The Siege of Arconia: Chapters 15-17

Jiah Pei waved off his own suggestion with that throwaway comment, but I had a feeling that he had been serious when suggesting it. That he really would consider that kind of alliance if she was still unwed.

Was that the only reason that Jiah Pei had wanted to invite me? Because he saw me as an investment for the future?

A part of me hated that I was becoming so cynical, but I couldn’t help it. Once I had reached Rank Three, and even slightly before that when I had been let go from Lauren’s shop - I had seen how much politics were involved in the background when it came to Liberomancy. It was not as simple or straightforward as I’d originally thought when I came to this world. I was convinced of this even more so given the new position I had found myself in.

I did not want to sink into the mire that was Arconia’s politics, but had found myself unable to avoid it.

“No, thank you, I have work tomorrow,” I told him. “I need my head on straight.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself - might be the last drink you take though. Who knows what’ll happen tomorrow and the day after that? If I died tomorrow, I know one of my regrets would be: ‘I should’ve taken another glass!’ Hah!” He then downed it in a single motion.

“Wait - are you participating?” I asked him.

“In what?”

“I mean, are you going to fight?” I asked. I thought that he, much like Granny Qi, would stay on the sidelines.

“Of course!”

“But…” I was going to say ‘you’re old’ but realized that he would find that extremely offensive. “...you don’t have to, right?”

“Have to? Well, maybe I could get an exception for my age, but why would I? Do you think those dryads are going to give me an exception for my age if they breach those walls when deciding whether or not to kill me? No! And if I have to die to save one of you pups, so be it. I would prefer dying on my feet than passing away from sickness anyway,” he said.

I glanced around. “Speaking of, I don’t see the rest of your family here… do you live alone?” He still had a pretty big house by even a wealthy merchant’s standards, but it looked like it was just him and his servants. The size of the house just made it even more apparent just how empty much of it was. People in Arconia mostly lived in big joint families from what I’d seen - it was uncommon for children to move out even when they had hit adulthood.

“Well, I still have a big family,” he said. “Many of them have moved out though - you see, or are doing something right now. Siege’s been keeping everyone busy. That and ah, one of my sons and I had a little misunderstanding and he’s been out of the house for a while now - but we’ll patch things up soon enough.”

“Right, right,” I said.

We continued talking about lighter topics after that. He did try asking me stuff about home - questions which I really couldn’t answer fully, but he didn’t seem to mind much.

The conversation then switched to him telling me stories about earlier in his life and his opinions on various things going on within Arconia.

There was quite a bit to learn from him as well as wisdom in his words, but we couldn’t stay up talking all night. Both of us had matters to attend to.

“Alright, sorry, but that’s enough from me,” he said after he had clearly reached his limit on drinking. “But just you wait, if the two of us survive this, let’s have a real party - and I’ll even invite the rest of my family for that one!”

I smiled. “Absolutely. And I wanted to thank you for supporting me back there.” He had been the one who had first said anything positive about me in that room - and I was sure that was a major reason as to why the job had gone so smoothly.

“No problem my boy,” he said. “Talent needs to recognize talent…”

I led him to his bed whereupon he fell asleep almost immediately. “If you want… it’s late, you can pick any room here…” he mumbled before drifting off.

That was a fine offer, but I had to go back as I had things to do next morning. I told who I thought was the head housekeeper that I was leaving before exiting - the driver of the carriage was still dutifully parked outside.

When I got home I had expected Granny Qi to be fast asleep, but she was still up, praying before the Goddess Serragnin. As I’d imagine many families were doing right now, actually.

“Finally home?” she said, still keeping her eyes closed.

“Ah, sorry, that lasted for much longer than I’d thought,” I told her, a foot already on the stairs that led up to my room.

“Wait,” she said and nothing further beyond that single word, but I stayed put. Five minutes later she was done and turned towards me. “I have something for you.” It took her a few moments to find a special key kept in a drawer which she used to open up a chest I’d never seen her use, but which was buried beneath a few others that I had to help her shift.

The lock was rusty but still opened up with a satisfying click! when the key was turned.

She pulled out a book wrapped in a leather cover, though its light green aura leaking from each page was still visible. It was a grimoire, and the only thing that was in that chest.

