Chapter 281 : Chapter 281
Chapter 281. News of the Awards
Philip arrived at the Mage Tower and walked to the Society President’s room. He knocked on the door, then pushed it open and went inside.
After entering, he stepped back to close the door, then placed the stack of papers clenched in his hand onto the desk.
“Society President, this is the news from the Alliance regarding the awards.”
Elise came out from the inner room, raised a hand, and picked up the papers on the desk.
“Is there any specific news?” she asked.
“Yes. It’s said that Preston, who had always opposed you before, is someone the committee wanted to bring back, but they have never been able to find him. It seems he really may have died over by the Mouth of the Third Abyss...”
Hearing that, Elise revealed a long-absent smile.
“That filthy rat who drank dirty water had better truly be dead. Otherwise, I would like to see whether he still dares stand up and oppose us now...”
“It was one thing for him to oppose me over past matters, but if he really dared oppose the Northern Society over this matter, then he would truly be courting death.”
“I think that rat probably really did die at the Mouth of the Third Abyss. No matter what, he does not dare come out and meddle in this matter.”
Philip stood there with his hands hanging naturally at his sides, as though he had heard none of what Elise had just said.
Elise loosened her wrist a little before picking up the first sheet and carefully reading its contents.
With the Mental Power of a Fourth-Tier Mage, she could read everything written on that sheet with a single glance. But merely reading the written contents was of little use.
“Habos’s paper is extremely bold. He actually attempts to modify the legendary spell Elemental Storm and has also put forward some views of his own...”
“But on the whole, Habos failed to take into account the overall attributes of a legendary spell. Merely modifying a single aspect is far from sufficient to cast such a legendary spell...”
“However, that is of no great consequence. Judging by its achievements alone, this paper surpasses what most mages accomplish in an entire lifetime...”
All of those remarks had been written as comments by one of the judges. He seemed as though the two halves of his brain were fighting each other—one moment pointing out the fatal flaw in the paper, the next praising it lavishly...
By the end, Elise still could not tell which side the judge who wrote the evaluation actually stood on, or whether he had cast a decisive vote for Habos.
As if aware of her confusion, Philip gave a light cough and said, “Society President, this review was written by a mage who opposes Habos. In the previous votes, he had always voted against him...”
“I knew it. Those old fossils still cannot let go of the mage operating model from ancient times, so they object to this paper being published in the Northern Society.”
Elise felt that continuing to read would probably yield no result, so she set the papers in her hand back down.
“Forget it. These reviews are probably the same as the earlier ones. I will not read them. In any case, unless something major happens, those judges are not going to change their minds.”
What Elise was looking at now was the selection result for the Alliance’s Arcane Mage Award. Strictly speaking, she herself was one of the judges for that prize, though her stance was firm.
In the previous rounds of voting, the opinion that the Arcane Mage Award should not be granted to Habos still firmly held more than half the votes.
Even so, Habos’s supporters remained equally resolute, with no sign of changing their position through several rounds of voting.
But Elise still found it extremely difficult to get that award granted to Habos. Just as some people strongly supported him, there were also some who hated the Northern Society’s model to the bone.
If nothing especially significant happened, Elise could see no end at all to this matter. In the past, she had still read those reviews with enthusiasm, picking apart the other side’s mistakes and writing letters back to them.
But now, she was already a little tired. This war, whose end was nowhere in sight, showed no sign of ending even now. On the contrary, as more and more people came to support their side, it had only grown fiercer.
Elise lowered her head and looked at the device on the desk used specifically for communicating with First Seat Vernon Chase of the Modification School. Even now, her feelings remained complicated about Vernon joining their side.
His joining their camp was not because he agreed with her view that the various schools should be able to exchange ideas with one another. Rather, it was solely because of that one result that might be useful to Vernon himself.
And yet Elise, as a member of the Alchemy School, for all sorts of reasons deeply disagreed with the application of mathematics to alchemy and even to spells.
Although she encouraged an atmosphere in which anything could be discussed, in her heart she still believed this path was the wrong one.
Elise sighed. That was the main reason why, even though the situation was clearly improving, her mood was not especially good.
“All right. If I remember correctly, the result for the Elemental Master Award from the Elemental School should be announced around now. How did it go?”
She changed the subject.
“When I brought these materials up, they had not announced it yet. But I asked an apprentice to wait downstairs. If the result comes out, he will bring it up.”
