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After Ivan steadily put the last piece of material into the crucible, he began to tidy up all kinds of items on the table in an orderly manner.
The precision balance used for weighing materials needed careful maintenance. Even the slightest negligence might affect its accuracy, and it would cause continuous troubles when using it in the future. And those small pieces of paper scattered on the table couldn't be discarded casually. They had to be carefully collected and then destroyed. Because these pieces of paper were stained with a lot of debris of materials. You know, for those who lacked an understanding of magical materials, these debris undoubtedly contained great danger. One careless move might lead to unpredictable consequences. As for those beakers and flasks, they also had to be carefully cleaned since they would still be used in tomorrow's experiment.
After tidying up the things on the desktop neatly, Ivan looked at the fuel situation in the stove with concern and silently estimated whether the fuel could keep burning until the next morning. After checking, the result was quite satisfactory to him. Then, Ivan reached out and picked up the asbestos cover placed aside. He gently and carefully covered the stove and the crucible tightly together. He did this to eliminate all possible fire hazards and ensure the safety of the laboratory.
After finishing these, Ivan walked to the other side of the laboratory. There were eight or nine boxes carefully made of glass placed there. The surroundings of these boxes were tightly sealed, and all kinds of strange creatures were raised inside, including insects of various shapes and strange reptiles.
Beside this pile of glass boxes, there stood a cabinet full of drawers quietly. This cabinet was custom-made by Ivan according to the style he carefully designed, and it stored many objects related to magical research.
Ivan was now concentrating on observing these strange little creatures. They were all the "spoils" that Ivan had captured from the magician who was unlucky and finally died at his hands.
Whenever he recalled the thrilling scene that day, Ivan still couldn't stop feeling a bit scared in his heart until now, and the feeling of being on tenterhooks lingered for a long time.
The situation that day was extremely dangerous. The magician he killed was much higher in magical attainment than him by many levels.
That magician had actually cultivated such a large number of magical creatures by virtue of his powerful ability, and there were several extremely dangerous species among them. Being able to achieve such an accomplishment was enough to prove that this unlucky guy must be a highly skilled and high-level summoner.
These magical creatures were originally forced into a hibernation state by the magician through mysterious magical means. And as for those blood bees, because the effect time of the hallucinogenic powder was too short, after thinking it over and over again, Ivan finally had to make up his mind to dispose of them all.
Come to think of it, Ivan didn't know at first that this was the most appropriate and sensible way to deal with them. You know, those blood bees were extremely dangerous creatures. Moreover, in order to deal with a powerful opponent, the magician had deliberately brought a large number of blood bees, and there was even a queen bee among them. As long as he was willing, relying on this queen bee, he could breed this bloodthirsty and highly aggressive magical bees in Thorsburg on a large scale, and the consequences would be unimaginable.
Faced with such a seemingly "rich" but actually thorny "fortune", Ivan was a bit at a loss for a while and had no idea how to deal with it properly. After thinking about it, the only person he could consult was his teacher, Magician Ravas.
So, Ivan specially embarked on the journey to the laboratory left by his teacher near Piton County. This journey was really not short, and he was quite tired from the journey along the way. But the situation was urgent at that time, and there was really no other better way.
Fortunately, the teacher soon noticed the message he sent and gave a timely response.
Teacher Ravas couldn't stop praising Ivan for his achievements in magic learning and gave him a very high evaluation. After all, Ivan was still young, and he had been learning magic for a short time, yet he was already able to sense the existence of magic elves in nature. This was really quite an amazing thing. You know, most magicians might not be able to reach this level in their whole lives.
Perhaps it was precisely because of the recognition of Ivan's talent and efforts that the old magician made a decision, that is, to teach Ivan a kind of magic that was a bit beyond the syllabus and quite difficult for an apprentice like him who had just stepped into the field of magic learning - to make a magic mirror.
Of course, with the current level of magic power that Ivan possessed, it was far from enough to truly control a fully functional magic mirror. After all, if he wanted to use the magic mirror to send messages to relatively distant places, although the amount of magic power consumed was not huge, it was definitely not something that Ivan could easily afford at his current stage.
However, if he just wanted to send messages to the laboratory deep in Bart Forest, the little magic power that Ivan currently had was barely enough.
In this way, in the future, if there was anything that needed to be communicated with the laboratory, Ivan wouldn't need to make the tiring journey to the laboratory in person again and again, which would undoubtedly be much more convenient.
Being able to learn new magic made Ivan extremely happy. He didn't take the difficulties mentioned by Teacher Ravas to heart at all. The teacher had reminded him that this kind of magic was indeed a bit too difficult for him at his current stage, and the possibility of his successful casting was even less than 10%.
