Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

Bokuboy

“What happened?” Hope asked as soon as I stepped out through the door of the registrar's office. She had expected them to try something, apparently.

I doubt she'll be happy to be right. I thought. “Lots of things.” I said and waved to the administration building next door, which was the place where they took care of every day things for the students, like living quarters, books, food, and transportation if necessary. There was only a small line up, which was understandable, considering nearly everyone else had been handled already. We stood at the end of the line and I whispered to Hope about what had happened when registering for my courses.

“I don't normally advocate violence.” Hope whispered, her voice deadly. “Are you sure you're not allowed to challenge them without being a mage first, my lord?”

For some reason, that made me feel better. She must have seen something on my face, because she put her back to the other students and gave me an uncharacteristic grin for a second, then put her face back to impassivity and stepped back to my side.

When it was my turn to enter the building, Hope came inside with me. Servants were allowed into this building, almost as if they were proof of your status, and we approached the main desk.

The man behind the counter saw me and didn't bother trying to keep the disdain off of his face. “I've been waiting for you.” He said and moved a different paper than the ones on his desk to be on top. “I don't understand how you can be so presumptuous to think that a marsh rat will ever become a proper mage. It's ludicrous and preposterous.” He wrote several things onto the sheet, used some kind of ink stamp and slapped it onto the form, and handed it to me.

“What's this?” I asked.

“That is an appropriate living space for a convicted criminal like yourself.” The man said with a sneer. “You should feel right at home there.”

I looked at the location's description and glanced at the ones on his desk.

“Don't concern yourself with where the proper students are staying. It's bad enough you are allowed to attend normal classes without also forcing them to live with someone like you.” The man snapped.

Hope took a step closer and smiled at him. “Thank you for being the first to volunteer to duel with my lord.”

“E-excuse me?” The man blinked his eyes and looked at her.

“My lord hasn't had an official duel yet, considering he's not a mage; but, being a student, he is allowed to defend himself when duels are handed so blatantly to him by an accredited mage.”

The two other men in the office stood up to look over at us, surprise clear on their faces.

“I don't know what you're saying.” The man said as he started to visibly sweat.

“You've grievously insulted my lord several times, any of which are deserving a proper reprisal, and in the presence of three witnesses. You obviously know that my lord has killed people before, has served time as a conscript in the army and killed hundreds of people, and is betrothed to the daughter of a prominent family.” Hope said. “Since he cannot legally kill you for your words outside of a duel, then it's a duel you must want for saying such things so blatantly.”

The man sat there with his mouth open and sweat poured off of his forehead.

“Well? What is it?” Hope asked. “Are you going to say the words or not?”

The man looked at the other two men and saw no support there. He looked back at me and he ground his teeth together. “I... apologize. I misspoke and did not mean...” He paused, as if he wasn't sure how to continue, and his eyes darted to the other two men.

He's worried about lying with official witnesses. I thought and did my best to not show that I knew, just to see if he would try it.

The man sighed and didn't try to finish the sentence.

“That's all?” Hope asked and looked to me for confirmation.

I gave her a slight nod and she nodded back.

“It appears that my lord is in a forgiving mood today.” Hope said and stepped back. “How lucky for you.”

The man visibly relaxed and waved a hand at his own face, I assumed to try and cool off.

Hope and I went to the next desk and the man there didn't say a word and handed me a card.

I read it and all it said was the word 'Bronze'. “What's this for?”

He shook his head and pointed to the last man, who looked visibly afraid. Hope and I stopped in front of his desk and he reached down behind the desk. I wasn't sure what he was doing, until he started putting the oldest and rattiest books I had ever seen on his desk. One even had the pages falling out. He looked embarrassed as he pushed them back inside the cover and then added what looked like a brand new book to the top, which was the rarely taken Botany course book.

“If any of them have pages missing, intentional or otherwise, I'll be back for another one.” I said in a great imitation of Grand Mage Henrietta's stern voice. “You don't want me to come back here.”

The man visibly jerked and his eyes widened at the implied threat. He picked up what he said was a student handbook and handed it over as well. Hope carefully put the books into the pack she carried and we left the building. We climbed into the carriage and as soon as the door shut, she laughed.

“Did you see that first man's face? He had no clue that you can't accept duels! Ha ha!”

I nodded. “That was a good move on your part. Thank you.”

“After what happened to you in the registrar's office, I wasn't going to stand by and let them insult you again.” Hope said. “Pompous asses need to be kicked and kicked hard.”

I told the driver the location of what was going to be my residence for the next three years and we rode in the carriage over to it. I had to admit that the old dorm building looked worse than the mansion before the work crews started working on it. I could only imagine what the inside was going to look like. On the plus side, it was barely the size of one of the wings on the mansion.

“You can't live here, my lord.” The coachman said as he opened the door of the carriage. “It's not safe.”