At that moment, a knock sounded at the room’s door. After nodding to Elise, Philip walked outside, then quickly returned.
“Society President...” Philip’s face could not conceal his excitement. He continued, “The result for the Elemental Master Award is out. It was not postponed...”
Philip was almost incoherent. He knew that whatever the result was, it could spark a new storm.
“The winner is Habos...”
Hearing that, a smile also appeared on Elise’s face. This was one of the rare pieces of good news of late.
As long as the news that Habos had received the Elemental Master Award spread, even many of the judges for the Arcane Mage Award would waver because of it.
And as long as Habos won this award, it would prove that her Northern Society had truly established a firm foothold.
“I did not expect it to go so smoothly. Last time, Habos was still complaining to me that he did not actually have many influential friends within the Elemental School who could help him, and that I should think of some way to deal with it...”
Philip continued flipping through the papers in his hand, examining the specific details regarding this year’s Elemental Master Award. When he turned to a certain page, the expression on his face froze.
“Society President, there is something I need to add...” There was less excitement in Philip’s voice now, replaced by a faint tremor.
“It says here that the reason Habos won the award was his outstanding contribution in the field of weapon forging within the elemental domain. The corresponding work was his paper ‘The Forging of Elemental Weapons.’”
Elise fell silent. She said nothing, merely tapped the desk. After pondering for a moment, she finally continued, “All right. Actually, that does give those judges from the Elemental School something they can use to explain themselves. That paper on the forging of elemental weapons had been nominated a few times before. They really did go to great lengths.”
“It seems those old men in the Elemental School still do not want to take sides for the time being. But granting the award to anyone else would make the Elemental Master Award into a joke, so they deliberately chose this paper instead.”
“I would guess they did not mention the content of that perpetual conversion paper even once in the reason for the award.”
Elise paused, then continued, “Still, the fact that the winner is Habos alone is enough to make use of. Contact the people in charge of those newspapers...”
“Tell them to put that paper on the front page, and say that after publishing the paper, its author received the Elemental Master Award...”
What Elise intended to do was mislead more of the neutral faction. If those neutral parties saw such reporting, they might truly believe that Habos had won the Elemental Master Award because of that paper.
This matter could still help them; it was just that the help would not be as great as if he had won it for the real reason.
After continuing to finalize the details of this matter with Philip, Elise turned to another issue.
“Oh, right, Philip. If I remember correctly, were you not also supposed to receive news today regarding the Silver Alchemy Award you were up for? How did it go?”
Philip’s paper was also one of Elise’s chief concerns. In her view, it could broaden the Northern Society’s influence.
It was only because things had been so busy these last few days that she had not paid much attention to it.
The moment Philip heard that, he visibly deflated.
“I am sorry, Society President. I let you down. The news came early this morning. I did not receive the award.”
Seeing Philip look so dejected, Elise could not help growing angry as well.
In her opinion, Philip’s paper was a very standard award-winning paper, and this year there had not even been any particularly strong competitors.
As far as she was concerned, the other entries were all there merely to make up the numbers.
“Do not worry. I will help you ask what happened.”
After Philip left, Elise immediately connected a communication device to a mage from the Alchemy School. It was the communication tool she used to contact her own teacher.
The moment the communication signal connected, Elise immediately went on the attack.
“Teacher, what exactly is going on inside the Alchemy School? Why did that Northern Society paper on refining White Star Sand fail to win?”
“And Teacher, did you not say that the Northern Society’s papers were highly regarded within the Alchemy School? Then why did it lose this time?”
The last time she had spoken with her teacher, Elise had heard her teacher confidently declare that the Northern Society’s paper would definitely receive the Silver Alchemy Award this time, perhaps even a higher award.
That was why she was so furious now and felt that her teacher had deceived her.
“Wait, Elise, what are you talking about? I do not quite understand.”
Her teacher had been left somewhat stunned by Elise’s barrage of questioning. Then, after Elise repeated herself once more, her teacher said in puzzlement,
“What are you talking about? Little Elise, the one that won this time was your Northern Society’s paper!”
“Ah?” Elise opened her mouth wide. A paper from the Northern Society had won, but Philip’s White Star Sand paper had not...
“It was your Northern Society’s paper that won. And it was that paper, ‘A Mathematical Analysis of Fireball,’ that received the award. That paper won the praise of the First Seat and may even have a chance to take the Gold Alchemy Award in six months.”