They're Looking for a Mage
In the end, there was nothing for it but to go back to the inn.
"Hah..."
Joseph collapsed onto the bed. He needed to rethink his plan. He'd expected spellbooks would be hard to come by — he just hadn't imagined he wouldn't even be allowed to look at them.
Getting a permit was never going to be simple.
The castle guards had said they didn't issue them to outsiders, but Joseph doubted even the castle's own residents could get one without a fight. Without the backing of a noble or someone with real influence, it looked all but impossible.
Auger...
His thoughts drifted, almost of their own accord, to the only noble he knew. Auger was a noble too. If Joseph could get his help, a path to those spellbooks might open.
He's probably in the inner fortress.
There was no chance a man like Auger would be staying at an outer-quarters inn the way Joseph was. Nobles stood out wherever they went. Finding him wouldn't be hard.
The problem is, that would mean actually asking a noble for a favor...
Auger might be a well-meaning country baron who'd taken a liking to him, but a noble was still a noble. Their influence wasn't something you could just shrug off. If Joseph could help it, he'd rather not get any more entangled.
And this is a castle belonging to a noble currently at war...
Auger wasn't even the only problem. Even if Joseph did get his help, the person he'd ultimately have to petition was the Count. There was no telling how Count Valois might try to use a request for spellbooks to his own advantage.
Joseph wanted to steer clear of anything that might invite trouble.
Of course, he's a great noble. If I earned a certain amount of recognition, I might even live comfortably under his wing...
Flip that around, though, and it meant he might also get dragged into something dangerous.
If my luck's truly rotten, I could end up hauled off to the battlefield.
That was the worst-case scenario, full stop. Even back when he'd been a merchant company's mage, he'd done everything he could to avoid heading north.
The Fire Mage, and Joseph. The gap between them was night and day. Joseph was not a man with the guts to take a knife into a fight against a cannon.
"..."
And yet he couldn't bring himself to give up. He needed new magic. Badly.
It was true that Rophen's help had made his orbs stronger. He could handle a few ordinary soldiers now without much trouble. But could a single Mana Orb get him the life he wanted? Of course not.
His personal combat power might have ticked up a notch, but it wasn't enough to ignore this world's social machinery. The more Joseph tried to raise himself up, the harder the forces above would press down. In this world, even more so.
A stone that stuck out clumsily got smashed to pieces.
Joseph still considered himself a low-level mage. No power to speak of. Even less money.
I have to get stronger. Fast.
Power. Money. Even a peaceful life. In this world, you only got those things if you were strong.
Which made this a genuinely hard problem.
Spellbooks for the future? Or safety in the present?
He had to choose with a clear head. After a long stretch of thinking, Joseph reached his conclusion.
I'll meet Auger and just quietly get an entry permit.
Right now, he had no idea what spellbooks were even in that library. If he was going to take a risk, he needed to know first whether those books were worth it.
If what's in the library turns out to be nothing special...
He'd drop the idea of getting spellbooks from Valois Castle without a second thought and leave for another territory immediately.
I move when the payoff is certain. Not before.
Joseph sought out the innkeeper as soon as day broke. It wasn't to ask about Auger's whereabouts. There was another problem he had to deal with first.
He was running low on coin. Auger's payment had left him with a little something, but he couldn't afford to sit around and live off that alone.
When he asked the innkeeper about simple ways to make money, the man answered with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
"If you're a mercenary, go to the guild, go to the battlefield, or join a subjugation."
Every job the innkeeper suggested involved putting your life on the line.
"...Isn't there anything else? Hunting, maybe."
Joseph had no desire whatsoever to take on that kind of dangerous work. Hunting, on the other hand — he'd done that before. He had a bit of confidence there.
The innkeeper shook his head.
"Thought you were a mercenary. A hunter, then? Shame, but you'll need a castle permit to hunt around here. You'd best look for something else."
Permits. Again.
Aside from basic construction labor, apparently everything in this town worked that way. Joseph's face soured, and the innkeeper clicked his tongue in something like pity.
"Tsk tsk... If you haven't even got the coin for a room, you'd be better off trying the monastery."
"The monastery?"
The innkeeper nodded and pointed toward the inner fortress.
"That's right. There's a monastery of the Silimaf Church near the inner fortress. The priests there go out to gather herbs now and then — you might pick up an escort job."
The Silimaf Church. It had been a while since he'd heard that name. The fanatic priest he'd met after first leaving the village had been from the Silimaf Church, no question.
"...Is it a decent place?"
Given that fanatic's attitude, Joseph had his doubts about how wholesome the order really was. He asked the innkeeper offhandedly, and the man let out a dry chuckle, as if he knew exactly what Joseph meant.
"The priests there are a bit off, I'll grant you that. But they look after the sick, so folks like us can't help but like them. Especially in times like these."
Joseph nodded. Herbs were in demand everywhere, always. Having done herb-gathering work himself back in Bari Village, he was sure of that.
What he couldn't figure out was why the priests went out to gather the herbs themselves. According to the innkeeper, everything the herb-gatherers collected went straight into the inner fortress. Hiring the mercenary guild was too expensive, so every now and then they'd pay a hunter or some idle fellow a modest fee to escort them out.
