Ragnis Lien da Levien
Ragnis Lien da Levien
Ragnis Lien da Levien. That was Levi's full name.
Clearly, Ragnis was her given name. Lien was the family name, and Levien must have been the territory or region. That was how the kingdom's nobles constructed their names, or so I had learned.
They tacked on things like 'da' or 'tsushin' and so forth, but in the end, Asilie had explained to me that it was just an ancient way of saying 'of.' Among them, 'tsushin' was a title permitted only to the most venerable upper nobles, and those houses didn't bother attaching territorial names. The house name alone was great enough, or something like that. Those kinds of nobles usually clustered in the capital, it was said.
Levien wasn't a region, it was a territorial name. It was located here, in the southern Seville province of the kingdom where Ogwen was, and it had been completely wiped out by the Demon King's Army, just like our village. I'd heard that much when we first met, but...
I never imagined that the person herself was the child of the lord who had governed that very territory.
"Because you helped me out, I had some breathing room, and I sent a letter to my teacher with the money I saved up little by little."
She'd shown remarkable talent for magic from a young age. Her father, the lord of Levien, noticed and used his connections to find a mage willing to teach her. By sheer luck, he managed to make contact with a fairly famous one. The mage's one drawback was a sudden wanderlust that sent her roaming from place to place recruiting students, but she was fiercely devoted to training the next generation and had a reputation as one of the kingdom's star instructors, producing outstanding disciples wherever she taught.
Like that time a mage had dropped by our village back in the day, it seemed mages, surprisingly, were quite passionate about raising disciples.
"There was factional infighting among the nobles. The issue of what to do with our territory was really heating up, so I guess that's when she got my letter."
Her teacher immediately tried to inform the council of senior nobles that Ragnis was definitely alive. It felt a little like a schoolteacher getting dragged into a family dispute, but apparently the master-disciple relationship among mages wasn't that simple. Anyone could receive a bit of instruction, but formally forming a master-disciple bond was neither casual nor trivial.
It was said that the original master-disciple relationship among the first mages wasn't just about studying the path of magic together while alive, but in some cases, taking up the master's unfinished work and forging an even greater path forward. It hadn't been unchanged throughout long history, but passed down upon that foundation, making a master-disciple bond akin to being family connected by Mana. Once bound as master and disciple, even kingdom law didn't treat you as strangers, so that said it all.
There were even cases where a master, despite having their own children, bequeathed all property and rights to their disciples, and the children took no legal action to contest it. Whatever else, it was certainly not something I could presume to judge based on my own common sense alone.
Anyway, all that was fine, but the problem was with the other nobles connected to her family.
The kingdom's nobles were broadly split between the Royal Faction and the Noble Faction, and amid their fierce power struggle, a dogfight had broken out over who could absorb the Levien family's remaining assets and rights—and secure the political justification to go with them.
Unlike the rest of her family, her body had never been found, so she was considered missing. The Royal Faction believed she needed to be found, while the Noble Faction—consisting of distant relative nobles—claimed she was certainly dead and they had legitimate ownership of the neglected assets and rights. Because of the fight between them, her teacher had no choice but to hesitate.
"My father was of the Royal Faction, and I was taught the same way."
She was still a minor. Whichever side secured her first could, in the name of protecting her, wield enormous influence over everything concerning her, including who got to speak for her. If her survival were openly confirmed in the middle of that dogfight, the Noble Faction would obviously start hunting for her in earnest. After exchanging several letters, her teacher decided to respect Ragnis's wish not to fall into their hands, and they settled on a public rendezvous in Ogwen on the day she came of age.
But then there was a snag. The Royal Faction had already finished making arrangements with her teacher, so they had no reason to keep searching—yet someone else was going around asking after her.
The only means of contact was letters, so they couldn't adjust the schedule. And the planned 'public rendezvous' wasn't just about meeting someone who came alone—it was a kind of spectacle for outside eyes, where the mage would personally come to fetch her along with soldiers dispatched by the Royal Faction. So they couldn't move to another city either.
"That's quite the elaborate script."
