Side Story: The Spellcaster’s Side Hustle

It was summertime. The town we were staying in—Sorwen—was up in the mountains, so it was a bit cooler there than down in the plains. Nonetheless, today was a swelteringly hot day.

From where I sat in the manor, I could see soldiers who had taken off their jackets and rolled up their sleeves flocking to the water. There was a throng of people near the fountain in Lord Sorwen’s garden... or rather, they were already packing into it like sardines.

Oh, I see some of Reggie’s and Alan’s knights in there!

It was a little unsanitary, honestly. When they were splashing around like that, they looked no different from the junior high school boys of my past life.

A separate group was praying to Reynard, who had climbed up to the roof over the front entrance to the manor.

“Let it snow, we beg of you!”

“We don’t mind if it melts into raindrops!”

“Please bring us a cool breeze!”

Such were the pleas I heard from outside the window. The men placed both hands on the ground, prostrating before their tributes as they made their wishes. I got the feeling I was witnessing the birth of a new religion here.

Sly as the fox he was, whenever someone offered up one of Reynard’s favorite fruits, he would jump down, take only that in his mouth, and return to his place on the roof. Perhaps he needed some bait for his fish; he would whip up a snowstorm for a few fleeting seconds, then turn all his attention to nibbling at his food.

“Look! Saint Reynard wants another pear!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me! That was the last one the fruit seller had!”

“We need something else! Find another offering!”

The new converts dispersed into smaller groups. Reynard looked on, leisurely eating his fruit, before slinking off somewhere else.

Won’t it make them hotter to run around looking for offerings? Maybe they’re just busying themselves to forget about the heat.

“Here, have a fruit drink, Kiara.”

“Oh, thank you!”

Gina handed me a glass, and I took a sip of the thin, orange beverage. It was refreshing, sweet, and tasty. Combined with how cool it was inside the room, I felt like I was in paradise.

This room was the venue of a girls-only gathering. We were sitting in chairs we had dragged inside, relaxing.

Anyone would want to go for a dip on a hot day. However, the troops stationed here were filled with nothing but men. Let’s say, hypothetically speaking, there was one spot marked off for women only...

“The men would definitely show up to peep,” Gina had asserted. All the women aside from me had nodded in agreement.

Our group consisted of girls with ties to the House of Sorwen, plus the servants of the manor. Girsch counted as a woman, too.

There were limits to how much clothing we could take off. Still, we wanted some way to cool down, at least while the midday sun was blazing, and we would collapse if we pushed ourselves to work in these conditions. Thus, Gina had proposed that all the women and girls assemble in one room while Lila and Sara kicked up a nice, cool breeze. It was like cooling off in magical air conditioning.

For the record, we hadn’t told any of the men about this. I hadn’t even told Cain... or, well, I had told him where I was, but I hadn’t said a word about how cold it was in here.

Reggie had guessed what we were up to, but he was keeping quiet about it. If Alan found out, he would probably yell about how unfair it was and start nursing a grudge.

“Why, we had to oust a miscreant from our family just the other day. I am so truly sorry for what that man did to you, Lady Spellcaster,” Lady Sorwen apologized with a deep bow. Her golden-brown hair was tied back in a beautiful braid. She was a different sort than her weak-kneed husband; she was younger than him, but she gave off strong “badass mom” vibes.

“Please don’t worry about it! It wasn’t your fault,” I reassured her, but she looked no less contrite.

She was apologizing for the incident just the other day, when one of the marquis’ relatives came on to me in the dead of the night. Evidently, the man in question had been chased out of the manor after incurring Reggie’s wrath.

That was no surprise, given Lord Sorwen’s fight with Reggie the following morning.

“Have you forgotten that a spellcaster is even more valuable than royalty? Knowing that, you still intended to stick that man with a collar ensuring his return to Sorwen?”

“I-It’s not like that... I had nothing to do with the matter, and I’ll be sure to sternly reprimand my nephew.”

