Chương 66: 64 - The Smith Family

"I told you to call me Ignacia," said Igrette grumpily. If Oliver thought that Igrette's false name was strange, he didn't show it. He took her statement in stride, walking up to the table where Igrette sat. Igrette stood up just in time for him to clap his hand down on her shoulder.

"You'll always be Iggy to me," he said.

"You're looking good! What are you doing all the way out here?"

"I'm here for my grandson."

"Ah, of course," said Oliver, turning to look at Jonny.

"That must be you, then! Hi, there! My name is Oliver, but you can call me whatever you'd like. Oliver, Ollie, Grandpa, Uncle… I've heard it all, and I always love it! And what's your name?"

"Johnnnn…" Jonny trailed off, almost failing to remember he was in disguise at the moment.

"Johnnnn?" asked Oliver, repeating the extended -n.

"That's an interesting name."

"He usually goes by Jonny," added Igrette.

"Ah, Jonny!" said Oliver.

"We're going to have lots of fun together!" He reached out, placing a massive hand on Jonny's hand to ruffle his hair. Jonny flinched involuntarily, then flinched again when he felt Oliver's mana entering his body. A small tendril rapidly snaked down into his torso, feeling around his navel where his core was located. It wasn't aggressive or painful, and it wasn't even uncomfortable, but Jonny had not been prepared, and it annoyed him.

Glaring up at the giant man, he suddenly started circulating his mana, pulling on the intruding tendril and stealing more and more mana. Oliver's hand froze for a second, then he pulled his hand away. His smile did not change, but Jonny could have sworn he saw a glint in the other man's eyes.

"We can talk more about business later, though. For now, I am hungry. And I hope you are too, because Haley is an excellent cook."

"Flattery won't get you bigger portions," said a voice as the door to the kitchen opened.

"We have more mouths to feed tonight!" Despite the sound of the voice, the first thing to come out of the kitchen was not a woman. It was a massive, steaming pot, floating slowly through the air toward the table. Right behind it were two platters of bread, and two smaller trays with a large glob of butter on each. Only after all the food emerged did the source of the voice come out. The woman couldn't have been much more than five feet tall, and was lean like a gymnast.

She had fiery orange hair and the same pale gray eyes as the little girl, and she was smiling widely, but her gaze felt a little too intense for someone bringing food to a table. The food all floated silently ahead, and gently lowered itself to the table as the woman made small hand gestures to control it, and when it finally made contact, she turned her head to the side, and shouted so loudly it made Jonny flinch.

"DINNER'S READY!" Someone that small should not be able to make that much noise, thought Jonny, resisting the urge to wince. The sound of more footsteps filled the hallway as the woman sat down next to the bearded man who had greeted them at the door. The twins who had set the table reappeared from wherever they had gone, and behind them, an older girl carrying a toddler entered.

The twins had the same black hair as their father, but the older girl was the spitting image of her mother, and the toddler's hair was brighter than either of them. The whole family took their seats around the table, with the older girl setting the toddler next to their mother, then sitting down on the other side, while the twins sat on either side of the far end. Oliver sat down beside Jonny, and the girl who was with him sat between him and the twin. Jonny watched her more closely than the rest.

She had been with Oliver, meaning she was probably the Null he was working with, and Jonny had never met another before, so he was curious. When she sat down on the other side of Oliver, though, she was completely hidden from view, so he turned his attention back to the food in front of him. Haley called for everyone to bow their heads, then said a brief prayer before waving her hands as the food began serving itself.

"Pass your bowls," called Haley as she pointed her finger at the ladle that was currently dipping into the pot. Jonny's mouth watered as he watched the ladle fill each bowl with thick stew. It had already smelled good, but it looked like it was going to be the best thing Jonny had tried in years. He and Igrette had been surviving on cheap inn food and meat pies from street vendors, and while they were good, none of it was particularly special.

He wasn't sure if it was just the magical presentation, or if the stew actually looked and smelled that good, but Jonny was more eager to eat it than he had been to eat anything since his first days off the mountain. The first bite proved that it was the latter. The meat was tender, the broth was thick and creamy, the vegetables were cooked to perfection, and whatever herbs and spices Haley had put in were just right.

