The room was tense as Grace and Karita sat down, They had finally gotten done with going over the files on the village they needed to fix. Karita had been a little stiff ever since the previous day when they had gotten into the argument regarding the maids. The state of affairs were as bad as they feared. While the mine collapse is still a mystery, the survey had shown that the area had lost stability entirely. It was as if the mountains themselves had decided that there would be no more mining in the area. What should have been solid stone just would shatter and fill. Once filled, it would become solid once more. It was clear that the mountains themselves had brought their mysterious power out just to stop them. The odd part was the fact that the mines had even been allowed to work in the first place.
"Well, that's quite a disappointment," Grace noted aloud as she leaned back into her chair. She could feel Jade's agreement in her mind.
"DISAPPOINTING!? ONE OF THE FEW WAYS WE CAN FIX THIS WHOLE MESS QUICKLY AND ALL YOU CAN SAY IS DISAPPOINTING!?," her currently frustrated aid screamed," If it weren't for the fact that the guild has a hands off stipulation in regards to the mountains, I could just get researchers flocking here just to study it! Why did it have to be here of all places that my career would die!"
Grace jumped a bit at the outburst. She had to admit that the situation was looking bad. However, there was a question that was brought to mind," Why doesn't the guild wish to study the mountains?"
Karita stopped seething to gawk at her unwanted superior," You can not be serious," she paused to wait for a joke to be dropped only to be met with a clueless silence," You do realize that we are talk about the Lost Range, right?"
"Well, yes, but I would think that they'd still want to study it," Grace replied. She remembered the accounts of the explorers and adventurers. All of them ended in silence and sadness as each attempt never returned a soul," It's not like you're exploring deep in. It shouldn't be that dangerous."
Karita hummed speculatively at this as she leaned back and crossed her arms in thought before pointing to the Princess," You've never actually received a formal education on the history of magic, have you."
"Well, I was found to have a bad compatibility with mage. It was deemed unnecessary to study further when my aptitude was found to be too low for it," Grace answered with a bit of shame. It had been another episode in her life. She had hoped back then to become a great mage to prove herself only to be rewarded with another sad truth. She didn't have the aptitude and her teacher quit calling her a lost cause. Her heart had been broken and any further studies on magic were aborted after.
"Look, whoever told you that is full of shit! Knowledge is power. In fact if you hadn't been denied those studies, we might not even be here!" Karita cursed loudly," I want to know what asshole sabotaged your education, because when I find her, I'm going to kick her ass!"
"What?" the reaction was a bit odd to her. She had been expecting her aid to launch into scolding and deriding her for being useless. She paled at the thought of the fact the woman was about to assault her after she got her name so she tried to deflect the topic," Well, there's no way she could have known what was going to happen, nor is this going to help. We have a job to do."
Karita's eyes narrowed at this," Who was it? Tell me who it was that sabotaged your and inadvertently MY future!? Anyone who would abandon a student like that is utter garbage! While it is true that you have no need for advanced knowledge in a field beyond your reach to ever be a true part of, she still had an obligation to teach you two very important things!"
The vehemence the woman's lecture held Grace's attention. In a way, she realized as much as the woman's behavior and attitude was often a problem to her, that she almost felt a bit of respect for the woman. Almost, she still remembered her behavior the day prior. Though she did have to wonder at what she had been denied," What are they?"
