How a Wizard Survives (30)
How a Wizard Survives (30)
"Welcome back, Jaeger. You're a bit late today."
Ulysses and Ash greeted me the same as always.
I set down the travel rations and apologized again.
"Sorry about this morning."
"Think nothing of it."
"If a random check like that trips you up, you'd never survive in the city."
They both shook their heads and laughed softly.
The basement had already been restored to its original state.
Wearing her usual bold outfit, Ash set down a teacup and sighed.
"Still, when that girl started spamming Rejection Magic, my heart honestly dropped."
"Ah, mine too."
"She must have really wanted to prove your innocence."
My teacher never gets tired of teasing me.
I turned my reddened face away and looked at the basement anew.
"By the way, how did you empty the basement? Using the puppets would have given you enough time, but..."
"Ah, there's another secret basement underneath."
"Huh? But I knocked on every wall and even the floor."
"The door is so thick you wouldn't know just by knocking. It's at a level where you can't even open it without using magic."
This is the seasoned experience of a mage recorded on the Wall of Shame.
After filling my stomach with my teacher's cooking, I told them I'd be going on a business trip starting tomorrow.
"From tomorrow I'll be visiting Winter Fortress to receive some Holy Relics. They say it takes about ten days round trip."
"Holy Relics, huh. Reshutal is pretty close to the Front Lines, but bringing those out now... The Lion of the North must be seriously pissed."
"He could really tone down the provocations a bit."
Ulysses chuckled as if he'd expected as much.
Ash gave a small scolding, then asked with a hint of anticipation.
"Any idea which Holy Relics they're bringing?"
"Yes, I received the list."
As I rattled off the names I had memorized beforehand, Ash's eyes narrowed.
But then, Ulysses repeated one name with meaningful weight.
"The Winter Fragment?"
"Yes. It seems like a recently acquired Holy Relic. The fact that it wasn't registered in the Holy Relic catalogue..."
"No, the opposite. The name has been altered strangely, but it is most likely an extremely ancient item."
"Huh?"
If the name really had been changed, how could he recognize it?
It didn't take long to get the answer.
"They couldn't possibly leave that out if they intend to catch me."
"Aha. Is it a very powerful relic?"
"It's the thing they use for putting a mage into Cold Sleep. Not the whole thing, of course—just a fragment, as the name says."
Had Reinhardt gone so far as to acquire something like that?
Slightly excited, my teacher fell into thought.
"If we acquire the Winter Fragment, we can switch to Plan B in an emergency."
"Plan B?"
"It means one more option opens up for me."
"Th-then, should I try to sneak it out?"
My cautious suggestion was rendered pointless.
Ulysses shook his head shortly after.
"No. Let's drop it this time. Reinhardt has a cautious personality; he might have fed you false information."
"S-surely he wouldn't go that far..."
"Even if the information is real, there's no need to rush. Once the escort is over, it'll be stored at the Reshutal Inquisition Branch anyway."
He didn't seem the least bit concerned that this Holy Relic might be used on him.
I belatedly noticed his consideration and clicked my tongue inwardly.
If Ulysses made a move to steal the Winter Fragment, suspicion could fall on me.
Very few people had received the relic list, so the pool of suspects would be tiny.
If an investigation assumed a leak, it'd be exposed in no time.
"Jaeger, you just focus on coming back safely."
"Yes, I'll bring back the Winter Fragment even if I die."
"You little brat. Making fun of your teacher who's high as the sky."
As we traded jokes, Ash spoke with concern.
"This escort mission could truly be dangerous. If the mages learn a Holy Relic has left the fortress, they'll throw themselves at it to the death."
"Really? But it's proceeding in secret..."
"No. Since Ulysses has appeared in Reshutal, they can easily predict they're sending out relics to counter him. These days, any mage without that much intuition is rare."
A fair point.
Ulysses's appearance at the royal palace was not something anyone could hide.
With the nobles chattering away excitedly, it was safe to say the rumors had already spread everywhere.
In that case, predicting this escort mission isn't so difficult.
With renewed tension, I went to bed and left the smithy before sunrise the next day.
After thanking Ulysses and Ash for seeing me off despite the short sleep, I headed straight for the stables.
It was still a little chilly, but it would warm up soon.
A fine day for travel.
I ran to the stables and swiftly saddled up and loaded the baggage. My horse snorted as if complaining.
The horse looked as if it thought Katrina's white horse was far more comfortable no matter how you looked at it.
I rapped the guy on the head, took the reins, and led him out.
"Hey, even horses have their superiors and inferiors."
"Hee-hee-heeng..."
"Good morning, Jaeger."
"Good morning, Lady Katrina."
Just as Katrina walked out of the lodging, Angelica and the Einhold party arrived as well.
Angelica wasn't in armor, so I was a little uneasy...
But her clothes didn't seem like ordinary items either.
Katrina tossed her a hooded cloak and said, "Let's all depart quietly. Avoiding detection by the heretics is best."
"Yes, Lady Katrina."
The escort unit left Reshutal as soon as the city gates opened.
All our efforts to brace ourselves felt silly; the journey itself was remarkably pleasant.
In fact, the road was even a bit more comfortable than when we went to Einhold.
If the mages were to attack us, they would naturally be after the escort cargo...
So there shouldn't be any real trouble until we actually received the Holy Relics.
The real mission would begin once we collected the goods and headed back.
We had lunch with tough barley bread, and around evening we spotted an inn.
Our route had been designed beforehand so that we could sleep here.
It's something I learned during the business trip to Einhold: the less you sleep rough, the better.
The Holy Knights, who had been riding all day, entered the inn almost as if they were raiding it.
"Oi, innkeeper! Clear the place out!"
"From now on, anyone loitering near here will be considered a heretic!"
