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Southwest of Allyn, in a beautiful garden villa.

Two maids were serving tea in fine porcelain cups to Iristine and Arcelion. Although they were well trained, they still could not help stealing a look at the two elves, because they were pretty and charming, and their long ears looked very unique.

In the living room, the apprentices were doing their arcana exercises on the big dining table. Sighing over and over, they felt overwhelmed, but at the same time, they were also peeking at Mr. Evans and the two elves, feeling very curious about what was going on there.

Although it was not the first time that the apprentices saw smart creatures of other races, such as elves, dwarves, and giants, they were still very impressed with Iristine and Arcelion’s appearance, who looked gorgeous and elegant.

"That’s what we saw, Mr. Evans, and may I know your opinion?" Iristine described what she saw beside the factory with a bit of an exaggeration. Right now, she was looking at Lucien, expecting his answer.

Although they were noble Sun Elves, this was only their second time leaving Stroop forest, and last time they had Malfurion, the grand elder, with them. This time, Iristine and Arcelion needed Lucien’s help. They were hoping that Lucien, the winner of Holm Crown prize and the author of the alchemical product paper, could help them negotiate with the Congress.

"Mr. Evans, last time we came here we got along well... Well, I mean... in the end, we got along well with each other," said Arcelion sincerely. "I know that you’re a nice human being who cares about nature a lot, despite the fact that, as a human being, you have to speak for your own race, but I also know that you’re aware of the severity of this thing, Mr. Evans. You don’t want to see human beings dying like those fish, right? I hope that you can propose to the Congress to shut down the factory, and probably more factories alike, to protect mother nature for all races."

Lucien took a sip of his tea and said slowly, "First of all, I want to say that... we cannot shut down the factory."

"What?" Iristine and Arcelion were obviously very disappointed.

Lucien used his hand gestures to let them cool down a bit and then he continued, "Without those alchemical products, most human beings would keep living in famine, and they’d die because of poverty even before they could see the consequence of doing damage to nature. And from a sorcerer’s perspective, I’d like to see the development of human beings, since we always need money to grow. Therefore, either as a human being or a sorcerer, I would not agree on shutting down the factory."

Before Iristine and Arcelion went off on him, Lucien continued, "But, of course, we cannot deny the detrimental effects brought by the industry. We can design and set up more new magic circles to break down those contaminants to minimize the adverse impact on nature. We cannot just shut down all the alchemical factories simply because of the side effects and completely ignore their value."

Honestly speaking, dealing with pollution was way easier here than on Earth. Many elemental spells, such as Elements Resolve, Elemental Swirl, or Elemental Order, which was owned exclusively by Lucien, could handle the pollution perfectly. Moreover, Elements Resolve and Elemental Order could even recycle pure elements for further experiment use. The only two things that Lucien was thinking of now was the cost and the fact that he did not want to reveal his own exclusive spell right now, and thus he needed to redesign a fourth or fifth-circle magic by combining Elements Resolve and Elemental Order.

Hearing that, Iristine was relieved, and a smile appeared on her face, "Mr. Evans, we knew that you’d never disappoint us. We were basically shocked just now... You know, seeing the factory... We’re sorry, Mr. Evans. We were not being reasonable. As long as the Congress is willing to increase the amount of magic circles, I believe that we’ll be having more cooperations in the future."

Both Iristine and Arcelion learned a lot and grew more mature by dealing with human beings, and they started to understand the value of compromise and negotiation, as well as the necessity of keeping a balance between nature and human society. Of course, this kind of change was based on their overall good impression with sorcerers who proved the greatness of mother nature.

"Your Excellency, things are more complicated than this. I’m sure that we’ll be expecting more factories in the close future, and we cannot just keep adding more magic circles after those factories are built. What’s also concerning me is that, most people who run those factories might not want to listen to me, since adding magic circles increases their production cost, and things will thus go out of control. I’m planning on propose to the Congress that both the Congress and Holm should introduce laws and regulations forcing those factories to have cleansing magic circles integrated beforehand," said Lucien, and this was his original plan as well.

