Gifts and Apprentices
Suetleug had not been particularly rude. Besides, for every genuine mage there were far more charlatans passing themselves off as one — to ordinary folk, true magic and sleight of hand were all but indistinguishable. That said, hearing herself dismissed as *mediocre* to her face was still a bitter humiliation for a mage. She might not have chased renown, but never had she imagined she would have to swallow words like those.
"You are hardly mediocre. Your skill is considerable."
Johan explained who Giannina was: capable enough to work unofficially at the Emperor's court, and exceptionally talented when it came to handling monsters. Fortunately, Suetleug seemed to take an interest.
"Commanding monsters, is it? A talent not easily spoken of aloud — but one that would earn her standing wherever she goes."
Giannina brightened at his words. In the end, only a mage's acknowledgment counted for anything with another mage.
"And why have you come here?"
"As you know, all hell broke loose in the Emperor's domain that the Viscount was governing in his stead. If I were to go back now..."
"Ah. Quite so."
Johan drew a finger across his throat, and Suetleug nodded. Giannina pulled a queasy face. Was a count truly allowed to speak so bluntly?
"If that's the situation, I take it you'll be leaving once things settle down?"
Suetleug asked without much thought. He had never expected from a mage the sort of loyalty such a question implied — after all, he himself stood at Johan's side not out of fealty to his station, but out of friendship.
But Giannina had already grown wary, watching their faces nervously.
He's not going to cut my head off just because I said I'd leave... right?
"You'll leave when the time comes to leave, won't you? The Emperor isn't the only one looking for a skilled mage."
Johan, like Suetleug, held no great expectations of her. Once Giannina delivered the value she had promised, he intended to let her go wherever she pleased.
"......"
A reply so refreshingly blunt, when she had braced herself for something else, left her oddly deflated. Giannina's expression turned peculiar. Of course, expecting absolute loyalty like the Emperor's would have been a burden of its own — but to be told so openly, *I expect nothing from you*...
Johan addressed her with a face of generous, benevolent magnanimity.
"Surely that counts as a remarkably generous arrangement, wouldn't you say?"
"Ah, yes... it really does..."
"While you are here, you will assist Lord Suetleug. There will be no shortage of work."
"Well, that works out nicely!"
Suetleug brightened. Giannina failed to notice anything amiss in his enthusiasm.
Assisting him means helping brew potions or elixirs, surely? And what he'll want from me is advice on which parts of a monster are worth salvaging?
That much was hardly difficult work. Giannina relaxed. Unlike her fears, it seemed she would be able to live comfortably at the Count's court. Being treated as one of the household slaves and servants, resting at ease in comfortable surroundings — that alone was more than enough to satisfy her.
"Now then. Look through these documents, and set aside anything that seems to call for my personal attention."
"Wha — these? Why... shouldn't this be Lord Suetleug's work? The scribes, the administrators, the servants..."
"They do their share too. Those who can read are working on the floor below. What you have here has already been sifted once — your task is to find among them what truly requires a mage's power."
Among the reports and requests streaming in from every quarter, whenever a matter truly demanded a mage's hand, Suetleug would go himself, taking Gerwolf and his escort. Usually it involved monsters or curses — problems well within his power to resolve. While Johan was swinging his sword down in the south, it was Suetleug and the administrative staff who governed the domain like this.
A slow, ominous premonition began to creep over Giannina. And why on earth was the domain governed in such a laborious manner? Send a steward, or a merchant holding the right of collection, and the taxes would simply flow in...
"Do — do we really need to go this far for them? The people below don't even know gratitude — they're vermin crawling up the ladder..."
"I think much the same, but his Lordship the Count evidently does not. His instruction is that we must know each domain's circumstances with enough precision to paint them before our eyes — so you had best fall in line as well."
Before Giannina could stammer out another word, a thick stack of papers was pressed into her hands. She read through a few of them, and felt herself sink.
"You can't read the Ancient Imperial Language...? Oh dear... well, nothing to be done, then. Stick to the others."
Suetleug said nothing outright, but the appraisal in his eyes had quietly dropped a full grade. Giannina felt humiliation course through her veins.
Damn it all — the Ancient Imperial Language is for monks, that's all it's ever been for...
"Did you just curse?"
"Pardon? Surely not."
Giannina clicked her tongue inwardly at Suetleug's sharpness. He had reacted to the disturbance in the ambient energies around her.
"My lord. A truly magnificent haul."
"I was thinking the same."
The mountain of spoils brought back from the County was carried through the domain in lavish display, paraded where the people could see it. Among the merchants who had gathered in the domain, the sharpest-eyed were already licking their lips, bribing their way through doors in search of first access to it.
Exotic goods from the East fetched extravagant prices in the Empire and in the cities of the peninsula — and all the more so when they were rare treasures once wielded by the lord of the County. Whatever the seller asked, that was the price.
"Izellia, look there. That beautiful tome bound in gilt — they say it was a treasure the Count himself once kept. Isn't the cover, adorned with those curious Eastern patterns, exquisite?"
"Truly it is, my lord."
"And the vessel beside it is made of porcelain. Even the Eastern craftsmen, they say, cannot easily make such things."
"Beautiful as well, my lord."
Geometric patterns that evoked arabesques, and lovely glazed porcelain vases; tapestries to dress the walls, golden seals, jeweled goblets... Johan was hardly a man of grasping appetites, but the treasures hauled from the County were resplendent enough to boast of. And someone to boast of them to was, frankly, hard to come by. Show them to the centaurs and he would most likely get a lukewarm what is this, my lord? — and Gerwolf would most likely respond with a blank ???