“If you were completely unaware of it, clearly you’ve been negligent in your duties as the marquis. It means that you failed to relay the instructions I’d given you regarding our spellcaster before midnight.” Reggie’s expression had remained as mild as ever, but his voice had had a cold edge to it. Lord Sorwen had shivered in spite of the summer heat. “You don’t truly intend to let him off with a mere warning, do you?”

“Erm, I don’t have any children yet, you see. If I were to lose my nephew, then...”

“Yes, it sounds like you married somewhat late in life. But your wife is still young, and I seem to remember there being other men among your relatives.” Lord Sorwen was lost for words as Reggie continued his relentless assault. “Well, if you can’t guarantee our spellcaster’s safety, we have no choice but to return to Cassia straightaway. We can’t have one of our most valuable assets be hurt. Sorwen will just have to hold out on its own. You’ve conserved most of your forces until now, haven’t you?

“I do have to wonder about this year’s harvest, though. It will take you quite a while to clear out the Llewynians, won’t it? You’ll have to buy enough food to get you through the next year, no matter if the prices of your ore are driven down. And who knows how many of your citizens will have been lost to Llewyne by then. I’ve heard that miners have rather violent tempers; I wonder what they’d do to an ineffective marquis who drove reinforcements out of his territory.”

“I-I-I understand, Your Grace! Please, have mercy!”

The day after the marquis had begged Reggie on his hands and knees, the relative in question had been forcibly adopted into a small village. It had been all but confirmed when I’d overheard Lord Sorwen saying to Reggie, “You and the Lady Spellcaster will never have to lay eyes on him again, so please, forgive me!”

It was someone else’s family, so it wasn’t my place to butt in, but I hadn’t expected the man to be threatened into leaving the heart of the territory. Even as his would-be victim, I thought that was a little excessive... until I heard the other women speak up with relief in their voices.

“Truth be told... I was so relieved when I heard he had been sent away. I’m truly thankful for His Lordship’s firm judgment.”

“Me too. He hung all over me any time I had to see him. It was extra tiring in the summer. I’m glad he’s gone.”

The two girls were a little bit older than me. Both of them were married relatives of the marquis, clad in beautiful, sleeveless dresses. Lady Sorwen had brought them along when she came to apologize to me after the incident. If these two had also fallen victim to that man, it probably meant he was a genuine predator. Perhaps exiling him was the right call, after all.

“I truly am sorry he caused so much trouble behind my back. It seems men are quite lenient with each other when it comes to these matters.” Lady Sorwen hung her head even further.

I was starting to feel bad for her, so I said, “It only happened because I went out in the middle of the night. Normally I have Master Horace with me, so no one ever tries to come near me.”

“Master Horace?”

“Here he is.” I plopped Master Horace, who was equipped to me like always, onto the table.

All the women in the room automatically rose from their chairs. I knew full well that they had been doing their best to keep my bizarre, stuffed-animal-sized pottery doll out of sight. I mean, he was uncanny enough to keep men away from us.

“Hey, my little disciple?”

“Yes, Master Horace?”

Master Horace seemed a little cranky.

“‘No one ever tries to come near me’? Isn’t that pretty cruel thing to say about your own mentor? Don’t forget that you’re the one who gave me this form! I never asked to look like this!” Master Horace lambasted me for my bad taste.

Lady Sorwen glanced over at me and asked, “Wait, truly?”

“Erm, he turned out like this because, in the heat of the moment, I just happened to remember something else that resembled him. I promise this isn’t my idea of cute or anything!” I rushed to make excuses, but I got the sense that nobody believed me.

Then, one of the aforementioned harassment victims muttered, “You know... this could actually work.”

She was 100% straight-faced as she stared at Master Horace. I had to wonder if that lecher hadn’t been her first bad experience with a man.

“True. A mini-Horace would make for a trusty man repellent, I bet,” Gina commented with a laugh.

“Oh, but it’s just so ugly!”

