IRM Chapter 88

Bard felt this young fellow’s brain might have some issues somewhere. Suppressing his temper, he looked at Ji Chi with doubt. “Can he really do it? You still don’t understand the engineer competition. In this competition, the individual ability level of engineers isn’t the most important thing—the philosophy and coordination among the four engineers is what’s key.”

Though Bard was speaking to Ji Chi, his gaze was seriously scrutinizing Linton. “You must remember, whether it’s the engineer competition or future profession team formation at the Combat Academy, the excellence of a team absolutely doesn’t lie in numbers. One wrong gear will destroy all your hard work.”

This was his tactful way of refusing Linton.

The moment Bard decided to participate in the competition, he never intended to let extra people join. In his view, Ji Chi and Chloe were both sufficiently excellent children. Although three people would be very pressed for time, with his rich experience controlling things, winning the championship wasn’t impossible.

Linton stared blankly at Bard, then suddenly shuffled forward on his knees before Bard, looking him in the eye at the same level, his eyes carrying several parts pleading. “Master Borg! Please, please let me join your team! I guarantee I’ll definitely follow your orders, as long as… as long as you let me follow you!”

Bard stepped aside, gently shaking his head. “Sorry, child. Orders aren’t important. I don’t know you, and our philosophies may not align.”

Linton panicked, beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he said urgently, “No! You’ve always been my philosophy, the direction guiding me forward… Oh! Right, that’s right! You can look at my work, please just look at my work once! You once said that a work is the mirror of a person’s soul!”

Linton lowered his head, frantically rummaging through the magic bag at his waist.

He had bought himself the cheapest magic bag, with cramped and messy space inside. After searching for a long time, he finally pulled out a silver wand.

Still kneeling on the ground, Linton held it up with both hands, presenting it before Bard, his gray eyes full of devotion. “This is my first work. After reading your notes and based on your understanding of hope, I created this Dawn wand…”

“At the time, I didn’t have the gold coins to buy dawn wood, so I used white wood as a substitute. But the magic patterns on it were carved with hope filling my heart. I’ve always fantasized that one day I could show it to you, wanted you to know that there was a person trapped in the mire who, because of you, obtained hope like the dawn.”

Bard stared blankly at the wand, his wrinkled hands slowly rising to accept it.

This Dawn wand was extremely crude—inferior materials, immature craftsmanship, and because of unfamiliarity with magic patterns, several places were even carved incorrectly.

Forget superior performance—if this wand were used for attacks, the magic ball would most likely bounce back into one’s own face.

Bard couldn’t help but laugh. This work could definitely be considered an engineer’s lifelong embarrassment. For this child to dare take it out truly required great sincerity and courage.

On the other hand, Bard’s features softened. If Evan were here, he would discover it was extremely similar to the Dawn wand in his own hands. This similarity wasn’t consistency in shape or patterns, but in the emotions it contained.

A gentle smile flickered in Bard’s eyes as his aged hands meticulously and slowly stroked the wand.

Ji Chi and Linton noticed Bard’s expression and both quietly breathed a sigh of relief. This could already be considered accepting him…

Suddenly, Bard’s brow furrowed deeply. He had felt a shallow carved mark at the tail end of the wand—a crooked, twisted symbol.

Seeing this, Linton scratched his head with an embarrassed smile. “This is what the apple tree looked like at my family’s doorway when I was small. I didn’t think much of it at the time and subconsciously used it as my mark. Now I’m used to it and can’t change it.”

Engineers with any degree of fame would carve their own special mark on their works, like an engraved brand, proudly accepting others’ admiration.

“Master Nate?” Bard recognized this mark and asked with ambiguous meaning.

“Ah, yes, that’s me. That was my mother’s original surname. She was…”

Before Linton could finish, Bard threw the wand back.

The light wand bounced in Linton’s palm a few times before he caught it in a flurry.

Bard ignored his uncomprehending gaze, turning around without even looking at him. “Go out. With your strength, joining a strong team won’t be difficult.”

Hurt appeared in Linton’s eyes as he asked in a hoarse voice, softly. “Why…”

Bard sneered. “With Master Nate’s strength, you only need to say the word and plenty of nobles will provide money and effort to invite you. Why force yourself to be ordered around by an old man?”

Master Nate was a young master who had recently risen to fame in the royal city. His works were creative, bold yet steady, and very popular with the empire’s upper-class nobles.

This master was very low-key and didn’t appear much, but was extraordinarily greedy for money. As long as the price was generous, any conditions could be discussed. The works he refined sold very well in noble circles.

Ji Chi suddenly understood the reason for Bard’s sudden change of expression. His former student Antoine had also used this method to gain fame and amass wealth.

Ji Chi understood Bard’s “once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of ropes” mentality, but this wasn’t a standard by which he should easily deny a person.

His expression also darkened slightly. “Bard, you shouldn’t vent your own fears on others. Linton isn’t that kind of person.”

Bard looked deeply at Ji Chi. “And how long have you known him? How can you be certain what kind of person he is? I taught Antoine for a full thirty years! Wasn’t it only when everything was too late that I saw what kind of person he truly was!”

“Then how long have we known each other? How long have you known Chloe? Only people who don’t lack money can make you lower your guard?” Ji Chi frowned and retorted. “Amassing wealth is never behavior worth being wary of! The process and purpose of amassing wealth is what matters!”

