Ryuji perked up at hearing the last part about a wizard. He had almost forgotten that this was a fantasy setting and certainly there would be magic! That was it, his ticket to greatness was waiting with this old wizard! “Well, if that’s how it is then I guess I have no choice, do I? Where is this old wizard at?”
Ryuji thought the laughing was bad before but after he said his piece the men started laughing even louder and jeering him with all kinds of slander about his parentage and intelligence or lack thereof. Ryuji gritted his teeth and was getting ready to rush at the closest of the men when Rayna caught him by the shoulder and turned him away from them.
She started walking him away from the group with her arm wrapped around his like she was his girlfriend or something. Ryuji was too embarrassed to pull his arm away from her. When they were halfway back to the door leading to the front lobby of the guildhall, she leaned in close so they wouldn’t be overheard by the still-laughing men. “Listen, I know we all have our different circumstances and I don’t know what yours are but I can’t let them hit you and you turn around and have them thrown in the dungeons, your lordship. I don’t know why you want to become an adventurer but you could always just hire another mercenary to fight in your place. Plenty of nobles do that so why don’t you just find a good mercenary or two and come back with them to take the tests. The papers will stay on file for another two seasons so there’s no rush and I can even keep them longer for a small fee.”
Ryuji pulled his arm away gently and turned to look at Rayna with incredulity written on his face. What was this girl talking about? Why was she calling him your lordship? As he looked at her stunned, she went through several expressions herself. Her face started out puzzled when he stopped then it went to something of a bored challenging expression. As she looked closer at him, she squinted in a puzzled studying expression before realization dawned on her and her eyes shot open wide while she covered her mouth. “You can’t mean that you were telling the truth? You really don’t know who you are? You didn’t even know that you were a noble? Are you kidding me right now?”
Ryuji thought about the implications for a minute and the guard from the previous day came to mind. Suddenly his words and reactions made sense, if he were talking to a noble then he would try to suddenly back-pedal. Probably the last thing anyone in a feudal society wanted to do was get on the wrong side of a noble. But then how could he play along with this, he was no noble?!
The one thing that did occur to Ryuji was that he could at least get the information he wanted this way. “Sorry but, yeah. I really don’t remember my past at all. I guess that this means I’m some kind of nobility, right? *He touched the pendant under his shirt. * Well, I didn’t know until now so thank you. But seriously, I really would like to talk to the wizard so could you tell me where to find him? I may not be able to fight but maybe I can use magic. I’ll never know until I try! I can pay you a little bit for the information if that’s the issue.”
Rayna just shook her head a little and bowed slightly before looking back at Ryuji with a smile that was so bright that he couldn’t tell if it was genuine or not. “No, that’s fine. If you really are that determined I think you should know a few things before you go there. The old wizard hasn’t taught anybody for over fifty years now. There have been several people who tried to get him to teach them but he refused them all. If you are determined to ask anyway, I’ll tell you how to get there. If you follow me, I’ll even draw you a map so you won’t have any trouble finding it!”
She grabbed Ryuji by the hand and practically dragged him to the back of the counters again. After a couple minutes, he was leaving the guild with a map in hand. Just as Rayna said it didn’t take him but a few minutes to make his way over to the wizard’s store. It was a good thing that she had given him the map though because there wasn’t anything except the sign that might give away that this was a wizarding shop and he couldn’t read the sign. He made up his mind to do this already so there was no reason to hold back. Ryuji squared his shoulders and walked up the steps to the porch and opened the brass inlaid door.
As soon as he stepped into the shop it became very clear that this was a wizard’s shop. It looked just like something straight out of a manga. There were five round tables in the shop piled with things that very obviously belonged in this setting. One table had several mortars and pestles of varying sizes and materials along with a type of wheel grinder that Ryuji had never seen before. That table also had several powders of varying coarseness all spread out on small leather pads.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Ryuji looked over to the next table in and found that it had a huge variety of liquids and oils all in vials and bottles of varying kinds. It was a very messy display with no rhyme or reason to it. There weren’t even labels on anything. He looked around some more and found a bigger table all laid out with candles and crystals on a table cloth that had a classic spell circle design sewn into it. As he looks about, he noticed that bookcases were lining every wall and that they were covered in books and scrolls.
