Chapter 14 - Setting Sail

As we leave the headmasters office and come into the creepy hallway, I look at her disapprovingly, “You know, you shouldn’t have made such a decision without at least informing me.”

She suddenly stops as she regards me unapologetically, “I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”

She continues on her way so I angrily call after her, “Hey! Leonore, this is serious.”

“I’m sure it is serious, to you, but you don’t know what’s best for yourself.” She says with a snide smirk.

Why am I getting Déjà vu, I ask accusingly, “Oh yeah? And you do?”

She confidently nods, “I do.”

I mutter in irritation, “You and Aurelie are just the same.”

Her head perks up as a slight frown draws on her face before she gives in, “Fine, next time I will consult you on a decision, even if I know you would say yes, better?”

Pretty shallow but it is Leonore so that’s about all I’m going to get, I quietly reply, “It’s a start.”

She imperceptibly smiles before saying, “Now, let’s go get our loot examined after we visit the bank of course.”

Leaving the bank with my 4 large gold coins and 1 small gold coin, I protectively grip my money pouch inside the depths of my pocket drawing amused looks from Leonore. We visit the Golden Fish Pavilion; a place I haven’t seen in quite some time with its superfluous artistic designs that are built into the building. Well-dressed individuals come and go; I suppose I’m now part of those people. Walking inside, extraneous adornments hang around the interior, the roaming attendants being part of such adornments; one of them immediately approaches us, a much more responsive reception compared to last time I came here. A simply but elegantly dressed woman attendant with considerable makeup happily greets us, “A fine afternoon lord mages, how may I assist you.”

I respond, “We’d like to get our items examined.”

“Of course, come right this way,” she says while gesturing us forward before directing us to the next floor where I went last time. We’re brought to a room where a young man in pristine clothes sits ramrod straight, he looks at us judgingly before pleasantly smiling, “Good day mages, I am Hubert and I will be your examiner today.”

Leonore visibly frowns as she crosses her arms before saying, “I believe our items today will require a mage examiner, not just any examiner off the street.”

Leonore turns to our polite attendant, gesturing to our robes while saying in annoyance, “You’ll be smart to remember that the next time you bring mages to an examination room.”

Hubert frowns while the attendant cowers slightly as she takes a step back, saying apologetically, “I am incredibly sorry lord mages, I will bring our mage examiner right away, please wait one moment.”

She runs over to the examiner whispering something in his ear before rushing out, Hubert walks out without giving us a glance while muttering to himself. Looking to Leonore I chastise, “Now that was completely unnecessary.”

“How was that unnecessary, I simply didn’t want the attendant to make the same mistake again.” She explains as she walks to the table to take a seat. Leonore is impossible around other people! Not too long later someone opens the door, revealing a familiar face, mage Alphonse with his clean-shaven face and slicked back grey hair. His expression looks to be enraged as he’s about to speak before he spots me and stops himself, his expression morphing into pleasant surprise as a smile adorns his face, “Well if it isn’t mage Agnes, I’ll be frank I was not expecting you to be here, there was a complaint from one of my employees about a rude customer.”

I cough awkwardly as I look at Leonore, she’s about to speak but I just manage to talk over her first, “I’m sorry mage Alphonse, mage Leonore here can be a little, impatient, she meant nothing by it.”

Alphonse smiles knowingly before walking over to the table, “Very well then, how can I help you two mages today?”

“With a lot, we have cultivation herbs, untranslated books and enchanted robes.” Leonore explains as she puts her knapsack on the table, untying the robes and pulling out herbs and books, I follow suite. Alphonse nods seriously, “Mm, I can see why you wanted a mage, the robes and books are not what the usual examiner could discern however the herbs would’ve posed no problem.”

He looks through our items attentively explaining what the herbs are and their value, “…Overall these are some very rare herbs, I have no idea how you got your hands on them here in Tian, selling them all on auction would fetch around 200 gold.”

My eyes widen in immense astonishment, however Leonore seems completely indifferent with her expression remaining neutral. Alphonse looks through our robes then continues, “The robes you have here possess some rather archaic enchantments, I can see that you two likely explored a dungeon; that would explain the herbs.”

He tells us the effects of the robes before saying, “…These would sell for about, hm, hard to say, their enchantments are completely average with no special effects so separately about 80 gold each.”

We have three spare robes, so 240 gold on top of the 200 gold from the herbs. I ask, “Can you check the robes we’re wearing too.”

