Born From A Divine Gamble

In order for his explanation to make sense, he needed to talk about the Gift of s.p.a.ce so he decided to start with that.

When he talked about the anchor, the duke threw everyone else out of the room, servants and healers alike. He got very angry that Emp would speak so lightly of a divine treasure. He insisted that he should never talk about the divine treasure or what it did to anyone but the people he trusted the most.

The old man feared that someone would use what they learned about the treasure against him. Powers and artifacts given by the G.o.ds should be kept as secret as possible so that no one could take advantage of them.

After he was done lecturing him on the subject, the duke let him proceed with his story.

Emp told him about how the anchor let him be at two places at once and how his mother sent him on a hunt with a group of thirty.

"At least ye learned somethin. Ye didn"t carelessly give her name. This is what ye should always do."

Emp had said mother instead of Marcy because now that he knew of her relations.h.i.+p with Chijou, he was afraid that the duke would die on the spot if he mentioned her name. He didn"t know how he would react if he knew that Emp lived with her. She wasn"t supposed to know anything of what happened but there was no way the duke didn"t know her. He might make all sorts of a.s.sumptions if he heard her name.

He might think Emp was careless or in reverse that she was in league with Chinui for his supposed plan. He might want to hide her or send troops to protect her, both of which would annoy her to no end. All sorts of things could happen and Emp didn"t want to be stuck in the middle of any of it.

Emp glossed over the mention of his mom and talked about how they ambushed the monster instead, discovering that he was stronger than they thought and how they barely managed to kill it.

"Is it on your card?"

Emp showed him the kill list and the unnameable of chaos on it. The thing was labelled as "new moon mutant". (1)

"Hehe! This be great, this be meanin ye took a great part in the fight. If ye just watched from the side, it wouldn"t be there."

Emp could hardly see what was so great about this. He did understand that killing an unnameable of chaos was a rare thing worthy of admiration but he got very beat up in the process, almost lost his leg and he clearly remembered a few huntresses dying.

Aside from that, being able to kill that thing or not didn"t matter in any way to the school.

"Ye need to continue doin all that and rake in more achievements, it will give ye a head start. Speakin "bout that, ye kids are "bout ready to get into the special courses, or be they cla.s.ses? No bother. the others get to choose what they want to study but not you, I registered ye to most of them already."

"How many?" Asked Emp, curious.

He could hardly understand what the strange duke was trying to tell him but he did understand that he would have to follow even more cla.s.ses. He wondered how many and what they were. Would he really have the time to go to all of them?

"No clue, I just ticked yer name at each I felt you"d need. Ye be thankful later lad, the schedule will be sent to ye soon. The other will choose today what they feel they wanna take."

That was a bit ominous but at the same time, he was here to learn as many things as he could so he would probably have registered for as many as possible too.

After that, he told Emp to do his best and continue to impress everyone and left, letting the healers back into their hall.

Then, them and his two slaves tended to him the whole day, checking on his condition keeping him company.

They told him that his leg would take a few day before it started to move like it should and a few more before it went back to normal. Of course, this speed was only due to their efforts. They had spent a lot of resources on it at the behest of the duke. They also had to remove a lot of fragments of his broken armor embedded into his leg which took a lot of time.

He was ready to pay for it all but the duke had already did. Emp thought it was very generous of him.

There wasn"t much to do while stuck inside a bed. Aside from the times where the healers came to check for changes in his leg and cast a few more spells on it or had him drink some foul medicine, it seemed that nothing would happen here.

We was glad Harriett and Celtine were there with him, at least he had someone to talk with. He sent them back to their room early in the day to get some real clothes but after they came back, they did not leave his side anymore. they seemed to be rejoicing about spending time with him.

"Master is so amazing he could beat such a big monster!"

"I almost died though."

"No way, how could master die against a wild beast! Even if master tells me that, I won"t believe master would truly have died. Every time, I worry a lot but in the end, master is always fine."

"You are right, I wasn"t careful, I was only thinking of helping the others. I need a lot more strength."

"Mwu, how come master always agrees with Celtine but never with me?"

"I don"t know. This time I only survived because there were many of us to take its attention away and because of the apple Calla gave me."

Both girls frowned hearing the unknown name.

"Who"s Calla?"

"A short girl with a pretty smile and a thick braid. She"s shy and always hiding somewhere but the food she makes is great. I wish you two could taste it as well."

"She made master some food!"

"Yes, all the time and it"s the best I tasted so far."

