These Side Characters Have More Important Things To Do

As they arrived at Viscountess Venenum’s property, Rian ushered away his more ridiculous confession ideas.

He personally loved grand gestures, but he had to be realistic. While he would love to confess to Ren Xiyang right at the end of a public duel, it wouldn’t go down well politically. Not to mention, Ren Xiyang was more understated and didn’t enjoy public events and ostentatious gestures.

No, Rian had to plan a suitable confession for Ren Xiyang.

His younger brother might be the lead in this romance novel, but Rian was better at being rich, handsome, and romantic.

Case in point: after the carriage stopped, Rian climbed out first and then turned back to Ren Xiyang. He held out a hand gentlemanly. “May I help you out?”

Ren Xiyang looked at the hand, and then at Rian.

Rian wriggled his hand.

Ren Xiyang’s hand extended out. The fingers brushed Rian’s palm.

Rian suppressed a shiver across his skin. His smile brightened when Ren Xiyang placed some weight on his hand as he climbed out of the carriage. This was a good sign! A really good sign!

“Thanks.” Ren Xiyang dropped his hand.

Rian pulled his hand back and motioned towards the castle in front of them. “You’re welcome. Shall we?”

The two stepped forwards together.

 

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Viscountess Venenum had invited them to her castle to have dinner and stay the night. After eating, everyone went to their allocated rooms. Ren Xiyang was looking forward to lying in a proper clean bed.

However, before he could lie down, one of the castle servants came knocking.

“Earl Rosewood, the Viscountess wishes to see you.”

Ren Xiyang inwardly sighed. Spreading out his awareness for a moment, he could sense Rian being led by another person, towards where Viscountess Venenum and four others were waiting.

“Okay.”

He put his coat back on and followed the servant to Viscountess Venenum’s study.

Rian had arrived first. Their gazes met, and then Ren Xiyang turned to Viscountess Venenum.

“Good evening, Viscountess Venenum,” Ren Xiyang said.

“Take a seat,” Viscountess Venenum said, gesturing to the sofa opposite her as she sat down. The four others stood behind Viscountess Venenum.

Ren Xiyang and Rian sat down and waited for her to speak.

Viscountess Venenum took a moment to examine Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian. Their calmness was a product of their confidence and hint to their true abilities.

“Marquis Terra contacted me,” Viscountess Venenum said. Her gaze was direct. “The king’s bandits have been a plague on our lands. Are you truly willing to help me?”

“Yes,” Earl Rosewood said.

“We’re willing to help,” Prince Rian said, “but you should understand that we require payment or favour in return.”

Two of the people standing behind the Viscountess bristled.

Prince Rian looked at those people directly. “I appreciate friends and allies. But currently, there is nothing between us.”

Viscountess Venenum acknowledged the truth. If Prince Rian hadn’t asked for payment, then she would have been more suspicious. “How can you help us?”

“Where do you need help?” Prince Rian countered.

“Let me describe the situation. We’ve been tracking bandit groups for years. We have suspected areas where they should be located, and we have found some smaller bandit dens. However, the king’s bandits are still hidden. Can you find them?” She looked first at Earl Rosewood and then shifted her gaze to Prince Rian—from the person with the ability to help them, to the person who was negotiating with her.

“There are two things we could do,” Prince Rian said. “Firstly, we could find them for you. Or secondly, we could teach you how we would find them.”

“And the price?”

Prince Rian smiled. “Naturally, the second is cheaper than the first. Earl Rosewood’s time is valuable.”

“What are you implying?” asked Antonia Argentum, one of the people behind Viscountess Venenum.

“500 Sedaverian gold for teaching, until you’ve grasped the technique. Or 100 gold per hour on the time we spend looking for your bandits.”

With prices like that, it was no wonder that Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood were rich.

“The second one is more expensive!” Antonia countered.

Prince Rian gave a short chuckle. “Thank you for your confidence in Earl Rosewood. Indeed, he could possibly find all the bandits within your fief in an hour, and all the bandits within the area of four fiefs in under five hours.” Prince Rian blinked innocently “However, what would you do once he leaves?”