“This is one of the last grimoires my husband wrote,” she said, hands tracing over the cover. “It grants the Rank Three spell [Grand Fireball]… he never got around to putting it up for sale before he passed away, leaving that task to me. I couldn’t find it in my heart to sell it, even after all of these years.” She embraced the book like a mother would her infant. She then took a long look at it before turning around and trying to hand it to me. “I want you to have it.”

“Granny Qi, I can’t take this,” I protested. “For one, I don’t have the money to pay for-” I was going to tell her that I didn’t have the cash to pay for it given I had spent quite a bit of my savings on supplies in preparation for leaving Arconia, and while I did have two Rank Three grimoires to sell, I had not put them up for sale as of yet - saving them for the merchant caravan. But, I wasn’t able to finish my sentence before Granny Qi smacked me over the head. It wasn’t hard mind you - but it was the first time she had ever struck me. She had been annoyed at me more times than I could’ve counted; though this was the first time she had decided to express it physically.

“Idiot - did I ever ask you for money? I’m saying that this is yours now!”

I shook my head. “No, Granny Qi, it wasn’t about the money - I meant to say that this is one of the last things that you have that belonged to your husband - how could I take it like that?”

“Tell me child, why do people write grimoires?” she asked, exasperated.

“To sell them later or trade them for-”

“No! They write grimoires because someday, someone will read them!” she said, hands now shaking. “He would not have wanted this collecting dust and then eventually rotting away, turning all of his effort into naught, now then would he? He would’ve wanted someone to read it - otherwise he might as well have lit this grimoire on fire for all the good it would do to the world!”

“Are… you sure?” I asked her.

“Tell me one thing,” she said. “If, I learned that in the upcoming fight, that the spell [Grand Fireball] could’ve saved your life, but you had instead died because you lacked it, could I live with myself then? These dryads are weak to fire, no? Would it not be better that this be with someone who could use it to save the city instead of being food for the spiders in a cabinet? Forget that - what if you can’t defend the city properly because of a lack of this, and then those dryads swarm in and tear my head off, but oh, this grimoire would still be safe in its box? Do you think my husband would’ve wanted that?”

“No…” I said, not having expected such passion in her voice.

“This is the last thing that remains of him - and also his legacy,” she said. “His legacy is teaching someone [Grand Fireball] - and may that legacy live on through you, child. May his legacy help in protecting this city he lived in all of his life. That is what he would’ve wanted.”

“Granny Qi, you say all of that - but if that were true, that you wanted someone to read it, wouldn’t you have sold this a long time ago? You’ve kept it for so long - doesn’t that mean that it’s special for you?” I asked her. She clearly had some attachment to that grimoire beyond its use to teach [Grand Fireball], which is why she’d even bothered keeping it this long.

She nodded. “It is special - which is why I would have never given it to a stranger. To you, however, yes, I have no regrets in doing so.”

There was a lot unsaid in those words. Foremost being that it meant that I wasn’t just some random stranger. Secondly, that we were simply not landlord and tenant or two people who just had a business transaction. Could we call ourselves family now? She certainly seemed to think so, giving me the grimoire like she was handing it to her eldest son when he finally came of age.

I had no objections to give at that time, and I took the grimoire from her. “But… I wouldn’t want to take this without giving you anything in return.” The grimoire was likely the most expensive thing she had - aside from her house. Her fields back in her village would not grow anything for a while due to the dryad invasion, and I didn’t know how the rest of her businesses were affected either.

“We can speak of that after this is over,” she said, waving her hand, delaying the matter, though I resolved that I would not forget it. “Now get some rest! It’s getting late already!”

Her annoyance melted as I approached her and gave her a hug - it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, and was likely very awkward. However, she didn’t pull away, and she got the sentiment, even if I hadn’t voiced it. “Thank you for taking care of me.” I then added, "I can't remember any of my grandparents." She gave me a confused look - it was not often that I spoke of my life before coming to Chipker. "They had all died by the time I was two - though I always wondered what it would've been like to have met them if I was a bit older. Hearing the other kids talk about their own grandparents... I couldn't help but feel jealous. It's only now though that I realized just how much I'd missed out on."

