569 Resolving a Small Problem
After leaving the Delarosa Marquisate, Vaan passed Blackmoon City and stopped by Sunpeak Town. Actually, it should be called Sunpeak City now.
During the time Vaan was away, Sunpeak City had rapidly expanded and shed away its former shell
It was no longer a desolate town with broken buildings but a major trade city with over a hundred thousand residents, which was still increasing by the day. As more people heard praises of Sunpeak City, more people decided to visit and eventually settle down.
Even people from Blackthorn City have moved to Sunpeak City to seek new opportunities.
After all, Sunpeak City was a growing trade city with constant changes and lower costs compared to Blackthorn City, which had an oversaturated market and high cost of living.
Sunpeak City was a place that guaranteed profit, even with small investments.
Furthermore, the strict laws implemented in Sunpeak City ensured that no honest resident would become a victim of crooked business practices, scams, coercion, and other crimes.
The city was flourishing under a solid order.
Nevertheless, Sunpeak City's booming momentum was bound to end eventually. After all, Blackthorn City was about to undergo major reforms. The great changes in the capital would draw attention back to it.
That said, once the giant magic tower on Red Goblin Mountain was completed, Sunpeak City's growth momentum would be unstoppable. Even Redpine City would benefit from its location and flourish.
When Vaan arrived near Sunpeak City, he could see it had grown to four times its original size.
Such rapid development within such a short time could only be possible due to the convenience of magic and the abundance of resources the land had to offer. Many trees had been cut down for land clearance and construction materials, but wood wasn't something the region lacked.
Furthermore, the new residents seemed to understand time was money. Thus, they didn't hesitate to settle down quickly to do business - another factor that contributed to the city's swift progress.
Vaan could also see that Sunpeak City had expanded northward into the Red Goblin Mountain, and a new city lord manor was built on the elevated land.
"Teacher!"
"Vahn!"
"My Lord!"
"Sir Vahn!"
When Vaan quietly entered the new city lord manor, multiple voices called out to him excitedly. Cyrena, Dahlia, Aliana, and Solana were found gathered together, seemingly in the middle of a meeting,
He could understand the presence of Dahlia, Aeliana, and Solana when it came to city planning. However, it was slightly surprising to also see Cyrena with them.
After all, her strength lay in Potioneering.
"Hello, ladies. Did you all miss me?" Vaan greeted them with a charming smile, causing a couple of hearts to skip a beat. "Where's Eniwse?"
"Lady Eniwse is..."
Shortly after he asked, Aeliana briefed him on the development of the Shadow Witch Order, the intelligence network they were building together.
Vaan soon learned Eniwse had already left to establish the branches in the Holy Knight Empire.
Eniwse figured she was the most suitable person for the job since Aliana was still the lord of Sunpeak City. As such, Aeliana was required to stay back; Sunpeak City's development and order still needed her despite it being co-managed by her mother.
Hester, on the other hand, was still training in the Red Dragon Clan.
Nevertheless, knowing Narvim and Khaleesi secretly assigned some new dragon elites to protect Eniwse, Vaan wasn't worried Eniwse would have an accident during her mission.
"Teacher, will you be sticking around for long?" Cyrena asked Vaan with a hopeful expression as she hugged his arm.
At the same time, she secretly wished to be praised for becoming proficient in concocting Rank 3 potions.
In other words, she had already become a Rank 3 Potioneer.
However, it was nothing surprising to Vaan, considering her talents and his solid teaching. In theory, his principle of equivalent exchange could be applied to even Rank 5 potion recipes.
As such, it shouldn't be difficult for Cyrena to become Rank 5 Potioneer on her own without further teachings. The only prerequisite was that her cultivation kept up with her potioneering advancement.
After all, higher-ranking magic potions required the application of magic in its concoction process.
"I can stick around for a day or two," Vaan replied, caressing Cyrena's head with a smile before glancing at the other ladies.
The sudden flickers in their eyes did not escape his notice.
It was clear what they were thinking.
Once his women experienced his magic touch, it was hard for them to resist the desire to experience it again. He anticipated his room would have visitors at night, should he stay.
Of course, Vaan had no intention of avoiding them or refusing their advances should that happen. After all, he needed to satiate their carnal hunger and keep them satisfied; he couldn't let them keep starving.
