NOVEL WEB Chapter 36: Famous Throughout The Empire
Aileen had become a celebrity overnight.
Her name had caused a sensation in Felix. She was famous in Willis City and throughout the whole Queville Empire!
The mage apprentices in Felix were envious of her becoming Ajaf's assistant and even more jealous that Ajaf had destroyed the plantation and taught a mage instructor a lesson on her behalf.
The residents of Willis City were shocked by Ajaf's power and the terrifying combat potential of the lava giant and the mountain giant!
As for the rest of the Queville Empire's citizens, they were more concerned about the non-toxic mallow and hence, they took notice of Aileen.
Even though the scene of Ajaf thrashing the plantation was horrifying, most of the peasants found it difficult to imagine how huge and scary a 30-meter-tall giant was through mere words, because they had never left the mountains!
That was a world that had nothing to do with them.
It was a world that existed in their chitchat—
A world that only existed in their dreams.
After the bizarre Internet scroll disappeared, they would still have to face their lives in poverty.
They were grateful about the light and power that the Internet brought to them, but still, they would need time to grow and prosper.
The limited lands wouldn't suddenly increase because they had become a little stronger.
The heavy taxes wouldn't decrease because they had become a little stronger, either.
Although their future was infinitely bright, their current situation was still very difficult.
Winter was coming.
They could only continue to pursue the light, magic and that mesmerizing world after they managed to survive.
Aileen's mallow naturally became the object of many people's attention.
…
Aileen didn't expect she would become famous overnight.
Receiving the purple snow wood magic wand as a reward out of the blue had already made her the target of many mage apprentices' envy.
But that envy was only a drop in the bucket compared to the attention she was receiving at the moment.
She had become Felix's person of the hour!
Everyone knew that she was the summoning magic mage instructor (or grand mage instructor) Lord Ajaf's favorite.
Suddenly, the number of her friends increased.
Many of her friends, whom she once knew when she first enrolled into the school and then slowly drifted apart, suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
At first, they only said hi as they bumped into one another at the dormitory's entrance.
Then, they began directly going to her dorm to visit her.
They either went to share with her the special magic seeds they had discovered…
Or they asked her to help them cultivate their magical plants. Of course, they also gave her valuable gifts to thank her for her help.
Aileen would soon realize something was going on with all those unusual actions.
All those interpersonal relations that appeared out of nowhere had completely interrupted her pace of life.
What made her even more embarrassed was—there were members of the opposite sex suddenly pursuing her.
Furthermore, there were more than one suitor and one of them was even a noble—the grandson of the late mage instructor Ferro Lang, Reddy Lang.
Her reality was full of disturbances and the Internet was even more exciting.
Just by turning on the Internet, there would definitely be a topic about her in all the big forums' top posts.
Her identity had been exposed.
Everyone found out that she had originated from a family of peasants and that she had been sent to the orphanage after her mother passed away. While she was there, the director of the orphanage—a mage apprentice—had helped her get in touch with meditation because of her diligence, and was ultimately admitted into Felix. Many felt a sense of pride.
See? We peasants can also raise noble mage apprentices!
Everyone was discussing her background, her daily life and the mallow.
Aileen's personal social media account was even shared by her friends.
Her personal space was suddenly followed by tens of thousands of people overnight and thousands of comments were submitted!
"Did you really develop a non-toxic mallow, Lady Aileen?"
"When would the seeds be sold on the market?"
"Lady Aileen, could you please sell the mallow's seeds to us? I live in the town of Rajatin. If possible, could you let the mercenaries escort them over? We're willing to pay 100 silver coins for a hundred seeds."
"Everyone said that the mallow's sample that you cultivated was destroyed and the non-toxic mallow is also gone. Is it true?"
"Damn that March for destroying the only sample. Lady Aileen, you must persevere and re-cultivate the mallow again!"
There were all kinds of comments left online!
Some were asking about the mallow.
Some left comments to encourage her.
Of course, some were scolding Mage Instructor March.
One week after Ajaf destroyed the plantation, under everyone's intense attention, the official website of the Queville Empire announced big news on its most eye-catching horizontal banner module.
'Non-toxic mallow is successfully cultivated!!!'
…
…
"Mister Black, has the non-toxic mallow really been cultivated? I heard from my kid that it would be delivered to the village within a month."
