Proof of Ability
When Joseph began reciting the incantation for Fire, his private soldiers flinched. If the spell actually went off, they would be well within its blast radius. But Joseph was still sitting there, perfectly composed, so they held their ground and trusted him.
"Eeeek!"
Givra, however, shrieked in terror at the sound of the chant. Then he started thrashing, tears and snot streaming down his face — even though the mana orb had not actually turned into flame. In truth, Joseph had not moved a scrap of mana. He had merely muttered the words as a threat.
"Ugh..."
The soldiers watching this grimaced and took a step back. Joseph, meanwhile, never took his eyes off Givra.
Doesn't seem like an assassin, at any rate...
Anyone that terrified would have spilled every secret they had by now. Joseph recalled the mana orb and ordered them to haul the man to his feet.
"Who are you, and who sent you?"
Givra immediately started babbling about himself.
"I-I'm Givra of the Hysen Mercenary Group! A low-rank mercenary!"
At that, Derik started rifling through the man's clothes. He pulled a mercenary plaque from a pocket and handed it to Joseph. Just as Givra had claimed, the plaque bore his name as a low-rank mercenary of the Hysen Mercenary Group. The reverse side listed nothing but menial jobs — warehouse guard duty, that sort of thing.
Looks clean enough on the surface.
Of course, Joseph was not about to take a mercenary plaque at face value. Those things could be forged easily enough if you needed them to be. He had already run into people who had done exactly that. He could verify it at the mercenary guild, but that was not something he could do right now.
"Why was a mercenary looking for me?"
"I just thought there might be work! Please, I'm telling the truth!"
Joseph's brow furrowed. He had not done a single thing in this city yet. Three days of looking around, plus a visit to the Kerbe Merchant Guild. That was it. So how had this man known enough to come looking for work?
"Does that make any sense? I only arrived in the city the day before yesterday."
As Joseph spoke, the mana orb began to emit a strange hiss. Givra screamed again and blurted out in a panic:
"Aaaagh—!" "I overheard a Kerbe Merchant Guild servant talking to the city guards!"
Joseph's eyes narrowed.
"...A servant from the Kerbe Merchant Guild?"
"Y-yes!"
"What are you talking about? Explain."
Givra scrambled to continue, his words tumbling over each other in his panic. The explanation was a mess, but the gist came through.
"I saw a servant from that guild asking the guards about someone who'd arrived by carriage! The Kerbe Merchant Guild! Yes! I saw — no, I heard — a Kerbe Guild servant asking about it!"
"And what does that have to do with you coming here looking for work?"
"W-when someone new shows up in this city, new work always follows!"
"What?"
Joseph blinked at the sudden outburst. Givra hurried on.
"It's a well-known saying among the mercenaries in this city. Wh-whenever a new noble or a rich man comes to town, decent work is guaranteed to follow. But the moment those jobs appear, other guys snatch them all up...! I just wanted to get the information first! That's all, I swear!"
In other words: a Kerbe Guild servant had been asking the city guards about Joseph, and Givra — who had been on warehouse duty near the city gates — had overheard. A low-rank mercenary, he had hoped to get the jump on everyone else and land the work himself.
"Hmph."
Joseph snorted, unimpressed. He had more or less expected the Kerbe Merchant Guild to look into him. To Braham, Joseph was a bizarre windfall that had dropped out of nowhere. Any merchant worth his salt would try to figure out who he really was.
That aside, this mercenary really did seem to have come looking for work and nothing more. A few assassination attempts in the past had left Joseph's nerves wound tight. Apparently, sometimes a situation really was just this mundane.
What a letdown.
Joseph sighed and started to recall the mana orb.
"Wait."
Then he paused, as if something had just struck him as odd.
"You. How exactly did you overhear that?"
"I-I just..."
"Tell me exactly what you heard."
Givra stammered out his answer.
"The guild servant asked about someone who'd arrived by carriage yesterday. The guard said it was a man in a robe who'd brought three soldiers in metal armor..."
Soldiers in metal armor, arriving by carriage...
That was enough to identify him, sure.
"And then?"
"Huh?"
"I mean how did you get from that to showing up here."
Joseph snapped, and Givra scrambled to answer.
"W-well... I'd seen someone else with a similar description looking for the Kerbe Merchant Guild before. It reminded me of when that person first arrived."
Apparently another mage who did business with the Kerbe Guild visited Caladon once every few years. Givra had seen it himself, on the occasions he had pulled guard duty near the harbor.
"That person also brought soldiers and stayed with the Kerbe Guild... and I heard they went looking for a workshop, just like you, sir."
"So you figured I'd do the same?"
"Yes."
"Let's say that's true. You think there's only one or two workshops around here?"
The Artisan Guild's workshop district stretched from the blacksmith forges near the guild hall all the way through the stonemasons' and carpenters' shops. There were dozens of them. Out of all those workshops, how had he pinpointed the lapidaries' quarter — and this specific shop, no less?
Givra fumbled for an answer.
