Chapter 73: Smush

The rest of that conversation didn’t take long. Brayden had bolted to his feet, excitement and trepidation intermixing in his features, firing off a series of rapid questions. Before Noah could even try to think about answering them, Brayden said that he needed to prepare for the trip and promised to meet at the transport cannon at Noah’s suggestion. Then he vanished out the door, leaving Noah staring at his receding back.

“Well,” Lee said, slipping into the room. “That went quickly.”

“Easier than I thought it would be,” Noah admitted. “It sounds like everything is lined up.”

“Except for my shopping,” Lee said. “You owe me a lot of that.”

“So I do,” Noah agreed. He fished in his bag and pulled out a gold coin. He was already running short for the month, but it wasn’t like one gold was going to buy anything lifechanging. Noah handed it to her. “I’ll get the rest when I get paid. I might be selling some monster parts when we get to the Linwick estate. Moxie said they won’t go for much here.”

Lee took the coin happily, and Noah set about stuffing his travel bag full of everything in the room that looked like he might need it. A quill, a pot of ink, several sheafs of paper, and all the spare clothes he could fit.

“Do you need anything?”

“Me?” Lee asked. “No.”

“What about that demon info, then?”

“Honestly, I couldn’t think of a ton,” Lee admitted. “Most of the strong ones were assholes. They’d never admit that something scares them, even if it does, and they’re incredibly arrogant. They’re also usually more than happy to break contracts whenever they can if you give them room to.”

“Who would have thought,” Noah said with a dry smile.

Lee cleared her throat. “Aside from that, they were all pretty different, and I didn’t really know any of them that well. No different than you and some random human.”

“Then I suppose we’re good. Let’s head to the transport cannon and meet up with the others.”

***

Todd and Isabel were already there when Noah and Lee arrived. They’d claimed a bench together with Emily, but there was no sign of Moxie.

“Where’s Moxie?” Noah asked, coming to a stop beside the students. Lee crouched next to the bench and picked up Todd’s bag, shuffling through it.

Todd raised a finger, then lowered it as he decided against questioning Lee. Isabel gave him an approving nod, and Noah suppressed a laugh.

“She’s still getting some things for the journey,” Emily said. She shouldered her own pack – which Noah couldn’t help but notice looked considerably more comfortable than the ones Isabel and Todd had – and leaned forward. “I’ve never managed to convince her to let me out of Arbitage, no matter what the situation was. How’d you manage it?”

“Bribes.”

“What?” Emily’s eyes widened. “You found something she wants? Impossible. Tell me.”

What’s that supposed to mean? She’s not that much of a sourpuss.

“I was joking,” Noah admitted. “I just convinced her it would be the best choice we could make for the time being. Besides, there’s that survival exam coming up pretty soon. A month and a bit, I think. This is good experience.”

Emily’s face fell. “Blast. I was really hoping there was something that would actually work to bribe her with. She’s just too damn rich.”

Rich?

Is that why Moxie gave me so much money when I asked for a loan for a few days? Whoops. Maybe read into that a bit too much.

“I never knew she was rich,” Noah said conversationally. He left the sentence off, hoping the silence would spur Emily into saying more. To his pleasure, it did.

“She’s a Torrin,” Emily said, a note of pride in her voice. “Main branch too. One of the mages with the most potential we’ve ever had. She could have been a soldier, but she chose to be my teacher instead.”

Todd glanced at her, blinking in surprise.

The way you say soldier makes me feel like it’s more than just someone who fights, since that’s what everyone seems to do here. Maybe a specialized warrior? That guy I ran into a while ago mentioned soldiers as well – Silvertide, I think his name was.

“Why didn’t she become one?” Noah asked. “Decided against it?”

Emily grimaced. “Never mind. It’s not important. Being a soldier isn’t everything its held up to be. She’s much better off in a safer job like teaching at Arbitage. There’s a big difference in defending one of the Bastions and risking death every day for the small chance of getting famous.”

Todd’s fist clenched around the edge of the bench. “That’s not true. Soldiers are the ones that discover a lot of the new runes. It’s not about getting famous. It’s about finding new magic and getting stronger because you want to push yourself.”

Emily shrugged. “I won’t argue with that. You’re not wrong, but it doesn’t change the fact that most soldiers get themselves killed before they accomplish anything. There’s a reason you don’t see many noble soldiers around. We actually value our lives.”

Todd’s eyes tightened in anger. He shifted, then caught himself as he glanced down at Lee, who was still ruffling through his bag. Pressing his lips together, he leaned back into the bench.

