Chương 23: Chapter 22 – Holding Up Well

Laura's eyes went wide with alarm.

"'Horrifyingly'?"

"The System is inflexible," Daniel began.

"It has a limited number of Proficiencies to work with. When a person is first integrated, talent, together with lived experience, determines which class they get assigned." Get to the point already, she almost hissed.

"If that person has no particular disposition towards any class, the result becomes almost random, weighted towards Fighter, the most customizable class path."

"And what does that mean for the kids?" Laura demanded through clenched teeth.

"For them, it is the exact opposite," he explained, undaunted by his wife's impatience.

"They are extremely talented in a way that the System doesn't really know how to handle. So, Kai got assigned Sorcerer. Lena got lucky. Her affinity for wizardry is high enough. But the System might still force the class on her at some point."

"... What?"

"Sorcerer is the most… malleable class of them all. The System essentially takes off the training wheels and lets your soul interface directly with magic. That is, generally speaking, not a good thing. I don't think we need to retread that ground."

"So our kids are doomed to corrupt their souls." Laura's chest felt hollow.

"I wouldn't go that far. It's been over thirty years since I became a Sorcerer, and I'm holding up well," Daniel said. Laura's spiraling thoughts came to a halt.

"... You're a Sorcerer?"

"I am," he confirmed.

"I've got it under control. I'm teaching Kai how to keep it under control, and I will teach Lena the same, should it come to pass." Why didn't you tell me? Laura wanted to ask, but she knew the answer. It just hadn't been relevant.

"You said Sorcerers have a theme of sorts."

"A Concept."

"Mhm. What is yours?" Daniel froze. It took him nearly a minute to reply.

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"First of all, I'm not sure myself. I strongly suspect what it is, but I can never be certain. But more importantly, if I'm correct and I name it…" He shuddered.

"Words have power, Laura."

"Can you… describe it instead?"

"I'd rather not. The intent is what matters." Goddamnit.

"How do I know if you and Kai are… slipping away?"

"The primary tell is a tendency towards the extreme. For example, a Sorcerer whose Concept is something like rage, wrath, fury… If they 'slip away', they will only ever act and react in a way befitting that Concept." Laura's heart dropped. Oh no. = = = = = Laura sat behind her shabby desk at the Hunting Office, head buried in her hands. Her fifth coffee was slowly going cold, so she downed it mechanically. She had spent the entire night and most of the morning thinking.

The conclusions she had come to were not particularly heartening. The core of her dilemma was the sudden recontextualisation of Daniel's behavior ever since his accident. Before he had been found collapsed on the sidewalk on one of his evening walks, he had been… weird. Reclusive, eccentric, somewhat shy. Just what one would expect from an expert software developer, really. Adorable and honest in just the right ways to turn him into the perfect husband for her. After the accident, he changed.

The doctors attributed it to trauma, a realignment of priorities, or a 'spiritual awakening'. The shyness was replaced by an almost magnetic self-assurance. His pathological avoidance of social gatherings lessened, turning into hard boundaries instead, like insisting on going home at precisely ten in the evening. His eccentricity laser-focused onto a strange hobby she thought he had picked up from the internet. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

By all accounts, he seemed like a man who had faced death and subsequently accepted his place in the world. And wasn't that more correct than I could have ever known. She sighed a deep, weary sigh. Which parts of these changes had been wrought simply by living five decades in another world, fighting for his life and killing countless people? And which parts had been a result of sorcery? And did it even matter? Their marriage was working.

Exceedingly well, even, when compared to the many messy divorces she had witnessed in her social circles. They had successfully raised two kids, with Daniel taking to the father role with an enthusiasm she had never seen before. He knew he wasn't the type for sentimentality, so he taught his children instead. Mathematics, philosophy. His personal ethics. All packaged into lessons they hadn't even recognized as such.

One time, when eight-year-old Kai asked where the water from the toilet went after flushing, he had somehow gotten the boss of the local sewage treatment plant to give them a guided tour. They had returned quite smelly, but Kai had talked about nothing else for days. Speaking of which, I need to follow up on the sewage guys. Apparently, they could keep the plant running by burning sewage gases for power, as long as someone was securing the area.