“Right?”

Whispers broke out among the servants huddled together in the back.

For whatever reason, Gina decided to cut in. “So long as it’s not too big, most people won’t notice it right away, even if you wear it somewhere conspicuous. And if everyone is doing it, what’s the problem?”

The women’s expressions changed, seeming to say, Maybe she has a point.

I was reminded of the proverb, “There’s safety in numbers.” It would be tacky if you were the only one carrying it around, but if everyone had one, it would transcend those classifications. Gina was awfully clever to have come up with that on the spot.

Gina went straight to urging me to put the idea into practice.

“All you need is a stone, right? We don’t want them breaking too easily. Wait here for a bit!” With that, Gina energetically rushed out into the blazing outdoors.

When she came back, she was carrying a handful of smooth, white stones that looked like quartz. At her command, I made a few palm-sized clay figurines, attaching a hole for looping string to the top of their heads. Never anything less than prepared, Gina hung one up on some twine she happened to have on hand, then showed it off to the girls.

“See? This way, you can easily tie it up somewhere. Since it’s white, it won’t look too odd from a distance, but people will still be able to tell you’re wearing a freaky accessory.”

“Freaky, huh?” While Master Horace was getting downright demoralized, the surrounding women oohed and ahhed. They picked up the dolls, conferring among themselves and expressing their tentative approval.

One of the girls cheerfully remarked, “It’s just the right size to hide from someone I do want to keep around.”

“That’s a good idea. If everyone starts doing that, concealing your doll can become a gesture to wordlessly convey interest. Even the most inarticulate of girls will have a way to express their feelings.”

“I like that! I think I want one, after all!”

“Hmm. But don’t you think some men will be put off by a woman walking around with such a strange trinket?” one of the servant women worried.

The other women teamed up to talk her into it. “Who has time for a man who would pick his woman based on something like this? If the two of you are really in love, it shouldn’t matter whether you have one of these or not!”

“Maybe you’re right... Yes, you do have a point there.”

“Will you be buying one, then? Everyone who wants one, please sign your name here! We’ll produce them upon receipt of order!”

Gina held out a piece of paper and a charcoal pencil so that everyone could put down their names.

When did she even get those?!

“Hey, Gina? Don’t tell me you—”

Just as I was about to finish that thought with “want to sell them,” Gina looked back at me, grinning from ear to ear.

“How much do you want to charge? It’s the price of your labor, plus you’re using magic to do it, so I’d say they shouldn’t come cheap.”

Apparently, Gina planned to make a business out of my mini-Horace dolls.

Or, more accurately... I was going to be the one making a business out of it.

◇◇◇

In the end, Gina did in fact pressure me into marketing my dolls. For the time being, I had to create one for each of the thirty-seven women who had been in that magically air-conditioned room.

“I just have to think of it as a chance to make some pocket money.”

I didn’t have to worry about putting my soul into it like when I’d created Master Horace’s body or my golems, so it wasn’t terribly difficult to make them. All I had to envision was a miniature version of Master Horace—an itty-bitty clay figurine.

Lady Sorwen and her relatives would have had no problem buying them even if they were a little pricey, but I would’ve felt bad if the servant ladies couldn’t afford it, so I wasn’t charging all that much for them. A single figurine cost about the same as ten loaves of bread.

Originally, I’d wanted to make it even cheaper, but Gina had told me that I shouldn’t lower the price too much if magic was involved in the process. Plus, the same product carved through normal means would cost almost as twice as much.

Being the shrewd businesswoman she was, Gina was naturally collecting a finder’s fee. It amounted to a very modest sum of money, so she couldn’t have hammered out the idea for the sheer purpose of profiting from it... or at least, that was what I chose to believe.

I didn’t really need the extra money myself; I received a regular allowance from the military, after all. Considering that Sorwen would be contributing to those funds this time around, it occurred to me that I was sucking money out of the territory twice over—once for my salary and once for my sales—but I decided not to worry about it.

