Memoirs 85 - Unwelcome drop-ins (Patreon)

Scarlett wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead, looking out over the training grounds. Some of the items she used for her training were lined up next to the wooden shed, but the grounds themselves had been mostly cleaned up from the Fynn incident. They still had to get the shed fixed, though, as it was missing much of its roof. But the focus among the staff at the mansion was currently the ruined courtyard, so minor things like this had to wait. That included the replacement of the training dummies that had been destroyed in the incident, which would probably cost a good chunk of money.

Thankfully, she didn’t need those things to carry out her training. She’d mostly been practicing her hydrokinesis lately, now when Garside wasn’t in a good state to instruct her. Her skills with the skill were still far off from being used in combat—other than to control alchemy bombs as she’d done in the Howling Gale’s Haunt—but she was making progress. Just the other day, she’d cut through a thin sheet of metal with her water. Though it had taken some time, and had looked more like her pushing down a blunt knife through a piece of hard butter. Still, it was better than what she’d been able to do when she first started.

In addition, while the past week had been a flurry of things happening, she’d finally spent those skill points that she’d been saving up.

[Name: Scarlett Hartford]
[Skills:
[Greater Mana Control]
[Greater Pyromancy]
[Greater Pyrokinesis]
[Hydromancy]
[Greater Hydrokinesis]]
[Traits:
[Dignified August]
[Supercilious]
[Cavalier]
[Callous]
[Overbearing]
[Conceited]
[Third-rate Mana Veins]]
[Mana: 456/4537]
[Points: 9]

[Skills Menu:
Upgrades
[Superior Pyromancy] (25 points)
[Superior Pyrokinesis] (25 points)
[Greater Hydromancy] (10 points)
[Superior Hydrokinesis] (25 points)
[Superior Mana Control] (25 points)
New skills
[LOCKED]]

Her [Minor Hydromancy] had been upgraded to [Hydromancy], [Pyromancy] to [Greater Pyromancy], and [Mana Control] to [Greater Mana Control]. She’d also raised them one by one, to ascertain for certain what each skill did.

As before, upgrading mana control had lessened her total mana costs and made it easier to work and control her magic in general. Probably part of the reason she’d advanced her hydrokinesis skills somewhat as well. From what she’d seen though, neither [Greater Pyromancy] nor [Hydromancy] had made any difference on the ‘control’ or ‘power’ front. Like she’d expected, they just seemed to make her mana use for the respective element more efficient.

As for how they did that, she wasn’t completely sure. With Mana Control, she’d clearly felt the change in how she used her magic and her connection with it. With these two skills, however, it wasn’t as obvious.

The best way to put the difference they made was perhaps in how interacted with her hydrokinesis and pyrokinesis. Before upgrading them, she would focus on wanting to create a sphere of fire, and through some unconscious process, the flames would just appear. She could pull on and adjust the connection to those flames, to either increase the intensity or shape them how she wanted, like she was drawing from a well somewhere. Now, after upgrading the skills, she did very much the same, but maybe the ‘well’ was closer? It was hard to put the abstract feeling into words. All she knew for certain was that it lowered her mana costs a good amount, though exactly how much was hard to tell. Upgrading [Hydromancy] to [Greater Hydromancy] at least seemed to have been more effective than the upgrade of [Mana Control] to [Greater Mana Control], in the mana-cost department.

How she was looking at it in her mind at the moment was that her magic was the water flow to a kitchen sink in your ordinary residential apartment, and [Mana Control] affected the size of the faucet, and how much she could move the faucet head. In this analogy, the [Hydromancy] and [Pyromancy] skills affected which floor she was on, with lower pressure on the higher floors, which were equivalent to the lower levels of the skills. She saw a few issues with that analogy, but she didn’t really care much. It was just a way of structuring things in her mind.

What was most important with this was that she could spend more time practicing now, despite her mana pool not having increased much. With how little mana she had, it still only amounted to maybe a dozen minutes before she needed to rest, even if she was frugal with her magic. But it was progress, and any progress at all was good in her book. She was all about taking things step by step where she could. Though she wasn’t sure how long she could continue like that.

The Gentleman’s visit a couple days earlier signaled the start of things. Many of her plans were coming into motion, and soon she would be up in her neck with things that needed doing. Just the day before they’d cleared the last—or well, almost the last—of the dungeons Scarlett thought they had a decent chance of finding in the Freybrook. Now she would have to set her sights on new horizons in that area. Clearing more of these low-level dungeons wouldn’t be enough to keep up with what was going to happen from now on.

