Bribery

<Elise, you must keep that girl next to at all times. You can never allow her do as she wants here.>

<I understand.>

'Oh?'

Savine hummed with delight as she heard a particular conversation.

"Young Mistress?"

"You can finish taking notes and if you have any questions, be my guest," Savine said to Wilfred and Zuri. "I'll be reading."

In the background, some youths were carrying furniture into the room. The ones Wilfred chose for Savine. At a glance, they all looked like safe, but bland choices, but a closer look showed that they were all well-made pieces of work. Savine was impressed the slums had such good craftsmen.

"Put that one over there and bed here, close to the window."

There was another 20-something maid organizing the whole situation, and her facial features somewhat resembled Wilfred's. Her name was Julia. Since he was quick to hire her and trust her with the tasks here, Savine assumed she was one of his many children. He did mention his family acting as servants for generations, so it wouldn't be a surprise if some among his children followed his footsteps.

"Ah, the books," Julia said. "Is the bookshelf coming?"

"Yes, ma'am. It's at the entrance, likely."

"Alright, then put the books over there, in front of that wall. Put the bookshelf and stack the books on it, alright?"

As the carrier put the twenty or something books down, Savine went over. The carrier glanced at her white hair, then pretended to have not stared before finally walking away.

Smiling, Savine picked one book up and skimmed through it.

'A fable. A non-mage king in a world consisting only of mage rulers. A world where mana turns mages into unfeeling machines, but the non-mage king manages to show the importance of feeling for one's nation…'

Savine skipped to the end and read the few remaining pages.

'Likely after overcoming all sorts of adversaries, he unites the world under a banner of love. The end… Can't believe this didn't get banned…'

She put the book on the bookshelf's bottom and read another one.

'Oh? A philosophy on suicide. Huh.'

Savine skipped to the end again. Since conclusion was difficult to understand without context talking about absurdness and death, she read backwards for a few pages.

'Ah. Suicide is the rejection of free will. It's a rejection of life and the absurd. Because in the end, free will is an absurd thing. Even if we know what's best for us, we rarely ever make the right choices. But that's what makes life worth living.'

Savine put the book down on the shelf, putting it near the top, so she could read it more later on. As she reached for the next one,

"What's going on here?" a nasal, familiar voice came from the corridor.

Savine walked over to see the bishop accompanied by a couple of other priests.

"I'm furnishing my room."

"Is that so? Anyway, I assume you lack servants and whatnot here. I feel it would be too unbecoming of you to be accompanied by commoner priests, so I decided to be merciful and grant you one of my own retainers. Here, meet Leanne."

"It's nice to meet you, Young Mistress."

A forty-something woman stepped forward. She had greying brunette hair, a few wrinkles on her face, a pair of sharp, ambitious eyes, and a smile that faltered into an expression of disbelief every time one of the people carrying furniture brushed past her. Savine remembered seeing her walking around the place before.

Savine wanted to laugh at the bishop's 'ploys', but guessing that the bishop was aware of how obvious he was and that he was doing this intentionally, she nodded.

"Thank you, Bishop. Also, since I'm unfamiliar with how I'm supposed to treat a noble as my retainer, can you tell me what I can and can't do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are there any orders I shouldn't give, or… is it okay if I simply treat them as I do my other servants?"

The bishop thought for a bit before speaking.

"No, of course you can't treat them the same. As a noble retainer, she should be your most important aide, commanding the other servants and accompanying you everywhere. I've heard of my brother's talks of debuting you in a soon-coming tea party. Leanne should be accompanying you to that and she should also be involved in your plans and outings."

Savine kept the sigh from leaking out and smiled warmly. "I understand. I'll treat her well."

The bishop walked away, huffing and puffing.

As Savine wondered how she should deal with Leanne, Wilfred spoke up.

"Young Mistress."

"Hmm?"

"Can you explain this part?"

