Miriam (2)
The first day’s lunch ended up being a little late.
For the time being, they’d followed Lionel’s lead and put getting off the road first. By the time they’d worked their way out of the crowd heading into Mistra, it was well past two in the afternoon.
Still, thanks to the jerky they’d nibbled on whenever they got the chance, they weren’t quite hungry enough for their stomachs to start growling.
There was still plenty of human presence all around them.
They didn’t even have to look far to see travelers busy preparing meals.
Some had driven out by carriage. Others were on foot. Everyone had found a decent spot and was starting fires.
While Lionel got the cooking underway, Miriam gathered branches that would serve well enough as firewood.
Lawrence, who had been keeping watch on their surroundings, stopped her as she reached for the flint.
Fire.
Flames leapt across.
Miriam let out an admiring breath as the fire blossomed in an instant.
“That’s amazing,” she said.
“It’s magic,” Lawrence replied.
He didn’t especially like being turned into a spectacle, but using magic where it was needed was only natural.
Fortunately, Miriam was a sensible person.
Even if the reason she was going to the Magic Tower was to see magic, she never once badgered Lawrence to show her any.
She simply watched with bright eyes, taking in every detail.
Lunch was a stew loaded with all kinds of vegetables and pork.
They had just left the city, so the ingredients were still fresh.
Before setting off in earnest, Lionel had quickly used up the perishables that were hard to store.
“Oh, this is delicious.”
“I’m glad it suits you, Miss Miriam. Makes all the effort worthwhile.”
Of course, it couldn’t compare to food served in an inn or a restaurant.
But being able to eat a meal of this quality out on the road was close to a blessing.
“And how about you?” Lionel asked.
“May I have another bowl?”
“Ahaha. There’s still plenty left, so don’t you worry and eat up.”
Lionel broke into a hearty laugh when Lawrence held out his empty bowl.
“I’ve noticed there are quite a few peddlers heading to the Magic Tower.”
“Quite a few? It’s practically everyone. Merchants who arrive in Mistra usually either head north to Winterglen or peel off toward the Magic Tower. No matter which way they go, there’s good money left in their pockets.”
“I didn’t realize there were so many essentials left over.”
“They don’t have to be essentials, exactly. Long-keeping ingredients are good. Warm clothing or oil that gets used up quickly, too. Honestly, I’d say almost anything can turn a profit. The Magic Tower is always short on supplies.”
He added, with a shrug, that it was a land of opportunity for them in one way or another.
“I know there are some villages around the Magic Tower. Still, I guess things aren’t very good if it’s like that.”
“Mm… to be exact, it has to do with the nature of mages.”
At Miriam’s question, Lionel lifted his spoon.
“Mages are broadly split into those who stay inside the tower and those who work in the workshop district, and unless something unusual comes up, they never go outside.”
“That’s the complete opposite of me.”
“Exactly. You travel around as a mercenary, while the mages in the tower are always holed up inside their workshops.”
“Then isn’t that just normal? From where I’m standing, Lawrence seems like the unusual one.”
If that was how everyone lived, then perhaps… well, from a mage’s point of view, maybe it was normal after all.
“In any case, that means when mages do come outside, they tend to buy everything in bulk. Clothes, food, whatever. So if your timing’s right, you can make a tidy sum.”
Lawrence nodded silently.
Buy in bulk when they do come out, then head back.
Thinking in terms of efficiency, it wasn’t a bad idea at all.
If you went back and forth to the village every day, that ate up a lot of time.
And naturally, the more often you left your room, the more stamina you spent.
If you were going to cut into your sleep just to study magic, it was a pretty sensible approach.
“If that’s the case, then I’m a little worried. I thought I’d get to see a lot of magic near the tower.”
“So the reason you’re going to the Magic Tower is because of magic?”
“Yes. I thought it might help with singing.”
“In that case, you may want to think again. The mages at the tower don’t show magic to just anyone.”
That matched what Lawrence had heard.
Marcus from the Black Rose Merchant Group had once accompanied a mage from the tower, and apparently he’d only managed to see magic once.
And even then, it had been telekinesis, one of the basic spells.
