew what mages really wanted. This seemingly insignificant toy was actually a tool that could greatly increase mages' power and survivability when traveling outside.

That was how Iron Horse #7 became the first successful part of my plan in conquering the market in the Mage Country. Young people rapidly learned how to drive motorcycles and got rid of the training wheels that they considered useless. They even began racing each other on the streets, giving public order mages like Cher endless headaches. Meanwhile, the older mages spent money on hiring drivers so that they could enjoy the feeling in the wind from the motorcycles' sidecars.

In fact, ”Have you bought one yet?” and ”How many did you buy?” became a common greeting for the mages during this time. Meanwhile, Thorn Garden had an exceedingly long line forever waiting at the door.

And this was just the beginning. Two days later, the mages were almost at the level of fighting each other to buy Iron Horses. Since I made it a limited product where we would sell only one hundred Iron Horses per day, they would always be sold out on the same day despite the high price I set.

The most important part was that I made yet another new advertisement for Thorn Garden. It stated that in one month's time, Thorn Garden would only be accepting ”Justice Points” as payment for the Iron Horses in the future.

”Justice Points? I've heard about those—during the Gods' proclamations, right? They seem easy to obtain. But how am I supposed to get them so quickly? Doesn't this basically mean that the Iron Horses will only be sold for one month?”

This helped sell the Iron Horses even quicker than before. Those who successfully purchased Iron Horses showed them off on the streets, which only increased everyone's desire to purchase one. In fact, the archmages were willing to exchange their precious treasures to get on the reservation list. While I wasn't black-hearted enough to further increase the Iron Horses' price, I made a huge profit by simply selling reservation list positions for the right to purchase an Iron Horse.

This was quite the excellent sales tactic. The only type of products capable of competing in profitability with ”excellent quality and cheap” or ”fresh and interesting” would be ”limited edition, first come first served” and ”impossible to find in the future.”

Meanwhile, on the other hand of things, the huge increase in the number of motorcycle races on the streets made Cher, who represented both the police and public order mages, become greatly angered at both me and my products.

As I looked at the blue-haired girl before me puffing her cheeks in anger, I felt a headache as well. After all, if at all possible, I didn't want to antagonize this Mage Country governmental public security department.

I should mention that public security in the Cloud Tower was taken care of by two different departments. One was a more typical police station-like department for public security, while the other consisted of internal mage organizations' public order squadrons. While the police mages would take care of incidents both small and large, it was evident that normal executors of the law would be unable to reign in all the mages.

That was why the mage organizations' public order squadrons were in charge of internally policing the organization's member mages that crossed the line with criminal actions. Of course, since police mages and public order mages had similar tasks to begin with, many mages worked part-time in both departments. This was especially so since many public order mages had lots of free time when they didn't have any particular troublemaking mage that they needed to investigate.

Cher Allen, this female mage before me, was not only a member of the police mages but also one of the high-ranking public order officers in the Mystical Blade's internal public order division. She had nicknames given to her by others such as ”Iron Girl” and ”Iron Throat.” Alright then, when the word ”Iron” was used to describe a girl like her, it was evident that it wouldn't mean anything complimentary. She was evidently the icy and stubborn type, and, in a way, also showed how she was overly serious.

Every time I bailed my underlings out from her jail, I experienced her more and more severe lectures. Her original respect towards my status as an archmage had vanished, and whenever she looked at me, I felt like she was treating me as human scum. And whenever I successfully bailed my subordinates out, she would shout at me—just like how a passionate detective would shout in an old police story at the sly criminal—”I'll definitely find the evidence to put you in jail!”

Why did I mysteriously become the sly antagonist criminal!? Was I really someone who had a legendary face that attracted aggro [1]1 naturally and created crimes by simply existing?

Just as I was hesitating over what method I should use to fool the ”passionate detective” before me, the clamorous sounds of fighting rang out behind me, followed by a large explosion from the warehouse.

A new trouble had come looking for me.

Notes:

[1] ED/N: In an MMORPG, when you ”piss off” an NPC(non-player character) and it enters a combat state with your character. It is also an informal British word that means ”aggressive, violent behavior.”ED/N: In an MMORPG, when you ”piss off” an NPC(non-player character) and it enters a combat state with your character. It is also an informal British word that means ”aggressive, violent behavior.