After being ushered into a room on the second floor, the store worker poured Alice a cup of tea and sat her down at a table in the center of the room. The woman gave Alice a wink and a friendly nod, before she turned around and left. Alice noted that the table she sat at was obviously expensive, even though she didn’t know much about furniture. She couldn’t tell what wood it was made out of, but it was clearly different from the tables she had seen in Cyra. Alice decided to take this as a sign that they were taking her visit seriously, which was an encouraging thought.

Alice spent a few minutes sitting at the table and sipping at her tea as she idly stared at the decorations in the room. At least half of them were enchanted, which was an impressive and ostentatious display of wealth that Alice was willing to bet was lost on most of the people who sat in this room until they sat down and observed for a while. The seat she was sitting on, for example, was enchanted with some kind of red and blue speckled mana that seemed to be adjusting the seat temperature to make it comfortable for the sitter. It was working with a different blue-purple colored mana that Alice didn’t recognize, and couldn’t figure out the function of at all. Alice suspected the red and blue mana was probably thermal mana, and realized that she had almost no familiarity with the fourth major branch of Magic in this world. Which was something she should probably correct when she had some spare time.

The rest of the objects in the room were similarly enchanted with a variety of enchantments, some of which Alice could make out the purpose of and some of which she couldn’t. However, even if she didn’t understand everything she was looking at, being able to peruse high end minor enchantments proved to be surprisingly interesting for Alice, making the minutes she spent waiting a source of fascination rather than tedium.

Finally, after seven minutes, an older gentleman who appeared to be somewhere in his early forties walked into the room. Even though his physical age appeared to be around his late thirties, his chronological age was much harder to guess. Based on the amount of rainbow mana present in the man’s body, Alice guessed he was aging quite slowly. He was fairly attractive for an older man, though Alice guessed that was simply because he was a successful [Merchant], and any successful [Merchant] was bound to pick up plenty of points in [Charisma].

The man sat down at the other end of the table, before giving her a courteous nod. “Miss Alice, yes? A pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Rupert, one of the higher level [Managers] that work under Abraham’s various enchanting shops spread throughout Illvaria. I have received a letter from Lady Illa, as well as a confirmation from her husband Abraham, stating someone with your physical description would be arriving soon. However, simply for the sake of certainty, would you mind confirming that you are, in fact, Alice Verianna, who Illa indicated would be arriving soon? Just restate your name and identity out loud, please.”

Alice saw a few speckles of rainbow mana settle over the man’s eyes. Some sort of truth detection Perk? She couldn’t think of any other reason for the man to try to get her to restate her identity out loud. Now that she could see System mana and was interacting with people enough to see System-human interactions, she was finding all sorts of interesting little tidbits she had previously missed.

“I am Alice Verianna. I spent several weeks working under Illa while I stayed in Cyra, and I have been told by her that if I seek out one of her husband’s branch companies I would receive assistance in trying to find a Patron during my time at the capital. This Patronage is to assist me in paying for my time at a Magic Academy, since I would struggle to do so myself, and would need to either gather funds for several months or give up on the notion entirely if I need to work everything out on my own. I have also spent multiple weeks receiving instruction from Illa, who taught me how to defend myself using magic. She has also given me some basic instruction in things relating to the theory behind Magic and Mana, but only in very practical areas,” said Alice, making her identity as clear as possible. If the man was using a truth detection Perk, she may as well be as detailed as possible to make verifying her identity easier. While there were some things she needed to hide, her past working for Illa certainly wasn’t one of them, and it was the only thing likely to concern him.

The man smiled. “That does indeed sound like Lady Illa. Very practical woman. As far as I can tell, you are the person I was told to watch out for. Then, once again, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Alice,” he said, chuckling as he extended his hand across the table to her and briefly shaking her hand. “Now, regarding your Patronage, may I have some better information about what you want and what kind of Patron you are looking for? Illa mentioned you have a strong desire to do research, but I admit, the details were rather brief in her letter, and your introductory letter doesn’t go into much further detail. May I ask what specifically you plan to research, and what your strengths as a Mage are? Tell me a bit about yourself and your future plans as well. Treat this as something of a sales pitch for a noble – it will help me figure out the best way to help you. Of course, with me, it is also best if you are as open as possible about gaps in your knowledge or weaknesses – it will help me figure out if there are quick ways to address those gaps, as well as what kind of Patrons are simply going to be uninterested the moment they find those flaws. Some things can’t be hidden, after all.”

