Chapter 110 - When The Storm Rises
For a long time after Jenni finished speaking, neither Gawain nor Heidi broke the silence.
However, Heidi could sense a powerful aura brimming out from her ancestor’s body. It was like an ice crevasse beside her; it was such that by simply sitting near him, she could sense all her magical power gradually freezing, and this unbearable sensation lasted until Gawain opened his mouth.
When Gawain spoke, his tone was, unexpectedly, very peaceful. “What is your master’s name?”
“..William, William Birken,” Jenni said, stuttering slightly. “He isn’t a palace mage but is a person of great standing in the city of St. Soniel. He is the Honorary Advisor of the Royal Mages Institute, and.. is very powerful.”
Gawain only nodded quietly. “William Birken, Honorary Advisor of the Royal Mages Institute, I got it.”
Heidi felt that the atmosphere was too stifling; she had to say something to get the air that had almost frozen over to circulate again. “After that? Are you still continuing to research the contents of the notes?”
“I pretended to have given up on the theories in the notebook, but I secretly continued to study them,” Jenni said in a low voice. “Originally, master also developed that tiny bit of interest in the notes, but he disdained reading them in detail. Instead, he sat by and watched what we could come up with. Mr. Ravencrest’s death seemed to become a piece of evidence for master to be sure that the research in the notes was absurd and wrong. So, he put them out of his mind, while I pretended to have given up on those theories as he had.”
“So, it is impossible for him to ever know the existence of constant E. He disdained to even read a single assertion in the notes in detail and finished making all judgment based only on impression.. based on that foolish impression of his.” Gawain’s tone was extremely contemptuous. “He has no idea what he is despising. Neither does he know what he has let slip. Better yet, he doesn’t even know that he had let something slip— I have never heard of such a foolish and ignorant person.”
Jenni’s eyes widened slightly. This was her first time hearing someone use the two words ‘foolish’ and ‘ignorant’ to evaluate her master, to evaluate an archmage who had an illustrious reputation in the Royal Mages Institute and even an honorary seat in the Association of Mystics..
However, she did not dare to agree with Gawain. She only dropped her head slightly and went on, “Then I slowly became a skilled Runemaster. Master had once been curious why I was able to complete the adjustment of runes with magic techniques at the apprentice level, but he still had many other matters to pay attention to, and slave apprentices like me are innumerable in his mage tower. Very soon, his attention was shifted away from me— until not long ago. News that the King wanted to organize a Southern Borders pioneering team came. Various aristocrats in positions of power and influence began organizing this team, and master suddenly came to me..”
Heidi sneered lightly. “So this is due to Archmage William Birken. Packaging a grade-four runemaster with the foundation of a mage apprentice into an intermediate professional and arranging for her to join the team.”
“He probably just wanted to get rid of a burden. After all, in his eyes.. I’ve always been considered someone who is neither obedient nor talented.” Jenni nodded with a bitter smile. “Besides, to have a mage apprentice make up the numbers with the rank of a runemaster, this is already severe deception and dishonor, so he’d probably gotten the instigation and support of certain big figures in the capital. Duke, I wish to remind you, I am not an exception. Half of this hundred-men team have been shoved in like that to make up the numbers and are essentially outcasts and radicals. We are either burdens with no status and have been kicked out or hold an empty professional rank and cannot be put to use in reality. Just like that grade-two official mage, Mr. Santis. Although he is a grade-two arcanist, he has an inherently frail spiritual power and can only continuously release three to four grade-two spells. And the carpenter Mr. Blues spent half his life studying gears but was ostracized by the Carpenters Association because he was no good at socializing. He’d been expelled from the association many years ago. Not until the organization of the pioneering team this time did the association find him, reinstate his status as a member, and add him to the team just for the numbers..”
Heidi was left agape. “Does that bunch of aristocrats in the capital have to go so far..”
However, Gawain could not help but break out in laughter. “I’ve got to thank them instead. Thank every clan who had a hand in this matter and also thank Jenni’s master. Those idiots would never know how much wealth they’ve let through. Radicals and rebels? Alright, what my land fears the least is rebelling. If those people who cling to old ideas with a pile of connections were to really come over, I wouldn’t want them!”
Heidi watched Gawain with a worried gaze. “Ancestor, you don’t have to console yourself like this..”
“..Why are you also showing inclinations of becoming more ‘Rebecca’-like?”
“Huh?”
“I mean Iron-Hea— Never mind, you won’t understand even if I spell it out.” Gawain waved his hand and turned to look at Jenni. “Let bygones be bygones, Miss Jenni Perot. You’ve arrived at your new home. Toss all your past fears and worries aside. You may continue your research openly and as you please. Not only will I permit that, I will even support you. From now on, you may go to Heidi’s to collect materials for rune research every month. I only have one request—”
Jenni completely did not expect Gawain to declare his support for her so frankly and even passionately. She was still lost in great shock and only asked subconsciously at this point, “What request?”