She gently wiped away a single tear from the corner of her eye in response. "Since when did a blockhead like you get so good with words?"

"If I wasn't so good with words, I wouldn't be able to write grimoires like I do," I said, and she chuckled before turning in for the night.

"I'm serious - go to sleep!" she yelled out before leaving.

Despite what Granny Qi had told me, I did not go to bed right away. If I wanted to learn [Grand Fireball] in time for it to actually be useful, I could not waste a drop of mana on doing anything else and would have to devote nearly all my waking hours to the task.

This was made doubly difficult by the fact that it was in a different language - if I had someone with me to translate it would’ve been much faster, but that person would also need to be a Rank Three Liberomancer. And where would I find someone like that willing to spend hours with me with an army at the gates?

Thankfully the grimoire wasn’t hard to understand.

Because of the grimoire’s bright aura, it was easy enough to read even in total darkness, almost like reading on a smartphone or tablet at night. Regardless, [Unobstructed Sight] would’ve taken care of that no problem.

[Grand Fireball] turned out to be far more useful than I’d initially thought. When picking up a grimoire, you would know what it did, but like when I had bought the grimoire that gave [Fish Haul] you could also know how that potential spell or skill would interact with the rest of your set. I saw that [Grand Fireball] and [Summon Tyrant Arachnea] could also be used synergistically - I had already seen something between [Fireball] and [Summon Tyrant Arachnea]. However, the output of a Rank Three spell and skill was going to be far greater than between a Rank Two spell and Rank Three skill.

Without a doubt, this was something that I’d be able to use with great effect during the upcoming fight. If we did fight, that is; some small part of me hoped that whatever unknown cause resulted in the dryads straying from their original path in the first place would strike again causing them to suddenly turn away from Arconia any day now.

As I read the grimoire late into the night, a thought struck me.

It was an excellent thing that grimoires vanished when you read them! I had been complaining about how annoying that fact was internally for so long it seemed strange to suddenly come to that conclusion in a sleep-deprived state. However, even when I woke up later, I felt that it wasn't the wrong conclusion.

If that was not the case, and grimoires could be used multiple times, this world would not be so peaceful. You’d probably see people willing to slaughter other Liberomancers and steal grimoires all the time - and Libraria would end up being nothing more than a place where the law of the jungle survived, where the strong openly preyed upon the weak, and the world would probably be run by psychopaths or anyone callous enough to screw everyone around them over for their own gain.

But because grimoires could only be used once - no matter how powerful you were, you had a vested interest in letting anyone who could create a good one live. Because that way they could make more for you and eventually your descendants, especially if it was in a different language!

I realized this while thinking about how Hei Nan had passed away, so he could no longer make copies of this grimoire. It probably would’ve made more sense to give this to someone who could’ve written in the language that he had written it in instead of me so that more copies of it could be made - but that wouldn’t have mattered anyway in the short term of this siege so there was no dwelling on that right now.

Compounding to this was of course, the fact that no matter how good you were, you couldn’t make a whole set of grimoires on your own. You might be able to make a grimoire to make [Blazing Heart] while the Liberomancer next door might make one that gives [Inner Heat]. And thanks to both of your efforts, Liberomancers in the future would be more easily able to make a fire elementalist build. Even someone who is Rank Three might benefit from swapping out one of their Rank Two slots for a new grimoire someone had made that just so happened to compliment their build.

These two factors combined meant that the benefits of cooperation greatly exceeded the benefits of no-holds-barred every-man-for-himself sort of thinking. And so Liberomancers worked within the rules of society, for that was the scaffolding that allowed them to navigate the world and prevented unnecessary conflicts.

After all, that was why Liberomancer Duels had been created in the first place.

Of course, the general temperament among Liberomancers was also different from common warriors by virtue of the kind of training involved. Not to say that all Liberomancers got along, far from it, but they would usually not resort to violence to deal with problems among themselves. Bookworms were not the kind of people to throw hands recklessly.

While Stefan was reading late into the night, in the governor’s palace Drake and Zeke had been called to their father’s office. The meeting of the lizardmen strategists had concluded, but the governor still had several issues to tackle before getting a breather in which he wanted to speak to his two sons.

