The Soldier Mage 31 Chapter 30

Wilfred's mind raced. The royal family? What did they want with him. His family was equally stunned, looking at each other and then to Wilfred, frozen in place. The knocking persisted and Wilfred shot a glance outside once more through the window. When he caught a glimpse of the person in the carriage, he visibly relaxed.

(Dang, I had forgotten with everything that was going on.)

Wanting to calm down his nervous looking family he tried to play it cool.

"It's alright. I know who that is. "

Grabbing his bag with everything he had prepared that morning, he went and opened the door, facing a very vexed emissary. He looked Wilfred up and down, clearly judging him and finding him wanting.

"The royal princess, Liucija, wishes to see you. The carriage outside will escort you to the castle. "

That struck Wilfred as quite odd, did Lucy have a sister?

He stepped outside under the watchful gaze of the knights and tried to appear as less threatening as he could. The carriage door opened and he stepped inside.

Seated across from him was Lucy, however she appeared very different than usual and wore a very long elegant robe and not the usual academy clothes that Wilfred was used to see her in.

As he sat down on the comfortable cushioned seat, Wilfred made a small comment.

"Well, you sure know how to grab someone's attention."

Instantly her hands went up and she shook them dismissively while blushing.

"No no, you misunderstand. Ugh. It's my father, he insists on this stuff. Ever since I graduated, thanks to Lucius and your help, he's been overjoyed and I've been less of an outcast. Even grandfather is happy about this. Still, he wouldn't let me go out to talk to you without an escort. "

Wilfred had a hard time empathizing with her, there wasn't much of his life experience that was anything like hers. He knew she did not have it easy and that matters were more complicated than he could know in regards to the politics of the royal family but it was a sort of 'first world problem' to him.

"Ah I see. Well, thanks for coming by. Been doing much since getting out of the academy for this break?"

In answer to his question, she fetched a small notebook that was sitting besides her and handed it to him.

"This is all I could find regarding the Society of the Video Game. They haven't been very active lately, most of what I found out was at least some years ago. I didn't get an exact location but it seems they're settled in the Moburi Kingdom."

Wilfred was pleasantly surprised. Lucy had mentioned she would try to use her connections to find out about them but he had dismissed it in his mind, thinking she wouldn't have been able. Now he felt a tinge of regret for not trusting her.

'Thanks. This will be useful. Say, who's Liucija though?"

With a heavy sigh, Lucy explained.

"Well, my mother named me Lucy but that didn't do for my grandfather. It wasn't a royal name so they gave me another one but hardly anyone even uses it."

"Ah, that's why it's still Lucy when I a.n.a.lyzed you. Where are we going? I'm afraid I can't really stay, I need to leave town for a bit."

Lucy's facial expression dropped and she looked concerned.

"What, why?"

After Wilfred explained the last few days to her, she tried to talk him out of his plan.

"But you can't just leave like that, what about the academy, your parents and us?"

It was precisely for them that he was doing this. If a ruthless organization would find out about his friends and family, they might torture them or use them as hostages. Part of Wilfred's plan included creating a false trail to lead them off.

"I need to do it. I'll be back some day, when I'm more ready. Can you drop me off at the adventurers guild please?"

Lucy was not thrilled with his plan and it showed.

"But you'll be all alone what if… "

Wilfred cut her off and whispered really low.

"Remember, I'm not exactly from this world. I know what I'm doing. "

It was hard to remember that this ten year old boy was not one and Lucy relented with her objections, dropping him off at the guild.

Time was rather short now with all this commotion. Likely word would get around about a boy getting out of a royal carriage. Already people on the street were staring at him, stopping what they were doing to look his way.

Swiftly, Wilfred made his way inside and looked for Halam and his friends.

It seemed they had been here for some time already and had been waiting for them. Indeed, when he approached them they turned around and greeted him.

"Ah there you are. "

Wilfred apologized for being late.

The group then walked up to the clerk.

"Ah, h.e.l.lo Halam. Finished your request? "

Halam nodded and presented the dimensional bag to Lyona but also added a comment.

"There's two magic items to auction in the bag and the rest is stolen goods that we recovered. "

(Hah. Seems that Alcot kept that chest armor then.)

In exchange, she took out a large orb from under the counter. It's design looked alien and more like something from Wilfred's world. Metallic and spherical with different types of runes inscribed all over it.

