The Northern Noble is a Grinder (Chapter 9).

The Northern Noble is a Grinder (Chapter 9).

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Commissioned by Sivantic

Word count: 2500

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After just a few days of wearing only armor and fighting against innumerable monsters, I found formalwear to be an unfamiliar luxury. The softness of the fabrics against my skin, the assured beauty provided by the corset, and the secrecy allowed by makeup allowed me to gather myself. A lifetime of wielding beauty, wealth, and courtesy returned to me in an instant. All of it was far more natural than wielding magic, taking injuries simply because I knew I could heal through them, and teetering on the brink of death by gathering as many monsters as possible to kill.

Clad in the colors of my household, red and black, I felt a certain measure of safety as Lord Trelawney’s fiancé neared.

Meanwhile, Lord Trelawney was clad in his typical, boyish noblewear save for the fact that he wore a furred cloak over his shoulders.

A furred cloak that exactly matched the one the sorceress wore when she invaded my dreams.

But tailored for him.

I prayed that the matter of our false engagement could be dealt with before anything absurd occurred.

Then, before I could have any more thoughts, a great and terrible power came into ‘view’ from the west of the castle. To my eyes, I could only see a lone figure traveling through the sky at incredible speed with a fluttering white coat. However, to my honed senses for magic, it may as well have been a raging pyre arising from the crest of the world that rivaled the sunrise.

My rising fear was not helped by Lord Trelawney’s blasé attitude.

“Ooh, she’s really pissed. Keep your guard up. I’d protect you myself, but I think that would just piss her off more.” Lord Trelawney glanced at me from his shoulder before turning back towards his incoming fiancé. We awaited her at the courtyard at the foot of the castle. Only myself, Lord Trelawney, and a few guards were present to greet her. “Work hard!”

Then, he cast his gaze forward and contorted his features into a stern sneer.

Snow melted, grass grew, and flowers erupted all around the courtyard as if spring itself heralded her, the sorceress-queen’s, arrival.

When her bare feet touched the cobblestone path, the frigid frost that enrobed the courtyard was gone.

It was an act of great majesty, but my eyes were focused on how her staff of carved, black stone topped with sapphires had blades at the top that resembled the heads of great axes.

And how she held her staff like an executioner instead of a sorceress.

It took all that I had to not kneel before her, especially as her gaze was firstly on me.

Thankfully, before I was crushed beneath the weight of her gaze, Lord Trelawney cleared his throat and addressed the matter directly.

“Before we begin, an explanation is needed. Lady Argelia is my student and guest. Not a new fiancé.” The sky-blue eyes of the sorceress went to him but glanced my way after a moment. I barely remembered that I needed to keep myself protected before a probing tendril of magic nearly launched me backward. It was only thanks to constant encounters with danger the past several days that I managed to create a barrier that shattered but kept me from receiving any direct harm. At Lord Trelawney’s lack of direct protection, the weight of her gaze lightened considerably. Breathing was no longer a trial. “Now… do I need to protect my guest and student again, or are you satisfied?”

I knew the answer before it left her lips.

“I pray you offer me the honor to be your guest, Lord Trelawney.” The staff was raised and held like a scepter instead of an axe two movements from being swung. A sigh of relief left me, and the cool features of the sorceress softened for a moment. The slightest of nods came from her and onto me. This time, when she spoke, it was obviously in the Empire’s tongue. It was accented finely, like a songbird’s lilt echoed with every word. “And to the young maiden, I offer restitution for my unseemly acts.”

She reached for the head of her staff and broke off a blade tipped with a sapphire. In her hands, the stone shifted and changed until it turned into a saber with a sapphire at the pommel. She sent it my way, and it fit perfectly in my hand, with its weight perfectly balanced. I swallowed thickly as I realized that one glance at my frame, and perhaps my hands, and she had perfectly discerned how I fought.

I bowed my head in thanks.

“I am grateful for your kindness. All that has occurred shall be forgotten.” That statement earned me a nod of acknowledgment. Then, after that, I was as invisible to her as were all the guards and servants.

Her gaze was solely on the young Lord Trelawney, decades her younger. I knew of similar marriages. Second or third sons marrying an older lady of a house that has lost its lord and heirs. Or, a single daughter of a household losing her husband and all her generation were already wed. It was for the sake of ensuring the bloodline persisted.

This, though?

My stomach turned over at the blatant desire for power with which the foreign sorceress viewed Lord Trelawney.

Once I was out of the way, though, he smiled and addressed her directly.

“Nice new body. Decent top speed, and you’re not winded after a night of flying. You’ve been taking lessons.” I wanted to be elsewhere as he addressed the powerful sorceress. Every word out of his mouth seemed to insult her. I would never dare imply such things, let alone utter them. Lord Trelawney’s every other breath seemed to be an insult. It was a mark of professionalism for the staff that they trundled forward with a wheeled cart and offered the sorceress bread and wine. She consumed the loaf of hearty wheat and grains in one hand and drank a whole bottle of the strong wine without flinching. The insults aimed at her didn’t seem to register at all. “So, what do you have to say for yourself? You’ve failed in being an ally to my family. I have every right to annul our relations and see you ruined.”

“You will do no such thing.” The white-haired, pale-skinned sorceress stated simply. She leaned back, and stones arose from the ground to give her a throne to sit upon. With a gesture, Lord Trelawney put his own power to use. Faint threads formed a platform for him to sit upon, while the sun’s rays dimmed as a shimmering, near-invisible tent of threads formed around us. The simple move gave the sorceress pause, while I became intimately aware that I was at his complete and utter mercy. “It will delay the vengeance you seek to launch against those who harmed your family. The gods of the Fading Isle are fickle and capricious. They understand vengeance and passion, but not slow, careful destruction. Our engagement gives you the right to come to my lands and strike out against those who killed your family.”