It must have been very different from the sort of magic people usually imagined.
“Then, Mr. Lionel. How can I see magic, then?”
“Hmm. What about visiting a mage’s workshop? There’s all sorts of research going on inside them. I’ve heard some workshops will even let you tour them for a fee. And if you’re with a mage, couldn’t you even ask them to show you some magic?”
“A workshop sounds… dangerous somehow.”
“Hard to argue with that. You’d be alone with a mage in a cramped space, after all. Anything could happen.”
As if he understood perfectly, Lionel nodded.
“Then there’s only one way. You’ll have to go into the tower.”
“Oh? Can ordinary people go into the Magic Tower?”
“There are a few public areas. But even then, they don’t just let anybody in. I’ve heard you can get inside through a few different means—money, for one, or by knowing someone.”
“I don’t know anyone, obviously. Which means money is the only option.”
“It’ll be a heavy burden. From what I hear, you need to pay several gold just to get into the tower. That’s why I’m told only nobles, and the like, visit it now and then.”
“……”
At the unexpected amount, Miriam’s face stiffened.
“Ahaha. If a performance goes well, I make around one silver. If we call the cost of entering the tower one gold… then I’d have to sing without a day off for nearly a hundred days just to get in.”
“Realistically, that’s absurd. It would probably help more to just sneak a peek at the magic this fellow uses.”
Lionel clapped Lawrence on the shoulder.
He hit so hard that stew splashed over the rim of the bowl.
“Mr. Lionel. Don’t kick a dog while it’s eating.”
“Hm? Sorry. I didn’t realize you were still eating.”
“Just so there’s no misunderstanding: magic isn’t some kind of sideshow.”
“I understand. It’s not exactly how I feel either, but people keep asking me to sing for them all the time.”
Was that why she hadn’t asked him to use magic directly?
At Miriam’s easy manner, as if to say not to mind it, Lawrence felt his guard soften.
“As long as I’ve taken on the escort request, I can’t exactly go without using magic. For example, when I need to make fire like I did just now, or if I’m practicing magic privately, or when I’m dealing with monsters. I can’t really complain about that sort of thing.”
He wasn’t so inflexible as all that.
“Thank you, Lawrence.”
She didn’t need to hang all her hopes on the tower.
Understanding his meaning, Miriam’s expression brightened.
“No need to thank me. This is the request I accepted, and I’m only using magic to see it through.”
The road to the Magic Tower would still take nearly two months.
In that much time, wouldn’t Miriam get to see as much magic as she wanted?
That was something time would have to answer.
...
......
They decided to take turns keeping watch at night, three shifts in all.
Lionel suggested they let Miriam off the duty because she was a woman, but Lawrence shook his head. Since she was traveling with them, she should shoulder her share like anyone else.
“I think I should keep watch too. I’m already getting by on your kindness, so doing nothing would make me uncomfortable.”
After hearing that, Miriam nodded as well.
“I’ll gratefully accept your consideration, Mr. Lionel.”
“Is that so? Well, I suppose I was fussing over nothing.”
It was one thing to insist on standing watch, and another to be stubborn and stop her.
At her answer, Lionel stepped back.
“All right then. The watch order will go me, Mr. Lionel, then Miriam.”
Lawrence drew back the Shadow Light that had been illuminating the campsite.
“Ah.”
Miriam made a regretful sound.
Once conjured, Shadow Light lasted a long time.
She had been observing it all through the evening.
But now that night had deepened, it was right to put it away.
Light in the dark was a double-edged sword.
Fire let them keep watch on their surroundings, but at the same time it also marked their position for others to see.
Monster or bandit, it made no difference.
There was no reason to invite danger of their own accord.
That was especially true when traveling in a small group like this.
Lionel snuffed out the bonfire that had been blazing away.
The light was no longer visible unless someone came close.
The embers still held heat, leaving behind a faint warmth.
“That should do it.”
“Good work.”
As the saying went, the more you knew, the more you saw.
Lawrence hadn’t realized it before, but Lionel must have lived the life of a peddler for so long that he was now completely used to this sort of thing.