“The King’s bandits must be protected by magic,” Viscountess Venenum said. “It will not be easy to find them.”

Ideally, she would prefer if these two could do more. However, she also knew what Marquis Terra had to pay—will have to pay—for their help. And she didn’t have as much gold. The Venenum fief didn’t have such big industries and goods to export.

Prince Rian’s quotes were for what he and Earl Rosewood could do within Viscountess Venenum’s budget.

Viscountess Venenum came to a decision. “We give you a deposit of 100 gold for you to teach us the techniques. If we’re successful in using it to find the King’s bandits, then we’ll pay the remaining 400 gold.”

Prince Rian nodded. “We agree. Let’s sign a contract before we begin.”

He wrote a contract on magical contract paper right in front of Viscountess Venenum and gave it to her to read.

Viscountess Venenum read over it carefully. She heard about  King Augustus’s contract and how that caused his current magicless state. Was this going to be the same?

And. Ah. There it was.

—If she or the four people in the room with her used the techniques learnt or taught someone else to use it, and found bandits using the technique learnt, they had to pay the remainder 400 gold within six months, or else have their magic restricted until they paid it.

She passed the contract to the people behind her without signing it. “There is no punishment clause if your technique fails.”

“The technique would also be useful for other things,” Prince Rian said. “But it’s also true that this technique isn’t easy. It requires both power and skill. If none of you are able to master it, we could either refund your deposit or spend the remaining time to go out and examine the locations of your choice.”

Prince Rian wrote that extra clause after they passed the contract back. He and Earl Rosewood signed first, followed by Viscountess Venenum and her people. Viscountess Venenum also paid the 100 gold deposit.

Prince Rian magically duplicated the contract for everyone to have a copy. “When shall we begin?”

“Why not now?” Viscountess Venenum said.

Prince Rian turned to Earl Rosewood.

Earl Rosewood nodded.

“The method I have is heat sensing, as a fire mage,” Earl Rosewood said.

Right away, Antonia Argentum and Luis Venenum were not happy.

“You don’t need to be a fire mage to learn fire magic. However, the core of the technique is magical sensing. If you have magic, and if you can sense the locations of your element outside your own body, then you should be able to learn it. By spreading out a thin web of magic, I can detect all nearby heat sources. Fires are not the only heat sources. People and animals also emit heat. I can detect that you have ten guards who are now standing outside your door, two guards patrolling below your window, and four people in the servants’ corridor along your study.”

Viscountess Venenum’s eyes narrowed.

“Is this a spell?” Valerio Silex asked dubiously.

“No. It’s direct magic manipulation.”

All of them: “…”

“If the bandits have only hidden themselves physically, then all you need to do is methodically scan for heat source clusters.”

Antonia Argentum’s lips curled up in disdain. “If it was merely physical hiding, we would have found them.”

Earl Rosewood nodded. “That was the easiest situation. The second easiest situation is if they have a complete shield that blocks any human-detecting spells.”

Antonia Argentum: “…” How was that the second easiest? The point was that all human-detecting spells are blocked!

“Let me clarify—depending on the magical shield used, there are different methods you could try. If the shield merely blocks human-detecting spells, then don’t use a human-detecting spell. Use a heat mapping spell instead. If the shield blocks all heat signatures, then there should be a spot of emptiness, devoid of heat, or there should be a sudden temperature difference. Again, you would use a heat mapping spell, but this time you’re looking for absences and temperature changes. If the shields are individually cast on the person, then you can detect buildings whose temperatures are higher than expected at night. If there are people inside, the air should be warmer.”

Viscountess Venenum’s eyes lowered. Admittedly, she had never explored how shields worked. “Then, what is a more difficult situation?”

“A more difficult situation is if there are attention misdirection spells. In that case, you will need to pay full attention as you scan the land. Or you could release animals or people—heat sources—to scan the land and track them, and see whether they deviate from their path without realising it. Another difficult situation is if they’re underground. Then you will need to scan both above ground and underground.”

“And the most difficult situation?”