“Father, you called?” Drake said as he peeked inside his father’s office.

“Yes, there was something I wanted to discuss with you two,” Lance said. Zeke was already in a chair sitting across Lance.

Drake took his seat, stifling the yawn that threatened to erupt out of his jaws.

“Drake, what is your opinion on the human whom Zeke vouched for?” Lance asked.

“He seems willing to do the job,” Drake said. His father’s nostrils flared, and that told Drake that he had given the wrong answer so he hastily added an addendum to his thoughts. “I mean, I don’t like him personally but…”

“Oh? And why is that?” Lance asked.

“Uh… well,” Drake began. The truth was that he didn’t like Stefan because he had so easily made it to the finals in the tournament, and so he had harbored bitter feelings towards the man ever since. But he very well couldn’t give that as a reason, now then could he?

“Zeke, you?”

To Drake’s relief, his older brother was none the wiser. So at least, in this aspect, the two of them were equally disappointing.

Lance sighed. “Alright, I suppose neither of you have been near the Liberomancer’s Guild recently so you might not know - though they had reached out to me regarding the matter of that human.”

“In what regard?” Zeke asked.

“The fact that they think he is a fraud,” Lance said coldly. “And I concur with their assessment.” He paused. “Do you know how many Liberomancers made a Rank Three grimoire - an original one, as their first Rank Three grimoire?” He held up his hand, raising not a single finger. “Zero. Zero up till now, not even in Hitutsa could I find someone like that. New Rank Three grimoires are so difficult to make that we give those who make them several special privileges on top of venerating them. And this human, in the span of a few months, makes not just one, but two of them back-to-back. Which is more likely? That he is a genius the likes of which has practically never been seen before in the world - or that he could make these two new grimoires so quickly because they had already existed?” Lance was accusing Stefan of having copied the two grimoires that he had submitted as his own originals, a very big offense. It was one thing to mistakenly submit something that you thought was original but already existed, it was quite another thing to maliciously lie to the Liberomancer’s Guild not just once, but twice. Who would be so bold as to do that? Being ostracized by the guild would kill one’s career as a Liberomancer, criminal penalties put aside. And yet, it was by far the more logical explanation.

“Why haven’t you had him arrested yet then?”

“Because neither I, nor the Liberomancer’s Guild can prove it,” Lance said. Once Stefan had become even a Rank Two Liberomancer, it was near-impossible to have him detained without good reason - because there would be outrage to doing so from the Liberomancer’s Guild. It was far less feasible now that he was Rank Three; while the Liberomancer’s Guild might have their own suspicions they would still protect ‘one of their own’ from what seemed like blatant government overreach. The Liberomancer’s Guild was extraordinarily influential, and not even someone like Lance could butt heads against them and come out unscathed. Now that the enemy was at the gates, Lance was even more reluctant to open this can of worms. “That is why they approached me to see if I could dig any further than they could to get real, solid evidence.” He took out a grimoire from under his desk. “This is the language that man writes in. I could not find anything even resembling it, even after sending it to the University of Hitutsa for analysis.”

“In that case, doesn’t it mean that maybe… he is telling the truth?” Zeke asked.

“So where did he learn this language from then? If he knows this language, then naturally, there should be others who know it as well. He can’t possibly be the first Liberomancer who knows this language, and so a grimoire that uses this language should’ve ended up somewhere, anywhere,” Lance said. “There are over a thousand different written languages in all of the continent - many of them have fallen out of use, but the University of Hitutsa has written material in over five hundred of the most widely used writing systems, many of them predating the rise of the Ruler of the Astral Winds and are no longer used today. And yet, nothing similar to this. Do you know what I call that? Not improbable - impossible.”

“Could he have invented this language himself, or found it through some ruins?” Drake asked.

“And then also made all of these new grimoires in that language? If he had that kind of talent, he really would be the kind of genius that only appears once in ten thousand years,” Lance said. He sighed. “I do not know what is going on with him, but there is something murky in the water - very murky. I do not think he will obstruct our operations during the siege in any way, even a madman would know that they would be doomed if the city were taken, and he does not seem to be a madman despite all of his other faults. However, you are taking a huge risk by endorsing him like you did, because now anything that he might be accused of will stain your name and reputation by association.” The last sentence was a warning aimed at Zeke, who was almost certain to be the next governor of the city by this point.