That was not to mention the arrangement she’d made with Adalicia, or the Hallowed Cabal.

And they still had to rebuild the courtyard, and parts of the mansion that had been destroyed.

Evelyne had actually contacted her about that. The woman had almost seemed to think it was a joke, and from her words, Scarlett wasn’t quite sore whether Evelyne was livid over the news, or worried. She had written a reply vaguely explaining what had happened, leaving out the details about the Cabal and her deal with them. There was no point in telling Evelyne any of that at the moment, though she might in the future, when things were a bit more stable in that regard.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, considering how many people were contacting her lately, another message had arrived recently. This morning, Scarlett received a letter from the Delmon family. It had taken her a moment to remember that was the name of Leon’s family, and that his father was the Marquis of Steepmond.

While their words had been courteous and somewhat flowery, they had basically implied they wanted the engagement between Scarlett and Leon to be dissolved. Scarlett hadn’t been surprised. The only astonishing thing about the letter was that it had taken so long after the Elysian Proclamation for them to contact her like this. From what she’d heard from Leon, it had sounded like they couldn’t wait to rid themselves of any affiliations with her after that.

Maybe her showing during the Providing Ceremony had made them hesitate for a while?

Whatever the reason, it wasn’t as if Scarlett cared much about it. She hadn’t been planning on marrying Leon anyway. She barely knew the man. And while she’d heard that the original seemed to make use of her connections with a marquisate a bit, that didn’t interest her much. She didn’t even know how to, to begin with. She was far too ignorant about how these nobles did things to try and play their games.

As she walked to the edge of the training grounds, where a small table and a chair had been set up for her with a carafe of water on it, she sat down and picked up a glass. Taking some time to rest, she looked at the trees sticking out above the estate walls, leaves wafting in the wind.

Other than training her magic, she still took some time to perform some traditional exercises now and then as well, when she had the time. She’d performed some just before she trained her hydrokinesis. The [Mark of the Staunch] had made these sessions a lot easier lately, with its stamina-boosting effect. Though she was starting to wonder whether it was smart, using an item like that when exercising. It might help increase how much she could do at once, but it could be that relying on enhancement magic was detrimental to her efforts. She would have to look into the matter.

It shouldn’t be an issue keeping the ring on when training with her magic, at least. It seemed to have no effect on how tired she got when depleting her mana. Mana exhaustion made both her body and mind tired, no matter what artifacts she was wearing. It appeared to work on a different principle from the kind of exhaustion you got from physical exercise.

As Scarlett was considering the matter, she was interrupted in her thoughts as Nichol—one of the younger female servants working in the mansion, with blonde hair—came walking up to her. “My Lady, there is a visitor.”

She frowned. Another one? It was starting to feel like the mansion’s gates were just a large revolving door. Gaven would also visit again in a couple of days.

“Who is it?” she asked.

The servant’s eyes turned down a bit. “A Mister Cullen, my Lady.”

Cullen? That wasn’t a name she’d ever heard before.

“Was it important?”

Nichol hesitated slightly. “I-I’m not sure. He insisted on seeing you, saying he knew you. We didn’t want to disturb you during your training, so he’s been waiting for an hour. Shall we send him away?”

“No.” Scarlett shook her head. She had the time to spare, and it was best to not leave these kinds of things alone. You never knew who these people could be. “Inform him I will be with him shortly. I will return to my chambers first.”

“Understood, my Lady.” The servant performed a deep curtsy and walked back towards the mansion.

Scarlett stayed for a moment longer, drinking another glass of water before she rose and began moving back as well.

Soon enough, Scarlett had cleaned herself up and put on a dark-red dress as she walked through the mansion hallways to the room where the visitor was.

Entering, she was a man sitting on one of the couches. He was perhaps a few years her senior, with a thin beard and short black hair that was balding at some spots. His clothes were a bit simple for someone paying a visit to a noble, wearing just a brown vest over a white shirt and black pants.

“Mister Cullen,” she said as she walked over to the armchair opposite him. “What business do you have with me?”

The man met her with a thinly veiled look of irritation.

Well, he had probably been waiting for a while now, so she would forgive that much.

“You should know, Lady Hartford. Mister Cheek sent me because you haven’t been in contact for a while.”

She raised a brow. Mister Cheek? The name sounded familiar.

“I have been preoccupied these past months,” she said.

Where had she had that name? Was it an NPC from the game? No, she couldn’t recall reading the name at any point. She was pretty sure she’d heard it somewhere.

“Busy with what, exactly?”

“That does not concern you.”

