The Duke's Reward for Labor (3)
"Lady Atanitas. I'll go after her."
"Alright. Well then, Curator. Lead the way."
Catherine waved him off as if to say hurry up and go. Her interest had long since shifted to the treasures of a vault that boasted a combined history of several thousand years. Karem left Iona behind as the old man cheerfully and gladly accepted Catherine's proposal, her excitement written all over her face without the slightest attempt to hide it. The boy set off after the house elf who had been at his side only moments earlier before vanishing like the wind.
"Hoh. And here I thought they were just trivial magic tools."
The items stored in the room Iona claimed held tools enchanted with minor magic were, by pure function, indeed minor enough. Forks and knives, water cups and finger bowls, tiny sauce pans up to massive cauldrons big enough for several adults, even an ornate handkerchief displayed in a frame. Of course, every last one of them was said to carry magic, so "minor" hardly covered it. And when one considered the materials and decorations, the patterns worked into them, that impression only grew stronger.
Gold, silver, jewels of every size and color used whole or set as ornament. That was only the start. The framed handkerchiefs and paintings, the various garments hung on armor stands. Setting aside the lavish decoration and the paintings that looked like real photographs, the expensive blue and purple dyes had been used without the slightest thrift.
No, wait. With magic and alchemy around, maybe they aren't that expensive?
In the end, the reason blue and purple had been so costly in medieval Europe was that even extracting materials by the ton left you with barely a few dozen grams. But this place had superhuman arts like alchemy and magic, so perhaps things were different. Still, they would never have completely escaped the level of cottage industry.
And right in the middle of all those valuables, Karem found the house elf who had gone running off with her eyes spinning only moments before.
"A dustpan and broom, a rag, and a duster that turns into gold, silver, copper, or animal fur! Good heavens, Titania! I never dreamed such things actually existed!"
Mary was gushing in a thoroughly excited voice while her face remained perfectly blank.
"Hm!? And this—no matter how much you wipe, the cloth never gets dirty. That's a demerit—Junior Karem?"
"Yes, yes. It's Junior Karem."
"...How long have you been there?"
"A dustpan and broom, a rag, and a duster that turns into gold, silver, copper, or feather material! Good heavens, Titania! I never dreamed such things actually existed!"
Karem put on an exaggerated fuss and repeated Mary's earlier outburst word for word. Mary, who had been watching his expression, froze. After radiating a mix of confusion, shock, rage, and fluster, she recovered her composure and cleared her throat.
"Junior Karem. Did you come here to look around as well?"
"Mary. I already saw everything, so it's a little emb—"
"Junior Karem. Did you come here to look around as well?"
"No, getting so excited that your eyes flip—"
"Junior Karem. Did you come here to look around as well?"
Mary raised her voice higher and higher, repeating herself like a parrot, as if she intended to pretend the previous moment had never happened. Tsk. Push a little more and she's going to explode. The boy took a step back and pointed at the luxurious cloth Mary was holding—the same one that had been a duster until a moment ago.
"So that's one of those cleaning tools?"
"It is. Just look at this!"
Mary grew excited all over again and shook the cloth rapidly. It shifted in a blur from the cleaning tools Karem had first seen into a bucket, a brush, a mop, a scraper, a scrubber.
"Pretty fancy for a cleaning tool."
"It doesn't just change into other tools. No matter how much you sweep or wipe, these tools never get dirty. Can you imagine how dreamlike that is?"
"Hmm. Doesn't that actually make it bad for you, Mary?"
"What are you talking about?"
Mary's confusion left Karem briefly baffled in turn. Of course it would.
"If the cleaning tools never get dirty, that means less work cleaning the cleaning tools, right?"
For an ordinary cleaner or housewife, it would have been a treasure. Just like cooking, cleaning was often avoided more for the cleanup afterward than the cleaning itself. Something that eliminated that hassle at the root was nothing less than a masterpiece of everyday goods.
"...Oh no! Such a serious problem!?"
But not for Mary, to whom overflowing work was pure joy. Most of the people who had joined the tower—setting aside that damn elf Narke—were the useless sort who only researched and cast magic, which had been wonderful. Any reduction in workload, even a little...
"N-no, wait. That means I can clean even more, even faster—!"
"Wouldn't that just make the work disappear even faster?"
"Begone! An evil tool whose very existence is a sin, something that should never have been born!!!"
Mary flailed her hands as if she might hurl the thing away that very second, like a man who had just spotted a cockroach. Then, with extremely delicate and careful hands, she set down the cleaning tool that had transformed into a copper duster. Her hands left it in a flash. Her eyes, however, could not pull away from the duster.
"Alright, alright. Let's go rejoin Lady Atanitas."
"...Just one last look."
"Ah-ah. Looking only creates more attachment. Come along now."
"Ah. Aah..."
Even then, Karem took Mary's hand—unnecessarily soft—and pulled. Under that force, Mary squeezed her eyes shut and dragged her impossibly heavy feet forward.
The treasure vault was wide and complicated, full of rooms, and Catherine, who had been with them only a short while ago, was nowhere in sight. Karem was not worried. He simply walked in the direction of Catherine's voice.
"Heavens! The adamantium engravings of wolves and laurel shapes covering this entire staff are in the style of the fallen ancient Palatino Empire! Overall it's finished in gold for excellent mana conductivity, but the identity of the orange amber at the tip is...?"
"I heard it's the crystallized sap of Berseingeto's oldest World Tree, the one that burned and vanished long ago."
