Chapter 162 - Episode 157: A New Mage ③
"Our army is retreating north through the hilly region. We are currently at a point approximately 5km south of the main camp. We are being pursued by the enemy. The enemy force totals approximately 1,000. Among them are 700 infantry, 250 archers, and 50 cavalry. We request reinforcements... That is all, report this to His Excellency."
"R-reporting. Friendly forces are retreating from the hilly region toward the main camp at a point approximately 5km south. They are under pursuit by the enemy and are requesting reinforcements. The enemy force totals approximately 1,000. Among them are 700 infantry, 200 archers, and cavalry... was it 100?"
"You made a mistake. 250 archers, 50 cavalry. If you mistake the enemy's troop types here, we won't be able to send reinforcements with the appropriate composition. Especially mistaking the number of cavalry is absolutely forbidden."
In a room of the territorial army barracks, Konrad was receiving instruction from Chief Retainer Yuri.
Dialogue mages sometimes serve in the army as communication officers, and depending on the combat situation, there are many scenes where they must accurately and concisely convey reports from friendly forces to the commander without even having time to take notes. He was currently in training for that purpose.
"I-I'm sorry!"
"Hahaha, that was close. You've only just started this training, and for the time being, there's no chance you'll be serving in the army, so don't worry too much about it. The way you restructured the reporting words in your own way was quite good."
Yuri replied with a laugh, without harshly reprimanding the mistake. His guidance was gentle for now, but when Konrad thought that this was because he was still a child and treated as half-fledged, he felt a bit pathetic.
"I've told you several times, but in times like this, you don't need to memorize the words of the 'Far-Talk' partner in their entirety. Narrow it down to important information like direction, distance, and enemy numbers, and memorize those accurately."
"U-understood!"
"Alright, then let's try a few more times... This is the scout unit. Enemy detachment discovered at a point 3km west of the main camp. Composition is—"
...
Past noon that day. After the direct instruction from Chief Retainer Yuri ended, Konrad returned to his own office set up in the lord's manor.
"Haa~ I'm tired."
He sat in his chair, leaned his body against the backrest, and muttered. After training that required concentration, he always ended up mentally exhausted like this.
"...Now then, shall I begin?"
After a short break, Konrad took out a book. Opening the page where he had placed a bookmark, he first followed the characters written on the page with his eyes, then closed his eyes and recited the sentence he had just read. After confirming if it was correct, he then transcribed that sentence onto paper.
This too was part of his training as a dialogue mage. Konrad had attended a school within the territory last year and had basically learned how to read and write, but he was still insufficiently studied to become a liaison for the lord nobility, so he practiced reading and writing characters like this to get used to it. This textbook had been lent to him by Noein.
He would continue this training until the evening, when he would connect via "Far-Talk" with the mining village Kilde and various pioneer villages across the territory to receive periodic reports.
Konrad's days as the lord's employed dialogue mage were plain things like this.
It was fine at first. He met with the people in charge of Kilde and the pioneer villages, and was even taken to the neighboring territory's capital, Retovik, where he met important figures such as the chief retainer of the lord's house and executives of large merchant guilds, making them targets for "Far-Talk." Doing so made him feel that he had become one of the important figures himself.
However, after that, every day was training and standby, and his actual work consisted of periodic communication with the villages in the territory and receiving reports when Bart, the foreign affairs officer, was within "Far-Talk" range outside the territory. Those reports were almost always of content that didn't change.
Aside from that, he was occasionally called by the official merchant Philip and made to send messages to the guilds in Retovik, such as "I want to change the scheduled delivery of goods to X days later."
"...Sigh."
He had no complaints about his treatment. Lord Noein had employed him as an honorary retainer for the time being, and his salary was more than three times that of his father, Rick. He had been given a private room in the manor to live in for the sake of emergency communications, but he could meet his family whenever he felt like it.
But honestly, Konrad was bored. He had thought the life of a mage would be flashier and more full of variety. Compared to that imagination, his current work was far too lacking in glamour.
His family and neighbors praised him, and the girl who was his childhood friend told him, "It's amazing that you serve the Lord," and "Make me your bride when you grow up." The maids of the manor doted on him, saying, "You're so impressive even though you're still small." There were perks like that.
However, he couldn't shake the feeling that "this is a bit different from what I thought."
...
"Konrad, are you in?"
Just as he was starting to get tired of his self-study training, he heard Chief Retainer Yuri's voice along with the sound of a knock on the office door.
"C-Chief Retainer! I am! Please come in!"
As he spoke, Konrad carried another chair in the room to the front of his desk and had the entering Yuri sit down.
"I had some business to attend to at the manor, so I came to see how you were doing. How is work?"
Perhaps because Konrad was still a ten-year-old child and they were both dialogue mages, Yuri looked after him in various ways like this.
"I-it's fun. I feel... a sense of fulfillment."
When Konrad answered with a bit of hesitation after being asked, Yuri gave a wry smile.
"Hahaha, I see... Shall I guess what you're thinking right now? 'Work is plainer than I thought, and every day is boring with nothing but training and standby,' right?"
"!? N-no, that's... I don't think that... very much."
"Which means you do think it to some extent."
Yuri laughed again at Konrad's ambiguous response.
"I am a dialogue mage as well, after all. I've met royal mages, liaisons employed by nobles, and people with mediocre talents like me who serve minor nobles or large guilds. What they all said in unison was that 'enduring boredom is also part of a dialogue mage's job.'"
"I-is that so?"
"Yeah. A dialogue mage's job is to handle in an instant communications that would take a whole day if you sent a messenger, but conversely, that means the work finishes in an instant. Moreover, it's not as if there are always important matters to communicate that require the use of magic. There are things like social invitations, where it's considered polite to intentionally send a messenger with a letter."
In peaceful times, a dialogue mage spends more time on standby than using magic. During that time, they aren't just idling away; they spend their days piling up plain efforts, such as training their bodies so as not to damage their health when the time comes, or practicing memorization and shorthand to maintain their abilities as a liaison.
And yet, they don't do anything visibly flashy like combat-type mages.
Therefore, it is said that among dialogue mages, the common understanding is that "standing by is also work."
"That's why, especially for you who are still young, days that are painful in a sense will continue. The Arqvist territory is still in the middle of development, and because it's in the frontier, it's peaceful. Opportunities for you as a dialogue mage to be clearly active are few... However,"
Cutting his words there, Yuri tightened the expression that had been laughing until then and looked straight at Konrad.
"Even if you think it's boring now, I believe that in the future, the time will surely come when your power will be more useful, when you will be more active."
Facing Yuri who spoke with a serious face, Konrad unconsciously straightened his back.
"Lord Noein is a lord with tremendous talent. Under that person, the Arqvist territory will grow even larger from here on. Involvement with other territories will also increase. Whether it's five years or ten years from now, your power will surely come to hold a greater value. For that time, I believe you should polish your abilities and accumulate small experiences now."
"Five years, ten years... huh."
"Yeah. Even then, you'll still be fifteen or twenty, right? It's not too late to be prominent by achieving great things after that... or rather, I think that would still be more than early enough."
Saying so, Yuri laughed again.
"...Y-yes. I understand. For the sake of the further future, I'll think of now as a period of training and do my best with what's in front of me!"
"Yeah, please do that. Good luck."
After seeing off Yuri, who left the room saying he had his next job, Konrad faced the book open on the desk once again.
"...Alright!"
With an expression of determination different from before, Konrad resumed his self-study training.