The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

I was so lost in this train of thought that the other dinner guests had to snap me out of it.

"Something on your mind, Master Stefan?"

"Oh, he's probably already thought of a new idea for another original Rank Three grimoire!"

They laughed but then noticed my expression.

"Ah, is it true though? Are you working on yet another masterpiece?"

"I am working on a third one," I admitted. I was in the process of writing The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde though that was sort of put on hold as I was busy trying to read other grimoires, but I would pick it up later on. Would I succeed? It was a great historical work, so I thought it would - but I couldn't be sure. "I'm not sure how it'll turn out though."

I would prefer not to have to announce this to the world, but with the way that the rules were I really did not want to break them in case it'd come to bite me later. I was already in somewhat hot water with the Liberomancer's Guild regarding renting an apartment and I didn't want to make things worse.

"Ah, you're quite industrious, Master Stefan," the king said. "To have started on yet another project so quickly. You do remind me quite a bit of Master Jiah Pei in that way - though he had been a few years older when he first started making new Rank Three grimoires. Though, it was sort of to be expected that he would have to carve out his own path - you cannot imagine how much it shocked me when I had heard he had decided to become an ice elementalist! Imagine - in a country filled with fire elementalists and dozens of grimoires for the same, choosing to instead become an ice elementalist!" He paused here, sounding incredulous, as if this had been some crazy out of left field decision which he was still shocked by to this day. "Still, he was always rebellious in his younger days."

Hearing that made me think of Jiah Pei, but younger, and wearing a black leather jacket, riding a motorcycle, and sporting a Mohawk. Of course, 'being rebellious' in this world had a different meaning, so I shook that image out of my mind.

"Ah, I was a bit curious," Chestnut said. "How was the siege exactly? I have heard multiple accounts, though I would like to hear it from you as well. Is it true what they say - that you slaughtered six thousand dryads in total?"

So, at least they hadn't been fooled by the rumors going around. Or more likely than not they had gotten a report from Lance which was more accurate to what happened.

At this point, we had been eating the appetizers, though the main course was now being arranged at the table.

The main entree was a very large and long fish - it almost resembled a swordfish, and I had never seen one being served before. No doubt it was something exotic that was really expensive.

Everything tasted delicious, though I had to limit how much I ate because I was doing most of the talking, and I couldn't very well with my mouth full. "I'm not sure how many of the dryads I killed myself, I was not really keeping track, though if they say six thousand they are probably right."

The king nodded. "Well, I have to say that I am quite impressed with what you did. That little combination of yours was quite the invention."

"Indeed," Kyle said. "To not only possess such wisdom and talent at such a young age - but bravery as well! You launched yourself off the wall, risking your own life, to save your commander? It's truly a tale that the bards would happily sing about - they usually embellish their tales but this one needs none to be worthy of being circulated throughout the land."

I really wished that they wouldn't pile on so much praise - maybe they were right about the 'bravery' part, but I hadn't done it to save my commander; I had done it because I saw Drake as somewhat of a friend at the time. As for wisdom and talent - the only reason they thought like that was because of my experiences from back on Earth. The combination was an invention of mine, yes, but I had gotten lucky with it happening to work out so well in the situation we were up against.

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"Yes," the king said. "Such bravery must be rewarded!"

"Ah, that's really not necess-"

"I understand that you are quite humble, Master Stefan," the king said. "But, you have to understand, as king, I have to duly reward such acts, else I would be looked down upon."

Nothing about his voice had changed, and his faint smile was as warm as ever, but there was a finality to his voice.

I remembered something else that Drake had told me, "If His Majesty pressurizes you into getting a reward, I know you don't want to be given a land or title, so ask for a token for a Rank Three grimoire instead. And don't say 'no' to it more than once."

"If you must, Your Majesty, I would appreciate a token for a Rank Three grimoire," I said. A token would let me pick one from the royal family's own collection, in other words, I could potentially get a grimoire not on the market, say, something that might even help me fly.

"A good choice," the king said. "I think just one is far too little though - I will reward you with two tokens."

I opened my mouth to protest - but I was waved down.

I had a feeling as to why I was given two - because it would make filling in all my Rank Three slots that much faster. And the faster I did that, the faster they thought I could make something that was Rank Four!

I understood there were limits to the amount of favoritism that he and the guild could show me - this was just a roundabout way of doing it so that no one could really object against it. After all, I had shown bravery - and who would object to someone being 'adequately' rewarded for something like that? I couldn't imagine one of the other nobles being able to make a compelling case against this decision.

While the king was all for me making a Rank Four grimoire, I could see how some of the nobles might be against it. I would be a human for one, getting a rank of great authority, and it was also likely that they would feel some of their own authority would be eroded in such a case. I was also not a member of the royal family or of nobility, nor did I have any such backers, so it was hard, but not impossible, to justify something like this.

The king's desire to help me was probably born out of more than just a wish to have a new Rank Four grimoire made during his reign. He would of course love to have an earl in his country greatly indebted to the crown.

There was no doubt that there was a complicated political game going on behind the scenes that I didn't fully understand - that much had not changed from Earth where I also didn't understand much about politics. I had no real desire to be a part of it either here or back home, and thinking too much about it made my head spin.

My guilt climbed up a notch because again, I felt that I was taking something under a false pretense, but there was nothing more I could really say.

"Good choice," Kyle and Chestnut agreed. Was that why he had invited them as well? I thought they were invited so that they had a chance to gauge me - after all, they would want to know what the new Master Liberomancer was like. But, maybe it was to pressure me with such decisions as the two of them were firmly on the king's side.

Dessert was a dish consisting of chocolate mixed with cream. It was not very sweet, but I knew that the lizardmen tended to prefer their desserts like this. They didn't have as much of a sweet tooth as humans did.

With our meal done, the talk moved on to other topics like Liberomancy, and the country at large.

Things took a bit of a strange turn when the king turned to me, and out of nowhere it seemed, asked, "Master Stefan, is it true that you had an issue with bandits near the city?"

"Ah, yes," I said, recounting the incident.

"Well, we must be thankful that you were there to save those villagers, otherwise it would have turned out to be quite nasty indeed for them," the king said.

"Speaking of, we have been having increasing issues with the bandits lately," Chestnut said.

"Indeed," Kyle said. "With little solutions to the problem in sight."

"People without farms or families to return to turn to banditry," the king said, sighing. "I've heard no end to things we could do." Nothing was that abnormal up until now, but it was here that the conversation shifted somewhere where I didn't think it would be headed towards. "Master Stefan, regarding this issue- you've had some firsthand experience- do any solutions come to mind?"

What? Why was he asking me of all people a question like this?

Was this a test?

He wasn't going to take any suggestion I said seriously, right? What did I know about a medieval economy and how to run it?

"I uh, don't have much experience in anything like this-"

The king nodded, but said, "And I would like some of your insight. None of the other proposals I've heard have been helpful - other than stricter punishments for the bandits."

I thought of it for a second - but in the heat of the moment couldn't come up with something on the spot.

When I encountered a problem like this in Libraria which I wasn't sure how to solve, my default response was to try to draw on something from back on earth that I could relate to. So, in those terms, this was basically just a huge unemployment crisis, wasn't it?

There were steps that could be taken then. "The best thing to do," I said. "Would be to provide some form of employment to those who have lost their farms, or otherwise can't find work. Even if that job is as simple as digging up a ditch and then filling it back in with dirt afterwards."

Kyle chuckled - and I was sure that at least, this time, it was genuine laughter. "Surely you can't be serious?"