In a nondescript village in the heartland of the Queville Empire, a group of male villagers crowded around the only teacher in the village excitedly.
The teacher who had been sent there from the town, was also very excited as he faced the concerned villagers, even when he had been brought up in a comfortable background.
"Yes! Didn't I teach you all how to read? Look at those words, 'non-toxic mallow is successfully cultivated!'"
"This is great! This is great! If they could send it here within a month since the weather is just turning cold, we could eat it within one month as the mallow grows very rapidly. Eating it together with black grains would ensure that nobody in our village dies of hunger."
"Aiya. I didn't quite believe it when my kid told me about it. But I feel much more reassured now after listening to Mister saying the same thing!"
The male villagers began to discuss excitedly.
"Mister Black, read it to us please!"
"Yes, Mister Black. Read it please!" the villagers encouraged him enthusiastically.
"All right, I'll read it to you." The teacher, Black, cleared his throat and pulled up the empire's announcement to start reading it.
"The Queville Empire announces: Sophomore of the Felix School of Magic, Aileen, has successfully cultivated the non-toxic mallow. There are two types of this mallow…"
"Oh my, there are actually two types of them?"
"My heavens. The lord mages are really something!"
"There is hope for this year."
"Yes. I heard the mage who came up with the non-toxic mallow is even a female!"
"I heard that too!"
"Aiya, do you think Aileen could be the incarnation of Mother Earth?"
The villagers couldn't help engaging themselves in a discussion and they interrupted Mister Black's recital for quite a number of times. The ambience was very energetic.
Everyone became extremely excited after Black finished reading it. They began to heatedly discuss the mallow that they had never seen before and imagine their beautiful future.
According to the Empire, there were two types of mallows that were successfully cultivated.
One was the white-flowered wrinkled spiral-leaf mallow—
Another was the white-flowered wrinkled broadleaf mallow.
The former had retained the mallow's original cold resistance characteristic and was suitable to be grown in the wild—
The latter wasn't cold resistant but it had more edible parts, so it was suggested to be cultivated with care.
Oh my. Everyone was already ecstatic after knowing they would be able to cultivate a non-toxic mallow. They didn't expect to get two types of them at the same time.
The most, most, most important part was, the seeds of those mallows would be distributed to the administrative regions of all levels. The spiral-leaf mallow wouldn't be for sale as the Empire's archons would be sending people to disperse them in the fields. Everyone was allowed to harvest and consume them.
The broadleaf mallow would be sold for 100 Queville copper coins per packet. Each packet would contain at least 50 seeds.
The Empire's final warning was, none of the archons were permitted to mark up the price without authorization. If there was a markup, all the Empire's citizens were entitled to complain at the Empire's official website. Once verified, they would be punished severely without mercy.
"Hail the Empire!"
"Aiya, the lord mages have done us a great favor!"
"What's that? It's all Lady Aileen's credit. There wouldn't be any non-toxic mallow without her, right?"
"Yes, yes, yes!"
"Hail Lady Aileen!"
With the promulgation of the Empire's latest social benefit project, Aileen's name caused a stir throughout the Queville Empire again!
Countless peasants flooded Aileen's personal social media accounts, leaving comments to praise and thank her. Some even wanted to build a shrine to worship her!
In that moment, Aileen's name was almost on par with the names of the three magical deities!
As the person involved, Aileen was at the moment lying in her simple dormitory and looking at the comments of gratitude that kept being added non-stop. Her tan face was blushing fiercely.
She had never expected that a wild vegetable would attract so much attention and praise!
With all the praises heaping over her, it was almost impossible for her to say she wasn't excited.
However, while she was feeling gratified, she was being tortured by another emotion.
She knew she didn't deserve the great fame and praises.
The non-toxic mallow was cultivated based on the theory taught by Mister Ajaf. Hence, if Mister was willing to isolate the mallow's characteristics, he, too, could have cultivated it and even done a better job than her.
Furthermore, the two mutated "spiral-leaf" and "broadleaf" mallows weren't cultivated by her. Instead, they had been cultivated by Mister based on the foundation of the white-flowering wrinkled type.
She didn't know why Mister Ajaf wanted the Empire to announce that it was her who had developed the plants. But she knew this exceptional credit didn't belong to her.