In his 20 years of experience in running a successful newspaper business, this was the most excited Magnus had ever been.
In his hands was a trinket that he had paid his entire life savings for.
In the Black Raven Kingdom, his office was located in a remote street in the capital which almost no one frequented. Still, because he had always kept his costs low while only publishing the most interesting news, the sales of his newspaper had allowed him to lead a comfortable life while also saving quite a bit of money due to his frugal nature.
Yet, all that had gone into the trash with the advent of the Network of Angaria.
People no longer wanted to buy newspapers daily to read the local news when there was such a convenient one-time payment method to find out about everything happening throughout the Kingdom.
Besides, whoever was the one heading the Network was definitely a genius. Each and every program, be it the audio skits that were often hilarious or the story narration that many who liked hearing to bards tuned in to, was geared toward a large subset of the audience, meaning that there was always something for everyone.
In other words, he had been on the verge of bankruptcy, even though he knew that he could take money out of his own pocket to make more newspapers.
Yet, who would buy them except the limited few who still wanted to feel parchment in their hands while finding out about the news?
So, Magnus had been prepared to close down his business and look into investing everything he had saved, which was quite a hefty amount, into another business.
Yet, yesterday morning, he had received earth-shattering news from the professional spy whom he had placed in Lanthanor.
After all, the Network was placed in Lanthanor, so he had been hoping that he might obtain important news from the spy about some method with which he could rejuvenate his business.
Never could he have expected that this would pay off in ways that made him wonder whether he was dreaming.
The spy had managed to unearth a very important report, which he claimed would make Magnus one of the richest people in the entire continent. In fact, he had also claimed that he was tempted to sell it to others, but he had no option but to give it to him first because of the oath that had been sworn between them.
Yes, Magnus was also a Mage, albeit just an Amateur one who hadn't been able to progress. Unwilling to enter a dangerous life in the army, he had set up the business which he had hoped would tide him over for his whole life.
The spy was so sure about this piece of news that he had threatened that he would rather not earn anything from it if Magnus didn't agree to the rise in price. Their oath had only been that the spy would give the news to only Magnus, and not to the competitors who might also benefit.
So, Magnus had agreed, forking out his entire fortune and placing it on the table to the side before inviting the spy over.
While the spy bent over his shoulder and waited to see the expression of satisfaction on Magnus's face, the latter unfurled the parchment and went through everything that had been recorded on it.
Each and every word hit him like a blow in the stomach, making his eyes water with excitement as he couldn't believe what he was reading. He even had to wipe them hard to make sure that he wasn't dreaming.
The Network of Angaria…was going to undergo such a tremendous improvement that small businesses like his would soon become completely moot. It would be different if they could afford to place people in all Kingdoms to obtain intercontinental news instead of just local, but because no one was that wealthy or had that kind of power, they would definitely be phased out when this update went live.
After all, who would want to read a boring parchment about just local news when they could watch someone talk about it and even show certain images that would make them feel as if they were at the scene?
Besides, nothing even needed to be said about the entertainment factor. All he could do with his paper to entertain people was write a few jokes which few laughed to. On the other hand, this new Network would have live-action plays for them to watch! Comedy, action, romance, mystery- no matter what genre one liked, they would be able to watch things related to it with the press of a button!
This seemed too fantastic to be true, but Magnus trusted that if anyone could pull it off, then it would be Lanthanor, which was home to such innovative and grandly successfully schemes such as the Bank of Angaria.
And to think that he now had a method to take part in that initiative, with them being unable to even do anything about it!
Yes! This was his opportunity!
But…if he was bankrupt, how would he bankroll the plan to capitalize on this opportunity?
"I told you it would be worth the money, right? I'm amazed that I even obtained it. It was sheer luck, but also hard work. You know that Lanthanor is out of Mages, right? So this thing was being transported by an overworked Fighter who knelt over and fainted near me while holding the scroll. I saw that it looked important, so I made a copy of it before placing it back where I found it! No one will know! Heh, I bet you're glad that you employed me-….kkkggghhghh!"
The last word coming from the spy's mouth had been cut off due to the fact that his head had just been separated from his body.
He was just an Amateur Fighter adept at concealing himself, so he had no way to detect the invisible wind blade that Magnus had conjured with great difficulty behind the spy's neck.
Even while his head rolled on the floor in his own blood, the last thing that appeared was a dumbfounded expression, as if the spy couldn't believe that someone who looked as innocent as Magnus, who was just a bald, thin, hunched over old man with a beard, could be capable of such a feat.
Yet, the last moment before he closed his eyes forever, he saw a man step out of the space behind this treacherous old guy who had a smile on his face on seeing the lifeless body of the man who had almost taken away his entire fortune.
Magnus felt the presence of someone behind him, too, but when he turned around, there was no one there.
