Chapter 52 — Inadvertent Consequences

After chatting with Patricia for a while, Grandma Fana paid for the lunch and they started heading home.

“You sure have surprised me today, Ria. I think you could be a good friend for Young Lady Keira, as long as you don’t forget your place,” Grandma Fana commented. “Crysellia hasn’t had a king for a long time, but it’s still wise to exercise caution and to show proper deference when dealing with the nobility.”

Ria nodded. “That’s something I’ve been meaning to ask. Jarrel explained it some, but I still don’t understand how the nobility thing works without a king. I mean, who grants the titles? And who holds the nobles accountable for their actions?”

“There aren’t any noble titles anymore. Supposedly the nobles are accountable to the laws just like any other citizen, but in reality the situation is complicated, as would be expected,” Grandma Fana agreed with a chuckle. “These days the only way to become a noble is to marry into or be adopted into an existing noble family. Control over being nobility and the wealth they have as landowners gives them influence. You should ask Young Lady Keira for more details. Her ‘history’ lessons are likely all about the current situation among the remaining noble houses.”

“What happened to the old royal family?” Ria asked, surprised.

“The last king didn’t leave any direct heirs, but the Vesali family is still very influential in the capital city named for their house, and they are known for their strong talent for magic. If you attend the Grand Academy, you might be classmates with one of their young mages,” Grandma Fana said with a wink.

Ria was stunned at the thought. “Wow… that would be like going to school with princes and princesses.”

Grandma Fana nodded. “Indeed.”

They stopped by the bakery on the way home and while Grandma Fana was buying bread, Ria gave Emily the common copy of Helmand’s Duchess of the Isles and Leon the scrolls of stamina and health restoration.

Emily was ecstatic about her gift but worried about whether she would be able to read it. Emily’s mom cheerfully offered to buy her a dictionary.

Leon was also thrilled with his gift, which got a smirking thumbs up from his parents for some reason. When Miss Lina inquired about one for her and Mr. Dennis, Ria directed her to Miss Kylie.

When they got back home, Ria checked with Oscar about escorting her to the alchemist and the Adventurers Guild. He seemed amenable enough but said she would need to wait an hour or so for him to finish up the day’s work.

Ria readily agreed. That gave her enough time to make one of the new, improved, and safer stamina restoration scrolls for selling. She also applied what she had learned making the ‘stunners’ and ‘devastators’ to improve her locator scroll design to detect multiple targets simultaneously and indicate the relative distance of each, but having already used up her energy, she would have to wait until sometime later to actually make it.

With her satchel lightened of its earlier burden, Ria was in an excellent mood as she joined a freshly cleaned up Oscar for her second outing of the day.

“To the alchemist!” Ria announced with a dramatic arm gesture, drawing a woof from Ranger and a chuckle from Oscar.

On the short walk Ria asked Oscar about how his wife, Yuri, and little Sammy were doing. That really got him going. He was clearly a proud papa. Apparently, Yuri was recovering well and would be visiting for dinner along with the kids sometime soon.

When they reached the shop, Oscar decided to wait outside on one of the benches and waved her and Ranger along into the shop.

The inside of the shop was dim and had the cluttered smell of dried herbs like usual, but this time, a well-dressed older girl was at the counter with Kylie, making a purchase.

Ria was happy to see a girl near her age with an interest in alchemy and moved closer with hopes of making a new friend. She pushed down a sudden guilty feeling that she was trying to find a replacement for her alchemist friend Jeni.

When the sandy-blond girl finished her purchase—energy replenishment potions!—Ria greeted her enthusiastically. “Hello! I’m Ria, and this is Ranger-”

“Woof!”

“Want to be friends?”

At first, the girl responded with surprise and confusion but then her lightly-freckled face grew angry. “You-!!”

Ria took a step back at the intensity of the girl’s reaction, but the girl followed, looming over Ria with her fists clenched.

“F-friends?!” the girl sputtered in disbelief. “After you… How much more are you planning to take from me?!”

Ria could only stare, bewildered. Had this girl mistaken her for someone else?

“You don’t even know, do you?!” the girl accused, her eyes burning with fury. “My older sister gave up her sponsorship from Lord Vorshan early, so I could also have a chance to attend the Grand Academy, and you waltz in with your witch’s charms and steal it away! And now you want to pretend to be friends?!”

Ah! Ria hadn’t even considered that requesting Lord Vorshan to sponsor her would mean taking it from someone else. “Can’t Lord Vorshan sponsor more than one person?”

The girl gave her an incredulous look. “Each regional governor can only sponsor one person at a time! How can you not know that?!”

“I’m not from here. Jarrel’s the one who asked Lord Vorshan to sponsor me. I didn’t mean to take anything from you. I just want to attend the academy, and I’m fine with paying my own way,” Ria offered in an attempt to placate the girl.

“Are you an idiot?” the girl snorted out. “Everyone knows that unless you have connections inside the academy that the only sure way to get in is to have the regional governor sponsor you!”

Going to the Grand Academy was an important opportunity for Ria and her chances at revenge. If she had to weigh the lives of her friends and family against this girl’s ability to attend the academy, could she truthfully say that she wouldn’t intentionally sacrifice this girl’s chances?

