The Cornflower Witch

Book 3: Chapter 69: The Path of the Future 5

One month later, the underground world of Asra District changed dramatically. The previously scattered small groups were conquered and absorbed by the two major headmen, brought into a unified governance system.

Regarding this situation, the local police did not stop it; instead, they turned a blind eye and tacitly allowed it.

If those fragmented small groups had remained, investigations into the numerous incidents would have been difficult, having to untangle the complex relationships. Now that everything was unified, they only needed to coordinate with the underground headmen to easily obtain results, cutting out many troublesome procedures.

"Lady Hedra, 'Spider Woman' wants to pay you a visit." Sitting in the tidy hall, Sylutia had just finished hearing reports from various sides when Four Fingers came over and whispered to ask.

"Spider Woman..." Sylutia recalled and considered that former headman.

"Yes. After your encounter with the Blood Clan attack, she was implicated and came under serious official scrutiny. Most of her forces were surrendered; lately she’s been cooped up in her mansion, afraid to show herself."

"However, she learned about you through certain channels and wants to request a meeting to gain your approval to return to business," Four Fingers explained her intention.

"I remember among the previous four major headmen, Vertical Eye primarily ran smuggling and identity forgery, while Spider Woman mainly dealt in human trafficking and operated brothels, right?"

"That's correct."

"Then refuse the meeting. I don't like people like that." Sylutia shook her head.Four Fingers wanted to mention that Spider Woman could still provide considerable benefits, but seeing Sylutia's expression, he knew the young lady had made her decision and would not change it easily.

"Then I'll go turn her down." He immediately shifted his tone.

Just as Four Fingers was about to leave the hall, Sylutia stopped him again.

"Tell her to give up certain ideas from now on, or else..." Sylutia wanted to say something threatening, but she wasn't very good at violent or terrifying phrasing.

"Do as you see fit." The girl sighed softly, feeling she still wasn’t ruthless enough at times.

"Rest assured, Lady Hedra, we understand your meaning." Four Fingers made a knowing gesture.

Isn't that what underground headmen do—warn, punish, and establish authority? If the person they faced weren't this black-haired girl, Four Fingers would be seen by the broad mass of laborers as someone hard to deal with, a name that carried terror and pressure.

Making those lawless beastmen obey relied not on grandmotherly lectures, but on bloody, brutal force. But now that Sylutia had improved many rules, their methods were somewhat softened.

A few days later, Spider Woman had to urgently sell off her properties in Asra District, then left this place she had occupied for decades with only a small retinue.

Rumors spread about her departure.

"Did you hear? Spider Woman was driven out overnight by Lady Hedra because she offended her."

"Really? But I heard a version that said Spider Woman went kneeling to beg Lady Hedra that day, only to be slapped a dozen times. She couldn't take it and ran off secretly."

"Oh, so that's how it was. That 'Black Griffin young lady' is no gentle softie. She used to slaughter many beastmen; I heard she personally cut off Fire Pig's arm. Fire Pig still respects her—shows how formidable she is."

"Of course. Now Four Fingers and Fire Pig are forced under her pressure to unite—can you imagine? They used to be mortal enemies; that they made peace means that 'the Black Griffin not to be trifled with' must be even more terrifying."

People don't always accept the truth. They prefer to believe that the one who absorbed Fire Pig and Four Fingers must be a colder, more powerful dark young lady, rather than a gentle, quiet girl.

"That said, ever since that young lady consolidated the two headmen’s forces, Asra District’s streets have indeed become much safer. The thefts and robberies we used to frequently encounter have decreased."

"It seems the chaotic phase is over, but she’ll eventually go to Tetis College. After she leaves, how long the peace lasts is anyone’s guess."

"She may be frightening, but having someone like her around is actually good for us."

Time flowed on, and Sylutia's time in Asra District dwindled to the last month.

With little time left before she departed, Sylutia traveled through Asra’s various neighborhoods, inspecting and recording local conditions.

These studies included, but were not limited to, the demographic composition, income levels, living conditions, interests and grievances, security situations, industrial facilities, and so on.

She collected and organized these materials, bound them into volumes, then further refined and integrated them. The many facets of Asra District gradually became clear before her.

This super academy area that accepts nearly seventy thousand people annually has a resident population of around half a million. How much food must be supplied each year, how many salaries paid to teachers and laborers, how many resources provided, and how many qualified Third Tier mages ultimately graduate—a large-scale educational system model gradually emerged.

Compared to the Hidden Grove Alliance's dispersed education system, a centralized training system greatly improves efficiency, reduces resource consumption, and with mass enrollment, it’s easier to find prodigies from a vast population base.

If the Hidden Grove Alliance still remained in the old handicraft workshop form, the Mage Alliance already had an industrial assembly line shape.

However, the Mage Alliance itself did not seem to have fully recognized the advantages of this system. Due to historical inertia, in non-core regions traditional kingdom systems remained, and many high-ranking mages came from those kingdoms. Although they became powerful Transcendents, their families and descendants did not necessarily share the same fate.

A kingdom’s noble system provides family members with privileged living conditions, so they need not toil like commoners. That is why the Mage Alliance has little willingness to fully promote this centralized model: even if it benefits the organization, individuals still wish to preserve the current dual-mode arrangement.

In Sylutia’s view, that model would reach its limit sooner or later.

The annual increase in Third Tier mages leads their families and descendants to expect noble privileges. The kingdom's carrying capacity is limited; these expanding noble groups who don't pay taxes will eventually cause the kingdom's finances to collapse.

