“So, you’re the native that Martin’s been telling me so much about.” The black haired woman remarked blandly.

“Yes?” I hesitantly replied. I was momentarily confused by the statement. I had been with Martin for the short time we had been in the camp. As far as I knew, he never had a chance to talk to this woman since meeting me.

It took me longer than I would have liked to admit to realize that he must have used the system to send her a message. At some point I had forgotten about that feature.

“He said you were an unusually talented magician.” She said in a voice that implied that she believed otherwise. “It cost us a talented magician’s life to find you. Were you worth it?”

“I umm…” I didn’t know how to reply to that question. I had been told that there was another member of Martin’s party that didn’t survive, but knew next to nothing about him. There was no way I could compare myself to him.

The member’s of Martin’s party looked similarly uncomfortable with the question. Salvador opened his mouth to say something, but stopped as the woman held up a hand.

“Let me rephrase that. Were you the one to create the beam of light that several of my men reported?”

“Yes. That was me…” I replied shyly. Something about the woman’s apathetic tone reminded me of Elder Nim. It made responding to her more difficult than it otherwise would have been.

She quirked an eyebrow. “And would you be able to recreate this spell?”

“Maybe?”

“‘Maybe’ isn’t a good enough answer. Would you be able to remake whatever magic you used to create the light or not?” She questioned harshly. I struggled to translate her question fast enough to answer her.

“Y-yes, I think I could if I had everything I needed. I needed to use a very large amount of mana and it took a long time to make the runes.” I replied as quickly as I could. I was extremely thankful for my translation boon, but finding the right words still took me some time.

“Given enough time and mana, any rune carver could make marvels.” She said dismissively. “What else can you do?”

“I… can cast spells… and paint sigils.”

“Sigils?” She asked, making it sound as though she found the unfamiliar word distasteful. “Are those the symbols you reportedly drew each night while setting up camp?”

“Yes… they helped keep us hidden.” I replied defensively. I didn’t know why this woman was questioning me, but I suspected that she was probably in charge of the camp. Martin and the others deferred to her after all. If I wanted to stay with these people, I needed this woman to let me.

Unfortunately, she didn’t seem particularly keen on that idea.

“Some would probably be interested in this magical triviality you claim to use, but I am more interested in practical matters. I have found that a magician of divided talents is rarely worth anything. Tell me, how many spells do you know and what is the highest tier of spell you can cast?”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“Tier?” The word translated to level or rank, but I didn’t have context for how that applied to spells.

“If you don’t know even that much, then I severely doubt that you will be of much use.” She said dismissively before turning to Martin. ”Keep your new pet from getting under foot. You are dismissed.”

Martin bowed before leading me back out of the building. I didn’t need any encouragement to make a hasty exit. The less time I spent around this harsh woman, the better.

Upon exiting the building, Martin turned to me. “I am sorry you had to deal with that. Lady Halrand can be difficult at the best of times.”

“Come now, Martin. We both know that when describing our illustrious leader, ‘difficult’ is a woefully insufficient summation.” Salvador quipped.

“She’s a female dog.” Norbert Grumbled.

Though I received the literal translation of the word Norbet used, I was fairly certain I was missing its cultural connotations. The others looked rather uncomfortable with Norbert’s blunt statement. I didn’t hear any of them disagreeing with his assessment though.

“Norbert, how many times must I remind you that you can’t keep insulting nobles like this.” Martin reprimanded him. “If you incur many more penalties, you’ll never reach your next boon.”

The giant’s reply was composed of mumbled curses.

“Impropriety aside,” Martin continued after casting a judgmental glance at Norbert. “We need to get you set up with a bed. Salvador, take Kyo to the woman’s bunks.”

“It would be my pleasure. After me, if you would.”

I followed Salvador across the camp to another of the stone buildings. As we approached our destination, we ran into an older woman carrying a basket full of clothing.

“Ah, Maria, just the beauty I was hoping to see. I have a new friend for you to meet.” He gestured between the two of us. “Kyo this is Maria, one of the most important people in this whole camp.”

“Enough flattery out of you, young man.” She scolded him jokingly. “Don’t listen to this lady killer. I’m just the washerwoman.”

I really hoped that strange description of Salvador wasn’t literal.

“Exactly. Without your vital services, this entire place would fall to ruin within a week. Now how about I take that basket to the wash hut while you show Kyo here to her accommodations?”

“Sound’s of a fair trade to me. Come along dear, we’ll get you all set up.”

As Salvador sauntered off with the basket full of laundry, Maria led me into the building.

Similar to the leader’s building, something was keeping the air inside the building remarkably cool. At the sedate pace the older woman walked, I had plenty of time to examine my surroundings.

The first room in the building was a wide open area with a few tables and chairs. Two women were sitting at one of the tables talking over bowls of soup. They waved at us as we passed before returning to their conversation.

As we walked toward the next room, I looked up at the ceiling. The entire thing was covered in a variety of runes. There were lighting runes to keep the building illuminated, inverted heating runes that I assumed worked like cooling sigils to convert small amounts of heat to mana, and a series of controlling runes. In addition to being very practical, I found the array of runes to be quite pretty.

The next room over had rows of beds lining the walls. At the foot of each bed were large wooden boxes. On many of the beds, the blankets were laid out perfectly flat and even. Others weren't quite so tidy.

I followed Maria to one of the neatly made beds toward the back of the room.

“Here you are dear. This will be your bed. Go ahead and put your things in the chest there. That’s yours as well.” She said kindly.

“Thank you.”

“There’s a kitchen ‘round the corner if you are feeling peckish and powder rooms through that door there. That should be everything you need for now. Do you have any questions for me before I head back to work?”

I had a few things that I wanted to ask about, but I figured one question was going to bother me more than others if I didn’t ask. “Yes. Salvador doesn’t actually kill ladies, right?”