Chapter 203

Chapter 203

School! Education! Literacy!

Each of these words was enough to stir the emotions of those at the bottom of society.

It must be understood that aside from becoming professionals, attending school and passing exams in Hollando was the only way for these people to change their fate.

But education is not an easy task. Every page of a book was like a coin cast in gold. Even a relatively well-off family would have to think carefully about whether they could afford to send a child to school, even if it required depleting their savings.

And now! According to Lorant, as long as they worked hard, their children might have the chance to enter a school! A school!

This was like a gift from heaven, leaving them utterly stunned.

Lorant didn’t propose this on a whim; it was something he had long prepared for.

Currently, he had an orphanage, and Pence conducted simple literacy lessons for the orphans and floating octopuses at fixed times each week. This gave children who were about to leave the orphanage to fend for themselves a better foundation to find more stable and decent jobs.

But this was far from enough.

Not only was Pence’s teaching ability insufficient, in Lorant’s view, even the Knights Academy had significant shortcomings in basic education.

At this point in time, education was still a semi-private, semi-public endeavor.

This was a very contradictory state. On one hand, the Hollando Empire boasted prestigious public universities that continuously supplied society with capable individuals.

With a diploma from a public university, a decent job was almost guaranteed.

However, there was no free primary education before university.

This meant that to get into those universities, one had to hire private tutors, putting education out of reach for 99% of families.

As for the Knights Academy, while they did offer theoretical and basic cultural education, in Lorant’s view, it was only at an elementary level.

But as an institution that trained powerful knights, ensuring those war machines could strengthen their muscles was already a long-term consideration.

If they could avoid being illiterate while building muscle, it was already a well-thought-out plan, and no one could fault it.

However, to cultivate the talent his Animal Pet Shop required, which was scarce in the market, Lorant’s first thought upon gaining his own territory was to establish his own school.

As the saying goes, no matter how poor one is, one cannot neglect education. Education is the most important cornerstone in any era.

Only with enough talent to support his growing industries could Lorant ensure the rapid and steady growth of his increasing number of businesses.

After addressing the glass issue, Lorant looked at the second batch of Raging Ragdoll Bears in the beast warehouse that were about to be assembled. He knew that if he didn’t start preparing for his launch event soon, he might have to expand again.

This pleasant burden urged Lorant to act quickly.

As a large-scale exhibition representing the style of the Animal Pet Shop, Lorant chose to host the first Animal Pet Shop exhibition in Central City Hollando.

The reason was simple: the Animal Pet Shop still needed greater recognition and more supporters. If one day the Animal Pet Shop became a massive entity that could make the world bend to its will, then Lorant could hold exhibitions anywhere he wished.

Even if he wanted to hold an exhibition in the Sea of Death, no one could stop him.

And those professionals would have to find a way to attend the exhibition in the Sea of Death to avoid missing any new beast pets or other valuable items.

But before he could be so unrestrained as to make the world cater to him, Lorant had to follow the rules of this world, so he gathered the courage to tackle all these troublesome issues.

"How is the location selection going?" Lorant took a sip of the hot tea in front of him, and asked the two people opposite him.

Nia opened the notebook in her arms. "The location is currently set on that row of shops we recently bought in Holando.

"As per your instructions, we purchased seven connected shops on the left side of Holando's central square. They are now being demolished and rebuilt entirely."

"By the way, two of those shops were owned by the military, three were owned by the Church, and the other two were private properties that we bought at twice the market price. All the property transfers have been completed, and are now under your name. You can check the contract, and if there are no issues, please sign it. I will take care of the follow-up procedures afterward."

Understanding Nia's intentions, Lorant knew that the military and Church had sold those expensive shops as a favor to the Animal Pet Shop.

Otherwise, buying so many shops would have inevitably led to greedy merchants driving up the prices.

It might have cost several times the market price to complete the acquisition, and even then, acquiring so many connected shops would have been impossible.

Lorant naturally remembered those who had shown him favor, and when the opportunity arose, he would certainly return the favor.

After glancing through the contract, Lorant's eyes lingered for two seconds on the painfully high number at the end, and then he quickly signed his name, stamped it with his token from the Crystal Bank, and swiftly pushed the contract away.

He really didn't want to look at it again and increase his worries about going bankrupt.

"Alright, thank you for your cooperation. Returning to the topic, we are currently renovating those shops as per your instructions," Nia said, satisfied as she put away the contract and continued her report. "However, the issue is that, although your requirements seem simple, they are actually quite difficult to implement."

"Not to mention the perfectly straight and delicate wall lines—those experienced old craftsmen had to redo them about thirty times. I never imagined that a straight decorative line running across the wall could be so troublesome," Nia couldn't help but exclaim. "This 'minimalist style' you mentioned is truly simple in appearance but complex in reality."

"Moreover, the material requirements are very high. Even the slightest flaw makes them unusable."

Lorant was not surprised by this. He had chosen the minimalist style himself and knew how deceptively complex and troublesome it was.

It was a disaster for anyone attempting to decorate in this style, regardless of their wealth.

