Unruly Summon Chapter 26: Preparations (Patreon)

"Are you sure you don't want any help?" asked Mary from the other side of my privacy screen, where she'd been waiting patiently for quite some time.

"I am a grown adult, and I can get dressed by myself," I replied grumpily as I struggled, tangled up in a new bundle of white cloth that had turned up overnight.

"You didn't answer the question," pointed out Mary.

"... Yes, I want help," I admitted. I'd already got everything on except for the robe, so at least I wasn't indecent. "Otherwise it'll be time to leave on our expedition before I've had a chance to eat breakfast."

Mary giggled as she crossed over to my side of the screen and helped me get my head through the correct hole and my arms into the correct tubes.

"I maintain that this thing isn't practical," I complained.

"Why not? You didn't struggle to use the bathroom yesterday."

"Yes, but I can't get it on!"

"Umm... This is the uniform for court mages, though?"

"So? Is there a spell for getting dressed?"

Mary tilted her head in confusion, but after a few seconds of thought, realisation seemed to dawn. "Ah! I mean, a court mage is an important, rich person."

I remembered the way Mary had always expected to help me get dressed, whatever I was wearing, which went some way to filling in her sparse explanation. It wasn't just that she was eager to help, but that she considered it a perfectly normal thing to do. "So basically, not being able to get dressed on your own doesn't count as impractical for high-class clothing because anyone in a position to wear such things won't ever dress themselves."

"Yup! So you need to hurry up and get used to it already!"

It shouldn't be that hard. It wasn't much more than an extra long hoodie, after all. It was a pity the previous day's outfit had been destroyed during training; I could have practised getting it on and off overnight.

"Oh, that's not what we normally have for breakfast," I pointed out as I returned to the main part of my room, spying the plate on my desk that contained eggs and a small amount of something that looked very much like bacon. So they did have animals after all, the liars.

"There's no 'we'," pouted Mary. "I still only get porridge. If I want anything else, I need to buy it myself."

I smiled at her complaint; they were still feeding her for free, as well as paying her a wage. At least she had the option of buying stuff for herself now, unlike when I first arrived and she had no belongings whatsoever.

And, if our outing was successful, hopefully the food situation would soon get a lot better.

"While we're alone, how are you?" I asked.

"Huh? I'm great!" she replied, the pout instantly switching to a beaming smile.

"I can see that, but it wasn't quite what I meant. I know you're aware of what was done to you while you were a slave. My Miraculum obviously did something to you, but sometimes you still act a bit... odd. Like when Wendy congratulated you on having a mind of your own, and you blanked out. You obviously do, but you seem loath to admit it."

"I... Uh..." stammered Mary, seemingly having no idea how to answer.

A quick subvocal cast of my go-to everything-sight spell showed no mana acting on her, or anything at all that looked unusual. Whatever was going on wasn't something my magic would let me see.

"Please, don't pick at scabs," she suddenly said in a tone quite unlike anything I'd ever heard from her. It was practically a growl. "I know what I want, and what I want is to be here!" she continued, her normal energy restored as if it had never left.

"What?" I asked, completely nonplussed, but that was apparently all I was getting. Alas, if she didn't want to talk about it, it wasn't as if I could force her. That would be a legendary level of hypocrisy.

Nevertheless, I was still worried about her behaviour, and that little episode did nothing to reassure me. Me saving her life could explain away a lot of the way she treated me. The previous night, she'd even tried to sleep in my room not out of any sort of continuation of their harem plan, but out of completely innocent concern that I'd have another bad dream. Helping me get dressed might be a perfectly normal duty for a maid, but I was pretty sure trying to hug my bad dreams away wasn't. But her odd behaviour wasn't limited to how she treated me.

"Well, if you ever need anything, or have something you want to say, please don't hesitate to bring it to me," I said.

She nodded, but said nothing more, making her position perfectly clear. Wendy and Christine turned up soon afterwards, already prepared for our journey.

"Here's a pack for you to carry," said Christine, handing me a backpack. "As you'll be pretending to be a court mage, it's not heavy. Just provisions and some magical tools for camping."

I nodded and took it, noting that the pack Christine had on her back did not at all look light. "You're not bringing a cart or carriage or something?" I asked.

"No. Unless we all rode horses, it would only reduce our speed and manoeuvrability. We'd add an extra day to our travel time and be less able to respond to unexpected situations."

"Unless the situation requires a few extra days of food," added Wendy.

"As you pointed out yesterday, there are advantages and disadvantages to everything," I said.

"True. I wouldn't have said no to a packhorse, though, even without a cart. Well, let's get going. We're meeting the other mages and our escorts at the castle gates, then you'll get your first up-close look at the city."

"Bye!" waved Mary as we left, any trace of the earlier conversation gone from her face. "Come back safely!"

"We'll be acting as if Miraculum is ritual magic, cast by all five mages working together," explained Wendy as we walked. "Real ritual magic involves a group of mages forming the same image and manipulating the mana together, then the ritual leader activates the spell. It allows the use of magic beyond the capacity of an individual, but it requires a ridiculous level of coordination, and things only get worse as you add more people. Thankfully, we needn't worry about that. We'll just hold hands, stand in a circle, then let you do your thing on your own."