The bread was just as good, and the butter was easily the best he had ever had, and when he dipped the buttered bread into the stew, he felt like he was in heaven. While they ate, Haley grilled him and Igrette on their origins. It was clear she had been listening in on the conversation earlier, and unlike her husband, she wasn't quite as willing to let the more vague details go.

Fortunately, Igrette and Jonny had prepared for this on the road there, and Oliver proved to be an invaluable assistant, backing up their cover story so naturally it almost felt like he was in on it all. When Haley was finally satisfied, the tension in the room lessened, and the conversation turned more casual. Jonny and Igrette were introduced to the rest of the family, staring with the black-haired man who Jonny only then realized had never introduced himself.

"Alden Smith," he said.

"You can just call me Alden." And that was all he said. He wasn't the talkative type.

"Well, as you heard, I'm Haley!" said his wife, cheerfully.

"Haley Nemhard Smith. This is actually my dad's farm, but both of my brothers wanted nothing to do with it, so he handed it down to Alden when he died. My brothers were pissed but really, that's on them. They wanted to be merchants, and kept borrowing money to go start business ventures. They managed to break even once or twice, but usually, it crashed and burned, and they had to work odd jobs for a little while to make enough money to pay Dad back so that he'd be willing to loan them more.

"I think they were counting on having the farm to fall back on if everything failed. We'd sell it and they'd take their share and use it to start something less risky to settle down on. But screw that. I ain't sellin' this place. Do you know how long it takes to raise a herd like this? And how much this property is worth? This is two hundred years of family work right here, and there's no way I'm giving it up!

Lucky for me, Aldy likes the farm life, and Dad liked him, and my brothers both pissed away all their goodwill, so now we've got it!" Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. She grabbed her husband's arm and leaned into him, rubbing her head against his shoulder. Alden grunted something unintelligible, and his face didn't change, but Jonny got the distinct impression that he was quite happy.

"I'm Samuel!" said the toddler right beside Haley. He had been patiently waiting his turn to speak, apparently.

"I'm free!" He held up two fingers, and Jonny stared blankly for a few moments before realizing that the kid had meant to say "three."

"Nice to meet you, Samuel." Samuel nodded, seeming very proud of himself. Haley ruffled his hair, which made him giggle. Jonny then realized that he had not clarified whether Samuel was three like he said, or two like his fingers said, but it was too late, as the next Smith had chosen to do their introduction.

"Olivia." The speaker was the older girl who had carried Samuel in. She looked to be about fifteen, and was the spitting image of her mother, though a few inches taller, with the same bright orange hair and pale gray eyes, but her personality clearly took after her father instead. She didn't say another word other than her name, and just nodded at Jonny and Igrette before going back to her food.

"I'm Jacob," said the twin on the opposite side of the table from Jonny.

"And I'm Joshua," said the one on the same side.

"We're going to be mages," said Jacob confidently.

"We're gonna get to 4th layer and get our own mage towers. We'll be the only cattle farm in all of Oleira with two mage towers on it."

"You get mage towers for reaching 4th layer?" asked Jonny.

"Oh yeah," said Joshua.

"The government wants to make sure everyone pushes their magic, so they got all kinda incentives."

"There's no mage tower in this village yet, but the first one to get one will get a bunch of special benefits, and they'll get to be the primary mage tower," said Jacob.

"It's gonna be me."

"No, it'll be me."

"You can't even cast a proper Fireball yet!"

"Can too!"

"You've been practicing Fireball?!" exclaimed Haley.

"Not me," said Joshua, raising his hands.

"But Jacob has." Jacob gaped, realizing the trap he had fallen into.

"Josh has been practicing too!"

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh!"

"Oh right, I forgot, you tried, but you couldn't."

"I could, I just haven't."

"Right, right, of course. Well if you can, why haven't you?"

"Because we're not allowed to, duh."

"This is why you're gonna come in second. Too much of a coward to practice properly. Can't even cast Fireball."

"Can too!"

"Can not."

"I can!"