But Ivan didn't care about this. So what if it was 10%? He always thought optimistically that even if the probability of success was low, he could just try a few more times. If he tried a hundred times, he could succeed about ten times anyway, and that would be quite good. Besides, actually, as long as he succeeded once, it would be enough to satisfy the demand.
After obtaining the required materials from the laboratory, Ivan was really in a dilemma. Because those materials were okay, but the key was those experimental apparatuses like beakers and flasks. They were not only quite large in size but also fragile in texture and easy to break if he wasn't careful. He couldn't carry them at all when riding a horse on the road.
Helplessly, Ivan had to ask Ted to make another trip with a carriage the next day.
However, it was always inappropriate to let others know the specific location of the laboratory, as it was likely to cause unnecessary troubles. So, Ivan had a brainwave and came up with an idea. He placed those apparatuses and materials in Baron Rona's forest villa.
Come to think of it, Baron Rona no longer lived in that villa long ago. Since the significant ceremony ended, almost all the members of the Martil family had left this place that originally belonged to them one after another, leaving it deserted.
With their departure, a large number of job positions suddenly became vacant in Thorsburg. You know, these positions had been firmly controlled by the Martil family before.
Since there were so many vacant positions, naturally someone had to fill them.
Well, the few noble families remaining in Thorsburg tacitly divided up these vacant positions among themselves without making a fuss, each calculating how to seek more benefits in this new power structure.
Although Baron Rona didn't belong to the camp of these noble families, how could those who held high positions and great power in Thorsburg be mediocre and stupid? How could they fail to see the intricate and complex close connections between Baron Rona, Ivan, and the Hyde family?
Naturally, among those coveted high-quality positions, there must be a reserved seat for the baron.
However, Baron Rona had long been used to a leisurely and unrestrained lifestyle and had lost interest in high positions and generous salaries. So, he resolutely refused those powerful positions that required him to be buried in complicated official duties all day long and only accepted the honorary title of financial advisor.
Since he had become an official, it was inevitable for him to move to Thorsburg. As a result, the small house in Bart Forest, which retained his happy and poor memories of the past, was left vacant.
Baron Rona had no intention of letting the villa fall into disrepair and desolation. Besides the emotional attachment, he always remembered the signatures of the three great men, as well as the seemingly ordinary but actually shocking house deed. Not to mention that the statue embedded in the wall had already left an indelible deep mark in the hearts of many people.
How could such a villa full of mystery and profound historical charm be allowed to wither and decay in the passage of time? So, he entrusted the villa to the son of his old butler to take good care of it, keeping everything in its original appearance.
The son of the old butler was extremely familiar with Ivan. He would execute any instructions given by Ivan wholeheartedly like a loyal servant.
After returning from the laboratory, Ivan was immersed in excitement for more than three days. However, the days that followed brought him endless troubles and annoyances.
Just as Teacher Ravas had said before, making a magic mirror was really an insurmountable difficulty for him at this stage.
Not to mention other aspects, just the production of glass was a formidable challenge.
The glass needed for making a magic mirror had extremely strict requirements for purity and also needed to evenly dissolve several rare metal powders.
Although Teacher Ravas had told him in detail every step and key points of the production, it was far from as smooth as expected to actually operate according to the methods recorded in the books. After all, the records in the books could hardly cover every tiny detail. And the magic experiments that Ivan had been involved in before were only limited to refining hallucinogenic powder. Such thin experience accumulation was far from enough in the face of the complex and profound skill of making a magic mirror.
For this reason, Ivan racked his brains and spared no efforts. Fortunately, now that he was the heir of the lord, as long as the recognition edict of His Majesty the King was issued, he could rightfully ascend to the throne of the lord of Thorsburg.
In this world, who would dare to easily provoke a magician?
Moreover, in the eyes of all the nobles, Ivan was the most knowledgeable and talented among the lords of all generations. However, his temperament was quite different from the kind and gentle nature of the lords of previous generations.
On the day of the ceremony, the shocking scene where Ivan launched a fierce counterattack without hesitation and instantly killed the magician had been deeply engraved in the minds of every noble. What's more, after everything calmed down, the young lord's cold and indifferent look as he stared at the dead body was enough to prove that this was definitely not his first experience of life-and-death battles.
In Thorsburg, which had always been a peaceful and tranquil land, even a brave knight like Count Levy seldom had the chance to draw his sword and get it stained with blood. Except for the recent turbulent period, Thorsburg had never witnessed such frequent bloody conflicts in the past. Therefore, there were very few knights in Thorsburg who had blood on their hands.
