20 – Goad

All eyes fell on Vivi following Lord Caldimore’s outburst. She didn’t like being the center of attention, but she’d been put in the spotlight frequently since her arrival in this world. She expected she would need to get used to it.

Temporarily ignoring Caldimore, her gaze slid to Saffra. The boy next to her was clearly affronted at having been grabbed by a spell, but was also watching his father with eager excitement for how this would unfold. Saffra herself had gone pale-faced.

Vivi clamped down on her anger. If this event had only involved her, she wouldn’t have been half as annoyed. But Saffra had been dragged into the middle of it.

She gestured for the girl to join her, and she obeyed, abandoning the plates to scurry over.

“Sorry…” she mumbled.

Vivi bit down on her response. Sorry? For what? As if this was her fault in any way? She would deal with that in a second.

Lord Caldimore had stomped up to Vivi. “You dare assault my son?” he bellowed. “I don’t care whose student or child you are, brat, I will not stand for this.”

Child? Her eye twitched, but she kept a lid on her temper.

“He grabbed my apprentice,” Vivi said, trying to take a moderated tone, but the words came out frosty even to her ears. “I reacted accordingly.”

He seemed taken aback by the word ‘apprentice’, but barreled forward a second later.

“Accordingly? No court in the land would classify what you’ve done as anything but assault by magical force. Against a scion of a noble house, no less. Know your place, child.”

Vivi opened her mouth to say something that would have escalated this beyond any chance for a peaceful resolution, but she was interrupted by laughter—laughter that drew everyone’s attention away from Vivi and Lord Caldimore.

It was the orichalcum-rank, Jasper. She had forgotten about him.

“Oh, don’t mind me,” he said, his mirth clear. “This is gonna be hilarious.” He lifted his wine bottle to his lips, but paused, grimaced, and slowly lowered it. “Then again,” he sighed, “we’re stuck for another ten hours together.”

He tapped a finger against the seat’s armrest before coming to a decision.

Unexpectedly, he faced, of all people, the maid who hovered behind Lord Caldimore’s right shoulder.

“I have to ask,” he said to her. “Why do you do it?”

The maid’s face remained calm and impassive. “Do what, Lord Adventurer?”

“Serve people like him.”

A long, pregnant pause. When she responded, there was a hint of danger in her otherwise polite tone. “I warn you, sir, I will not suffer aspersions cast on my lord’s name.”

“Of course, of course,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I meant no offense. But I do wonder.” He hummed. “If we fought, which of us would win?”

At the seemingly random question, the maid returned a level gaze. Maybe because she didn’t know where he was going. Vivi didn’t, at least.

His smile widened. “It wouldn’t be close, would it?” His eyes flicked to her lapel. Vivi noticed there were two thin pieces of metal pinned there. “I’ve seen your kind before. Second Class. Less than one in ten White Gloves reach that rank. You’re a monster even among those monsters you call peers.”

The maid said nothing. Jasper seemed to be enjoying himself. “If I tried to attack that man.” He gestured at Lord Caldimore with his bottle of wine. “There wouldn’t be much left of me besides a smear afterward. What kind of fortune does it cost to hire you, even for a week?”

Lord Caldimore was apparently done humoring Jasper. “What is the meaning of this?” he demanded. “What are your implications?”

Jasper sighed, his amusement swapping to irritation in an instant. He turned a disdainful look toward the nobleman. “As hilarious as this would be, we have a long ride ahead. Consider this a friendly suggestion, Lord Caldimore. Ask your White Glove what she thinks of this ‘child’ you’ve blindly picked a fight with. She’s a keen woman. I think she’ll have something interesting to say.”

The maid’s gaze turned to Vivi. Those pale blue eyes appraised her with an utterly blank expression. Paying closer attention, though, Vivi noticed how tense she was underneath the elegant poise.

Ah. She supposed a woman from an elite bodyguarding organization was capable of recognizing threats to her client’s health. She wasn’t half as idiotic as the man she was serving.

Lord Barnaby Caldimore’s face reddened, but he wasn’t so rash as to discard an orichalcum-rank adventurer’s advice—however rudely offered.

He stiffly turned to the maid and said, “Explain.”

The maid was quiet for a long time. She didn’t turn and meet Lord Caldimore’s eyes when she finally answered, and that seemed to unnerve the man, the way she kept her gaze locked purely on her potential opponent. As if refusing to allow even a fraction of an opening.

“She sees me as no threat whatsoever,” the maid said calmly. “I would advise against escalating tensions, my lord.”

He was nothing less than dumbfounded at the words. “She’s a gold rank!”

The sound of a palm hitting a face drew everyone’s attention. “This is what I mean,” Jasper exclaimed to the maid. “Why him? You have your choice of assignments, surely. He’s a complete—”

“If you finish that sentence, Lord Adventurer,” the maid interrupted, “there will be no recourse but one. I will not suffer aspersions cast on my lord’s name.”

Even Jasper’s cavalier attitude heeded that warning. His teeth clicked shut. He pursed his lips, obviously unhappy, and nodded stiffly at the woman.

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He did make a show of peeling off his orichalcum-rank badge, summoning a gold-rank one from his inventory and pinning it to his chest. He flourished both hands at the badge, then fell back into his chair with an eye roll.

Lord Caldimore gaped between the three of them. His gaze finally settled on Vivi.

She could see the moment the reality of the situation set in. He was abruptly sweating, the moral outrage disappearing like a switch had been flipped. Vivi suspected he’d just wanted to rant and throw his weight around, more than he was actually offended—though he really had been affronted.

“Does make me wonder what kind of monster you are, though,” Jasper said to Vivi, clearly enjoying the show being put on, “to scare a Glove of the Second Class. What dark crevice did you crawl out of? Heard all sorts of stories like this, mysterious mages showing up out of nowhere.” He took a long swig from his bottle. “Let me guess. Dragon in disguise, come to play with the mortals. What do you think of us so far?”

Vivi could feel Saffra’s wide eyes turn to her, as if genuinely considering the possibility.

She gave an annoyed look to the man and briefly considered whether teleporting him out of the carriage would be an overreaction.

He raised his hands in mock surrender. “Please don’t eat me, Great Serpent Queen. Not in public, at least.” He winked at her. “Behind closed doors is another matter.”

Vivi was impressed at the audacity, if nothing else. Making an actual innuendo gave her the justification she needed. She pulled her staff out, pointed, and cast a spell.

The wine bottle vanished. The man tensed, then relaxed at seeing he wasn’t about to be in a fight.

“I wasn’t done with that.”

“If I were so dangerous, why are you goading me?”