Halam and his party placed their hands on it and it started to glow shades of orange and purple. Then, a voice spoke out from the sphere, it was very mechanical in sound.

"Request completed. Reward adjusted based on difficulty. Pay out 415 Gold. "

Wilfred was impressed by the object. It almost looked like some kind of AI. However, when the reward was announced he was rather disappointed.

(d.a.m.n, I got shafted. The real reward was all the loot from Blackjack.)

The clerk fetched money from a large chest behind her and put it all in a large coin pouch before putting it on the counter.

But to Wilfred's surprise, Halam handed him the whole bag.

"We talked about it and none of us would feel right about not giving you the sum of it. We'll be getting a good amount from the auction anyways. Except Alcot, his part of it is going for his chest armor. "

Alcot spoke up.

"Aye. And if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have got that armor."

Then Fig added to the conversation.

"It's a good idea in this line of business to keep good relations too. We might want to work with you again in the future and even though we owe you a favor, we still feel this way. "

"Aww, thanks guys."

(This isn't so bad then. I've got 217 Gold pieces and change plus this 415 and the golden Galangal, nine of them at 40 gold per… I have about 972 ish in a.s.sets. Not to mention the scroll that gave me a new spell.)

Not wanting to stay too long, Wilfred shook their hand and told them he'd come back some time. It was a lie but better than try to tell them the truth.

That business taken care of, he headed to the market for some survival supplies to last him a few years. Transporting them might be annoying which is why he'd aim for the bare minimum.

He walked with haste, quickly reaching his first stop, Galerion's shop. After talking a bit with Fig, he realized he was missing a few tools for his alchemy and went to shop there due to his relation with the old man. Not to forget his discount either.

He cut the small talk short and headed straight to the point.

"Hey, so I need the rest of the ingredients to make 5 of these potions. "

He opened his book and pointed to it before resuming.

"..and these alchemy tools. Oh and I'd like to sell three of these Golden Galangal. "

"My my, someone is in a rush today, reign it in. I should have everything in stock, let me go check the back. "

Galerion left for a few minutes and Wilfred could hear him rummaging through boxes.

The old man came back and put in the counter a box with everything Wilfred requested. Judging from the dust on everything it had been there for quite some time.

"That would be 305 gold. Minus the Golden Galangal and your discount, 180 gold and 16 silver coins. Included is a retort, calcinator and alembic. You also have enough Dragon Lilly for five potions. "

Remembering he had acquired that new ability, Wilfred decided to use it to see if Galerion was being truthful.

"[Information]"

[Ingredient]

Dragon Lilly

Description: Rare flower that only grows on the side of mountains. Often used for it's properties to help enhance magic type attributes.

Quality: 72/100

[Item]

Alembic, Lv.2

Effect: Increases effects from potion making by 17%.

Quality: 65/100

Wilfred was not as quiet as he thought and Galerion's ears picked up on his spell, causing his eyebrows to lift.

"Wait a minute. What was that just now? "

"Oh, was wanting to keep it under wraps but it's a nice new spell I learnt. It's pretty much like [Inspect]. "

"That's where you're wrong kid. I think I have something on that around here.. "

Galerion used a small wooden ladder to reach higher in the shelf behind him to grab a book that was perched on the very top.

He dropped the book unto the counter and a large cloud of dust went up, causing Wilfred to block his face with his arm and cough.

"This book is quite old, close to 450 years old in fact and is the only place I recall ever seeing that spell mentioned. Can you tell me more about how you learnt it? "

Wilfred thought back to after the fight with Blackjack and how he had found it in the bandit's room. At first he couldn't open it but then it worked when he forced Mana into it.

"Oh right. Uhm, was in a strange box. It wouldn't open, had to use Mana and then it did. There was a strange scroll inside, different than the ones I bought here and I learnt the spell that way."

Galerion flipped pages rapidly until he got to where he wanted and turned the book around, showing it to Wilfred.

"Did the runes on the scroll look something like this?"

Wilfred squinted and looked closely at the small diagram on the page. It did appear to resemble in some way the runes on the scroll back then. But then again, to him they all looked alike.

"I mean I guess? But they don't seem different than the ones on your scrolls."

Galerion scoffed.

