Chương 90: Book 2 Chapter 42 - Hiring The Family

Ron's jaw fell open. His mind was having a hard time reconciling what Shian had just said with the reality of the world they lived in. Hiring a private magic tutor for your servants wasn't something that was done. He had fleeting worries that it might be a trap of some kind, that she was luring his family in for some nefarious purpose, but he quickly dismissed those notions.

The servants he had seen on his way in today all seemed perfectly content, and he had never seen Shian do anything to warrant that kind of suspicion. That being said, why was she being so generous? What did she want from him and his family? Was there a chance that one of his children had a high affinity for magic, and Shian had found out about it somehow?

Even then, it was overly generous of her to sponsor something so expensive as private magic lessons, but that was the only somewhat viable theory he could come up with off the top of his head. He bowed deeply again.

"Thank you, Lady Yountal, you are very kind. We would, of course, love for our children to receive such a grand opportunity, and would be happy to take reduced pay to help offset the costs." She waved his offer away with her hand.

"No, don't worry about the costs, it's already paid for. It's free for all of the estate staff." She chuckled to herself.

"Quite a few of my guards have even taken an interest in the class."

"Ah," she added, holding up a finger.

"Belliston, the tutor, said that young children often haven't developed enough to find any value in the instruction, so Gabe probably won't be able to learn anything for another decade or so, but Ava is old enough. And you and your wife should attend too, if you're interested. Belliston said there's no upper age limit." Ron's mind was still reeling, and he wasn't sure what else to say, so he just nodded. Kiara spoke up again.

"Now, as far as pay, most of my estate staff earn a little over three gold per month. Would that be acceptable?" Ron nodded.

"Our farm brings in a similar income, my lady. If we needed to pay for lodging here in Easton, it might be tight, but with free room and board being offered, I'm sure it will work out just fine." She blinked a few times.

"Ah, I didn't explain it very well. If both you and Gentry are working, then you would earn three gold each per month. A little more, actually. For youth, like Ava, I think Dustin pays them slightly less, but once she turns sixteen her pay would increase as well." Ron's mind had stopped being shocked at the back to back absurdity of what he was being told. Was this level of pay standard for estate staff here in Easton? She certainly talked as if she were paying all of her staff this way.

Maybe he and Gentry should have considered moving to the city a long time ago. He bowed again.

"That is incredibly generous, my lady. We would be overjoyed to accept any job you might have for us." She smiled one more time.

"Great! Consider it done. When do you think you guys will be ready to make the move?" Ron would have originally asked if they could wait until after harvest season, since all of their hard work throughout the year was just paying off now. With the pay scale she had just mentioned though, any form of delay would be a waste. He did need to discuss things with Gentry again first, and bring it up with Ava, but he was sure they would make the move within a week or two. He told Shian as much.

She had him stay for lunch, since it was ready around the time they were done talking. After that, she had one of her carriages take him home, saving him hours of walking. He was home in the early afternoon, surprising Gentry. He told her about the visit, starting with the news that they had either already expected or that they had been hoping for: yes, the bandits were really gone, and yes, it had been Lady Yountal. Yes, the job offer was still available for them if they wanted it.

Next, he moved on to the additional good news, revealing it one piece at a time. He savored the looks of surprise and shock on her face as he revealed each part. He started with the fact that all three of them could work at the estate, instead of just one of them. The fact that she had offered them free room and board. The amount of money she was willing to pay them for their work. And finally, the fact that Lady Yountal was offering free magic instruction to all of her estate staff.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. By the end, Gentry had moved on from shock to instead feeling confusion.

"But why?" she asked, trying to wrap her head around everything.

"Any one of those things would be considered a year's worth of good fortune, but all of them combined? And why us?" They were good questions, ones that Ron didn't have an answer to. He could tell that Gentry was slightly overwhelmed thinking about it all. That didn't stop her from enjoying it just as much as him though when they broke the news to Ava later on. * Over the next two weeks, Belliston met with the first few people on the list. One of them was a guard, whose session only lasted an hour.

