Chapter 13

Chapter 13

OUR ESCAPE AFTERWARD was uneventful.

Although we’d destroyed the nest, it wasn’t as if all the remaining daemons suddenly turned to ash—though that would have been convenient. What did happen was that explosions and shocks from below threw all the remaining daemons in the floors above into a panic.

However, we returned to the outer plane and did not leave it until we were safely above ground. We didn’t have to worry about being seen. Once everyone was safe, I cast Meteor again to destroy the underground passage along with the daemons left inside, and healed Gillion’s wounds with Complete Recovery.

I seemed to be the only one who’d noticed the doors appear. I knew it wasn’t my imagination—black doors, so similar to my Gate of Magic, looming there just as the nest was destroyed. The memory of that moment remained, an ominous black thorn wedged deep within my chest.

We were able to return to the fortress without any trouble.

We reported what happened, and the Calbanera Knights responded with excitement. Under Alnogia’s command, the defensive lines turned on the offense, moving to surround the cave where the nest had been found and picking off any surviving daemons left in the field.

While this final clean-up operation took five more days, the knights were able to clear the mountain and surrounding forests of daemons. However, as we could not be one hundred percent sure no daemons had escaped, we planned to station some knights at the fortress so that they could respond quickly if any daemons were spotted.

Alnogia declared, “As it is the duty of the Calbanera Knights to eliminate this threat, we will see the operation through, even if we must continue to fund it with the Sardish family’s personal wealth.”

Still, I did not feel that all the weight had been lifted from my shoulders. What are daemons, after all? I thought. What is a daemon’s nest, really? If another nest appears…will the people of Sedia be able to deal with it on their own?

What if the daemons are somehow tied to the Gate of Magic? Could the Watcher be tied to the daemons’ existence? Either way, I thought, I can no longer treat the daemons as an unrelated problem. Do I, personally, have to do something about humanity’s mortal enemy?

I had to wonder whether my fate was now tied to the daemons’ existence. Our connection could not be denied. I wanted to deny it—such a fate was too much for an insignificant person like myself to handle. But, I thought. But I’ve already gotten involved, and this mask of a grand magic user that I now wear would not forgive even the notion of pushing this role on someone else.

***

Seven days after the nest was destroyed, we stopped in Yulei on our way back to the Castle of the White Blade. The main force of the Calbanera Knights came along, while Gunnar stayed to command those knights that remained at the fortress.

By the time we arrived, news of the Calbanera Knights’ efforts and the destruction of the daemons’ nest had already reached Yulei, where a large celebration was being held.

A large bonfire had been erected in the center of the village square, and the village leader opened up his stores to donate food and drink. The knights, dwarves, and men of the town drank heavily together while the women dressed up and danced. The villagers sung pastoral folk songs, the dwarves their hymns of smithing and of war, and the youngest sang light-hearted melodies of love.

I, however, shut myself off from all the buoyant cheer. I brooded alone, in my room at the Knight of the Iron Skillet.

The room itself was lavish, but it enjoyed nothing of the positive atmosphere that ruled the village out the window. The villagers were well informed of my deeds, such as destroying the nest with a meteor and controlling a dragon…but I wished they hadn’t known.

I had been showered with thanks and praise, far more than after I’d saved Mora, but the villagers did not look at me the same. When a child bumped into me in the square, the color drained from their parent’s face and they immediately beat them, forcing them to grovel and beg forgiveness. When a barmaid spilled some wine on my robe, she broke into tears and wouldn’t stop telling me how sorry she was. I tried to make it clear that I wasn’t angry in both situations, but that did not change the way they looked at me—their fearful expressions were engraved upon my mind.

While I most certainly had secured my status as a great and powerful magic user, that meant being feared. While I understood that accepting that status was part of taking responsibility for my actions, it did not make it any easier for me, just a normal person inside, to bear.

While I was agonizing over it all, sprawled on the bed with my head in my hands, Sedam and Clara came to visit.

Sedam smirked. “Aren’t you a little old to be holed up sulking in your room?”

“You really are a handful,” said Clara. “I bet you haven’t eaten, have you?”

I have to admit, Sedam and Clara’s sarcasm was much more comforting than the sound of the cheers outside. When I sat up, I saw they had brought some kebabs and wine.

“It’s the job of the young ones to take care of the old and weary,” I said, with a laugh. It was hard to hide how happy I was they had come.

