Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai-Chapter 46 - Better Mad Than Dead

Keeping Calbern away wouldn't help either of us. If he really was a Knight Exemplar, then I needed to know more. And I needed him to understand how important it was not to make excuses.

I'd been emotional. Was still emotional. I understood his thinking. Possibly better than he had. He'd wanted to ensure there was no possibility of harm coming to me or Tresla. To remove future problems.

That was commendable. I had no problem with his reasons.

I took a deep breath, my eyes tracing the bottom of the chasm. My time for grappling with this was over, at least for today. There was too much to do.

"Calbern," I said, after dismissing Tanis and Selvi. I didn't raise my voice, or turn away.

Even with the distance, I knew I didn't have to.

"Master Perth," he said a moment later, just behind and out of sight.

"I need you, Calbern. If I am to do this, I need you."

He didn't answer, both of us remaining silent for a minute.

"There are things I haven't told you. Things you don’t know about me. I should… I am…" I trailed off, curling my fist. "I understand what you did. Why you did it."

A small squeak as he shifted on the wood behind me was his only response. Still, that he had shifted at all told me enough.

"Tresla and I are more important than a bunch of thugs and rapists," I said, turning to face him. "But the situation matters. And when we’re already strong enough to stomp them in an instant, I’d prefer taking the fools alive. Understood?"

"Understood, master Perth," Calbern said with a bow. "It won't happen again."

"Not asking for that sort of promise. I'd rather be mad than dead," I said, turning back to Grivis's body. "I'm not ready to forgive you yet. But I will, once I've had time."

"I… I understand, master Perth," Calbern said, though I could tell by the waver in his voice, he didn't.

"Have you had a chance to verify everything Grivis told you?" I asked, wrapping an arm around one of the nearby rope ladders and leaning out to look over Tetherfall. I wasn't sure if it was my imagination, or if people were moving with a bit more pep than when I'd first arrived.

"Unfortunately, not yet," Calbern said. "It has been chaotic, and many supplies are not where he said they were. Others, I suspect, were looted as soon as people heard there was conflict."

"Ah, looting. Forgot how much I hated looting," I said, rubbing the bridge of my nose. "Might need to make a change to their rites. Looters will receive ten years in the net."

"That… seems excessive, master Perth."

"It was a joke, Calbern. Not a good one. I'm in a mood, it'll pass," I said, frowning as the sun struck me. I looked up, realizing it was almost directly overhead. "Ah. Right. We haven't slept since yesterday morning, have we?"

"No, master Perth."

"Was there anything pressing I'm forgetting? Because if not, it feels like we should do that next."

"I do not believe so."

"Good. Let's set up shifts with Tresla. Not sure I'm ready to trust the locals to watch our backs," I said even as I smiled in the direction of the nearest locals, who shouldn’t be able to hear me, but who knew how sound traveled in this place.

"Very good, master Perth. I believe Tresla may already be sleeping. She expressed disinterest in the trial."

"Smart," I said, waving him forward. "Lead the way."

Calbern brought me back to Grivis's former office. Tresla had indeed gone to sleep. And she was already awake.

"Sure, I can watch over you boys," Tresla said, standing up from the chair we'd found her in, moving it over so it would wedge the door shut then sitting in one of the other ones closer to the back. "If you hear something exploding, that'll be your sign to get yourselves out here to help."

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"Got it, thanks," I said, unable to fight back a smile before making my way into the room and collapsing onto the bed fully clothed.

After a solid afternoon nap, it was time for us to take inventory.

Thankfully, the storehouses above ground had been left alone. Though it revealed another potential problem. Most of the villagers didn't like leaving Tetherfall.

"It's safe down there, boss. When the nasty critters show up, we deal with them easy like, knocking them down hard. Even the flyers don't like poking their beaks into Tetherfall," Tanis explained as I watched Calbern inspect the contents of the crates. Calbern's shaking head wasn't a good sign. “Up here, folks get picked off real easy.”

"That’d be fine, except there clearly isn't enough food. Where do you even get it from, if you’re not farming?" I asked, gesturing to the surrounding plateau.

"Didn't you see the mats, boss? All round the net?"

"The… mats?"

He nodded, stepping towards the edge.