“In the most difficult situation, there would be blended shields that misdirect your attention around them, with some kind of fake heat signature. Then we would have to be more creative. You might have to compare the heat and ground configurations between different areas and spot any abnormalities, such as unnaturally regular repeating patterns, or a pattern that is an exact copy of a different area. You may have to monitor a large area and see where heat sources or other items suddenly appear and disappear. You could try examining the density of the dirt underground, as it would be compressed a little more under buildings.”

“None of us are fire mages.”

“Heat-sensing isn’t the only method. You could use metal sensing to detect buildings and weapons. There is trace metal in the soil, and you could find unusual differences in that trace metal due to possible shield. Buildings and houses would have levelled earth, perhaps compacted. And there is magic in the air itself. Normal, pure magic. You could monitor it and examine apparent differences.”

Earl Rosewood’s words seemed straightforward, but hidden was the sheer amount of magical power required to implement. If they had the resources to monitor every square kilometre of their lands, then there would be no place for large bandit groups at all.

Viscountess Venenum was not even sure that King Augustus could do this. Assuming that Earl Rosewood could indeed do as he said.

Prince Rian’s gaze softened. “Earl Rosewood would lead you through how to manipulate magic. But if you think it’s already too difficult or unwieldy, then we can stop now, and you can pay Earl Rosewood for his time instead to go out and sweep the land instead. It’s getting late, we can continue tomorrow.”

Viscountess Venenum narrowed her eyes slightly. She would prefer it if she or her people could learn this technique themselves. They didn’t have the money to continually hire a foreign noble. And given how impressive Earl Rosewood’s abilities could be, did they really want him carefully scanning through every inch of their land?

She could see Prince Rian’s offered concession. “Let’s continue tomorrow then.”

After Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood left, Luis Venenum, Valerio Silex, and Zea Drusus took a seat, while Antonia Argentum paced in annoyance.

None of them were fire mages. Viscountess Venenum and Luis Venenum were poison mages, Antonia Argentum was a metal mage, Valerio Silex was an earth mage, and Zea Drusus was a non-mage knight. Outside of this room, Viscountess Venenum didn’t have any strong fire mages at her command.

Earl Rosewood, a fire mage, could use lightning magic. But most mages weren’t strong enough to use other magical elements on the regular, and especially not at the scale they needed.

If they couldn’t use the fire-magic techniques, then could they use the other methods Earl Rosewood mentioned?

It was all easier said than done!

“So…does that mean Earl Rosewood can sense you walking back and forth right now?” Zea Drusus asked.

Antonia Argentum came to an abrupt stop. “Fuck.”

“He could be tracking all of our movements in the building,” Luis Venenum said with a frown.

“Indeed, if he can really do what he purports,” Valerio Silex said.

“It’s amazing to think just how much magical energy he has,” Zea Drusus said.

“Considering his duel with King Augustus, why are you surprised?” Valerio Silex rolled his eyes.

“Do you trust him? Do you trust Prince Rian?” Antonia Argentum was not convinced.

“The contract is well written,” Viscountess Venenum said. “Was Earl Rosewood’s description enough for you to explore the method yourself?”

The four people closed their mouths and didn’t reply.

“Then try tonight and reconvene tomorrow, before we meet with Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood again,” Viscountess Venenum said.

The three mages in the room lowered their heads in acquiescence.

Viscountess Venenum would also try.

Prince Rian was right—if they could learn this, then it had applications beyond finding those bandits.

Though, finding those bandits were Viscountess Venenum’s top priority. She couldn’t wait for the day she could get rid of King Augustus’s second secret ‘army’.

 

 

 

 

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Meanwhile, back in Sedaveria…

Alexius, to his friends Tierri and Adrienne, and sort-of-friend Günter: So what if Ayden and Rian can use lightning magic? That just means that we need to practice harder for our duel against them!!

Günter: For once, you’re right. We’ll have practice after dinner too! Four on two, we’ll defeat them!

Tierri: …

Adrienne: …

Tierri and Adrienne: … *thinking: let’s not burst their dreams*