The Inquisitors kindly escorted the few remaining customers out.
I felt a bit sorry, but there was no helping it.
If there were heretics hiding among them, we could get stabbed in our sleep.
Katrina squeezed her eyes shut, then handed a little money to the people who'd been chased out.
Now, only the owner couple and their daughter were left inside the inn.
While the other Inquisitors took care of the horses, I quickly approached the hearth.
Inside a large pot, some very unappealing-looking food was simmering slowly.
It was a hodgepodge stew that travelers who'd come through this inn had made by throwing in various ingredients.
"Sh-shall I serve you a bowl?"
"No, throw that stuff away."
When the owner's daughter asked timidly, I told her to toss the whole thing.
I don't know about the other Inquisitors, but I couldn't feed something like that to Katrina.
This isn't food; it's animal feed.
I took out the cooking tools from the horse's pack and got straight to cooking.
I hung several pots around the hearth, started boiling water, and began prepping the ingredients.
When I spread out the vegetables I'd bought at the market, Angelica, who'd come to watch, looked dismayed.
"Uh... a vegetable dish?"
"Don't worry, there's meat too."
Even if they are vegetables, they aren't the common-as-dirt turnips and the like.
The nobility of Reshutal mostly look down on vegetables and fish, preferring meat... and since I'm the same, I can't blame them.
But properly cooked vegetables are different.
'I got a special lecture from the teacher just yesterday.'
I kept my hands busy, starting to steam the vegetables separately by type.
Potatoes cooked through thoroughly, green vegetables blanched lightly.
While I properly grilled the aged meat bought from the butcher yesterday, the mushroom soup finished in the pot.
Angelica, who'd been idly chattering beside me, swallowed hard at the unexpectedly full-scale cooking.
"You knew how to cook as well?"
"It's not that fancy, really."
Truthfully, the cooking method itself is simple.
Ulysses's cooking has little to do with ingeniously using rare ingredients.
Instead, it focused on applying the right effort in the right direction.
The Inquisitors had waited for the meal uneasily, but relief spread across their faces when they saw the dishes I served.
After tasting it, they clenched their fists. It was food that made you want a second bowl the instant you took a bite.
It couldn't even be compared to that earlier stew that was boiled to mush and falling apart.
"The meal duty is decided."
"Jaeger, you just cook from now on. You don't have to do anything else."
"Even guard duty?"
"Yeah. I can't stand anything else, but I absolutely cannot tolerate bad food!"
High praise from the proud Holy Knights.
Even the stoic Katrina seemed thoroughly satisfied.
Eating the soup with its properly drawn-out flavors, I confessed honestly.
"I did consider screwing it up on purpose once, because I wanted to hear Lady Katrina complain about the food... Glad I didn't."
"Th-that won't be necessary."
Katrina replied with a dead serious expression for a moment.
As I giggled silently, she added in a slightly sulky voice, almost too quiet to hear.
"...If you want to hear it, I can let you hear it anytime."
"Aahh..."
"Sir Jaeger! Honestly, I was going to make fun of you if it tasted bad, but I can't."
Even Angelica, with her rumored track record of shutting down several restaurants in Reshutal, gave it a good review.
The journey continued uneventfully the next day as well.
With the smooth progress easing our tension a little, we chatted about this and that on horseback.
Like the country bumpkin I was, I was too busy looking around all over the place to focus, but even Katrina couldn't resist chatting away.
She started in a deliberately businesslike tone.
"Jaeger, you've memorized the entire list of Holy Relics I gave you last time, right?"
"Of course."
"Then... which relic from the list would you want? Not that wanting one guarantees you'll receive it, of course."
Here it comes.
I cheered inwardly, but decided to put on a show of humility for now.
It's natural enough that I'd receive at least one Holy Relic, but... if I acted too full of myself and then didn't get one, it'd be embarrassing.
First, I humbled myself. Going in cautiously isn't a bad idea either.
"Could someone like me even receive one?"
"If you can't, then who in our branch could?"
That's true.
I've already got Reinhardt's adamantite longsword.
Hesitating to give me one Holy Relic now makes no sense.
However, the other Holy Knights showed noticeably flustered reactions.
Out of consideration for them, I feigned humility once more.
As I kept talking, I almost felt like I was convincing myself too.
"But won't most of them be used by Sir Reinhardt? The strongest Inquisitor using many relics is..."
"No, it is strictly one relic per person."
"What? Even Sir Reinhardt?"
"There are no exceptions to this rule."
As I was surprised by this unexpected restriction, a supplementary explanation followed.
Apparently, this rule was famous enough that not only the Heretic Inquisitors but also the Einhold people all knew it.
"A maximum of one Holy Relic per person. If you allow someone to hold two or more relics, people would be swept away by desire. Also, some relics have poor compatibility with each other."
Ah, so that's how it was.
If two or more were permitted, Inquisitors on the Front Lines might spend all day hunting relics instead of doing their jobs.
The right to use relics at all was already an extraordinary privilege.
Facing this unexpected restriction, I began to deliberate more carefully.
In any case, I was already guaranteed at least one relic...
Actually, this is even better!
If Reinhardt can only use a limited number of relics, my options widen.
"Hmm, a Holy Relic... Speaking of which, adamantite equipment really isn't counted as a relic, then?"
"Correct."
Equipment made of adamantite, which rejects all magic, doesn't need to be used in the same passive way as relics. It's entirely different in nature from a Holy Relic.
Which piece of equipment would be best to receive...
Obviously, grabbing the Winter Fragment that Ulysses coveted would be ideal...
But if I chose a relic with no particular information known about it, I might draw suspicion.
My teacher wouldn't wish for that kind of mishap either.
Swaying on the horse's back, I began a pleasant deliberation.