Chapter 45
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: The Royal Wedding
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“Oksana, you said?”
A reedy voice asked from beyond the door.
“Yes. I was taught by Lady Oksana Narces.”
“Wait a moment. I will check.”
While they waited on the narrow path, Fritz asked.
“Why are you using that name?”
Oksana Narces was the second wife of Matthias, a vassal of Count Meyer. She was also the sorceress who, blinded by jealousy, had tried to turn her stepdaughter into a four-legged animal and offer her as a sacrifice.
Fritz asked why Roberta, after giving a pseudonym, had then brought up Oksana as her master's name.
“It's the most suitable. Do you remember the customs of mages?”
“You said they use their master's name as a surname.”
Roberta nodded.
“That's right. Just as there are no mages without masters, there are no mages without surnames.”
A surname, she explained, was like a form of identification for a mage.
“I don't know why this custom started, but a master's name is like a guarantee. If my surname is Oksana, it means she is my master and proves I am qualified as a mage.”
“Is that meaningful? Unlike you, Priest, who can prove your identity with a crest, isn't that a method anyone could use to impersonate someone?”
“True. Logically, yes. But mages are a closed-off group. Their thirst for knowledge is so strong that they're wary of outsiders and rarely share their learnings, even among themselves.”
That's why there are so few mages, she continued.
“If you compiled the names of every mage in history into a book, it would probably only fill a single volume. Do you understand what that means?”
“Is there some kind of genealogy?”
“Yes. There is.”
Fritz looked incredulous.
“It's in the city of mages. Well... this is a long story, so let's move on. In any case, they can verify Oksana's name here, but they'll have no way of confirming whether or not I'm her disciple.”
The reason for using Oksana Narces's name was simple. She was dead. Having died so recently, few knew of her passing. If someone were to impersonate her disciple, how could they possibly verify the truth?
Any settlement of a certain size had a base for mages, and to enter, one had to prove they were a mage.
“Then should I use a pseudonym as well?”
“No. Fritz, you can just pretend to be my attendant. If they still have doubts after checking the lineage, they also test your skills.”
Roberta pointed back the way they had come.
“You didn't clearly feel the flow of mana on the way here, did you? That means you don't meet the standard. You can feel mana and wield it, but not to the extent that you could call yourself a mage.”
Humans who have received the Infant Sacrament can feel mana regardless of their talent, and if they strive to wield it, they can reach a certain level.
As Fritz had asked before, if anyone who could use even a little magic was called a mage, the entire world would be full of them.
That's why the self-proclaimed mages set a standard. The flow of mana Roberta was feeling in front of the mansion was one of those standards.
Fritz scratched the back of his head.
“I was told I had some aptitude, but this is embarrassing.”
“It's alright. You just haven't been learning for very long.”
The boy couldn't feel the flow distinctly. He seemed to have caught a faint sense of it, but not enough to have followed it here. He had talent, but lacked training.
Roberta smiled and patted the boy's back lightly.
Finally, with the words, “You may enter,” the main door opened.
#
The moment she passed the entrance and stepped into the corridor, goosebumps rose on her skin. A chill filled the air. Outside, the summer sun was scorching, yet inside, it was cool.
It wasn't a natural phenomenon. Roberta felt a powerful flow of mana. Just as the dragon Narvakayani, whom she had met on the ice peninsula, had summoned spring amidst the snow, the caretaker of this mansion had summoned autumn in the middle of summer.
“This way.”
Following the guide down the corridor, they entered a hall. A considerable number of people had gathered in the spacious room. More than thirty people were conversing around a table in the center of the hall, laden with refreshments.
“Quite a crowd. I didn't expect so many.”
“Are all the people here mages?”
“Probably,” Roberta replied, scanning the crowd.
Why were there so many mages? Aside from a few servants, they all appeared to be mages. Even considering that the Priest Summoning Order had made the country more hospitable for mages to operate in, this seemed like a lot.
“Don't worry about it,” Roberta said to Fritz in a low voice before heading to the table and picking up a drink. “Just stay by my side. As long as you don't wander off, no one will bother you.”
Soon, a woman approached and asked bluntly.
“I heard you're Oksana's disciple?”
She glanced at the guide. He must have told them.
“Yes, that's right. And you are?”
“Adeline Junot.”
*Junot*, she repeated the name silently. She'd never heard the name Adeline, but Junot was familiar. It was the name of one of the Five Sages, like Narces.
In the customs of mages, to use the name of one of the Five Sages as a surname instead of one's master meant that one's achievements had surpassed their master's, signifying that no one but a Sage could be considered their teacher.
“Did Oksana not mention me?”
“No. This is the first I've heard. What is your relationship?”
“Just think of us as friends.”
Friends?
Adeline appeared to be around Roberta's age.
Roberta had witnessed the youthful-looking Oksana Narces revert to the form of a wrinkled old woman just before her death.
One couldn't judge a mage's age by their appearance. Delaying or concealing aging was a fundamental skill for mages, and among those who had sought immortality, mages were the most numerous.
Could someone who had reached the level of using a Sage's surname and called Oksana a friend truly be Roberta's contemporary? She might well be over a hundred years old.