The words she uttered were beyond me.

These two tread with such power and strength that they brokered deals with gods of the land in order to strike against those who worshipped them. I recalled Lord Trelawney brokering his own vengeance against the people of this land. The tribal peoples here did not receive the aid of their deities because he was striking against them as a disaster would.

If he wishes to wreak such a vengeance against the foes who harmed his family in the Fading Isle, he will need to broker a similar agreement with the gods of that land.

Thus, he gave the sorceress something to bargain with.

Or so I had thought.

Lord Trelawney ceased smiling, but it wasn’t anger or disdain that overtook his features. Nor was it even confidence in his own strength.

It was the face of a scholar ready to relay truth regardless of how horrifying it may be.

“Ransom. I have the right to enter the Fading Isles by offering ransom for a living prisoner.” I could not stop the intake of breath that went through my lips. Neither could the sorceress-queen retain her mask. Her brow furrowed, but such a single movement may as well be a scream of affront in court. Lord Trelawney’s hatred for those who harmed his family led him to extremes. To have kept one of the killers alive for ransom to return to their family alive… he must have sated his hate in a different manner. “So, go ahead and give it another try, Lady Aigen. I have a ticket that can get me in there to cause havoc whenever I want.”

A fierce smile crossed his features after a moment.

“I might even do it after a few years of training so that the gods of your land have no choice but to accept what I do.”

A shiver went down my spine.

If he was this strong at a mere fourteen, then how much stronger will he be with another four years?

…

Lord Trelawney’s negotiations with his future bride took time normally set aside for training and breakfast. He cited that lack of sleep was enough to warrant avoiding the morning exercises, but after the negotiations, our aim was to venture out and continue to kill monsters.

Alice helped me out of my dress and assisted me in getting into light armor suitable for the coming battle.

Today we were to fight the local population of ogres.

Ogres are large and powerful beings that lived in solitude. They wandered forests and preyed upon large beasts and protected natural groves and springs, which they called their home. They were intelligent monsters who prized human flesh but knew better than to attack villages outright. Instead, they struck travelers or ‘defended’ their territory in the wilderness. If a group of hunting humans went after them, they would flee before returning with a plan for the same group of hunters. Between their size, strength, speed, regeneration, toughness, and ability to use primordial magics, knights of noble households were best suited to their destruction.

A knight who slew an ogre would find themselves greatly acclaimed, and it was a mark of honor that many wore to the end of their days.

Today, Alice and I were supposed to kill twenty such creatures before sunset.

“I would say that I feel as though I’m heading to my death, but that would be a lie.” Alice gave a hum while tightening my armor until it was flush against my form. She was making sure there was no easily grabbable surface for the creature to take hold of or to catch onto a tree or branch. It was all hardened leather atop padded wool. Basic steel armor would be largely useless against such powerful foes. “The fact that I only have to kill twenty-five of them in single combat seems trifling.”

“Careful, my lady. Our sense of normalcy is being warped at a rapid pace.” Alice warned me, and I nodded. We have been here for such a short amount of time. We fought slimes, insects, and then wolves. This was our fourth target. In barely four days, our strength dwarfed what we had just in the prior week. Not to mention the fact that one single mistake would’ve meant death, if not for Lord Trelawney’s constant mentorship over us. “We have fourteen more weeks here. If this continues, we will be nonsensical and beyond anyone’s ability to understand upon our return.”

I nodded at her words and felt her tug on a few pieces of my armor before giving a small hum of completion.

Without thinking, I turned to her and proceeded to check on her own armor to ensure that everything was in place.

It was not my place to do so, but every minute we could get to ourselves was one to be cherished.

With that done, I turned to the armory with the intent to look for weapons to use, only for the door to open and admit Lord Trelawney fully clad in his armor.

“Best that you use the weapon that you were given, princess.” The words made me grimace, but I nodded. “Don’t worry. You’ll be in plenty of danger even while using amazing gear. Just think of it as a sword that won’t go dull.”

“That is plenty amazing in itself.” I stated and earned myself a nod. The armor floated into the room. When I first met him, I thought the whole armor held a person within. Now, I could see it. The innumerable tendrils of magic that kept it in motion and in flight. Like a dizzying array of sinews and strands of muscle, the armor moved in accordance with his will. His ability to manipulate magic was as staggering as the amount that he had. Combined with the ancient, powerful spells layered onto the pieces of armor he used, he had little to fear. “But I would like to be permitted a secondary weapon. She would not be cross with caution, correct?”

“If you haven’t pissed her off, she shouldn’t. Oh, and if you’re not in a way to get something that she wants or in the way of something that she wants. She won’t care that you exist unless you insult her.” I grimaced at the words, but still I elected to take a hefty and large war club made of metal on the wall. The weapon was nearly my height and as thick as my waist. However, I found no issue picking it off the wall and hefting it onto my shoulder. It was as light as a stick in my hands. “If you end up using that instead of her sword, and it’s not an emergency, she’ll probably see it as an insult.”

It would be declaring that the gifted blade was lesser than a hunk of steel with a lead core.

However, at the thought of something happening that would leave me without weapons, I made my decision.

“I would live to apologize to her rather than die with her weapon in my hand.”

Lord Trelawney nodded at my words.

“Good, you’re learning, princess. You’ll be an empress before you know it.”