D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Kat ---

There was a little more back and forth between Meg and Strdl but it was more of the same. Eventually Meg turned to the prisoner and said, "Well we’ve given enough time for those two officers to escape and warn the bandits we’re on our way. So are you ready to lead on… Clyde? I want to say?" Read new chapters at empire

"Um… er…" the prisoner (Clyde?) was shaking like a leaf as he found himself the centre of attention. His eyes were darting between everyone else, though the three remaining normal officers were the least looked at. His eyes mostly went between Meg and not as he stumbled over his words. "My… um… my name is… er… not Clyde…"

"But does that matter?" asked Meg.

Kat winced at thee question as ’Clyde’ rapidly shook his head. "Er… um… no… I well… I guess… I guess I’m not um… overly attached to my name… so um… this is fine… I mean… no this is fine…" It didn’t exactly sound fine but Kat thought interrupting the guy at this point would just scare him more. "But… um… I mean… I still can’t take you to… to the hideout,"

"Oh? And why is that?" asked Meg.

Clyde swallowed heavily his eyes trying to focus on Meg as he answered her questions but failing spectacularly. "I… I don’t know… um… Meg…" Meg glared, "er… um… miss? Ma’am? I don’t know where it is. We… um… training… er… no I mean… I only know how to get… get to this big meeting room place… but um… Not said… said that was fine?"

"And that didn’t seem weird to you?" asked Meg.

Clyde flinched backwards, curling in on himself as Kamiko nudged her in the side. "What?" whispered Kat.

"Can’t you use your aura to help calm him? The poor guy looks like he’s going to have a heart attack or something… I’m… I’m worried he might pass out and Meg will just get worse if he does…" whispered Kamiko.

"Right but if I start helping him Meg will definitely ramp up, probably enough to offset anything I’m doing to help," Kat whispered back. Kamiko frowned, but didn’t say anything further. Kat wasn’t sure if Kamiko agreed… or if she was just trying to avoid an argument. *Which is really not helpful. I mean, I feel bad for the guy and I would be willing to help him… but I just feel like it’s too dangerous with Meg clearly playing around with him at the moment. Didn’t even let the poor guy tell us his name*

[I mean based on naming conventions his name is probably Clde, or Clyd or maybe Cld if I had to guess. Then again it’s Meg so maybe she did just give him a random name. It feels wrong because that would indicate she’s ’wrong’ about his name so I bet she’s at least close…]

*Not sure that really makes it better.*

During this time ’Clyde’ managed to recover enough of his wits to explain his answer. "I um… no… or I mean… he was the sheriff so I didn’t think too much about it. I… I guess I might have thought… um… that he knew because of the fact he was the sheriff? Like… I mean… the meeting place has changed a few times… when um… when it was ’discovered apparently so… I mean… it wasn’t that weird…"

Meg waved him off, "Whatever just tell about the meeting place,"

Clyde flinched again and Kat glared at Meg in response. He was only going on that tangent because Meg asked and now she was berating him for it. Meg turned back to Kat and flashed a grin at her. Unrepentant in the face of Kat’s continued glare. *If she keeps this up maybe I will just step in anyway.*

"Er… well… it’s a place where we were taught earth magic but the Mountain-" Clyde was cut off there.

"Pebbles," stated Meg.

"P-pardon?" queried Clyde.

"Pebbles. That’s his nickname and it’s not overly pretentious. Plus it’s shorter," said Meg. Though she definitely knew the tricks for saying more with just a few words or syllables like Hunter… so it was a pretty moot point.

"P-pebbles…" Clyde sounded like he was chocking. "Pebbles t-teaches us earth magic there occasionally… and um… that’s why I know where it is?"

"Why would you WANT to learn earth magic from that scum?" hissed Strdl.

Clyde shivered at Strdl’s glare while turning to Meg as if asking permission to explain. Seeing her nod Clyde answered. "Um… b-because he’s the only o-one that will teach us. The p-powerful mages from out of town d-don’t have time and t-they don’t normally care enough to take us on as app-prentices.

"And… and the mining companies are w-worse actually. They don’t let any of their mages teach unless they’re immediate family and I know that was a massive concession that they only got after a whole bunch of riots… but… but if you NEED the teaching and can’t get it from family you have to sign a contract. Five years of learning in exchange for ten years of work…

"But… but it’s really FIFTEEN years or work with essentially no pay for any of it. Because… because they feed and house you for all of them and you have no choice about it. Then you ’pay off’ the money they spent training you… and then after fifteen years they… they say that they’re sorry to see you go but if you sign another contract for ten years they’ll give you a pay bump… n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"It might not sound the best… but you realise you’ve got no friends. No house, no idea how to live… and barely any savings so you stick around. Then suddenly you’ve been working there for twenty-five years, and your pay is about to go up again… so you just stick around. I… I HATE the idea of that. You still don’t get what you’re worth and they don’t even teach you that much. Just a bunch of control exercise and a handful of spells.

"It’s… it’s as close to slavery as they c-can get… but… well most of the mining companies are owned by nobles or… or like families of nobles and the ones that aren’t have ’friends’. So… so even though it’s bad it’s… it’s ’fair enough’ that you can’t get the crown or the church involved without risking massive political backlash… it’s…. it’s awful in a lot of ways…

"So… so when a friend of mine and his older brother convinced me to go for lessons it was hard to say no. The mount-" Meg glared "I mean… Pebbles… he… he promises a reward for any mage at all and a bonus for earth mages to show up. I mean… they just have to come for one lesson and you get rewarded. It… it was a hard month for their family so I said yes… and then I kept going…

"Because Pebbles… for all of his faults… for all of the problems he’s causing… he DID teach me how to use my magic. Even in the few scattered lessons he’s taught me so much and I’m not the only one. If… if I brought in my friends they’d get gear and combat lessons and… and we always planned to leave one day. To leave and become adventurers.

"I mean… there are no contracts, and barely even a verbal agreement. So… so we go in for lessons, do a few light jobs that… that don’t really hurt anyone and once I get to Rank 2 I was planning to leave. Rank 2… it’s something most people never reach but… but P-pebbles has taught at least three others to that point… and um…

"I know it’s a risk. That every time I do a little favour or get a bit more teaching… I get dragged further into his circle… but… but he’s TEACHING US MAGIC. I… it’s such a precious thing that so few are willing to share… and I mean… he’s done it. He reached at least Rank 3… maybe more than that I don’t know. It… it seems to possible and I have… had hope that I could maybe get there one day. That I could leave this town… guess I have no idea what’s going to happen now,"

Meg frowned once Clyde finished speaking. Kat watched carefully just in case she needed to step in when Meg cursed softly. "Damn. Looks like things are more complicated then…"

"Um… what’s the issue?" asked Kat.

"The issue is that I’d missed a small fact. I was thinking that they were a dinky little team of bandits that had branched out and created a small town to support themselves as well using a strong mage for the place to get a good foothold… but that’s not what’s happening at all. Or well, I’m sure they’re trying to pretend that’s how it went down… but no. These bandits have ’official backing’ I’m sure," said Meg.

"Ah, the nobles are playing games then…" agreed Hunter.

"W-what?" asked Strdl and Clyde at the same time while Kat and Kamiko wore frowns on their faces.