Zeke fidgeted in his chair. It wasn’t often that he was thrown off balance - no, he was the more responsible, competent, older brother. It was usually Drake who ended up holding the idiot ball - though it was now firmly in his hands.

Then again, he felt that there was little that he could’ve done to prevent this from happening. His father hadn’t told him this information before, and had simply said, “I’ll leave it to you” when Zeke said he had a person in mind. With the threat of the dryads on the horizon, who had the time to conduct such an in-depth background check?

“Do you want me to get rid of his position then?” Zeke asked. It would look odd if they did so, but the consequences might be worse if they let someone like that run a crucial part of their operation.

“No,” Lance said. “Whatever he’s actually up to, he has to cooperate at least during the dryad invasion and might even be useful for now - so let him be useful to us. If anything, Zeke, attach some retainers to him to help him so that we can keep a closer eye on him. They may be able to catch him slipping up.”

Zeke nodded. From his father’s earlier behavior during the meeting that night he had thought that his father greatly approved of Stefan - then again, by now, his father was a seasoned politician. Even if one was not born shrewd, they would become such after having sat upon the governor’s chair for so long.

“There are other issues with him,” Lance continued. “For one, what country does he hail from? If he came from far away, how and why did he come here? He says he comes from a country called ‘Libraria’ - though he has sometimes answered with another name ‘America’. Maybe this country is known by two names - but neither of them are listed anywhere no matter where I look. He seems to come from a country that does not exist. What kind of person comes from nowhere - a spy, that’s who. But if he is a spy, he has drawn so much attention to himself that he could only be the most incompetent spy I have ever heard of. If one of my information agents behaved like this, they would’ve been sacked.”

“Wait a moment,” Drake said, adjusting himself in his chair. “Father, should not all of this also cast suspicion on the fact that he ‘helped’ us catch those two demonic Liberomancers? We handed him a demonic grimoire practically on a plate after that, and that too legally! What if he had known those two and simply sacrificed them to advance his own plans? He could’ve been the mastermind behind the whole event.”

Lance scratched his chin. Drake’s ideas tended to be disregarded simply because well, they came from him, but he actually had a point this time. “I hadn’t thought of that - though I should reassure you both that the legal loophole which caused that to happen has been remedied. Demonic Liberomancer… it seems excessively cruel to betray your own comrades like that, though I suppose demonic Liberomancers never have much integrity to begin with.”

“Father…” Zeke said. “I understand your position up till now - but I should also mention something in his defense. He got to the finals of the tournament while making new grimoires. He clearly has very good natural talent at making them on the spot - that can’t be denied, enough to fight with Master Jiah Pei on equal footing. I can’t see how he faked that.”

Lance nodded. “True, true, but how do we explain everything else? Anyway, leave that matter for now, he has not done anything overtly wrong that I can punish him for, especially now that I have to acknowledge him as a Master Liberomancer. Not to mention the guild is fawning over some of the grimoires he’s made and doesn’t want anything to happen to their current golden goose. We will conduct a more thorough investigation into his background once this blasted dryad invasion is over. I just wanted to warn the two of you to keep a close eye on him.”

“We will,” Drake and Zeke both said at once.

“Good, good, that is all, you two should get some rest. We have a long day tomorrow - and a long day after that one as well.”

hr

Once I had ran out of mana reading the grimoire I had been given, I went to sleep, though it felt like I had been woken up by immediately after by Granny Qi.

“The governor’s son is here to see you again,” she said. “Wake up!”

I got up, feeling a headache already from the lack of sleep, but I couldn’t very well leave Zeke waiting.

Zeke was there, and I gave him a rundown of what had happened last night.

“Good work,” he said. “Ah, I’ve managed to arrange for a few things to help you out.”

As part of my new role of ‘Liberomancer Conflict Mediator’ (a title that had been created overnight), I was entitled to certain perks. That included use of a carriage, the same driver from yesterday waving at me, a page, two guards, and a lizardman secretary whose name closely resembled Eton.