"Can't."

"I've done it! I did it first try, unlike you!" Jonny watched in amusement as Jacob leaned back smugly while Joshua froze in place, realizing the trap he had fallen into.

"Ah… Shit."

"So you've both been practicing Fireball," said Haley icily. The twins both started speaking at once, but a glare silenced them.

"You two are on dish duty for the week."

"But–!"

"Maybe next week too." Both twins shut their mouths, glaring at each other. Jonny put his head down and shoveled a bite of stew into his mouth to hide his smile. Haley apologized for their behavior, but Igrette waved it off.

"I used to work with children," said Igrette.

"I understand." For four months, thought Jonny with amusement.

"How do mage towers work?" he asked.

"I saw a bunch on the way here. Do mages just live there and cast magic." Igrette opened her mouth to respond, but Oliver struck first.

"Most of them are research facilities," he said.

"Technically, all of them are, since that's one of the requirements to get licensed, but there are a fair amount whose 'research' amounts to nothing more than finding ways to laze around and make money. Which isn't necessarily bad, since laziness has created some wonderful inventions, but I wouldn't call it real research."

"It's similar to how in Feria, powerful mages are given noble titles when they reach certain levels. It's just less centralized and has more… varied results." Oliver bristled.

"Is there a problem with varied results?"

"No, Oleira has certainly made many advancements over the years. At the expense of their military strength."

"Oh, so you think it's better to have all your most powerful mages work under a strict ruleset where their creativity is stifled and innovation is limited to what those on top say is acceptable? You think that stagnation is good?"

"I never said that," Igrette said, calmly sipping from her water cup.

"I'm just saying that perhaps Oleira would have been more useful in the Demon War if their mages were better-trained."

"Unless I'm misremembering, it was the Oleiran siege engines that allowed humanity to hold their lines against the demon assault."

"Hold the lines, yes. But a properly-trained war mage is worth dozens of those siege engines. With more, we could have pushed further and ended the war sooner."

"You clearly haven't seen the modern siege engines."

"People win wars, not machines." Oliver opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted as Haley cleared her throat. Both of the old folks looked over at her, slightly ashamed.

"My apologies," said Igrette, bowing her head slightly.

"Sorry," muttered Oliver.

"Back to the question, Mage Towers are subsidized research and education facilities where experienced mages can push the limits of magic, and new mages can get basic information and instruction without needing to spend money on academies. Of course, they're no replacement for a proper academy, but they help ordinary people make their lives better with magic, and reach a basic level of competence without breaking the bank.

They also often lead to apprenticeships when the tower master notices a promising young talent." Jonny nodded.

"So you were here looking for a mage tower researching Nulls?" Jonny felt the mood around the table shift slightly, and wondered if he had made a mistake. Oliver's face lit up, though, so it was probably fine.

"Exactly! And there was a tower-associated facility who invited me. They said they'd give me more resources and fewer restrictions. But those bas– uhhhh, liars… Those liars didn't actually want to work with me. They wanted me to work for them. I was doing 'independent' research, but it was all supposed to be for the purpose of furthering their interests. And you know what those interests were?"

"What?"" Curing Null Syndrome. They didn't have any curiosity. They had no vision for the possibilities. They just wanted to cure it. That's like trying to cure having brown hair! What is there to cure? You're not sick. Just different."

"But can you prove that?" asked Igrette.

"Prove it?" Oliver scoffed.

"I don't need to prove it. You've already proved it before me." He beamed, and turned to the little girl next to him, the last of the Smith children who had yet to introduce herself.

"We're finally gonna do it!" he said, ruffling her hair.

"Iggy and Jonny brought us the key!"

"They did?" said the girl, leaning forward to peer at Jonny from around Oliver's massive form. She had been sneaking glances over at Jonny all meal, but now that she had implicit permission to look, she wasn't holding back. She stared at him with her brow furrowed and lips pursed, clearly not impressed with what she saw.

"How?" she asked.

"That's what we're going to find out after dinner," said Oliver.

"But Jonny here is already second layer, and he's doing something very interesting with his breathing that I can't wait to hear about."