As I hear the name ‘Claudius,’ I somehow make the connection.
It’s the guy from the idiot [Enchanter] guy! His apprentice!
Right, the first time I came here, Tiberius told me there was a guy coming to inscribe and fix the runes for the homeless.
The brown-haired Elf is walking to the small fountain and the buckets adjacent to it, deep in thought. As he walks, he carries a leather satchel slung over one shoulder. The satchel is worn and well-loved, and it bears the marks of years of use. Inside, he probably carries the tools of the trade.
He’s not wearing the leathers that I’ve been brought to expect from [Mages], but a flowing, nondescript black robe—the color probably helps hide the stains from whatever reagents he uses in his line of work.
“That’s the [Enchanter] that fixes your stuff, right?” I ask for confirmation, just to be sure.
“Yeah. He comes once a week and pays for the reagents out of his pocket. It’s a lot of silver to invest without a return,” Tiberius explains. There’s clearly softness and warmth in how they talk about this Claudius.
“Quick question; how do apprenticeship contracts work here? I heard that for a [Mage], they could last even thirty years. Does Claudius have a contract of sorts?”
“He probably does.” It’s Quintus talking this time. “[Enchanters] are as restrictive as [Mages], but their contracts are usually shorter. Ten years, give or take. Sometimes they can swap their apprentices if someone buys out the contract. But that’s as expensive as paying out a [Vow: Debt of Honor].”
I see.
There is some camaraderie thanks to their similar conditions.
Claudius…
He was the one who thought that the Omnium Compendium was worthy of more investigation purely based on a gut feeling. And his idiotic master dismissed him because of it.
So, if someone can buy the man’s contract…
I scratch my chin as an even bigger plan takes form in my mind.
Thank goodness I had Fulvia make more of these than I actually needed… I think to myself as I fondle the cloth inside my bag of holding.
“Hey, Claudius!” I say as the man hunches over the table with all the buckets.
“Huh?” He turns to face me and frowns for a second. “You are the Human with the spellbook.”
“Yep. That’s right. The name’s Luciani, Joey Luciani,” I say, extending one of my hands to him. “How you doin’?”
“Claudius Lucio Rosatum,” he extends his hand. “I didn’t know you lived here…”
He looks around the place, slightly uncomfortable. Wait, Rosatum? Is that because of the rosy hue of his cheeks? Damn.
“Oh, no, no. I don’t live here. I just bring the boys some bread every now and then,” I point my thumb at Quintus and Tiberius, who are now distributing my daily allotment of bread. Eighty pounds, more or less. It’s not as much as I would like, considering there are a bunch of homeless people here, but it’s better than nothing.
“Ah,” he says.
“You are not very talkative, are you? Listen, do you mind if I ask you a question before you start doing your work?”
“S-sure.”
“If I needed to cool down some food really quickly, like almost instantaneously, but also not too quickly – let’s say over the course of a few minutes – would it be too difficult to make a rune for that?”
He looks up to the sky, moving his lips, perhaps doing some math in his head.
“No. The inscription would cost you a few golds, though, because of the requirements and the fees,” he sighs at the last part.
“Fees?”
“Yes?”
“Ok, I mean, what are those fees?”
“Every [Enchanter] charges a fee for their craftsmanship. If you wanted Master Iacchus’s work, you’d need at least three gold coins. Perhaps more if he’s busy and needs to move around.”
“What about if you did it.”
“No one buys services from [Apprentice Enchanters],” Claudius frowns at me.
Jesus Christ, this place’s customs are so stupid.
“Does it go against your contract?”
“No?”
“Ok, what are the rules if I want to hire you for a little job later today, then?”
“None? It’s customary that apprentices shall repay the debt to their master. I might use any extra money I earn for that. But otherwise, it’s unsightly for a master to take a fee from the work of his students. He’s just owed the money for the apprenticeship.”
“That’s great news, then,” I smile at him. “Tell you what. Fetch the materials you need. I’ll pay you ten gold coins for it.”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Claudius’s eyes go wide.
“W-what? What did you just say?” He trips on his own words, the poor guy.
“Ten gold coins for your time and an inscription tonight. Let’s say, four hours from now, I’ll meet you here. How about that?”
“I-is it something… illegal?” Claudius whispers the word, and suddenly his eyes shoot left and right as he hunches his shoulders.
“No, dude,” I laugh. “I just need a little help with something.”
Claudius falls silent, contemplating my proposal.
“A-are you sure it’s not illegal?”
“Jesus,” I laugh, “it’s fine. You’ll see for yourself. Feel free to pull out of the deal whenever you want, really.”
Claudius nods, still uncertain.
“It’s… fine,” he mutters. “I’ll be there.”
“Can I ask you about the spellbook?” Claudius says after a beat.
“Sure,” I shrug. “What about it?”
“Where did you find it exactly? The magical signature on it was old. Master Iacchus says that old doesn’t necessarily mean good. But this one was from centuries ago. It’s true that we find many old spellbooks that turn out to be useless, but I think yours was compiled right after or right before the end of the Great Hydrean War.”
“Huh, what’s that?”
Claudius’s eyes sparkle as he starts explaining the history of this world to me.
“The Great Hydrean War is the war that brought the Tax upon every continent. It’s the first time the Vanedenis descended en-masse onto the world stage. And it’s the only recorded instance in history when two [Heroes] from the same country came out at the same time. And they were both on the same side, the Vadeneni side.”
I think he expects me to have a huge reaction to this because when I just stare at him, he looks a bit dejected.
