Vien remembered that Her Holiness had always come and gone alone before, with a few attendants at most.
He took one look at Marilou, remembered that this was Her Holiness's person, and hastily withdrew his gaze, not daring to invite complications.
Viya reached out, took Marilou's hand, and stepped down from the carriage wearing a faultless smile.
"Master Vien, I've brought a friend today to pick out a staff that suits her hand."
Viya left out the word "wife." Out in public it was better to keep a low profile.
Vien had once been the Kingdom's chief craftsman. In his later years the King had promised him a high salary in the hope that he would stay at the palace and go on instructing students.
Faced with terms that generous, Vien had only waved a hand, saying he was old and wanted to see his home region again, and then settled in the busy quarter toward the north of the city and opened a weapon-repair shop.
Unfortunately his prices had always been steep, so apart from those who knew him, ordinary adventurers simply assumed Vien was asking a king's ransom.
"This way, Your Holiness."
Vien took several staves of differing shapes from a cabinet.
"There are a few of decent quality in here. On the left is the thunderwood staff, made from a thousand-year peachwood tree struck by lightning. It has a very strong affinity for natural-element spells."
Marilou leaned in. A purple staff lay quietly on the table, and she gripped the shaft—there were scorch marks from arcing electricity along it, and yet it felt unexpectedly good in the hand.
Vien moved past the first case and pointed at the staff in the second. Unlike the first wooden one, this second staff looked to be made of countless metal components.
He grew noticeably more animated as he came to it. When he picked the staff up, the mechanical nuts along its body began to rotate, and what had been a straight staff changed shape as he moved.
"This one I forged from fine steel. It adapts to different hand shapes and suits the casting of precision-natured spells rather well."
"The Kingdom's finest craftsman indeed. After all this time your skill hasn't faded a bit."
Viya offered the praise, and her eye fell on the third staff. "That one looks a little odd. The staff is in two pieces?"
"Correct. That's a split staff. Your Holiness may not be aware, but lately some of the mages in the city have taken inspiration from the dual-blade style and worked out a school of dual staves. They say some of the front-line adventurers have taken to imitating it."
Vien fetched a pipe, lit the tobacco and drew on it. "Consider it carefully. A staff is like a sword; handling a good sword too early causes your technique to regress.
"A good weapon also demands a higher level of mana. These are weapons for any age; you couldn't call them the strongest, but they should serve well."
Vien moved behind the display case. "And of course, these standard-pattern staves are also for sale as normal."
Marilou looked at the three staves and caught Vien's unspoken meaning: these three were the work he was proudest of.
Choosing any of the three would be no loss at all.
Marilou's gaze traveled over the three of them, and then, as if she had sensed something, she noticed a bandage-wrapped wooden sword stuffed into the trash can in the corner.
"What's that?"
Vien followed her gaze and noticed the little wooden sword sitting in the junk bin.
"Ah, that. A treasure I found deep in a secret realm a while back. Though I suspect it's a prank left behind by some predecessor who got there first.
"I've tested that wooden sword. It's simply a very ordinary wooden sword. It's probably a souvenir left by whoever took the real treasure first, or a piece of gear they swapped out."
Vien said it half in jest. In truth that battle in the secret realm had cost him a great deal, and who could have imagined the reward would turn out to be a little wooden sword.
Marilou stepped forward and lifted the little wooden sword out of the discarded junk bin. It felt rather good in her grip.
As if, somewhere beyond explaining, she felt a certain familiarity in it.
She tried channeling mana into it, and in the next second a waterspout burst from the tip of the blade. Viya's hand was quicker than her eye, and she struck the column of water apart.
Vien rubbed his eyes. "That thing is actually a staff?"
Generally speaking, who would connect a wooden sword with the domain of staves? No wonder he had never been able to draw out the little sword's true potential.
Marilou looked at the little wooden sword and found it was quite light, and that faintly, indefinably, she could feel a familiarity in the blade she couldn't put words to.
"Could you sell me this sword?"
Marilou spoke up, and Vien scratched his head. "I never worked out a price for it at all. If you hadn't come, I'd probably have thrown it into storage. Since you like it this much, leave ten gold coins."
"Marilou, are you certain you want this wooden sword?"
Viya took the sword from Marilou's hand and tried pouring mana into it. The result was that the wooden sword didn't stir in the slightest.
Strange. Then how had Marilou produced that waterspout a moment ago?
Marilou held the little wooden sword. "I am. It's comfortable to hold, and this staff has strength in it."
Feeling her way around it, Marilou found the little wooden sword could hover the way a staff did and cast at range, and if she coated mana over the surface of the blade, the weapon's own lethality ought to be sufficient too.
Combined with the advantage of being light, Marilou had no reason to refuse.
"Being able to pick a weapon that suits your hand is a good thing in the end. A friend's price. Eight gold coins will do."
Vien pushed two of the coins back and waved his two visitors off.
In the carriage, Marilou turned the little wooden sword over in her hands, her eyes full of delight.
"If you carry that staff about, your teachers will probably think you've taken up swordsmanship as an elective."
"Will they? I get the feeling this little wooden sword's shape isn't fixed. And as long as it can cast magic, it's a staff!"
Seeing how fond Marilou was of the little wooden stick, Viya couldn't very well say more.
"Since you have a weapon now, I'll teach you some combat technique as well."
"N... now?"
Marilou was rather startled. She hadn't expected Viya to be in such a hurry.
"Yes."
Viya got down from the carriage and took Marilou to a training ground banked up out of sand.
Before Marilou could react, Viya crossed the space in a single flash step and was above her.
"What I just used is called Moon Step. You generate wind-attribute magic beneath your feet to accelerate your own movement, and then catch the enemy off guard."
Marilou rubbed her eyes. It had been so fast she hadn't made it out at all.
Viya patted her shoulder and demonstrated a second time.
"Concentrate your power, use your staff, and picture wind being generated under the soles of your feet."
"All right."
Marilou did as she was told, generating wind beneath her feet. She focused her mind, steered the little wooden sword carefully, and began pouring energy in.
Wind, rise!
Wind, rise!!
Wind, rise!!!
Hm. Why was it getting so drafty?
Marilou opened her eyes and only then discovered she had been pushed high into the air by a column of wind.
Down on the ground, Viya's face was a mass of black lines.
In the time it had taken her to drink a cup of tea, Viya had looked up to find Marilou launching herself off the spot like a rocket.
Watching Marilou climb higher and higher, Viya's feelings grew more complicated still.
I told you to learn Moon Step, not to launch yourself up to the moon and take a couple of steps on it.