“Sort out your research. Sum them up into simple and straightforward formulas and theorems,” Gawain said while looking at the notebook on the table. “I can tell from your notes that you are a practical researcher. You are good at using experience to arrive at these formulas, and I happen to have someone who can complement you in my territory — my descendant, Rebecca Cecil. She is a girl who is very quick-witted and also skilled at mathematics. I will have you two study these together. I hope that the end-product you ultimately create could be a..”
Gawain suddenly stopped here as if choosing his words carefully. Until a few seconds after, under Heidi and Jenni’s curious gazes, he then found the most suitable word. “Textbook. I hope that you can tidy all these into a textbook, a textbook that can be understood by as many people as possible. Of course, that is the ultimate outcome. It is a wish of mine, and it will be really tough to achieve. You can take it slow, and let me know if you lack anything.”
“Are these.. really that important?” Jenni finally realized that Gawain wasn’t deceiving her. But apart from being immensely surprised, she only felt confused and bewildered. “Do you want to foster runemasters like me in great numbers?”
Gawain smiled. “Foster runemasters? No, I plan on making the contents in this notebook, in the days to come, the general knowledge for every spellcaster on this territory, or even general knowledge for every person.”
With that, he stood up and solemnly pushed that big book back to Jenni. “Keep it well. Protect it well, and if you have the time and chance from now on, it’ll be best to make a copy of it. Knowledge is even more precious than the book itself. The writings right at the beginning have started to blur.”
Jenni nodded fervently in a slight fluster. “Yes.. yes, I will definitely bear your orders in mind.”historical
“Then I’ll take my leave first. Rest well. I will introduce Rebecca to you later.”
Gawain and Heidi left the small wooden hut, leaving Jenni staring dazedly at the thick, big book in her hands alone.
The burn scar on her left cheek started to throb with a dull pain. This was a scar left from the first time she walked into her master’s laboratory and stood in the magic circles as a test subject. It had accompanied her for five whole years. Originally, it no longer hurt, but for some reason, the pain returned at this time.
Then she finally understood. Those injuries had actually been hurting all this time. Only, the pain gradually became a type of habit, such that she’d completely regarded them as only natural and right.
Until today, before an ancient hero from 700 years ago who resurrected, she seemed to have lost control and poured the things that she’d kept in her heart for so many years out altogether; these had all kept the familiar numbness and pretense used to relieve pain at the back of her mind. Only now did she gradually feel that she had recovered some.. consciousness of a living person.”
So a living person did feel pain.
She hugged that notebook which bore the work bequeathed by three generations of its owners and her painstaking effort over years and suddenly broke down into tears.
After leaving Jenni’s small wooden hut, Gawain’s expression darkened once again. Heidi had the illusion that all her magical power was about to freeze again. She cautiously watched her ancestor’s expression. “You are.. very angry?”
Gawain could not help but lash out with curses, “Hopelessly stupid! Ignorant! Fools! A hundred percent, complete, utter ret*rd!”
“You’re referring to.. that master of Jenni?”
“That thing has the cheek to call himself Jenni’s ‘master’?” Gawain sneered in contempt. “I am actually ashamed to be of the same race as him.”
“I also feel that.. that mage called William Birken is really foolish.” Heidi shook her head too. “I know that traditional mages are all really obstinate, but I never thought someone could be stubborn and blind to this extent. Jenni and Ravencrest already achieved significant results, yet that William Birken completely turned a blind eye to it. Moreover, he never looked at that notebook seriously from the start to the end— Is he blind?”
Gawain snorted. “Blind? Of course he’s not blind. He’d merely been a perfect fit for the code of conduct of his social class. For what reason do you think that William Birken had overlooked Jenni and Ravencrest’s results, ignoring the existence of those formulas?” [E/N: I would have been more upset about the whole child-experimentation-and-deaths thing, but that’s just me.]
Heidi made a guess, “Because Jenni and Ravencrest’s capabilities are low? So their research isn’t credible too?”
“This is only a minor reason. The true reason — is because Jenni and Ravencrest are slave apprentices. They are slaves.” Gawain had long seen through all this. “This was enough for that mage to deem the two as ‘a different species’ from himself. He had ‘intentionally’ overlooked their results, hadn’t he? No, that’s not the case at all. He hadn’t paid attention to what results they’d obtained from the very start. He didn’t look at all. Didn’t think about it at all. What he noticed was only the point that ‘his slaves are not complying with orders’.”
“..”
A moment later, Heidi then suggested, “We can send a document of protest to the King. Given your title of duke, it’s impossible for the King to not respond. That archmage would to a certain degree..”
“No, I don’t like protesting — because it’s useless.” Gawain waved his hand with force. “Since these hundred people who were scraped together have arrived at our territory, do you think that the King would fear my protest? It is true that the influential aristocrats in the capital had meddled with this team, but since the team could set off, it means Francis II had at least tacitly assented to this matter. Then why would he not give his tacit approval?”
Heidi reacted very quickly. “Because he’d fulfilled the required ‘etiquette’ and ‘customs’. As King, he has done no wrong.”
“That’s right, the customs and etiquette of aristocrats. All the people of this era only recognize that.”
“Then this issue..”
“There is no hurry, Heidi, no hurry.” Gawain let out a long breath and slowly smiled. “Customs and etiquette will not protect them forever.”