Arcelion jumped up from the couch and said to Evans excitedly, "Mr. Evans, thank you so much! You’re a great friend of nature, elves and druids! You’re way more thoughtful than us!"

"Mr. Evans, please stick to what you just said, and I’m sure that you’re influential enough for this," said Iristine gratefully and sincerely. "If you need us, please feel free to ask. If things work out well, we can..."

Iristine was about to make some promises, but she stopped herself because she was not the one who could make decisions.

Lucien put down his cup and stood up, "Let’s go to talk to the members of Affairs Committee."

There were three committees under the Highest Council:

Arcana Review Board: responsible for reviewing papers, evaluating spells, giving credits and assessing journals. The fifty-two sorcerers who worked there were all authorities in arcana, and they were respected the most among the three committees. Most of them were not busy at all.

Magic Research Board: responsible for examining and approving arcana and magic research projects, and sometimes the board released its own projects as well by establishing their own research groups. Besides that, the board was also responsible for managing magic labs and libraries. The board only had twenty-three members because they were also not very busy, and most of them were senior-rank arcanists who did not like fighting or adventuring. Some of the members also worked for Arcana Review Board.

Affairs Committee: responsible for day-to-day management of sorcerers, including apprentices, punishing, defending the Congress, intelligence, regulations making, Task Zone and Exchange Zone management. In other words, it represented the Highest Council, and it was the most powerful one among the three. The committee was further divided into different departments, and each department took care of one section. Forty-two committee members worked there, and most of them were outstanding battle sorcerers or senior-rank sorcerers who were good at handling affairs.

Six out of ten members of the three committees were from the senior level of the six magic groups, say, the Will of Elements or the Hand of Paleness, and the rest of them were either with the Congress or had their own smaller groups.

...

On the thirteenth floor of the magic tower, Lucien, Iristine and Arcelion were stopped by the gold golem guard.

"Three guests," said the golem in its low voice, "What’s the purpose of your visit? Which committee member are you looking for?"

The fifteenth floor of Allyn Magic Tower belonged to Arcana Review Board, the eleventh floor to the Magic Research Board, and the floors between them all belonged to Affairs Committee, which had a lot of stuff to deal with every day.

"Hello. We’re looking for Ms. Florencia," answered Lucien. He was only acquainted with two people here in this committee, and the other was Rogerio, who he met in Aalto before. Rogerio was from the Hand of Paleness, and there was no way that Lucien would go for him. Lucien was already lucky that Rogerio did not reveal his musician identity here.

The golem pointed at the couch, "Please wait here. I need to check if Ms. Florencia is available."

At this time, the elevator door opened. Felipe walked out of it. When he saw Lucien, he was a bit surprised.

"Dear Mr. Felipe, anything I can do for you?" The golem bowed toward Felipe, a senior-rank sorcerer, very respectfully.

"I’m seeking Mr. Carrol." Felipe slightly nodded. Carrol was another committee member here from the Hand of Paleness.

"This way please, sir," responded the golem.

Felipe just took a quick look at Lucien, and then he walked away with his hands in his pockets.

"Mr. Evans, do you think we shall contact Trumanri and the grand elder?" Iristine whispered in Lucien’s ear. What just happened made her realize that Lucien was not as influential as she thought. However, both Iristine and Arcelion were still very grateful toward Lucien, or even more.

Lucien did not mind Iristine’s suggestion, and he answered, "Let’s first see what we can do here. If it doesn’t work, I guess we have to have Mr. Malfurion here."

Facing the North Church and the South Church, the Congress of Magic was more than willing to work with elves and druids, but Lucien was not sure how much effort the Highest Council and the druids would like to put into this, so he wanted to try to do this himself first.

And gaining approval from the elves and druids was just a windfall for Lucien.

After a while, the golem came back, "Mr. Florencia is in her personal lounge, and she wants to see you there. Room 1314."

Lucien was surprised that Florencia was also here on Saturday. He really hoped that he could persuade her, as she was not only a leader of the Will of Elements and Holm Royal Magic Academy, but also the wife of the Hand of Annihilation.

However, to be honest, Lucien was not really confident, as they had only met each other once. Lucien really wondered how he could make Florencia agree with him.