Mistra, the Great City (1)
Before entering Mistra, Lawrence changed his clothes first.
He folded his neatly pressed surplice and stole and tucked them into his bag.
His sword and short spear hung at his hips. Over his brigandine, he pulled on a robe.
It was the same outfit he had worn when investigating the Gutter in Rombamel.
An ordinary mercenary with no obvious connection to the Church.
Now that he had reached Mistra, there was nothing to be gained by carelessness. The Magic Tower was close enough here that he had to be even more wary of its gaze.
When he stepped out of the carriage, the area around him was already crowded with people.
As in any town, the lines for inspecting carriages and travelers were split apart. A family of four. Laborers commuting in and out of the city. Mercenaries with dirty sacks in hand. Altogether, there were five separate lines of people waiting their turn.
The great city of Mistra was already chaotic from the checkpoint alone.
“We’d appreciate your cooperation to help the inspection go more quickly.”
“Even if it’s a little crowded, please keep order. If everyone cooperates just a bit, there’s no need for anyone to leave here red-faced.”
Soldiers moved through the crowd at regular intervals.
Wherever people gathered, trouble was never far behind.
The soldiers patrolled actively, preventing little disputes and outbursts before they could escalate.
“The Black Rose Trading Company. Ten carriages in total. You came from Frang Village, I see.”
“You’ve got my thanks for your hard work. The goods on board are byproducts from horn boar and some ore. Would you like to check them right now?”
Brom stepped forward to represent the group.
“No. We’ll inspect the cargo at the checkpoint. But if you prepare it in an easy-to-check condition beforehand, the entry will go more smoothly.”
“It was prepared a long time ago. Fast, accurate work—that’s the Black Rose Trading Company’s rule.”
A businesslike smile settled on Brom’s lips.
The soldier looked faintly uncomfortable, as if the expression were a little too much to handle.
“I’ll report up the chain first.”
“Thank you.”
After what felt like an hour, just as the mercenaries seated in the carriages were beginning to doze off, the party finally reached the checkpoint gate.
“Slowly now. Ten carriages from the Black Rose Trading Company. Confirmed.”
“Thank you for your cooperation. We’ll inspect the goods first.”
“Please step forward, leaving only the minimum number of people needed to confirm the cargo. Who is in charge here?”
“I’m Brom, deputy head of the Black Rose Trading Company. These are important goods, so I’d appreciate it if you handled them carefully.”
That was business for the trading company to handle.
The mercenaries who had peeled away from the group submitted their guild plates to the checkpoint guards.
With four or five guards assigned to each line, the verification was over quickly.
That was only natural, given the city’s scale. With so much traffic in and out, the checkpoint saw no shortage of work.
“Silver Plate mercenary, Maris? Is that you?”
“…….”
Under the guard’s suspicious gaze, Maris pulled back his hood.
A completely ordinary face, impossible to single out for any special feature, was revealed.
He opened his eyes wide and shook his partisan as if to say, look again.
The guard glanced back and forth between the Silver Plate and Maris, then nodded.
“Pass.”
One by one, the mercenaries entered the city.
At last, it was Lawrence’s turn.
“You’ve got your hands full, I’m sure.”
“May I see your plate?”
“Here you are.”
The guard checked Lawrence’s plate.
His eyes stopped on something on the back.
“A member of the Holy Cross Order?”
“May the Goddess’s blessing be with you.”
“May the Goddess’s blessing be with you.”
He quietly repeated the Church’s greeting aloud.
The guard answered naturally, almost on instinct.
“A pilgrim of the Order, but working as a mercenary.”
“Yes. I’m traveling to the holy sites in each region.”
“There aren’t any pilgrimage routes or holy sites around Mistra. There is an Anatacio Monastery managed by the Order on the outskirts of the city. If you don’t have a proper place to stay, you might want to check there.”
“Thank you for your kindness.”
This was a large city, the kind where he would have been surprised if the Church’s hand had not reached it in some way.
Still, a monastery…
Honestly, he had expected a temple.
“I only did what was needed as a servant who believes in and follows the Goddess. If anything, I hope I wasn’t being too presumptuous with my interference.”
“Not at all. It was a great help. I hope the same blessings are with you, guard.”
“And I hope the Goddess’s blessing is with you while you’re in our city, pilgrim.”
Lawrence bowed his head in thanks.
Of course, he had no intention of going to the monastery.
Mistra was merely a stopover on the way to the Magic Tower.
The shorter his stay, the better.
