September has quietly arrived, and the rushed train stations and connecting tracks have finally been completed thanks to the joint efforts of wizards and hundreds of thousands of workers.

However, the wealthy merchants and nobles in the kingdom have gone crazy because of the soaring grain prices. In just one month, the price of grain has increased by 500 times! Every morning, there are countless caravans waiting outside the granary. The wheat shipped by airships will be snapped up without even unloading! Because as long as you grab the grain, you can earn several times the profit in one or two days. Driven by such horrible profits, most people have gone crazy and lost their minds!

However, such madness has its limits, because the food in the hands of the parliament seems to be endless. The food shipped every day is gradually increasing in price. Now thousands of tons of food are thrown into the market every day! It takes hundreds of thousands of imperial gold coins to completely eat all the food, but the coins in their hands have almost been spent before. Some wealthy businessmen have even mortgaged their entire fortunes! But everyone knows that they must buy all the food, otherwise once the price of wheat collapses, their wealth will vanish! This batch of food was finally forced to be bought in batches by dozens of grain teams! After buying the food, the wealthy businessmen and nobles could no longer sit still, and they sent people to check how much food the wizards have left!

It is obviously not an easy task to sneak into the granaries of major cities to find out this during magic surveillance. Finally, the spies came up with a solution, which is to investigate in the workshops.

Wizards need to provide workers with three meals a day. If they don't have enough food, the supply will inevitably shrink! After some investigation, they did get a shocking news, but it was exactly the opposite of what they had imagined before - magic workshops in major cities are planning to give workers who work night shifts a midnight snack to reward them for their hard work!

The next day, the parliament directly threw out a total of more than 5,000 tons of wheat in major cities across the kingdom, which stunned all the caravans that wanted to buy the wheat!

"This is impossible! Where do they get so much food?" Marquis Mortan grabbed the collar of the reporting attendant and roared angrily!

Held and other earls of the empire no longer had the determined and strategic look they had in the past few days. Their eyes were red and they could not believe this fact.

In the past month, they have bought up enough food to feed three million people for most of the year. The rest of the wealthy merchants who wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune have bought no less than them. How could those wizards possibly come up with another 5,000 tons of wheat in one go?

"Lord Mortan, what should we do now?" Viscount Sk said in a panic. In order to support Mortan's plan to wipe out the whole family, he had spent all his money! "How about we sell the grain now?" Count Bell suddenly suggested.

Bell's suggestion undoubtedly made all the nobles very excited. Now the price of one kilogram of wheat is as high as five hundred copper coins. If they can sell all the grain they have purchased before, everyone present will be rich enough to rival a country!

"Idiot! Do you think we can still sell our wheat now?" Marquis Mortan slammed the conference table and roared angrily.

Not to mention the market price of five hundred copper coins per kilogram, even if the price is reduced to one hundred coppers, no one will even look at it! Marquis Mortan didn't know what passing the parcel meant, but he knew very well that the parliament provided the poor with three meals a day, resulting in the fact that in the market now, except for those who collected grain, no one would buy a grain of wheat at a sky-high price! The other merchants were not fools either. In the current unclear situation, who would dare to continue buying grain? The fact that the parliament released five thousand tons of grain in the morning and it has been piled up until now without being sold at all is enough to prove this! If they release a large amount of grain again, the price of wheat will collapse instantly, which will cause a large-scale run, and even make the wheat in their hands worthless! Bell was also panicked immediately, and hurriedly said, "But aren't those wizards collecting grain? We can sell all the grain to them!"

Mortan looked at Bell coldly, then turned to look at the servant who was lying on the ground and trembling slightly. "You tell me!"

"As of last night, the price of wheat purchased by the parliament was... one copper coin for ten kilograms!" the servant said cautiously.

Upon hearing this news, Bell almost fainted.

What a joke, one copper coin for ten kilograms? This means that the wheat he spent all his family wealth on, which cost a full 100,000 imperial gold coins, is now worth millions of imperial gold coins, and the wizards actually want to buy it back for just two hundred gold coins! This is crazy! "No, I remember Viscount Sk said a few days ago that the price they bought wheat should be twenty coppers per kilogram!" Bell shouted hysterically.

If it was twenty coppers, he would lose most of his fortune, but it was still barely acceptable.

Under the cannibalistic gaze of Count Bell, the attendant stammered as he explained that the price of grain purchased by the parliament was decreasing almost every day, from 20 coppers per kilogram to 15 coppers, then 10 coppers, 5 coppers, 2 coppers...

And last night the price had already dropped to the lowest point in the kingdom's history, one copper coin for ten kilograms!

Viscount Sk and other nobles simply could not accept this ridiculous price, which meant that their existing assets would instantly shrink to one five thousandth of the previous amount!

Bell roared even more hoarsely.

"This is a naked provocation, it's war!"

"Where is their granary? I'm going to send people there right away to burn all of those wizards' food!"

The nobles present were all filled with rage, and looked ready to overthrow the kingdom.

"Burn shit!" Held cursed angrily, pouring cold water on everyone.

Five thousand tons of food are scattered across more than 40 cities in the kingdom. Not only are they heavily guarded, but there are also numerous wizards in each town. What will they use to burn?

Do you really think wizards can't use magic to put out fires?

In fact, they can not only conjure up a large amount of water out of thin air, but can even easily summon torrential rain and lightning! Thinking of the scene a year ago when someone called the wind and rain and sent down terrifying thunder in the capital with a wave of his hand, Held felt an unspeakable fear in his heart. He couldn't help but regret why he listened to Mortan's words and fought against those wizards who mastered terrible magic.