The man gave her an irritated look. “Mister Cheek has been worried. He’s afraid you’re having second-thoughts about our cooperation.”

Scarlett studied him. This all felt very familiar. Hadn’t she been visited by that slimy man that was connected to the Grey Dog Gang in a similar way when she first arrived in this world? And while this man didn’t quite have the same feeling of ‘ickiness’ to him, the situation still rang the same bells.

Ah, now she remembered. Vern Cheek. It was one of the names Beldon Tyndall had mentioned during her meeting with the man. It had been in the same breath as the Grey Dog Gang, which most likely meant it was another one of the original’s criminal associates.

Why did she have to deal with more of this crap? Wasn’t the Grey Dog Gang enough?

“Now,” the man continued. “Mister Cheek was sure you wouldn’t think of doing something as terrible as going back on your word with us, but he still wanted me to go just to make sure. I’m sure you’re aware that we wouldn’t be the only ones hurt from something like that.” The man looked her in the eyes. “We know a lot of things I’m sure you wouldn’t want your other noble friends to learn of.”

A scowl appeared on Scarlett’s face as the anger rose from inside. “Mister Cullen,” she said in a firm voice. “Is your boss looking down on me?”

He paused, now growing a hesitant expression. “I was just—”

“Mister Cheek deemed it right to send someone such as you to visit me at my estate. To question me. Threaten me, in my own home. And you have the audacity to act with such disrespect while doing so.” Scarlett stared at the man. “How am I to interpret this, if not as your boss looking down on me?”

“That’s not what he meant—"

“Is it not? Then are you saying he did not even realize the significance behind his actions, or yours?”

“T-That’s…” The man took a moment to gather himself. “Look here, Lady Hartford. We heard about you helping the Count here in Freybrook to deal with one of the local gangs. Anyone would get unsettled by you turning silent after that. I’m only here to make sure there aren’t any problems.”

“Did you have connections to the Grey Dog Gang?”

“No, but—”

“Then you have no reason to be concerned. The Grey Dog Gang proved to be an untrustworthy factor which caused several headaches for me, and so they paid the consequence. As long as you and your boss do not do the same, there is no issue.”

The man turned silent.

Scarlett had no idea who Vern Cheek was, or what business he’d done with the original, but she could guess. Considering the original had been a minor villain in the game, any associates of hers also weren’t likely to be particularly large fish. Still, if this Cheek guy actually had information on the original’s criminal activities—which he probably had—then it could cause serious trouble for her if he were to leak the information. It could literally ruin all of her plans and cost her life, depending on what it was.

“Of course, the boss doesn’t want any trouble as long as you don’t,” the man in front of her eventually said. “We just had to know that we’re on the same page, and that things can continue as usual in the future.”

She crossed her arms. “And what, perchance, do you consider ‘as usual’?”

“Well…I’m not exactly privy to the details,” the man said.

She looked at him. This Cheek guy didn’t even send a person who knew what their dealings were? Was he an idiot? Lazy? Or did he just not have anyone else to send?

She could tell that the man was growing uncomfortable under her gaze.

“…Very well,” she said after a while, relaxing her stare. “I will be in contact when I am finished with my current business. We can discuss further details at that time. Until then, you can inform Mister Cheek he has nothing to be worried over. And that he should be more cautious about sending people to my home.”

“I’ll…tell him that,” the man said with a slow nod, remaining in his seat.

“…Do you intend to remain the whole day?” Scarlett eventually asked.

His eyes widened, and he almost jumped up from his seat. “N-No, of course not. I’m glad we could get things straightened out. I’ll take my leave then. Excuse me.”

He walked out of the room, and Scarlett spotted a servant waiting in the hallway, ready to guide him out.

She clicked her tongue when the door closed behind him.

What would she do about this mess? Last time she’d had knowledge from the game, and things had been easy enough to handle because of that. Now she wasn’t so lucky. She barely knew anything at all about whatever happenings the original was involved with here, or what consequences it could have.

She stared out into the room.

Maybe Gaven could help somehow?

But what could he do, when she barely knew more than these people’s names?

Beldon Tyndall had information on the original Scarlett’s past associates, so maybe she could get some information from Mirage? Beldon liked to be vague and all that, so she could probably write up a letter that was enigmatic enough where it wouldn’t be a problem even if someone else read it first. She also had enough information, which was essentially worthless to her but appealing to them, that she could convince them to help her out with minor things like this a few times more at least.

The question would be how to handle things after that.

But that could be decided later. First, she needed to learn what she was dealing with. Whatever it was, she wouldn’t let herself be brought low easily.