And their young lord was obviously a tough guy who had struggled to break through from the tragic and fierce battlefield of life-and-death struggles. His fighting skills might not be in the eyes of a senior knight like Count Levy. However, Count Levy would never dare to assert rashly who would emerge victorious and survive in a bloody and cruel battlefield if he and the young lord were put there.
Because of this, everyone in Thorsburg held the orders of Lord Ivan in awe and dared not disobey them at all.
The first order that Ivan issued in Thorsburg was to send people to South Port to recruit those glass craftsmen and order them to assist him in making glass.
However, people outside would never know that the real purpose of the young lord's move was just to meet the needs of his own magic experiments.
In people's imagination, the lord was trying to turn Thorsburg into the core hub of glass manufacturing in the Kingdom of France and even hoped to break the control shackles of Italy on the lucrative glassware trade.
If this grand goal could really be achieved, Thorsburg would instantly rise to become the economic center of the Kingdom of France.
Because everyone had such optimistic expectations, they were all full of enthusiasm and energy when carrying out this task.
It was not difficult to recruit glass craftsmen from South Port. Glass trading was the largest commercial transaction in South Port, and most merchants in South Port were involved in it. And glass was a very fragile item that was easy to break. Even during the calm shipping process, there would always be one or two pieces of glassware shipped from Italy that got damaged due to bumps and collisions.
Those that were seriously damaged could only be remade into glassware after being completely melted and recast.
As for those with only slight damage, they could still be sold and circulated in the market after being repaired by skilled craftsmen.
This was the common strategy for merchants to reduce losses and wastage.
And that's why glass craftsmen and glass workshops were scattered everywhere in South Port.
However, the level of glass manufacturing techniques in South Port was just passable. It couldn't compare with the exquisite skills of Italy, and even the glass craftsmen in the capital were more skilled.
Therefore, improving the level of glass manufacturing techniques in South Port had always been the top concern of the South Port Chamber of Commerce.
Ivan's proposal was not only irresistibly attractive to the nobles in Thorsburg but also made the merchants in South Port cheer and get excited.
As a result, there were no obstacles or difficulties at all in terms of personnel deployment and fund preparation.
For Ivan, he probably wouldn't worry too much about the details of these affairs. The only thing he focused on was carefully teaching those workers the exquisite skills of making the special glass he urgently needed according to the methods taught by Teacher Ravas.
Of course, before those workers could make high-quality glass that met his expectations and satisfied him, he would never easily take out those precious and rare metals for the glass craftsmen to squander and waste at will.
So, those originally needed rare metals were cleverly replaced by common metals such as lead and copper that were cheap and easy to obtain.
The glass manufacturing method left by Magician Ravas was naturally far beyond the reach of ordinary glass production methods.
Although those craftsmen were also novices who were initially unfamiliar with this technique, the glass they made was, in their own opinion, no less excellent in quality than the glass products from Italy, let alone compared with the glass products produced in France.
For this reason, Thorsburg and South Port jointly held an extremely grand and solemn celebration ceremony.
Almost everyone was extremely satisfied with these glass products and praised them highly.
The reason for saying "almost" was that at least one person was completely dissatisfied, and that person was Lord Ivan.
In Ivan's eyes, this glass still didn't meet the standards and didn't meet his requirements.
He ordered the craftsmen to refine new glass again and again, and had extremely strict requirements for every process in the production process, and never allowed those craftsmen to make the slightest mistake.
Those who didn't know Ivan's real intention privately added a label of "perfectionist who is meticulous and insists on doing everything perfectly" to him.
Moreover, after this incident, every official who came to report work to Ivan was nervous and trembling, fearing that the young lord would be dissatisfied because of some minor mistakes.
In fact, apart from the matter of glass production, Ivan didn't have much interest in many other official duties. After all, according to the agreement reached between Mr. Hyde and Miss Old Meding, his taking the position of the lord was just a formality, and the actual power of the lord would eventually be transferred to others.
Therefore, most of the official duties were handed over to Miss Betty for handling.
Under Ivan's "high pressure" (at least in the eyes of others and those glass craftsmen), the quality of the glass finally reached the level expected by Ivan.
After mastering all the key tricks, Ivan successfully made his own magic glass in the laboratory. The following work became much smoother. Carefully forging pure silver into flat and evenly thick sheets and carefully polishing the side that needed to be attached to the glass into a mirror surface was just a bit time-consuming and energy-consuming for Ivan.
The only rather difficult thing was engraving those mysterious incantations on the four corners of the mirror and on the back of the mirror.