Alice thought for a moment, organizing her thoughts before she started to speak.

“Well, I would say I’m primarily researching two things. First, I am researching the nature of mana. There are plenty of scholars that have delved into the secrets of mana in the past, but much of their work was sadly unavailable to me while I was residing in the south, due to the limited population and lack of magic academies and knowledge resources in the newly colonized territories. I hope to use my time at the academy to synthesize what information already exists about the true nature of mana and use that as a springboard to further my own studies into the topic.

“Second, I am researching enchanting, and how it can tie into the nature of mana. I have seen several things recently that make me wonder what better control of mana manipulation would look like. For example, I want to study why some enchantments seem to be able to sustain themselves indefinitely, whereas others cannot, and I wish to study this in greater detail and see if there is a way to replicate the self-sustaining aspect of some enchantments in wider use,” said Alice, thinking about the artifact that apparently ran Southern Illvaria’s river system. “There are a lot of other topics I am discovering and interacting with involving enchanting, but they are a tad more specific and convoluted in nature,” said Alice, thinking of some of her other experiments with the System. Those topics did, indeed, involve mana, but Alice didn’t know if there was any practical value to these discoveries at all right now. She was definitely curious about these topics, and was personally willing to devote time and energy into the topic purely out of interest. However, trying to find a noble or merchant who would want to invest in her personal hobby might be asking a bit too much if she couldn’t find a practical use for that information. At this thought, Alice frowned a little bit.

“Hmm…” The man frowned, tapping a finger against his chin. “Illa said you are primarily a Kinetic Mage, yes?”

“That’s my primary mana seed. I have an Organic Seed that I don’t have very much experience manipulating, and I also have a pure mana seed that I have a fair amount of proficiency with. While limited, I have already made some successful enchantments which I managed to sell in Cyra, and I expect that I will get better and better at enchanting if given the time and resources to practice. I also have a fourth mana seed slot I haven’t used yet, and if you think there’s something that would extra valuable in that slot, I am willing to grab something new,” said Alice, after thinking for a bit. If she really hated the seed, she could always replace it later, and then start using her Organic magic seed as her ‘experimental magic seed’ slot. Since she could swap around her seeds at will as long as the seed hadn’t been enhanced by other Perks, she didn’t feel there was too much need to be hung up over the specifics about her mana seeds. Being able to replace one seed every month meant that choosing a magic seed was still important for her, but it was nowhere near the potentially life altering decision most Mages needed to treat every seed as.

“Let’s not talk about permanent decisions like choosing a new Magic Seed for now. You should be careful with those, because you might regret making a decision in the future if you don’t think about it carefully. You said you have already made a few working enchantments?” Asked Rupert, his eyes brightening. “What kind? What do they look like? Do you have an example of your work that you can show me?”

Alice grabbed the ring that revealed mana in one’s surroundings she had made in Cyra and pulled it out of {Sample Storage}, before handing it over to Rupert. “This is a copy of a ring that I didn’t manage to sell back in Cyra. I sold most of the ones I made to [Adventurers].

The [Merchant] looked at the ring, frowning, before he picked it up and began carefully inspecting it. Even though Alice could tell that the man wasn’t a Mage himself because there was no magic seed located near his heart, she still saw a variety of Perks start to activate in his body, especially near his eyes as he carefully inspected the ring. He turned back to her and nodded. “This is interesting. It isn’t terribly useful to [Adventurers] with enough levels behind them, because those [Adventurers] already have ways to locate potential spots for mana poisoning and evaluate potential enchanting materials. However, the cost of production is low enough that you can sell it cheap to [Adventurers] who are just starting to get their feet under them. I wouldn’t say it’s the best way to make money, but it’s creative. It even manages to turn a Pure Mana seed into something with commercial value.”

Alice nodded. Rupert’s assessment of her rings struck her as a fair one.

“The craftsmanship is a little shoddy, but since you managed to create this design by yourself, I can at least give it a decent grade. It shows promise, if nothing else,” the [Merchant] said, nodding to himself. “Having someone able to make decent enchanted objects from their own designs at your age can’t be said to be rare, but it’s definitely not a skill everyone masters at your age. Not bad.