Afterward, we had our own three-person celebration…at least until Leoria and Gillion barged in on us, but at least this time, I was thankful for their company.

***

The next day, we returned to the Castle of the White Blade, and over the rest of the week there were various ceremonies, awards of honor, feasts, and other celebrations before things finally wound down.

“What should I do next?” I wondered aloud with a sigh. I was back in my guest room at the castle.

“What do you mean by that?” asked Sedam. Both Sedam and Clara were with me (as usual) though Sedam had said he planned to return to Relis City soon.

“Well, I would like to turn you in to the—I mean, have you visit our Sorcerers’ Guild in Relis,” said Clara.

Clara certainly didn’t waste any time. That’s right, I remembered. She did say one of her reasons for hanging around me was basically to monitor my activities…

“May I ask why?” I said, after a short pause.

“One reason is that any sorcerer, our guild’s members included, would be interested in learning more about your magic—to determine whether it is a more advanced form of sorcery, an irregularity, a subdivision, the source of it, or whether it is something else entirely…” Clara said, trailing off at the end.

While I had already explained my magic, in part, to Clara…I could understand the Sorcerers’ Guild not wanting to leave me be without further investigation.

“All right. I’ll make plans to visit. I, too, want to know more about sorcery, and if possible, I would like to build a cooperative relationship with your guild against the daemons.”

“A cooperative…relationship?”

Having experienced the horrors of the daemons firsthand, I felt there was a need to take action. I was not sure what I myself could do, but I knew that if I was to continue to be involved in matters of daemon extermination, I needed more information, and to form alliances with others in positions of power who could help me.

From what I had heard, sorcerers’ guilds were important players in the fight against daemons. If possible, I wanted to be on friendly terms with Clara’s, but her reaction was strangely opaque, even though she nodded.

Another reason I had for going to Relis City was that I needed to have copies made of my spellbook. The one spellbook I had was carefully stowed away in my Infinity Bag, but I did not want to risk losing it again. I had heard there were guilds of book copiers in Sedia, and I planned on enlisting their aid. Additionally, even though it was lower on my list of priorities, I also wanted to secure a residence where I could one day retire in peace.

“Retire?” asked Clara incredulously. “Do you think anyone would just let you disappear after knowing what you can do?”

She makes a good point…

Our discussion was interrupted by a messenger who stated that the captain requested an audience with me, so I headed to his private room, which was lavishly decorated.

“Allow me to thank you again for your concerted efforts,” said Captain Amrand Gal Sardish.

“As a wizard and as your ally, I only did what was to be expected of me,” I replied, taking a sip of the sil tea he had poured for me.

“I hear Gillion and Leoria pulled their weight as well. Gillion, in particular, seems to have changed after participating in the operation with you. Don’t you agree?”

“He has changed some, to be sure…”

If I were to be honest, I would have told the captain that Gillion’s bravery and the strength of his rage at the daemons saved me more than any way I could have influenced him…but perhaps it was not my place to say that to a man who most likely wanted to choose his own son as his successor over someone like Gillion.

“By the way…” The captain set his cup on the table.

So, it’s time to cut to the chase, I thought.

“I wanted to ask if you might do something for me. It has to do with that fortress.”

“Hmm?”

“The fortress, which you seem well acquainted with now, has been a den of bandits the last few years, but ten years ago it was a holdfast the order used as a lookout for various threats.”

Captain Sardish explained that due to the decline in appearances of daemons and a reduction in size of the order itself, the fortress had been abandoned. Though Gunnar was currently stationed at the fortress, keeping a force there was not economically feasible for the order in the long run.

What is he trying to say?

“Of course, I am not suggesting you take any action until we have confirmed there are no surviving daemons in the area, but I would like to offer you the fortress with the recommendation that you take it as your permanent residence. Will you accept?”

It was only fifteen days ago that I woke for the first time in Sedia, in the jail of that fortress. I’d spent time there with Mora after I’d driven away the bandits and time with the knights and adventurers after I’d destroyed the daemons’ nest. It wasn’t a stretch to say that no place was more familiar to me in all of Sedia. I already knew the place like the back of my hand.

He’s offering that place to me? To live there? I thought. Back in Japan, I used to live in a thirty-year-old apartment building and always dreamed of one day being able to buy a house…

“I’m sorry, but…I am having trouble understanding what it is you want me to do.”

“This is embarrassing to admit, but…” The captain gave a wry smile. “The bandits who made that fortress their base were the relatively docile sort. I hear their behavior changed once a sorcerer was installed as their leader, but before that, the worst they did was extort tolerable fees from merchants and travelers.”