“A-anyway,” he continues, “the Great Hydraen War saw the Hydras attempt to dominate every country. They swiftly took over Carilia and enslaved every population there for more than thirty years. They launched attacks on every other continent, including Kome. This is before the Extermination Wars, by the way. Humans and Elves fought together in the Great Hydrean War while they still lived on Epretos together. People from Sobek, Foresta, and Teiko formed the greatest joint coalition, and many of the high-level fugitives from Carilia joined them. Soon, the war reached a stalemate that saw the slaughter of millions. It was a meat grinder as we had never recorded before or after in history.”
“Then, the Vanedeni joined,” Claudius says, holding his breath and looking expectantly at me.
“My man, I’m sorry, but I really don’t know anything about history.”
“O-ok,” he says, deflated. “The Vanedeni came down from Kome with two [Heroes] already in their ranks. Filaer and Skialaer. The greatest [Strategist] and a terrifying [Master of Arms] turned [Warlord]. Both reportedly reached level 70 and beyond.”
“Wow. And so, they joined the war against the Hydras? Woof. That’s something. I mean, given that we are not wearing slave collars and that I see no Hydras around, it means the good guys won, right?”
“No.”
“No?”
“The Vadenenis didn’t join the coalition.”
“What? They joined the Hydras?”
Claudius shakes his head.
“I’m not following,” I frown.
“They attacked both sides and won the greatest conflict ever recorded. They imposed on everyone what they called The Tax. Capitalized. Until the Ahali attack, they were taking resources from every country in the world. Whenever someone tried to rebel, they would crush them without quarters.”
“Wait. How? Like, they just entered the conflict and, boom, they won the war?”
“The estimates say that the coalition’s average level was lower than the Hydras’ by at least ten. The coalition made up for it with its great numbers. The Hydras have longer reproductive cycles, and for some reason, their population never really swells up. But, on average, they are much, much stronger than any given Human, Elf, or Goblin. Any race, really. They can wrestle minotaurs with only one head. With two, they can easily break a minotaur in two.”
Jesus.
“That sounds nasty.”
Claudius nods.
“It is. But the Vanedenis?” I see the light go off in Claudius’s eyes. What I had confused for a passion for history really looks like a passion for the Vanedeni military. “They came down from Kome with their flying vessels and uprooted both Hydras and the great alliance. Their [Heroes] slaughtered Sziezais, the greatest [Archmage] of all eras… He was the greatest threat! A Hydra with seven heads, close to the legendary limit of nine. No one knows exactly what went down, but they managed to kill him. From there, the Hydras’ government collapsed, and they swiftly slaughtered their military. At the same time, three of their legendary [Generals] took on the coalition, the disciples of Filaer. This is the greatest military event to have ever taken place. It’s postulated by some [Scholars] that the average level of the world generally shot up by an average of fifteen, thanks to that war. That’s how deadly and dangerous it was.”
Claudius looks expectantly at me, but my notions of levels are not that great. Fulvia said people at level 40 are good—that’s pretty much the extent of my knowledge.
“That sounds incredible,” I mutter, trying to look as impressed as I can.
Again, it’s really not my fault that I come from another world. I’m missing a bunch of historical and common knowledge here.
Do you know who Claudius reminds me of, funnily enough? People obsessed with Ancient Romans. Yeah. That’s the vibe I’m getting here. It’s not bad, mind you. But it’s certainly not the ‘I’m a normal person’ kind of vibe.
“So, you were saying about the spellbook…” I try to bring him back on track.
“R-right! The spellbook most likely belongs to that era. Master Iacchus says that his guts never lie and that the spellbook is just a lesser work full of trash. He also said that if you weren’t a Human, he would have told you not to—”
My [Enchanter] friend realizes too late that too many words have escaped his mouth.
“Oh, Joey, I’m so s-sorry, I…”
“Don’t worry, man. Forget about it. I know that Elves don’t like Humans. The fact that you are speaking from your heart shows your sincerity.”
Plus, the book comes from a Dragon Lady’s lair. A legendary sword and a cursed ritual altar tried persuading me to embrace their causes, but the book was the only thing that mostly ignored me. By logic, wouldn’t that make the book better? Or perhaps, bitchier—
ZAP!
I suddenly seize and look around wildly.
WHAT THE HELL?!
“Are you ok?” Claudius asks, confused.
“Oh, sorry, I got one of those weird stabs of pain between my ribs, you know?”
He nods uncertainly as I keep looking around.
What the hell? I haven’t opened the book since I blinded myself! And it’s currently back home! How in the holy macaroni did this happen again?
Can the [Curse: Thunderbolt], or whatever the name is, zap me when I think bad things about the book? Is that it? Really?
“Anyway,” I say, rubbing my shoulder, “how does an apprenticeship work? Like, say, someone else wants to buy out your contract. How much would that be?”
Claudius looks dejected at that.
“Master Iacchus is a good [Enchanter], but I thought he would be a better teacher, honestly.”
Huh?
“You know, I have thought about trying to buy myself out. But the amount of work that would require me to do is too much to take on outside my duties with Master Iacchus.”
Again, huh? What is he going on about?
Mmmm.
I see. Does he think that I’m asking this just to chat?
“Yeah, but how much, exactly?” I smile at Claudius.
“Contract and my debt? I don’t know exactly. Five hundred gold coins, give or take.”
I whistle.
That’s some cash, alright.
“Gotcha,” I smile.
“I know, it’s…” Claudius shakes his head. “If only all people were willing to hire apprentices for smaller works…”
If only, huh?
The corners of my mouth slowly go up.
Unlike my mother, I never particularly cared about money.
However, that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to make some.
I shoot a wink at Claudius and pat him on the shoulder.
“I’ll see you later, my friend. Today is going to be a good day, mark my words.”