After that, Belliston pulled the next person in to work with them. Of those first three servants, only one was able to form a mana core in the two weeks. Belliston spent another few days with them, showing them how to control and shape the mana they had in their core, before turning them loose to practice on their own moving forward. The other two servants saw nice boosts to their physical strength and endurance from their repeated and consistent exposure to mana, even though they weren't able to form a core.

Belliston encouraged them to keep trying for another week or two before giving up, something they were both capable of doing on their own, now that he had guided them through the process a few times. After that, he pulled three new students in for private tutoring, working his way down the list. Another of those next three was a guard, and Belliston was able to quickly pull in the eighth name from the list after that.

Kiara's family moved into the estate, but were adamant that they pay her something for the room and board. They felt like they were taking advantage of her generosity otherwise. Kiara could tell they were uncomfortable with how much they were being offered, and so she acquiesced to ease their guilt. They determined what amount they would pay if they found their own place in Easton, and offered to pay her the same amount each month.

She countered by reminding them that none of the other estate staff paid for room and board, and they eventually settled on paying her half of their proposed amount. The following week was the end of Kiara's second semester in the intermediate sword class. She was tied for second on the leaderboard, only two points behind the person in first. She hadn't lost a spar in many weeks, beating even the other top students in the class the second time she sparred with them.

Some of those top students could still land a hit on her occasionally, but it was rare, and only when she slipped up. She usually beat them with a flawless score, and it was becoming apparent to everyone in the class that she was the person to beat in the upcoming tournament. She had reached a level of master with her dual-wielding forms now where she was expecting Handel to give her further instruction for what to focus on next, but he hadn't shown up during her after-class practice sessions any time recently.

She alternated her approach each day as she sparred, sometimes using only her right hand, sometimes only her left, and other times using her dual-wielding forms. Each approach seemed intuitive now, and her level of mastery with each was steadily increasing. She still found that deep flow state to be somewhat elusive during her spars. She stumbled into it every now and then, but for the most part she was able to beat her opponents too easily, and couldn't get into the right headspace.

She understood what their attack and defense patterns would be from a purely academic standpoint, due to the level of mastery she had achieved with the sword forms. She felt like she needed a more talented opponent to truly push her to her limits in order to really explore what that subconscious, intuitive flow state really was and how to enter it on demand. Henry sometimes taught the class as one of the guest instructors from the advanced class, but he hadn't had time to stay after and spar with her lately.

She was tied for second, but drew the short straw for the tournament seeding, ending up as the third ranked position for seeding purposes. Her duel on Monday was against one of the bottom students from the class, and she won it easily. Even with the dueling collars, she wasn't a fan of smacking her opponents in the face, since she knew most of them pretty well by this point, having spent six months with them in this class. Instead, she focused on landing two hits on their torso to win the spars.

For the duels, where the collar only shut off with a kill shot she focused on landing a hit where there heart would be. Her duel Tuesday was against one of the students from the middle of the rankings, and she once again won flawlessly. Tuesday was a dual-wielding day, and she parried one of her opponent's attacks with her left hand, swinging his sword out wide, then following up with a strike from her right hand, straight to his heart.

Now that she was proficient in the dual-wielding forms, those spars always seemed the easiest. Wednesday she was back to using her right hand for the duel, and was up against the eleventh ranked student, who had beaten the sixth ranked student the day before. The duel wasn't as quick as the one the day before, but still lasted less than twenty seconds altogether. She was past the days where she would let the spars drag on to maximize her learning.

The skill level of her opponents was simply too far beneath her own now to be beneficial. She honestly felt like she had stagnated somewhat with the opponents available to her in the intermediate class. She still practiced on her own, and felt her mastery level slowly improving, but she wasn't growing in leaps and bounds anymore. Thursday was the day for her left handed forms, and she was dueling the second rank student, the one she was tied with.

Winning this duel would ensure her a place in the advanced class next semester, and she took it very seriously.