“Oksana didn't come with you?”
“No. My master said she was busy.” Roberta watched Adeline's expression. “I came to attend the royal wedding in her stead.”
“You came to attend in her place? The royal wedding?”
Adeline narrowed her eyes.
“Is something wrong?”
“No... In that case, it's a relief. One less competitor.”
Roberta gave her a look that asked for an explanation.
“There's a vacant position at the royal court right now. You know what that means, don't you?”
A vacant position at court? Roberta's expression hardened. When a mage spoke of a position at court, it meant the role of the king's advisor, the court mage.
Therefore, a vacant advisory role meant the court mage had either died or been driven out. It was rare for someone to voluntarily relinquish such power.
“I understand the meaning, but what happened?”
“He was old. It wouldn't have been strange for him to pass on at any time.”
Adeline shrugged and spoke as if it were nothing, but Roberta didn't relax her expression. A corner of her mind felt uneasy. It could be a coincidence, but the timing was strange.
They continued talking for a while, until Adeline suddenly frowned, looking over Roberta's shoulder.
“...That one came too.”
Turning around, she saw two men entering the hall. Adeline was glaring at a man who appeared to be in his forties.
The middle-aged man was speaking with a companion wearing a wide-brimmed hat when he felt the stare and turned his head.
“Adeline? You came too?”
And with words similar to hers, he wrinkled his brow in the same way.
“I was here first. Don't get your hopes up, just turn back.”
“Ha, if things were decided by who arrived first, there'd be more than a few things you'd have had to hand over to me. Has your memory already faded?”
Shaking his head, the middle-aged man tried to move away. “Pay her no mind,” he urged his companion to keep walking.
“Who's that with you? Who are you treating with such deference?”
Adeline pointed to his companion. The middle-aged man retorted that she didn't need to know, but when Adeline pressed him persistently, he clicked his tongue and answered, “Lanche Casper.”
Hearing the name, she tilted her head and repeated, “What?” It seemed to be a first and last name she had never heard before.
Roberta watched the man named Lanche Casper.
‘Who is he?’
He wore a wide-brimmed hat, the front edge of which drooped down, obscuring his face to just above his nose. Below his nose was a mustache, and his gray hair fell to his shoulders.
A small gasp almost escaped Roberta's lips, but she swallowed it down. Behind her, she heard Fritz catch his breath. He was following the middle-aged man up the central staircase of the hall when he slowed his pace and glanced back at the two of them.
Lanche Casper was Ulrich. His usual neat attire was nowhere to be seen. Had he not looked back, had he kept his face hidden under the brim of his hat and remained silent, it was a disguise Roberta would not have easily pierced.
He gave a slight nod and continued up the stairs.
“......”
Even after Ulrich disappeared upstairs, the two of them stared blankly at the staircase. After a long moment, they returned to the Meyer family's mansion.
#
Ulrich did not return, even by evening.
The next day, he returned to the Meyer mansion shortly after noon. Roberta and Fritz, who happened to be having lunch, greeted him from their seats at the table.
“You were eating.”
He said, sitting down in the chair opposite Roberta. Holding a piece of bread in her right hand, Roberta studied him. His attire was neat, as usual. His hair was black, he had no beard, and he wore no hat.
He was so much his usual self that it was hard to believe he was the same person from the mages' hall the day before. Receiving their stares, he lifted a cup of pine pollen tea.
“I imagine you have many questions.”
“Ah... Yes. We do.”
She set down her wheat bread and asked.
“Why the disguise yesterday?”
“If you're asking about the disguise, it was because the wedding is imminent.”
Ulrich explained that people were flocking in from all over, and he had to be careful as someone might recognize his face. He had decided to use a pseudonym until the wedding, at least.
“You were quite skilled at it. You must have disguised yourself many times.”
“I had no choice,” Ulrich said, sipping his tea.
“There were many times when changing my name was pointless without also changing my appearance. This is the result of that experience.”
“You don't change your appearance magically?”
“Unfortunately, I don't possess such a talent.”
“Is that so?”
She tilted her head.
His words about lacking talent sounded like he couldn't cast transformation magic himself. But what about asking another mage to change his appearance for him?
The question remained unspoken. He must have tried it. She could imagine it. Just as his wounds vanished as if time had reversed, any altered appearance would have reverted to its original state.
“......”
The dragon of the ice peninsula, Narvakayani, had described him as a human who neither aged nor died. One might call it immortality or eternal life, but Roberta thought of it as being fixed.
She speculated that his body had been fixed at the moment it was granted an endless life, and that was why any change to his appearance immediately reverted.
After a moment, Roberta spoke again.
“What kind of name is Lanche Casper?”
“It's a name I received when I was in Dithmarschen.”
Dithmarschen? It was a name from a much more recent past than she'd expected.
“As you might guess from the surname, the one who gave me that name was a mage. Do you remember what I said about Gallua, who summoned the monster recently? That there are many sects that oppose the Cormillius family on doctrinal grounds.”
“You said they were heretics... separatists or non-deists.”
“You remember.”
She looked at him with an expression of disbelief.
“The mage, Casper, who gave me the name Lanche, is one of those non-deists.”