“Good morning, I am a Rank One Liberomancer, but I can read and write in both the languages of the lizardmen and humans,” Eton said. “I would be happy to assist you in whatever manner I can.”

That was helpful as my new position involved a lot of paperwork and bureaucratic nonsense, which was greatly hampered by my inability to read either of the scripts used in Arconia.

Come to think of it - the whole idea earlier of becoming an earl seemed rather ridiculous when for all practical purposes other than creating grimoires or reading them I was just as illiterate as most peasants. Documents were written in normal text, and a translation device could do nothing about them.

“Oh,” I said to my page. “Could your run off to the Liberomancer’s Guild to let them know that I got a grimoire from Granny Qi?” It was a Rank Three grimoire, so even if it was a gift, there was still a small tax to be paid and the Guild had to be informed. There was a small chance they would not approve the transaction, but I couldn’t not tell them about it. Because if I didn’t and used [Grand Fireball] the question would naturally arise as to how I had learned it - was I going to tell them that I had written a third original grimoire that just so happened to teach a spell that was well known around Arconia? I had a feeling that would be very suspicious.

There was no way to avoid showing [Grand Fireball] given how useful it would be for fighting the dryads. I briefly considered just winging it and not doing so, but ultimately did not consider it worth the convenience of avoiding a minor hassle.

It was best to avoid trouble like that. My page came back a while later saying, “The Guild not only said that the transaction is fine, but given the current circumstances, that the usual tax is waived too.”

That surprised me. This was one of the few fees that the Guild did not waive, even for Rank Three Liberomancers. It was barely a drop in the ocean compared to the actual cost of a Rank Three grimoire, though, so very few people complained - it was likely the guild did not care during these times as they knew how valuable another Liberomancer with [Grand Fireball] was going to be in combat.

I did my best to try to finish reading the grimoire as soon as I could, but it was a bit difficult to squeeze in with all the other things I had to do.

While my official title was ‘Liberomancer Conflict Mediator’ I felt like I should’ve more accurately been called ‘Inter-species Negotiator’ given that I was also tasked with dealing with things mostly not involving Liberomancers.

A group of lizardmen spearmen were practicing on ground ‘reserved’ for human spearmen? The lizardmen refugees thought that the humans were getting better fish than them? A group of lizardmen thought that the humans were writing ‘evil slogans’ against them on signs since they couldn’t understand human letters? I was called for all of these issues and more.

Honestly, I felt more like a babysitter overlooking a bunch of rowdy kindergartners given the nature of most of the squabbles I was dragged into rather than a manager of anything.

Other than putting out these small sparks before they snowballed into large fires - most of my time was spent in solving logistical issues between the two factions. Things one side had too much of or not enough of which the other side needed to provide or wanted: whether it be leather, fish, blankets, or wood.

Not only that, but communicating battle strategies between the two factions fell into my job description as well.

Because of this, people were constantly coming in and leaving my headquarters (formerly known as Granny Qi’s house) and so my office (formerly known as Granny Qi’s dining room) was rather messy all the time despite Granny Qi’s efforts to keep it tidy. Unfortunately for her, I could create a mess far faster than she could clean it up.

I could tell that while Granny Qi put up with this given the importance of my work, she was clearly not happy with it.

It wasn’t just her who was in a sour mood - lots of people throughout the city had multiple complaints, most of them just buried them deep within themselves. Especially now that the dryads, and evidence of their slaughter was drawing near.

Bodies began to turn up in the Arconia - floating downstream from where the dryads had thrown them in to dispose of them. I don’t know if they threw them into the river in order to get rid of them, or to possibly strike fear into our hearts before attacking.

I think more likely than either of those two explanations was the simple theory that they did not care where they discarded the bodies, and some of those which they dumped happened to end up in the river.

Men, women, and children, all exsanguinated by the dryads and then tossed aside carelessly like kids would do to empty juice boxes back home. They had been granted no mercy and there had been no negotiating with this enemy.

There had only been a few bodies on the first day that they appeared, but later on, the number increased to the point where hundreds of them could be seen floating along the river even from the city walls.

Most of the dumb complaints I had been receiving quieted down after that.