"Then this is without question a magic staff commemorating the Palatino Empire's complete conquest of Berseingeto!!!"
"That staff's name is the Third Glory of Palatino."
Watching her look no different from a luxury addict gazing upon a limited-edition masterpiece that thoroughly wasted its beauty, Karem felt a strong sense of déjà vu. Mary, who had forcibly cast off her own enchantment, looked thoroughly disgusted.
"Junior Karem. Did I look like my contractor just now?"
"Oh? So you do remember."
Short sticks. Medium-length canes. Staffs as tall as an adult or taller. Collectively called wands, these tools were essential for a mage to cast magic with stability. By comparison, they were like a knight's full plate armor, or a fine horse or some other rideable beast. There were only three cases in which a mage would be without a wand: they were dead and no longer needed one; their master had not yet permitted them a wand; or their skill was so great they no longer required one. The great mages, Catherine foremost among them, were the classic third case.
"Lady Atanitas. You cast magic perfectly well without a wand, don't you?"
"Of course I do!"
"And you still need a wand?"
"Of course I do!"
"Then why haven't you been using one until now?"
Karem was a complete outsider to magic, yet he still understood the rough facts. A wand was an excellent safety device and amplifier for magic. He also knew that once someone reached the level of a great mage, they could cast stably and amplify without one, so it became unnecessary. Catherine ran her hand lovingly over the "Ancient Palatino Empire-Style Staff Commemorating the Complete Conquest of Berseingeto"—commonly known as the Third Glory of Palatino—with a gaze that made one's skin crawl just to watch.
"This Catherine Marigold Atanitas cannot possibly use some cheap wand. And what do you know—right here is a wand perfectly suited to my station."
"I get the feeling that isn't the only reason."
"Hm? That's the whole of it, though?"
Catherine tilted her head in pure bewilderment, as if asking whether any more important reason could exist. At that needlessly innocent, almost vacant air, Karem unconsciously wiped a hand down his face. It's been ten years since I reincarnated—no, eleven—and I still haven't completely shed the modern mindset, have I?
Iceland valued ability more highly than other regions. But the Seophon Kingdom was still a kingdom. Bloodline and class ran rampant, and it was the same in other countries. In a place like that, failing to maintain the dignity befitting one's status was a fine way to draw cold stares. A great mage and the Felwinter family's supreme magic advisor could not simply use any random wand. Honestly, even Karem had not fully sorted it out in his own head. He was simply understanding it in that vague sort of way.
"Kid. Have you finished choosing yours?"
"I was just looking around. If anything, there's so much that it's hard to pick."
Karem thought for a moment. Magic swords and armor certainly stirred the romantic imagination. But they had no practical use for him right now, so they were out. More importantly, every weapon and piece of armor in the vault seemed made for adults. There were some relatively small arms that looked sized for dwarves, but even if the height matched, they failed on bulk. He was, after all, only an eleven-year-old boy.
In that case...
Karem asked Iona.
"Lord Iona. Are there any tools I could use for cooking?"
"Ha. Given the history of Felwinter, it would be stranger if there weren't. Come this way."
With that, Iona strode ahead. A short while later, Karem's face took on a peculiar look of its own accord. The place Iona led him to was the very room where Mary had made such a spectacle of herself only moments earlier—the room of "minor magic tools."
"Hm? Mary. What's wrong all of a sudden?"
"Haa, Contractor. I am currently straining with all my might to hold my wavering heart in check."
"Huh? Huh? Out of nowhere?"
Unlike the baffled Catherine, Karem, who had witnessed the reason firsthand, barely managed to swallow the snort that tried to escape. Meanwhile Iona, leading the group into the room, picked up a kitchen knife. The gold vine pattern running from the handle all the way along the spine was striking, and the blade reflected its surroundings far more clearly than any ordinary kitchen knife.
"This is the silver kitchen knife of Gustus, the famous gourmet of Servianus. Made from silver blessed by the Goddess of Beauty, yet it won't chip even if you cut through beef bone."
"Does that knife have magic on it too?"
"Outside this room, who knows, but everything in here at least carries its own minor enchantment. This one is enchanted so that food never sticks to the blade."
"Pff—!"
Karem finally burst. The function was convenient, but it was minor. So minor it left him speechless. It was rude, yet Iona nodded in understanding and began taking items out one by one, showing them to the boy and demonstrating their performance. By the time they had gone through ten tools and were approaching twenty, Iona finally brought out something that might actually catch Karem's interest.
The knife was closer to a dagger than a kitchen knife. Fixed to the end of a slightly curved ivory hilt was a long right-triangular blade, one face engraved with spiderweb-fine cracks and the other with flame patterns. It was as sharp as any of the famous swords hanging on the outer walls beyond the room.
"This kitchen knife's name is Winter's Lie."
Karem flinched for a moment. ...A dagger—no, a kitchen knife—with the ducal family's name on it?
"Lord Iona. Is this something I'm even allowed to take?"
"Hm? Why wouldn't you be?"
"Well, you called it Winter's Lie."
"Ah, don't worry about that. All the treasures currently on display are free to choose from."
Karem felt uneasy, but he had no choice but to accept it. That said...
"For starters, it doesn't look anything like a kitchen knife."
"That's one of the reasons 'Lie' is in the name. It is a kitchen knife, and it is also a dagger. And of course, this item is enchanted as well."
After hearing about the magic imbued in it and its additional effects, Karem decided to put it on his shortlist for now and continued exploring the treasure vault a little further.