Interview with Lehman, a Promising Mage of the Empire
Interview with Lehman, a Promising Mage of the Empire
"This should be the place."
Riman had once been counted among the empire's most promising mages.
There was a time when he was touted as a talent who might one day become the empire's greatest archmage.
Now, he was a bottom-feeder who'd lost every last scrap of his former glory.
A rock-bottom mage, drowning in debt to the Golden Wagon and living hand-to-mouth, one day at a time.
All of it came from his own mistakes.
The first was a mana overload.
While conducting research at the magic Tower, an experiment went catastrophically wrong, and the 24th floor—his floor—blew sky-high. He was on the hook for every last bit of the damage.
The reason he alone had to shoulder the cost was simple: he'd been running unauthorized experiments the Tower had explicitly rejected.
-Training methods for fine-tuned mana control.
-What is the maximum achievable force when magic is compressed and manifested within an extremely confined area?
The Tower dismissed his proposals as useless research and rejected his applications. He went ahead in secret anyway, and his laboratory exploded.
The entity that took him in after he'd lost everything was GW—the Golden Wagon's financing arm, or something closer to an investment firm.
A company that identified promising mages, knights, and talents with bright futures, invested in them, became their exclusive sponsors, and eventually recommended them for positions working under the Golden Wagon itself.
Since most first-tier talents wound up in the Imperial Household, the place was largely filled with what you might call second-tier leftovers.
Though occasionally they didn't let talents who'd caused accidents—like Riman—slip through the cracks.
They'd clear your debts, and in exchange you'd serve as a GW-exclusive mage.
That was the contract Riman signed.
But that alone wouldn't have sent a mage once renowned across the empire plummeting into the abyss.
What truly dragged him all the way to the bottom was gambling.
He'd reached for the one thing he should never have touched, and on top of everything else, he'd lost even the money GW had given him.
He didn't take on new debt—the problem was that the money from GW had been research funding, and a debt he was obligated to repay.
That was when Camilla slid a contract in front of him.
-You will obey my orders without question, never speak of the work you do, and never ask why. Sign this pledge, and I'll forgive this incident.
It was an offer to work entirely in the shadows of the Golden Wagon.
The alternative was death.
He owed far too much money to GW, the Golden Wagon's financier.
-Understood.
Some time later, his employer and master, Camilla, sent him a letter.
-Go to the Britten Viscounty in the south of the empire and locate Sir Lucas. Whatever that man tells you to do, you will follow his every word.
-Warning: Tell no one. Travel quietly and alone.
He'd taken a teleport gate straight here.
"What exactly am I supposed to do in a backwater territory like this?"
Riman's brow creased as he took in the shabby appearance of the Viscount Britten's domain.
Even fallen as he was, he'd once been called the empire's greatest magical prodigy.
He let out a sigh and ran a hand through his brown hair.
Nothing for it.
When you got down to it, wasn't all of this his own fault?
Admit the mistake, start the climb back up. Simple enough.
Camilla was the wealthiest person in the empire and the head of its most powerful merchant group—second only to the Emperor himself in wealth. The Wagon family's sheer capital alone was said to be staggering.
And before she was a merchant, she was the head of a count's house with its own history. Her power was nothing to dismiss.
If he succeeded under her, there'd be a chance to rebound at any moment.
'As long as I never touch gambling again...'
Right.
So long as that held true, he could rise again whenever the moment came.
Entering the Britten castle, Riman surveyed his surroundings.
'The letter said Sir Lucas.'
A knight would be in the inner castle.
He headed straight there without a second thought. Less than an hour later, he realized his judgment had been completely wrong.
"Sir Lucas? There's a Knight Restaurant—he's the owner there."
"He used to be a knight in the capital, they say. That's probably why it's called the Knight Restaurant."
Riman made his way to the Knight Restaurant the soldiers had mentioned.
Beneath a sign written in a script he didn't recognize, a restaurant teeming with people came into view.
A large board was posted outside.
He recognized it immediately.
Every Golden Wagon-affiliated shop in the capital used the very same kind of board.
To think a rural diner out here was employing the same promotional method the Golden Wagon had only recently adopted.
'Is there some connection to Lady Camilla?'
Riman cautiously approached the board.
==============
★★★★★
-Liana, Territory Administrator of the Viscount's Household-
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★★★★★
-Heimer, Knight of the Viscount's Household-
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★★★★★
......[See More]......
-Lancelot, Knight Commander of the Viscount's Household-
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.......
The board was stuffed with dozens upon dozens of testimonials from locals, administrators, knights, and even what appeared to be the lord himself.
Common folk had scribbled simple reviews as well.
There were also staff recommendations.
"Waitress Andrea?"
Whoever she was, she clearly loved meat.
"Looks like she's got quite the appetite."
Her testimonials alone numbered over ten pages.
She'd written that she recommended every single menu item containing meat.
Clearly, she had to be enormous in stature.
Some kind of laborer who relied on brute strength?
Scattered between the testimonials were smaller slips of paper tacked on beneath them.
Other customers had appended their own opinions to someone else's review.
One person's handwriting showed up especially often.
-Forget the donkatsu. Eat gukbap.
-If you're going to eat something like bibimbap, you're better off eating a hot, hearty bowl of gukbap.
-Gukbap isn't only pork gukbap. Sagol-guk can also be counted among the ranks of gukbap, and the meatless kongnamul gukbap is also an excellent value-for-money......[See More].
A man named Ivan was uniquely zealous about leaving replies on other people's posts, spreading the gospel of gukbap.
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★★★★★
I, Camilla Wagon, do hereby declare:
Doenjang-jjigae—no, Doenjang-jjigae blended with freshly steamed tofu and tuu brisket—is the food of the gods.
