Nine Gold a Sheet
Donna took Chris's necklace, closed both hands around it, and muttered as if she were reciting a spell. The performance was convincing enough. Whether it would actually do anything was another matter.
"All done. Take it."
Chris put the necklace on.
"Will the luck really come?"
"I told you it will."
"I'd rather that luck showed up as store credit for an Evaluation Paper."
Donna's face went hard.
"I can't extend credit to a criminal who keeps wandering in and out of prison. Put yourself in my shoes. Would you give credit to a criminal?"
"Yes. I would."
"Look at this brat. Lying with the words still wet on his lips."
"Ma'am."
Chris bowed his head.
"Please."
Donna didn't give an inch.
"No."
If he was honest with himself, Chris hadn't expected much anyway.
"I have a place money can come from."
Wrinkles gathered at the corners of Donna's eyes.
"You?"
"Yes. Do you happen to know the Commander of the Royal Knights?"
"I know him."
"How do you know him?"
"This brat's treating me like some backwater granny. Sir Yan is the most famous Sword Master in the kingdom. How would I not know him?"
"I didn't know who he was until he came to the Magic Tower."
"That's because you're an ignorant former slave."
Donna set a hand on her hip and stuck her lip out.
"I come from the upper class."
Chris waved that off.
"That isn't the point right now."
"Then what is?"
"He promised to give me a hundred gold coins."
"Chris."
"Yes."
Donna let out a sigh.
"If you're going to lie, at least put some effort into it. Why would the finest knight in the kingdom owe you anything?"
"It's true. You know the prince died, don't you?"
"I heard the rumor."
"Sir Yan came to the Magic Tower to investigate, and I found the Mana Helmet for him."
"The Mana Helmet?"
"Yes. The helmet you swindled the prince with."
"Brat! Swindled? That's the kind of talk that gets people killed."
"That Mana Helmet was a hundred gold coins. Sir Yan said he'd give me a hundred."
The suspicion packed into Donna's face shifted, just slightly, toward what if.
"Really?"
"Please send someone to collect it for me."
"You go yourself."
"I don't know the way, and I'm busy."
"Busy with what?"
"I really am busy. Aside from eating and shitting, I train all day. I'm cutting sleep as short as I can. I don't have time to waste on the road."
A blade named Alex still circled over his head. He truly had no time.
"There's serious money on the line. If it were me, I'd be on my way this minute."
"Honestly... I don't have the fare."
"The fare?"
"I'm broke, so I'd have to walk, and I can't starve and sleep rough for more than a month."
"That's true enough."
"Then would you lend me the fare?"
"No."
"Exactly. So you go to the Knight Commander in my place and collect the money. With that I'll buy Evaluation Papers and mana stones. It's good for both of us."
"You're going to spend every coin in our shop?"
"Where else would I go?"
"And if some errand runner shows up, will the Commander hand over the money? On whose word?"
Chris slipped the lucky necklace from his neck.
"The Commander has seen me wearing this several times. He even scolded me for hanging such a tacky rock around my neck, so he'll recognize it for certain."
Donna took the necklace with a reluctant hand.
"And if he plays dumb and says he doesn't know the necklace?"
"Then I'll have no choice but to go myself."
Donna pocketed the necklace and held out her hand.
"Fine."
Chris shook it.
"I'll be counting on you."
Alex shut himself in and would not come out. Fear came first, then anger, and at last a suspicion he couldn't shake. I mattered enough for him to make me a new arm and teach me magic. And now he won't even let me get rid of one slow learner? Why? For what? He couldn't understand it.
Chris had no backing, not the way the prince had. He was a slave out of some worthless country estate.
"What is this?"
No matter how he turned it over, nothing suggested itself. Chris's infuriating face kept rising in his mind, and the anger only grew. Alex pulled the blanket over his head and ground his teeth.
Since reaching Spirit Awakening, his strength had roughly doubled. After he learned Iron Body, it seemed to have doubled again on top of that, which meant Chris now had about four times the strength of a grown man. He used it to cross the village at speed and made straight for the smithy, then went to the room where he used to live and searched for the silver coins he'd hidden there. They were gone.
Had the mages searched the place and taken them, or had the smithy hands found them first? He started to look into it, then thought better of the idea. He wouldn't get the money back, and he'd only sour whatever goodwill was left.
Since he was already there, he greeted the people at the smithy. They were so glad to see him that he felt guilty for not having come sooner. Just as well he hadn't announced he'd come looking for money.
A few days later, Chris and the two women gathered at a café. Alice asked.
"Any progress?"
Chris shook his head.
"Not yet."
She looked worried.
"This is taking too long."
"It's fine. Greatness matures late, remember?"
Catherine lowered her voice.
"Did you look into what Alex is up to?"
"No."
She looked frustrated.
"You ought to."
"There's a chance he's forgotten me. I don't want to pick at the scab from my side."
Alice said, "Yeah. Cutting off interest entirely might be better."
Catherine disagreed.
"Do that and you could be gone in a single stroke."
"Even if I go when I go, I want to live easy until then."
Catherine turned to Alice.
"Do you know anything?"
Chris laughed.
"Alice wouldn't know."
"She might."
"How?"
"Because she used to like Alex."
Chris's mouth fell open. Wide enough, it seemed, for a whole fist to fit.
"Wh-what? For real? No. No way. It can't be."
Alice flushed, embarrassed. One look at her face and it was obviously true. Shock hit him first, then denial, and then the questions came piling in.
"You liked that mannerless bastard? That son of a bitch? Why? Why? How?"
Alice twisted a lock of hair around her index finger.
"He's handsome."
"You like just anyone because they're handsome?"