Harriett seemed shocked and sulked the rest of the day. Emp told her many time that he liked her cooking too but it did not cheer her up.

Later, a servant of the school brought him the papers of the new schedule. There was a few more things on it like strategy and management and also some old cla.s.ses that he only had a few times before that were now more common.

There was a note from the duke saying he would get strategy and geography much more often until he mastered them and then his schedule would s.h.i.+ft back to more fencing, magic and combat.

Emp couldn"t help but wonder how the schedule of everyone would fit together. Would he end up alone in a bunch of cla.s.srooms all the time? With how it was organized, he felt that his whole time was filled with strategy and geography.

Celtine asked, lost in what they had planned for him.

"It"s because of my name, If I was to be ignorant about that kind of thing, I would be a disgrace." Emp guessed. "The geography is there a lot too because I need to know what the terrain looks like to decide the best course of action of an army."

He was almost certain that the others would have a schedule that looked nothing alike.

He didn"t have to wait long for his suppositions to be confirmed. As soon as the lessons of the day were over, Mable barged in the medical hall to see him. Aglaya, Ivar, Nessa, Gytha and Kenneth all came in with her.

They were very curious about what had happened to him and all swarmed the side of his bed the moment they entered the room.

Because of this, he had to explain the whole thing again, recounting how the creature could spit black liquid from tentacles on its back and how it had killed many of the huntresses that were there with him. he told them how terrifying the thing was and how everyone was gripped by fear. He mentioned how the bolts did almost nothing to it and how fast it could move. He also told them how close he came to defeat and how it was only because of extreme luck that he managed to score the blow that had knocked it down for Tacey to kill. (2)

He must have been getting better at telling stories because the others were captivated by his tale. Gasping in surprise every time the monster defied their expectation and asking a million questions at every opportunity. He even ended up showing them his wrecked leg at the demand of Kenneth making all the girls turn away from the sight.

The only question he could not answer was the most important one, how did this all come to happen? He could only tell them that the duke Jazay, ancient of the school, told him to not say anything about this. The best he could say was that none of them had to fear seeing something like that anywhere close to the city. Anyway, it had been a unnameable of chaos so there would not be any more of it.

"That old man can be so frustrating! Why did he ask you to keep quiet about it? We should all go complain to him!"

Nessa found Mable"s comment to be very amusing and while she laughed it off, Aglaya explained the reasons to her.

"Think about it from his own point of view Mable, one of his students got very injured in this. What would he do if Emp told everyone how it happened and someone else had the dumb idea of doing the same to gain prestige by fighting an unnameable of chaos. How he came across it doesn"t matter to the story anyway."

It wasn"t the real reason at all but Mable readily accepted it as truth so it was convenient for him.

"So, how long will you be stuck here?" Asked Ivar.

"I don"t know-"

"He"ll be released by tomorrow but he won"t be able to do any physical labor." Intervened a healer that wasn"t too far away. "No training, no riding, no going outdoors for a walk, he"ll have to sit down until this is healed properly."

This seemed a bit depressing but it made Kenneth laugh instead.

"Lucky you! You"ll miss the first few dance cla.s.ses of Blackbull."

"What do mean lucky him?! Dancing is so fun!" Complained Nessa.

"Don"t let it bother you Nessa, I"m sure more than a few will find it just as fun as you when we get there."

Kenneth and Ivar didn"t seem to have any interest in dancing at all but Gytha stayed positive and cheered on her friend. As the oldest here, it was natural that she kept her friends in a good mood like an elder sister. She had warmed up to them since they all met first and now seemed to smile way more than before.

Mable spoke her thoughts as well.

"I feel like dancing should be its own cla.s.s instead of forcing those that don"t want to do it to come anyway."

"Fufu. You"re just saying that because you don"t know what to pick for your own cla.s.ses. You"d have liked to pick that. They"re not separate from the rest because everyone attending n.o.ble social gathering will need to know dancing if they don"t want to look like uncivilized brutes." Aglaya answered, shooting a side glance to the two boys.

"Aye, I know I know, I"ve had them a long time ago already, I don"t need a repeat of them." Ivar pointed out.

"I"d rather be out riding or hunting." Said Kenneth honestly.

"I"m sure most of our fathers and brothers think the same." Agreed Gytha with an understanding smile. "What about you Emp?"

Emp didn"t have an opinion on dancing yet. He had seen that kind of thing only twice until now and had partic.i.p.ated in neither. However, the people in the village seemed to have a lot of fun with it.

"I"ll give it a try at least, once my leg is better, but I don"t know if I"ll be any good at it."