It is so delicious I feel genuine pity for any mouth that has never tasted it.
.......
Do you want to succeed as I have? Then eat Doenjang-jjigae and Cheonggukjang.
Recommended Dishes: Dubu Kimchi / Sundubu / Doenjang-jjigae / Tu!u!Bris!ket!Doen!jang!Jji!gae! / Cheonggukjang.
-Camilla Wagon, Head of the Golden Wagon Merchant Group-
==============
And there, plastered on the largest sheet of paper, sat Camilla Wagon's testimonial.
Only then did Riman grasp why she'd sent him here.
'She told me to assist Sir Lucas.'
A knight who appeared to be the restaurant's owner.
And Camilla, watching that man closely.
As I suspected.
'Was the idea for this board also his?'
If so, did that mean she planned to acquire this place and open a chain of similar restaurants in the imperial capital as well?
Riman spotted a building going up near the Knight Restaurant.
'A territory on the rise.'
There was something being aimed for here—that much was obvious.
But was there truly work for him to do in a place like this?
No matter how he turned it over, he couldn't figure it out.
That was when it happened.
"Oh? Are you a customer?"
A woman approached him as he stood at the entrance studying the board.
Blonde hair, blue eyes, and pointed ears.
"......An elf?"
Elves were famous as a slender-framed race.
The elf now standing before him, however, had a physique closer to voluptuous.
She was more solidly built than a typical elf—firmer flesh, denser muscle, and her chest seemed larger—but she was unmistakably an elf.
"I'm Andrea, a waitress here. Are you dining alone?"
An elf working as a waitress?
What on earth was this restaurant?
How had a forest-dweller ended up serving tables in a diner.......
Riman suppressed his bewilderment as best he could and responded.
"Ah, I'm not a customer. I'm a mage Lady Camilla sent to Sir Lucas."
"Oh, so it's you. Come on in. Boss!"
The elf pattered briskly inside, and Riman followed after her.
She wasn't your typical elf, but he was curious to lay eyes on the knight a prideful elf would call "boss."
Riman stepped into the restaurant behind her.
An unfamiliar scent filled the air.
'That's steamed rice.......'
Among the nobility, rice was regarded as a high-end food.
That was because very few establishments could properly prepare it.
Chefs capable of producing rice that was glossy and perfectly cooked—each grain distinct and fluffy—were rare even in the capital.
With so few who could truly do it justice, it'd become a luxury.
'Seems they've got a chef with more skill than I expected.'
Beyond the rice, he spotted many other unfamiliar dishes.
The aromas themselves were markedly different from anything Riman knew.
'Fascinating in more ways than one.'
With that thought, he headed deeper inside.
And there, waiting for him, stood—
"You're the mage Lady Camilla sent?"
A man with a white bandana wrapped around his head.
The man said,
"I'm Lucas of House Roman."
This chef was Lucas?
"Riman, a mage with GW."
"Bear with me just a moment, if you would. Things are a bit busy right now."
"...Understood."
Riman didn't care for the way Lucas was handling him.
Ancient history though it might be, he'd once been the hottest mage in the empire—and more than that, he was a Golden Wagon mage.
Sure, in reality he was a bottom-feeding mage buried in debt, barely scraping by.
But the pride that came with the title "mage" was rock-solid.
Bottom-feeder or not, he wasn't the sort of man who should be dismissed by some rural kitchen boss.
'I am a generous man. I will endure this.'
It absolutely was not because Camilla had taken a liking to this man, and Riman was minding his tail accordingly.
Riman was a man of generous character. That was why he was letting this slide.
Right.
That was exactly it.
Riman took a seat in the corner and watched the establishment run its course.
Customers flooded in without a moment's respite.
'A rural backwater, and this many customers come?'
It was hard to believe.
Even restaurants in reasonably sized cities had trouble pulling these kinds of numbers.
He was beginning to understand why the owner here had caught Camilla's eye.
Lunch service came to an end.
"Shall we begin the interview?"
"Interview?"
"Yes. I think a process is necessary to confirm whether you're the mage I'm looking for. What I wanted was a mage capable of high-level alchemy, you see."
Riman faced Lucas, who was scratching at his pride in a way that was oddly specific.
***
Lucas watched as Riman put on a dazzling magic show right before his eyes.
-Allow me to demonstrate!
Magic burst—pop! fwoom!—into the empty air in volleys.
This was the kind of magic you'd pay good money to see and still be lucky to witness.
Especially when the flame born at his fingertips transformed into a dragon and loosed a roaring breath—in that moment, I felt the sheer enormity of Riman's magical mastery.
He wasn't just a man of brute strength. He understood the importance of handling magic with exquisite precision.
Icicles raining from the ceiling met the fire-forged dragon and turned to steam. Using the dense white vapor, Riman shaped it into the form of an elf drawing a bow.
Fire, water, even wind.
A remarkably versatile mage.
Plentiful talent, and skill that lived up to the pride.
'A repair technician for flare ranges and refrigerators—and a portable fridge on the go if he tags along.'
Not bad.
But that was all just bonus material. It wasn't what I was actually after.
"Very impressive. Truly excellent. Worthy of a mage sent by Lady Camilla."
"Ahem. You've got a good eye on you."
"A mage of your caliber should have no trouble turning this liquid into a powder, yes?"
I held out the seasoning sauce I'd made by dissolving gochujang, chili powder, soy sauce, and various other seasonings into water, and asked.
"You want me to turn this liquid into a powder?"
"Surely you're not saying you can't?"
"......."
Riman stared at me, utterly dumbfounded.