Anyway. Making mini clay figurines was all well and good, but doing the work in my room meant I had to deal with Master Horace’s sulking. Nighttime though it was, I decided to take my project elsewhere. That just left the question of where. It was bound to be cooler outside, but I didn’t want to risk getting into trouble again.

Holding the bag of stones Gina had given me in one hand, I wandered the marquis’ manor until eventually I settled on a small balcony toward the end of the second floor. The platform jutted out from the building, so it was exposed to the refreshingly crisp evening breeze.

Just as I kneeled down and went to work making miniature figurines, lining them up one by one, someone called out to me.

“More magic experiments?”

When I turned around, I saw Reggie standing there. It wasn’t all that late yet, so I doubted he was wandering around because he couldn’t sleep, but perhaps it had been too hot to stay put in his room. All he was wearing over his torso was a shirt, of which the top three buttons were undone. I could get a clear view of his neck and collarbone, giving him a strangely... alluring look.

He looked down at me from where he stood, then averted his gaze uneasily, kneeling beside me with a sigh. “Shall I go find you something to wear over your dress?”

“Huh? No thanks. It’s pretty hot out.”

Plus, I couldn’t ask His Highness of all people to go fetch some clothes for me.

“You should wrap something around your neck, at least... No, I suppose there’s no point in covering only that. What to do?” Reggie kept muttering under his breath.

Oh, maybe I dressed too lightly? Now that I was conscious of it, I suddenly felt very vulnerable in the soft, thin dress I had thought of as nothing but breezy and comfortable just moments ago. I had a cloth I could throw over my shoulders, but it was pretty flimsy. And perhaps I was showing off too much of my chest today. I was living life on the road, so what I was currently wearing had been borrowed from Lady Sorwen. The size wasn’t a perfect fit.

“Erm, don’t worry about it! I’ll be done soon.”

I was just about ready to crawl into a hole somewhere, so I rushed to finish making my goods. There were only three left to go.

There, all done!

When Reggie took a closer look at the contents of my bag, he finally seemed to realize what I was making. He gave me a questioning look. “Are you replicating Sir Horace?”

“Gina suggested it would make for a good charm to ward off men, and everyone who was there decided to place an order.”

When I explained how I’d landed this side job, Reggie burst out laughing.

“They may be mercenaries, but those two will make a business out of anything and everything.”

“But I’m the only one making a real profit off of this, and Gina never seems too fussed over money. Maybe it’s just a hobby for her?”

She had seemed to have money on the brain when she was promoting her mercenary services back in Maynard City. She seemed satisfied with her current salary, though, so she wasn’t too fixated on that anymore.

“It’s kind of fun to make some money of my own, though.”

I was earning a salary now, and I’d had one when I had worked as an attendant in Évrard, but selling something of my own creation was a different kettle of fish.

“Is it your dream to become a merchant, Kiara?”

“Not really. I’ve never even thought about it before.”

“Is there anything you have aspired to be?”

“Aspired? Hmm... When I was little, I wanted to be an artisan. It didn’t matter if I made embroidery or whatever else. I just figured that leaving home and striking out on my own was what would make me happiest.”

“And after that? You didn’t want for anything once you were taken in by the count, did you?”

“Well, there was always food on the table, but I still wasn’t free. It’s just... I had been so robbed of my freedom that I think I gave up for a while. I was his daughter for appearance’s sake only, so I knew that I was going to be married off to someone convenient for Lord Patriciél eventually. I just hoped it would be to a good guy, at least.”

If all I’d learned was that I was to be married to Lord Credias, I might not have tried to run away. It was the revelation that my past life hadn’t been a dream, as well as the knowledge that I was on the path to my death, that had driven me to find a new future.

“Now that you’re a spellcaster, you can go anywhere you please.”

“Yeah.”

The moment I agreed with him, I noticed a terribly despondent look in Reggie’s eyes.

