Engrave
Frost had formed on the other side of the window.
The fire in the hearth, fed by split logs, roared and crackled. Warmth filled the sitting room, but beyond the glass the outside world beckoned with a knife-edge cold.
Lawrence returned to his seat and faced Oswin across the table.
While Lawrence had been glancing outside, Oswin had finished organizing the papers and now slid a single contract toward him.
“This is escort work for a caravan traveling from Mistra to Winterglen. The cargo consists of twenty-seven lawful goods, including clothing and foodstuffs. The estimated duration is three months. The pay is the amount we discussed beforehand, and our guild will provide the supplies needed for the northern journey.”
Lawrence read the contract carefully.
The caravan’s approximate size and the number of escort guards were clearly laid out. The goods they handled were disclosed transparently, and most importantly, the compensation was stated without ambiguity.
“So the departure date hasn’t been decided yet.”
“The shipment from Albrade Port hasn’t arrived in full. We’ll also need to hire workers beyond the caravan staff, so preparations are taking some time. We expect to depart by spring at the latest. Once the schedule is fixed, we’ll let you know through the Mercenary Guild.”
By spring at the latest.
That meant he had a month or two to spare.
Enough time to practice Warm magic.
“I heard from Lionel that the northern haul is terribly difficult.”
“It’s the kind of journey most caravans wouldn’t even dare attempt. Even we, being relatively close to Winterglen, needed a long time to prepare. But if we can secure a route into the north, the profits are guaranteed.”
And, Oswin added, there was another rumor.
“Do you know the Black Rose Caravan, Lord Lawrence?”
“I do.”
“Then this should be easier to explain. There’s talk that the Black Rose Caravan has its eyes on the north as well.”
“You mean you’ve got competition?”
“That’s why we’ve had to hurry our own northern expedition. We’re proud to be Mistra’s finest merchant house, after all. We can’t simply lose to a caravan from another region, now can we?”
Lawrence nodded.
“By the way, would you be the one leading the escort?”
He had been wondering when that question would come.
Lawrence, sipping the now-familiar Orel tea, answered, “How many Silver Plate mercenaries are you planning to hire?”
“At least two or three.”
As expected.
The road north would not be an easy one.
Never mind the caravan’s own guards; if they wanted a safe journey, the mercenaries had to be competent too.
“You’re openly hiring Silver Plate mercenaries. If a Bronze Plate were to step over them and take charge, I doubt the others would be pleased.”
“Lord Lawrence is exceptional. Which mercenary would dare complain?”
“No matter how capable a mage I am, mercenaries have their own ways of doing things. As a mercenary myself, I’d like to follow those customs.”
He shouldn’t swagger just because he had some skill.
A stray blade could kill a mage just as easily as it could kill a mercenary.
“Still, from our guild’s perspective, we’d really prefer it if someone as dependable as you took the role.”
“Then how about this? Instead of appointing one person and concentrating all authority in his hands, why not distribute the responsibility among several people?”
“Hm. You mean appoint more leaders?”
“Yes. Make the Silver Plate mercenaries, myself included, joint leaders. There are plenty of advantages to that. For instance, if the front and rear of the caravan are managed by different leaders, it becomes easier to respond when something happens.”
It was the same method the Black Rose Caravan had used when Lawrence had taken that request.
As a caravan grew larger, so too did the number of people it needed.
Simply having people with authority in the right places gave everyone a little breathing room.
“There’s nothing impossible about it, but… the issue of compensation will come up. Our budget for this is limited, after all.”
“Then I’ll leave that to your resourcefulness, Oswin.”
Oswin rested his chin in one hand.
As he fell into thought, Lawrence looked out the window.
The sky was dark enough that snow could have started falling at any moment.
This winter might be a cruel one.
* * *
A month had passed since Lawrence arrived in Mistra.
By now, he had fully adapted to the comforts of the city.
Life at the monastery was not burdensome, and each day had been spent earnestly in study.
The reason he had come to the magic shop today was an extension of that routine.
Again and again, he had used the Wind grimoire over the past few months, until its pages were practically falling apart.
That was the result of practicing whenever he had a spare moment while learning Warm magic.
