Chapter 55 C54: Reasonable Concern

The following morning, Cera simply sat in bed for half an hour, thoughts whirling.  What if the general, or the mages, reported her properly?  The smart thing to do would be to immediately move somewhere else in the city, just in case.  But she really didn’t want to go to the trouble.

On the other hand, it was the perfect time to do so, as the month of payment she’d put in would be up tomorrow, so she wouldn’t really be losing money.  She didn’t even have much she’d have to move, since she hadn’t purchased much of anything beyond food and supplies she immediately used.

In the end, she eventually decided it might be fine, but she had to at least try to verify to some degree.  Ann seemed to have some kind of connection with not only the general, but also the three mages he’d had with him.  She also seemed to think highly of him, and was trusted by him.  So Cera figured that if Ann thought she’d be fine, she would stay where she was.

Taking action on her thoughts, she promptly headed to the mages guild, not even bothering to grab food despite feeling like she was starving after not eating the prior day.  As expected, Ann was present.  Unexpected, however, was the line of golems snaking out the front door and the crowd of them outside.

Moving inside, Ann was not at her desk for once, but instead working on a golem, finishing it up seconds after Cera entered.  After a pulse of mana entered it, the golem turned and headed downstairs, only for another to step forward.

Upon seeing her, however, Ann immediately set aside her work and came to talk to her.  As she approached, Cera noticed she looked like she hadn’t slept at all.  Fortunately, it appeared Ann already guessed why she was there so early, at least somewhat.

“Hello, Cera, I wondered if you’d visit or not, given your… situation…” Ann began as she glanced to the side and spotted another mage within earshot.

After shaking her head once and a very short pause, she continued, “You should be fine; Oran is a reasonable and trustworthy man.  And no one wants to cross him.  I’ll admit I was worried you might simply leave, so I’m glad you are still here.  That said, the man you ejected from your group is unlikely to rejoin your class, and might try to act against you.”

Ann sighed before finishing, “I can’t stop him from doing something outside the guild, unfortunately, but he can’t act against you here.  I’m just worried he’s egotistical enough to try to ‘get revenge’ as foolish as that may be.  Then again, maybe being treated like all the others might have taught him a lesson.”

This time, it was Cera’s turn to sigh and shake her head, remarking, “His type rarely ever learns when it comes to that.  I’d almost bet that he’ll claim it was my fault he wasn’t in the command group.  Clearly, I stole the position he deserved, you know?”

She paused a moment to gather her thoughts, then added, “I wasn’t entirely sure I’d stay, either, before talking to you.  But I guess I’ll wait another month before heading to the capital.”

Ann nodded, though she didn’t reply.  Mind more at ease, Cera quickly headed to the bank, this time to withdraw money.  Without thinking about what she was doing, she ended up taking shortcuts through alleyways again, but didn’t run into any difficulty, other than one of the routes being blocked due to construction on a building, which simply delayed her slightly.

Since Cera had a fair amount of copper with her, she exchanged for two brass, then withdrew another four to meet the six she needed to pay for her rent.  Before leaving, she also took a moment to exchange one copper for some steel and iron so she didn’t have to mess with getting change when paying for food.

That dealt with, she returned home to pay for another month and get a large meal.  This time, she did not take it to her room, but ate in the common area.  During her meal, she focused a bit on the conversations around her, hearing a number of rumors about the battle that had occurred, finding that many of them were quite incorrect.

Fortunately, there was no mention of any non-humans, at least not yet, so she nodded to herself and headed to bed to relax for the rest of the day, grabbing her comb along the way.  After many hours of petting, brushing, and hugging her tail, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

The next morning began on a negative note, unfortunately, as Cera found that due to passing out while holding her comb, she had managed to somehow break it by moving around in her sleep.  As such, she immediately decided to go replace it, since no one with a fluffy tail should go without a way to properly brush it.

It took a few tries, but eventually, she managed to find a store that sells them at a reasonable price and quality.  The first had very low-quality ones, and asking for somewhere with higher quality ended up giving her the address of a shop that had to be for nobles, given the absurd pricing and decorations.  That one, she didn’t even bother entering, simply turning around and looking for another place on her own.

In the end, however, she managed to get a nice and reasonable comb for a couple of steel.  Then again, that was probably much higher than most would pay, but she insisted on good quality, even if she didn’t care about it being decorated.

Cera found herself wondering how many of her students would show up today, given the eventful past few days, but she didn’t want to just assume no one would show up, so she decided to simply rest at the guild and do some more of the eternal task of mending her soul.

While there were large areas that appeared healthy now, Cera knew better than to believe that everything was fine.  She’d had ample experience with messing with it in her prior life, after all, and she knew how to focus her inner sight on places beyond what was immediately visible.  And she’d never found an end to the soul, either.

As such, she had plenty to occupy herself with while she waited, and the hours passed as she sat beside the wall with her eyes closed.  That was another minor difference in this life, as well—she couldn’t sit flat with her back against the wall anymore, due to her tail.  Instead, she sat nearby, unable to rest against it.

Cera eventually got up to see if anyone would arrive, and sure enough, some did.  Unfortunately, some was far from all; of her original nine students, one had left before, one was the egotistical fool she ejected, and wouldn’t continue teaching even if he returned.  That left her with seven, of which only two arrived.

It didn’t take much discussion to find that even those two weren’t really in the right mindset for learning, having merely shown up ‘because it was the right thing to do’ and, so, by mutual agreement, they all decided to forgo trying to hold class today.

Since she wasn’t occupied now, Cera ended up deciding to finally head back to meet with Laura, as it had been a while since she last did so.  Fortunately, the woman seemed to have nothing going on that she wasn’t willing to put off, as Cera was invited in immediately.

On the other hand, Laura wasn’t as interested in working on magic at the moment as she was about hearing what happened on the battlefield.  She was relatively sheltered, after all, and had no idea what had happened other than that the city was attacked and won.

As such, Cera found herself going through the major events that had occurred, making sure not to be too detailed in her description.  Laura didn’t need to know about how gory and nasty everything was, after all.  No need to describe how people’s heads had exploded from her attacks, or how Ann had immolated hundreds of people, nor how the golems hit targets so hard they burst open.

By the end, Laura still looked somewhat ill, however, having realized that Cera was glossing over several things, and managing to put together that combat was very ugly business.  Once they’d reached the end, Laura asked her to come back soon, but that she needed to recover from what she’d heard.

Cera, naturally, had no problem with going back home and having some free time.  There was always more work to do on herself and her constructs, and she had such a lovely big fluffy tail she could hug and brush to relax.

After a rather modest meal, she did just that—a few hours of work on her constructs, followed by hugging her tail until she fell asleep.  This time, at least, she made sure to put her comb up before passing out.