As Emp was on his way back from the first magic cla.s.s, he decided to talk with Celtine. He wanted to know her opinion about what Mable had told him."How did I do with Mable earlier?"
"Master did?"Harriett seemed nervous about it but kept silent, she was hesitant to voice her concerns. Emp decided to leave the two at that for now and go train instead while he waited for dinner. It was true he was a bit curious about why she seemed so nervous but it was probably just because she expected him to do something the others would consider crazy again. It was for the best to let her think about it for a while or he would lose all the time he had to train on more of the morals lessons he would get in the afternoon anyway.He went into the small empty room and did a bunch of exercises he almost never did. His current goal was to train without the hammer to see if there would be an improvement. With that being the case, he didn't have anything to train with for now and just did as many push-ups and sit-ups as he could.When He came back later to eat, the both of them had a grave air to them."Huh... What happened while I was gone?"Maybe they had received some message while he was in the other room?Harriett took a deep breath before she answered."Celtine and me talked about how to help master through the tea party and we came to the conclusion that we can't, we are sorry master."Was it really just that?"Is that tea party that special? We are just gathering to eat some cake are we not?""Master does not understand, tea parties are something only n.o.ble women do, neither of us knows what will happen there. I heard those are verbal battlefields, I fear master will be thoroughly defeated."A verbal battlefield? No one would die though, how could it be compared to a battlefield? In any case, it seemed to distress them."Should I just go tell her I won't go?""Master shouldn't, if my understanding is correct, that party is happening because of master. If you do not go, you will deny the party's existence itself.""Then, since I have to go and there is nothing you can do to help, why are you both so upset?""I don't understand the meaning behind master's words."Wait, she said she didn't understand the meaning behind his words? Could he do that as well? Could they really just ask for the answer like that? That would be really helpful! What a great information he just got! Smiling at what he had learned, he told her what he meant."Since there is nothing you can do to stop it or help me, it will happen no matter what. There is no reason to fret over something that will not change.""But I just can't stop worrying for master. Not being able to do anything is the very reason why I worry."How to rea.s.sure her then? He thought about it for a moment and came up with another approach as he sat at the table for dinner."They already know I am bad with words, everyone does. There is no glory in defeating me with them, nothing to be gained. Even if I lose, I do not believe my life will be changed over some words exchanged over slices of cake. What sort of consequences are you expecting?""Maybe master is right." Conceded Harriett. "Maybe I am making a fuss over nothing again, like for the entrance ceremony. Please, excuse my conduct."She seemed to regain a lot of her composure and bowed in apology. Neither of them seemed to be really over it yet but he expected them to calm down once they had some time to think about it and relax. They didn't speak a word of it anymore, ate the dinner Harriett prepared and made their way to Giselle Blackbull's office.Emp didn't forget to drop Celtine off of his shoulders before he knocked on her door."If it is you Emp, you may come in." The teacher answered almost immediately.Emp pushed the door open and slipped inside, leaving Harriett to close it behind the three of them. Giselle's office was neatly arranged and proper, there were only a few paintings on the walls but they were carefully placed and very impressive to look at. On the left wall, there was a large window hidden behind thick curtains she had closed to stop the wind from disturbing the papers on her dark wooden desk. Emp wondered what sort of wood this was while she welcomed him."Good afternoon mister Muracier. I am pleasantly surprised that you know about knocking on doors before entering."That was a knowledge he had been born with, he remembered doing it on Chinui's door the very first day. Thinking about this, why wasn't he born with all the related knowledge? He added it to the list of the questions he wanted to ask his creators the next time he met them."Good afternoon to you as well madam Blackbull. Hum... Before we start, Heinrich the magic teacher knew who I was, is this normal?""It is, the ancient told him. He was asked to be very careful and not let you get injured with magic, more than other students. Not only in his cla.s.s but outside of it as well. After all, the future cannot be predicted and we never know when someone will decide to target our students for leverage against someone. Every generation, there are a few students like that who the mage is tasked to protect."That seemed unfair for the others but there was nothing Emp could really do about it. At least now he knew this wasn't strange.She swiftly had him sit down on a chair facing her and told him what he was there for. Between them, a long trail of steam rose lazily from an ornate and flowery teapot she kept near a set of cups on her desk."So, unlike Heinrich, no one is supposed to learn about your ident.i.ty. Sadly, as I told you the last time we met, you are doing a very poor job at hiding it. Today, you aren't getting out of this room before you learn how to keep that secret properly."He knew then that it would be a long afternoon. The teacher spent an extended period of time explaining to him how and why he needed to learn to lie. When Galana told him every n.o.ble lied, he never expected to one day be lectured for hours on the subject."You need to keep the secrets of your family for the good ans safety of it." She would say, "Information is a powerful weapon, keep it to yourself and keep it away from