According to the captain, rather than driving out the bandits and risk the vacuum being filled by a more malicious group, the order had turned a blind eye to their activities. I suppose it’s embarrassing, but the world is full of issues that aren’t cut and dry. It’s hard to make it if you’re not willing to compromise on some of your ideals.

“In other words, you believe if I take up residence in the fortress, there won’t be as much crime in the area?”

“I believe more than that. Order will be restored. I doubt there is anyone willing to risk doing any evil on the doorstep of a great and powerful magician like yourself.”

Well, that’s a very grandiose way of putting it, but put simply, you want to use me like a guard dog. It’s the order’s job to keep the peace, not mine.

“Forgive me, but I struggle to see how exactly I benefit from this arrangement.”

“I’m not saying you have to live there. Your ownership of the fortress would serve as enough of a deterrent.”

But owning the fortress makes me responsible for it, I thought. I’ll still have to keep the peace whether I live there or not… However, I suppose I don’t mind helping to make sure bandits don’t run rampant…

“Forgive me if I’m wrong,” said the captain, changing his tone, “but I assumed that great wizards…like sorcerers…prefer to live in lofty, isolated places like that fortress.”

Hmm… He has a point, I thought. Great magic users and philosophers almost never live among common people in fantasy novels. Given how the people of Yulei have come to treat me, I’m starting to understand why.

“I thought it would be a nice, quiet place you could go to whenever you don’t want to be bothered,” said the captain.

As he says, it could function as a nice hideaway. Compared to the stock ideal of a house with a garden, he’s offering me a whole fortress with a forest around it to boot. I was surprised at how quiet and peaceful it was the first night I stayed there, and the view of the stars was amazing…

“According to reports,” the captain added, “there is hardly any part of it that needs repair, and it has everything anyone might need.”

I thought back over the few days I’d stayed there with the knights. There was nothing inconvenient about staying there at all. I remembered taking a hot bath in a barrel on the top floor of the tower and looking out at the view of the forest and mountains… It was beautiful. The more I thought about living there, the more it made sense to me. I could properly store the treasures I had in my Infinity Bag, and I could set up a workshop so I could craft more magic items.

“While giving you the fortress is not enough to pay you back for your help in exterminating the daemons, it would help us save face if you accepted it.”

“Well…when you put it that way,” I said, “I can’t say no, can I?”

Honestly, how could I refuse?

***

“You’re an idiot, aren’t you?”

After I returned to my guest room and reported my decision, Clara blinked a few times before raining on my parade. Rude.

My bruised ego aside, I knew Clara wasn’t being malicious. I preferred her regular jabs to the general affirmation of a yes-man.

“I only came to my decision after a good deal of thought. It’s quiet, it’s safe, and I won’t be bothered by many visitors…”

“That’s not what I’m talking about! Weren’t you supposed to come with me to the Relis Sorcerers’ Guild?!” Clara stood with raised eyebrows, hands on her hips.

“Well, I need a quiet environment where I can work in peace. I haven’t forgotten about visiting the Sorcerers’ Guild. Could you just wait a little longer for me?”

I hadn’t lost focus of the other things I needed to do just because of this new prospect of a secret hideaway. The first item on my list of priorities was gathering more information about the daemons. Next was creating a backup copy of my spellbook.

If I was going to spend the rest of my life in Sedia, I couldn’t expect to carry a tome around with me twenty-four seven. The first precaution I needed to take was to secure a place I could safely store my spellbook when I wasn’t carrying it with me, and the second precaution was to make copies in case my spellbook was ever stolen or damaged. Even if I had the Copiers’ Guild make blank copies of the book for me, transcribing all the spells from the original into the copies would take a considerable amount of time. Strictly speaking, gathering information on the daemons was higher on my priority list, but until I made copies of my spellbook, I felt limited in what I could do. Therefore, realistically, it made more sense to accept the fortress as a step toward completing priority number two before going to Relis in pursuit of priority number one.

“Fine…”

After I carefully explained my reasons, Clara reluctantly accepted my argument.

“In that case, when will you set out toward Relis?”

“First, I have to wait until the detached force declares the area free of daemons… I expect to be officially handed the deed in three or four days. Then I’ll have to drop a few things off at the fortress, and then…”

“I will wait seven days for you, and no more! After that, you’re coming to Relis, got it?!”

