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An Otherworldly Scholar - 92
🕑 Added 2024-01-13 01:47:48 +0000 UTC“And then Rob smashed the royal soldier against the wall like a cook swats a fly with a ladle! There were seven of them. Rob crashed four before they could react; one was smart enough to flee, and the other two decided to fight back.” Captain Kiln said between sips from her mug; her cheeks flush from alcohol and the eyes of the kids glued to her.
Zaon stopped playing the harp.
“Now, that was a bad idea. Let me say it loud and clear. Rob summoned a barrier as sturdy as a Fortifier’s while using mana shards as projectiles to press the attack! Suddenly, this Brawler uses Iron Skin, and Rob’s sword strike bounces right off his fists!”
Elincia was livid. A vein bulged from her forehead, threatening to burst. It was well past bedtime in the manor’s kitchen, and the kids fought against slumber to keep hearing the words of the Captain. More than twenty years at the head of the Guard had left hundreds of entertaining stories. At first, I was confident my round against the royal soldiers wasn’t going to come up. Until it did.
The kids were hypnotized. Izabeka Kiln was a natural storyteller.
“Rob then parries every single hit in the counterattack like he’s never heard the word Scholar before. But just before he is about to get serious, the System Zealots stop the fight, and Prince Adrien makes a surprise appearance,” Captain Kiln said, causing Elincia’s mug to fall from her hand, spilling ale all over the table.
The situation was dire.
Shu suddenly woke up, pulling her head from under her wing. “A prince?”
“Whom wasn’t attractive at all. Go back to sleep,” I pointed out.
“Shucks,” she grunted before hiding her head under her wing again.
To my horror, Captain Kiln continued narrating the events with great attention to detail. The kids were fascinated, and even Ginz was surprised. To a certain extent, the craftsman knew about my fighting capabilities, but fighting half a dozen royal soldiers around Lv.30 was a feat only a few high-level warriors could brag about.
“It’s a shame the System Zealots decided to interfere. The royal soldiers have settled at Farcrest as if it was their own house, and they were overdue for a lesson,” Captain Kiln sighed.
The kids were skeptical at first, but as Captain Kiln continued narrating, they started to believe all was true. By the end of the story, the little ones were looking at me as if I were a superhero. It would be endearing if Elince weren’t staring icy daggers at me.
“Well, what a nice story, but now it's time to sleep,” Elincia said before Captain Kiln could start another story. We didn’t need an army of kids looking forward to exploring the Farlands.
“But it’s a birthday! We can stay up as long as we want! It’s the law!” Firana complained.
“It’s only a birthday as long as the birthday girl is awake,” Elincia retorted.
We turned around in unison. Ilya was comfortably thrown back on her chair at the head of the table, with her arms hanging from each side and a thread of drool running by the corner of her mouth. The fight against Istvan Kiln had been intense, and it wasn’t a surprise she would be so tired. Despite the funny appearance of the gnome girl, I felt proud.
“You heard the governess already,” Captain Kiln said with the same tone she used with fresh recruits.
The kids grumbled and dragged their feet to their bedrooms. Wolf threw Ilya over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes while gently carrying Shu with the other arm. Wolf could probably carry Elincia and me without much trouble. He wouldn’t be as tall as Dassyra, but his orc blood seemed more dominant than his human side.
“If you want to stay the night, Ginz can show you an empty room, Captain. We have plenty,” Elincia said.
The words fell like a brick over the captain’s head.
“What? Are we going to sleep too? We are adults. We should at least empty the ale barrel,” Captain Kiln sounded disappointed.
After accepting the invitation to stay at the party –she didn’t have any intentions to return at the Great Hall to entertain nobles– Captain Kiln had sent Raudhan to buy booze at The Dizzy Wolf. He had bought plenty, which made me wonder if high-level people had an overdeveloped liver.
“The tournament is going to be in less than a month, Captain. We need to get ready,” Elincia replied with a stern voice.
