While I was having my freak-out over the mystery meat, with visions of Sweeny Todd swimming through my head, Mary reassured me that it wasn’t anything that macabre. Rather, the pies were made out of meat hunted from monsters, and other more mana-sensitive creatures.

 

“Some people have an aversion to eating them, which I guess I can understand, given their propensity for eating people themselves. But how would that be any different from eating bear or other such mundane creatures? It’s just part of the life cycle.”

 

              Having hunted and eaten squirrel and deer before, I really couldn’t be too bothered by the thought of eating wild game even if it was a bit different from the norm.

 

“Plus,” Mary added, “the extra mana in the meat makes it even more delicious. The less sensitive people are less likely to pick up on it, but the very nature of magical creatures makes them healthier and more resistant to diseases. It really is the superior choice.”

 

 

 

Upon saying this she finished up the last of her pie and swallowed down the dregs of her drink.

 

“That actually makes it sound like a super-food. Why do people…”

 

“-so what if it causes indigestion in people with lower magical potential. It’s not my problem.”

 

Oh.

 

Figured there was some sort of catch.

 

Anyways,

 

“So, what are we doing now?”

 

 

“We got you registered as a citizen here, but you still need to get registered as my apprentice in the Magician’s guild. While technically you’re my apprentice from the moment you agree to it, having you registered officially is important if I’m going to have you run errands, as well as for your ability to make a living in the future selling your wares. While it’s common to make sales directly to clients and patients, and honestly that’s my usual sales method, selling lower grade products and medicines through the guild is great for keeping up a consistent source of revenue. Diversifying income streams is just common sense rather that purely relying on commission work.”

 

“Why do you sound like a businesswoman?”

 

“One of the books I found discussed something called entrepreneurship. It’s been super helpful with making money. Not that I have much expenses, but that just means I can put more capital towards acquiring more books and artifacts from the mundane world! Which of course helps me research new spells and compounds, like that explosion magic substitute I gave you.”

 

“You’d think someone so obsessed with collecting books would realize how stupid she was making that much mercury fulminate,” I muttered under my breath.

 

 

---

 

 

After dropping off the drink tankards at the pie-seller's shop, Mary led me to a building near the market. I suppose it only makes sense that all the guilds and government offices would be centered around the town square. I could guess that there might be some issues with putting all the important centers of government in one area, but I can’t imagine whatever cannon equivalent spells they have would be able to damage all of them at once. Actually, I have to wonder about that.

 

              They did somehow end up copying the star fortress shape common in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, but is it just that much more convenient for them to use magic? And is it really a perfect analogue for solid shot or the case shot commonly used in that time period? I honestly don’t know what the capabilities of magic are. Mary has mentioned mana multiple times, but I have to wonder how that relates to the potions and poisons she’s mentioned working on.

 

With the plants in her garden, making poisons is definitely not a task that would need to rely on magic. And the “explosion magic” she handed me earlier is simple chemistry. There’s been enough mystical things happening that I don’t doubt her on most of the subjects, but I wonder what limits it has. It seems a bit too convenient just to say “it’s magic, I aint gotta explain shit,” even more so with the revelation that Mary seems quite excited about manufacturing mercury fulminate. I really need to have a talk with her about that too. It’s almost amazing she still has all her limbs.

 

              Of course, I’m just as stupid for actually accepting it. I’ll just have to take her word that the “bag of holding” she gave me protects it from shocks. Also, if books are coming over here as often as she makes it sound, why is everything still at an 18^th century level? What I’ve seen so far kind of has led me to realize that reading books from my world is possibly just an eccentricity of Mary’s. In fact, it seems like she’s already well-established as this towns resident eccentric. I’ve lost track at this point of how many times in the past two days I’ve asked myself what kind of weirdo I’ve gotten myself involved wi-

 

“Rose!”

 

“Wha?”

 

“Fill out the form, please.” A receptionist asked me.

 

“You really need to pay more attention.” Mary scolded me. “I’m sorry, my new apprentice seems a bit spacey, but it’s normal for otherworlders to be eccentric. While personally I’m glad to be normal, it’s more typical for those with great magic potential to have a few quirks,” She explained to the clerk.

 

              The amount of smugness in her voice when she said that made it seem like she was doing everything she could to egg the receptionist on, and from the weary expression on his face it seemed like this wasn’t the first provocation she made towards him. I really must have missed a lot while I was lost in thought for him to look this put-out.

