Chapter 2217: North-South Alignment, The Final Deadline

"Hmm, right, there's one more thing. I didn't notice it before, but now that I see it, I still need to deal with it!"

As he spoke, Xia Duo had already turned his gaze toward the two Apprentices who were still pretending to be well-behaved. Dewan immediately panicked upon seeing this, "Although they are occasionally mischievous, they are still very diligent when studying. There's no need to punish them, is there?"

"Who said I was going to punish them? I'm saying these two little ones are too young. Send them to the Enlightenment Class for two years first, and come back to you once they've finished their studies."

Of course, this was only the superficial reason, and although it was a very serious reason as well, what Xia Duo was truly thinking was—

What he wanted to cultivate were Astral Mages, not Priests. They must receive sufficient Magic enlightenment before they could become the Astral Mages the Tower of Time needed.

Dewan did not lack the ability to provide enlightenment for these two little ones, but Dewan also had his own work to do. Xia Duo had always believed in the philosophy of letting professionals do professional work. With so many Enlightenment Classes in the Tower of Time, could they really be inferior to Dewan alone?

Moreover, taking these two little ones away from Dewan's side would also allow him to focus more energy on Projection Plane exploration without being troubled by child-rearing.

After hearing Xia Duo's explanation, Dewan suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, not only because Xia Duo did not intend to punish these little ones, but also subconsciously feeling relieved for his own future days.

"Alright then, I'll send them to the Academic Affairs Office in a moment."

However, no sooner had Dewan finished speaking than the two little ones immediately wailed with mournful faces, "Boohoo, Teacher, don't! I don't want to go to school, I want to be with you."

These two little ones were selected and sent from the Savile Territory. Since childhood, they had an extremely strong sensitivity to Holy Light. Although they had not yet truly perceived Holy Power, they could still cause fluctuations in Holy Power.

With such Perception ability, they naturally could not fail to feel that Dewan's usual strictness was actually more of a form of care—care that exceeded even that of family—plus they had occasionally followed Dewan to the Public Level and seen the nervous appearance of the Apprentices taking classes there.

This caused them to have an unprecedented fear of going to school and leaving Dewan.

"You still have to go to school. There are many children there to play with you, so don't worry. However, I promise you that I will pick you up from school every day."

Dewan also realized the importance of "study-assessment" under the new system of the Tower of Time. Even if Astral Mages were scarce at present, there would always be a large number of replacements in the future. If they could not lay a good foundation during the enlightenment stage, they would only spend more time making up for it in the future, not just in the establishment of a Knowledge system, but also in the seniority elements within the new system.

So even though the two little ones were wailing that they didn't want to go, Dewan was able to harden his heart; he had to send them.

Dewan's attitude was firm, and the two little ones could naturally feel it. One by one, they hung their heads again and sobbed in low voices. The crying just now had been fake, but this time it was as real as could be.

Looking at this sad scene, Xia Duo couldn't help but wonder if he had done something wrong. In the end, it was because the enlightenment education in the Savile Territory had not been rolled out at all.

Unlike here in the Daxia Territory, where children were incredibly happy as soon as they heard they were going to have an Enlightenment Class—this was a legitimate opportunity to play with other children, and parents would not only not stop them, but were actually very willing.

Because after the Enlightenment Class (Primary School), there was Grade One to Three (Junior High School) of the Tower of Time. This was the beginning of the path of a Mage; one might ask, which parent would not be willing?

……

After leaving the Plane Exploration Layer, Xia Duo and Niya did not teleport away, but instead took the Elevator and slowly traveled to the Public Level. Perhaps infected by the atmosphere just now, the two of them did not speak along the way.

It was not until they saw the Apprentices walking in the corridor after class that Niya suddenly broke the silence, "Are you thinking about the popularization of education in Savile?"

"Ah?"

Xia Duo was stunned for a moment, then slowly nodded, "That's right. I was indeed thinking about this matter just now, but how to implement it still remains to be further considered."

"What are your thoughts?"

"I want to first lift the enrollment restrictions for the Enlightenment Class here in the Daxia Territory. If the residents of the Savile Territory are willing, they can send their children over. If there are few people, we can use the small Airships of the Patrol to pick them up and drop them off. If there are many people, it's not like the large Airships can't be used."

"You treat the people in the north so favorably; aren't you afraid the residents will have opinions?"

"The general trend of the two places merging and aligning is something everyone can foresee. What opinions could they have? It's just that a small number of people cannot accept it."

Speaking of this, Niya, the one who brought up the topic, was instead somewhat silent, because just a few days ago she had received a report from Uncle Sain regarding some negative comments in the Territory about the north-south connection.

Among them, what was said the most was that the prices and wages in the south were greatly affecting the development of Savile Town. Now, anyone in the Savile Territory with any connections was thinking about running to the south.

The north-south passage had been open for less than a year, and Savile Town was visibly much more depressed than in previous years. If this continued, I'm afraid only some foreign chambers of commerce that were difficult to relocate would remain in the town.

Regarding this, Niya naturally had a different view. Currently, Savile Town had indeed become somewhat depressed due to the opening of the north-south passage, but the root cause of all this was not the north-south connection.

In the past, Savile Town looked prosperous, on one hand because it was the best transit station to Konnifila City in the east, and on the other hand because there was nowhere else to go nearby.

But when the Daxia Territory appeared and the south was connected, it might not affect the status of Savile Town as a transit station, but the Savile People who saw brand-new development opportunities would not let such an opportunity pass.

Taking an ordinary cobbler as an example, a pair of shoes generally cost about 1 Gold Coin in Savile Town, and no matter how good the craftsmanship was, it was hard to sell them for 5 Gold. But in the Daxia Territory, even shoes made by an Apprentice could easily be sold for more than 5 Gold.

An income five times higher, even after deducting the two or three times higher prices, was still much more than what could be earned by staying in Savile Town, not to mention that as long as one didn't spend money in the Daxia Territory, one could earn ten times the previous income with a little effort.

Under such circumstances, how could anyone with any idea of making money not flock to it!

Niya certainly knew that the reason Xia Duo was letting a large amount of money flow into the civilian population was to lay the foundation for promoting civilian Magic Items in the future, but the more she knew this, the more she knew what the Savile Territory would miss out on.

Thinking of this, Niya's eyes became sharp, and her tone was somewhat resolute:

"The Snow Melting Recruitment three months from now is the last chance I'm giving those people. If they are still obsessed and refuse to wake up, don't blame me for not considering the old friendship between my father and them."

"What do you want to do?" This time it was Xia Duo's turn to ask Niya.

"Most of my uncles have children in the Tower of Time, so I'm not too worried about them. Instead, it's those people below who are in charge of specific affairs; entangled in interests, they have long forgotten their identities! I plan to completely replace them with people from the Daxia Territory. Of course, if anyone can turn back from their errors, I can also tolerate it; after all, there is still that bit of old friendship."