"Perhaps not to the untrained eye such as yourself but an enchanter would know the difference! That scroll you saw was likely an old one from the Kingdom of Yaver, now known as the Lost Kingdom of Yaver however. While we only succeed in embedding apprentice level spells on scrolls, they had fully mastered the art and there was no limit for them. Sadly they were wiped out some 600 years ago and not much is known anymore about them. It is said that their appearance was similar to a large winged insect about 2 feet less than humans."

Wilfred paused for a moment and thought about it.

"So, this is a rare spell? How is it different than [Inspect]?"

"Rare is an understatement! You're probably the only living person to have it. Let me read more on it.."

He flipped the book back around and quickly skimmed through the pages all while mumbling to himself.

"Hmmm yes. Alright, so the main difference between the two, [Inspect] being a skill and [Information] being a spell aside, is that it allows to display information on ANYTHING. [Inspect] is limited to items and equipment, [Information] will allow you to inspect food, ore, ingredients, creatures and etc. There is also a pa.s.sage written about how it can level up, as any spell can, to provide even more details."

(Wow, that's actually pretty sweet. I'm glad I searched that room and found this before they auctioned everything off.)

"So Galerion, how much do you think that scroll could have sold for?"

The old man scratched his head.

"To be honest, I wouldn't even have wanted to sell it, too much ha.s.sle. This is the type of thing that gets people killed. The person who lost it will be looking for blood, I'd try to hide if I were you."

Wilfred could not suppress a laugh.

"How convenient, that's the plan hahaha. Well, thanks for the information. I'll be on my way."

Exiting the shop, he looked around with his [Information], trying it out for the first time on people.

There was no real difference than using [a.n.a.lyze] for now but he hoped that by using it often he could level it up. Satisfied that he could not find anyone working for the Society, he left and hit up the adventurer shop.

Seeing as how he'd spend a lot of time outside, he grabbed a few useful items. He had a few from his trip earlier but that was only short term. He was also rather lacking in armor and decided to spend for something good but light. Mithril was a good choice but Wilfred wanted something that would blend better at night and went for some high quality leather made from some monster's skin.

In total, he spent another 158 gold, including a 4 gold tip which made the shopkeeper very courteous. Since he was smaller than most, he had to ask him to make changes on the spot and paid accordingly. He did not have time to wait and wanted to be out of the city tonight at the latest.

His backpack was now rather full and getting heavy. Sadly he did not have enough gold left for a dimensional ring or bag but settled for a STR ring at the adventurer shop. The prices were higher than what could be expect at Galerion's but the old man did not keep much in stock that was meant for adventurers, the compet.i.tion was rather fierce. Instead he focused on mage equipment.

The ring did it's job and it felt like he was carrying a backpack full of books at most and not close to 200 pounds of a.s.sorted things. It was a rather comical sight, a hiking type backpack that was taller than the wearer.

Taking a small detour into an alley not too far from the n.o.ble district, he opened his bag and took the drone out. If he was leaving the city, he wanted to be sure he would not be followed. He sent the drone flying up and above and examined the surroundings. Indeed there was one of those he recognized from the other day hanging not too far from the gate and looking in that direction.

Wilfred saw a kid playing on the street and beckoned him over.

"Hey, want to make a quick silver coin? I need you to deliver a letter for me to the guard standing at the gate of the n.o.ble district. Can you do that?"

The kid nodded and smiled ear to ear as he took the coin and letter.

Using his drone and linking with it, Wilfred looked as the kid brought the letter to the guard who looked perplexed. He read the front of the letter and then called the errand girl who ran to deliver it.

(Well that's one thing done. Now the baron will get my letter and none are the wiser.)

Wilfred used the drone to keep an eye on his surroundings and took a few odd paths to make sure he was not followed. Soon after, he came to the edge of the city, at the gate and exited. The drone being low on Mana, himself as well, he made it land in a wooded part not too far from the main road. He scooped it into his backpack for now and turned around, looking back at the city.

This had been his home for the last few years, three to be exact and he felt sad for leaving it. Most of the people he encountered so far had done good by him and he intended to pay back their kindness. This wasn't goodbye forever, it would only be a small departure. Being out on his own like this would do him some good he thought.

He would learn more about the world outside of the city and see for himself the other Kingdoms. He would try to spend most of the time in the wilds, he was trained in woodcraft and wilderness survival after all but it remained to be seen if everything still applied here in this world.

And with one last long look upon the city lights that illuminated the surrounding area, Wilfred entered the woods.