He does so, asking us to stand up before inspecting my robes, “Mage Agnes, your robe possesses some rather peculiar enchantments, an increase in mental defence and a 20% increase in the effectiveness of psychic powers, ha, you two must’ve come from that new dungeon. Anyway, it has average magical defence and no physical defence, and it has the typical self-repair and self-clean enchantments too.”

He then walks over to Leonore, grabbing and pulling at certain parts while explaining, “As for you, your robes are quite impressive. It boosts passive speed and slows falling speed moreover is has strong magical defence and considerable physical defence.”

We sit back down before he looks through the books, remarking, “These are in Viridian, I don’t know the language unfortunately, but I can refer you to a translator in the city.”

“That’ll be great.” I respond cheerfully. He nods, “Very well, have you two decided to sell your goods?”

If Leonore doesn’t have a use for them then we can just sell them so I look to Leonore inquisitively, which elicits Leonore to reply, “We will be selling.”

She grabs at her bronze card which I promptly hold back before pulling out my silver card, she looks at me in bewilderment, remarking half jokingly, “I thought you were poor.”

“I got lucky.” I say with a smirk.

Alphonse smiles happily while saying, “Our weekly auction is in five days, you two are invited to attend.”

“We’ll be there!” Leonore replies with a sliver of anticipation clearly enjoying such events. Alphonse grabs the robes and herbs before saying his goodbyes, “Excellent! I have to get going, farewell mages.”

Returning onto the city streets we go to where a translator supposedly resides. Walking through crowds of people and traversing through different districts we eventually end up at the middle class residential area where the crowds have dwindled and a relaxing peacefulness encompasses the streets. The houses all look properly maintained and stylish yet not excessive like the Golden Fish Pavilion. We reach our destination where a small, homely residence stands connected with the adjacent houses, along with an unmaintained front yard that leads to a wooden door. Walking through the yard Leonore raps on the door, a loud irritated groan can be heard before muffled steps stomp towards the door. The door swings open revealing a somewhat young woman in a grey scholar’s robe, similar to the one my old teacher wore all those years ago; if I didn’t become a mage, I probably would’ve been a scholar. She looks at us in annoyance, her bed hair a notable feature, she asks, “What do some mages want with me?”

Leonore harumphs before introducing us, “Pleasure to meet you scholar, I am mage Leonore De la Rue and this here is mage Agnes. We would like to request your services to translate some texts.”

She points at us while asking in bewilderment, “You two? Are you running an errand for your master?”

I sometimes forget that we’re still young teenagers. Leonore snorts, “No, we are personally making the request, I can assure you that money will not be an issue.”

She shrugs before waving us in uncaringly, “Bah, fine, come in then, I’ll prepare some tea. I’m Corina by the way.”

The interior is cramped with a short hallway directly coming out from the front door along with a staircase. There are drawers and desks randomly placed around throughout the house with stacks of books or free parchments left about. We are directed to a messy lounge room with a couple of couches surrounding a coffee table, the scholar says, “Just sit here, I’ll make you tea.”

She runs off to the next room, assumedly the kitchen. I sit down but feel something hard, a book. Leonore has yet to sit as her face twists in disgust as she considers the state of the room. After a few minutes we hear the sound of a kettle going off and not a moment later Corina remerges with our cups of tea on a tray, sliding it onto the coffee table by pushing off some papers and a book she looks up at Leonore, insisting, “Please, don’t stand on ceremony, take a seat.”

“I think I’m fine standing,” Leonore says coldly but Corina doesn’t take no for an answer as says, “Nonsense, please, seat.”

She grabs Leonore shoulders who seems to be shiver in repulsion but Corina forces her down onto the couch. Corina takes a seat herself before clapping her hands together while asking, “So, what can I do for you?”

Leonore glares at Corina silently so I take over, “We have a few textbooks and spells that we need translations for.”

Corina’s eyebrows furrow slightly before asking, “What will I have to translate exactly?”

“Six textbooks and two spell books.” I state causing her eyebrows to furrow further yet, she says, “That’s a tall order, I hope you’re aware of the price, I will essentially have to recreate six books creating the cover, buying the paper and finally transcribing every word onto that paper, even without my translation services books themselves are expensive.”

Leonore scathingly lets out, “And will your services even be worth it.”

I sigh, she just couldn’t keep it in. Fortunately Corina seems unaffected as she confidently responds without batting an eye, “Oh most certainly mage Leonare.”

“It’s Leonore!” Leonore shouts angrily which causes Corina to comically slap her forehead, apologising, “Oh my apologies mage Leonorie, I can be a little muddled headed sometimes.”