"I was young."
"You might as well have liked the prince."
"To me, Alex looked more like a prince..."
Chris made a retching face.
"Him?"
"His looks are the princely type."
"Falling for a face... ah, I'm disappointed."
When he kept at it, Alice flared.
"You liked Catherine too."
This time it was Chris who went red. Flustered, he stammered.
"I— I— uh..."
Then he denied it.
"No. Me? What would I—"
Even as he said it, he glanced at Catherine. Her expression was hard to read. Alice delivered the killing stroke.
"Catherine already knows."
His throat burned. He drained his tea in one swallow. Denying it any further would only make him look worse.
"How did you know?"
Alice smiled.
"They say you can't hide love or a cold."
"It showed?"
"It showed. You kept sneaking glances. How could anyone miss it?"
Catherine said, "Why didn't you confess?"
"Why confess when it was obviously hopeless? I'd only get cursed out."
Alice nodded.
"Right. Catherine was never going to accept you."
Chris asked, "Did you confess to Alex?"
"Alex would've made a laughingstock of me. How could I confess? I just buried it."
"Do you still like him?"
"Do I look like a fool? Still liking a guy like that. What about you?"
Chris scratched his head.
"Things were too harsh to keep a one-sided love going."
"So it wasn't true love."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"If you'd really loved her, your heart wouldn't have changed even in prison."
They talked about love for a while and parted around sunset. When Chris said he'd pay next time, Alice asked him where he thought he had money. He told them he had a source coming, and both women laughed it off.
Every ten days Chris stopped by Brian Magic Store to ask whether the gold had come in. On his third visit, Donna greeted him with a bright smile. The moment he saw her face, he was certain.
"You got the money."
Donna nodded. Then she brought out a wooden box carved in relief with an old-fashioned pattern. When she opened the lid, Evaluation Papers of every color lay inside.
"Which do you want to try first?"
Chris picked up a reddish slip and prayed to the sky.
Please let this be the one.
He didn't particularly want the fire attribute. If he succeeded on the first try, he wouldn't have to use any more of the expensive papers, and he could save the precious gold.
Nine gold coins for a single sheet. Nine!
His hands shook at the thought of wasting it.
One minute. Two. Three. Time kept sliding past. As Chris simply stood there, Donna's brow furrowed.
"What are you doing?"
He said nothing.
"I'm a busy woman too. Evaluate it already."
Chris looked awkward.
"How do you do this?"
"What!"
Donna made no effort to hide how pathetic she found him.
"You don't even know that?"
"I was never taught."
"Never taught?"
"They said I was below standard and wouldn't even let me bring up evaluations..."
Donna tilted her head.
"But can someone below standard even be evaluated?"
Chris put certainty into his voice.
"Yes."
"Well, if you say so. It isn't my money."
From a shopkeeper's point of view, it was better if he kept failing and kept buying papers. Every sheet sold was more profit.
"Do you happen to know anything about it?"
"Do I look like I would?"
"You run a magic shop."
"My husband did."
"Your husband's a mage?"
"Mm."
"Where is he?"
Donna's face turned sad.
Ah. He's dead.
"I'm sorry."
"You've got nothing to be sorry for."
"You said before that you were a mage too, didn't you? That you'd read magic books?"
"You remember that?"
"Yes."
"Stupid, and yet your memory's surprisingly good."
"Are you bluffing?"
"Ahem."
Donna cleared her throat and dodged the question.
"Didn't you hear anything from your mage husband?"
"Plenty."
Chris shook the Evaluation Paper.
"Anything about this?"
"There is something... but it isn't very precise."
"That's all right. Please tell me."
He trusted Iron Body. It had dropped him into a trap, but he couldn't deny it was outstanding magic, worthy of being called a secret art.
Donna hesitated, then spoke.
"Hold the Evaluation Paper and absorb mana with the breathing method you learned. But when you absorb it, you can't think of it the way you used to, as simply eating mana. You have to put your heart into it. That you want fire mana. That you mean to gulp fire mana down. That doesn't mean only mana close to the fire attribute will be absorbed. If you could sort mana by thought alone and take in only what you wanted, you'd be a high-ranking mage. That isn't something the Spirit Awakening stage can do. So other mana will come in as well. Then you yearn even harder. The mana that entered your body is turning into fire-attribute mana. You tell it to change."
Chris scratched his head.
"That works?"
"At Spirit Awakening, of course it's hard. But if you have a fire seed, there'll be a reaction. Faint, but enough to change the Evaluation Paper."
"So with a strong yearning I gather mana of a specific attribute and change it—or believe I've changed it—then push it out through my hand and load it onto the paper. But can a mana attribute actually change?"
"It's difficult."
"Then even if I yearn for it to change, it won't, will it?"
"Ordinary mana does change."
"Ordinary mana?"
Donna reached out and stirred the empty air.
"There's more ordinary mana in the world than attribute mana. Same reason there are more ordinary mana stones."
"So it's ordinary mana I'm changing."
"Right."
She added it with a look that said he would never manage any such thing.
"If you can change mana of another attribute, you're the greatest mage in the Magic Tower."
Somehow the way she said it rankled.
"All right, then."
As Chris drew in a breath, Donna slammed on the brakes.
"You don't know the incantation, do you?"
His face went blank.
"An incantation? There's an incantation you recite for the evaluation?"
"Of course there is."
Donna clicked her tongue, openly appalled.
"You think yearning, at Spirit Awakening, is going to gather one attribute that easily? You think ordinary mana is going to turn into fire mana? Even with the seed helping, it's hard. A genius born once in a thousand years might manage it, maybe..."
She cut herself short.
"And you're no genius."