A Mage Apprentice carrying rolls of parchment hurried around a corner in the corridor, his steps quick and his gaze fixed entirely on the uneven-edged stack in his arms, oblivious to anything ahead.
A Swordsman in heavy armor was approaching from the opposite direction. The distance between them closed rapidly, and the nobleman and apprentice nearly brushed past each other at the corner.
The warrior did not budge when they collided, but the apprentice nearly stumbled. Several sheets slipped from his hands and fell to the floor.
Once the young apprentice steadied himself and looked up, he discovered that the tall nobleman before him was accompanied by a fully fledged Royal Mage wearing a white Mage Robe patterned with gold.
The Mage Apprentice's lips quivered in fright. He hurriedly bowed his head and bent at the waist to apologize to them both, then gathered the fallen pages and scurried away with his neck hunched.
Renato watched the apprentice disappear down the corridor and shook his head inwardly. It seemed that high-ranking mages' monopoly on magical knowledge, and the plight of Mage Apprentices struggling at the bottom, had not changed in a thousand years.
Even landless tenant farmers on noble estates received a third of the harvest from the fields they cultivated. Yet these Mage Apprentices seeking an education were treated like servants, receiving almost no compensation while the mages ordered them around without restriction.
I wonder how little Perly is doing. Has her instructor been bullying her at the Academy...?
Rafada led them along a winding route through three galleries and two small courtyards, avoiding almost all the main passageways.
But the route proved effective. They deftly skirted most of the Royal Guards' patrol routes, and none of the mages gathered to work in the main hall appeared along their