Dreams of Gain and Loss

Annan opened his bleary eyes.

The sky had yet to brighten fully, and a rooster crowing in the distance set dogs barking.

It was still early. Annan glanced at Martin, who had a wooden board tucked into his trousers, then burrowed back under the covers. Before long, though, a faint rustling woke him.

He opened his eyes again and found a rear end swaying in front of his face.

Martin pleaded from somewhere behind it.

"Cousin, help me. It hurts so bad..."

What could have changed Martin's tastes so drastically overnight?

A head... a lump... a slab... a sheet... a piece... A rough backside covered in fine hairs.

The answer was the tiny splinters in the board.

Martin had slept with a wooden board stuffed down his trousers, and now he was paying for it.

"Aunt Susan!" Annan called without hesitation.

Aunt Susan's deep, kindly voice arrived with the thud of heavy footsteps. "Why don't you sleep a little longer? The eggs aren't even boiled yet—Martin! What are you doing?!"

Annan hurried to stop Aunt Susan's swinging broom, saving Martin's backside just in time.

After that, Annan ate breakfast in the kitchen while Martin lay facedown in the yard as Aunt Susan picked out splinters. When Annan was ready to leave, Martin was still in the yard having splinters picked out.

In high spirits, Annan reached the library and began cleaning the floor and bookshelves. Mr. Victor arrived right on time, sat in his sunny corner, and waited for the light to spill inside.

Who would have thought this old man, who liked nothing more than reading all day in the sun, was considered one of the Rikaner Kingdom's top hundred apprentice mages?

When he finished cleaning, Annan sat behind the desk, picked up Mailin's Fairy Tales, and turned to the bookmark five pages from the end.

The old man read in the sunlight, Annan read at the desk, and the quiet hours slipped by.

This peace had become part of his daily life.

The last story in Mailin's Fairy Tales was a fable: the Gate of Purgatory opened, Demons walked among humankind, the Void Evil God led people astray, and tormented souls could not even find release in death. Then a king arose on the Old Continent, swung his warhammer to sever the Calamity Gate, and saved the world on the brink of collapse.

It sounded less like a fable than a prophecy.

"Mr. Victor, where's the Old Continent?"

"To the south."

Snap.

Annan gently closed Mailin's Fairy Tales. As the first book he had read from beginning to end, its contents would probably stay with him for a long time.

Now that he had finished an entire book of fairy tales, it was time for something harder...

Annan slid Mailin's Fairy Tales back into its gap on the shelf and looked over the books. Each held an unknown world waiting for him to uncover it—

Lady Fine Wine's niece appeared in the doorway. Annan put his search on hold, returned to the desk, and picked up a quill to register her visit.

"I won't call you Uncle..."

"What?"

In the sunny corner, a hand stopped turning the page. An ear slowly rose above the back of the chair.

"I won't call you Uncle!" For the first time, the robed girl showed an emotion other than composure.

Annan asked, bewildered, "What did she tell you?"

"She told me everything... I won't let you into the Winchester family."

The robed girl turned and left. She was in no mood to do anything today.

Annan drew his baffled gaze away from the empty doorway and moved beside Mr. Victor, stopping at the line between sunlight and shadow. "Do you know much about Winchester?"

A muffled page turn came from behind the chair. The old man refused to answer.

At least Annan now knew Lady Fine Wine and Mage Apprentice's surnames...

He decided to ask Mr. Fast that evening instead, then continued, "Mr. Victor, I'd like to learn more about the Rikaner Kingdom."

Mr. Victor raised his cane and pointed it past Annan's shoulder.

Following its direction, Annan found a book titled Geography of Rikaner (Third Revision), written by the Reikanel Royal Research Institute.

He carried the geography book back to the desk and opened it to the title page.

["What is truly great is not the vast world itself, but we small beings who measure it." — Great Sage Ruituo Festos]

The words kindled Annan's desire to explore the world. That desire went out the moment he turned to the first page and saw its baffling terminology.

With only three or four hundred words in his vocabulary, Annan found a book full of specialized terms difficult to understand. He had to open the dictionary again and work through it word by word, sentence by sentence.

The Rikaner Kingdom lay in the central part of western Allen Continent and was medium-sized. Annan found it on the small map of Allen Continent beside the description. It looked like a funnel with its upper half cut off: broad in the south and narrowing toward the north.

The kingdom had twenty-four counties. Plangraced County, where Breeze City stood, was at the very tip of the funnel, the kingdom's northernmost county. The neighboring Faser Kingdom to the east was the opposite shape, narrow below and broad above.

Pinglin Town was too small to appear on a map of the whole Rikaner Kingdom. But Annan knew it lay south of Breeze City, and he traced its approximate location with a finger.

Annan read slowly, moving from the royal family's composition to the kingdom's alliances and hostilities with other nations. Before he reached the sections on population, climate, or agriculture, Mr. Victor tapped on the desk.

Dusk light stretched through the windows. It was time to close.

Annan shut the doors and windows, locked the library entrance, and hurried to the Dawn Tavern, which had already opened for the evening.

Compared with the quiet library, the tavern, thick with the smell of wine and the sound of chatter, was another world. Annan tied on an apron and helped Martin, who moved as if he had soiled his trousers and was trying to keep his backside still.

There weren't many customers, but the right side of the tavern was unusually crowded. The left side was empty except for Soluman Copperbeard.

This was a human town. Its people were bound to be unwelcoming to other races, and Annan had heard the prejudice grew worse farther south.

Though it might be a different story for an Elf...

The Dwarf woman snorted and went back to the wine cellar.

Annan kept glancing at Lady Fine Wine's empty seat, imagining a chance encounter in this other world...

A noblewoman might not be as enticing as a succubus or some other creature of desire, but she was still—

"Why do you keep looking over there?"

Mr. Fast's question cut off Annan's daydream. "That seat's always empty," he stammered. "I thought it was a little strange."

"That's Lady Fine Wine's 'reserved seat.' Everyone here knows that." Mr. Fast gave him an odd look.

"She hasn't been here for days, though."

"Lady Fine Wine went back to Breeze City." Mr. Fast suddenly leaned closer. "You like mature, alluring women?"

"No! I was just curious!"

"You can't fool me. That's exactly how people act when they're making excuses." Then Mr. Faster called out without turning around, "Evelyn! Why do you keep staring over here?"

"Am... am I?" Evelyn, who had been wiping down the counter, suddenly grew flustered and fumbled to straighten a wine bottle. "I haven't been staring at Annan all day!"

The tavern erupted in laughter, and a blushing Evelyn ducked behind the counter.

Whatever the reason, Lady Fine Wine unexpectedly appeared in Annan's uneasy dreams.

The next day, Annan received one silver coin from Mr. Victor, then collected his wages from Mr. Fast that evening.

Annan now had four whole silver coins.

Only a trifling ninety-six percent of the one Gold Narl needed for the aptitude test remained.