“Now of course I will be putting together a reward for your help with this Arthur, I will have a letter sent to you when everything has been sorted out.” Captain Tasius reached out to give Arthur a hand shake. “Also, should I be able to rely on you if something else comes up in the investigation?”
“As long as you can pay me for my time I will be more than willing. Arthur took the captain's hand and gave it a firm shake.
“Of course, I would never try to force you to do something you don’t want to do.” Soon after Arthur left the room saying- “It is getting quite late, and I don’t want to keep you so I shall get going now. Good luck with the bandits.”
“Thank you Arthur, and good luck to you with your goals.” Arthur left the room leaving Captain Tasius and Titia alone in the room.
“And I haven’t forgotten about you Mrs. Titia, your actions ensured that we received this information so that we may properly target the bandits hiding in the forest. Captain Pelagius will only hear good things from me regarding your performance.”
Titia smiled a little, but she still was feeling conflicted after the death of the bandit leader. “Sir, I have a question.”
“Ask away, you have more than earned that right.”
“Is killing the bandits the right thing to do?” Captain Tasius paused at that question. It certainly wasn’t what he was expecting. “Many of them are just trying to get by like everyone else, it feels wrong just to kill them. Wouldn’t it be better to take them prisoner?”
“And what exactly would we do with them? We don’t exactly have the resources to keep hundreds of people locked up for an indefinite amount of time, and even if we did take them prisoner most of them would just be executed for their crimes within a month. Honestly killing them out there is a better fate than waiting for your death in a small room for up to a month.” Captain Tasius studied Titia’s reaction to that information, she appeared to be a little shocked for a moment but after thinking for a moment and nodding.
“Thank you sir for helping me clear that up.” Titia gave Captain Tasius a salute before she excused herself from the room.
Captain Tasius watched the young elf leave the room, she clearly wasn’t ready to fight against other people. She might have done well against the vampires but that was because she didn’t ever see them as people. ‘Poor girl, she wanted to help people with her gift in magic, and so far she has only been exposed to the very worst while being forced to watch someone be executed.’
Captain Tasius placed her file on his desk and began going through her career with the city guard. ‘Exactly as I suspected, so far she had been tasked with collecting information or following people with recording devices. This was the first time she had seen someone actually be punished for their actions.’
The captain leaned back into his chair as he thought back to when he first joined the city guard just over eight years prior. He thought upon all the things he and the friends he made along the way went through, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
‘I guess I turned out alright in the end.’ Tasius chucked to himself and went back to work, starting with arranging Arthur’s reward as a freelance mercenary.
*********
After walking all the way back to the Elder Nymph and walking upstairs to his room it was already 12:45. Arthur didn’t even bother to change into something more comfortable like he had been recently, he just plopped down onto his bed and went out the moment his head hit the pillow.
He awoke at 8:00 out of pure habit and immediately regretted it. Despite the seven and a quarter hours of sleep he felt like he had only gotten four. He begrudgingly got out of bed and sat down at his workstation to begin brewing potions.
‘Ok, what ingredients do I still have to work with?’ Arthur started looking through the cupboards and shelves for the ingredients he hadn’t used yet. He knew he still had enough to brew a handful of potions since he did not use them all up yesterday.
All together he had enough to brew another six stamina potions, three drowsiness potions, and two portions of bravery. ‘Eleven potions, I should have kept more ingredients in storage. Now I need to go out to the forest again and risk encountering more bandits. They are such a hassle.’ Arthur rubbed his eyes as he prepared himself for work.
It only took Arthur an hour to use up all the ingredients and fill up eleven small bottles each with a small label. He placed each one in a small box and left said box next to Master Calvus’s workstation with a note listing the potions.
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Upon exiting the shop Arthur was met with several people walking through the street handing out fliers. There were five people in this group and they each held a stack of at least one hundred fliers. The group consisted of three humans and two wood elves with birch-like skin. None of the five were any older than eighteen, making Arthur wonder why they were promoting such an event.
“Maple Ridge University is hosting their annual tryouts on the Seventh of Slate, exactly one week from now!”
