Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai

"Morning sunshine," I said, sitting on the edge of the desk.

Grivis groaned, rolling onto his side. Only then did he seem to realize he was bound and half naked.

"What… you can't do this to me. Do you know who I am?"

"Petty dictator? Mage impersonator? A man with a really big gun?" I asked with more amusement than I probably should've. "I’m guessing you’ve already figured out who I am."

His eyes narrowed as his eyes flicked around the room. When they settled on Selvi, where she was resting in the chair, still torn up, but obviously awake and watching him, he went still.

Slowly, his eyes shifted back to look at me. "You're the new Magus Dominus."

Selvi gasped. Which made me realize I’d never gotten around to telling her that bit. Still, I didn't look away. "That's right. And I hear you've been running things since Balthum's death."

"I have. Better than that old bastard ever did," Grivis said, rubbing his jaw against his shoulder before looking up at me again. "He was a great man, but he should've let me do more."

"Hmm. Doesn't seem to be the popular opinion," I said, before reaching over and dangling the pendant in front of him. "Recognize this?"

"That's mine! Give it back," Grivis said, lunging forward. In that moment, I felt a surge of mana. It was tiny, but it was enough. Enough he'd probably unlocked his first slot.

"Technically, all property of a Magus Dominus transfers to the new Magus Dominus once he takes up the mantle," I said, still swinging the pendant back and forth.

Grivis's eyes remained locked on the pendant for several seconds before switching back to me. "Technically," he repeated, sounding the word out slowly, his eyes flicking back to the pendant. "What… what do you want for the pendant?"

"For this? A lot. A lot of boring details that neither of us really want to talk about. But we will, because, annoying as it is, logistics makes the world go round. Least, that’s what Books tells me," I said, glancing at Calbern. “Make sure he tells you where the beacon is, yeah?”

He nodded, stepping forward.

And then he proceeded to interrogate Grivis on exactly what I'd said we would. Food stores. Six months of varied dried storage for 152 people, the total population of the village. Magical supplies. Enough powder to craft twelve rune pages. Several other components he didn't understand. No idea where the beacon was. He’d never seen anything that matched its description. They had oodles of replacement ropes and the chasm vines they used to grow them though. Enough to build the entire settlement over again if it all burned down. Rough wood planks, in the same amount.

"Wait, why so much rope and wood?" I muttered.

"Oh, I can answer that one," Selvi said, letting Calbern continue his interrogation.

"Hit me," I said, earning a squint.

Then Selvi shrugged while shifting in the chair. "Maybe twenty years after Balthum moved in, had a big storm roll in. They say it was the great storm itself, that it reached out to punish us for settling so close. Don't know if that's true, but what is true is that lightning tore up the whole peninsula. Waves drowned islands what had stood for hundreds of years. Destroyed the harbor, and most of the town that was up top."

Apparently, listening in, Grivis interrupted, "Was Balthum himself that done it. Called in the storm to keep people away."

"Chasm swallow you, rope rot," Selvi said, struggling to stand up.

Grivis shrunk down, backing against the wall as Selvi took a single step towards him.

"Maybe we should split this up," I said, waving Calbern towards the back. He nodded, and gestured Grivis away.

I waited until Grivis had slithered to the back of the room before returning my attention to Selvi. "You were saying?"

"Right. Anyway, whole town gets wiped out, and Balthum decides to move it all into the chasm. Cept, it was a pain to get all this wood and rope right after the disaster. He had to haul all the ships up himself. And thing you gotta know about Balthum is, he hated doing his own dirty work. So he makes it a rule we've always gotta have enough rope and wood on hand to replace the whole Net ourselves. Saved a lot of lives over the years. Only good thing the bastard ever done other than kill a few monsters."

"That… huh, guess I was expecting more. Does that mean the village has woodworkers? And weavers?"

"Sure, if weavers means lifebinders," Selvi said, shrugging.

"Lifebinders?"

"Sure, them that makes the ropes that binds our lives together," Selvi said, her eyes narrowed and her lips squished as though I'd missed something incredibly obvious.

"Okay. Do they make baskets too?"

"Sure. And they weave shirts and such… ah, that's why ya call them weavers," Selvi said, nodding to herself.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Indeed," Calbern said, stepping over but not taking his eyes off Grivis. "I have all the information we need. It will need to be verified, of course, but it shall serve as a starting point. Assuming he has not lied too egregiously, I suspect everything to be in order. He was of the opinion that everything in the village belonged to him, so his notes were rather..."

“Thorough?” I supplied.

“Obsessive,” Calbern chose instead, a tiny frown creasing his lip.

"That can't be healthy," I said, glancing towards Grivis. "Guess it's time to ask the hard questions."

"Let me help. I can rough him up good," Selvi said. Despite her enthusiasm, she struggled to even lift herself out of her chair.

"While I appreciate your dedication, you can't trust information you get from such brutal methods," I said, standing up and taking a single step towards Grivis. I turned back to look at her. "I'd think you'd know that by now."

"Just wanted to rough him up some, is all," Selvi said, smiling back.

"Fair 'nuff," I said, my attention returning to Grivis. I kept the pendant swinging loosely as I approached. "Now, you've been helpful. My friend is going to check what you've told him, and assuming you told the truth, and that you answer the rest of my questions honestly, I'll give you the pendant, alright?"

