Difference in Treatment
“That’s right sir,” the dwarf’s eyes widened in surprise, looking at the elf who had interrupted him, “That’s right! How did you know this?” “I…I’ve heard of him before,”the elf replied with a little difficulty, “but…why the Magic Academy?”
The dwarf wavered for a moment, before nodding, “I wish to become an adventurer. More accurately speaking, I want to become a mage.”
“But…” the knight shook his head.
“Sir knight, no need to tell me that dwarves can’t become mages,” the dwarf smiled a little self-deprecatingly, “I’ve been hearing this phrase for the last eighteen years.”
“Even if you want to follow us to the Magic Academy, you could have talked to us directly, and not need to sneak around like this.” The knight frowned
“My apologies Sir Knight, if I have offended you all.” The dwarf bowed, “But I have tried. Whenever a team of adventurers come to my shop for gear, I would beg them to take me there. But they have all refused without exception, no matter how high a price I offer to pay. They all seem to believe, that taking a dwarf to the Magic Academy, would anger the mages, bringing misfortune.”
“But I know that’s not the case,” the dwarf lifted his chest with pride, “Because among my ancestors, someone had been there before. – so, so…”
He looked between the elf and the knight a little timidly, “I bought the tent using my savings, it can hold 4 people.”
“Cain.” The elf called the knight’s name, waving him closer, then said quietly, “You think it’s possible to bring him along?”
“You are the captain,” the knight grinned, “you decide, no matter what I will obey.”
“I know… but if we bring him along, then we must protect him. In the situation where there are two noncombatants in the team, it would become more difficult. Your burden would be much greater.”
“I don’t mind,” the knight replied lightly, “more importantly, he’s something like the son of an old friend right?”
“…Sorry Cain,” the elf lowered his eyes, “I’ve caused more trouble for you.”
“If you don’t cause some trouble, I’d be worried,” the knight shook his head, saying softly.
The dwarf waited politely, not interrupting their conversation. – Until the elf turned to talk to him a little embarra.s.sed.
“Um, Mr. Mageless? – What I need to remind you is that, this journey could be dangerous.”
“I know,” the dwarf stood up tall once again, “I am prepared. I hope you don’t treat me like a defenseless merchant… ahem, even though I didn’t bring any weapons, but I at least have the ability to protect myself.”
“Very well,” the elf released a breath, “If you don’t mind, please use this.”
He gave a dagger to the dwarf.
“An elven made weapon?” The dwarf looked at it as he took it, and immediately asked anxiously, “Is this alright? To give me something so precious–”
The knight suddenly drew his sword, thrusting towards the dwarf. The dwarf tumbled to the ground in fright, dodging the edge of the blade. The knight didn’t show any signs of stopping, the long sword switched directions, coming for a second attack. At the sound of metal hitting metal, the knight’s sword stopped, blocking the sword was the dagger in the dwarf’s hands, even if he was laying on the ground at this time, in an extremely awkward position.
“You get a pa.s.s for reaction speed and strength,” the knight sheathed his sword, helping the dwarf up, “still missing some experience in a real fight, but all in all, not too bad. – I’m Cain Frank. Welcome to the team, Mr. Mageless.”
“Thank you, Mr.Frank.” The dwarf replied his face pale, “But, I hope when you said there will be dangers it wouldn’t be receiving this kind of surprise test every day.”
“At least this way you will have all the reason to be hanging onto that,” the knight grinned, “the enemy won’t stop attacking just because you’re weaponless.”
“Alright, I will use it well.” The dwarf bowed to the elf, “Thank you for your generosity.”
“Yes, treasure it well,” the knight suddenly drew out his words, saying in a slightly melancholy tone, “As the first member to join, I still haven’t gotten anything, what is this difference in treatment captain? Am I being excluded because I’m human?”
“Cain, don’t act spoiled(1),” the elf glanced at him smiling, “go change your armor, I’ll wake Sh.e.l.ly up.”
“As you command,” the knight bowed exaggeratedly, “Captain.”
The dwarf watched the knight leave a little scared, “Did I create some sort of division in the team… if that’s the case, please take this back, Mr. Captain”
“Don’t worry, he’s just joking around.” The elf replied smiling, “Also, there’s no need to call me captain, my name is Ellen(2).”
“Alright Mr. Ell… eh?” the dwarf blinked quizzically, “Can I ask your last name?”
“No last name,” the elf nodded, “So ‘Mr.’ is also unnecessary.”
“Then please just call me Julian as well, Adventurer Julian.” The dwarf replied, thinking seriously for a moment, “ ‘Mr.Mageless’, makes me feel like I’m still that fake workshop owner.”
“Very well, then please help look after these things here for a moment, Adventurer Julian. –Welcome to the team, I think Sh.e.l.ly will be very happy.”
“Ah,” the dwarf revealed an apologetic wry smile, “the child that asked me a lot of questions yesterday? I was troubling over the marriage and was very rude… luckily there’s still a chance for me to salvage that, from now on I can answer his questions in detail.”
But when the elf brought the siren clad in mage robes, the dwarf seemed to have forgotten his promise, and starting throwing questions after questions at him. The questions included all sorts of specialized names, from some basic information even non-professionals know like “can the basic element magic fire ball be considered as the one with highest cost”(3) to “could it be that in the modern world the power of word magic has decreased has to do with the deviation to the original p.r.o.nunciation” and “although magical items are magical items how related are they to actual magic” and so on.
The siren was completely confused by the strange questions, but when he heard the repeat of words like “element”, “magic” and such, he nodded as if he understood and asked, “do you want me to give you a performance?”
“Performance? What performance?” The dwarf’s eyes sparkled,(4) “magic?”
“Sh.e.l.ly.” The elf called to the youth, “remember what I told you before.”
“Un,” the siren nodded seriously, “I won’t use ‘that’. This is easier, it’s what you would call… ‘Racial trait’?”
He pointed to the well in the courtyard, speaking lightly in a foreign language, then water vapor slowly started to rise from the well, soon after a white mist drifted around the courtyard.
“Fog magic! That’s fog magic right?” The dwarf’s eyes seemed as if it was also filled with water vapor as well(5), “It’s real! Magic! I knew it, Mr. Sh.e.l.ly is really a mage! I’m actually traveling in a team with a magician!”
“Oi, who the h.e.l.l is shouting in the courtyard?” A mercenary poked his head out from the second floor shouting, “And why’s there so much smoke? Someone burning the garbage?!”
When the knight finished suiting up, coming down from the stairs, his companions were packing while shaking with laughter.
“What did I miss?” The knight asked curiously.
“Communication between non humans.” The elf replied.
“I protest,” the knight once again said in a melancholy voice while elongating his words, “this is racial discrimination.”