"Well... the Kerbe Guild mainly deals in artifacts, doesn't it? And artifacts usually look like small sculptures. Not always, but m-mostly! Anyway, I figured if you were going to make something like that, you'd look for the lapidaries' quarter..."
"..."
"So I started searching around here, and after that..."
He had tried to peek into the workshop, gotten caught by Jiren, and been beaten half to death. That was the rest of it. He squeezed his eyes shut as he finished. Now that he had said it out loud, it sounded like more than enough reason to kill him on the spot. He had tried to get a jump on a decent job and ended up on a mage's bad side instead.
What's with this guy...?
But contrary to Givra's expectations, Joseph was looking at him the way one might look at a rare curiosity.
If this guy's telling the truth, he tracked me down from a single overheard conversation with a city guard. All on his own.
Thinking it through, it was not entirely impossible. Joseph had not been advertising himself, but he had not been hiding, either. The problem was that this low-rank mercenary had never been trained to think like that. Even in his previous life, plenty of people could not follow a simple chain of logic. In a world without even compulsory education, this man had reasoned it out by himself and found his way here. Which meant Givra had found Joseph through nothing but his own ability.
Well, look at this guy.
Judging by how thoroughly the soldiers had beaten him, he was not much of a fighter. He was not particularly eloquent, either, and he did not seem to have any other standout qualities. And yet Joseph found himself curious.
Ordinarily, Joseph would have wrapped this up and sent the man packing. But after hearing all this, he was starting to change his mind.
This one's a find.
Whether Givra realized it or not, his talent was clearly useful. This was not the kind of thing you could learn through practice.
Joseph glanced back at the soldiers behind him. They worked hard enough, but they were still clumsy in a lot of ways. The investigation he had sent them on around the city had not turned up much of anything besides the Kerbe Guild.
I could have used someone like this...
He would definitely be a big help going forward. After a moment's thought, Joseph spoke.
"Givra, was it?"
"Y-yes!"
Givra's head snapped up.
"You're a low-rank mercenary?"
"Th-that's right!"
"Seems like a waste of your talent, just guarding warehouses."
Givra stared at him, baffled. He clearly had no idea what Joseph was talking about.
"I want to verify whether what you said is true."
Joseph considered what to assign him.
There's the artisan problem, too...
Haguss had the skill, but not the work ethic. He had been a poor fit. Joseph needed a new artisan before the materials arrived in a week, and he could not exactly put out a public recruitment.
Asking the Kerbe Guild again would be awkward, too.
He could go back to Braham, but they had already introduced Haguss. Asking again would be a hassle. Joseph did not want to come off as a difficult client from the start. Besides, Braham would be busy tracking down the artifact materials Joseph had requested.
"Think you can bring me a skilled artisan from this city? Someone diligent, who knows how to keep their mouth shut."
"What?"
Givra blinked, thrown by the sudden, specific assignment.
"I'll pay you, of course. I need to see if you actually have that kind of ability. What do you say?"
Givra sat there stunned for a moment. Then something clicked, and he bowed his head in a rush. He had realized the opportunity he had been hoping for had just landed in his lap.
"Th-thank you! I'll do my best!"
Joseph let out a small chuckle. Interesting. He had picked up a promising one. Whether the man actually had the goods — well, they would find out soon enough.
Even after he had stepped outside the workshop, Givra stood there in a daze for a long time.
What just happened? What the hell just happened?
He still could not believe it. He had thought he was going to die. Instead, he had lived — and landed a job on top of it. A mage's job, no less.
Givra smacked himself across the face. A sharp sting bloomed across his already swollen cheek. Not a dream.
It's real. This actually happened.
His heart started pounding. A man who had spent his whole life guarding warehouses, scraping by day to day — and now, all of a sudden, he was working for a mage. And the mage had said he would pay. Whatever the amount, it would be far more than a low-rank mercenary's wages.
But can I actually do this?
A wave of anxiety hit him. Find a skilled, diligent artisan. Where was he even supposed to start? Mercenary work was just following orders. This was something else entirely.
I still have to do it. When's an opportunity like this ever going to come again?
Givra clenched his fists.
The mage's words were still ringing in his ears. It still felt unreal that someone that important had seen something in him. No one had ever recognized him. Not once in his entire life. And then a mage he had just met had seen him for what he was.
I can't let him down.
Givra drew a deep breath. He had to pull this off, no matter what. If he missed this chance, there would never be another. This was the only way out of a life spent as a low-rank mercenary.
Alright. Where do I start?
Givra started walking, thinking as he went. He thought about why the mage had chosen him. The mage had asked how he had found his way here, then hired him on the spot. So that was what he needed to use.
A lapidary artisan.
If he needed a lapidary, the Artisan Guild was the obvious first stop. But the mage wanted someone unconnected to the Kerbe Guild. Did that mean he should look for an artisan who was not formally affiliated with the guild?
And he specified someone diligent...
Thoughts began turning over in Givra's mind. It was daunting, but at the same time, his heart was racing in a way he could not quite explain. When was the last time he had actually used his head to solve something in this city?
I can do this. I can do this too.
Givra clenched his fists once more and picked up his pace.