He planned to gather information on a job that would take him there as quickly as possible, and then leave Mistra immediately.
He intended to book a normal inn as well.
Staying at the monastery would save him money on lodging, sure, but it might also expose him to the Magic Tower’s gaze, if one happened to be watching.
He couldn’t afford that.
He couldn’t fall flat on his face before he had even begun.
Soon afterward, the rest of the trading company’s carriages entered the city.
At Brom’s order, the wagons headed to a nearby carriage depot.
In Brom’s place, who was busy to the point of frenzy, Bastille took charge of the mercenaries.
“You’ve all worked hard. I hope this ends up being a satisfactory job for both sides. Payment will be handed out in order. Once things here are settled, I plan to lead you to the restaurant we reserved, so if you’re interested, don’t leave yet—please stick around.”
“You’re paying for it?”
“Not me. Our deputy head is.”
“Now that’s welcome news. I won’t have to mind my manners while I eat.”
The bold reply drew laughter from the mercenaries.
Nothing felt better than this moment, when the job was over and the pay was in hand.
The reward for honest labor.
Lawrence checked the money pouch Bastille had given him.
“It seems there’s another five silver in here….”
“There were three mercenaries serving as team leaders. It’s only right that you receive extra compensation for the trouble you took. Our company never makes mistakes in calculations like this.”
“Is that so? Then I’ll accept it gratefully.”
“I haven’t seen your skill with my own eyes, but another mercenary told me about it. They say they call you the Shadow Mage?”
“…….”
Bastille took a letter from inside his coat.
“If you’re interested in working with us again, come find our company.”
“Is this a scouting offer?”
“You could call it that.”
“Think about it,” he said, patting Lawrence on the shoulder.
The boy moved away from the spot and opened the letter.
It contained both words and a sketch.
Where the Black Rose Trading Company was staying, and how to find it—everything was carefully laid out, with a drawing to go along with the directions.
After glancing through it for a moment, Lawrence tucked the letter into his bag.
A small laugh escaped him.
He hadn’t done anything especially impressive, so he hadn’t expected to receive a scouting offer.
Then again, the more he thought about it, the more natural it seemed.
This was a matter of value before skill.
Magicians weren’t common.
It wasn’t strange for a trading company to covet one.
A few of the mercenaries didn’t head to the restaurant and instead turned away.
Maris was among them.
He nearly ignored everything Bastille had said and simply took his payment before leaving.
His steps made no sound.
Maris adjusted his partisan and muttered something under his breath.
“…Mortis.”
Lawrence had no idea what that meant.
It was the first time he had heard Maris’s voice, and it was perfectly ordinary.
Dunstan stayed behind.
When their eyes met, he pointed toward the restaurant with a gesture.
He didn’t seem to be coming along.
Once Lawrence made that clear, Dunstan nodded.
The job was over.
From here on, he would have to hurry with the preparations for the Magic Tower.
* * *
He decided to stay in Mistra for a week.
That was enough time to shake off the fatigue of the road.
Forty copper a night.
The lodging was more expensive than even Rombamel had been.
There were cheaper rooms, but the problem was that they were shared dormitories with several people in one room.
No matter what, he couldn’t bring himself to share a room with strangers.
Besides, it wasn’t as though he were short on money.
For now, he negotiated the price of lodging by including bathwater and breakfast.
Two silver and fifty copper for the week.
He couldn’t bargain it down very much.
The reason was simple.
There were too many guests.
Even without Lawrence, there were more people than the place could comfortably handle.
And the shared rooms he wanted to avoid were nearly full anyway. It wasn’t as though there were plenty of normal rooms available.
After unpacking, Lawrence stepped out into the street.
There was no need to rush the meal; he could eat later.
First, he planned to go to the magic shop he had asked around about.
The weight of the heavy money pouch felt good.
The money he had earned by hunting horn boars in Frang.
The payment he had received for escorting the Black Rose Trading Company.
When he combined the two pouches, he had a small fortune: one gold and fifty silver.
He had enough to buy a magic book.
With his chest swelling in anticipation, Lawrence set off.
Mistra branch magic shop.
From the outside, it looked much like the magic shop he had seen in Rombamel.
An old building.
A shop that looked as though it had a giant mushroom turned upside down over it.
Jingle.
A bell rang to announce a customer’s arrival.
The shop interior was packed with the usual assortment of magic books and antiques.
Unlike the one in Rombamel, where not a single customer had been in sight, this Mistra branch had a few people inside.
Aside from the clerk seated at the counter, there were two others.
All of them had their robes and hoods pulled low.
