TLNTAAM Chapter 14

Career Counseling, Courtesy of the Commander

"How am I supposed to trust that."

"Want me to swear a knight's oath? I really won't kill you. Talk."

I looked sideways at the short-haired man. This was famous enough that Nina's memories had information on it. 'A knight's oath—is that the thing where they kneel on one knee and say "I will protect my lady for life"?'

"That's too much. I'll decline on my end."

I turned my head away. He tapped my shoulder lightly.

"Give me a little trust. I'm not that untrustworthy."

"I'm saying I can't. If you want to promise something, promise to stop people when they try to kill me."

The red-haired man crossed his arms.

"Who would kill you? You're of great use to His Majesty."

"I mean, I might stop being useful."

'Right. Exactly.'

If I became useless, the king would just—flick me away. Somewhere. Who knows where. If the food-tasting ability went and touching me stopped feeling cool, what would become of me. Kill me. Throw me out.

'What happens to a pet that loses its owner's affection?'

Starves. Gets scruffy. Gets abandoned in the end? How does a stray survive? Eat what others throw away, drink muddy water, cling on desperately? And then it's only a matter of time before becoming prey for something bigger?

If they're going to cast me off, at least give me money first.

"That's why I'm saying don't tell me to talk."

You find it entertaining. I find it life-or-death. Do you understand, esteemed sirs?

They looked at each other. A brief silence fell. I found it deeply pleasant. I enjoyed the quiet and swung my legs in the chair. The world was still spinning.

Then.

A gentle hand landed on my head. I looked at the owner of that arm. The knight wore a quiet smile and stroked my hair.

'People in this place are really quick to pat someone's head.'

Is that the first instinct here when you see something small and a bit helpless?

"Yeah. Your situation is a bit rough, isn't it."

"Then be kind to me."

He considered that for a moment. Then nodded.

"All right. I'll be kind. Let's see!"

The man's sharp grin was genuinely pleasant to look at, I thought, and I closed my eyes. The dizziness had progressed to a headache.

Then suddenly, my body was lifted. I struggled, but my waist was already in a firm grip.

"Kid. You're too light."

The knight hoisted me like a sack of rice and draped me over his shoulder. The world flipped upside down in an instant. I shouted for him to put me down and kicked my legs.

"I can't very well swat a lady's backside, so stay still!"

"What is this! What are you doing!"

"I'll take you back."

"Why like this! At least help me walk!"

"This is faster."

The knight turned back to the red-haired man.

"See you."

In this position, all I could see was the floor and the knight's waist. I strained my core as hard as I could, trying to lift my upper body. But every time the man moved, my body bounced. I slid back to where I started.

"I'll be waiting."

I could only hear his voice, but I could feel it. There was laughter in the red-haired man's voice. 'Hey! Step in! Or at least tell him to carry me properly!'

'You're enjoying this, aren't you?!'

"Was he leaving me like this because the sight was funny? Was that it?"

Knowing or not, the knight opened the clinic door and walked out. I tried several times to right myself, but gave up everything in the face of that relentless bouncing.

"Where do you sleep?"

"The room at the south end."

"Ah, that solitary room? You're being given special treatment in a number of ways."

What kind of room was it, that even a knight knew about it? Did maids who stayed in that room all end up as morning dew on the execution grounds and vanish?

'Unsettling!'

Why was I assigned that room? Because of the spy suspicion?

I thought back to the quarters I'd stayed in when I first arrived. That had been a six-person room, but ordinarily it seemed three or four to a room.

'I'd actually prefer to share with others...'

Seeing each other's faces every day—you'd naturally grow closer to at least someone.

The knight walked steadily forward. The clanking of armor in motion wasn't bad, actually. The problem was something else.

The corridor had maids passing through, naturally. Every time I saw a skirt hem, I wanted to disappear into the nearest hole in the wall.

'Am I not making things worse somehow?'

The girl causing a stir for spending the night with the king, and now not even half a day later, slung over an unrelated knight's shoulder! If I worked in this castle, I'd have more than enough to whisper about.

'Oh lord. I want to cry.'

I needed to come up with some kind of plan, but my head wasn't working properly, probably because of the drugs. Words were still bypassing my brain entirely.

"You need to eat more. Why are you so small and light?"

"I'm genuinely eating well. Every day I'm amazed at how much delicious food there is."

Lee Hwayun had grown up eating well enough, but for Nina, the dining hall's food deserved more praise than words could offer. If I ever met the head chef, I felt I'd want to bow to the floor.

"Miller does have skill."

"The meals are genuinely satisfying."

A company cafeteria menu tells you everything about the workplace. The moment I saw the meals this castle served, I understood what kind of nation Iberia was.

'It might seem small, but food being good is no small thing.'

Ingredient budgets actually being spent on ingredients meant financial oversight was working.

'Nobody's siphoning off the funds!'

The more I knew, the more Iberia looked like a genuinely good nation. Which was why I wanted to stay here, all things considered.

"Just not as a maid..."

Wasn't there some other reasonable work I could do?

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I drew a quick breath. The truth serum really was impressive. How were words just flowing out like this?