So I took his cue, walking the dozen steps over to the edge of the canyon and looking down. And as I did, I saw what he was talking about. There were big green sections of vines everywhere the nets didn't run. And some places they did. Especially above and below the village proper. I'd just assumed they were wild vegetation, but now that I was looking closer, some of the villagers were tied off in harnesses, picking their way along the cliffside. Zooming in with Eagle Eyes, I saw that there were several layers to the 'mats', with the underlying layer being composed of thick vines that supported a multitude of other smaller crops that clung to them.

"Those are ingenious? Why not grow them across the whole canyon?"

"Well… Balthum didn't wanna have us too spread out. Plus he'd bring back monsters and get us to carve em up, let us keep the extra. Grivis didn't do much bout it after the old boss man died," Tanis said with a shrug. "You think it'd be okay for us to expand the mats?"

"Yes. Sooner the better. I'll be seeing if there's anything else we can do to supplement our food supplies,," I said, pulling back as I noticed Calbern approaching.

"More than half of it has gone off, master Perth. It seems guardsman Tanis' estimates were correct."

"Told ya, boss. I got a nose for this stuff," Tanis said, tapping the side of his nose.

"Guess so," I replied, as I clapped him on the shoulder. "Talk to whoever you need to, to get more 'mats' started. Starting tomorrow, I'll start using Bloom to help them along. We're going to need a lot more food than what's being produced."

"You're gonna be using your magic to help with food? Mages can do that?" Tanis asked, his jaw hanging open.

"It was my family's specialty, actually," I said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Now, why don't you start getting that organized?"

"Right away, boss!" Tanis said, leaping over the edge.

I stared after him for a second, then I laughed while moving up to watch him swing down then across to one of the mats. "It's going to take me a bit to get used to that."

As Tanis started bellowing at people, Calbern moved up beside me. "Indeed, it is remarkable to see so many people engaging in such high velocity athletics with such enthusiasm."

"Does look fun. Not that I'm ready to try," I said as I stepped back, turning back to the storehouse. "Gonna need to toss the spoiled stuff in a compost patch. Decay should help break it down a bit."

"I will discuss organizing it with Selvi tomorrow," Calbern said, nodding. “She indicated she had some knowledge of their local growth cycles.”

"I feel like there's something I'm missing," I said. "We cleared out their hideout, right?"

"Yes. The top layer of silver dust was pristine, but most of the crate was mixed with non-magical components. I suspect someone 'cut' the product so it would appear to be a full container."

I whistled. "That's an expensive con. Any chance we can filter out the good stuff?"

"I regret to say, that is not my area of expertise," Calbern replied, inclining his head.

"Right, that's on me" I said, turning away. I'd have to consult some of the books I'd scanned. Turned out that even when using Memory Palace, there was a limit to how much I could remember when I wasn't putting it into practice. I knew I had something about purifying scribing dust, but the nitty gritty details were escaping me.

In fact, I suspected there was a lot I'd be reviewing.

"Did you perchance discover where deadman Grivis left his staff, master Perth?"

"Sunuva. That's what I forgot," I said as I pulled the pendant from my robe's pocket.

"Ah, yes. Spiriting his ill-gotten gains away would make sense. It is a shame we didn't…"

Calbern's words trailed off after the staff appeared in my hand. The code Grivis had used earlier hadn’t needed any adjustments to work with Access Storage.

Longer than I was tall, the heavy wood was a rich, dark brown. Runic markings had been worked into the entire length by a hand focused on creating art as much as science. Instead of the standard silver I’d grown used to, the runes had been etched in glistening violet and turquoise, reflecting the light, even bereft of magic.

There were several different functions worked into the staff, though it seemed like there was a key phrase for each of them. Maybe Grivis hadn't been quite as specialized as I'd thought. If he'd been using the staff, his spell must've been capable of completing each sequence.

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As I studied the runes, I almost felt like I could see the missing pieces. As though I only needed to complete a spell, as opposed to decipher the code. Something else to work on in the Memory Palace. I had a lot there I needed to work on.

Well, there was nothing for it, but to do it.

Even as I channeled the mana into Memory Palace, I helped Calbern mark out the crates we'd be throwing away. As the spell drew near completion, I let Calbern know and settled into place inside one of the longhouses.

The garage had a new addition. It seemed it was easier to bring things into the spell as the casting completed. On my workbench was a copy of Balthum's staff. Well, my staff now, I supposed.

Leaving the mystery of the staff for later, I went into the office then pulled out a can of soda. Leaning back in the comfy office chair, I found a book on scribing dust and cracked it open.

Was gonna have one heck of a headache when I left.