The two customers were reading magic books in front of a bookshelf.
Even the bell from the door hadn’t broken their concentration.
He couldn’t tell whether they were magicians, but given their unusual focus, it certainly seemed possible.
“Looking for something in particular?”
The clerk, a man wearing oversized glasses that pinched his nose, lifted his head from his book.
“I’m looking for a basic magic book.”
“A basic magic book, then. Which attribute would you like?”
“There are books separated by attribute?”
“You say that as though it’s surprising.”
Lawrence rested a hand on his chin.
He had already learned Fire, which was fire attribute, and Water, which was water attribute.
Learning the other two attributes wouldn’t be a bad thing.
So that meant wind or earth….
But before that, there was something he wanted to ask.
“Do you happen to have magic books that deal with light or shadow?”
He didn’t mention Hwi-gwang or Heosu directly.
The clerk frowned slightly, then spoke.
“Hmm. If you mean Light, then yes, we do.”
“My apologies for asking again. What kind of magic is Light?”
“It’s a light-producing spell used to illuminate dark spaces. As far as our shop is concerned, Light is the only magic book we carry that deals with light.”
After hearing the explanation, Lawrence couldn’t hide his disappointment.
Light.
A ball of illumination for dark places.
It had no other function at all; it simply drove back darkness.
No matter how he tried to dress it up, all he could think was that it was a downgraded version of Shadow Light.
“Sir. I’m sorry, but you’re not unaware of what the four great magical attributes are, are you?”
“I know them. Fire and water. Wind and earth, right?”
He felt a little irritated, as though he were being looked down on.
“If you know that much, then I don’t understand why you’d be looking for other attributes. Of course, there are attributes outside the four great ones—ice, lightning, and so on. But there aren’t many magic books for those that haven’t become mainstream. They’re not items we can carry in a shop like this.”
The clerk’s tone had grown a little stiff.
From that voice, Lawrence realized he had gotten ahead of himself.
It was a bad habit.
He really was born with a magician’s nature.
Whenever magic came up, it was hard to control himself.
“Sorry. I was just curious, that’s all. Then I’d like to see a basic magic book for wind, please.”
There was no need to make himself look suspicious.
Lawrence forcibly shelved his lingering disappointment and got to the point.
“Just a moment.”
Fortunately, the clerk didn’t seem to suspect anything.
He stood up and took a book from the shelf.
“If you’re starting with wind, this is the spell to begin with.”
The dusty book was about the same thickness as Water.
Lawrence brushed the dust from its title.
Wind.
After confirming the name of the magic book, he looked at the clerk.
“How much is this?”
“One gold.”
“Do you also have Water?”
“Do you need it?”
The clerk sounded annoyed.
As if to say that if he was going to buy it, he should’ve said so at once instead of asking separately.
“No. I just wanted to ask the price.”
“Water is the same: one gold. You can think of a basic magic book as costing one gold, plain and simple.”
One gold at minimum. If he wanted to learn the basic earth attribute spells too, he’d need to save up more money.
“I’ll take this one.”
After paying, Lawrence put the Wind book into his bag.
For a moment, he caught sight of the Water book already inside it.
It was a magic shop, so they must buy as well as sell magic books. Since he had already read it, shouldn’t he just sell it here?
No. That wasn’t right.
This was a gift from Luriziza.
If he had bought it himself, that would be one thing.
He couldn’t casually sell a gift.
“Anything else you need?”
“No. What I need next is….”
He trailed off, then voiced what had just occurred to him.
“How much are attack spells, by any chance?”
“Attack spells start at around five gold and go up to ten.”
Five to ten gold.
Stunned by the sudden jump in price, Lawrence blinked.
“That expensive?”
“Normally, people don’t learn attack spells from a magic shop.”
The clerk removed his glasses and set them down.
“Besides, the attack spells sold here are all close to basic level. To be exact, we can’t carry books with power stronger than that.”
“May I ask why?”
“It’s guidance from the Magic Tower and the Royal Academy. If you want to learn greater mysteries, you need to go to a place worthy of them. Just like you’re doing now, in fact.”
“…….”
The magic books sold in shops were limited to theory and fundamentals.
It seemed that anything above a certain level was controlled from above.
In other words, if he wanted greater knowledge, he had no choice but to seek out the Magic Tower or the Academy.
“From the looks of it, someone from the retired-magician circle seems to have taught you. In that case, I recommend you take this chance to visit the Magic Tower. It isn’t that far from here, after all, so it should be a good opportunity.”