Now he intended to sell the Wind grimoire and use the money to buy another basic grimoire.
But the clerk’s answer made him frown.
“We buy basic grimoires at a flat rate of twenty silver.”
“Twenty silver? I bought this right here for one gold.”
Even after Lawrence’s displeased reaction, the clerk answered calmly. “Is that so? Then you made a wise choice.”
“……”
He had forgotten.
The magic shop was managed by the Magic Tower.
Like all the others, they were cut from the same cloth. There was no shortage of highwayman instincts there.
“Fine. You win. Take it.”
But what could he do?
There was nowhere else to offload the grimoire.
With no other choice, he had to settle for pocket change.
Fortunately, he was in a comfortable position financially.
His pay for finishing the Magic Tower’s work had been a full five gold.
And since the monastery handled both lodging and meals, he didn’t spend much from his own purse.
In other words, he could afford a little extravagance.
After browsing the magic shop, Lawrence approached the clerk again.
“I’d like to see a Telekinesis grimoire.”
“Just a moment.”
As Lady Wina had said, one generally learned Telekinesis first and then moved on to the higher-tier Unlock spell.
If he had not forgotten that advice, it should be easier to learn than most other magics.
“Here is the Telekinesis grimoire you requested.”
“How much is it?”
“The same as the other basic grimoires. One gold.”
Just in case, Lawrence asked, “I’m asking because you just took my Wind grimoire off my hands for a pittance. You’re not about to charge me the full gold for this one too, are you?”
Surely there had to be some shred of conscience left.
“……”
The clerk looked up at him.
There was no reason to avert his gaze. Lawrence met it evenly, and the clerk let out a small sigh.
“Since your situation is unfortunate, I’ll take only fifty silver. Normally, this wouldn’t be allowed. Consider it an exception among exceptions, and please don’t let it reach any other branch.”
He would believe it when he saw it.
Lawrence paid the reduced price for the grimoire.
The clerk wore an expression that suggested he found the whole thing distasteful.
Still, fifty silver was not something to sneeze at.
If he could reduce his expenses even a little, then he should do so whenever possible.
After leaving the magic shop, Lawrence sat down on a bench.
He opened the Telekinesis grimoire and began to study it.
He read closely, searching for any section that seemed obstructed or any part that felt unfamiliar at a glance.
Fortunately, nothing seemed likely to cause problems.
In fact, some of the material felt familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before.
At first, he couldn’t understand why.
Then, after thinking it over, he realized that much of what was written in the Telekinesis grimoire resembled the material he had encountered when learning Unlock magic.
So that was what Lady Wina had meant.
It might be easier to learn than he had expected.
If possible, he wanted to master it before heading north.
And after that, if he could sell the grimoire and buy another new one, so much the better.
When he finally came to, he found that his body had gone cold.
He had meant to look through it only briefly, but apparently he had become absorbed without noticing.
“Warm.”
A pleasant warmth rose from beneath his clothes.
Lawrence’s expression eased at once.
Magic really was remarkable.
He had no idea how freezing the north would be, but merely being able to use Warm magic made him feel steadier.
He was just closing the grimoire and getting to his feet when—
“Mage.”
A man wrapped in a thick robe called out to him.
“I’m sorry. Could I trouble you for a moment of your time?”
Something about him felt strangely familiar.
His hood was pulled so low that Lawrence couldn’t see his face.
As he tucked the grimoire into his bag, Lawrence remembered that this had happened before.
Right here, in this very spot.
And right after he had finished business at the magic shop.
He couldn’t recall the exact voice, but the man’s suspicious appearance was unmistakable.
It was the same man he had met before leaving for the Magic Tower.
“What is it?”
“I’d like to ask you for a spell work procedure.”
The man made the exact same request as last time.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t use spell work procedures.”
“About a month ago, I heard that a customer used magic at the Golden Goblet. They made an impressive shape with flame, and I heard they wrote letters using spell work.”
Lawrence frowned.
So the story had gotten out after all.
He really shouldn’t trust people.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I checked repeatedly. That person’s appearance matches yours, mage. Please, just hear me out.”