“What makes you think that you are capable of discovering secrets about enchanting that long-established researchers and [Enchanters] have not for hundreds of years? You are investing a great deal of time and resources into studying topics that have already been picked over by scholars time and time again. Do you really hope to find something nobody has ever found before?” Rather than dismissive, he seemed genuinely curious. Alice suspected Illa’s recommendation probably helped with that. If Alice didn’t have Illa’s backing, she would just seem like an overconfident teenager. In fact, if people knew she had been baptized by mana, and less than six months ago at that, most people would definitely write her off as overconfident, since it would indicate she had been handling mana for less time than a natural born mage.

“First, I’m very confident that my perspective on mana is unique in a way no one can replicate. It has to do with some of my life experiences that I am unwilling to discuss in further detail, but I have a good ability to find weird edges about how Mana works and then use those to learn and discover more. Second, I have an Achievement that is rarity nine and is directly related to the results of my research. I am only a few months into my research so far, and getting an Achievement up to rarity 9 already seems to be a good indicator of how much potential value my research has. It allows me to see through some extra intricacies behind the workings of mana, giving me much better ability to see what I’m doing and find more details and information. By sharing the results of my studies with Illa and another two friends of mine, I was able to consistently give them rarity three Achievements. I feel that this is a good indicator of how valuable my research can become.”

“Oh? Rarity nine is actually very impressive, and the ability to share Achievements is certainly valuable. What Achievements did the three other people get specifically? And what are the details of the rarity nine Perk?”

Alice shuffled a little bit. “I can’t discuss the rarity 9 Perk in full detail – it has some correlation to combat ability, however thin.” Or, more accurately, it is tied a bit too closely to my identity as someone from another planet, and I don’t want the Society coming after me. Granting an extra class slot is definitely related to combat, so I’m not lying. “As for the Perks the others got, it helped them see mana a bit more clearly, and boosted a few useful attributes like [Intelligence] and [Perception]. There were other effects, but I am uncertain what they were because the others were unwilling to share it, and I didn’t push the topic."

The [Merchant] was frowning now. “Hmm… your sales pitch needs a little work. Noble Patrons usually want one of two things when sponsoring a Mage. They either expect that the Mage is going to work for them after graduating, getting them a competent worker who can help them deal with the Magical aspects of running a territory if they can’t use magic themselves. OR they want exclusive or firsthand access to something that will increase their power. Economic, military, political – any of these aspects are important pillars for the influence of a noble. Granted, plenty are willing to prioritize sponsoring a promising [Enchanter] or warmage who will work for them in the future – however, right now, you don’t demonstrate the promise as an enchanter you would need to get special treatment for it. Merchant patrons tend to prioritize economic value, but as it currently stands, it doesn’t sound like your research directly correlates any of the useful categories. Even though it has plenty of places it might go, the end goal is still quite uncertain. Am I mistaken in saying that?”

Alice frowned. The [Merchant] had a good point, actually. Why would anyone want to fund her research?

“I… think that’s a fair statement?” Said, Alice, uncertainly.

“Does your research have any value in producing weaponry, or are you willing to tilt your research towards that area? [Kinetic Mages] and fighting go hand in hand, after all.”

Alice shuddered, thinking of machine guns and artillery back home. If she researched how to make those and distributed them in this world, it would probably be very easy for her to become powerful and wealthy. Heck, she didn’t even think it would be hard for her to do. However, she wasn’t willing to bring gunpowder or make magical equivalents in this world. It was entirely possible this world would stumble into hot weapons on its own within the next few decades, and there were already hints of it starting to crop up here and there. However, Alice wasn’t willing to speed that process along. If this world discovered how to make guns, it would be doing so entirely without her assistance. “No.” Her answer was firm and deliberate. “I am not willing to look deeply into the topic of making weapons or improving them if I can avoid it.”

“Hmm. Is there any wriggle room in that statement?”

“No.”

“Is there any way you can think of which would allow your research to generate a lot of wealth?”

“Maybe?” Alice thought about it. Her research was primarily focused on the nature of the System, and how it interacted with the world around it. That could… probably be used to start a revolution in magic and enchanting. Eventually. However, that was a very far-off, overarching goal, and trying to translate her ideas into ones with concrete benefits, whether economic or military in nature, seemed difficult right now.