Captain Kiln grinned. “Come on, woman, stop worrying. After seeing what this quill quibbler can do, you’ll do fine in the tournament,” she drunkenly jabbed at my shoulder. Her fist shook my body. It felt as if it was made of reinforced concrete.
“I think I’m going to bed,” I said, prompting disappointed faces from Ginz and the Captain. “Don’t look at me like that, I’m tired! I’m the one who fought six royal soldiers today.”
“There were seven!” Captain Kiln pointed out, proud as a mother.
After pushing, pulling, and promising that we would invite her to the other kids' birthdays, Captain Kiln let us go. As we walked the hallway to the sleeping quarters, Elincia grabbed my hand and leaned over my shoulder. She was smiling.
“Ilya is a Hunter. I can’t believe it,” she said.
“To think she thought she would become a Mender not so long ago… are Menders that bad of a class, by the way?” I asked.
“They can evolve into Craftsmen, and that’s it,” Elincia replied. “Ginz might not seem like a lot, but Craftsmen is also an Advanced Class. He can work most materials to a certain extent, not as good as a Blacksmith, a Tinkerer, or a Tailor, but close enough.”
“He’s been leveling up a lot lately,” I pointed out.
“He’ll go stagnant in no time,” Elincia said as we entered our bedroom. She grabbed her pajamas and walked behind the wooden screen. “I have been using your mana to brew high-quality potions and hit a wall nonetheless. To keep leveling up, I have to fabricate my own recipes.”
Brewing was a slow process, and Elincia must’ve been leeching minor amounts of mana because I hadn’t noticed any change in my mana pool. She hummed a happy tune as her clothes flew into the dirty pile.
“I have almost no Corruption left,” I said, taking my shirt off and cleaning my body with a wet towel and an aromatic herbal bouquet. The fight with the soldier had made me sweat, although not as much as the subsequent conversation with the prince. I was glad it was over.
Elincia reappeared from behind the wooden screen and glared at me as I wiped my arms. “Just making sure you are not wounded, handsome,” she winked before jumping under the covers.
“I’m not in trouble?” I finally asked.
“Ilya got her dream Class. You strengthened our alliance with the Marquis and befriended Prince Adrien. Even Captain Kiln doesn’t believe you are a dweeb anymore. Why would you be in trouble?” Elincia mischievously smiled. “I don’t know how you do it, really. Nobles don’t pay much attention to us, commoners.”
“We have a monopoly on talented students in Farcrest. The Marquis and the Prince are obliged to negotiate with me,” I pointed out, shedding the rest of my clothes and putting on the pajamas.
“We could have a monopoly on high-grade potions if the Marquis forced the Alchemist Guild to give us a permit,” Elincia said. “With your mana and my skill, I think we can outperform the upper echelons of the Guild.”
The amount of success the orphanage was enjoying almost scared me. Between Elincia’s potion production and Ginz’s crafts, the orphanage could easily sustain itself in the long run. Strangely enough, I felt grateful. I owed my mana pool to a long genealogy of scientists. The ideas I fed Ginz with belonged to creative people who had perfected games for centuries. Even the steam machines we were experimenting with were mostly Byrne’s blueprints.
It was hard to cherish knowledge back on Earth, where the fruits of science were everyday things. Here in Farcrest, I understood we were riding on the shoulders of giants. Not only my parents and my teachers had shaped me into what I was. Thousands had spent their lives to push humanity forward.
Maybe the System Avatar was right, and I should use that knowledge to help fix the errors in the System.
“What’s the deal with that smile? You are creeping me out,” Elincia said, crashing my train of thought.
“Nothing, I was thinking,” I replied, entering the bed.
As usual, Elincia instantly attacked me with her cold feet. I let her until she was content. There was one last thing I wanted to discuss before going to bed. I avoided touching the matter because I didn’t want to spoil the party, but Elincia needed to know.