The man’s voice was thick with urgency.
He didn’t seem likely to back down if Lawrence simply denied it.
“I’m not lying. I can’t use spell work procedures.”
That did not mean he was denying being a mage.
After all, the man had seen him leaving the magic shop.
He had seen him reading a grimoire on the bench too.
Unless the fellow was an idiot, he would know Lawrence was a mage.
But not every mage could handle every spell.
“The other name for the engraving spell is Engrave magic. You really don’t know it?”
“Engrave? I think you may be mistaken about something. Engrave isn’t a spell work procedure. It’s a magic used to carve letters or replace a signature.”
“So you can use it. Yes, exactly. But it’s different when Engrave is used on a person.”
The man’s voice brightened.
“Usually, a family crest is applied to a woman’s body. If she is pure, the crest appears in pure white. That’s the Engrave magic I want to ask you to use, mage.”
“……”
Lawrence had no idea Engrave could do that.
He had never once considered using it on a person in the first place.
“All right. Then what can you give me?”
“Pardon?”
Lawrence brought his hands together.
“You approached a mage with a request, even though you knew it was rude. Isn’t it only natural for me to ask for something in return?”
“Ah, of course! If you perform the spell work procedure for our young lady, the family I serve will sponsor you, mage.”
“I don’t need sponsorship. I have no interest in getting tangled up with nobles.”
“You’re refusing our sponsorship?”
“That’s right.”
Had he truly never imagined such a refusal?
The man was momentarily dumbstruck, staring at Lawrence in a daze.
“Th-that is… when I say sponsorship, I mean financial support for your research and the like. If that’s what you want, you might even be able to look into the Royal Academy.”
“I don’t know how things work where you come from, but not every mage welcomes sponsorship.”
Lawrence was not like the poor workshop-born mages who came crawling for any patron they could find.
To be blunt, if he worked as a mercenary, he could at least keep himself fed.
Of course money was useful.
It would expand the things he could do, and he could acquire grimoires from the magic shop much more easily.
But getting entangled with nobles for that sake just didn’t seem worth it.
Lawrence remembered what Wina had once told him.
“A noble’s sponsorship is really just a kind of debt. Think of it that way. They invest a huge amount of money in helping a mage grow until he can stand on his own. Naturally, once he’s established, he has to run himself ragged paying that debt back.”
Sponsorship was debt.
Just as Emily had been a vassal of the Laynald Family, taking sponsorship would mean Lawrence was placing himself under some noble he didn’t even know by name.
That was out of the question.
Frankly, if someone offered him a territory mage position, he’d at least have to think about it.
But he had no desire to accept a sponsorship that might turn into poison.
“I’m afraid this conversation is getting long. Rather than standing around out here, why don’t you come inside somewhere warm?”
White breath drifted from beneath the hood. The man had clearly been outside for a long time and was shivering from the cold.
“Warm.”
Lawrence took hold of the man’s robe and cast Warm magic.
“You should be fine now.”
“This… is this magic?”
“Are you surprised that a mage uses magic?”
“What? Ah, no. I didn’t know you could use magic like this too. Most mages I know tend to work with frightening attack spells. Now I see you’re even more impressive than I thought.”
“You can spare me the flattery.”
Lawrence waved a hand and continued, “Let me ask you directly. Aside from sponsorship, what can you offer me?”
“Well… to be honest, the family I serve is in a difficult position. I’m not sure we can agree to the conditions you’d require.”
“A difficult position? Strange. You were just talking about sponsorship a moment ago. Sponsorship isn’t cheap. Your words don’t quite line up.”
The man moved a hand inside his hood.
The anxious motion felt as though he were wiping cold sweat from his brow.
“Please, believe me. Even if things are hard now, if the young lady restores the family’s fortunes, sponsorship will be no problem.”
“……”
Lawrence had no idea what that was supposed to mean.
“Best of luck. I’m leaving.”
“Mage! Please, think it over once more!”
He had no idea what sort of great noble this man served.
He hadn’t even revealed the family’s name, much less his own.
Lawrence had already wasted enough of his time.
He did not stop walking.
He had no desire to spend any more time with such a suspicious man.