"Very simple, the respect, gratitude and inspirations of the past and COMMON FUCKING SENSE!" The woman grew louder with each word as she slowly rose from the chair to now stand and stare down at the princess. Her face was etched in fury. She was silent for a moment as she noted she had frightened her Princess. She slowly collected her nerves and let out a sigh before slumping back into her seat. She decided to explain herself a little. Not too much mind, it wouldn't do to let the princess know she had intended to kill that damnable little monster back then just to recover her core," Look, one of the basics you clearly missed out on is bio-magical capacitance. The idea that there is a limit on how much magic a creature can handle before it starts hurting and even kills them. Fortunately even the highest grade cores commercially available are not dangerous. The cores for research are a different matter. Regardless of the generation, research and military use cores are life threatening. Their parameters are set much higher. I won't go into all of the details, but the common sense you were denied would have told you that going for the higher grade was dangerous and it would have also told you that maxing it like you did is a good way to straight up kill a person." She lectured succinctly as she watched Grace relax a little. Though the princess looked distraught at the fact she could have killed her unique slave. Karita let the silence go on for a bit as she considered something. The Princess had been sabotaged. Hell, she girl lost an arm in an assassination attempt a long time ago. It was clear that there were people who wanted her to fail and had stopped at nothing to ensure the worst outcomes for the girl. It was at that moment that she came to a mental crossroads.
Karita could simply abandon the girl. The girl was trouble no matter what, and her own dreams had been all but crushed beneath the weight of this abysmal task. She at least had an education and could make a comfortable living working commercially. She wouldn't even have to deal with those murderous monsters. The last was especially enticing considering they were like the harbingers of doom personified.
However, she could keep her ears open and make contact with these people. Her true saboteurs had to be high up and or well connected to have gone unnoticed for so long. She could make contact with them and further their plans as an insider. This could be used to give her the power and positioning she needed to get back into the guild. She could even use it to get her dream on the fast track.
As she considered this, there was a knock at the door. This broke Karita out of her thoughts as she went to the door. She still thought on the matter, and she would have preferred to let the princess handle it. She just felt that she needed to do this for some reason. She knew what was on the other side of that door. There were only the princess, here "maids" and herself.
Instead of seeing the goblin, she saw a tray at about her midriff in height. There was a single tea cup and a pot of tea with some strange snack to the side. It was clear the little monsters "forgot" about her. Then again, she was one to admit her faults. Anyone would be angry if you took a few swipes at them and their friends. The thought still annoyed her however. It wasn't her fault the savages had no training and made a big mess of things.
"You said you wanted something this afternoon?" spoke a voice from beneath the tray. Upon closer look, the former guild mage noticed a pair of green hands. That pretty much confirmed her reasoning on the cup.
"Look, I could use a drink as well. So if I apologize for what I did to you yesterday would you please be so 'kind' as to fetch me a cup," Karita inquired only to get an exasperated grunt.
"I'm not the one you kicked, but I'll take note of the wish and let her know. You two can talk later," Weye answered as she stepped around her to go and place the tray onto the desk. It was clearly too big for her size, but she was somehow moving about gracefully as she did so. These goblins were a strange lot. The princess took a sip of the tea and frowned.
"I'm sorry, but this doesn't taste right. There's barely any flavor," the princess critiqued. The goblin seemed a bit confused at this.
"That's odd, Shritoo is really good at making tea. Hells, Oaguz has some formal training in it and they were the ones to make it while I handled the snack," Weye noted in confusion. The princess then gave her a sip much to Karita's disgust," Wow, this is weak! Heck, the flavor is different from what I'm used to."
"That's probably due to difference in the herbs used. The plants from your lands are a bit different if I recall the reports," Karita recalled," If it's weak, it needs to be prepared at a higher temperature."
"Oh! I'll let them know," the brown haired goblin replied with a bow now that the tray was on the desk. It was odd how formal she was acting compared to the others.
"Oh, these strange snacks are good!" Commented the Princess," It's a little odd to use potatoes like this though."
"Well, I'm glad they came out well. We tried to roast some earlier only to find them pale and bland compared to the ones at home. I did what I could to make them taste right, but it didn't come out well. I'm glad you liked them though."
The goblin smiled at the princess and left to get a cup. Karita decided to try one of these strange snacks. It was long and looked fried. It was a little sticky. She found it to be rather tasty. The only thing that was wrong was likely the potato. It seemed to weaken the flavor. She still had to admit it was good.
It was then that made her decision. There was a third option, after all. She could help this princess and get back at the real troublemakers. After all, why give such people the chance to pull this crap again. She'll stick around and make them eat crow.
"So, who was it that screwed US over?"