After dozens of failures, Ivan finally successfully completed this arduous and complicated work.
However, the large mirror that was originally over one person tall and one and a half meters wide was now only a little larger than the hand-held dressing mirror that women used to comb their hair. After all, if the back of the mirror was engraved wrongly, it could be repaired by simply smearing and patching it with pure silver. However, if there was a mistake in the glass, the entire edge would have to be cut off. After so many failures, it was reasonable that the size of the mirror became smaller.
But even so, Ivan was still extremely excited and immersed in joy for a whole day.
With the magic mirror, the communication between Ivan and Teacher Ravas became much more convenient.
In the first week after the successful production of the magic mirror, with the careful assistance of Teacher Ravas, Ivan woke up those magical creatures in the sleeping state one by one.
Teacher Ravas asked him to do this, not because he wanted Ivan to become a summoner. He himself was an alchemist, and his understanding of summoning spells was not very profound. Moreover, it was by no means easy to successfully control those magical creatures.
However, alchemists were the most knowledgeable group among magicians, and Magician Ravas was an outstanding one among them. He had a very deep understanding and knowledge of those magical creatures.
Therefore, he encouraged Ivan to raise these magical creatures, carefully observe their characteristics and habits. In his opinion, this was also a very beneficial way of cultivation for an alchemist.
Ivan was full of enthusiasm and interest in any magic cultivation. He followed the teacher's teachings, woke up those creatures, and raised them in the boxes carefully made of glass.
Feeding these magical creatures regularly and recording their daily habits in detail had already become one of Ivan's very important work contents.
Another great benefit after making the magic mirror was that Ivan's progress in magic learning had made a huge leap and improvement.
When he understood the more advanced magic knowledge, it became much easier to study the knowledge that was not so advanced when he looked back.
Moreover, with the magic mirror by his side, whenever Ivan encountered difficulties, he could immediately consult Teacher Ravas in the distance.
Because of this, Ivan spent most of his day immersed in the laboratory.
Whenever he walked out of the laboratory, it was always very late.
Ivan's behavior was not only due to his strong thirst for magic knowledge but also because he didn't want to return to his bedroom too early.
Recently, Miss Susanna had become more and more annoying to Ivan.
Admittedly, this young lady was an absolute beauty. Every time Ivan was with her, he could get an indescribable sense of pleasure, which was an ultimate joy that couldn't even be enjoyed in heaven.
However, Miss Susanna's sarcastic remarks had become unbearable for Ivan.
Now, Ivan was no longer the little shop assistant in South Port. Although the respect, obedience, and reverence of the nobles hadn't made him become complacent, nor did he think that he had become a superior person, or regarded himself as the ruler of the south of France.
For Ivan, Mr. Hyde was still the elder he respected and admired the most. Herbert was always the person he feared and respected the most. Audrey was always the mentor who guided and taught him in the field of magic.
Besides these people he had known and been close to originally.
Miss Old Meding was also an object of his respect.
And Miss Betty, for whom Ivan had special feelings in his heart.
Miss Betty was destined to become his wife. Although this was originally part of the agreement reached between Miss Old Meding and Mr. Hyde, Ivan himself also liked Miss Betty quite a lot.
Miss Betty was noble and elegant, without the pampered air of ordinary noble ladies. Although her noble blood didn't bring her too much happiness in her childhood, it endowed her with gentle, considerate, tolerant, and kind virtues.
The careful cultivation of Miss Old Meding made her possess profound knowledge and elegant demeanor. Just like Mr. Hyde, this old lady was also a very successful educator.
All these qualities made Miss Betty seem so flawless.
For Miss Betty, Ivan regarded her not only as a gentle and virtuous wife but also as a kind and amiable sister (at least for now), as well as a capable secretary and chief advisor.
All these people were those Ivan respected and loved.
As for Miss Susanna, it was completely the opposite.
In fact, Miss Susanna was the person who had the closest physical relationship with him. At least Ivan and Miss Susanna had reached a quite harmonious and tacit level in bed.
Ivan had to admit that Miss Susanna had taught him a lot of things, many things that aroused his great interest.
Ivan also had to admit that Miss Susanna's almost perfect body had brought him pleasures that ordinary people could hardly imagine.
However, Ivan found it increasingly difficult to endure Miss Susanna's sarcasm.
Although Ivan didn't care about the flattery and reverence of the nobles and officials, hearing too much of it would inevitably have a certain impact and change on his character.