However, he insisted on this style and planned to implement it uniformly across all future Animal Pet Shop outlets to enhance brand recognition.

To build a brand, strong recognition is crucial for effectiveness.

A simple, distinct logo, and an elegantly minimalist white decor, would make it easy for people to remember him.

Lorant was second to none in his understanding of such brand successes in this world.

Though he had never experienced it firsthand, he had observed countless examples. Brands like Hermès with its iconic orange, or Apple with its simple logo, were excellent models for Lorant, guiding him to avoid missteps in building the Animal Pet Shop.

"If it's really too difficult, you can bring in some mages with shaping abilities from Sacklon. Don't worry about the cost. This is our first official comprehensive storefront, and it must look good."

The first official comprehensive store was crucial for the future layout of the entire Animal Pet Shop.

Nia nodded and noted this down, while Emma spoke up from the side.

"As for the invitations for the exhibition opening ceremony, we have already prepared them," Emma said, placing a box on the table beside her.

"These are the samples of the invitations and the accompanying gifts. Please take a look, shop owner."

Lorant opened the carefully wrapped thick paper box. Although it was a paper box, it felt quite textured. The entire box was coated with special paint, making it not appear cheap at all.

Along with the gold-embossed logo, it was definitely not something that would be casually thrown away after being seen.

Lorant opened the paper box, which was filled to the brim with contents as high as his palm.

The topmost item was an exquisitely packaged invitation, folded in half, with a wax seal featuring the Animal Pet Shop’s emblem.

The invitation was made of specially treated hard cardstock, with an elegant dried flower as an embellishment on the cover.

Opening the invitation, inside was a letter written by Emma in Lorant’s voice, inviting the recipient to attend the Animal Pet Shop’s exhibition opening ceremony.

Lorant was quite at ease letting Emma handle these tasks, as she was always meticulous in these aspects, ensuring that those who saw her work would feel pleased.

As a former service industry worker, Emma had a natural advantage in these matters.

Under the invitation was a cotton tree branch wrapped in brown paper and tied with fine hemp rope.

A cotton tree branch that had been made into a dried flower, simply wrapped with brown paper and fine hemp rope, exuded an artistic charm. Although the materials were quite ordinary, it conveyed an elegant aura.

Putting the cotton tree branch aside, Lorant picked up several small boxes below it.

There were a total of five small wooden boxes. Opening the first one, Lorant saw a delicate sugar rabbit brooch carved from pure white crystal stone. The craftsmanship was exquisite, with every detail meticulously crafted, clearly the work of an experienced artisan.

The sugar rabbit, originally a granular body, complemented the white crystal material perfectly. With some simple artistic touches, the rabbit head shape looked even more refined.

Despite the white crystal having already lost its magic, it was not among the most expensive crystal materials. However, the level of craftsmanship alone highlighted the brooch’s value.

This brooch served as the “entrance ticket” to the exhibition. All invited guests must wear formal attire and this white rabbit brooch to attend the opening ceremony.

Inside the box of the white rabbit brooch, Emma had thoughtfully included a note, reminding the invited guests to wear the brooch; otherwise, they may not be admitted.

Besides the brooch serving as an entrance ticket, there were two additional “beast head brooches.” These were items created following the appearance of the beast pet Slime, an idea that Lorant had come up with.

At first, there were only a few designs to choose from, including the beast pet Slime, Glassy Ice Flame Dog, and Windbreaking Horse. Lorant even asked Liszt to create a simple machine for their production.

By now, the variety of brooch designs had far exceeded the initial few. The Animal Pet Shop now offered two to three different brooch designs for each type of beast pet, and they were quite popular.

The latest designs, the Holy Light Peacock and Devouring Frogs brooches, were still in the design phase. Though not yet officially released, everyone had high hopes for them.

This time, Emma had prepared ten different brooch designs. Overall, they were quite similar to the publicly sold brooches but had subtle differences at the bottom indicating that they were exclusive brooches for the “Blue Star First Exhibition.”

Like the Dream Weaver-shaped cotton towels distributed to the members attending the lectures, these were highly commemorative.

In each invitation box, Emma would randomly place two different brooches. So, if someone wanted to collect all ten designs, they would have to purchase the remaining ones at the exhibition.

These exhibition-limited brooches would be completely discontinued after the exhibition.

Opening another box, Lorant was greeted by an elegant fragrance. It was a jar of ointment.

The packaging for the ointment had already been finalized by Lorant. The first batch to be officially launched included only a “Blue Star First Exhibition” special edition, besides the regular and beast pet collaboration editions.

This special edition ointment would be given to the two hundred invited guests and would also be sold at the exhibition hall during the exhibition. After the exhibition, it would be discontinued.

Lorant believed that the simplest way to make something worth many times its original value was through limited and timed sales.

Hunger marketing, he was most familiar with it.

The last small box contained a variation of the ointment, a scented candle.

This was a product that the scented workshop had only produced recently.

The craftsman who made the scented candles had creatively incorporated the ointment into the wax, attempting to make candles. On the outside, they looked like regular candles except for their shape, but once lit, the scent of the ointment could be smelled.