“Kellaren Odrac-Aias might have used the Aias name to steal money from royal soldiers. Instead of bringing the money back to the families, he embezzled it,” I said. “That’s why the soldiers attacked Firana and why I attacked them.”
Elincia nodded in silence, reaching for my hand. She was smart enough to connect the dots. Risha could be one of Kellaren’s victims.
“We suspect at least eight cases, but Kellaren’s operation might be larger than we expect,” I said. “And there is one more thing…”
Before I could continue, Elincia sat over me and pinned my arms down to the bed. “You met Risha, didn't you? The day you took Zaon to a bar?”
There was no point in keeping it hidden. I wasn’t to lie for Risha’s sake now that the Marquis and Captain Kiln were involved in the investigation. My loyalty was with Elincia but I had two important reasons to defend Risha, both equally selfish. First, he was the best option we had to know what was happening within the royal army. Second, the orphanage needed allies who could pack a punch.
“Tall, green as an olive, built like a rhino?” I asked.
“Sounds totally like him,” Elincia pressed me down, letting me know I wasn’t allowed to escape yet. Surprisingly enough, she didn’t seem mad but wary. “I don’t know what you talked about, but Risha is really smart despite his appearance. You shouldn’t trust him just because he’s charismatic. He knows what you want to hear, much like you sometimes.”
Elincia had a point, but Risha’s story also made sense.
“Doesn’t it seem suspicious that he suddenly stopped caring about the orphanage? You said he was the one who took the lead when Mr. Lowell died,” I said.
I wasn’t trying to change Elincia’s opinion about Risha. The orphanage had gone under the bus after his departure, and I couldn’t convince Elincia to forgive him, knowing the hardships she had fought against for years and years. Risha was liable one way or another, yet Elincia should give him the benefit of the doubt. We still had to uncover the truth to know if he was lying or telling the truth.
“Doesn’t it sound possible that Risha just got his money stolen?” I asked.
Elincia shook her head.
“You wouldn’t get it, Rob. I’m not saying Risha didn’t care about the orphanage. I’m saying that hitting the first soft cap at level twenty slows your progress dramatically. Then you almost stop leveling up completely. And for what? A bunch of dirty kids that aren’t even yours?” Elincia said. She wasn’t being judgmental; she was being realistic. “I reached level twenty in three years, then, during the next seven, I only leveled up four times. For combatants, it is even worse. It’s not rare for them to just go where the fight is.”
Elincia’s point was sound. Knowing the importance people gave to Classes and levels, I could see people leaving everything behind to pursue progress. Yet, I wanted to believe most people tended to do good if they had the choice. The fact that Ilya and Zaon adored Risha also tipped the balance in his favor.
“Risha said Astrid was the one in charge of telling you,” I said. The vein on Elincia’s forehead bulged again at the mention of Astrid’s name. “Is it that hard to believe that Risha was just screwed over?”
Elincia sighed and grabbed my face with both hands.
“Risha left without a word, Rob. He didn’t trust me enough to make me part of his plans, so I don’t have reasons to trust him now,” Elincia calmly said. “The Risha I knew, my best friend, my partner in crime, my brother, is long gone. The one you met is a stranger to me and I don’t mind keeping it that way.”
I nodded in silence. Elincia might not see it the same way, but the more allies we had, the safer the orphanage would be in the long run. Surely, Nasiah and Ginz were great additions to our club, but our safety net was still precarious. Even if we had the money, we lacked firepower against Kellaren in case the Marquis gave us the cold shoulder.
“I understand. No trusting in green people. Can you let me go?” I asked. The idea of the orphanage still being in danger had made my stomach uneasy. In those situations, the only way to fix it was to work on the problem.
“I’m comfy up here,” Elincia grumbled, knowing my mind was working at full speed.
“Do you have a domination fetish or something?”
Elincia rolled her eyes. “I’m scared you were going too fast. I feel I have to slow you down before you crash, but at the same time, part of me knows you are always doing what’s best for the orphanage.”