It was a lie. The gleam in his eye told me all he needed was a second and he thought I'd be screwed. Which is why the pendant I was dangling was actually a sparkly rock that only looked like the pendant on the outside. Copy Object was a horrible illusion spell, since you had to be holding the original object for it to work. And if he'd had any sort of sensory enhancement, or was even able to touch it, he'd be able to tell it was a fake right away.

"Okay, first question. Where's your backup stash? The one you keep hidden?" His eyes flicked away from the pendant for a second. I didn't catch where he'd been looking, but I trusted Calbern had.

"The pendant," he lied, nodding at it.

"Huh. Well, that makes me the fool, doesn't it," I said, shaking my head, my frown calculated to say I was exactly that.

And Grivis might've been able to read people, but my old man had taught me to lie really well. Good enough even he couldn't read me. And the spark that shone in his eye was all I needed to know Grivis couldn't either.

Well, that was one less concern, anyway. Now for the important stuff.

"You ever raped anyone? Experimented on them?" I asked, leaning forward. "Hurt them for the fun of it?"

"Never," Grivis replied with a straight face. Entirely straight. Not so much as a flicker.

"You rotten rope! Lying sack of Arvi-dung," Selvi screamed from across the room, exactly as I'd expected.

Grivis flinched, his gaze flicking to me then back to the pendant.

"Getting the impression you were less than truthful that time," I said, giving him a small smile.

"Well, okay, I might've hurt a few people. But only to pay them back for wrongs done to me first," Grivis said, his words practically rolling over each other by the end.

"Uh huh. Everyone does that," I lied.

"Exactly, everyone does it," Grivis agreed, nodding along, the dilation in his eyes receding.

"Might be best if she's taken out," I said, turning around and mouthing, 'keep her here.'

"Right away, master Perth," Calbern said, moving next to Selvi and quietly talking to her.

Before Grivis could look their direction, I snapped my fingers, bringing his focus back. "Okay, friend. I understand you've had a lot on your shoulders here. Running everything is thankless work, am I right?"

Grivis let out a nervous chuckle, probably the first honest emotion I'd seen from him since I started asking my questions. "Don't I know it."

"And no one appreciates it. Appreciates you," I said, nodding along.

"No one! You know how much I sacrificed for this rotten basket of idiots?" he asked, leaning forward, the pendant momentarily forgotten.

"No idea friend. Why don't you tell me?"

"I had dreams, you know? Wanted to get out of here, become a proper mage. See the world, maybe find myself a nice woman or two," Grivis said, his hands clenched. "Course, Balthum never let anyone leave. Not unless it was in chains. Not even good old Grivis. Loyal as they come, but still not allowed to go."

"It's not right," I said, shaking my head.

"Not right at all. I cried, when he died. Damn near lost the whole village, was so lost in the chasm, rope frayed near to breaking, as it were," Grivis said, his eyes going distant. "Then I saw her."

"Her?"

"They call her the wood rat. But I knew the truth. See, Balthum didn't take her parents on accident. They were chosen cause they had potential. Could've been mages. Said so in his notes," Grivis replied, shaking his head. "And I knew that she done it. She killed the kindest man I ever knew. That's when I knew I had to preserve his legacy. Till the next came along."

"And you did a good job of that, didn't you?"

"Best I could, bridge collapse if I'm lying," Grivis said. And in that moment, I felt pity for this man. Didn't let it show on my face, but it was still there. He really thought he had done it for the mage. And that Balthum had been kinder to him than anyone else in his life…

Well, I knew people could warp their own memories, even without magic. I’d seen that when I’d tried to help the others, after the old man had kicked it.

"So, you preserved his legacy… for me?" I asked, the fake pendant dangling by a thread, seemingly forgotten out of sight.

"For a real Magus Dominus. One what respected me, the way he should," Grivis said, a small smile slipping onto his face.

"Ah," I said, shaking my head before meeting his gaze. "Not me then."

"No," he said with a little sigh. Then he lunged for the fake pendant, his eyes lighting up with delight for all of a second as his mana ran through mine, sending the passcode for the amulet.

"That…" I said, shocked at the clarity of his mana. "You didn't develop a skill slot. You made a fixed spell. One that can only open one lock."

I sat back, unable to believe it as I stared at him. He'd sacrificed more than just that spell slot. The path of the ensouled mage was forever closed to him. If I'd woken up in his body instead of Perth's, out here on the edge of nowhere, would I have gotten stuck like him?

And yet… how many natural magic users were there? Was there another path for someone like Grivis. There’d been mentions that wizardry hadn’t been humanity’s first path to power. Just its most reliable.

The sound of a slap broke me out of my thoughts. Selvi was standing over Grivis, her hand raised for another blow.

"Stop," I said, pushing to my feet.

"Magus Dominus," Selvi said, dropping to one knee. "Please, let me punish this rope rot. He doesn't deserve to live."

"Maybe not," I said, looking down at where Grivis was sprawled on the floor. "But that's not up to you to decide."

"Understood, Magus Dominus," Selvi said, though I could hear her grinding her teeth.

"Don't think you do. Pretty sure you've all lived by the whims of others for most of your lives," I said, brushing myself off as I pulled the real pendant free of my robes, setting it to the side. "But a civilization has laws. Rules that we live by."

"We have laws," Selvi objected. "The rites of rope and rigging. Not what they applied to this one or his cronies."

"And what do your laws say about Grivis, now that he's subject to them?"

A whimper escaped Grivis. Selvi finally looked up, a wide grin splitting her face.

"They say, a man that commits any one of the crimes Grivis's known to have done in the last seven days is sentenced to become one with the nets."