The girls nodded approvingly but Mable didn"t stick with the subject and went back to her own problem.

"But none of this helps me choose what sort of lessons I want to follow! Emp, show me what you chose!"

He pointed her toward his schedule on the bedside table and she s.n.a.t.c.hed it to look through.

"Beuh, why do you have so much strategy?"

"It"s easier to understand than the customs taught by madam Blackbull."

Always trying to find a reason to everything without lying was getting very tiring. It was a bit depressing knowing he must still have a long time to spend in the school.

Aglaya looked over her shoulder and peeked at the schedule too.

"Look, he"s got a special lesson with Blackbull every other day, this probably means you"ll see her every day in between. You may not be with him all the time but he will be done quick with those strategy cla.s.ses and at least, you have geography in common."

Mable made another pout.

"Why do you want me to take that? It"s boring I don"t need it. I"d rather have more cla.s.ses with Blackbull and survival ones, those are funny."

"They might be funny but you have no need for them, you need to think about your future. Management, economy and geography is what you need."

"Why? They don"t expect anything of me. I"m not inheriting anything."

Emp couldn"t remember how many older brother she said she had. it seemed obvious that after they had a go at the inheritance, there wouldn"t be much left for the carefree girl.

"That"s why you have to work hard Mable. Did you plan to lounge all day and let us take care of you?"

Mable groaned and placed the paper back on the table.

"Trust me on this. You"ll see, it will all work out." Aglaya said patting her shoulder.

Now that Mable"s lessons had been chosen, Emp got curious about the others.

"What about the rest of you? What sort of cla.s.s will you pick?"

"I already got most of what I possibly could out of them so I just got more archery." Ivar answered with a shrug.

That was expected from him, he was always in the archery field anyway. Kenneth was the next to speak.

"I"ll share the instruction of a spear master with Oliver and hone my riding skill to perfection."

"Gytha and me want to try to raise our knowledge of magic enough to get into the potion cla.s.s. Wouldn"t it be fun to serve magic tea? That wasn"t my first choice but the other isn"t working out well."

Emp had no problem picturing Nessa with some magic drink, she was very knowledgeable about tea. It was one of her great pa.s.sions. He wondered what could have interested her more than potion making.

"I guess I can understand for you but why you too Gytha?" Asked Ivar.

"I felt it would be sad to have Nessa go there alone. Plus, I have an affinity for Illusion magic and it"s the same teacher for both. I hear the two discipline work well together. How about you Aglaya?"

"I"ll take all the same as Mable of course. I told her this was the best path so of course, I have to prove it. Also, if I don"t go with her, I fear she won"t pay attention and fail the cla.s.s."

"What!?"

"I"m just playing!" She tried to appease Mable, taking her into an embrace. "How could I leave my cute Mable alone in a boring cla.s.s."

"Wha! Please, let me go!"

They had a good laugh and after speculating on how they thought the schedule of everyone would be arranged, left to let Emp rest. They only told him to not worry about Mable"s protection as they left. Not that he would have anyway, he was convinced nothing could happen in this school.

Later that day, the medical staff helped him back to his own room and it wasn"t long after that before he felt sleepiness take him over. Still, he couldn"t help but take a look at the ring, checking on everyone he gave a ring to so far.

Mable was fine, Willow had removed her ring, Celtine was fine and Harriett was written as Jealous... Jealous? What sort of condition was this? Was it because of what he said about Calla"s food? He would need to think about how to fix this soon. He didn"t want her to torture herself too much over this. For him though, it was really hard to think about how to go about this.

The answer did not come to him as he fell asleep.

The next day came too soon to his liking. Not only because he wanted more sleep and some more time to figure out how to appease Harriett but because he had a full afternoon with madam Blackbull that day.

In the morning, there was a combat cla.s.s but since he couldn"t go anyway, the two girls let him sleep the whole morning instead and they only woke him up for the customs cla.s.s which happened to be the long awaited dance cla.s.s.

There was no way he could dance in this state but he didn"t dare to not go. He feared Blackbull might get even angrier if he didn"t.

Using Harriett as support, he managed to get there in one piece and sat by himself close to the wall. The teacher had asked to use the main hall for this so they had a lot of s.p.a.ce to practice. Most of the hall"s decorations and furniture had been pushed close to the wall, including the chairs. Emp was glad they had not removed them from the room entirely.

As expected, the others came to ask him a bunch of things about his leg and the fight he had. Brenia was particularly surprised to hear about how he broke the hand of that beast with his weak spell.