Savine glanced over at Leanne to make sure she was not looking over, but the woman was too busy snorting and glaring at the commoners around her.

Rolling her eyes, Savine read the part Wilfred was showing.

[When I was in the slums, certain people asked about you.]

"Oh, this part…" Savine hummed. "I meant how you should try to be subtle, but still try to understand what the person you're negotiating with wants from you and try to grant it to them. Sometimes, people want things that is not accepted by society. There are many rich merchants who enjoy being serviced by women, but of course, they can't really say that out loud, can they?

"In that case, you must be subtle about it all, but still strive to service them. Arrange something in a hidden place, or if they're really unsure, do it in their own turf. You don't have to bother me about this until it's settled."

"I understand, Young Mistress."

Wilfred nodded with a frown. He did not like Savine comparing herself to an escort, but he understood what Savine was trying to say. Wilfred should try to make the meeting happen according to the other side's wants, but keep it away from Savine's eyes.

"Well, you focus on that," Savine smiled. "Leanne, follow me. We're taking a walk."

"Ah! Of course, Young Mistress."

After they were on the streets, Leanne asked. "Where are we going?"

"The bank."

"The bank?"

"Yes. But enough about that," Savine said. "Tell me about yourself."

"Me?"

"Yes. What kind of family you come from, whether you have kids or not, how you ended up as a priest here? And don't worry. My other two servants went through the same thing."

"I… I'd rather not talk about it, young mistress," she bowed.

"That's fine as well," Savine shrugged. "Instead, why don't we play a game? I'll try to guess things about you and you'll tell me if I got it right or not?"

"Why not," Leanne chuckled.

"You have to take this seriously. It's very important. You can't lie to me."

"I… understand, Young Mistress."

Savine nodded.

"Well, let's start with the obvious. You're from a baron's family, since you're willing to serve as a retainer to a count's daughter inside the temple. And… hmm… you came to the temple quite late. Perhaps just after the Civil war.

"Before that, you were lucky enough to be born with mana, so your life mustn't have been too terrible. You were married then and either you or your husband must've been on the Grand Duchess's side. But that didn't really affect you much. You followed her orders whenever she had one for you, but otherwise, you lived your life. Had kids enjoyed the rare luxuries reserved for barons?

"Of course, after she died, you couldn't keep living as a noble. Since you were on the wrong side, you needed to be punished. No one really cared about you and just threw you to the temple, where you started serving the bishop…

"Did I get anything wrong?" Savine asked.

"...No."

"In that case, let me ask you one question. Since I've played so well, please indulge me the answer. How many children do you have?"

"Three."

"Is that so? Are they…? No, they can't be well. At least not as well as they were before the Duchess died," Savine concluded. "Perhaps they're toiling away as mere attendants, never to rise above a certain level and never to enjoy the life of luxury they deserved."

Savine finished speaking, and they arrived at the bank.

"Do you have an account here?"

Leanne looked confused for a few seconds, but soon nodded.

The two walked inside, and a teller greeted them. Savine gave her the card she was given as proof of her account.

"Take five Sovereignty minted pure golden coins from my account and send it to hers," she said.

"Ma'am?"

"Young Mistress?" Leanne was even more confused.

"Don't ask questions," Savine said to the teller before dragging Leanne closer. "In the bishop's eyes, you can stick close to me, but otherwise, stay away. Go find a corner in the room and spend your time reading. Can you do that?"

"I… But."

"You can tell the bishop where I'm going. But if he asks for the magic tools, tell him I don't trust you yet and won't allow you anywhere near the inventions. As for the people I meet, you can talk about them as well. But if I tell you to keep a meeting secret, you will keep your mouth shut."

"…"

"If you follow these simple instructions while you stay next to me, in… three months' time, I'll give you another 20," Savine added. "Deal?"

Leanne hesitated a bit, but she bowed eventually.

"Very good. Now let's go back. I'm a busy person."

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