In theory, if Alice succeeded in copying and learning the mechanisms behind how the System worked, she could almost certainly advance this world’s magic and enchanting decades or centuries ahead of its current state. But that was a very big if, and right now Alice only had the ambition, with only a rarity nine Achievement to her name to show for it. Rarity nine Achievements were impressive, but nowhere near ‘overhaul the entire world’s enchanting system’ levels of impressive.

In short, right now her research was like a bottomless abyss of resources with no concrete benefit for succeeding.

“Hmmm…” The [Merchant] frowned again after seeing Alice fall silent for several seconds.

“I will tell you both your advantages and disadvantages in looking for a Patron, Lady Alice. First, you are a Kinetic Mage that does not specialize in warfare. This is a disadvantage. While Kinetic Mages have plenty of routes to making money, nobles are primarily interested in the warfare and construction aspects of a Kinetic Mage. While Illa did mention that you are above average at defending yourself compared to Mages that don’t try to learn at all, by her and your admission you are not really focused on violence. Pure Mana also isn’t a very widely used magic seed, because its value is quite limited outside of a research environment, and you having taken a magic seed for it likely won’t be seen in a positive light by most potential patrons. Your research also seems like it is hard to put into practice as a viable method of generating money, political influence, military influence, or other resources.

“Now, that being said, the fact you have a rarity nine Achievement related to research is also quite impressive. Especially given your age. You’re what, nineteen or so if I make a rough guess about your chronological age? I recall Mages get a natural reduction in aging speed, though I admit I do not recall the exact numbers. My work doesn’t tend to deal with the nitty gritty details of aging.”

“I’m sixteen,” said Alice.

“You’re actually the same age as you look? That is quite surprising. Newly Baptized? Hmm. Your Achievement is quite notable, and borderline unique, but you are also fighting against some notable negatives. All right, I have a better idea what I’m working with now. Let me see…” the [Merchant] drummed his fingers against the table for a few moments, before his eyes lit up. “I have a few candidates in mind. Tell me, how do you feel about having a Mage as a sponsor who managed to acquire a nobility title through their own merit instead of a more established noble? They won’t be comparable to someone like Illa, and they also won’t have the wealth of an established noble or merchant. However, they will have a lot more interest in pure research than either of the above, and they will still be able to pay for part of your schooling, even if they won’t be able to pay for all of it. It seems like you would get along much better with that kind of person as well, if I’m not mistaken, yes? We can also search for a more traditional patron, but to be honest I think you would have a harder time with that route.”

Alice only thought about it for a moment before she nodded. “A self-made Mage for a patron is fine with me.” It was much better to have half of a patron than no patron at all. She could do her best to find a way to make up for the rest of the money herself. It just meant she might end up becoming far more familiar with Cecilia’s shop than she had originally intended, but Alice honestly didn’t mind that. Working on enchantments under Cecilia’s shop was something Alice found enjoyable, and it was a good way to make some money as well. Alice wasn’t sure if it would make up the rest of her schooling yet, but it got her money and levels, and it was certainly worth investing her time into. The rest could be figured out when she knew more.

“That’s fine by me. Illa recommended I come here, and thus far Lady Illa has been nothing but fair with me in the time I have worked with her. Since she recommended you, I’ll go by whoever you think is the best choice for me,” said Alice.

The [Merchant] grinned. “Good. Where are you staying right now?”

Alice gave him the details of Cecilia’s shop, since the other girl had mentioned Alice could stay there while she was getting her situation worked out. Being near the place she would be putting her enchanted works up for sale seemed like a good policy anyway, and Alice was quietly happy that the other girl was willing to help her out while she was getting settled.

“I’ll start contacting people and get you a meeting with the Mage I have in mind. He’s known to be a fairly reclusive sort, but I think I can still get a meeting with him pretty soon. I’ll send a [Messenger] to let you know when I can get a meeting between you two set up. Unless something goes horribly wrong, it should be within a week.”

Alice nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

“Then I’ll see you soon, Lady Alice,” said the [Merchant].

Alice left after a few minutes of parting pleasantries, before she returned to Cecilia’s shop. If she was going to be facing a funding shortage, she would need to work much harder at converting her remaining time and materials into funding. With that thought, she decided that she would at least temporarily take Cecilia up on her offer and start making enchanted items to sell in Cecilia’s shop. She had precious little time to work with, but she was determined to make the most of every moment.