Otherwise, they could start looking for other men to fulfill their needs.
"Do I have a room? I will leave the door open at night, so there's no need to be sneaky," Vaan casually said, sweeping a thoughtful glance at the ladies.
Dahlia and Solana coughed awkwardly with embarrassment, realizing their plans had been seen through.
Meanwhile, Acliana's eyes beamed.
There was nothing embarrassing about desiring her lord's affection. Since her lord permitted it, she would definitely pay her lord a night visit.
"Ahem," Solana cleared her throat before suggesting, "Why don't you join our meeting since you are here, Sir Vahn? We could use your wisdom."
"Sure, then I will, Lady Solana," Vaan nodded.
He separated from Cyrena and took the empty seat at the round table, where Dahlia, Solana, and Aeliana were gathered.
Shortly after, their meeting resumed.
During their discussion, Vaan quickly found the issue they were addressing - sanitation. Witches had the convenience of magic to clean after their messes, but not everyone in Sunpeak City was proficient in lifestyle magic.
More importantly, not everyone was a witch.
It wasn't much of an issue when their city's population was small. Unfortunately, the large increase in residents made them realize the inadequateness of their water systems.
They didn't have enough water-attribute witches to support the ever-growing city.
Covering drinking water wasn't an issue; everyone had access to it. However, water wasn't only needed for drinking. There was a far greater demand for cleaning water than drinking water.
As such, Cyrena was invited to the meeting in case she had valuable insights on how they could recycle the wastewater.
Vaan wasn't surprised to hear they saw recycling wastewater as their only option.
Geographically, Sunpeak City wasn't close to any large rivers, and groundwater was limited. Water-attribute witches were in shortage, and hiring them to support the city's water supply wasn't cost-effective.
Naturally, they would turn to recycling wastewater - it would solve their water shortage once they figured it out.
Nevertheless, purifying wastewater was easy; doing it on a large scale effectively was difficult.
Fortunately, they had him.
After Vaan requested a pen and paper, he drafted the design blueprint for a water reservoir and distillation plant. Then, he wrote down several recipes for soap, sanitizers, and hair-washing products.
They were each divided into three grades - low, middle, and high.
Low-grade products were cheap, affordable, and easily manufactured on a large scale. Middle-grade products were less common but more effective and pleasant to smell. Lastly, high-grade products were rare but very effective and aromatic.
After he wrote down everything, Vaan softly sighed.
The existence of magic brought wonders to the world. But at the same time, it took something fundamental away.
The peoples heavy dependence on the convenience of magic resulted in a lack of development in other areas.
Fortunately, this issue was only prevalent in the seven witch kingdoms, where witches were dominant and the majority.
It was less evident in other countries.
"I don't know how I should feel about this... Even if we could purify the wastewater and turn it into 100% clean water, we will still think it's impure, knowing what it had been, Teacher," Cyrena mentioned with mixed feelings before adding, "I'm sure many people will feel this way too."
"That's not an issue," Vaan casually stated.
"Clean water is still clean water. They can still use pure water if they don't want to use recycled water. It's not like we will stop using water-attribute witches to create more pure water. However, we have to adjust the prices. Set recycled water prices low and affordable and increase pure water prices."
"There won't be any more complaints once people adjust according to their needs and preferences," Vaan explained.
"Interesting..." Solana uttered thoughtfully, thinking it was a simple yet incredible plan. "Raising the price of pure water would have easily caused outrage. But if we do it like this, they will have no choice but to accept. The value of pure water has changed"
"This is both sustainable and profitable," Solana added with bright eyes.
Once they constructed the water distillation plant and implemented the changes, they wouldn't just resolve their water shortage but also increase their revenue. That would give them more funds to hasten their development plans.
"Well, that settles that," Vaan acknowledged the issue had been resolved before expressing his intent to leave, "I'll be heading out to check on the giant magic tower."
"I'll be back later. Don't worry," Vaan added after seeing a few dull looks of disappointment.
Their reactions slightly amused him. After all, he had already told them he would stay for a day or two. He wasn't going to change his mind.
"Please let me accompany you, my Lord," Aeliana requested, standing up from her seat with a hopeful expression.
Vaan saw no reason to refuse, so he accepted with a nod.
"Alright."
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