Functional wastewater would be a huge morale boost, even more so once Daniel installed a super-sized Brandt Box at the local waterworks. She made a note, pinned it to the crowded pinboard on the wall, and sighed. I can't even concentrate on something as important as my husband's soul. There really wasn't much left to consider, though. Laura could only stay vigilant, looking for signs of Kai or Daniel becoming impossible to handle in some way.

So far, handling Daniel simply required doing the things she had always done – framing murderous golems as friendly protectors was, in practice, surprisingly similar to rewriting his customer letters. She penned a few more old-school notes about increasingly asinine problems, until she heard loud footsteps echo through the corridor. The originator knocked excessively on her office door, then entered without waiting for a reply.

"What is the meaning of this, Laura?" Uta Pfenning planted herself in front of the desk, vexation and entitlement radiating from her like heat from an oven. Her greying hair was tied into a tight knot, and she glared through her half-moon glasses like a teacher scolding their student. Laura forced down her own irritation and suppressed the urge to match the energy.

"Good morning, Uta. How can I help you?" Shit, that was too confrontational.

"You know exactly why I'm here. My son is not going to be excluded from your excursions!"

"I'm afraid that matter is out of my hands for now," Laura deflected gracelessly.

"Let's talk about this another time." When I'm not as drained. Uta was having none of it.

"Tom killed a lot of goblins. He split them with his axe, Laura! In a single strike! He deserves to be in the vanguard party."

"We will form another vanguard soon. We are steadily expanding our secured area, and one party won't be enough to cover everything. Tom can apply to it, and given his experience, I can fast-track him."

"That's not what this is about! He was just… discarded, like a tool! After he risked life and limb for this village!"

"Frankly speaking, the vanguard party just wasn't a good fit," Laura said, borrowing Kai's composition complaints.

"No healer, nobody to absorb hostile aggression. Each role was doubled up. Two melee combatants, two ranged fighters."

"You sent them into combat anyway."

"At your explicit request." This is going nowhere. At this rate, I'm going to cause a feud.

"Fine, have it your way," Uta seethed.

"We will have to rethink our arrangement with the Hunting Office, then. Selling our dairy without you as intermediary would be more beneficial to us anyway. I'll ask the Hofstedts their opinion later." Bullshit. She already did. She's too smart to tell me her plays in advance.

"What do you want?" Laura sighed.

"A public apology." That was completely and utterly out of the question, for a myriad of reasons.

"No."

"Then, four golems. Not the neutered ones on the streets, but the ones hunting goblins in the forest. Obedient to me and me alone." A test, probably. There were other alchemists in the village, with access to basic golem-making rituals. They would be able to tell Uta that handing over all authority just wasn't possible. Uta had come here not to negotiate, but to punish. There were multiple traps here. Three Laura immediately clocked, and probably more once she had time to think.

Refusing the request outright would be a clear signal to the other old families – no major privileges would be given to large contributors. While that would be great PR for the general population, it would severely weaken the already brittle Hunting Office by disincentivizing key players. Lying about golem allegiance, then granting the request would allow Uta to frame the exchange as the Brandts occupying the Pfenning farm in retaliation.

An absolute disaster that would inevitably spiral into Daniel flipping the board. Being honest about the golems would simply be a bad look. People just didn't want to think about who exactly controlled the killer automatons walking among them, so the topic hadn't come up in a way that wasn't easy to dismiss. Stating it outright, even in a private conversation, could set off an avalanche of consequences that would be impossible to predict.

Again, there was the risk of Daniel going off the rails, but that was almost certainly not a factor in Uta's plans.

"I'll think about it," Laura declared in a way that couldn't be construed as anything other than dismissal.

"Please do," Uta replied, an insufferably smug smile on her face.

"I will be anxiously awaiting your decision. I hope we will be able to… resume a mutually beneficial relationship in the future." She turned on her heels and left, strutting out the door like a celebrity. There goes our milk.