“You in that big of a hurry to drag Geo off to your new lovers’ nest somewhere?” Sedam smirked. “There’s no need to rush. Take your time.”

It was the first time I’d heard Sedam make a joke like that. Not a great habit to have, I thought. Where I worked, you’d be accused of sexual harassment…

“You can only crack jokes like that because you’re not a sorcerer,” said Clara, brushing him off. “You have no idea how bothersome—I mean, threatening—his existence is to us.”

“I wasn’t lying about wanting to know more about sorcery myself. I won’t make you wait any longer than a week.”

I knew I probably couldn’t have copies made of my spellbook the same day, but I had to go to Relis City to gather supplies either way.

“All right. In that case, I’ll be going with you to the fortress,” said Clara.

“Huh?”

My dreams of having the fortress all to myself in perfect solitude suddenly came crashing down.

“What’s with that look on your face?! Stop being so disrespectful!” Clara yelled, stomping a foot on the ground like an incensed child.

***

I stayed the next few days at the Castle of the White Blade. During that time, I took walks around Yulei, borrowed from the castle’s library, helped the Calbanera siblings with their training, and otherwise took it easy.

As I spent more time in the area, I saw that both the knights of the order and the people of Yulei lived simple, laid-back lives. However, the looks I got from the villagers were still ones filled with fear. I wasn’t hated or anything, but that didn’t change the fact that it was uncomfortable for me to be around others in the village, no matter how much they respected me. He was right, I thought, remembering what the captain had said. There really is no place for a “great and powerful magician” in a village like this.

On the third day, Sedam left the Castle of the White Blade to return to Relis City.

“I won’t be able to get out of delivering a report to the Adventurers’ Guild about you,” said Sedam, “but I’ll put in a good word and say you’re a great hero.”

“Please don’t overdo it,” I replied, shaking his hand.

No, really, I’m begging you—please.

***

On the fourth day, Gunnar and his group of knights returned to the castle. They reported that, after going on several patrols, they were able to confirm that no daemons were left alive in the area. Clara and I decided to make the trip to the fortress the very same day. Before we left, I asked the knights to deliver Ild’s goods, so he would have them before we arrived a few days later.

Satisfied that everything needing doing at the castle was done, and overall in high spirits, I summoned my phantom steed and mounted it.

“We’re only staying two nights at the fortress, okay?!” Clara held up two fingers. “After those two nights, you’re coming to Relis with me!”

“You don’t have to yell. I heard you the first time,” I muttered, rubbing my ears. Clara did not have her own horse, so she was riding in the saddle behind me.

“Now that the daemons and bandits are gone, it’s quite pleasant to ride like this through the countryside,” I said, thinking aloud.

Though the sun was a little on the bright side, there was a gentle breeze, and the lovely green of the trees was easy on the eyes. Despite the fact that she was annoying at times, I was also sharing my ride with a beautiful young woman. A few short weeks ago, when I was still in Japan, if I were shown a picture of me now, I guarantee you I would have been thrown into a fit of jealousy—especially if I didn’t know that this world harbored daemons.

“Oh? There it is! My own Castle Getaeus.”

I’d decided to name the fortress after Geo’s (fictional) home country. It might have been a bit of a stretch to call the small fortress a castle, but these kinds of naming conventions are more about feeling than following strict definitions. Before the knights left the fortress to me, they’d cleaned it and performed needed maintenance. Seeing it now, it looked both more lavish and sturdier than I remembered.

I dreamed of the days ahead: During the day, I might search for mushrooms and wild vegetables in the pristine forest surrounding my castle. I could go fishing in the stream and set traps for animals. There is more land than I could ever have hoped for—tilling a plot for a vegetable garden might be a fun project as well.

If it rains, I could read books in the top floor of the tower. Ah, the mark of a stress-free life is to only work when conditions are best for the mind and body. At night, I can enjoy the stillness, far from the hustle and bustle of towns. For dinner, I can whip something up from what I’ve gathered during the day. I’m not really that confident in my cooking ability, but it’s not as if I have to impress anyone. I can make do with the basics…

And the stars! Every night I could soak in the bath and look up at the starry night sky—a real one, the kind you just can’t see in modern Japan. Sure, the only bath I have now is a makeshift barrel tub, but I could probably dig up a natural hot spring in the mountains…

“Ah…” I sighed, a smile on my face, my head filled with the kind of leisurely activities all middle-aged men dream of. Easy street, here I come!