"No way! It really worked? Why didn"t you just fight it head on? A good swing of that hammer of yours would have done the job."

"Impossible, Brenia, that thing destroyed my arm with a weak slap. If I had gone against it head on, its fist would have broken all the bones in my body."

"Haha! You know what this means then? We got to train harder!"

She raised her arm and showed him her bicep, gripping it with her other hand to show him how solid it was. There was something very strange about seeing a girl in a dress do that kind of gesture. It wasn"t fitting at all.

Not to say that Brenia was a good fit with any sort of dress though. She had been forced to wear one for this dance cla.s.s but she seemed really annoyed by it and Emp didn"t doubt a second that she would change back into normal clothing the moment the cla.s.s was over.

She wore a long blood red dress with no shoulders to it and a black corset she clearly didn"t intend on tightening at all. The dress was too long to see but Emp was pretty sure she wore her combat boots under it. If one had to judge her on her appearance, they would say that she had made no efforts at all but they would then get their skull broken open by her.

Maybe the dress didn"t seem to fit her only because she seemed uncomfortable wearing it? Both the dress and its wearer were pretty, there was no reason for the combination to be this jarring.

"I don"t think that"s something training can fix." He tried to tell her.

Brenia was about to say something else but as she opened her mouth, they heard the characteristic clacks of the teacher"s shoes as Blackbull entered the hall. Brenia closed back her mouth and stepped away from him and back into the group of girls. Even then though, she was really sticking out.

As for the cla.s.s that soon started, Emp didn"t keep a strong impression of it. The teacher had brought a few musicians with her and under their performance, she instructed the students on what n.o.ble dances were all about.

Emp felt it seemed very complicated compared to the thing the villagers called dancing. n.o.ble dances were so precise it felt incredible to watch when done properly. Since it was only the first cla.s.s, there weren"t that many that were good at it yet.

Of all the boys, Zoran was the best followed closely by Norval. Norval wasn"t really a surprise since he was good at everything but he had not expected Zoran"s talent. He seemed to have a great time and understood the steps easily but sadly, every time someone noticed him, he started to panic and fumble.

The rest of the guys were just terrible and couldn"t follow the beat. Only Frits was any good and that was because he already went through those cla.s.ses long ago, he was only here to accompany his future wife. He danced with her the whole time and her smile revealed to everyone that she liked his attention very much.

On the girl"s side, the worst were Penny and obviously Brenia. Every time the teacher would turn her head away from them, they would stop trying to dance at all and only stepped out of the way of everyone else. Clearly, neither of them had the slightest intention of ever stepping in a ballroom. Even when Blackbull was glaring at them, they moved as if they had two left feet.

The others seemed to have a lot of fun though. Even those who had more difficulty tried their best to learn. Mable was too cheerful and often outpaced the others and the music while Aglaya was elegant but way too stiff in her movements according to the teacher.

The best of them all was Nessa who seemed to be in a world of her own. Everyone present couldn"t help but look her way and admire her moving form. Emp had the sensation that the floor like the rest of the room belonged to her for as long as the music played. It was the same sort of feeling he would attribute to the unnameable of chaos in its crystal cave or Brenia on the sparring field. It was the first time he ever saw her dance but he could tell as easily as everyone else, if the dance floor was a battlefield, no one would ever defeat her. Blackbull was extremely pleased by her performance and urged the other to take her as an example.

The cla.s.s ended with many feeling satisfied and many more thankful that it was over for now. Emp however felt the opposite. Now that the cla.s.s was over and everyone was dismissed, it was time for Emp"s private lesson. The old lady had a lot of complaints about his recent behavior.

"You have failed to attend more cla.s.ses than anyone up to now." She first said after Harriett brought him to the teacher"s office.

"I do not get injured on purpose though." He answered with a bit of sadness.

"I understand that of course but can"t you be more careful? At this rate, you"ll end up with a final result even worse than your father"s."

She had not even taken the time to make herself some tea like usual before she started complaining.

"Am I really so bad? I"m doing my best to pay attention to your words."

"I do believe you listen carefully to my words, I can see it. However, young man, you keep making insane decisions at every turn."

She couldn"t possibly have heard about every mistake he did. Maybe asking her what he did wrong first before trying to explain himself would be for the best. That way, he might be able to dodge some reproaches. He had enough from Marcy already.

"What have I done wrong?"

"What have you done wrong? The list is longer than my arm! First off, two nights ago, you carried a girl in her underwear across more than half of the school and left her like that in front of the duke!"