“That’s a weird way to pretend that you just don’t care about the lives of anyone else and just try to take credit for the work other people do. You came to school to get training to be a bureaucrat. I’m here to actually get the strength that you’ll pretend to have.”

Emily rose to her feet, spinning toward Todd. “Are you implying that anyone could possibly give better training than Magus Moxie? Your teacher hasn’t even shown up for half the classes in the last few days, and now he’s a suspect for–”

“For what?” Todd asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Killing a Great Monster? How can you simultaneously imply that he isn’t good at what he does and he killed something that would normally need a Rank 3 to take down?”

“I’m right here, you know,” Noah said. Both of them ignored him.

Lee pulled an orange out of Todd’s bag and stared at it curiously. She poked at it with a finger, then held it up and gave it a small squish.

“He’s a mage. Just like Moxie, just worse.” Emily took a step toward Todd.

“As if,” Todd snorted. “He’s a soldier pretending to be a mage.”

Noah didn’t get a chance to ask what Todd meant. He heard footsteps behind him and turned as Moxie walked up, a glower on her face.

“What is going on over here?” Moxie asked.

“We were having a discussion,” Emily replied tersely.

Lee squished the orange. It splattered everywhere and she jumped up, looking sheepishly at the pulped fruit in her hand as everyone spun to look at her. Isabel quickly looked away, her cheeks reddening as she tried to suppress a laugh.

“Oops,” Lee said, holding the mess out to Todd. “It was soft, so I wanted to squeeze it. It didn’t squeeze very well.”

“Uh… you can keep it,” Todd said.

Lee looked down at the remains of the orange. “What do I do with it?”

“Normally, you eat it. But–”

Lee threw the entire thing into her mouth, skin and all.

“It’s kind of mixed up with the peel now,” Todd finished. Lee swallowed once without chewing.

“It’s mushy.”

“Because you squeezed it,” Todd muttered. Emily snickered.

Well, that’s one way to defuse a situation. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not, but well done.

“Well, that’s that,” Noah said before Emily and Todd could get back into things. “Are you all ready? Brayden is going to be finding us shortly, and then we can get going.”

Moxie nodded. “I just had to collect some things for the trip. I’m ready. Is he going to meet us here?”

“He said he’d find me,” Noah replied. “I don’t suppose anyone brought a deck of cards?”

***

Nobody had. Luckily, the argument didn’t restart now that Moxie had arrived, so they all just sat around awkwardly instead. Noah spent the time leafing through his grimoire, scanning the runes and pondering what rune he’d try to make after he perfected Pyroclastic Resonance.

They didn’t have to wait too much longer. Before the sun could make its way too far in the sky, Noah heard the telltale thuds of Brayden’s approach. It really was impressive – he couldn’t tell if the large man was intentionally loud, or if he just couldn’t help himself. It sounded like a herd of stampeding elephants had all been overlaid into a single spot.

Noah snapped his book shut and turned as Brayden came to a stop beside them. He carried an enormous leather bag over one shoulder, and the sun glinted off the hilt of his uncomfortably large sword.

“Vermil!” Brayden said, clapping him on the shoulder. “I’ve got everything all settled out. This will be an enjoyable trip.”

His gaze raised to the rest of the group.

“Hello,” Lee said, waggling her fingers at him.

Brayden inclined his head to her, then looked at everyone else. “And the others. Of course. You wouldn’t want to abandon your duties as a teacher, even during a personal errand.”

He didn’t sound too convinced about it. His eyes fell on Moxie and his face tightened.

“Why are you coming?”

“We’re working together on a joint exercise right now,” Noah replied smoothly. “Moxie and I have very different areas of expertise, so we decided it would be best to intermix our knowledge to make sure our students got the best we could offer.”

“Right,” Brayden said slowly. “How magnanimous of you.”

“We won’t be following you all the way to the Linwick estate,” Moxie said. “Is there a problem with that?”

“None at all,” Brayden replied. “So long as you can protect yourself. More is always better on the roads.”

“I’m glad to hear you think so,” Noah said. “Shall we go, then?”

“In a moment,” Brayden replied. “I’m still waiting on the last two people to show up.”

“There are others?” Noah asked, tilting his head to the side. “Who?”

Brayden glanced over his shoulder, then raised a hand in greeting. Noah followed his gaze and his stomach clenched in distaste.

Walking down the road toward them were Magus Allen and Edward, both carrying travel packs.

Goddamn it.