Of course, I still had plans to create copies of my spellbook and gather information on the daemons, and I wouldn’t stay idle if another daemons’ nest appeared… But no one can fault a man for taking time to enjoy the little things in life, right?

Although I was under the impression we had kept to a stately pace, we arrived at the fortress just as the sun was beginning to set—despite having left the Castle of the White Blade early in the morning that same day. Normally, the distance required a traveler to camp one night out on the road. Again, I was impressed by the excellence of my phantom steed.

It wasn’t long before I began to feel like it was high time for some dinner. I left Clara in the large room on the first floor of the tower and headed toward the kitchen, which directly adjoined the living quarters. I did have some magic items that gave me some limited options for conjuring up a meal from nothing, but using them when I had a perfectly good kitchen in front of me felt like cheating.

“All right. First, I should light a fire in the stove.”

I took some flint stones out of my Infinity Bag.

“Hmm… I just hit these things together, right?”

I had used flint as an item countless times in TTRPGs, but I had never actually used real flint stones to create fire before. How hard can it be? I thought. I’d watched the adventurers create a fire when we camped on the road, and it didn’t look terribly difficult.

One, two…

“Ow!!!”

On my first try, I hit the fingernail of my thumb dead on.

“Damn, that hurt… Ow!”

As I held my thumb, the pain helped bring me back down to reality. I looked around the kitchen and noted the absence of a refrigerator, gas stove, and rice cooker—the foundation of every kitchen in Japan.

“This may be more of a problem than I thought.”

I kept striking the flint stones against one another, growing more panicked every second. Although I was able to make some sparks fly, I couldn’t get a fire started.

“Wait, that’s right. I can’t start a log fire with just sparks. I need some kindling…something that will burn easily, like newspaper…is there any newspaper I can—”

Of course there isn’t any newspaper, you dimwit! I found what looked like a box of kindling with some shreds of wood, but as you might have guessed, I had no luck with that either.

“I guess life here isn’t going to be as convenient as life in Japan…”

I had lived on my own for decades—in Japan. I could handle basic chores and simple cooking—in Japan. My mistake was assuming that those skills would carry over into this world. I thought back over all the previous nights I’d stayed at the fortress. Either Mora or servants of the order of knights had cooked for me, made my bath, and laundered my clothes. There was no supermarket or convenience store in Sedia where I could get fresh vegetables and meat… Even if Sedia did have something similar, it wouldn’t be nearby. The area around Castle Getaeus was uninhabited.

I couldn’t believe I’d gotten so carried away with my dreams of the easy life that I had forgotten something so simple.

In an effort to calm myself down and ground my thoughts, I made a list of the fortress’s facilities:

Main Tower

Basement: Storage Rooms (used for general goods, weapons, and wine)

First Floor: Main Hall (used for assemblies and dining)

Second Floor: Commander’s Office, Archive, Guest Room

Third Floor: Bedroom, Study, Treasure Room

Roof: Lookout

Living Quarters (two stories plus basement)

Knights’ Quarters (five individual rooms)

Attendants’ Quarters (two small rooms)

Soldiers’ Quarters (two large rooms)

Servants’ Quarters (three rooms)

Kitchen

Mess Hall

Food and General Storage (basement)

Linen and Bedding Storage

Jail Compound (attached building)

Courtyard

Horse and Livestock Stables

Chicken Coop

Wells (including for laundry)

Designated Work Area

Main Gate and Defensive Towers

During the operation to destroy the daemons’ nest, the fortress was operating over capacity, but even so, it was built to house about fifty knights, soldiers, and servants. Can one person really clean and maintain this fortress all by himself? I thought. It’s…too early to say. If I spent some time crafting servants with my magic, I could still make this work. I wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

Still, I thought it strange. As Captain Sardish had said, great philosophers and wizards and the like had a reputation for living in solitude…but was that really complete solitude? I couldn’t imagine someone like that doing all the cleaning themselves. Needless to say, it was far too late, but I was beginning to regret having agreed to take the fortress so quickly.

“Regardless, I still need to do something about dinner…”

Although I reflected on my mistakes, none of that changed the immediate problem. All that reflection only made my current outlook even more bleak (though of course this was all in my head).

As described on Geo’s character sheet, I found rations, dried fruit and meats, beans, bread and other food items in my Infinity Bag. Without a specific goal in mind, I laid all of these things out on the table and stared.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” I wondered aloud.