"I didn"t have the time to-"

"You offered a ring to miss Mable! A decent man shouldn"t give jewelry to a woman who he isn"t courting!"

That had not even crossed his mind.

"But it was for her protection. The ring-"

"You stood on your hands on a desk in the middle of a magic study cla.s.s!"

How did she hear about that one? It must have been Mable, She must have thought it was funny and let it slip to the teacher in one of her own private lessons.

"That was because Odilon said-"

"Young man, it doesn"t matter what that boy says, it"s not that he has more bark than bite, it"s that he has no bite at all. Whatever he says shouldn"t have any weight on you, learn to do like the rest and ignore him."

Poor Odilon, now even the teachers decided to ignore him.

"Let"s skip over all your usual nonsense for now, we need to talk about how you became lord protector. This is by far the worst thing you did yet."

That was the thing he had first feared she wanted to complain about. He had been afraid since that day about what misgivings she would have on this.

"I didn"t know what else to do but to accept. In any case, I don"t feel it"s a hard thing to do and it"s not displeasing either."

"Admitting that most of the fault is on them and that I already harshly scolded them for that maneuver, did it not cross your mind that it would be best to decline that position?"

"You said that not taking a gift was something I should not do."

"Yes because usually people refrain from gifting absurd things! You should be able to use common sense and your own judgement to understand when something is too much. Do you not understand who you are?"

"What do you mean?"

"You don"t know her full name! For all you know you could be betraying your own family right now! What were you thinking? Emp tell me, what is the goal of the Muraciers?"

"Their goal was to protect the imperial family and the empire."

She reacted to his answer with a long frustrated sigh. Obviously she believed that he couldn"t be the lord protector of someone if that person wasn"t in the imperial family. If she was right, did that mean that he put himself in real big trouble?

Thinking about it, the Grandbois held the empire together with the might of the Muraciers, if they suddenly supported another family, the whole thing could crumble. Since Chinui wasn"t coming back, he might just have done something terrible. The old lady continued after letting Emp think about it for a moment.

"I also can"t help but notice you said "their goal was" rather than "our goal is". What"s with the detachment between you and the rest? Why the past tense?"

Oops, he had not meant his sentence to send any special message. He just didn"t feel that attached to the family behind his name.

"What is going on in your house?" She asked in bewilderment.

Time to dodge the questions like she had taught him.

"You mean the building or the societal organization formed around a familial unit?"

"By the G.o.ds Emp, one of these days I feel like I will strangle you."

"Is my answer really that upsetting?"

"Even If I get my question across, you will answer me something like "I was told to not say anything about this" won"t you?"

Emp considered for an instant before nodding.

"Yes."

"I"m afraid there won"t be enough tea in this city to calm my nerves. What have I gotten myself into really? Can you at least tell me your intentions toward the imperial family?"

"Which one?"

Her question was too vague, there were many imperial families on the continent and at least one of them was an enemy. She let out another depressed sigh and got up from her chair to empty the whole shelf of tea leaves she had, placing everything on her desk.

"Maybe it"s best if I don"t know after all. Of everything I"m trying to teach you, why was this the only thing you managed to learn properly? Maybe everything will coincidentally work out in the end."

"What does that mean."

"Ah, it"s your turn to get no answer now since it"s just baseless hopes. We"re done with this topic, let"s go back to some other mischief you did. Let me look at the list."

She had a whole list! Emp took a depressed appearance as the teacher found something else to complain about.

***

"Have you drank it all?"

"..."

"This is the point of it after all. This feeling of calm and relaxation will last for a while. Now that you are so relaxed, let me tell you about my plan. I need your help to bring it to completion."

"Your plan?"

"Yes, a plan to help you and your family get out of their debts. You know I would do anything for you right?"

"How?"

"Do not be hasty, I need your help first and then, I will tell you what this is all about."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I like it when you"re so obedient. Listen, I made a list of possible targets but I"m lacking information. I need you to tell me everything you know about all of them. I want all of their secrets."

***

(1) The fact that they are unnameable of chaos implies that they can"t be named but mankind really likes to name thing anyway. If the unnameable of chaos gets really well known, people have to stick a name to it or it becomes hard to talk about it. It"s especially important when it lives for decades before getting slain. Here, the hunting card put a label to it but it"s not an actual name, it"s just what it is.

(2) I like to speak over and over about the same thing to see all the different kinds of reaction everyone have about those events but obviously, I have to refrain from doing this because I know how annoying it is to read those again and again. I shortened it as much as I could without disjointing the whole thing.