Moreover, Ivan had seldom been ridiculed by others before. Aunt Jenny and Uncle Karl had always taken good care of him. As for Audrey and Herbert, if they thought Ivan had made a mistake, they would use a more direct and effective way to make him understand everything. Ivan actually liked this straightforward approach. In his heart, it was only natural that those who made mistakes should be punished. And Mr. Hyde's methods were even more ingenious. He could always make Ivan understand what was the right thing to do imperceptibly.
In Ivan's memory, besides Miss Susanna, the only person who had ridiculed him was the hunchback in the shop when he was in South Port.
And that hunchback was the person Ivan hated the most originally.
Now, Miss Susanna's name had been added to Ivan's list of people he hated.
After tidying up the laboratory neatly, Ivan walked out of the laboratory. It was already pitch dark outside. The stars were twinkling in the night sky, and the bright moon was already hanging high among the branches and was slowly climbing higher.
For Ivan's eyes, which had received special training and had excellent night vision, a night illuminated by the moon and stars was not much different from daytime. When Herbert trained him, his definition of night definitely didn't include nights with moonlight. Even the twinkling stars were too bright in his eyes and made him feel annoyed. So when he trained Ivan, he would never give Ivan a glimmer of light.
There was a certain distance between the laboratory and the villa because Miss Old Meding didn't want to live in the same room with a bunch of insects. Since those blood bees had left her with a bad memory, the old lady had hated insects more and more. She hated all insects deeply.
That laboratory was the second achievement of Ivan's exercise of the lord's privilege. However, as far as he knew, it seemed that the South Port Chamber of Commerce was the real funder for its construction. This laboratory was a token of their attempt to please and flatter him.
Ivan didn't know whether Mr. Mel Dauphin was involved in this matter. However, based on his understanding of the inside story, he thought that Mr. Dauphin probably wouldn't come to flatter him.
After returning to the villa, Ivan walked straight towards his bedroom.
The bedroom was still that bedroom. Miss Old Meding didn't give him any special treatment.
In this villa, the places where Ivan could go were still limited to the bedroom and the garden living room at the back.
However, Ivan's bedroom was quite different from before.
Since Miss Susanna moved in and Ivan moved out, Miss Susanna had redecorated the bedroom carefully.
Ivan still returned to the bedroom every day, not to rest or sleep, but to "take lessons", to learn from Miss Susanna how to become a charming playboy. Or it could be said that Ivan came here to have fun and enjoy Miss Susanna's superb bed skills and her almost perfect body.
Now, the bedroom was no longer as simple as it used to be. It was now completely capable of entertaining a king.
There was a huge ceiling painting on the ceiling of the bedroom, which was painted by the most outstanding painter in South Port.
A giant crystal chandelier was hanging under the ceiling. In order to move this object, which was much wider than the door, into the bedroom, it had to be disassembled first, and then reassembled after it was moved into the bedroom.
Hundreds of crystal pendants sparkled with dazzling light under the illumination of the light.
The walls of the bedroom were carefully wrapped with the best teak wood, inlaid with colorful and magnificent gilt and painted ceramic sculpture wall hangings.
The wall with the window in the originally small bedroom had been completely removed and replaced by six tall and wide floor-to-ceiling windows. As a result, the bedroom became much more spacious.
The number of furniture in the bedroom didn't increase much. There was still only a wardrobe, a bed. The low cabinet had been replaced by a dressing table. However, all these furniture were worlds apart from the rough and simple ones in the past.
The wardrobe almost occupied an entire wall. It was carefully carved from mahogany and inlaid with colorful and warm jade.
Miss Susanna's dressing table was tall and large. The upper part of the dressing table was semicircular and inlaid with three mirrors over one person tall. The tabletop was one and a half meters wide and one meter deep. Ivan secretly estimated that he could lie on it comfortably. There were three drawers in the lower part of the dressing table. In the first drawer, there were a dazzling array of cosmetics. Ivan had accidentally glanced at it once and saw that there were thousands of different lipsticks alone, and there were countless rouge and powder. Besides, the types and quantities of the potions and cosmetics that Miss Susanna used for skin care every day were even more astonishing.
Ivan once accidentally asked Miss Susanna how much money these cosmetics had cost her, and the answer he got shocked him. The amount was enough to buy a fleet of ships.
The second drawer contained Miss Susanna's underwear, socks, and corsets and other clothes. What was stored in the bottom drawer were the "toys" that Ivan liked more and more now.
He had become an expert in using these "toys". Ivan was not only familiar with the operation methods of each toy but also knew their characteristics and defects like the back of his hand. What's more, he knew how to bring different or extremely intense stimulating feelings to women by using or combining different "toys" alternately.
Ivan had an unspeakable secret in his heart. He was eager to try these "toys" on a woman other than Miss Susanna.