Come to think of it, Izellia's reactions have been a little off too...?
Johan studied her face. Behind that beauty carved as if from marble, a faint trace of discomfort lay hidden. Izellia was poor at concealing her feelings. Johan, finding it hard to believe, asked.
"...Izellia. Do you see that Eastern sword and armor there, beside them?"
"Ahh...! What resplendent arms, radiant in their beauty! However many master smiths there may be, only a select few in the East could forge such a thing. The Count who once owned these arms must surely have met with wondrous fortune. My lord — do you see the wave-pattern on that longsword? That pattern comes only from Eastern steel. A blade bearing it is at once sharp and resilient, and so..."
"......"
Watching Izellia chatter away in excitement, Johan felt a dull irritation. She could feel nothing at all before those works of art, yet the moment swords and armor appeared, the words poured out of her.
Well — she *is* an elf, I suppose.
Johan decided instead to summon the orcs of his domain. They, at least, would know exactly how magnificent these masterpieces were.
"My lord. My lord. Are you listening?"
"Yes. Yes. I'm listening."
It was pleasant enough, in its way — Izellia, who normally watched his face to an almost unsettling degree, being this forward for once. Johan nodded and spoke.
"Izellia. If you want them, the swords and the arms are yours."
"I — I — I could not possibly accept. That is far too lavish a gift, my lord."
For all her stammering refusal and waving hands, her eyes kept darting back to the arms again and again. She was, clearly and catastrophically, smitten.
I don't think she's ever looked at me like that. Even in bed.
"I plundered them — rather, I *gathered* them with you in mind. I'd hoped you would take them."
"My lord. I — I have never once in my life received so beautiful a gift."
She's crying?!
Izellia was genuinely weeping. Sniffling and dabbing at her eyes, she left Johan appalled. All his efforts to tame her — every one of them had amounted to less than a suit of armor.
Should have just skipped being kind to Amiaen and handed her a set of armor instead.
Johan pulled Izellia into his arms and patted her back. Then, half in jest, he said:
"Just don't come up to bed still wearing that armor."
"...Of — of — of course not. My lord. What do you take me for?"
"......"
Johan very nearly shuddered at the direction of Izellia's tastes.
Andolata, ever perceptive, had tucked himself neatly beside Amiaen. Marveling at the boy's quick footwork, Johan summoned Amiaen.
"This is a gift for you."
The golden armillary sphere for astronomical observation was, at a glance, unmistakably precious. Amiaen shrieked with delight and threw her arms around him.
"Andolata. There is a gift here for you as well. You distinguished yourself at Carquilano."
"My — my lord. I hardly did anything grand enough to deserve this."
"It is not yours to judge. It is mine."
"I beg your pardon."
Andolata bowed his head and received the dagger.
"There are other bloodlines at court seeking to become knights. Would you care to join them?"
"......"
"I only ask your preference. Answer freely."
"I — I have no particular interest in knighthood, my lord."
"I see. Then so be it."
"Might I, perhaps, study under the mage?"
"What? Under Giannina? Why on earth would you do that?"
"N — no, not her. The other one."
Flustered, Andolata's words tumbled out in a rush. Johan nodded at last, as though it finally made sense.
"Ah — you mean Lord Suetleug. Hm. I can put the question to him, but if Lord Suetleug refuses, I cannot grant it."
"That is more than enough! Thank you, my lord!"
"A noble apprentice. There's nothing wrong with it — though I doubt he'll last long."
Suetleug, somewhat surprisingly, showed no real resistance to the idea. Second and third sons of nobles had to find their own paths in life, and magic was a discipline as venerable as theology or law. Its social standing might be modest, but once a mage built a name, no monarch would slight him — and above all, the inherent allure of magic itself had seduced countless young men and women.
"You've taught students before, it seems."
"A few times. And every one of them ran away. Magic is a path you cannot walk unless you cast your whole self into whatever mystery holds your interest. With a shallow heart, it simply..."
Mid-sentence, Suetleug glanced at Johan. Come to think of it, standing before him was a knight who had subdued an evil spirit and attained a revelation of magic.
"...Well. A shallow heart *can* suffice — but such cases are exceedingly rare."
"Why did you change your answer just now?"
"In any case, a noble page is no concern of mine. Only know that all I can offer is instruction in how to touch the mysteries — and if he fails to master magic even so, it is no fault of mine."
"He knows that as well as anyone. You needn't worry."
"Hm... learning under Giannina wouldn't be a bad prospect either, though. Might even be more comfortable for him."
"Oh, come now — what sort of nonsense is that?"
"I know Giannina is no noble born. But I am old, and Giannina is young. I am a man, and Giannina is a woman. Surely that would be the easier arrangement."
"He's observant enough as it is — I'd rather not see him pick up any strange habits. Besides, what do you mean, Giannina isn't noble-born?"
"Ah — I can't say for certain. But judging by how she conducts herself, she doesn't seem to be."
At Suetleug's words, Johan found himself oddly inclined to agree. It did have the ring of truth. Her etiquette was beyond reproach, yet something of the commoner kept leaking through Giannina's manner from time to time.
"I see. In any case, don't leave him with Giannina. If it comes to that, you might as well just turn him away."
"I understand quite well how you assess her."
"Naturally, because..."
"My lord! Forgive the interruption — an envoy has arrived."
"From the Republic? Let them wait a while."
"......"
For the first time, Suetleug pitied the people of the Republic. To think that such greedy, capable creatures were treated with such casual disdain.