“So, you’re saying that it’s impossible to gain admission to the academy on merit with a recommendation from someone like Master Rigure?” Ria asked.

“Are you saying that I should just accept my fate? That I have no hope of beating you?!” the girl bristled. “Just you wait! I’ll free Lord Vorshan of your charm spell, and then we’ll see who has the last laugh!”

The girl stormed away and out the exit.

“Rowr-rawr?”

“A misunderstanding, I guess?” Ria answered, and Ranger tilted his head at her dubiously.

Whatever the girl had in mind probably wasn’t going to work out so well. Not that there was anything Ria could do about it other than warn Keira or Captain Bastach.

“Don’t think too harshly of Amilee, Ria. I imagine dealing with the expectations of following her excessively talented sister to the Grand Academy isn’t easy. Zoe excelled at magic in a way that Amilee has yet to demonstrate,” Kylie offered with a sympathetic expression.

As she approached the counter, Ria was still feeling hurt and shocked over how her attempt at making a new friend had backfired spectacularly, but she could understand Amilee’s feelings a little. Constantly being expected to become a seamstress as good as or better than her mother was stressful. Ria didn’t resent it though. She was proud of her mother and wanted to make her mother proud as well.

“I haven’t been here that long to deserve the sponsorship, so I don’t mind paying the tuition,” Ria said thoughtfully and asked her question again, “Is it really impossible for me to earn admission on my own?”

“For someone talented enough to gain Lord Vorshan’s eye so quickly?” Kylie considered with an awkward smile. “I’d say your chances of being accepted on your own merits are fair, and certainly higher than Amilee’s.”

Ria nodded her thanks. Earning the right to attend on her own merit did have appeal to Ria. Measuring the situation in terms of the weight of her vengeance versus the weight of Amilee’s dreams wasn’t quite right. Ria was sure that she would have to hurt people on her path to power, but in this case, taking the harder path and gaining the power to prove her merit was more likely to move her goals forward.

“You’ve already had some sales, by the way,” Kylie said and handed over a sack of coins. “Did you bring me some more scrolls? Or was there something else that I can help you with today?”

With that Ria and Kylie got down to business. Kylie was ecstatic about the new safer design for the scrolls and was thrilled to receive another stamina restoration scroll to sell. Ria floated the idea of templated healing scrolls where the user provides the energy, and Kylie thought it was a great idea.

By the time Ria left the shop, her satchel was full again—this time with the alchemy equipment that Ria would need to make the energy-replenishment potions.

“Everything okay?” Oscar asked. “I thought I heard yelling.”

Ria explained to Oscar what had happened while they made their way toward the Adventurers Guild.

When they arrived at the guild, Oscar had misgivings about leaving her alone there, but Ria assured him that she would be fine and would hire an adventurer to escort her home when she was done with her research. He still wasn’t particularly convinced until a returning group of adventurers greeted Ria by name as they went into the guild.

Oscar made sure to point out the guard barracks across the street before he left.

Aaron greeted Ria and Ranger when they entered the guild and approached the counter. He readily informed her about the costs for posting job requests when she asked. G-rank jobs started at 1 copper coin, 5 copper coins for F-rank, 1 silver coin for E-rank, 5 silver coins for D-rank and so on.

“Okay. Thanks, Aaron. Can I request a specific adventurer?” Ria followed up.

Aaron raised his eyebrow. “Sure, but they can refuse.”

“Got it. Wait here, Ranger. I’ll be right back.”

“Woof…”

Ria saw Daggen and gang having a late lunch at one of the tables inside the guild. They looked justifiably leery when she approached.

“Hey guys,” Ria greeted them pleasantly. “Hey, Jess can I talk with you in private for a sec?”

A few back-and-forths were required to convince Jess to follow her to a secluded corner of the tavern area.

“Now, what’s this about work?” Jess asked with her arms crossed.

“Are you going to be around later this evening, around sunset?” Ria asked.

“Probably. Why?” was the annoyed reply.

“I was thinking to hire you to walk me home tonight as an F-rank job,” Ria admitted.

Jess stared at her dumbfounded for a moment before flashing a bit of anger. “I don’t need your charity!”

Ria held up her hands to placate Jess. “It’s not charity. I promised Jarrel that I wouldn’t go anywhere alone while he was gone, so I need to hire a guard to walk me home. I just thought you might want the mission credit.”

After looking at Ria with hooded eyes for a while, Jess sighed, “Fine. What kind of pay?”

“I know it’s a bit low, but I live just across the bridge. Is 2 copper coins okay?” Ria asked timidly, a bit embarrassed about her offer.

“You weren’t kidding about low, but I guess that’s fine. I can’t really complain about 2 coins for about 5 minutes work,” Jess decided.

After arranging the mission with Aaron, they agreed to meet in the library at sunset, and having secured Jess’ protection, Ria convinced Ranger that it was fine for him to head home early. He was a bit leery due to her falling asleep last time, but she knew he wouldn’t find the library to be particularly interesting, and when she pointed out that getting Grandpa Orlan’s help would be quicker and easier with him at home, he didn’t put up too much resistance.