Born From A Divine Gamble

< we="" should="" go="" tell="" the="" duke="" first="" instead.="" surely,="" he="" will="" know="" how="" to="" handle="" this.="">

"But Aglaya is a good friend, I don"t need the duke to mediate."

< but="" if="" she="" acts="" stubborn="" for="" an="" unknown="" reason,="" she="" might="" do="" something="" in="" a="" hurry="" before="" you="" can="" request="" help="" from="" him="" or="" the="" teacher.="">

"I think you worry too much. Even in the worst case scenario, it"s not impossible for me to just grab her and forcefully bring her to the duke. She might be really tall but she"s just as light as everyone else."

Celtine tapped the top of his head lightly to signify she understood and left it at that. Whether she agreed or not, she knew she wouldn"t be able to change his mind.

Once there, Emp knocked on her door. He had hoped she wouldn"t have left for Mable"s room yet and thankfully she was still here. The servant that answered the door waited for his mistress approval and let him inside.

"Hi Aglaya, good morning." Emp started.

She welcomed him inside with a rather stiff smile.
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"Hi Emp, I know why you"re here. It"s about your name isn"t it."

He nodded.

"Yes, that"s right. Could you say it aloud first so that I can make sure this isn"t some misunderstanding? I will know if you lie."

"Of course you will know, the Muraciers always know when someone lies to them. They work on truth alone."

Emp returned her stiff smile. Her two slave had frozen as well, like those of Juniper, their master hadn"t told them yet. They stared into the eyes of each other for a moment, trying to guess what the other was thinking before Emp finally spoke again.

"May I have a seat?"

"Yes please, let us talk."

She waved towards a chair to present it to him but since her two slaves were shaken, Emp dragged the chair for himself and placed Celtine at his side. Once he was sat, he took the first question.

"So how did you find out in the end? Did Juniper really tell you? I don"t feel like she would."

Aglaya shook her head.

"She didn"t, I just guessed from what I knew and the little information she slipped. The usually aloof Juniper was fidgety and nervous, coincidentally, you weren"t there either so I guessed she knew something about where you might be. I was wrong but I learned something way more interesting.

She wasn"t nervous for you, she was nervous because she had a big problem and you weren"t there to fix it. That much was obvious because knowing her, I knew she would act immediately if any problem occurred around her. The only reason for her to be unable to do so was that she didn"t have access to the solution. But what could you possibly have to do with her?

I remembered this crystal mining operation you had set up together so I asked her if her workers were doing fine, if something happened over there. She flinched and told me that everything was fine, they had just met with a legendary smith.

It was that tiny piece that let me see the whole picture, finally. Everything I knew about you fit together nicely thanks to that last information. A high n.o.ble, a legendary smith you called mother, the duke escorting you and doting on you, a name kept hidden, an overly honest person, someone with ridiculous strength aiming to be stronger still. There"s only one name that could possibly fit. Honestly, I should have guessed much earlier, the hair pretty much gives it away. I guess you were so... you, that it didn"t cross my mind at all. Almost everyone in the empire has blond hair, only the Muraciers are known for the exotic color."

Brown was hardly an exotic hair color, wasn"t it just blond that was darker? Sure, he very rarely saw it but it wasn"t unheard of, it was just uncommon. Emp couldn"t figure out if she was really good at piecing things together or if it was just obvious past a certain amount of information. In any case, she now knew his family name. Emp would had found it less ominous if she hadn"t been making the most serious face he ever saw her wear.

"Why are you acting so serious?" He asked her.

"It would be strange if I wasn"t serious wouldn"t it? I just found out that your name is the biggest it could possibly be and you came to see me right away meaning, you don"t want anyone else to know."

"Wait, are you scared of me?"

"No, not really, you aren"t that sort of guy I believe. If I had really been scared, I wouldn"t have waited for you in that room."

"I guess not."

"Are you disappointed?"

"Relieved instead, It would be annoying if one of my friends was suddenly scared of me."

She laughed it off lightly and Emp moved on.

"I"m just here to ask you to not tell anyone."

"Maybe I won"t, I have some questions that needs answering first."

"You really want to use that to fish for information?"

"Of course I do. You know how I don"t like to not know. So, will you answer them?"

"It really depends on the questions."

Emp didn"t mind answering questions but he knew of many people who would. If she asked something too hard, he might not be able to give her an answer.

"First of all, why are you hiding your name?"

"Because the ancient asked me to."

She seemed surprised.

"That"s all?"

"It was, I had no reason to hide it. Now I learned a lot so I know why it was better to hide it, even if I think this is bothersome."

Aglaya pressed her back into her chair.

"You answered the question without really answering it."

"I don"t understand what you want to hear me say. There"s no intricate scheme, at least, none that I"m aware of. It"s just a matter of security and efficiency. The duke didn"t want me to be targeted while I"m still weak and if I"m not disturbed by other people, I can train better."

She raised a hand in surrender.

"Okay, I like that answer better. What about your position in the house? From which branch are you?"

"Is it important?"

"It is for Mable!"

"Right..."

That was obvious but he hoped she wouldn"t tell so he had not expected her to be used as an argument. He chose to give her what she wanted because it was simpler and not really an important secret.

"If everything goes as it should, I"ll be the next great general. There"s no one closer to the t.i.tle than me but no other Muracier knows I exist yet."

She seemed satisfied, maybe even relieved, but also surprised.

"So you"re the main heir. Why does no one know?"

"That one I can"t answer, sorry."

He would have to talk about Chinui and the G.o.ds for that. This wasn"t the time and place for that kind of strange story. She was only a little disappointed by his answer.

"That"s fine, I knew you"d say that them moment I asked. Then, why did you say: If everything goes as it should?"

"They don"t know I exist and Chinui wasn"t there so his cousin Graube decided he should be the one to get the t.i.tle of great general. I haven"t met him so I don"t know how he will react exactly but if he is as unreasonable as everyone seems to think he is, I might have a hard time pus.h.i.+ng him out of my place."

"Are you saying there will be a power struggle inside the house?"

"I don"t know how things will turn out. Hopefully, there won"t be any actual fighting because I"d feel rather bad to see a family tear itself apart for a t.i.tle. I won"t back down though, I need it for myself."

Aglaya pondered over his answer for a moment with her arms crossed.

"Why do you need that t.i.tle so badly?" She finally asked.

"That one is too dangerous for me to answer, I won"t. Graube just wants it because he is ambitious not because he deserves it or needs it. I think my reasons are better, even if I can"t say them."

"It"s fine, you"re supposed to be the one to have the rights on the t.i.tle anyway. I want to ask something else instead. There"s a lot of rumors in Thronewoods about how the Emperor is angry at the Muraciers and that"s why we don"t see them much anymore. There are a lot of big n.o.bles who decided to frown on the Muraciers just to show that they"re on the side of the emperor in this but, no one seems to actually know why he"s angry. Do you know? Is it related to any of this?"

"I don"t know why he"s angry." Emp denied. "As far as I know, he"s the one that angered the great general Chinui, he"s got no reason to be angry. I can"t say anything else about all that though because the emperor himself ordered so."

"Did you meet him?" She asked, curious.

"No, I was just told that he ordered that everyone related to the matter shut their mouths about it."

"But even though they"re cold with each other, you"ll still do your best to take the position of great general?" She asked instead.

"I will, it"s got nothing to do with that. Whatever happens between Chinui and the emperor, there will be a new great general ready soon."

He felt really bad to say things like that because it was barely the truth but he had no other choice.

"Either Graube will be the great general of the next Emperor Grandbois or I will take the t.i.tle myself."

There, this phrasing was better. Aglaya also seemed to think it was a satisfying answer and gave a pleased nod.

"I guess that answer"s good enough. What about Mable then?"

"What about her?" Emp asked back in confusion.

"You want me to keep quiet about all of this to her, why should I? Don"t you know her name too?"

Both him and Celtine furrowed their brows.

"I don"t, I never bothered looking into it."

"Why?" It was Aglaya"s turn to be surprised. She put so much importance into information gathering that she was really surprised to hear Emp didn"t even try to get the information.

"I love her, not her name. I married a girl from a village first so you should know that names don"t matter to me at all."

"Names don"t matter to you but you still want me to hide it to her? You"re about to give her a confirmation gift and I should keep my mouth shut about you almost being the next great general? She"s my best friend, you better have a good reason to hide it or there"s no way I"m hiding anything."

Emp had not expected he would have to defend his secret this way so his answer ended up long winded and tortuous.

"I felt that since I didn"t want anyone knowing my name, it was more than fair for her not not say hers either. She"ll just tell me once she feels like it, I"m not in a hurry to know, I"d just like to receive the same treatment.

I have a book that was given to me by a G.o.d, it answers any questions you ask it. I could have asked for her name at any time but I never did because whatever the answer is, it cannot change my feelings for her. If you do tell her though, I will have to know her name too for security reasons and in that case, I will have to pry into her secrets. I don"t want to do it so don"t make me. I"m just asking you to keep it quiet for at least until we leave this school.

I just don"t want my training time here in the school to be disturbed by too many things. I need as much of my attention as possible to focus on my training and the more people that knows, the harder it gets. Juniper and you are already way too much, the ancient and Blackbull will be livid. I can promise you on ancestors and G.o.ds alike that I will never harm Mable willingly but my name needs to remain hidden for now. My future might hinge on whether someone tells it to the wrong person or not. I can"t take any risk."

"You think Mable would tell anyone? Haven"t you seen how angry she got about the scissors?"

Aglaya seemed to be upset about his argument and he raised both his hands over the table to defend himself.

"That"s not what I meant. You can never know when something will slip, accidents do happen that"s why I want no one to know. Juniper isn"t the sort to reveal secrets either but you still got my name through her with barely an effort. I can"t guess how she will act with me once she knows my name, what if she boasts about it? What if Heida says something insulting and Mable tells her that she should watch her tongue? What if she gets really upset one time and something slips out? Worse, she might think this is a great way to introduce me to her dad, then everyone outside will soon know I"m in the school. If possible, I"d really like to not take those chances."

Aglaya let out a sigh but the right corner of her mouth rose in amus.e.m.e.nt.

"You know, truth is often cold and hard like steel, I wondered many times if that was the reason why the Muraciers liked it so much."

"Maybe. Personally, I think truth is just better. Steel isn"t always cold either, it"s really warm in a forge."

Aglaya chuckled at his silly answer.

"Fine then, I"ll keep it secret for now. You"re right, I"d rather let Mable tell you her name once she feels like it instead of letting you find out about it in a book. Also, I know you meant it when you said you"d never harm her willingly. The words of a Muracier are really valuable after all."

"People always say that but I"d like it better if they trusted me instead of my name."

"Come on, don"t be like that. You know I"d have trusted you anyway."

"I know, I just don"t want you and Mable to forget who I am because of my name."

"Believe me, I understand perfectly. I don"t think this will happen."

Emp felt satisfied with her answer and their conversation. He adjusted his posture to be a bit more comfortable on the chair and asked her if she wanted to talk about anything else before he left.

"Not really, is there something else you wanted to mention?"

"Maybe, I don"t know if it will matter but something happened in Red-water. I don"t think it will be long before everyone over there knows me and the story might reach here. Do you think we"ll be able to keep Mable from hearing it?"

Aglaya laughed in amus.e.m.e.nt before answering.

"I think it will be easy. If the story speak about a Muracier, she"ll probably just say something like; "Don"t bother saying it! I don"t care about the Muraciers, I don"t want to hear it." I"m curious though, what did you do?"

Emp gave her a wry smile in answer to her imitation.

"I got in a fight with a viscount"s son and he"ll go on trial for it. Why does Mable dislike the Muraciers though? I know she gets annoyed when anyone mentions them but I don"t get why."

"It was never clear in the first place. There was something she never told me about but I think it"s mostly just because her dad is frowning on them too. I told you earlier about how the emperor was acting and how many n.o.bles imitated him right?"

Emp nodded in understanding. Everyone was following someone else and no one knew why they were really upset, that was what he gathered from this. He didn"t think Mable would keep a grudge against him for something that silly.

With all that out of the way, he got up from his seat and said goodbye to Aglaya as he placed Celtine back on his shoulders.

"I"ll see you later, for now, I have to go speak to the duke, and then teacher Blackbull."

"Wait, they"ll get angry about me knowing your secret right? Could you hide it from them instead?"

"Hide it from them?"

Emp furrowed his brows as he observed Aglaya shrug like it was nothing.

"Yeah, why not? It doesn"t matter whether they know or not, I"m not saying anything to anyone anyway. You said you didn"t care much either way, isn"t it better to escape a scolding in that case?"

Emp remained unconvinced.

"It would be safer for everyone to let them know, I"m not that afraid of getting yelled at."

"It"s not about being afraid, don"t you trust me at all to keep the secret?" She said with a disappointed air.

"That"s not what I meant."

Her face instantly turned back to a bright smile and she jumped in for the kill.

"So you won"t say anything! I knew I could count on you."

Emp didn"t know how to answer. He felt like he was being cheated somehow. He had not agreed to anything but now he"d feel guilty if he said anything.

Giving up, he made a groan as he pa.s.sed the door. Aglaya waved her hand at his leaving figure and kept up her joyful smile.

As he walked down the corridor, he felt relieved that he now had the promise that the secret of his name would not spread further for the time being. He didn"t think it would be absolutely disastrous if everyone knew but he sincerely thought that things were simpler like this and he enjoyed simplicity.

Thinking about simplicity, the next thing he had to do was to meet with the old man but did he really have to? The conversation he just had with Aglaya had him thinking, maybe now was not the best time to tell him about Balpoisson. The trial had yet to be held, what if the duke ordered him to stop it and come back before it began? In order to make sure that Galana would be saved without problems, he felt that it would be for the best if he kept his mouth shut about the matter until after the trial was done.

He convinced himself of that easily and told exactly this to Celtine when she asked him why he wasn"t going towards the ancient"s office.

He spent the next few days as if everything was perfectly normal until he received the confirmation that everything related to this affair was concluded the way he had wanted it. Juniper seemed to have went back to her normal self and Aglaya didn"t let anything abnormal show in her behavior so Emp decided to call this a success.

In the end though, he couldn"t escape the consequences forever and he had to show himself in the office of the old man.

Since every time he was there was for something either ridiculous or disastrous, the duke Jazay was rather apprehensive about what news he brought this time.

"Hey lad, what be it that brings ye here this time?"

"I came to tell you that my existence is no longer a secret."

There was a slight delay between his declaration the reaction of the ancient while he processed what he had just heard but it still turned into an explosion of his voice.

"What!"

Emp had expected him to be angry so he wasn"t overly impressed by his booming voice.

"A friend of mine was tricked by the son of a viscount in Red-water and turned into a sealed slave. She knew way too many of my secrets and was very important to me anyway so I had to go there and wrestle her from him. He was put to trial and sentenced to death but I had to show up in front of two viscounts, the count Staedler, lord of Red water, all their families and a crowd of hundreds of people. Everyone in Red-water now knows my face and name."

The old man seemed furious but he didn"t say anything for a long long time. Emp could hear him seethe and shuffle himself on his big chair but he still couldn"t find the words to express himself. He just cracked his fingers and changed position over and over again trying to find what to say.

Meanwhile, Emp gave him more details about what happened, the trial, how he got there so fast and how he solved it.

The duke still didn"t come up with any words by the time Emp had said everything.

"La.s.s, speak in me stead." He ended up saying.

The servant that was always close-by spoke with a clear voice to spare the old man a task he obviously found too troublesome.

"The duke is greatly angered that your presence was revealed this soon, however, he doesn"t know what else you should have done. He thinks that protecting your friend and the secrets she carries was the best thing to do even though the consequences are so frustrating for him. He wishes that you would refrain from doing that sort of thing while knowing that as a Muracier, there is no way you would listen to such an instruction. He can"t come up with an alternative that would be as fast and decisive which he finds frustrating because he can"t scold you on your actions at all. He approves the result but he knows that his task will now become much harder because of this. He feels as if most of his efforts up to now were squandered and wants to blame you for it despite knowing he can"t."

The old man might not have known how to express himself but the girl standing behind him sure knew him well enough to know. It was sort of impressive to witness. The duke nodded and groaned throughout to approve of her explanation.

"I"m sorry, I apologize for acting without saying anything first but I could not wait and I didn"t want you to try to convince me to do otherwise. Maurice Balpoisson deserves his punishment and my friend as well as the secrets she carries are safe with me now."

"But they all heard yer name." The old man grumbled. "Everyone will get here in no time."

"I"m not the only one that made mistakes though, I heard that some workers mining near Dark-glint came back and told everyone they knew about a duke bending down in front of an ordinary girl at a marriage. They"re speaking about Marcy too."

The old man made a disgusted noise and shook his head. He pushed aside a bunch of things that were on his desk to make s.p.a.ce and extended a hand in the air on his side. The girl quickly placed pen and paper into it which he spread on the newly made s.p.a.ce.

"I be needin to cut the school from the world now before the news gets here."

"Cut the school from the world?"

"Aye, if no one come in or out, no one can hear the name they be speakin in the street. Joes from Red-water will be talkin here soon but the students won"t be hearin none of it. It all be goin trough the school servants from now on. Everythin the students be wantin will be bought or sold by us, everyone is forgiven to go out."

"Forbidden." The girl corrected.

"Aye, this be what I meant."

"You"ll forbid everyone from going outside of the school just because of me?"

"Nah, I was already about to close down the gates, I just be needin to be doin it quicker."

Emp had no idea what the ancient meant.

"Why were you about to close the gates?"

"Isn"t that obvious? Two girls went missing, the n.o.bles are ruffled. They be wantin to make sure the lads and la.s.ses are safe so the king lent us a bunch of knights to reinforce the guards here."

"Do you think that the alchemy teacher will come back again?"

"I be thinkin not but as long as he isn"t in our hands, the rest won"t feel at ease."

"Won"t the others feel frustrated?"

"I be carin not! This way the secrets will be kept secret and everyone will be safer. Everyone be winnin."

Like this, a few days after, fifty royal knights from Artefine swarmed the school, locked down all entrances and started watching the perimeter with extreme attention along with the usual guards and knights. Going in or out of the school became incredibly difficult.

Mable was offended because getting herself some cake became much harder but Juniper was many times more angry. She could hardly do any business while she was unable to exit the school and it frustrated her. She spent most of her free time complaining about the new rules.

For Emp, nothing should have changed because he almost never went out anyway but it had a surprising influence over his life. By being unable to go out to have fun, the guys remained stuck inside the school and started meeting regularly to play some tactic games with sculpted soldiers used for the strategy cla.s.s and some other made by them or bought trough the servants of the school. They met at least once a week to hold tournaments and see who could dominate the battlefield the best.

Gustave Halfoot, the strategy teacher, heard of this right away and joined as judge and rule enforcer over their friendly compet.i.tion. This wasn"t part of his cla.s.s at all but he hoped that some of the boys would decide to join his underpopulated cla.s.s after taking an interest to the game.

Nessa joined to witness many of the games too because she was one of the only few in the strategy cla.s.s but she preferred to watch in silence rather than partic.i.p.ate herself.

The rules weren"t complicated because it was mostly a game made up by them using the simplified rules of four more complex games. The troops didn"t have heroes and magic wasn"t taken into account, it was a pure a.n.a.lysis of who had the best strategy.

In real life, anything could happen, a monster could show up and rampage on the battlefield, a great magic could be cast at any time or a valorous warrior could turn the tide at a critical juncture but here, the wooden soldiers just moved as intended and the group would agree on who should win each encounter.

Emp was dragged into the thing early on and had great success. He won often but he didn"t feel excited by his victories. The others just always came up with the weirdest tactics or the silliest plans which made it easy to counter for him who had followed the appropriate cla.s.ses on the subject. Ivar for example always brought troops made up exclusively of archers. For him, they were the best after all. He"d line them up on a hill under the covers of the trees and rain down arrows on everyone else.

Since there was no magic included in the game, Emp just had to field a large group of heavy knights and walk over the archers. Arrows can"t do a lot against steel plates if magic isn"t involved. Some unlucky knights would die but in the end, he"d win without a doubt.

Aside from that game, the others felt bored most of the time and Emp started to see them much more often on the training field. He felt it was a good thing that they decided to train more but more often then not, they would chat more than train and he found it disturbing. He was glad Kenneth wanted to talk to him while they did exercises but he"d have loved if the talk happened outside of his precious training time.

"That would be hard, you"re training all the time. You barely take any breaks, I don"t understand how you do this." Norval told him once as they had a friendly spar.

That might be true but wasn"t that the point of school? Train and study to get better fast? The others should be more serious about this.

Overall, he spend way more time with the other boys now than he did when they could leave anytime they wanted and he had some fun with them but he felt that his training slowed down slightly.

The decision of the duke impacted his daily life greatly but it did help keep the news about what he did out of the school. The knights did a great job at locking down everything. They were instructed to not interact too much with the students and only spoke to them if they came to report some problems or ask for a tip in their studies. Cyril had a few long discussions with some of them about what it was like to be a true royal knight, what they found was their hardest duty and what was necessary to perform well. According to Cyril, they were quite helpful and even though some disdained him for his origins, a few more gave him heartfelt advice and encouragements.

Leaving aside the knights, the lock-down and his talk with the duke, Emp had many other important discussions around this time. He had a chat with Blackbull about his adventure in Red-water and he expected her to be just as angry as the duke but it was surprisingly the opposite.

She nodded in satisfaction many times as he retold how he proceeded to get Galana out of her predicament. She was prepared for an infuriating story but kept a smile the whole time instead and sipped her tea in relief. She could almost not believe her hears when he told her that this was it.

"I"m really happy you didn"t just attack them like a brute."

"Really? That"s why you"re happy?" He said incredulously.

She nodded again with a light chuckle.

"One has to take victories where they can.

More seriously, you came prepared with the guards which was good. You remained polite and didn"t act overbearingly until pushed past a decently placed line. You didn"t exaggerate, you presented yourself in your armor like the Muraciers usually do and held yourself well. You spoke properly in front of a crowd and even though you lost some points by arguing with a commoner in a brutish way, you presented clear arguments, took the side of the general populace and helped justice be served. You kept the girl from being used against you, you dodged the invitations of the local n.o.bles in a simple and effective manner and didn"t act arrogantly.

I would wager that it will make for an excellent first impression in the heart of most of the common people. Your only problem is how you hammered this viscount house like you wanted to make an example out of them. Many will be wary of you now. It isn"t necessarily a problem because it is better for them to be wary of you than for them to disregard you entirely but your next appearance will have to be positive. If you erase an opponent twice in a row, the n.o.ble houses around the empire will label you as dangerous.

Everything is about balance, next time, you will have to organize something lighthearted like a feast or a dance to present yourself in a more peaceful light to the n.o.ble crowd.

Overall, I"d say it"s not bad at all, you did much better than what I would have expected and this is sure to gain you the respect of many of the branch houses you are trying to get on your side. Muraciers were always heavy on truth and justice after all, this sudden appearance shows you are not different than what they"d hope for an heir to be. Young Muracier, I will tell you this; good job, well done."

She clapped lightly by tapping the tip of her fingers into the palm of her other hand and took another sip of tea.

"Are you not angry that I revealed myself this soon to everyone?"

"No, it does not really matter if it is done in such a well crafted way. This was just a perfect situation to make your appearance, I am glad you took it instead, it shows everyone what sort of person you are. It would have been harder to introduce you out of the blue later even if the timing would have been better.

Nothing really changed with your intervention on a social level. I believe you will receive some visitors soon because of it but this might be a good thing too. Graube will come here I have no doubt to yell at the ancient but I am more than convinced he will be able to hold him off. Aside from him, there could be any number of people related to your house that will show up to look for the mysterious Muracier of Red-water."

Emp left some time later feeling relieved that lady Blackbull didn"t scold him the whole time like he expected but he held some apprehension at the thought of who might come looking for him. He had never met a Muracier other than Chinui, he had no idea how the others would react to him appearing out of nowhere.

The thought that scared him the most was that he didn"t know what he would answer if they asked to know who were his father and mother. If they were all like Chinui, they"d see lies a thousand miles away and in that case, he would be unable to say that Chinui was his father because it was only partially true.