The only thing I could think of was cutting up some of the dried meat and cooking it, but I couldn’t even get a fire started. Sure, I could make a fireball with my magic, but doing that would just blow up the kitchen. My spellbook didn’t have any spells that I could use to simply light a fire.

I guess it doesn’t have to be cooked. It’s dried meat, after all. I can just cut it into smaller pieces…

What is this feeling? I stared dumbly at the dried meat. After all that’s happened since I arrived in Sedia, is this what defeats me? Am I doomed to be vanquished by a kitchen?

“I knew it,” said Clara, dry as anything.

I deserved that stare, big time. “Ha, ha… It seems I was a bit unprepared to face the challenges of having a secret hideaway all to myself…”

“Secret hideaway? Forget that! I knew you didn’t have the first clue about cooking. And boy, was I right.”

“As embarrassing as it is to admit, you’re not wrong. Fortunately, though, you’re here.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“Well, you know, women are much more dependable when it comes to this sort of thing. I hate to ask, but you see how things stand. Could you whip something up for us?”

“You wanna try that again?”

“Please?”

***

In the end, I decided to make do with a magic item for our dinner that night.

Clara and I returned to the main hall, back in the main tower, and spread a tablecloth over one of the tables—a magic tablecloth, called a Dinner Cloth. Then I issued a command: “Dinner for two—something warm,” and the Dinner Cloth responded.

First, the table was set for two, with plates, bowls, glasses, knives, forks, and spoons. The dinner appeared soon after, with a faint billow of steam. The Dinner Cloth served us steak paired with wine, soup, and a side salad.

Clara shot a small fire arrow into the hearth, and the room was filled with a warm glow.

“Is this wizardry, too?” she asked. “You conjured this food and wine out of nowhere… How does something like that work?”

“I wouldn’t think too hard about it…”

The Dinner Cloth could make meals for up to four people, three times a day. I really didn’t want to rely on it—at least not right away, but hunger easily won over my desire to do things right.

“This…tastes better than I expected, coming from materia,” said Clara, cutting into her steak with her knife and fork in an exemplary demonstration of proper etiquette.

“Thanks—glad you like it,” I replied, taking it more or less as a compliment.

Materia must be what Sedia’s sorcerers call magic items, I mused, but most of my attention was not on Clara’s words, but her hands. If I remember correctly, forks weren’t in wide use in medieval Europe…though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised a fantasy world is ahead of the times, so to speak.

Clara seemed to tell I wasn’t paying much attention and raised her eyebrows at me, perturbed.

“I do not particularly mind, but you should pay more attention to your manners,” she said, then paused. “If you had materia like this with you, why didn’t you use it in the first place?”

Yeah, yeah… I know, I thought, and sighed. “Men sometimes like to do things just for the heck of it, even if they know it’s a waste of time.”

“Well, I won’t dispute that. What we’re doing right now is a complete waste of time.”

“Point taken… I really do need to hurry up and get back to investigating what the daemons are all about.”

If it were up to Clara, we would have gone straight to Relis. She has every right to voice a few complaints, given that I’m forcing her to delay her plans, I thought, but what Clara said next surprised me.

“Though I have to say, I’m relieved, seeing that you’re like this.”

“Relieved?”

Clara drank the remainder of the wine in her glass and then smiled kindly at me.

“I know I was one of the people who told you to act more like a hero, but taking everything into account…in a way, you’ve acted too much like one.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean it in the sense that, like a hero, it seemed like you weighed all your choices with a mind to whether or not those actions were morally just. There is such a thing as being a little too obsessed with justice. Follow that road and you’re bound to end up hurting yourself…and others.”

Daemons are powerful enough to be a threat to humanity, and I was equipped with the power to fight against them. I only did what I thought was right, given those two facts… Is that really something to be concerned about?

“So, like I said before,” Clara continued, “what we’re doing right now is a complete waste of time, but in Sedia, we call pointless ventures like this part of being human.”

Did I just get schooled in life by a woman twenty years younger than me? That almost brings tears to my eyes.

“Both as a sorceress and a daughter of nobility, let me give you some advice,” said Clara. “A castle of this size needs at least three full-time caretakers and a steward to make it livable. Might I suggest you look to hire some while you are in Relis?”

First lessons in life, and now practical advice on living arrangements? What did I do to deserve such tutelage?

“But that can wait until after we visit the Sorcerers’ Guild. Are we clear?”

“Uh, yes, ma’am.”