He knew exactly what to be careful of on the road.
And what behavior it was wise to avoid.
“Then I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“Sleep well, please.”
“If I’m going to sleep at all, I’d rather sleep soundly until morning.”
“Then I can’t help wondering if you’ll wake at all.”
“That was a joke, a joke. What, are we all going to die together?”
Lionel lay down beside the dying campfire, spreading out a blanket.
Miriam, too, took out her own blanket and got ready for bed.
“Then I’ll be counting on you, Lawrence.”
“See you in the morning, Miriam.”
After confirming that the two of them were asleep, Lawrence took out Wind.
While keeping watch over their surroundings, he recited the passages of Wind one by one in his head.
Since he was on night watch, he couldn’t practice magic directly.
But reading his spellbook was no trouble.
The problem was concentration.
He avoided focusing so deeply that he lost track of what was happening around him.
After checking the time, Lawrence loosened his body with a few light stretches.
The night was deep.
At the very least, he ought to be able to get through everything that was bothering him.
Before long, the campsite was filled only with the sound of pages turning.
* * *
The road to the Magic Tower was peaceful.
The roads had been neatly maintained, and there were more people than monsters along them.
At least once a day, and often more, they passed someone driving a carriage.
Most of them were peddlers like Lionel, heading toward the tower with the barest escort they could manage.
Perhaps because so many people traveled this route, monsters and wild animals hardly dared come near.
By that logic, it would make perfect sense for bandits to prey on merchants instead.
Yet this journey, where they hadn’t even seen a bandit, felt safer than any request Lawrence had ever handled.
“The tower’s influence is probably the reason.”
Lionel nodded.
“There are mages at the tower, aren’t there? You don’t seem to know how many people are afraid of mages.”
“What does being afraid of mages have to do with fewer bandits?”
“Think about it. Say you’re out robbing people, and it turns out the carriage has a mage in it. Or you think someone’s just an ordinary merchant, only to point a sword at them and discover they’re actually a mage. A bandit with even half a brain wouldn’t take that kind of gamble around here.”
Was the mere presence of the tower enough to affect public order in the surrounding area?
“To put it bluntly, who knows whether a mage might catch a bandit and keep him as a slave? Then he wouldn’t even get a clean death. Even bandits know how to tell the places they should meddle in from the places they shouldn’t.”
“Now that you mention it, I suppose that makes sense.”
“Of course it does. You don’t understand because you’re a mage yourself. For people like us, mages are the sort of thing you only hear about in old stories. Who knows what’ll happen if you cross one by mistake? Better not go near them at all, if you ask me.”
Because they didn’t know, they feared.
There was weight in the name mage.
Even something as basic as Fire became a terrifying spell the moment it was used on a person.
There was no need to kill outright, either.
Unlike monsters with their formidable physical strength, killing a person alive as they burned was far too easy.
“Now I understand why they can travel this far with only one bronze-plate mercenary.”
“Exactly. There’s no need to hire an especially capable mercenary. Merchants who can’t spare the money often settle for wood-plate mercenaries. I used to do that too.”
Come to think of it, when Lawrence had first met Lionel, he’d only just become a wood-plate mercenary himself.
“But now I don’t hire wood-plates anymore.”
“So something unpleasant must have happened.”
“That’s right. I never dreamed that crazy bastard would run off with my luggage. No matter how low the rank, there are some things you’re supposed to protect. After that incident, I swore that no matter how much the money hurts, I’d only hire bronze-plates.”
“I’m glad it worked out that way. If that wood-plate mercenary hadn’t just run away and instead had turned into a bandit, the worst-case scenario would have played out.”
It was always people who were the most frightening.
It was only because that wood-plate mercenary had run that Lionel had survived.
If he’d decided to throw everything away and go for one big score, Lionel would not have left that place alive.
“I was too angry at the time to think clearly. But looking back, that’s exactly what I thought too. Still, I guess I’ve been luckier than most when it comes to bad fortune. And I’m being careful from here on out, so that’s something to be thankful for, isn’t it?”
Lionel laughed heartily, as if it were all in the past now.