Leonore seems to grow more bewildered than angry at the mispronunciation of her name, and I honestly can’t tell if she’s being sarcastic or not. I ask, “So how much would it cost?”

She grows thoughtful as she strokes her chin, “It’s hard to say, it’s heavily based on word count so naturally textbooks cost quite a lot. For six textbooks and two spell books, I’d say around 100 to 150 gold.”

Leonore shouts out in shock, “That’s daylight robbery!”

Is it? For the amount of work she has to put in it doesn’t seem too unreasonable, I look to Corina, “Can you give us a moment please?”

“Of course,” she says with a smile before walking off. She can probably still hear us but I more asked out of politeness. Considering that I have no concept on pricing I ask, “Is it really overpriced?”

“Um, yeah it is.” She replies hesitantly, so basically she doesn’t know she was just getting outraged because that seems to be what Leonore does, get angry. Sighing I then call Corina in. While she returns, I take a sip of my tea, oh it’s quite nice. Once she seats herself I say, “We’ll take the deal, we don’t have all the money on us right now, but we should have it in a week.”

She says as she happily looks the books over with interest, “That’s fine, I will need to take a deposit first, 30 gold should be appropriate.”

“How long can we expect it to take.” I ask which she replies, “Well I have no projects banked up, only a few small translation tasks; you can expect the process to take around eight weeks.”

Leonore’s eyebrows furrow as she remarks, “It’ll be cutting it close.”

Ah of course, we’re supposed to moving to central after this break; I didn’t consider that. So I speak up. “Is it possible we could expedite the process?”

She immediately replies with a sly grin, “An additional ten gold and I’ll have it done in six.”

Leonore glares at her but remains quiet, it’s better safe than sorry so I respond, “Very well, we’ll go with that.”

After paying the deposit and dragging Leonore out we finally have today’s errands complete. I won’t have the money for tuition fees but that will be coming in a week so I’m sure if I explain the circumstances and provide proof of our transaction with the auction house we’ll be allowed to have our private classes with a tutor.

The next day Leonore and I were shown to our new rooms in the S-class before attending new classes with our tutor. In a private room within the mansion a middle aged woman with glasses greets herself, “Ah, you two must be my students, mage Agnes and mage Leonore, I am high mage Sophie and will be teaching you an accelerated syllabus for the rest of the break.”

She hands us two textbooks along with a potion each, “Here are your textbooks, we will not be learning any spells, only theory. And these are top grade rank 1 cultivation potions.”

I remark, “We’ve already reached the peak of rank 1, these potions are practically useless for us.”

“Ah, is that so, I should’ve been informed. Hm, that’s fine I’ll procure a potion that will assist in breakthroughs instead.” She says as she takes back the two potions before continuing, “Right, let us begin right away; we have no time to waste.”

The next day at the end of our lesson High mage Sophie presents two potions explaining, “These here are rank 1 mana slickening potions, I know I know, not a fancy name but it aptly explains their utility. They will make your mana more malleable for about four months, so it’s easier to manipulate your mana into an internal rune; it’s suggested you take the potion when you’re not preoccupied with other things so I would recommend you don’t take it during this intensive study.”

Seven weeks later, our semester one classes are complete, Leonore and I currently have our report cards. The study was a lot more difficult than we expected due to how condensed the content was, so we had to skip the auction and we barely had any time to focus on spell casting or general cultivation. Unexcitedly opening my report card.

Mathematics: A

Spell theory: B+

It’s an improvement but considering that it was my sole focus and I studied incredibly hard it’s rather underwhelming. I look up to see Leonore disinterestedly looking at her report so I ask, “What’d you get?”

She shrugs but I can barely see her minutely smirk, “An S for both.”

I sigh, she always did pick up things quickly so I’m not surprised at her result. Changing the subject, I remark “We leave in a few days.”

“Indeed we do, I’ve already organised a merchant ship for us; it’ll be going straight to the imperial capital.” She explains as she jumps from her desk and dons her pink mages robe so I ask, “Where are you going?”

“Ha, to scholar Carina’s abode of course, now that our exams are done, we should pick up our translated books.” She says as she starts putting on some luxurious pointy mage shoes.

At the scholar’s house again, Leonore raps on the door. A moment later the door flings open to reveal scholar Carina with her messy hair, “Why hello, come in, I had your books completed a week ago.”

Entering she directs us to her study, the state of her house no better than last time. Entering her study there are books piled in corners and bookshelves with disorganised books lining them. Next to her long study desk are two piles of books which she gestures towards, “Here are your new and old books. I am also willing to buy the untranslated books if you wish.”