Shrugging, he got back to the parchment.
Bringing up some estimates, Magnus realized that the amount of money he had wouldn't be enough to enlist an Enchanter to make what he wanted. So, it looked like he would have to take a loan.
Initially, he was going to just take some money from the local moneylender, but an idea appeared in his mind out of nowhere.
It was almost as if someone had whispered it into his ear, but as it appeared in his own mind, he didn't doubt that it was his own.
What he was going to do would make Lanthanor very, very unhappy. He was looking forward to that, as they were the reason behind his decline in business.
Yet, he wanted to make that revenge feel even better.
What if…the money to bankroll this plan of his came from them, too?
Sure, they would earn interest on it, but wouldn't the fact that they had given the money in the first place make their faces burn?
Yes, it would feel so good to see that!
"Bank of Angaria, here I come!", he muttered under his breath, before getting up and leaving the room after locking the door carefully.
Even though it looked like there was only a severed head and a lifeless body in the room, a chuckle soon echoed inside, before it disappeared along with the man who had been standing in a corner while watching everything.
Of course, this was Daneel, and he was truly amused that the first 'competitor' was actually going to take money from his Bank, thereby letting him earn more money.
It was the work of the Mind Control spell he had just placed on the man, but he still had to admit that it was pretty funny.
Straightening his back, Daneel made his way to his next stop, where another 'competitor' was waiting.
An hour or so later, with this task done, he had accomplished two things: one, there were going to be multiple competitors from various areas which would make it look authentic, and two, the Bank of Angaria was soon going to give out a few massive loans that would earn it a lot of money.
All in all, it was a win-win situation for him.
Reaching Eldinor, Daneel took a peek into the warehouses where thousands of Enchanters were hard at work making display trinket after display trinket.
From time to time, many of them would glance at someone particular near them, who was designated as the one to 'lead' them as he or she had proven themselves to be more talented than the rest.
The rule had been laid down that if someone beat their time, then they would take their place.
This was the best motivation for these elves. Unwilling to be under someone who had been their equal until recently, they pushed themselves to work as fast as possible to make more and more portable display trinkets as per the King of Lanthanor's design in as less time as possible.
As Daneel saw the frenzy with which each of them was working, he thought to himself that, maybe, this plan of his to motivate them was going a bit too well.
If he didn't step in, he was afraid that all of them would burn themselves out, which wasn't a good thing at all.
So, putting in place a few countermeasures that would mandate the elves to take periodic rests on a compulsory basis, Daneel made his way to Lanthanor, where he dropping in on Eloise who showed him the grand project that she had embarked on.
Her chest was puffed up with pride, and he had to admit that she was doing a phenomenal job.
The entirety of the underground tunnels of the Lanthanor Kingdom which spanned over hundreds of kilometers were being remapped and repurposed with a very important goal in mind: to make a place which was conducive to recording all sorts of programs that would soon regale the entire continent.
Daneel had been tempted to name it "Hollywood", but he had resisted, knowing that it would make no sense whatsoever.
So, he had left the naming to Eloise, who did a pretty good job.
She named it "Fantasyland" as, in her words, this was a place where the fantasies of everyone in Angaria would take place.
Seeing that everything was progressing smoothly, Daneel made his way to his quarters.
There was still quite a bit of time until the trinkets would get ready to be distributed, and he had already set in progress a plan to market them in as effective a way as possible.
So, for the moment, he was free.
The Kingdom of Arafell came to his mind once again, as he had been ruminating upon it for the past few days.
Again and again, he had been asking himself whether he should take the risk and just go talk to the Queen without Drakos. After all, he had promised her a visit, and she wasn't aware that he wasn't just a normal King.
Finally, after being reminded of the last time when he had decided to play safe, Daneel decided that just a visit, where he would try to unearth things discreetly with just the system, wouldn't be too much of a life-threatening risk.
So, acting decisively, he sent a message to the Queen, who replied right away with much enthusiasm, which did seem a bit suspicious.
Still, pushing that suspicion aside while humorously thinking that she probably just wanted to meet him again so eagerly because she missed him, Daneel gave the orders to publicize the visit, as he wanted to give himself as many methods of safety as possible.
Drakos just told him to be careful, before entering his stone pedestral again.
So, the next day, Daneel found himself at the border of the Kingdom of Arafell, where he had turned back due to that shocking discovery just a few days ago.
Taking a deep breath, he readied himself to finally pry into the mysteries that surrounded this Kingdom of Giants.
....
Final details of contest:
Theme: WDS Spinoff - can be anything related to the events/characters of this book
Submission: Mail to [email protected]
Last Date: 30th March 2019
Prizes: 1200 SS
Minimum Word Count: 500
Method of deciding winner: Voting
If you have any questions, please ask in the comments!