Bell, Sk and others looked at Mortan with increasingly unfriendly eyes.

The latter obviously noticed the increasingly subtle atmosphere on the field, and immediately spoke in a cold voice.

"Don't forget, everyone. We are all tied together now. My death will do you no good!"

"Now we only have one solution!"

At this point, Marquis Mortan paused for a moment, then opened his mouth and squeezed out these words almost through his teeth. "That is to continue... buying food!"

As long as they can buy up all the wheat from the parliament, the initiative will be back to them! "I don't believe that those wizards have endless food!" Marquis Mortan's loud voice echoed in the castle. "Can they use magic to make wheat appear out of thin air?"

The wizards had only occupied the southern and central regions of the kingdom for a little over a year. Even if they had started cultivating the land since then, how much food could they have grown?

This must be deliberately used to confuse them! After Mortan's analysis, Bell and others seemed to have grasped the last straw. Whether they were willing to believe it or not, it must be true! But soon everyone realized another problem.

Five thousand tons of food would cost a full 250,000 imperial gold coins at the current price! This was killing them!

Now everyone's property has either been mortgaged or spent all on the previous grain purchases. Where can they find so much money? Thinking of this, Held and others all backed out.

Mortan knew that if he didn't set an example, the noble alliance would fall apart today, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Mortgage my manor, I should be able to get 20,000 imperial gold coins!"

"Everyone, now is a matter of life and death!" "Think about it, as long as we can overcome this hurdle, the food in our hands can be exchanged for countless wealth, but if we fail, the accumulation of several generations of the family will be burned to ashes..."

Under Mortan's encouragement, the nobles present also reluctantly cleared their remaining property. After all, if they took a step back, they would fall into an abyss, but if they took a step forward, they might be able to have everything! They had to take this gamble! About half an hour later, more than 40 nobles struggled to collect the 250,000 gold coins with the land deeds. Mortan immediately asked his trusted confidants to take the airship to the major cities of the kingdom to buy all 5,000 tons of grain!

After paying the little property they had, no noble left the secret room. All of them were anxiously waiting for news.

I waited for an hour before a guard came in from outside the door.

"What's going on? Is the capital in chaos?" Held and others immediately surrounded him and asked impatiently.

However, Mortan understood that it was only an hour, and the confidants he sent to various parts of the kingdom to purchase grain should still be on the way.

It is also possible that the wizards can no longer hold on and are planning to negotiate with them...

The guard who came in to report did not answer the questions, but handed over a newspaper with a trembling wrist. "Lord Mortan, this is today's [Magic Daily]..."

Looking at the fearful expression on the guard's face, Mortan felt a little uneasy and snatched the [Magic Daily] from the other party's hand and began to read it.

After seeing the conspicuous and specially enlarged title on the homepage, Mortan's pupils shrank slightly, and the blood in his body surged uncontrollably. He was so angry that he fainted on the spot.

"Lord Mortan..."

The nobles present were immediately horrified. Bell immediately snatched the [Magic Daily] and after glancing at it, he felt a chill running up his spine and shouted in fear.

"Quick, send someone to bring back all the people who bought the grain!"

…

Five minutes ago, in the city of kerosene, inside the newly built wizard academy.

Ivina took out about ten kilograms of wheat from the wooden box where it was stored, packed it in sturdy coarse cloth, and was ready to go out.

"Are you going to the granary to sell wheat again?" In the living room, Monroe, who was performing his daily prayers, suddenly opened his eyes and called out to the girl who was about to go out.

"Yes, those wizards lowered the food price again yesterday. I think this may have some deeper meaning." Ivana replied calmly.

"Deeper meaning? Perhaps the parliament is short of funds?" Monroe sneered.

Thanks to Ivana's secret investigation, he also "understood" the reason why those wizards could persist in the food war until now! The parliament is operating to buy back all the meager food reserves in the hands of the poor at a very low price to support the food war and maintain the most basic dignity! But this is only a stopgap measure after all, and it won't last long! Monroe even thinks that today is the day when those wizards will show their true colors, and 5,000 tons of wheat should be the last stock.

Ivana pursed her lips. She had a different idea from Monroe, but she had no intention of arguing. After taking the ten kilograms of wheat, she went out.

No one stopped her or questioned her along the way. After all, it was not her first day to sell grain, and there were more than just the two of them who had been buying and selling wheat during this period.

Many wizards saw this as an opportunity to make a fortune, but they did not have enough space to store wheat and grain, and their financial resources could not compete with those wealthy merchants and nobles, so they could only buy low and sell high to make a profit.

When Ivana arrived at the granary, there was a long line. Although the price of wheat purchased by the parliament would be reduced every day, the number of people coming to sell grain increased instead of decreased! This also surprised Ivana. You know, the purchase price of wizards is 5,000 times higher than the market price!

That is to say, if ten kilograms of wheat are sold to the parliament, you can only get one copper coin, but if you are willing to sell it to major grain merchants, it will be worth a full fifty silver coins!

After remaining silent for nearly a month, Ivana finally couldn't help but ask.

After hearing the girl's question, the townspeople who were waiting in front of the granary looked at Ivana with great envy. When the girl was about to ask again, Susan, who was holding a little old grain wrapped in tattered clothes, sighed and spoke.

"You have never experienced famine, have you, Master Wizard?"

(End of this chapter)