The Mage Alliance isn't without countermeasures. The various schools' subordinate workshops bring considerable revenue to fill fiscal gaps. Besides, if tax shortfall became serious, the Mage Alliance might, under the instigation of radicals, begin external expansion and start wars.

This would not only gain vast new lands and resources, but also reduce the excess mage-nobility class.

As for the beastmen issue, beastmen clearly hold a lower status in the Mage Alliance. They are unsuited to the training and study model of mages, and cannot enter the Alliance's upper echelons. But compared to humans, beastmen are more hardy, and with fewer recognized rights, they can be paid lower wages to do labor. This results in many urban labor positions filled by beastmen.

Initially, beastmen accepted this treatment because they had no better options, but whether their descendants will willingly accept such differential treatment is the real question.

If beastmen refuse to accept it, then the beastman labor force embedded in every city becomes a latent instability. They will lie dormant while the Mage Alliance is strong, but once the Alliance faces challenges and declines, their pent-up resentment could erupt.

Transcendent humans are always a minority; the majority are ordinary people. It might take two or three ordinary people to overcome a single beastman. At that point, the large number of beastmen could become the spark that ignites a conflagration against the Mage Alliance.

This is the Mage Alliance's problem—and it will be the Hidden Grove Alliance's problem in the future. But the Hidden Grove Alliance is currently at a stage of relatively scattered independent groups without centralized authoritarian control, which keeps friction and conflict small in scope.

No wonder history shows that dynasties capable of unifying an entire continent are few. The earliest Blood Dynasty relied on the 'Blood Clan conversion' ritual to assimilate powerful Transcendents under its system, then used a feudal noble structure to control vast territories. Because the royal Blood Clan could suppress converted descendants by bloodline, their rule could sustain such a large structure.

Another example is the Golden Honey Dynasty. It was said the dynasty’s central region housed the golden sacred tree where a Corona Dragon’s insect moth Hours lived, bearing fruit that flowed with golden honey. Many nobles and lords of the Golden Honey Dynasty needed those Honey Fruits to enhance themselves and purify their bloodlines. The Paths they practiced were also controlled by the Hours, the Blissful Bee Queen, which bred exceptional loyalty.

The last example is the Sun Dynasty, the flourishing dynasty that still stands today. With the White Crown Dragon’s favor, the dynasty prospered, and the royal family that flowed with Dragon Blood naturally became rulers. Rather than saying the dynasty governed well, it was more that all parties submitted to the Corona Dragon’s might and therefore accepted the Sun Dynasty’s framework.

The Mage Alliance’s idea isn’t wrong. Perhaps only by cultivating a new Hours could the Fourth Continent truly be unified, enabling organizations and schools to pass down stably.

There are many ways to solve the problem. If Sylutia thought in terms of using her previous-life experience to solve social contradictions from the bottom up and build a well-structured organization, the Mage Alliance favored a top-down approach, using overwhelming power to suppress conflicts and construct a new prosperous dynasty.

Sitting at her desk, Sylutia wrote quickly by pen, recording her analyses and insights from this period, then reviewed them again.

When one only imagines these things in the mind, many details are easily overlooked. Once organized into concrete action steps and response strategies, many problems reveal themselves.

Looking at her analytical framework, the girl’s fingers lightly twitched the quill; the tip brushed her jaw, leaving a faintly rigid sensation.

After thinking for a while, Sylutia continued writing.

If one wants to bridge the relationship between beastmen and humans, what method would make them accept each other, see each other as brothers, and respect and unite?

Giving benefits and privileges? That may close the gap in the short term, but if benefits stop or decline, dissatisfaction will arise. Over time, one side may come to take those benefits for granted and feel no gratitude.

If there are no benefits, why should they unite? With such clear differences in appearance and form, they will not naturally think of each other as the same kind and will develop separation.

Sylutia leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes to ponder.

No wonder racial unity has always been a problem. Some extreme factions sought one-time solutions.

Use religion to solve it? Sylutia recalled the Silver Radiance Church. Meleranke calmed the Mad Crow Riot and by that saviorly feat united many groups around her, building a vast church organization. If not for the Golden Honey Dynasty’s interference and disruption, she might have naturally become an Hours of Luminous Moon.

"Hours," "Paths," and "Dynasties"—several distinct words somehow linked in a strange way, constructing a faint connection.

If, someday, she wanted to become a new Hours, how would she accomplish it? The thought surfaced in Sylutia’s mind, then slowly faded, buried in a corner.

The road is still long; she had only just begun.

Sylutia shook her head to clear those distant thoughts and began drafting complete organizational rules for Asra District’s underground world: how to evaluate and recruit people, how collected commissions should be distributed, how to ensure the framework’s longevity, and how to protect mutual interests so that the lowest-level laborers could regain a basic measure of dignity and safety net protection.

The current rules were certainly imperfect and would need continual validation and revision during implementation. She believed there would come a day when things gradually approached the world she hoped for; then her efforts would not have been in vain and she would feel peace and satisfaction.

Even if she obtained supreme freedom, wandering a bleak, decayed world would not be the same as strolling in a world where flowers bloomed. The experiences are entirely different.

She truly believed that only when her environment and world improved could she gain that peaceful tranquility; otherwise, so-called serenity would simply be another form of escaping reality.

Self, body-mind, and world—they are inseparable.

Dynasty, Path, and Hours—these three are likewise interconnected.