As Ji Chi spoke, he suddenly crossed his arms and smiled with a raised lip. “Oh, I almost forgot—you’ve been frantically making money recently too, after all you still owe me seven million…”

Bard’s eyes widened, unable to refute. His face turned blue then white as he grumbled and cursed under his breath.

“Yes, I do really like gold coins, very, very much.” Linton seemed not to have heard their argument. He sat calmly kneeling there, both hands tightly gripping the wand. “This feeling will never fade, because it’s already become my instinct.”

Linton laughed lightly and looked up at Ji Chi. “Do you remember what I said when I first met you? I didn’t lie to you. My mother truly did have a very serious illness, my brother truly was severely injured, and my sister… truly was hungry for a very long time. And those three lives could all be bought with just one gold coin! How could I not want it!”

By the end, Linton was almost roaring, his eyes reddening, his back arching into a tense curve. “But I didn’t have it… I desperately tried to earn it, but it was still too late. I couldn’t afford them…”

“From then on, I’ve always been short one gold coin in my hands, and that’s also my motivation to keep living.” After Linton finished, he slowly pushed himself up, closed his eyes to calm himself, carefully put the wand back in his magic bag, and bowed to Bard. “Sorry, I can’t change this. I was presumptuous today.”

Bard pressed his lips tightly together. He was still quite soft-hearted toward children from difficult common backgrounds, but he was truly afraid of encountering another Antoine. Two intense emotions tore at each other in his heart.

Ji Chi closed his eyes and asked softly. “Then how many lives have you bought now?”

Linton paused, turned to look into Ji Chi’s eyes, and immediately understood everything. He smiled, with a touch of pride. “Three hundred and twelve. I also met a very good person—half of those were saved by him. I just provided the gold coins.”

Ji Chi nodded. “That’s good. Your family members must have come with them to visit you. All told, it must be over a hundred times by now.”

Linton grinned. “Yes, but it’s not enough. I want to save more money so they can come keep me company more often.”

Chloe kept turning her head to look at the two of them. This was the first time she’d encountered such complex emotions. After a long time, she still couldn’t determine whether their faces showed joy or sorrow.

She simply stopped thinking about it and tilted her head. “Does Linton lack gold coins? Chloe can give you gold coins.”

As she spoke, she reached to pull at her belly again, but Bard held her back.

Bard sighed deeply and slowly turned away. “Sorry, I was stubborn. I hope you can always hold true to your heart… Follow me, everyone. We don’t have much time left.”

The smile froze at the corner of Linton’s mouth, his eyes gradually filling with disbelief and delight.

When Ji Chi passed by, he patted Linton’s shoulder and followed Bard, saying to him in a low voice. “Don’t worry, you won’t regret it. It might even be a pleasant surprise.”

Bard snorted heavily. “I’d rather not have any surprises—the last surprise nearly cost me half my life.”

Ji Chi knew he was talking about the grimoire incident and laughed. “Sorry, sorry. I should have given a more direct warning. To make amends, you don’t need to repay the seven million gold coins.”

Bard turned his head away with great principle. “No! I keep my word. Are you mocking me for not being able to pay it back!”

Ji Chi chuckled and muttered under his breath, “How could a bleeding heart ever save up money…”

Bard’s wand shop had become very different from before due to Chloe’s addition. The originally cramped space had been expanded considerably, carelessly discarded manuscript parts were neatly piled in one corner, and the simple, bare interior had also been decorated with many curious little toys.

Chloe sat on her own little soft stool, habitually reaching over to Bard’s workbench to grab a black-haired, black-eyed puppet and hugging it to her chest.

Bard brewed several cups of rich, fragrant flower tea and handed them out. Chloe took one cup and held it in her palm, sniffing it carefully without drinking.

Linton didn’t notice Chloe’s unusual behavior. All his attention was now on Bard. He drained the tea in just a few gulps, placed his hands properly on his knees, his gray eyes exceptionally bright.

Bard turned and took a pale yellow sheet of draft paper from the workbench, spread it on the low table before them, and picked up a quill pen. The golden nib made scratching sounds on the paper. “I once participated in the engineer competition with two students and also won the championship. At that time, the competition wasn’t on such a large scale and the rewards were quite ordinary. It was mainly to train those two…”

Bard realized his memories had wandered and coughed once before continuing. “But over all these years, the competition rules haven’t changed much.”

“This competition has three rounds of selection. The first is selection of design drawings. Participating teams must submit design drawings within the specified time. The drawings are evaluated together by engineers from various imperial engineer academies, which will eliminate unqualified participants.”

“The second selection begins scoring. Participants need to bring materials and complete the production of their design drawings on the competition field. Finally, specially invited master engineers will evaluate them. Starting from this selection, scoring will be tallied and combined into the final score.”

“The last selection gives participating works an opportunity for improvement. That year during our second selection, we could only rank third. But at the last moment, Fi… my student suddenly thought of an ingenious improvement method, which allowed us to seize the championship in one stroke. It was truly thrilling.”

Thinking of that heart-stopping moment, a trace of a smile flowed through Bard’s eyes before he quickly restrained it. “That’s the general process. There are no specific evaluation standards for competition equipment, but what’s most worth noting is quality and creativity.”

“However, in today’s increasingly grand competitions, high-quality equipment is no longer scarce. What’s most important is testing whether engineers can create brand new items.” Bard spoke lightly, looking up at the three youths before him. “Do you have any ideas?”