Um. I didn't expect to see this. But I really should have.
Gray and Reines appearing here was not on my list of expected people. Gray is tolerable. Her timidity is pitiful, but not annoying. Reines, though?
Reines was standing near the entrance, her honey blonde hair catching the chandelier light, a glass of wine in her hand, and a smile on her face that meant absolutely no good. Then she took out a small vial and poured the liquid on the ground.
I watched as it spread across the marble floor, thin and silvery like mercury caught in moonlight, before it sprung up and turned into a maid.
Wait. Was this the damn Volumen Hydrargyrum people kept talking about? I knew the El Melloi faction had a mercury like Mystic Code, but I never imagined it would be a maid. Isn't mercury poisonous? How was it supposed to serve food?
The silvery figure stood beside Reines, its features vaguely feminine, its surface shaped into what looked like a maid's uniform.
"Trim, you have permission to act on your own judgment," Reines said impassively.
"Yes, Master."
The maid immediately looked around the room and spoke with a blank expression. "I didn't know they stacked shit that high."
I laughed out loud.
Reines turned to me, one eyebrow raised, looking rather displeased. No one else had really heard, but the fact that I laughed might put me on a hitlist. A prized Mystic Code talking like that would be embarrassing for even the most proud of magi to tolerate.
Gray was also taken aback by Trimmau's outburst, but after a second, she began observing the people around the room intently.
"Well, I didn't expect to see you here, Teitoku," Reines said with frustration.
"Neither did I," I admitted casually.
If I were being honest, I did not really hate Reines that much. She is annoying, but she is not an evil asshole who gets off on other people's suffering. Well, she is, but her sense of pleasure does not override her better judgment as a human being. That made her easier to tolerate than most nobles.
"Oh, hi, Teitoku," Gray called out.
I gave her a wave. "Gray? I did not expect you to be here."
She nodded, pulling her hood a little tighter, a nervous habit at this point. "I insisted on going, and Lady Reines invited me."
I raised an eyebrow. "You insisted?"
Gray's cheeks flushed slightly beneath her hood. "I thought it might be good to see more of the world."
It was nice seeing our class introvert going out more, if I were being honest. Shaking my head out of the thought, I realized a large number of people had gathered around. A few dozen people, all of them magi. Some held glasses of deep red wine, others enjoyed the music, and everyone took part in gentle, friendly conversation.
"Miss Reines," Gray called as she pulled at the hem of her skirt.
"Is something wrong, Gray?" Reines replied.
"No, I was just wondering what you were going to do. Do you have some acquaintances here to talk to?"
"Nope," Reines replied with a light laugh. "First comes observation."
Gray looked confused at the concept, so I explained. "She is basically going to make connections with people to get on their good side. Or figure out who is worth talking to and who is not."
Gray's brow furrowed. "That sounds complicated."
I shrugged, watching Reines move into the crowd. "By listening in on the various conversations happening around you, you start to realize where different people are standing and who they are related to."
My grandfather really wanted me to act like a nobleman at the Clock Tower, so he took his time to teach me various nonsense that did not matter to me. "Gray, follow me. I will show you something."
She hesitated for a bit, then nodded and fell into step beside me, just behind Reines.
We walked slowly through the edge of the crowd, keeping our distance from the main clusters of guests.
"Trambelio, Trambelio, Trambelio, Meluastea, Trambelio, Meluastea, Trambelio," Reines murmured, counting under her breath. "The Trambelio faction is out in full force tonight. Hardly anyone from the Barthomeloi, either. There should be a limit to how surrounded you can get."
Reminded somehow of China's history, I gave a mournful sigh.
Being a social gathering of magi, the most important thing to do first was get a handle on the ratio of attendees from different factions. I was never good at hanging around magi, so Reines was handling this much better than I was. But I still got the gist of it all.
"Hmm. Altogether, it looks like we have a ratio of about six Trambelio, one Barthomeloi, and three Meluastea," Reines finished with a nod.
"Those are the names of the different factions?" Gray asked.
"The main factions," I responded. "The Clock Tower is split into political groups, each with its own agenda, but the main three are the biggest, and any smaller ones hide behind them. Trambelio represents those who want to run democratically. Barthomeloi represents those who want to run aristocratically. The Meluastea do not care one way or the other. They just want to do their research in peace."
If you cleaned it all up, you basically had those who thought the management of the Clock Tower should be handed to nobility who had proven to have excellent bloodlines, and those who believed that bloodline should be disregarded and those with talent should be in charge.
Well, it was just about magi, so in the end it did not make much difference which one you picked. It was basically a decision about whether you thought those who had been filtered to the top should be filtered again.
"I think I understand," Gray said. "The El Melloi family supports the aristocratic faction, right?"
"For now," Reines responded. "But recently it has been getting to be more trouble than it is worth."
