TLNTAAM Chapter 4

Is This Place Worth Living In?

Iberia, it turned out, was a country with more procedural infrastructure than expected. Before I could meet Seraphie—the heroine of the TL novel—I had to pass through a series of steps.

'I knew I'd be tasting things. I did not know they would literally run experiments on me.'

A room with five or six maids present, a too-large maid's uniform pressed into my hands and immediately put on, and then I was brought directly here. In a space lined with racks of colored medicine bottles, someone who appeared to be a physician squinted at me through a monocle.

In the novel, Nina had appeared one day without any ceremony. The thought that there'd be a formal verification process had never crossed my mind. And the letter of introduction turned out to be mere paper—no one had asked for it. Instead, they'd administered their own tests.

Which was how I spent one hour in stomach pain after ingesting a herb for intestinal ailments, then fell asleep for thirty minutes after a sedative, and was now sitting here while Diomede fed me something called the oil tree fruit and watched me with focused academic interest.

I couldn't bear it anymore. I pulled up my sleeve and showed him the hives rising along my arm.

"Fascinating. The poison spreads quickly in you, but you recover just as fast."

I scratched at my skin just slightly—I couldn't stand it—and he stopped my hand.

"Don't scratch. You'll scar. There's no cure for this one, so just endure it."

'You fed me something with no antidote and you're telling me to endure it?'

I held back tears and twisted in place. I'd already known this was the reality of a poison-tasting maid's life, but having it confirmed felt different. Experimental rat was barely an exaggeration.

"It's from the oil tree. The antidote is still in development. I've had a persistent headache about it, so you're a relief. When you have no other duties, come assist me occasionally."

'No. Absolutely not. Never in my life.'

The red-haired man had his hair pulled back in a single tie. His words landed like a death sentence. I clenched my fist against the itch and stared at the monocle reflecting sunlight, deeply tempted to headbutt it into pieces.

"Truly remarkable. The hives are already fading? She has no inherent regenerative ability—it's quite interesting. Sacred power and magical power really do operate on fundamentally different principles."

The hives were fading, yes. The itch had not faded at all. I writhed and looked at him.

"What's your name?"

"Nina Cage."

"You're from the Church, I was told?"

"The orphanage parish in Sineryphyll."

He tilted his head to one side and, without any preamble whatsoever, ripped several strands of Nina's hair straight out of her scalp.

"Ow!"

"So the color is real."

What is wrong with you?! I wiped the startled tears off my face.

"Ah—sorry. I thought it might be dyed. In any case, ability confirmed. You can go." He waved me toward the door like he was shooing away a fly.

Wow. Genuinely upsetting. I was being treated exactly like a lab rat. I turned quietly, blinked hard, and walked out. A small thing, in the grand scheme. But the energy drained out of me completely.

'Drop dead, you absolute lunatic. May you acquire predatory debt and early-onset dementia.'

A curse Lee Hwayun had deployed frequently in South Korea. Whether predatory lending existed in this world was unclear, but I wanted something awful and grinding to find him and take everything.

'What kind of person even does that.'

He could have just asked for two strands and I would have handed them right over. Getting treated worse than a dog in this place.

I swore at him in my head all the way to the door, which I closed with careful, quiet hands.

Out in the corridor, the soldier on watch said, "Stand by. Someone from the inner castle will come to guide you."

I looked up at him, eyes still slightly wet, and smiled brightly.

"Yes. Thank you."

The soldier took in the crying child and narrowed his eyes. He shifted his spear to his other hand and reached over to pat Nina's head—tentative at first, then with surprising gentleness. It was warm enough to be a little embarrassing. I scratched my cheek. People in this place seemed to respond to small, young things by patting them on the head first and asking questions later.

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

"Same age as my niece. When did you arrive in Iberia?"

"Yesterday. This is my first time in a castle. It's all quite disorienting."

The soldier reached into his armor and produced something edible. My mouth tasted of nothing but medicine and poisonous plants, so I took it without asking what it was.

A little dry—but once it was in my mouth, reasonably chewable. The texture was like a sweet hardtack biscuit.

"Iberia takes some getting used to, but it's not a bad place. Lord Diomede is a precise and formidable man."

So the monocle has a name. Diomede. Whether I'll need to see him again—well, I'll probably have to see him again. Brain capacity is limited. Is it strictly necessary to memorize that lunatic's name?

I smiled and shook my head.

"I'm a poison taster, so. When I think about it, having my own body serve as verification really is the most reliable method."

The procedural rigor, at least, was notable. The Church had operated almost entirely on improvisation. By comparison, Iberia had actual infrastructure.

'Possibly more scientific than medieval...'

The Middle Ages as described in history books had been filthy and crude. This didn't appear to be that. Nina's memories of the orphanage were a different story—but then, the Church that ran it had never much resembled the God it claimed to represent.

"You're very composed for your age."

Because this body has a thirty-year-old personality living in it too. Though somehow we coexist without dissociative identity disorder. I genuinely find myself remarkable.

Either way, praise is pleasant. I smiled with genuine warmth.

"Coming to work here—it's a stroke of luck, honestly. I never imagined I'd end up somewhere like this."

"Settle in anywhere long enough and it becomes home. Hang in there. I'm not from here originally either, but I'll die here. I have a family now. And soon I'll be a father."

I looked at the soldier still patting Nina's head. The bearded man was smiling at the thought of the child yet to come.

'Oh, I have so many questions.'

Can outsiders really put down roots here? Is this a livable place? How does property work? Wages? Annual salary? What form does currency take? What are the denominations?

But a fourteen-year-old asking these questions would be arrested as a spy and delivered straight to the executioner. I sifted through my options and selected something age-appropriate.