‘Tryouts for a university? What are they teaching that they need tryouts for?’
“Excuse me, I have a few questions.” Arthur approached the five handing out fliers.
“Of course sir, what did you want to ask us?” The tallest girl amongst the five stepped forward.
“What kind of university is this that requires tryouts? I would normally expect a university to require a submission instead.”
“Maple Ridge University is not just any university sir. When you join you can learn about magic, fighting, alchemy, and so much more. And the best part is that it's all in one place, no need to walk all around the city to get some training in magic and then all the other way to get some combat training.”
‘Tsk. That's what they are, competition to the other major guilds. It sounds nice on paper but I'm betting there is a catch she won't be all that willing to tell me about.’ Instead of saying what he was thinking he said - “Sounds… Interesting, if I have time I'll go to that tryout and see what it's like.”
“That's wonderful to hear sir. Please take this flyer, it has all the details about the enrollment process on it. Hopefully I'll see you there in a week.” The girl smiled and walked away with the rest of the group handing out flyers as they went.
Arthur looked at the flyer in his hands, just like the girl said the tryouts were happening on the Seventh of Slate and it also gave the location of the school. It was actually just on the other side of the inner city circle just to the north west. ‘She seemed nice, the only question is was it for real or just a facade. When I meet up with Calavia for lunch I'll ask her about it, she will probably know something about it.’
*********
After spending an hour and a half searching for useful ingredients in the Pelcester Forest Arthur found enough for about thirty potions of various types. But by the time he returned to Antium it was already noon and Arthur was hungry. For some time both he and Calavia would meet up to eat together, and today was no different in that regard.
The Free Parrot Bar was the establishment of choice for Arthur and Calavia when they would meet up for lunch. “Over here Arthur!” Calavia waved to Arthur upon seeing him enter the building.
Arthur walked past all the other tables to the very last one where he and Calavia would always sit. He then pulled up the bench and took a seat on the opposite side. “Nice spot you got us.”
“It's the same seat we always get here.”
“I know. It’s just that good.”
The two laughed and told a few jokes before the waitress arrived and took their order. “I'll have the chicken soup with some bread.”
“I will have the chicken burrito.”
“Your total will be… 5 copper coins. Unless you have anything else you want to order.”
“That is quite alright. Here are the five copper pieces and a little extra as a tip.” Arthur handed the waitress the five copper coins and another five as a tip. The waitress smiled and gave a small bow before she rushed back to the kitchen.
“You do know I could have paid for lunch this time.”
“I know, but I can afford it.”
“But you always pay for our food, I can at least pay for my own food.”
“Well this time you were too slow. Better luck next time.”
The two continued to have a good time while they joked and laughed until their food arrived. Arthur was given a chicken burrito and Calavia the chicken soup.
“So I have a question I wanted to ask you regarding something that just happened today. I thought you might know something about it.”
“Sure, go right ahead.”
“Earlier today, just after I got outside there was this group of five handing out flyers for their school.” Arthur started recounting the situation to give Calavia context of the situation.
“How old were they?” Asked just after drinking a spoon full of soup.
“The three humans were no older than eighteen, the elves looked to be about the same age but with elves these things are hard to determine. Anyways the school they were going to, Maple Ridge University, is having tryouts to enroll-”
“-And you wanted to know what is going on with that school.” Calavia interrupted Arthur, almost finishing his sentence. “My personal opinion is to not enrol in that school, it sucks for anyone who is not either incredibly rich or born into nobility.”
Arthur was a little confused at that statement. “But they have tryouts before anyone can enroll into the university. It seems the process is quite fair.”
“Trust me it isn’t. The target customer is the rich and wealthy, they don't need to go for tryouts. They Only have them so if anyone tries to sue them for discrimination or anything else related to the selection process, they can point to it and say they have fair enrolment proceedings. And I haven’t even started about the actual school environment, it is just terrible for the non rich and or noble attendees.”
“Just how terrible is it?”
“There was this one case regarding a young elven girl, about 17 years old who was quite the looker. She went missing and was later found dead after several male students did unspeakable things to her.”