Chapter 191 — Santis Sade

Santis Sade stood stiffly and anxiously before the gates of the lord's mansion, checking every button and crease on his person over and over. His unkempt hair and slightly bloodshot eyes showed that he had barely slept the night before—the result of extreme nervousness.

"Show confidence, demonstrate a deep knowledge of magical theory, answer every one of the lord's questions promptly, do not cough loudly or mumble, do not behave casually in the lord's presence..."

The second-tier mage muttered under his breath, repeating a few key points as though reciting review notes before an examination. Just then, the mansion's front door swung open, and a girl in a maid's dress, who looked not yet of age, came dashing out. She ran through the gate, across the small front courtyard, and skidded to a halt right in front of Santis Sade in a precarious pose that looked as though she might bowl him over, giving him quite a start.

The little maid, Betty, glanced around, then fixed her eyes on Santis and said in a crisp voice, "Have you seen any suspicious figure lurking around here, sneaking about?"

Santis had just been startled out of his muttering and didn't react for a moment. "Huh? A suspicious person? No, I haven't..."

"All right, thanks!" Betty gave an exaggerated bow, then turned and ran back inside as quickly as she had come, leaving the arcanist standing there dumbfounded, with no idea what had just happened.

Only two seconds later did Santis realize—wasn't the person that maid was looking for probably him?

How could there be such a scatterbrained maid in the world...

And while he stood there looking utterly bewildered, the mansion's door was pushed open again, and the same whirlwind little maid came running out once more. She ran up to Santis. "Are you that suspicious figure who's been lurking around here, sneaking about?"

"Uh... I was circling around nearby just now, but I wasn't sneaking about, and I'm not a suspicious person," Santis explained, somewhat at a loss. He had the feeling that this little maid's mind didn't work quite right, and he was terrified that a single wrong word would be misunderstood. A maid wasn't anyone of high status, but the fact that she could run errands meant she could speak directly with the lord, so he had to choose his words carefully. "There's a matter I'd like to request an audience with the lord about. It's..."

Before he could finish, Betty said cheerfully in a loud voice, "Oh, then come in—the master is looking for you!"

A short while later, Gao Yang met this second-tier arcanist from the royal capital in his study: Santis Sade.

He had recalled seeing the man's name on the roster of the hundred-person aid delegation from the royal capital. A second-tier arcanist counted as one of the rare "upper-class talents" in that group. By the hierarchy of this era, professionals were destined to be nobler than ordinary craftsmen, and spellcasters were the aristocrats among professionals. Though a second-tier arcanist was merely a low-rank professional, given the convenience of magic and the breadth of a mage's learning, this arcanist could be called the backbone elite of the delegation. That was why, upon his arrival, Gao Yang had assigned him to the mana crystal smelting plant, tasked with testing crystal products of various formulations.

But after that, he had completely forgotten the man.

On one hand, he was genuinely busy; affairs in the territory and the cultists outside kept him restless day and night. On the other hand, this Mr. Santis truly had no presence to speak of. He had made no effort to seek better treatment or status, nor had he made any outstanding contributions. After being assigned to the smelting plant, he had obediently tended the kilns there. According to what Gao Yang had heard from Hetty, this royal-capital arcanist spent every day "mixed in with the furnace workers, so covered in dust and grime you couldn't tell them apart." If he hadn't come forward of his own accord this time, Gao Yang would likely have forgotten entirely that there was such a spellcaster in his territory.

Now that he remembered, he studied the royal-capital mage before him with particular curiosity: the messy hair, the sunken, red-rimmed eye sockets, the tall, thin frame, the old robe washed nearly white. He stood stiffly and nervously in the middle of the room, his hands unconsciously fiddling with a button on his clothes—a button he was about to pull clean off.

"Santis Sade, second-tier arcanist, from the Royal Mages' Association. Is that correct?" Gao Yang watched the nervous young mage for a moment, then spoke suddenly. "What brings you to me?"

"Ah, I... I've come to..." Every prepared line in Santis's head vanished in an instant. He hemmed and hawed for a long while before finally stating his purpose plainly. "I heard from Miss Jenny that the lord is recruiting teachers..."

Gao Yang was taken aback. The notice about recruiting teachers for the territory had been posted for over a month and had reached the hundred-person aid delegation as well. A few craftsmen who could read and count had signed up to become temporary teachers at the night school, but he hadn't expected a second-tier arcanist to be drawn by the news. "That's right, I am recruiting teachers. Don't tell me you're interested?"

"Y-yes," Santis Sade tugged hard, and the button finally came off in his hand. "I... I can... I wish to serve as a tutor in your household. I am skilled in arcane arts and basic magical theory, and I also know something of heraldry, the history of Ansu, and noble etiquette. Though my own rank is not high, I am good at teaching others. Your descendants would be safe in my hands..."

"Stop, stop, stop." Halfway through, Gao Yang knew the arcanist had completely misunderstood, and he had to cut in. "I think you've mistaken the purpose of this recruitment notice. I'm not looking for a noble tutor for my descendants."

Santis looked blank, nervously rubbing the button in his hand. "Ah? You're not?"

"Don't you know? I have only two descendants now—one is Hetty, the other Rebecca. The former finished her training years ago; the latter is accomplished in both letters and arms. Both have higher spellcasting ranks than you. Rebecca might indeed need some lessons in etiquette, but you clearly couldn't beat her—unless you're a master of two-handed weapons and also good at running away and charging." Gao Yang spread his hands. "I'm not looking for a tutor for those two granddaughters of mine. I'm looking for teachers for the night school."

"Night school?" Santis remained blank. It seemed he had never heard of it at all.

"You've never heard of it?" Gao Yang's curiosity about this odd arcanist grew. "Even the most ordinary commoners and serfs in the territory know about the night school, and you don't?"

"After I received my appointment, I've been at the crystal smelting plant the whole time," Santis said, a look of shame coming over his face. "Otherwise I'm at my lodgings reading. I don't pay much attention to other matters. If Miss Jenny hadn't told me this time, I wouldn't even have known you were recruiting teachers."

Gao Yang didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he looked at this stiff, nervous, and somewhat slow-witted arcanist. Truly, he thought, these are the talents carefully handpicked by those nobles of the royal capital—without a few character flaws, it really would be hard to stuff them into a delegation of a hundred. "The night school is for commoners, including the serfs and slave laborers in the territory. Do you understand? I'm not looking for a high-class teacher to instruct noble children in etiquette and heraldry. I'm looking for someone who can teach ordinary commoners to read and write."