"Congratulations! I hope the baby is healthy!"

"Thank you. I certainly hope so. I'm quite worried about it."

The worry itself looked like happiness on him. To Lee Hwayun, this bearded soldier appeared to be winning at life.

'A role model. Right here in front of me.'

I wanted to befriend this one too. Instinct said so clearly. This one, you have to pursue.

"Are you always stationed here? Would it be alright if I came to visit sometimes?"

"Hmm? Me? I'm here on odd-numbered days, but can you even get out? Inner castle maids don't seem to leave much."

"I'll have rest days at some point. If the timing works, I'll come find you."

'I won't show up empty-handed, either. You seem like a genuinely good person.'

'Not too close, though. Just... appropriately close.'

I needed allies. Information was scarce. And I was, a little, lonely. But getting too close to anyone carried risk—if something went wrong with Nina's situation, I didn't want the flames spreading to the people nearby. So I couldn't open myself completely.

"That's fine with me, but—oh, there's the maid now."

The same maid who'd shown me to my quarters in the inner castle last night. I bowed to the soldier and jogged toward her.

She looked at me and furrowed her brow slightly.

"What a nuisance. Why do I have to handle this. Have you at least memorized the layout?"

I smiled awkwardly. I arrived yesterday. Expecting full memorization of a castle in a single day is—actually, come to think of it, a child who had memorized it that fast would be suspicious. Wouldn't she?

"I've only managed the dining hall, I'm afraid."

"Are you slow? Memorize it. Am I supposed to escort you around everywhere?"

Wow. The territorial hazing is something. If you don't like the assignment, take it up with your supervisor—don't take it out on me.

'Nina is flagged as a potential spy, so the higher-ups want her specially managed. But if you can't read what your own superiors actually want, you'll never get promoted.'

The people above her probably preferred having me not wandering around unsupervised. Which this attitude made more likely, not less. Reading a room is a skill, and this girl didn't have it.

I glanced at her sideways. Brown hair, freckles. Young-looking.

'Sixteen, maybe?'

All signs pointed to low-ranking. Probably why she'd been stuck with the unpleasant assignment.

"I'll memorize it quickly."

Beneath me, but fine. I'll learn this layout out of pure spite. I stared down the corridor and began forcing everything into memory—red curtains, column decorations, the exact pattern of turns.

"Back-talking now, are you? Who said you could answer back?"

'When did I do that?!'

A fist landed on top of Nina's head. Thwack—a sharp crack of sound. I startled and stared at her. The sound surprised me more than the impact. There wasn't much pain.

'And here we are. Child with no rights. Fully confirmed.'

Hit first, ask questions never. Incredible. When did I last get hit by anyone? I couldn't remember. And here I am, getting this treatment.

She was holding her own wrist.

'Nina really does have a rock for a head.'

Lack of pain aside, something about it stung a little.

'Well. This is just how things are here.'

This was a different world, and Nina was low-ranking and an outsider. The hazing was always coming. Sabina had been so decent that I'd gotten confused about what the baseline was.

"Why is your head so hard!"

That's not my problem.

I shut my mouth. Exhaled once, quietly. Looked at her.

'I'm going to make your life inconvenient. That's a promise.'

If I get promoted, I'll have you placed under me. If I end up sentenced as a spy, I'll make sure you're named an accomplice. Whether I sink or swim, I will personally see to it that you come out of it slightly worse than you would have otherwise.

"Shall we go, miss?"

I smiled at her, bright and easy.

"Hey!"

"I'll memorize it quickly so I won't need to bother you."

Kids who took out frustrations on younger, weaker people were the type to step in something eventually. And the way to deal with them was never to look fragile—it only made things worse.

'Just wait, Freckles.'

I'm letting everyone else go. You're the one I'm holding onto. Lee Hwayun's nickname back in Korea wasn't "shark teeth" for nothing. I don't let go even when the tooth breaks. And I always pick at least one.

There was muttering behind me, but I was busy grinding my back teeth and memorizing the route. Nina's brain, fortunately, was reasonably capable—reviewing the path mentally a few times and it settled. We passed through the outer castle and into the inner building, through a series of turns, up a staircase.

We'd been walking for a while when Freckles stopped. Deep inside the inner castle, a set of ornate doors came into view.

'We're here.'

I was fairly sure I knew who was behind those doors.

Seraphie.

The Sacred. Seraphie. The heroine of this novel.

The door opened and a soldier gestured inward. I walked carefully forward—but Freckles stayed outside, waiting at the entrance.

'Just me going in.'

The opening scene of the novel came back to me. After a single platonic night with the king, Seraphie had wept because she wanted to return to her order. That was when a small maid approached and offered her a cup of water—the tasting already done.

I passed through layers of guards. And then I found her. Seraphie was weeping, just like she had in the novel. Delicate and heartrending.

Through the gauze, her arm looked too thin to hold itself up. Platinum hair spilling every which way—and even that caught the light and made it glow.

It was like looking at a beautiful painting that had decided to be sad today. A beautiful woman is beautiful in every expression. Crying should have just been crying. It wasn't.

I approached quietly. With each step, more of her came into focus.

White skin. Green eyes. Lashes damp and dark, and tears rolling down them—each one looking like a small precious stone.

"Who are you?"

Nina smiled. To the woman who would one day be her executioner, I dropped to one knee.

"Please call me Nina."

Nina had arrived in this room with no information placing this person as the Sacred. So I moved quickly to the table, took the cup of water, and drank from it first—the tasting done.

"I've become your dedicated poison taster starting today, my lady."

I held the cup out to her. Seraphie didn't take it. She looked Nina up and down.

"Your hair tells me you're not from here. Where are you from?"