“I doubt I have any choice.” I said and looked at Hope.

“I'll send a note to Helena as soon as we see how much worse it is inside.” Hope said. “Perhaps she can...”

I shook my head. “She can't contact her father to fix this.”

“But, she'll want to...”

“No.” I cut her off and walked towards the large double doors. One was half off its hinges and wouldn't swing open, because the other door was holding it up. Hope held out her pack to me because she knew what I wanted. I opened one of the side pockets and took out several tools. I disconnected the hinge still holding the door in place and then pulled on the door as I stepped back out of the way. It creaked and then fell over to land on the cobblestone entryway with a loud bang.

“It's even worse than I thought.” Hope said as we peered inside.

A lot of the wood was rotted and cracked, smashed furniture and glassware pieces were everywhere, and the walls looked like they could collapse at any moment. The stairs I could see were in such disrepair that even I wouldn't feel safe walking up them, and that was saying something.

“I don't want to step inside.” Hope said and her voice was full of reluctance.

I looked up at the ceiling and saw it wasn't in much better shape than the walls and floor. Luckily, it looked to only be wood and if it did collapse, the danger wasn't too high. If it had been stone, I wouldn't want to step inside, either. Cloth hung in tatters from the windows and the paint was peeled off of the walls and ceilings. There were holes and scorch marks all over, which meant that it must have been used as spell practice by students, probably for years.

“We can't get to your room like this, my lord.” The coachman said. “We also can't stay here all day. The Lady of the House needs us.”

I stood there for a minute and thought about what to do. I knew that if I tried to go back and complain about my living assignment, they'll give me some excuse about bureaucracy or something, just so they could cover up the mistake that other man made.

“Leave my things here, just in front of the door.” I said and he and the driver started to unload my things. I had a trunk with my normal clothing in it, two replacement uniforms in separate bags, my pack with my few valuable possessions in it, a single potion making apparatus, and a few comfort items that Helena told me to take. A thick blanket, several small paintings of her, and some of her dresses.

Hope had her own things that she had brought as well. She added them to the pile and stood ready to do whatever I asked her to do.

“Write your note to her and tell her the deplorable state of where I was assigned to live.” I said and Hope took out a small folding desk and started to write. “I want you to add that I request the work crews to pause in their work on the outer boundary wall to come here for two days.”

Hope gasped and looked at me with shock on her face. “My lord!”

“If we can fully repair a mansion in a week, what can we do to a building this small?”

“Don't you need permission or something?” Hope asked.

I held up the paper with my living arrangements on it. “It says that my servants are responsible for making the place livable if the state of the rooms are not up to my standard.”

Hope's shock became an evil grin. “They are going to regret that, my lord.”

“Yes, they are.” I said and pointed to the red stamp. “No other students or their servants can interfere, because only I and my servants are allowed to work and live here.”

Hope nodded and quickly wrote out my instructions, added in bringing as much supplies and equipment as they could, and that it needed to be done in two days. She folded it and handed it to the coachman. The man smiled as he hopped onto the carriage and it sped away.

“How long do you think it'll take them to get here?” Hope asked.

“Three hours, and they'll have to use up a lot of potion that I can't make more of until this place is repaired and I get a chance to get more ingredients.”

“Have you had any luck with the replacements?” Hope asked.

“Yes, and no.” I said and several groups of students walked by. One of the girls in the second group looked at me, looked away, and looked back. “I can almost get a number ten potion made, except that it's weaker and takes nearly twice as long as the normal potion to set.”

“What about the coverage?” Hope asked.

“Only about two thirds.” I said with a sigh. “I'm sure that it's because they are forcefully grown and not allowed to absorb enough magical energy from the environment over a longer period of time.”

“Did you mention that to the store owner?”

“No, and I'm not mentioning it to the guild, either.” I said and smiled slightly. “How can I compete with them and grow my own superior products?”

Hope smiled back. “What else are you going to do while you're here?”

“If my grades are guaranteed for every course except the two electives I chose, I'm going to have a lot of free time to start experimenting with my new enchanting tools.”

“Didn't you use them to make all those kracken tubes?” Hope asked.

“I was testing the new tools out and they worked great. Even the sharpener he made for me works.” I said. “I should have done them with normal tools, though. Holding the little handles takes some getting used to.”

“Didn't doing all those enchantments give you enough practice with them?”

“No. I'll need another fifty to a hundred hours of using them before I'll be able to be completely proficient with them.”

“Why so long?”

“That's just how long I've needed whenever I found a new tool or piece of equipment to use.” I said.

“Oh.” Hope said and looked down the street the carriage had gone down. “Are the work crews here yet?”

“Not for another two hours and forty minutes.” I said and she sighed. “Do you want me to make a...”

“YES!” Hope yelled and then blushed. “Yes, please. Thank you.”

I quickly used some of the wood pieces nearby and made her a chair to sit down on. Then we waited.