Chapter 44: Fire Dancing Performance
Seven days ago…
"There are thousands of them but their number was still very few compared to the population size of Greston." Darwin found the time to discuss with Sigmund as they were preparing for the grand opening banquet of the company.
Records of the rescued slaves were all registered in the divine system.
"Thanks to you, I can filter which among them are right for the kinds of jobs. I already have two thousand of them working in manufacturing facilities." Sigmund faced different screens to check the profiles of those former captives.
"The quality testing, packaging, and distribution of products in mass-production require several people. Not to mention the people in the administration that you needed to train. I suddenly remember the time when I visited a manufacturing facility as a corporate lawyer. But in the product sites, instead of machines, you use replicators so these products will be mass-produced in almost unlimited quantity and then have to be tested before they will be turned over to the packaging department." Darwin commented as he was nostalgic about the implementation of manufacturing facilities.
"Most of these products are for the mortal population of Greston Village. It seems disparity still exists in this village even though we see developments. But most beneficiaries are the mages who earn much from the gains they got from the primeval forest and rewards from missions." Sigmund was still focused on filtering the profiles of the men and women as he was looking for better candidates for the entertainment business.
"Mortals pay taxes in Greston only if they have profits from farming and doing manual labor. But they almost get nothing in the end so they strive harder. It seems it is no different from the previous world. But here, there was an abundance of mana and resources. If they work harder, then they could escape from poverty. But I have been seeing children working in markets and I could not help but…"
Sigmund halted what he was doing as he was controlling his emotion.
"You know… there are always debates if children should work and earn while still young as they could become wiser in their adulthood. But I think it's the people in the government that should make sure that these children were not exploited when working. Children are easy targets. You know that fairly well."
"So, children should earn an education while they are young and that is what we are doing at the academy," Darwin commented, wanting to ease Sigmund's temperament.
Aside from commercial complexes and buildings, Sigmund also established a magic academy for those children they saved. They also aimed to expand the academy to other mortal children.
What Sigmund noticed with Greston was that despite its development comparable to that of a town, it did not have a mage academy or even a school for mortals.
Magic schools seemed to be founded only in kingdoms and cities.
"Yes, and I am assigning Perry to be the Headmaster. I want not only children but several of those young adults enrolled in the Greston Magic Academy. I am actually planning for him to form groups he will be teaching to bring entertainment during the grand banquet. I mean, it should not be something demeaning to the students who are mages but a showcase of what Greston Magic Academy has in store for new students."
In Greston Village, the celestial sage was aware that forms of entertainment were only too few. Mage adventurers would go to taverns to meet with their colleagues and other adventurers.
The red light district did not exist in the Greston Village for the reason that mages were prohibited from engaging in public dalliances that might disrupt public order. This was also to prevent rape and sexual-related crimes from happening.
However, when Sigmund analyzed this, the prohibition must have been placed for a good reason as mages could pose a potential danger when they were emotionally imbalanced because of competition with other mages. The village imposed a rule that prevented public combat among mages.
As to how it was implemented effectively, the Greston Village's protective formation devised by the dwarves and elves was incorporated with this kind of mechanism.
"I want fire dancers and water mages to perform. But they must be put into proper rehearsals despite the time constraint. I think it can be done."
Sigmund voiced his plan which Darwin conformed to as he said, "I can help in making that happen. I can instill their consciousness with knowledge about fire dancing and some unique moves. But for water mages, how about we transform the main hall into an ice skating rink during the water mages' performance? It's going to be awesome! I used to enjoy seeing fire dancers and figure skaters perform especially during world competitions."
"Let's do that then. How about we add phoenix and firebird displays during the fire dancing performance? I am sure it is going to be entertaining."
And so Sigmund and Darwin continued their plan for the grand banquet.
After Sigmund linked his mind with Perry to instruct the latter on what he planned, the headmaster then proceeded to scout fire mages and water mages among those former captives to be enrolled in Greston Magic Academy.
With the help of the women led by Nancy, Greston Magic Academy was prepared to showcase their new students during the grand opening banquet.
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"Ladies and gents, I present to your our new crop of students of Greston Magic Academy!"
Harry boomed his voice to make an announcement, which startled all guests.
With a dramatic effect of dimming the light during the introductory performance, guests were amazed at the immediate presence of a large red fire phoenix from the entrance door. It seemed illusory but the fire formation was definitely corporeal when guests were gazing at it.
The breathtaking firebird gradually flew from the door and then to the center, which then elevated towards the ceiling as it reached where Sigmund was seated. Then it pivoted and majestically came back to the center where it meet another large fire phoenix. But this time, it was a blue firebird where it swirled with the other phoenix when they met, oscillating dramatically at the center as if they were dancing in tune with the sound of the phoenixes'.
"Wow!!!"
"Awesome!"
As the audience was enthralled watching the firebird formation, they almost ignored another formation of various fire shapes on the ground. But as they scrutinized the fire formation on the ground, they realized seven half-clad men manipulating fire in different forms while dancing.
Almost forgetting the firebird above, the audience turned their attention to the fire dancers, mesmerized by the synchronized dancing of seven well-built young men. Their movements seemed to tantalize the audience as they performed different steps as well as the routine fire-circling technique while three men at the front were performing a pirouette. Other men were twirling and even gyrating which put the ladies in the audience to blush.
The fire-dancing performance seemed to happen abruptly, the audience was almost oblivious to the drum beat accompanying it. The village chief and the elders were surprised upon hearing the tempo of the beat. It reminded them of the time centuries before but they set that aside as they were clearly entranced by the performance.
Many adventurers were amazed when they watched the performance as it was the first time they witnessed it despite being mages.
When Sigmund could decipher the emotions and internal reviews of the audience, he would be very astonished. Somehow, those feelings made their way to him when Darwin was feeding him with information about the audience's unequivocal reactions.
It seemed that the performance was received well after the audience observed the dimming of the lights again with all the fire formations gone, somehow compelling the audience to want more.
"That was spectacular!"
"We want more!"
"Where are the fire dancers?"
As fast as the fire-dancing performance occurred, the dimming of the light, however, almost lasted for a minute.
"There should be another performance, right?"
"I hope it can top that performance. I want to see more!"
"Why is this banquet becoming more interesting? I like it here!"
"Yeah, I thought we are going to die from boredom."
With the audience still murmuring and discussing among themselves, they suddenly felt the temperature dropping inside the main hall.
"What's happening?"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone