Born From A Divine Gamble

Well, getting eye to eye was impossible to begin with since she was so small.

Penny was short and dainty with no muscles whatsoever, she would probably snap in two like a twig easily. Those weren"t really negative points but when combined with her love for magic tricks, it annoyed Brenia to no end.

Brenia"s stance on magic had somewhat changed since she stepped into this school for the first time but overall, she still disliked it. She didn"t think like before that it was a cheap way out for those who didn"t want to put in the efforts to train themselves because she had been clearly proven wrong by Penny and Emp but it still wasn"t her thing.

With that said the very few tricks she learned wouldn"t cut it. She could recognize that she needed better magic to complete her objective and this was why she was looking for the short mage.

She had set herself a new objective because it was time for her to leave the school.

Most of the boys were gone now which was a good thing in her opinion but it felt lonely without anyone to fight against. There was still the old man Muracier there she could challenge but he said he was about to leave and anyway, when Emp wasn"t there, the old man kept trying to convince her that his grandson was amazing.

She felt disgusted every time and would have long beaten him to a pulp if she had the strength for it. He was too strong for her though, unbeatable, she felt lucky that he wasn"t malicious but just annoying.

He wasn"t like Ninoslav, that one was truly vile, she hated him with all her being because he reminded her of a guy in her past. She wanted nothing more than to utterly destroy him for what he was, what he did and what he attempted to do. She could tell exactly how Mable felt back then because she had been in the same position once. Just thinking about it had her boil and s.h.i.+ver in rage.

That was why she wanted him dead and that was exactly what she had set as her new objective. If the guards were too useless to get him, she would do it in their stead. Emp had driven him away once but because he worried for Mable, he let him escape, Brenia wouldn"t do the same mistake. She would hunt him down wherever he went and rescue Gytha from his clutches.

She had already decided to do it long ago. The promise of Emp to do anything she asked once was just a nice bonus. She"d kill Ninoslav Miramor, find Emp and then ask him to quit being a soldier and come hunt large monsters with her. He was one of the very few men she trusted after all and he was strong enough that she could rely on him in a fight. Him, Ivar Penny and her, two warriors, an archer and a mage, that was the perfect composition for a hunting team in her mind.

If she could gather everyone, her dream of hunting a dragon wouldn"t be so far off anymore. Their names would be known all over the empire in no time and they"d get so much glory that their names would be forever recorded in history as legendary warriors like Marcellia and Tiberius Gladius, Twain Greathorn, Horace Invertas and so many others. No one would dare mess with her then.

To achieve any of this however, she needed the potion teacher"s head and to get it, she needed someone who knew what she was doing with magic. She didn"t know many of those but even if she did, for all the things she found annoying about her, she would still choose none other than Penny to accompany her.

Emp didn"t say sensible things often but at least on this he was right. It would be foolish to go alone knowing she could get magic to a.s.sist her. Even if this wasn"t her thing, she couldn"t deny how useful it was and how valuable a mage would be to fight against another one, especially considering their opponent was a battle mage. Bringing him down wouldn"t be easy.

She moved to the magic teacher room and knocked once before getting in. This place reeked of magical garbage just like the cla.s.sroom were he taught. She had to pinch her nose to stop herself from chocking. How come no one else found this whole mix of unmatching smells repulsive? At least the mage could have opened a window.

"Hey teach, d"you know where Penny is?" She asked the man bent over an old looking scroll.

She didn"t mind interrupting his work at all. He was a teacher not a researcher, his job was to help the students not waste hours in a room full of random junk and old scrolls.

"Penny? No, I don"t know. Don"t you see I"m working?"

"Right, see ya teach." She waved dismissively and left quickly to get away from the strange mix of smell.

If Penny wasn"t with him or in the cla.s.sroom, then it meant she was in her personal room. Brenia had no idea where it was. She never had to go look for her before.

She made her way back downstairs to get the help of the receptionist but her request was denied right away.

"I"m sorry lady Harmaton but I can"t give you the information you"re asking for."

"Come on, why not? We"re both students in the same group! It"s not like I"m going there to beat her up or anything. Also, isn"t this rule pointless to begin with, our names are on the doors, I could just go around to look for it. And don"t call me lady, it makes me itchy."

"I know you have no ill intent but those are the rules. You should understand that some students don"t want their privacy disturbed. Unless she comes to tell me its okay to reveal the location of her room, I won"t do it. If you"re ready to waste your time wandering the corridors of the school looking for the right door then go ahead." The receptionist answered with a gentle smile.

Brenia felt like she was getting mocked.

"Can"t you send someone there to ask her to come out then? I need to speak with her." Brenia felt her annoyance leak out through her words but she couldn"t really help it.

"Why yes of course."

The receptionist rang a bell and called for a servant girl, sending her on her way quickly.

The servant might have been quick but the wait was still lengthy, Penny didn"t seem to be in any hurry to come down here. That was typical of her, she was doing it on purpose to annoy her.

Brenia had nothing to do while she waited and ended up sat down facing an open window to bask in the sun a bit. The garden was on that side so she saw a few bees pa.s.sing by in front of her but as long as they weren"t wasps, she didn"t mind them.

Finally, Penny showed up wearing her usual loose clothes and slippers. She went straight for the main subject even though she didn"t seem all that saddened to waste their time and directly asked Brenia why she called her here.

"You know, contrary to you, I have real things to do instead of swinging that lump of steel all day. What is it you want Brenia?"

"I"m pretty sure that fiddling with magic stuff all day doesn"t qualify as a "real thing"." She answered casually while getting back up.

Penny walked up to her and looked straight up at her with a frown.

"Did you tomboy really just call me here to mess with me? You must be way more bored than I thought since the boys left."

Brenia chuckled but shook her head.

"No, I didn"t call you here to mess with you. It"s the opposite, I need your help."

The dark brown eyes of Penny sparkled with interest.

"Ohoh! Are you finally admitting defeat? Will I hear you say today that magic can do something you can"t?"

"Not in a million years. Let"s go talk outside."

She didn"t want the whole school to know what she was planning to do but obviously, Penny didn"t care about that.

"No way I"m going outside today, have you seen the weather?"

"What in the world do you mean have I seen the weather? It"s a perfect day today!"

There was no trace of clouds outside, there was a slight breeze and the sun was warming.

"Can"t you see the sun? I"ll get a sunburn for sure if I go outside today, I"m not going, no way."

"Your skin is completely covered by your clothes and you"re wearing that ugly hat again." Brenia said in annoyance.

"Well my skin is very sensitive, alright? I said no, whatever you want, say it here."

That girl was truly gifted to upset her.

"Isn"t there some place we could talk in private instead? Somewhere were we won"t be overheard by everyone and anyone?"

"Really, what"s up with you today? I don"t have all day to go around the towers waiting for you to ask a favor I"ll probably deny you."

Brenia just gave her a frustrated frowning face and said nothing more.

"Urgh, fine. Were you born just to annoy me or something?" She mumbled as she turned around to lead Brenia elsewhere.

At least, they both agreed on that, they"d argue forever on anything and everything. Brenia didn"t hate it however. She didn"t know for Penny but at least she herself respected the talent of the mage and liked to oppose her just for fun instead. The only thing she had to hold back on were comments about her appearance because Penny was rather sensitive on that.

They moved out of the entrance hall and into an empty cla.s.sroom to speak properly.

"So, what is it you want to ask me?"

"I need you to lend me your strength for a track and a fight."

Penny wasn"t interested at all. She snorted and cleanly refused.

"As if I"d do that."

"Oh you will, you have to." Brenia insisted with a confident smile.

"Why would I ever do that? I plan on joining the elder circle of mages in Thronewoods for research. I don"t have the time or need to go on some hunt. If I wanted to waste my time swinging metal sticks and flinging spells, I"d have joined the Muracier"s expedition. That at least would have had some prestige attached to it."

"You will help because the target is Ninoslav." Brenia said, letting a smug smile show.

Penny paused for a moment to think about it but still didn"t look all that interested in the expedition.

"Why did you think I"d change my mind after hearing that name? He"s a battle mage, I have no need to risk my life against him. I"m just a novice after all while he"s a known mage. I"d gain nothing out of it aside from a chance to die."

"Don"t try to fool me with your novice talk. You know so many spells its dizzying, I"ve seen it. The teacher says you might be the most talented student of magic he ever taught to in this school."

"Yes, emphasis on student. You"re just hearing what you want to hear Brenia. I"m a scholar, not a fighter. I don"t have what it takes to fight other people with magic, you know this, you"ve seen me practice before, you fought me before."

They did fight before a few times but her memories of it didn"t seem to match with the memories Penny kept of the event.

"We had a few practice spars against each other, I lost one and won two because I bet on the fact you wouldn"t use a spell too dangerous on a cla.s.smate and rushed through."

"Well I can tell you that going against a battle mage won"t go any better for me. Even going with my strongest, there"s no way I"ll ever win. I"d need years of study still before I could even consider the remote possibility of one day maybe going against one. Anyway, I don"t want to, I just want to study more and discover something new."

"Come on Penny, you"re exaggerating. You"re talented enough in magic and with me to fight with you, we"d be unbeatable."

"Absolutely not, it"s you underestimating magic again. You don"t understand how fearsome someone with the t.i.ttle of battle mage can be. I can"t win a one on one against you properly while battle mages can turn a whole battlefield upside down and kill hundreds in just a short time. Its a whole different level. How can we possibly compare. Your quest is suicidal at best and I have nothing to gain from it, I"m sorry."

"Yeah but ordinary soldiers aren"t as strong as me. It doesn"t matter how many a battle mage can kill quickly, if he can"t hit me I won"t die. If I have you to a.s.sist me and counter him properly, I"m sure I can win."

"No no no, no way in a million years!"

"So what, you"re saying that this bald old creep has more talent than you?"

"This..."

Penny didn"t know how to answer. Brenia knew it would come to this from the start, she couldn"t accept that someone could be more talented than her in her domain. She was born with no affinities but her high talent let her learn spells from all schools of magic easily, this talent was all she really had. If he had been very deserving of this talent and had been close to her, she might not have reacted but a man like that couldn"t be better than her.

"He"s so smart and talented that however much work you put into your studies, you"ll never be as good as him. I see, that"s disappointing, I thought you were a good mage after all, better than a creep using cheap tricks and potions."

"You, you"re doing it on purpose, aren"t you?" Penny said through her agitated breath.

"On purpose or not, you"re the one saying you have no chance, no way to beat him." Brenia said with a dismissive gesture.

"Well maybe if... No, I know you"re tricking me, I"m not falling for it!"

Penny scrunched up her face, closed her eyes and balled her fists as if to resist the temptation to argue back. Brenia mouth curved into a smile and she leaned down close to the mage"s ear for the killing whisper.

"But battle mages sure are respected aren"t they? That a talented and proud mage would just bow down to them so easily. The elder circle must have a high opinion of them and their abilities too no? What would they think of a girl being able to defeat one?"

With an upset ego and the prospect of joining the elder circle early, there was no way Penny could possibly resist. She made a pained grimace, then a groan and wiggled on the spot before opening her eyes and glaring at Brenia

"I hate you, you know that?"

"Ya ya, I hate you too. Now, let"s look ahead at how we"re going to beat him instead." Brenia answered while wrapping an arm around the shoulder of her friend.

"You"re too close now. Also, what"s that ring? You"re not the sort to wear jewelry."

Penny was shooting sidelong glances at the hand on her shoulder and the ring showing on one of its fingers. It was a band of sharp looking steel claws with streaks of red flowing around them like blood but somehow, the ring as a whole still looked rather pretty. There was a trail of tiny stones around the middle part, deeply driven into the band too making it look very precious. It was the one Emp gave her, the only ring she actually possessed.

"That"s absolutely none of your business." Brenia answered.

Seeing an opportunity to come back at her, Penny didn"t let the matter go.

"Ho, I see, that means it was a gift wasn"t it? In that case, I"d bet it was Emp that gave it to you, he"s the only one giving rings to people around here. He gave one to Nessa, Mable, his servants and according to the rumors, he gave one to Juniper too."

"As I said, it"s none of your business." Brenia insisted.

"Do you think he gave it to you for any particular reasons? Maybe he"s got feelings for you and since you"re wearing it/"

"Okay, enough shorty. Focus on the task."

Brenia removed her arm from around the shoulders of Penny and crossed them instead. Of all the things, Brenia really didn"t like people to try to poke into her personal life. Whether she felt anything for Emp or not concerned only herself, certainly not the short mage.

Now wasn"t the time to think about this either. Beating the mage came first.

"Wow, so sensitive on the topic of boys, as usual. Fine then, what do you want me to say."

Penny looked satisfied with Brenia"s reaction and was now ready to talk properly. She had her revenge, for now.

"I just want you to start thinking about how we"ll beat him. You"re the expert in magic, what do we need to prepare for?"

Penny let out a heavy sigh.

"Do you even have an idea of how you"re, sorry, "we" are going to find him? It"s pointless to prepare to fight him if we can"t even find him."

"Is there a convenient spell that could help us find him?" Brenia asked Penny in a hopeful tone.

"If there was such a thing, he would have been caught ages ago! Isn"t that obvious?"

"Well, a girl can still hope."

Penny snorted at Brenia"s words. Clearly, magic wouldn"t help them on this case.

"Fine then, we"ll go about it the old fas.h.i.+oned way. Because the army is looking for him, he"s going to try to stay in places where they don"t have a strong presence which means that we have to search small villages, he"s likely to hide somewhere away from the empire"s borders since the military presence there is stronger."

"That make sense, except he"s an expert of illusion, he could just mask his appearance. The guards will look for a bald guy but its easy for him to look like someone completely different. He could be anywhere." Penny commented in disapproval.

"You"re only half right." Brenia said with confidence, she had thought about it a lot after all. "He"s likely moving around with Gytha and the other missing girl which makes it that much easier to find him. Do you think he can change their appearance sufficiently too? What about all their hunting cards? The guards can be tricked but the card can"t lie. They can"t trick every guards everywhere with illusions, one of them is bound to see that the card is being tampered with. They"re checked at the gates of every city."

Penny took a pensive air and finally nodded in approval after a moment spent in her own thoughts.

"You"re right, hiding three people constantly along with their cards is almost impossible. He could do it once or twice to get past a gate but not long enough to remain in plain sight. I guess we do have a chance of finding him, if we"re lucky. In that case, we"re going to need special equipment. I can"t believe I"m really going along with this."

"What sort of special equipment? What do we need?" Brenia asked curiously.

She failed to listen in most cla.s.ses about magic so she had no idea what she was doing. That was why she needed Penny to tell her how to face the mage properly.

"The guy will use poisons, corrosives, alchemical substances and illusions to fight. We need protections against all of those at the very least and I need to prepare countermeasures for everything. It will cost a lot of money."

"How much is a lot for you?" Brenia had to ask while bracing her heart for the answer.

"You might have to count the money in red dragon coins I"m afraid. We"ll need plenty of counter-poison of all kinds, masks to protect ourselves from noxious fumes, clothes and armors resisting corrosion and other mixtures, talismans and wands, something to see through illusion and then something else to free us from other illusions we might get stuck into. We might even need some trinkets to protect ourselves from mind altering effects and those aren"t given for free."

Brenia made a pained face that worsened along with Penny"s explanation. Not all of those were absolutely necessary but as a mage, she was used to prepare for all eventuality and since she was the expert here, Brenia had to admit that she probably knew best.

"Suffice to say, I do not have that sort of money. Baron Lightwarp my father doesn"t have it either, even if he did, he would not lend me such a sum just to buy equipment that will serve only once."

"You"re the daughter of a baron Penny?" Brenia didn"t know that.

"What, you thought I was just a random peasant like you? In fact, this is the difference explaining why I am learning magic while "you" waste your time swinging a cold lump of steel."

Brenia chose to ignore this new attack and instead, proposed a solution to this financial problem.

"Well sorry "lady" but can we stay focused on the task? I can provide some of the money but not anything close to a dragon, I spent it all to get in the school after all. Since we don"t have the money, we just need to find it elsewhere."

Penny raised a curious brow.

"I didn"t know you could be this serious about something. Fine then, where do you think we could possibly find that huge amount? If you came before, I could have sold a bunch of things to Emp and gotten some funds for this but now he"s gone and I spent everything he gave me already."

Brenia wondered how one could spend so much money on ingredients and trinkets but chose to keep her annoyance to herself for now in order to let the conversation flow.

"Let"s go see Mable and Aglaya for the money."

"Those two? What do you plan to tell them to receive such a ludicrous amount of money?"

Penny clearly believed that they"d never lend the money but Brenia was convinced otherwise.

"They will once we tell them what the money will be for, just come, you"ll see."

The other was unconvinced but still followed Brenia back into the corridors of the school. They didn"t even know how much the two girls could afford to pay but Brenia had no doubt that Mable would want to lend as much money as possible for this task to be completed properly.

The reason was simple. Brenia knew how it felt to be a.s.saulted like that. She knew exactly what sort of scar it left behind. Mable could act all bright and cheery just like usual but the fear would not go away so simply. Deep down, Brenia was sure that she still remembered the events as clearly as day and would give anything for the feeling of fear and powerlessness to go away. This was the same for the river s.n.a.t.c.hers, she was clearly traumatized by those too and made it a condition for her to marry Emp.

Scars that are on the inside don"t just disappear, they just sleep from time to time. Brenia was glad for Mable that Emp was there for her when she needed it and that he"d still be there for her later but he could not possibly understand how it felt for her to know that the man was still alive somewhere, keeping Gytha with him.

All Brenia had to do was tell Mable that she was going to hunt Ninoslav down and needed money to counter his powers. It might seem like she was exploiting Mable but she wasn"t, for her, that money would be well worth it, as long as Brenia managed to do what she set out for.

They made their way to Mable"s room and were let in relatively quickly. Aglaya was with her as expected but Nessa was absent because she was preparing her own departure.

"Hi Brenia, Hi Penny. Its rare to see you two together, what might bring you here?" Aglaya asked on a curious tone.

"Yeah, it must be something special. Oh! Is it a party? Or maybe Penny wants to make some hulking giant of living magic to fight with Brenia and you want us to see? That would be amazing, it would be like Growowow!" Mable mimicked that imaginary giant with her arms held wide up over her sides.

"I can"t possibly do that." Penny denied with a raised brow.

Brenia shook her head too and went straight to the point.

"No, we came to ask you two a favor."

"A favor? What sort? I don"t have any cake left because the bakers can"t find any ingredients anymore." Mable smiled.

Aglaya on the other hand just awaited what would come next with curiosity.

"We"re going to hunt down Ninoslav and we need money to buy the necessary equipment."

The smile of Mable froze like stone.

Like every time Mable was taken by surprise, Aglaya took the relay.

"Explain." She said simply.

Brenia didn"t need all her experience adventuring and hunting to understand what she meant by that.

"Penny, could you tell them what you said we"d need again? In as much detail as possible please."

The mage let out a short sigh and started her explanation again. This time, under the insistence of Aglaya and Brenia, she went into the details and started naming all the ingredients and things she"d need one by one along with their usual market price. It was honestly impressive to see her make that list just like that on the spot. The list got very long very fast but Penny had a clear idea of what everything did and what use it would be against the illusionist.

At the end, Aglaya nodded in understanding.

"I see, and why did you decide to ask Mable for the money. Why not go to Juniper?"

"It"s true that juniper would have enough money but she has no reason to give it to us. Mable has both the means and the motivation." Brenia stated. "I don"t mean to trick Mable into giving us money by throwing that name around, I just believe that out of everyone I know, she"s the one that would want him dead the most."

She was also very rich. It wasn"t obvious at a glance but once one stepped into her room, her true wealth would show right away. Mable"s room had always been a symbol of extravagant opulence and was furnished like a room at least three times its actual size.

She was like a turtle who would have left it"s sh.e.l.l for a much smaller one. There was too much here and all of its pieces must be worth a fortune. The cloth, the draperies, the furniture, the art decorating the walls and so on, all of it screamed money. She clearly had the means to pay for the manhunt.

Aglaya didn"t answer right away and looked towards her friend instead. Mable"s mouth quivered and she turned her eyes toward her servants.

"Bring the chest."

The two of them seemed to expect how this would all go and didn"t waste time to go into the next room over to drag out a ma.s.sive chest. The thing was barely narrower than the door, as deep as Brenia"s legs and a good meter wide. The two servants had to push with all their weight to move it and despite the cloth under it, the chest sc.r.a.pped the floor the whole way through and took a long time to be moved. They didn"t bring it far into the main room but enough to clear a good s.p.a.ce in front of it and behind it.

Mable got to her feet, pulled a key from a secret pocket on the inside of her clothes and unlocked the chest with it. Brenia and Penny discovered that it was half full of gold crowns, there must have been a few thousands coins in there. The sight was just stunning.

"That"s all that"s left of my allowance for my time in school. You can take as much as you need." Mable said with a very serious face.

Aglaya wasn"t all that surprised to see this but Penny was.

"Are you sure? That"s a lot of money."

Usually that was the sort of sentence Aglaya awaited to make some funny comment on Mable but she abstained this time around.

"If you can truly do what you said, this amount will be nothing for her." She said instead.

Brenia knew clearly what she meant but Penny seemed just as confused as before. Her eyes went back and forth between the glimmering gold and the usually bubbly n.o.ble.

"I know you"re a high n.o.ble but won"t your parents get upset to see you spend so much?"

"You don"t understand. His very existence is a poison to my life." Mable told her flatly.

"Before I go to bed, every night, I have the servants look through the room to make sure there are no one hiding inside, I check to see if all the doors are properly locked, if the wards put up by Heinrich are still working, if the windows are sealed properly even when the weather makes it boiling hot inside, I keep the ring close to me so that Emp can come save me if I get in trouble and a dagger just by the bedside, I even have those two sleep in turn to watch the room.

I get nervous when Emp isn"t right by my side even by day, I"m always scared that guy might pop out of nowhere to attack me. I know this is irrational but I can"t help it, he could be anywhere. I need him dead!

I want his head chopped off, I want him cut down in bits and fed to feral weasels, I want his bones ground to dust and thrown into the sand wastes where no trees grow, I want Gytha back, the old one.

I trust Brenia to do what she said she would because she"s my friend, you too. I trust you both more than I trust the Muraciers to do their job. If you manage to do it, this chest won"t nearly be enough to express my relief and grat.i.tude. If you can kill him, I"ll have my father shower you in gold until you could drown in it."

Her speech was long and her words sounded mostly exaggerated but in her voice and expression, there was not a trace of her usual funny and ditsy self. She was dead serious.

Penny could only nod and shut her mouth. She must have never thought she would see Mable like this one day.

Brenia came up close to Mable and held on to her hand.

"I understand, I truly do, more than you think I can. Trust me, I won"t let this monster escape me. I"ll do everything I have to in order to bring him the punishment he deserves. I don"t care for the gold I just can"t let him live."

The two of them looked deep into each other"s eyes and nodded with resolve. At this moment at least, they shared the same thoughts.

With this, Brenia now had a mage and the funds to hunt down the monster wearing the face of a man. Now, according to Penny, they would need some time to prepare and probably more people to improve their chances but Brenia didn"t worry about this. Her mind was set on her prey and she would find it and bring it down no matter what. That was always how she acted.