your enemies."She presented him a list of information he should never disclose, a second list of things he could say to close allies and then proceeded to tell him that there were no such thing as a close ally. Anyone could betray him at any moment. But then what was the point of the second list?She seemed to have a very bleak overview of the world. Everyone was on their own side she would say, they were always looking for an opportunity to gain more than what they had. The higher up you are, the more chances you have of being targeted. The less those around you know about you, the less likely you are to get betrayed because they won't have anything on you."But that is impossible, I am sure they must have at least one friend they can trust. What about their families?""I won't speak for your own family but it does happen sometimes that family members betray each other if the prize is big enough. As for friends, there is no way I will answer you with a yes as you are now, you would never be able to make the difference. For now you must a.s.sume that anyone could betray you, including me. It will be easier to keep your secrets for now if you see everyone else as a threat."That didn't seem like a good thing to him. Not only that but he really didn't like to lie. He told her so and she released a long sigh of exasperation."Of course, the Muraciers can't betray their words and will never lie. I had forgotten because of how senselessly ridiculous it was. That just makes it all even harder for us both. I never understood your family's obsession with keeping your words.""Is it not a good thing instead? It must be much easier to make allies if they know I will not go back on my words.""In this particular case, not at all since they aren't supposed to know you are a Muracier. All of this is exasperating!"She poured some tea in her own cup and took a sip of it to appease her frustration."How am I supposed to help you keep your secret if you won't even make the effort to lie convincingly?"It wasn't his intention to go against her every words though. He just couldn't agree with what she was saying."Is there no other way to hide it than lie? I am not even sure of the reason I am hiding that name in the first place.""Well, there are many things you do not know including who the other students really are. You have no idea why more than half of your own group is in this school am I not correct?""Is it not to study?" Tried Emp.What would they be doing in the school if not to study?"Of course but why here? Private tutors exists everywhere, they could study at home. Yes, the imperial school is good, excellent even but is it really worth the large fee and the long travel away from your home? For some it is but very rarely is it for the learning opportunity alone. Do you even know why you are here yourself?""Because Chinui told me to come."He had said he couldn't teach him everything he had to learn."That is quite the simplistic answer you have here. I will not pry further into it. Speaking of prying, this is a great way to hide the truth. Tell everyone what they want to hear in the most simple way you can.""The most simple way I can?""Yes, we all know that the reason as to why you are here is linked to the reason why the great general Muracier hasn't made a public appearance in such a long time but instead of truly telling me what I wanted to hear, you just said that he told you to come. This is not what I wanted to know but it would be improper of me to dig further into it so I had to give up. Do the same when people ask about you. Tell them something they should already know and could make up an answer without telling the whole thing."He wasn't completely sure of how to do that but she had him practice it for a while after that. Asking questions upon question while expecting him to answer them all correctly.The hardest to answer were those like: What is the name of your father? First of all, how was he to answer without really answering and second of all, which one?He was sure she meant Chinui but like every time this kind of thing came up, it was confusing to answer. Even if she told him that his father's name wasn't really what they were after here, he had a hard time coming up with an answer.The afternoon, even thought it was a bit draining, wasn't that terrible until later when she asked for the cooperation of the two slaves, it was only then that things got really tiring."You two as well, you have a responsibility towards your master. You need to tell me if he does something strange so that I will be able to correct it. This is for his own good, and yours by extension."The two girls looked at each other and came to the same conclusion while the teacher sipped another gulp of tea. Harriett spoke for them both, sentencing her master to hours more of mental suffering."Master was invited to two different social events today, a tea party and a feast."Giselle almost dropped her small cup and made a very annoyed noise."And of course, you accepted to go to both did you?" She complained as she leaned back onto her cus.h.i.+oned chair."Well yes, I said I had never eaten cake before and they decided to throw a party to have me taste some.""I see, so you were trapped into accepting, with you being the main guest, you can't chose to not go now. When is it?""I do not know. She haven't sent invitations yet."The teacher seemed a bit relieved."Perfect, then it means we still have some time to prepare you, who is the one hosting it, who is the organizer of it?""Mable." He answered."And of course, it had to be the small miss Mable! Are you torturing me on purpose?""What's wrong?" Asked Emp, genuinely confused like the two girls."She's the second worst at this after you, there is no telling what she will do. Could it not have been someone more sensible instead? Anything could happen there."He didn't know Mable was almost as bad as him, how did that sort of awkwardness happen? He had the excuse of not having been raised at all but Mable had parents didn't she? He couldn't imagine that she could be nearly as terrible as himself. Just this morning, he had been told he wasn't