Family Business 19: Poison (Patreon)

Family Business
Chapter 19: Poison

-VB-

Once the elites of Demacia came over to my side to get their issues - or the issues of their spouses and families - taken care of, all I had left to do was convince the rest of the people.

Sure, the hospital charity work was sure to convince many, but not all of them would be convinced.

Some people needed a first hand experience, not just what others told them.

It was risky.

It was stupid.

But I felt that it was necessary.

Even the king thought I was taking unnecessary risk, but he agreed with me in stating that my plan would indeed increase acceptance of magic.

And if something terrible were to happen…

Well, if my magic couldn’t protect me, then it would only serve as evidence that magic wasn’t almighty and that it wasn’t something to fear or discard.

Thus, here I was in the main street of the Great City of Demacia, personally talking to each of the people who wanted to talk or seek my help.

Holding the hands of an elderly grandmother with her adult grandson, I smiled. “Of course. There are no side effects from this. In fact, I imagine that by the time your grandson gets married, you might even be forced to babysit his children,” I joked.

The grandmother and the others around me laughed jovially. “Oh, if only I can do that!” she chuckled while the grandson in question looked red and uncomfortable. “He already has a girl he wants to marry, so it might not even be too far away!”

“Grandmother, we’re not in that kind of relationship…”

“Oh, shush. I’m sure it’s just the youngins being embarrassed with everything. Soon enough, you’ll be leaving me with half a dozen little ones to bother me.”

I smiled. “Well, if you do need a good job, then you can come over to my city in Jorasmang. We always have a need for carpenters.”

The young man - who was likely within five years of my own age - hesitated. “But why would you need me when you have magic?” he asked me.

This got the attention of the people around me. Though I was merely walking down the street with a single bodyguard and a single healer, I was not holding back on my magic, though it was less me and more the guard and the healer.

My bodyguard was equally uncomfortable, but all he had to do was wear armor with rotating golden symbols of light for holy, protection, cleansing, and strength circling right up to his armor and clothes. This made him like a beacon in the mid-morning walk. My healer dressed herself in fine silk robes with the green cross of my healers, a symbol I stole from my old world.

“Hmm, it has a lot to do with money.”

That confused the hell out of everyone.

“Money?”

“Yes!” I hummed. “You see, I am sure I can find a magician to do what you do, but how many magicians do you believe are working on carpentry as … their major, if you will?” I asked him but also to everyone around me. “Remember, I am a magician but I only showed myself for the sake of helping our people, because I believe that it is the duty of a noble to help the commoners and his people! But how many magicians are nobles? How many have the resource that I do?”

I looked around. They looked troubled by my question.

“Not many, I will tell you, at least in Demacia. In fact, I wager that many of them are in hiding, keeping their abilities hidden.”

They nodded in agreement.

“So among how many magicians that may be hiding, do you believe that there is a magician who can use their magic to do carpentry?”

“... Not many,” the grandson replied.

“And how many of them are as experienced as you? How long have you been a carpenter?”

“Ten years, milord,” he replied proudly.

“And tell me, how many magicians will have even half of your experience?”

“... Less than the few,” he said as he understood.

“Exactly!” I said excitedly. “Being a magician is also very tiring, did you know? For the same number of desks you can make, I bet that most magicians can’t make half of which you can make even if they had the experience of carpentry!” I leaned in. “So why the hell would I hire an inefficient and expensive worker when you will do more for the same? Or do you believe that you are so pathetic in your work that someone who just picked up a wand can do your work for you on the spot?”

“No!” he shouted indignantly before he realized that he was talking to a lord. “N-no, milord. I’m sure that I can do better!”

I turned to a big man with an apron. “You, what do you do?”

He pointed at himself. “I-I am a butcher, my lord.”

“Good. How many animals do you butcher a day?”

“Two dozen at the least…”

“Tell me, how do you know how to butcher an animal?”

“... Because I have been learning how to since I could walk, milord.”

I nodded. “Do you think someone from this street knows a cow’s meat like you do?”

“I don’t believe so…” he sounded skeptical.

“Then do you have anything to fear from someone with magic? He doesn’t know how to carpent, butcher cows, lay bricks, or even hunt!”

People around me laughed.

“But how would you feel about a magical barrier?”

That caught their attention. “Let’s say that the prison break happened near your homes. What if … you had a magician friend. Couldn’t they have cast a barrier to shield you?”

Safety. Everyone craved it.

“Magic is not something horrible. It is simply another tool. There are much more horrible things in the world like poison. You don’t need magic to make poison. In fact, there is a poison out there that can make you jittery, lose your mind, lose control of your body, and then imprison you in your own mind as you slowly wither away… And it is made by regular hands like yours, yours, and yours.”

People shuddered at my words.

“But magic can remove that poison.”

Discussion continued as people came and went. I had to say the same thing a few times, but I did it because I was out here to convince the people.

As the day waned, I grew tired. The bodyguard convinced me to take a rest, so we walked back to my manor.

“Milord…”

I turned to the healer. “Yes?” I asked.

She looked scared. A little upset.

“What kind of poison … makes you crazy and make you lose control of your body like that? And where is it?”

“Hmm. It can be used for other purposes, but people are simply not aware of its poisonous properties.”

They looked alarmed. “W-What is the name, milord?”

I smiled but that only made the healer shiver.

“Quicksilver.”

Mercury.

The healer froze and then paled. “B-But it’s everywhere!” she shrieked. Even the bodyguard looked surprised.

“Yes. Why do you think that the first thing I told all of my healers, magical and mundane, to dispose of it in the manner I instructed?”

Just as I was acting as a poison of ideology, planting the idea that magic was beneficial into the minds of the people, mercury was a real poison that rotted the brain.

I wanted it gone from my lands except where they could be used beneficially.

“B-But s-some of us d-didn’t…”

I turned to her sharply, eyes wide and glaring.

Someone was using mercury in my land?

Unacceptable.