Not bad.
Joseph took the innkeeper's suggestion and headed straight for the monastery. He didn't need a fortune right this minute — just enough living money to last until he met Auger. And unless someone actually attacked him, he wouldn't even need to use magic. Safe enough.
And, if he was being honest, he was a little curious about the Church. The Divinity that only priests were said to be able to see. The Holy Relics that held that Divinity. And the fanatic Combat Priest who'd recognized it in him.
He wasn't looking for any deep involvement. He just wanted to get a sense of what the other priests were like.
When he reached the area near the inner fortress, a large building came into view in the distance. It looked at least three stories high, with tall, narrow windows running vertically and a bell hanging from the end of the roof. The whole thing seemed to announce, quite loudly, that this was no ordinary building.
Stepping inside, he found a high ceiling and a chapel. It didn't look all that different from the church sanctuaries he'd seen in his previous life.
Joseph stood at the entrance, looking around, when a priest emerged from within and addressed him.
"Welcome. What brings you here?"
The man wore a white vestment that had picked up a little grime. His skin was tanned enough that he looked more like a farmer than a priest. He introduced himself as Rekor.
When Joseph said he was looking for work, Rekor nodded.
"As it happens, I was just about to go gather herbs. It's not difficult work, though, so the pay won't be generous."
"That's fine."
Joseph said he didn't mind, and Rekor nodded vigorously.
"The Lord must have sent you!"
"...Ah. Yes."
It was the same look, the same face, as that Combat Priest he'd met before. Instinct told him this conversation should not be allowed to run long.
Are all the priests in this order like this?
Everything was the Lord's will, the Lord's grace. The Silimaf Church had no shortage of fanatics. Joseph decided to just accept that and move on.
Still... he doesn't seem to have noticed.
Rekor had glanced once at Joseph's cloth-wrapped staff, but his expression had been completely indifferent. He seemed to take it for an ordinary wooden walking stick.
"Please wait just a moment, then."
Rekor immediately gathered a pouch for the herbs and a small knife, getting ready to leave. The sooner they headed out, he said, the more they could gather.
Joseph followed him toward the castle gates. Or rather — he tried to.
"H-hey! Hey!"
Someone pointed at Joseph and Rekor on their way to the castle entrance and shouted. Joseph turned, puzzled.
"Hm?"
The face of the man who'd shouted at him was familiar. None other than Auger's squire. Arke.
"Arke...?"
"Mage!"
His voice rang out loud. In an instant, every eye in the vicinity was on them.
"Y-you—!"
You dumb bastard!
Joseph nearly shouted it out loud, then bit it back and pressed a finger to his lips. Arke clamped his mouth shut, then promptly threatened the onlookers until they scattered. He had such a thuggish look about him that people dispersed in no time.
Then Arke approached, watching Joseph's face carefully.
"I've been looking everywhere for you, Mage."
"Pardon? Looking for me?"
What was this now.
"What business did you have with me?"
"Uh... well, I don't actually know the details myself. The Baron was shouting at us to find you, so..."
"The Baron?"
Auger is looking for me?
According to Arke, it wasn't just him — every last private soldier had been running all over the castle searching for Joseph. Joseph's brow furrowed.
...I've got a bad feeling about this.
Auger had been reluctant to part ways, sure, but he hadn't asked Joseph for anything or made any requests. For him to suddenly start hunting Joseph down like this meant something had changed. Something that had happened after they'd arrived at the castle.
This... I don't think it's Auger who's looking for me.
Auger was a noble in his own right. The kind of person who could make a man like that send his entire retinue scrambling across the castle to find Joseph...
Count Valois.
Whatever the reason, there was a strong chance that noble was looking for Joseph right now.
Then the library permit isn't the issue anymore.
Originally, he'd planned to carefully get a library permit through Auger. If that proved difficult, he'd look for another way. But with the Count himself searching for him, that plan was looking a lot less viable.
Why is he looking for me?
Two things came to mind immediately. The demonic beast subjugation Auger had mentioned, and the northern battlefield.
...He's not planning to send me to the front, is he?
Joseph tried to dismiss the thought, but a rising unease had him scratching his head. If that really was the case, spellbooks wouldn't matter — he'd have to worry about keeping his life first.
They probably wouldn't come down that hard on a mage... but he still needed to start thinking about how to get out of this castle, just in case.
What do I do...
While Joseph was turning it over in his head, Rekor, who had been quietly watching Arke and Joseph, spoke up.
"Um..."
"You're a mage, then?"
Joseph let out a small sigh. Arke's voice had been far too loud to play dumb now.
"Yes, though I'm hardly anything special..."
Joseph nodded, and Rekor's eyes went wide. Then, as if overcome, he tossed his pouch aside and began to pray.
Rekor caught his breath, then took a step closer to Joseph.
What's he doing? Why is he coming closer?
The uncomfortably small distance made Joseph shove Arke's back without thinking.
"Whoa!"
Arke hurriedly put some space between them, then glared at Joseph — but didn't dare make a sound at a mage. While Joseph was still flustered, Rekor pressed on as if none of it mattered.
"...Excuse me?"