We can’t exactly do anything with them, I respond, “Oh, how much?”

“30 gold for the lot, non-negotiable.”

“Fine, deal.” I reply, not wanting to argue, it’s not like we could find another buyer in a few days. So after the auction and my payments for school and our payment for the books we’re left with 88 gold combined, so 44 gold to me plus my original 41 gives me 85 gold. Once we’re done with our translated textbooks and spell books we could sell them too.

Back at the S-class residence Leonore, Aurelie and I are currently in a lounge room, relaxing on some couches while reading through our new books to ascertain their purpose; we’re actually using the knowledge we’ve learnt at the academy!

After looking through the two spell books and the two alchemy books I say, “The spells directly tell us their applications, there is a rank 2 spell called mind shock which rattles the mind of an opponent, from what I can infer it will disrupt spell casting of mages or cancel skill usage in warriors moreover it will briefly stun an enemy.”

Aurelie’s eyes widen in astonishment, “Wow, that’s an incredible spell, even though mind magic is outlawed I recommend you still learn it to take advantage of your high will.”

Leonore nods in agreement, “Indeed it is similar to my shock spell except you don’t need to touch your opponent, I suggest you learn it too as the mages guild doesn’t usually enforce those rules, it could be a powerful spell in your arsenal.”

“Ok, I’ll keep it in mind, anyway the second spell is a proper psychic attack, a rank 3 spell called mind pincer, I’m pretty certain that’s the same attack a mind demon used on me in the dungeon. The spell can grab out a weak will and devour it or if the will is quite strong, the spell can crush it with constant pincer attacks.” I explain.

Leonore grows thoughtful as she criticizes the spell, “Hm, I don’t know about learning that spell, it is quite sinister.”

“And powerful! you should definitely learn it when you’re rank 3.” Aurelie strongly implores. I shrug, “It’s a long time until I have to worry about it so I’ll leave it be for now. Anyway, the alchemy books are completely useless to us, they unsurprisingly have alchemy theory and techniques.”

Aurelie then happily explains her books, “Well my two books were rather interesting, they are spell theory books for psychic magic, one of them is rank 2 and contains a spell, the other is a rank 3 textbook.”

“What is the spell?” I ask in anticipation which she promptly responds with a smile, “Telepathy.”

Leonore speaks up, “Telepathy? That’s a rather rare spell but it’s also one of the few spells in mind magic that is legally accepted. As for my two textbooks, they are psychic magic theory books, so nothing particularly interesting unless you intend on delving into deeper psionic powers.”

“Ok, those psionic books honestly seem rather intriguing and it’s not illegal to keep knowledge on mind magic, only practice it. So we will sell the alchemy books and keep the others?” I suggest, Leonore and Aurelie both nod in agreement.

Today is the day we depart for the imperial capital. I say my goodbyes to Hugo and Emilie, though I’ve grown somewhat distant with them after the whole dungeon debacle and likely because I was in S-class so I could never see them. We grab our money from the bank before going to the ‘Grand docks’ as they’re called. When we arrive I can’t help but see why it’s named as it is. This is clearly where industry is centralised in the city as workshops and smithies can be seen near the docks with chimneys puffing out thick black smoke. There are massive groups of people walking around in worker’s attire, sailor’s uniforms or the occasional rich looking individual who seem to be a merchant. This is only the prelude before we reach the dock itself, an uncountable number of ships are docked onto the long wooden port, labourers can be seen rushing about with barrels or crates as they offload or load cargo long with a deluge of ships that can be seen coming or going at a constant rate. The port is lively and honestly rather inviting with its busy atmosphere.

We walk to one of the merchant’s ships, a rather simple wooden vessel which is currently being loaded with crates by labourers. A burly person in rather luxurious sailor’s attire along with a styled moustache walks up to us, asking, “You three must be the mages, do you have the money? Five gold per passenger.”

“We are battle ready mages, why are you charging us the usual fee?” Leonore asks as her eyebrows furrow.

“Pah, battle ready? All I see are a few brat mages, if you have a certificate from a battlemage academy or are rank 2 mages then I’ll happily waive the fee, but I doubt you three could give any valuable assistance against the creatures of the deep.” He patiently explains before putting out his hand palms up while asking, “So are you paying or not, I’ve got work to do.”

Leonore clenches her teeth before taking out five gold coins and putting it in his hand, which prompts Aurelie and me to do the same, the merchant performs a slight bow before gesturing to the ramp, “Excellent, I am the merchant but also the captain of this vessel, captain Danton, welcome aboard!”