“After the tournament things will be easier,” I pointed out.
Elincia took a deep breath, as if she was fighting an internal battle, and rolled off me. “Over the table, there is a red potion. It will sober you up and give you a couple of hours of energy.”
The ease with which she could read me was both endearing and scary. I was totally planning on sneaking out of bed to play with runes for an hour or two. With Ilya getting her class, it was a matter of time before she wanted to venture into the Farlands.
“I won’t be up too late. I love you,” I said, kissing her forehead and jumping to my feet. Over the desk, there was a small chest with twenty potions lined inside. Most of them were translucent, although there were a couple of green vials and a sole red one. I drank it in one go. Spicy.
A rush of energy, stronger than the effect of caffeine, took over my body.
I grabbed my journal and blew Elincia a kiss before silently walking to the kitchen. She pulled her cold feet out of the blanket to touch me one last time before leaving. I sighed. My elven girlfriend was a spoiled brat but I couldn’t stop pampering her.
I had less than a month to prepare for a trip to the Farlands to get the kids to level ten, and so far, my progress with runeweaving had been too slow for my liking. Protecting Elincia during our last trip had been a challenge already; protecting four kids at the same time was going to be harder if things went wrong. I needed to take precautions if we met a dangerous monster.
[Awareness] informed me Ginz was already in his bedroom and, considering the thunderous snoring that came from the end of the hallway, booze had knocked down Captain Kiln too. Good. That meant the kitchen was empty.
I opened the door of the shared bedroom of the little kids and looked for Loki. The creature was resting on the floor in its usual dog form, and as soon as I opened the door, it raised its head, ears pointing up in a vigilant manner.
“Hey, buddy. I need your help here,” I whispered.
Loki sighed, which felt very strange coming from a dog, but followed me nonetheless. The only reason why Loki helped me with the runes was because it had a soft spot for the kids. Otherwise, the lazy changeling would remain resting.
We reached the empty kitchen and sat at the table. Loki transformed into a small mouse and sat before me with a pensive expression. The rat form had a wider range of emotions than the dog form, which was hilarious on its own.
“Remember when I asked you to turn into a light stone?” I asked, doing my best not to insult the creature. The last time I had insulted Loki, it had cut down its assistance.
Loki nodded, briefly transforming into a light stone before returning to its rodent form.
“I need you to transform into a light stone, but instead of emitting light gradually, I need it to come all at once, like when Firana activated the Aias Sword,” I asked.
Loki seemed to understand the assignment because he looked into my eyes and I felt his presence digging into my memories. It was a weak intrusion, similar to the System kneading my brain to imprint a new skill. This time, however, all the contents of my brain were left untouched.
“You got it?” I asked.
Bug or not, the Changeling was proving to be of great use by acting as a rune finder.
“Loki!” Loki happily replied, transforming into a light stone and emitting a dim white light. Dark wind gusts surrounded the stone as if Loki was trying to change just partially.
I smiled. A flashbang grenade would allow us to run away from any monster too powerful for us to deal with. I focused on the stone to see what rune Loki was going to use to burn stored mana in a single swing. I was so focused on the task that my brain forgot a very important point.
“Loki!” Loki yelled just before blinding me with a bright explosion of light.
Comments
I Dare Korval
Alligator Loki, complete with hat and horns, would be funny.
Elra
Mmm... It was probably 'crushed'. I'll fix it ;)
Toua77
Love how Kiln is becoming the orphanage's cool aunt. In the first paragraph, did you mean "crushed" instead of crashed, or is that an speech affectation in this world?
Kazrik
And now Rob learns, you play with your runes too much you go blind.... Keep it up Elra! :)
Kalmars
Great chapter
David Ellis
I forgot that Loki gets his/her/it's forms from memories. So now I am wondering why we haven't had a (non-canon?) scene of Loki impersonating the better known Loki. :)