Because of this scented candle, Lorant happily rewarded the creative and daring craftsman with fifty gold coins.

This type of aromatic candle has a shorter lifespan compared to the aromatic ointment, so it is considerably cheaper in price and can strictly be considered a more affordable alternative.

However, the scents Lorant chose for the aromatic candles are all relatively soothing and delicate, which is different from the rich experience offered by the ointment.

It can be seen as a way to avoid some product uniformity.

Lorant was relatively satisfied with the souvenir prepared by Emma, both in terms of the promotion of the Animal Pet Shop’s products and the humanized service for guests—everything was done quite well, making it an all-encompassing effort.

"Well done, you've already thought very thoroughly," Lorant nodded, affirming Emma's efforts. "The glass technology is still a bit unstable right now, but if we succeed in developing it before the exhibition, we can actually add a glass cup or other small glass items inside."

"Glass?" Emma nodded and carefully noted it down in her notebook. "Alright, I'll put this on the agenda."

"Everything else is done very well. Both of you have worked hard," Lorant said, looking at his trusted assistants with a soft expression. "After this product launch is over, you can both take a good rest for a few days and give yourselves a break."

The news about the Animal Pet Shop holding a product launch event soon reached many people's ears.

Countless eyes were watching the moves of the Animal Pet Shop.

Finally, after another month had passed, on the Blue Star Trading Platform, everyone saw a highlighted announcement.

"The Animal Pet Shop's First Product Exhibition will officially begin on September 10th, we sincerely invite you to attend."

Upon clicking, there was a detailed introduction about the time, location, and specific content of the exhibition.

"It's free!" Amy exclaimed, standing in a Slime Shop in Hollande, pulling her friend Vivian to carefully check the highlighted announcement on the Blue Star platform.

The last announcement on the Blue Star platform had been to inform everyone about the need for 'Beast Tamer' certification, so holders of the Crystal Cards had developed the habit of checking for messages at the nearest checkpoints as soon as their cards gave a notification.

At noon today, upon receiving a notification on her Crystal Card, the two priestess girls immediately came to the Slime Shop, not far from the Church, to check the specific content of the announcement.

Both of them were priests of the Church and had been fortunate enough to attend the first Animal Pet Shop lecture during a previous workshop, thus naturally becoming the first batch of members on the Blue Star platform.

Over time, they had gradually become accustomed to using the platform.

If nothing else, the interesting news from around the world pushed by the Blue Star platform was enough to keep the two girls occupied for an entire afternoon in the Slime Shop, knitting while reading.

At some point, the two of them had forgotten about the Adventurers' Guild, and now whenever they had any needs, they first thought of the Blue Star platform.

"Let's go take a look!" Amy looked at Vivian eagerly. "We'll have some time off during those days, right?"

Vivian nodded, and as she read the introduction on the announcement, she couldn't help but feel excited. "Of course, but honestly, I'd really like to attend the opening ceremony, but it seems only those who are invited can attend."

"Oh! It doesn't matter!" Amy didn't mind at all. "The opening ceremony is probably going to be just like those workshops we attended before, nothing interesting!"

"Besides, the things from the opening ceremony will still be available later; at most, there will be some different rituals."

"That's true," Vivian nodded in agreement. They had indeed attended quite a few workshops or events organized by the Congress of Magic, but apart from the Dreamweaver lecture at the Animal Pet Shop, other events had been boring to the point of making them sleepy.

When those old scholars gathered to recite dull theoretical discussions, it really didn't spark any interest in girls of their age.

"'We will send out invitations and souvenirs to the invited guests.' Now that you mention it, I'm quite curious about what the invitation and the souvenir will look like!" Amy blinked her big eyes as she carefully read the content of the announcement. "I wonder who will be invited. I still have that Dreamweaver towel from last time!"

"I really want to see what this souvenir will look like!" Amy couldn't help but exclaim.

The towel with a vivid design of a Dreamweaver lying on a mattress was also well-preserved by Vivian. The realistic design was so striking that Vivian didn't dare use it for wiping anything when she brought it home.

She felt that such a towel should be treated as art to be preserved, and casual use would be a kind of disrespect to the artwork.

She neatly folded the handkerchief and placed it in her jewelry box, occasionally taking it out to play with her little Dream Weaver.

Vivian loved her little Dream Weaver so much that even if the Dream Weaver lacked any abilities to assist her in cultivation, Vivian believed her love for the Dream Weaver wouldn't diminish by even a bit.

If the Blue Star Pet Shop hadn't subsequently issued a notice announcing that the certification process for beast masters was postponed, Vivian would have gone to get certified already.

She couldn't bear the idea of her precious Dream Weaver being harmed in any way, and according to the shop's notice, if the certification wasn't completed on time, the shop would conduct a thorough investigation, with a high chance of forcibly reclaiming the pet!

Moreover, the pet shop would only consider returning the pet to its owner after proving they had sufficient conditions to raise the pet.

The consequences were severe.

"I don't know who has been invited, but I know someone who will definitely be invited! And there's also someone who, even without an invitation, might be able to bring us along!" Vivian said slyly, winking at Amy, and the two exchanged a knowing smile.