When Ryuji made his way around the farthest table to the rear of the shop, he could make out the figure of an old man sitting on a stool behind the counter reading a book. As he made his way closer, he could tell that the figure wasn’t proportioned right for a normal human. He wasn’t particularly muscular but he still had a very wide frame and he appeared to be a bit on the short side from the upper portion that Ryuji could see. As he got closer the old man turned his face at the sound and Ryuji saw other features of his face and it all made sense. With his full long beard flat round nose and overly wide facial features, he could now tell that this man was a dwarf.
The old dwarf with a full head and beard of gray hair jumped down from the stool and walked over with a slight limp and a bored look on his face. “What can I get for ye? I have every kind of magic ingredient you could want for casting. Even have a bit of material for summoning if that’s what yer after. So what can I get for ya?”
Ryuji was caught just slightly off guard by the abruptness of the question which left him stammering and sounding unsure of himself, altogether not the tone, he was aiming for. “W-Well, I was kind of hoping that you would teach me how to use magic. I was told that you were…”
The old dwarf cut him off without hesitating. “Not gonna happen. Like I told everyone that came here before you, I don’t intend to teach anybody magic no more. Ain’t nobody got any talent for it anyway so what's the point in me wastin’ my time tryin’ ta teach a bunch of youngins that ain’t got no talent anyhow.”
Ryuji started to get discouraged but then he began to feel indignant and snapped back. “Hey, You don’t know whether I have any talent or not, you never even gave me a chance! The truth is that if you won’t teach me then I can’t get into the mercenary’s guild. I tried all the tests that they gave me for throwing things and sword-fighting and stuff but I couldn’t do any of that stuff. I also didn’t have a blessing or whatever so I couldn’t get in that way and then they told me I could try asking you to teach me magic. Please, you’re my last chance at joining the guild!”
The old dwarf just scowled as he replied. “See, what’d I tell ye, no talent! Ya should just give up. Sounds ta’ me like ya don’t need ta be in there if the only way ya got left is me teachin’ ya. Got no talent for any of it I says! Now, Get ya goin’!”
Ryuji could tell that the old dwarf was going to be stubborn about it but he really did want to learn how to cast magic and if this guy was the only one who he could learn from he just had to be persistent. “Why are you being so rigid? It’s not like I’m asking you to do it for free, I’ll pay for training if that’s what it takes.”
The old dwarf turned an angry glare on him. “Oh, so you’re one of those types are ya! Ya think that money can be fixin’ everything. Well, it don’t work that way Youngin! I don’t care how much money ya gots, I Aint a’ teachin’ ya. Not for no amount a’ coin, ya hear!”
Ryuji decided that he would give it one more shot and if he couldn’t convince the guy then he would leave and try to think of some other way to get in or just figure out something else to do altogether. “I just don’t get it. You claim it’s not about money, fine. You say it’s a matter of talent, I can accept that. But you won’t even give me a chance to find out if I even have the talent to do magic! How do you know I don’t have it if you won’t even give me the freaking chance?! I just want a fair shot at learning magic, is that really so much to ask? You don’t even have to teach me quickly if that’s the issue, once a wee… I mean once an eightday would be fine if that’s all you can do. Seriously, just give me some chance to learn!”
The old dwarf looked boiling mad and seemed like he was going to start cussing at any moment and so Ryuji started to turn to leave but then the old geezer spoke in a dangerously quiet voice. “I’ll give ye one chance an’ only one chance. Iffin ye can impress me with my challenge then I’ll think about teachin’ ya but iffin ya don’t, you leave an don’t be comin’ back. We got a deal?”
Ryuji swallowed the saliva in his mouth suddenly feeling like he might have pushed a bit too far but it was already too late for that. If he didn’t accept the old guy’s challenge, he wasn’t going to get another chance anyway so he might as well try. “Okay, If I can’t impress you on your challenge then I’ll admit I have no talent for it and go away. Thank you for giving me a chance.”