The El Melloi family's support for the aristocratic faction stemmed from Reines's late brother, the previous Lord El Melloi. His family had been prominent even among the nobility. However, unfortunate as it may be, the current state of the El Melloi family did not carry the same respect or power as it once did.
Actually, as the New Age students began to come through the El Melloi classroom in droves, in practice they were being driven closer and closer to the Trambelio faction's side.
Gray frowned. "So Lord El Melloi's teaching style is pushing you toward a different faction?"
"Not his teaching style," I corrected. "His students. The New Age magi are the ones from minor families, the ones without centuries of pedigree, and they are flocking to his classroom. Where they go, political capital follows."
"But regardless of all that, against someone like the Barthomeloi family who could swing the Faculty of Law against us at full force, we do not stand a chance."
"The Barthomeloi are the Faculty of Law?" Gray tilted her head to the side like a small bird.
"Right. Is something wrong with that?"
"No, just that I thought since there were twelve Lords, they would each be in charge of one of the twelve main faculties. I thought the Faculty of Law was outside of those twelve."
I see. Is that how you understood it? Actually, that was a pretty normal understanding of how things worked. As someone who was new to the Clock Tower myself, I still mixed myself up with these sorts of things.
Most new magi did not realize it until later, but the Faculty of Law, often called the Department of Policies, was indeed one of the twelve faculties. It just was not always listed with the others because its purpose was unique. While faculties like Mineralogy or Creation focused on specific branches of magecraft, Policies handled the enforcement of the Clock Tower's rules.
But Gray was also right in a way. The Faculty of Law sat outside the standard structure in practice. It was the Barthomeloi's personal domain, their weapon to swing at anyone who stepped out of line. The Department of Modern Magecraft previously did not have a Lord either.
Just as Reines was about to reply to Gray, someone interrupted her.
"Oh? Someone with a lineage as shallow as yours thinks they have something to leave behind on the proud history of magecraft?"
"After you people have let the state of magecraft decline to this degree, do you honestly think you can save it yourselves? When will you wake up and realize that dream has long since become unreachable?"
A fat, beer bellied man had interrupted our conversation out of nowhere.
"You think the Clock Tower could survive without the New Agers?" I asked in annoyance.
"Hahaha! The Clock Tower was set up for the sake of the Lords Aristocrats in the first place. Do you really think you can make something out of the scraps we have left for you?"
Centered around the two who were arguing, the tensions of those of all factions were slowly starting to mount. They were not stupid enough to let it degrade into combat like the idiots from the El Melloi classroom, but even so, the atmosphere of the room was quickly starting to turn dangerous.
But just then someone bumped into the fat man. It was a person who was obviously drunk out of his mind.
"Ow! Owowowowowow! Sorry, sorry!"
All sides were taken off guard by the sudden interloper. While the magi were still stunned at his entrance, he spread his arms wide and spun around, throwing his wine glass into the air in the process.
"Uh..." Gray muttered, giving voice to my inner monologue.
The young man fell, splaying out on the ground. Along with a long, alcohol drenched burp, the man's slightly unbearable body odor wafted out, filling the area. I had thought the banquet had just begun. How much had this guy drunk in that short time?
"Sho sh sh shorry! I musht apolog..." Unable to even pronounce his words properly, he crawled along the ground like a caterpillar, pressing a hand to his mouth as he belched again.
Like that, the crowd began to disperse. With a glance at each other and a long sigh, the two arguing magi went their separate ways. As if they were fleeing from the world's most disgusting piece of garbage, the fallen man was left alone to nurse his now ailing stomach.
I let out a small sigh in annoyance.
"Umm..."
A voice called to me from behind.
Gray was holding the wine glass the man had thrown. Not even a drop had been spilled. Of course there was no way I could know that, but regardless there was still a considerable amount of drink left in the glass.
Reines took the glass from Gray and gave it to our resident fat man who had dropped it.
"Thank you," he replied, his expression pale and his fingers shaking, gripping the glass so he was sure it would not fall.
Then Reines whispered something in his ear that I could not really understand, and they started having their own conversation.
I just stood through it all while they each exchanged their own information, until a distinct voice cut through our conversation.
"Maio, it is fine to be passionate about someone's work, but you should be a bit more careful when touching someone else's Mystic Code. It would be your own fault if you got yourself killed."
I recognized this voice. I turned to the redhead with her hair done in a ponytail. My master, Touko Aozaki.
"Ah, sorry, Miss Aozaki," the man replied.
"Not at all. That was quite the performance earlier, by the way."
At that, she turned to me.
"Kakine, you never introduced me to your friends. Do not keep me waiting."
She then turned to Lord Reines.
"Pleasure to meet you. My name is Touko Aozaki."
My hand came to my forehead quicker than I could imagine. It let out an audible noise, as if being slapped.
Such misfortune.