listening properly by that same Mable."She cannot be that bad. She seems much less awkward than me.""Let me explain it this way. You do not know the rules at all but at least you think for a long time before doing something. She, on the other hand, knows all the rules but ignore them whenever she pleases. She always acts without thinking and does what she wants."Emp had never noticed that. Even thinking back, he couldn't see it that way. Then again, he had been criticized for not paying attention more than twice today."Can you help master?" Asked Harriett in a pleading tone.After another sigh and a refill of tea, the teacher agreed to help."This is a serious affair. Young man, I hope you had nothing else to do today because now, not only do I have to prepare you for the questions, I also need to teach you how to behave at a tea party and how to address n.o.ble ladies properly before this event takes place. We will be here for a while."From then on, to the questions and answers were added many things he was expected to remember. How to sit properly, how to drink tea properly, how to address the others once again, what to not ask from them, table manners, who should eat the last slice of cake, who should eat the first and so on and so on.By the time he was finally released, it was dark outside and the old teacher told him to stay after cla.s.s the next day to continue.Not only was he dead tired but he had not managed to complete his main objective which was to find something to ask Harriett. Everybody was so focused on that tea party that he had found no time at all to find a subject of conversation."I would have never thought there were so many things to keep in mind just to go eat cake and drink tea.""I knew this would be hard, I hope master will be fine." Told him Harriett."I will, I am not scared of food and tea."Unless the food had the head of a living snake of course, then, it would be much more disturbing. Leaving that thought aside, he needed to have her talk some more to find a clue on what to buy."What do you think the girls will talk about at that party?""I don't know master, I do not know them enough to guess. But, when I worked for my father, I overheard many n.o.ble woman talk. They mostly bragged about the jewelry their husband bought them but none of the girls here are wedded."It was a very convenient line of discussion for him. He tried to push into it further."Is jewelry such a common topic?""It was, many n.o.ble woman do not work, or not much at least. That being the case, they often have no stories to tell and have to rely on what their husbands did, what he brought them or some piece of art they saw.""I see, but why jewelry in particular, there must be other more interesting things to talk about no?""Jewelry is an easy topic because they like to argue over which has the most valuable set. Paintings are another good one because the value of a painting changes depending on who looks at it and so they can debate for a long time on this."But hadn't Celtine said that their value was irrelevant? Was it because they liked their value more than the jewels themselves? Or maybe humans didn't think in the same way as the cursed-bloods?"You said you had an earring before, was it as extravagant as those the n.o.bles were wearing?"Harriett giggled a bit and answered with a smile."No, mine was just a simple silver ring while those n.o.ble woman wore finely cut stones, often dangling from pretty golden chains. It would never compare."Emp thought about a stone he could find on the roadside for a second before he understood she was talking about precious stones. That would have been embarra.s.sing to say out loud."I never saw a gem from up close before. I saw some inlaid in jewelry from afar but I never got within arm's reach of one.""Is master talking seriously? Master's arm's reach is very long. Even when it looks like you can't reach something on the table back home, you can do it anyway." She said in admiration.Emp wasn't sure, he didn't have a clear picture in his head of how far he could reach. In any case, he was convinced that this subject wouldn't bring him closer to the answer he was looking for so he tried to turn the it into something else.He talked about the place where he got the blessing instead and how beautiful the view was from the top of that cliff. Their conversation continued for a while but when he found himself in his bed, he had learned nothing new.In the morning of the next day, the group had a horse riding lesson.He discovered that Kenneth was a very talented rider, it seemed as if he had rode horses since he was a toddler. Nereus even joked that he probably learned that before he learned how to walk, just like he learned how to yell at people before he learned how to present himself properly which made the others laugh a lot.Like every other subject they received lessons about, there were various degrees of talent in the cla.s.s and Emp wasn't one of the best at this. He had no trouble getting on top of the animal but he found it very uncomfortable.The others had a lot of fun when they saw that Celtine was much better than him at this."She is used to riding after all." The others claimed.This was true, he felt that comparing himself to a horse was appropriate in those circ.u.mstances."I am probably the best horse of the school too." He declared, making everyone laugh again.Hadley, the teacher in horse handling must have been pretty exasperated that everyone laughed throughout the whole lesson. He was just trying to teach them useful things after all.Emp did listen to what he explained but it would probably end up being more useful to Celtine than him. He was clumsy on horseback and had a hard time adjusting to the movements of the animal.At the very least, when he rode the horse, he thought about putting Celtine on the horse with him rather than leaving her on his shoulder before she fell off of them both. She seemed much more comfortable on it than him. She seemed to enjoy herself and sat comfortably while he struggled to control the horse. It was easy to see since he had to reach around Celtine to do so.