"Nothing important. Just that I want to quit being a maid."

"You want to quit?"

"Learn the right skill and I'd quit in a heartbeat. What do you think I should learn?"

What would get me into a skilled profession? I needed to explore career options, but things had been so chaotic I hadn't even had a chance to dream.

"My body is strong—maybe a knight?"

Nina healed fast and had a hard head. Thinking about how Freckles had been more rattled with each hit she'd landed—a knight seemed plausible, didn't it?

"Female knights are amazing. Are there many female knights here?"

Was fourteen already too late?

Conveniently, there happened to be someone in that profession right there. I asked freely. The man didn't answer. Instead, he suddenly started pressing his fingers into my forearm and back.

"Ow! What are you doing!"

I flailed like a fish that had landed on shore. The knight patted my back reassuringly.

"You can't be a knight. Wrong kind of muscle."

"You can tell that by pressing on me?"

"You have too many flexible muscles. These won't support a sword's force. And for a woman, you'd need to have started younger, with better muscle quality from the start. In short—insufficient raw strength. Not viable, kid."

Quite comprehensive knowledge. He was the expert, after all. An amateur would do well to generally listen to someone skilled.

I crossed knight off the list. There was always the option of training through blood, sweat, and will, but if I was honest with myself, physical combat wasn't my strength.

'Holding a sword means cutting someone.'

Killing people with sharp things, as a profession. I tilted my head down a little. Reconsidered.

It wasn't something to bring up casually just because I wanted an excuse to quit being a maid.

"Sorry."

"For what?"

"No, nothing. I think I said that too easily."

The knight patted my back lightly, as if to say it didn't matter.

"Well, when you're young, you want to be everything. I'm not the type to scold a kid for admiring female knights."

I smiled awkwardly. He'd taken my words the way you'd take a child saying 'I want to be president when I grow up.'

Well. Whatever worked.

"Then what about a mage?"

I imagined myself in a pointed hat, firing fireballs. Actually, how did magic work here? Like skills in a game?

The knight stopped walking. I lifted my head in confusion.

"Kid. You really don't know anything, do you."

"Pardon? ...Yes."

"Aren't you the food-tasting maid? You have divine power. You're saying you'd learn arcane magic? They'd clash."

'I blinked. Wait. Was that how it worked?'

"Someone with divine power will burst their heart before they can even learn arcane magic. Never do that."

That was terrifying. Good heavens. I'd been brave because I was ignorant.

"I didn't know."

"You really did come from the countryside. You know nothing about arcane magic. This is actually one of the reasons the Church treats magic with suspicion—it's a power they themselves can't access, so they reject it outright."

"I don't know much about divine power either. I only saw it for the first time when I came here."

It was true. Nina had first witnessed divine power through Seraphie. It was still vivid.

A white, sacred light moving inward through the body. Spiraling, and then dispersing with a soft fragrance.

Something that couldn't be grasped at the fingertips and yet had a strange, unmistakable presence.

"The Saint is a miracle. Her existence gave us something enormous, but..."

The knight didn't finish the sentence. I stared at the green carpet on the floor and imagined what he was feeling.

'The lord he's loyal to isn't suffering from the side effects of his power anymore. But he's gained a different vulnerability.'

Because of the Saint, the king was no longer in pain. But if the Saint were lost, the pain from his power would return. So Iberia had no choice but to lock the Saint away and guard her.

'So that's why the forces are concentrated. That's why a knight from the border regions came to the capital.'

The king had assembled his military in the capital to prevent any incident before it could begin. The dear king was not simply a man with a handsome face. As in the original work—capable in every respect.

"Right then. Magic's out. Become a scholar instead?"

I'd been thinking about something else entirely. The knight asked.

Oh. I hadn't expected him to actually think through my career options. I laughed out loud, unexpectedly.

"Don't scholars need to go to school?"

"True for researchers. Not for herbalists, though. Kid, do you want to go to school?"

I rubbed my forehead, where blood had been pooling from being upside down. School.

Of course. Children were supposed to go to school. But Nina had no money.

'And this is why public education is a gift!'

I missed South Korea, where children were sent to school by law.

"Going would be wonderful. But I don't want to be a scholar."

I had no desire to come all the way here to do the same work that had worn me down as Lee Hwayun. Of course a scholar was infinitely better than a maid, but drilling deep into academic subjects—I was done with that.

'And having to beg for time and budget every time you needed research funding. No.'

The memory of research directions whipping around with every change in administration made my body shudder.

'I'd put it on the list when desperate, but I'd rather avoid it if at all possible.'

If survival was the issue, research was fine. But wasn't there something more solid?

"What about administration, then? No school required—just a test."

It was like lightning striking my head. How did royal palace administration work? I had a modern person's grasp of mathematics and systems. That should translate.

"How does the test work?"

"Mostly assessed by the palace. Various fields, but the most representative one is..."

The knight suddenly shook with laughter. Which shook me, hanging over his shoulder, along with him.

"Maid."

The air went out of me instantly.

"Oh, come on! He was messing with me this whole time!"