"For the same reason, if monsters appear, leave them to the slayers to deal with. Dodge attacks in the first instance, and only resort to magic in an emergency or if dodging physically would stretch the bounds of believability for a mage."

"You're going to a lot of effort to disguise the fact you have a hero."

"Obviously," snorted Christine. "Do you have any idea what the demons would do if they discovered you?"

"No," I answered honestly. "You've hinted assassination, but I've still not seen any evidence."

Christine opened her mouth to reply, but then hesitated. "I'm not actually sure either, now," she admitted. "It depends what information they have. If they believe that you're working for us in a military capacity, they certainly wouldn't hesitate to assassinate, should an opportunity arise. On the other hand, if they have any suspicions you can purify corrupted land, even if you're working for us, your life is completely safe from them. Even the demons aren't stupid enough to destroy the greatest chance of land reclamation we've had in centuries. They might try information warfare, in the same vain as us, or they might attempt a kidnap, although I'm not sure what they'd do post-kidnapping."

"Bleh. Now I need to worry about being kidnapped too, and used as a hostage to force him to do stuff," complained Wendy.

"Frankly, I suspect the pair of us would make poor hostages. Thomas simply hasn't shown the same level of affection for us as he has for Mary. Being so valuable and yet a complete non-combatant, she is, by far, his biggest weakness."

"Hey!" I complained. "I mean... that's probably true, but even so..."

"Do not worry. Mary will be well protected here."

"Really? Here in your castle, surrounded by knights like you who are prepared to follow any order, no matter how heinous? What if it's your king who decides he needs some leverage over me?"

Great. Now I felt nervous about leaving her alone.

"I know I've said it before, but you really know how to make a gal feel inadequate," sighed Wendy. "So you don't care if I—a genius mage from a noble family—get taken hostage, but you do care about a commoner maid?"

"I'd care," I promised. "I'd just trust that you—a genius mage—would be perfectly capable of getting yourself out of trouble."

"Hah. Okay, that does make my ego feel a little better."

"I'll admit I don't give a toss about your nobility, though."

Wendy grinned. "Honestly, I wish more people wouldn't. Anyway, we're here."

We'd arrived in the large passageway in front of the throne room, except that instead of turning into the throne room, we turned into the wide passageway, where three familiar faces were waiting by the massive doors.

"Aren't we missing one?" I asked, looking at the three familiar mages in their robes of green, brown, and red.

The mages glared at me. "Don't assume everyone is like you, able to get off scot-free after attacking royal knights," said one. "You wearing that robe after what you did is an insult."

Huh? But it was the blue one that was missing, and hadn't it been the red one who'd sided with me? No... Now that I looked at their faces, hadn't they swapped colours? I found it rather offensive that the one who'd sided with me was the only one punished, though. Although I suppose trying to cut a knight's leg off was going a little far. He could have just not got involved, like the two who jumped out the window.

"Cut that out," demanded Christine. "I expect professionalism on this mission. Now, I believe some introductions are in order."

"Fine. Benjamin Freeman," said the new red one.

"Taylor Roberson," said the green one.

"Juan Koch," finished the brown one, making me wince. That was a name I was going to need to be very careful not to mispronounce.

"Thomas Smith," I added. Wendy and Christine didn't join in, presumably because everyone knew them already. "By the way, do the robe colours mean anything?"

"Theoretically, the primary affinity of the wearer," replied Wendy.

"But they've changed... And even if you're not wearing one of these robes, you're blue instead of green."

"Yes, because we aren't bloody idiots," said Benjamin. "In the middle of a war, why would we go out advertising what spells we're likely to cast?"

"Oh? Really?" asked Wendy. "I just don't like green. It really doesn't look good on me."

"Damn right," muttered Taylor. "I look like I've let my robe go mouldy."

"Please stay on track," sighed Christine. "My job here is to protect you, not to babysit. Let's meet our hired escorts."

"Why in the hells are we hiring slayers?" muttered Juan. "The castle could easily have spared a few knights. Heck, just bring the guards who were watching the entrances of the west wing. It's not like there's anything in there now."

"We don't want a detachment of knights to be seen leaving the castle."

"Then disguise them! Give them leather armour."

"We've already had this debate. The matter is closed, and our escorts are waiting outside," declared Christine with an air of finality, walking up to the massive doors.

They didn't move. Rather, a much smaller door popped open.

"Huh. The door has a door in it," I commented, probably finding that fact more amusing than was warranted. It wasn't as if cat-flaps were uncommon back on Earth.

Outside the door-in-a-door was a pack of eleven slayers, split into three groups. They were all so stereotypical I found myself frozen in shock. Just from a glance, I could guess the role of every one of them. A few mages in robes similar to mine—except with clasps at the front that made it obvious they could be worn unaided—two holding robust-looking staves. A couple of healers in white vestments. A bulky barbarian with rippling muscles, a two-handed sword strapped to his back. A couple of scouts, bows over their shoulders. The last few were fighters with a range of weapons and armour.

My inner geek squeed excitedly.