The heroic return of a tragic young noble lady who lost her parents to Demonfolk, fled the persecution of the Noble Faction, and spent three years in hiding for the Royal Faction and the glory of her house. Mages and soldiers arrayed to show it off. Even for a provincial noble family, if they were totally annihilated by the Demon King's Army, did it make them worth all this effort?
If I hadn't met Asilie, maybe I'd have been used for similar propaganda.
"An elaborate script...? You catch on way too fast. Were you a noble, too?"
"No. Eldmia, who's exceeded a mental age of 30, has mastery over all things in the universe."
"There you go, dodging the question again."
Even as she complained, Levi—no, Ragnis—let out a small laugh. It made me feel sorry for her, so I ruffled her hair once, and she whined, telling me to stop it.
"So this is what you meant by using your head. If they're nobles, looking at me now, they'd absolutely never think I'm the young lady of House Lien, right?"
"Maybe if they're just sending ordinary people to search. But if it's important enough for the Royal Faction to move this way, the Noble Faction won't be using half-assed methods either. Wouldn't it make sense for at least one person who knows your face to come along?"
Three years might have passed, but her features hadn't changed drastically. Most of all, the fact that they'd come straight to Ogwen clearly meant they had tracked her trail. Or maybe there was a spy who could intercept her letters along the way.
"Father didn't even properly interact with the Noble Faction relatives. There won't be many people who know my face."
"The fact that there are any is what matters. In a situation like this, the safe assumption is that someone who can recognize you will show up."
You could only prepare by assuming the worst. Acting on half-baked hopes always led straight to the worst-case scenario.
"Actually, in cases like that, it's better to just leave the easily concealable stuff out in the open. It's not like you're the only person in the world with red hair. On the contrary, a situation like 'she used to have red hair but dyed it' is what makes people suspicious first. Maybe nobles are different, but commoners don't consider dyeing hair a form of decoration."
"Huh?! Really?"
"What would I gain from bluffing you? I'd rather spend that time thinking about the next move."
"Yeah, I guess so... but more than that... you're going to help me?"
The cautious look she gave me while asking what I intended to do made me frown without thinking.
"Of course I'm helping you. What, you think I'd just leave you to deal with this alone? Did you forget already?"
"Huh? Huh?"
"Never mess with Eldmia Ega."
That didn't just mean to leave me personally alone. It meant don't pull any bullshit against anyone connected to me.
"If they're approaching you legitimately, they should have official documents and be doing something they can defend in public. In that sense, the Royal Faction and your teacher are handling things properly. If even they had tried to take you before you came of age, I would've told you to run instead."
But they spoke about after she came of age. I didn't know how much property or what rights remained to her, but it was no exaggeration to say their stance was the polar opposite of the Noble Faction who were skulking around right now.
"Not being legitimate means something's shady, and something shady means they could use illegal means if there are obstacles, which means it could very easily lead to acts of violence."
Rumors were circulating among the townsfolk, yet there hadn't been a single legal notice. That meant the search was being conducted through mercenaries or adventurers quietly asking around. And if even those rumors were being hushed up, the people doing the asking must have been threatening enough that townsfolk were nervous about spreading the word at all.
They could even try to have her violently abducted, then murder all the hired hands at the rendezvous, claim that they had rescued her, and spin the entire process in reverse to pin it on the Royal Faction. From their perspective, if they could just get their hands on her first, they could do anything.
"You're a kid I found myself, got settled, and who's staying at Alisha's inn here in Ogwen. You think I'm going to stand by while shady bastards make threatening moves toward you?"
I ruffled Ragnis's hair once more as she stared at me blankly, but this time she didn't react.
For a noble, this wasn't just losing family and neighbors the way I had. She'd lost everything she possessed. The territory belonged to her house, and whether she eventually inherited the house herself or married into another, it should have endured as the power standing behind her.
She'd lost all of that, yet still picked herself up, set her status aside, worked and laughed among commoners, and fought her way this far. She was my neighbor, and one I could be proud of anywhere. Maybe things would be different years after she left with the Royal Faction, but not yet.
"No one gets to mess with Eldmia Ega and get away with it anymore."
It would depend on how they behaved, but if they decided to do whatever the fuck they wanted, they'd find out exactly how fucked they could get.
Fuck. Anyone who messes with one of the little Eldmias is fucking screwed.
Completely fucking screwed.