Reggie was a prince. He would never want for food, clothing, or shelter, but in exchange, he could never escape the duties others needed him to fulfill. Even after the war was over, that wouldn’t change. He could never become anything else. He could never travel anywhere freely.

Unlike me, Reggie had chains that were more than just a detriment. There were things only a prince like Reggie could do. Thus, for the sake of all the people counting on him, he couldn’t just run away.

“If I asked you to stay by my side, Kiara... would you?”

I wondered if that question came from a place of loneliness.

“Don’t worry. I’ll come see you. If you can’t come to me, I can go to you. You’re like family to me. If you’re ever feeling alone, just call for me.”

Reggie blinked, and then a teasing smile rose to his features. “Is it alright to want you around whenever I’m lonely?”

“What? Of course it is!”

“You never know; I might keep you from ever leaving so I don’t have to be by myself. Would you be angry with me if I did?”

“I wouldn’t get mad over something like that.”

“I hope you’ll stay with me forever, then.”

The moment he said those words, all of a sudden, a memory started to come back to me...

“Kiara? Kiara!”

Apparently, I had zoned out for a moment there. Reggie called me back to reality.

“Oh, sorry. Don’t worry about it. I think it’s because it was so hot this afternoon; I’m still a little spaced out.”

Reggie looked relieved. “You must be tired from the heat. Why don’t you head to bed?”

Even I thought I was acting strangely, so I went to bed early on Reggie’s recommendation.

Once I had drifted off to sleep...

“Oh, how I wish you could stay with me forever. You plan to go back, no matter how much you’ll suffer there?” Reggie said. He was sitting on the sofa of a beautiful, white-walled room, holding me in his lap.

Where am I? I vaguely wondered. Something about the place felt nostalgic, but I had never seen it before. This certainly wasn’t the simple and sturdy manor of Évrard. If anything, it was closer to Lord Patriciél’s estate. While it wasn’t exactly brimming with overpriced furnishings, the pillars and walls were so elaborately decorated that it still managed to look terribly extravagant.

Atop the amber table beside us, there sat the large tail feather of a starbird. A translucent stone was fixed to the tip of the bluish-black plume. The intensity of the light filtering in through the window fluctuated with each flutter of the curtains, making the gem glisten.

“Do you prefer spending your time with him?” Reggie gave a faint laugh.

I shook my head. Just earlier, he had been using the feather to tickle me, like he was teasing a cat. I’d tried to steal it away to stop him, but Reggie was too tall; my hand couldn’t reach even if I jumped for it. He’d laughed at me, too, giving me nothing but embarrassment for my trouble.

Once I was tired out from raising all that fuss, Reggie had placed me on his lap like a cat. He’d wrapped me up in his arms, asking me not to leave.

Of course, I couldn’t comply with his request. I was a spellcaster, and there was nothing I could do to escape Lord Credias.

I was keeping quiet about that detail, however; I didn’t want him to know. When we’d first met, Reggie had learned everything there was to know about my circumstances, except for the part where I was a spellcaster. Yet still he tried to keep me with him.

“You still won’t tell me the reason? And yet you’ve grown familiar enough with me to settle down inside my arms. What can I do to get you to talk?”

Reggie continued to coax me, lifting my chin with his fingers and bringing his face close to mine. I didn’t take that as anything out of the ordinary, until...

◇◇◇

“Wh... Ahhhh!” I let out a scream and was jerked awake by the sound of my own voice.

When I opened my eyes, there was no one else there. I was in a room inside the Sorwen estate, its plastered walls decorated with cute pictures of flowers.

After I glanced around at the decor, which had grown so familiar to me over the course of the past few days, Master Horace asked, “Aren’t you a noisy one, waking up screaming? What, did you have a dream that was bad for your heart? Eeeheehee!”

“You know what? Yeah. I think I just had a really bad dream,” I answered.

And with that, the dream that had felt so vivid just moments ago began to fade from my mind little by little.