 

She even got on my nerves just with that one comment. Me, eccentric? I don’t want to hear that from some weirdo who seems to have a penchant towards dangerous substances. I haven’t seen a single person in this town treat her like she’s normal, or even safe to be around.

 

Now that I think of it, I hadn’t even noticed we were already in the guild and at a counter. Most of the floor was taken up with a wide-open hall. Shelves lined several of the walls, and tables were available in the center where a mix of various men and women were reading. Most of them were dressed in the same sort of clothes the townsfolk wore, a mix of pseudo-historical seeming costume with a trend more towards trousers than breeches. The clothing choices were reminiscent of the vaguely late-medieval European stylings drawn by foreigners who were unaware of specific trends, or who learned about medieval clothing from children's cartoons showing princes and princesses.

 

Several of the women wore the same sort of stereotypical witch hat that Mary wore, with carrying degrees of trim, mostly lace around the underside of the brim or a brocaded ribbon as the hat band. Several of the men, rather than wearing trousers or breeches with a coat, were wearing robes.

 

 

At one end of the guild hall were several counters, one of which we were standing at. Looking down the counters there were several clerks talking with various guild members, including the clerk closest to me who was glaring at me with an annoyed expression.

 

 

“Since you clearly weren’t listening, I’ll explain this again. There are several sections here depending on your school of magic you’re trained in. You, as a witch, will be coming to this section of the counter where I will undoubtedly have the unpleasant task of assisting you. As you can see, there are other counters for wizards, freelance battle mages, sorcerers, and other schools of magic. Usually those from the mundane world are served best studying as sorcerers, but seeing as you’ve already agreed to be this one's apprentice, it’s already set in stone for the most part.”

 

“Is there some reason I shouldn’t be a witch?”

 

“Otherworlders tend to have a higher capacity for mana, making them a perfect fit for the instinctual manner in which sorcery works. Witchcraft uses more mana from nature and requires an in-depth knowledge of the natural world rather than mana capacity. Then again, this one here has more mana than most sorcerers with the technical knowledge of a wizard, so in a weird way it fits that the oddball witch would get an oddball otherworlder apprentice. God help you both.”

 

“Thanks?”

 

“Please don’t. Just fill out the form.”

 

Most the information on the form was the same as on my ID, so it took no time at all to complete. While I was finishing up, Mary butted in,

 

“Eustace, I almost forgot. I have another batch that just finished up.”

 

“Really?” His mood instantly switched from annoyed and snippy to almost excited. “When will you be able to deliver them?”

 

“I’ve got them right here,” Mary replied, digging into her bag and pulling out a crate that sounded full of glass jars. It looked rather heavy, and rather than putting it on the counter she just left it at her feet, nudging it slightly with her toe. “The usual healing potions.”

 

“The shopkeepers have been pestering me for weeks about these, it’s about time you finally brought in another batch. They’re going to be fighting with the citizens' militia for these, and both are lucky the Lord's Guards have already stocked up.”

 

“Things have been pretty peaceful lately, haven’t they? I thought it’d be okay to take my time on these.”

 

“Things aren’t bad, but there’s been increasing reports of bandits in the woods. And you should know how many people get injured just going out in the woods regularly, given that you live out there in that monster-filled forest.”

 

“Fair enough.”

 

She held out her hand, receiving several gold coins. The receptionist, Eustace, took my form and took it into a back room, similar to how it went in the tax office. He returned with a metal card but thankfully didn’t need to prick my finger to imprint it to me like with the tax offices ID.

 

“So as I explained, this is just a provisional ID as an apprentice. If you end up selling potions and medicines you made, they’ll fall under the account of your master, meaning she would likely be held liable in the case of faulty products. Once she decides you’ve completed your apprenticeship, which often lasts 8 or more years for witches, she’ll bring you back here and we can process you in as a journeyman or master Witch of the Magicians Guild. “

 

I nodded. So it works the same as any other trade. While I’m mildly curious about how the system works for the other kinds of magic, we had already seemed to have outstayed our welcome. Although he did seem happy about getting those potions from Mary. Also, I don’t actually remember him explaining the system, but maybe I just was distracted during that part. Overall it seems pretty self-explanatory…

 

“-acting outside the scope of your positions can carry severe penalties, but having already gone over that you surely don’t need further instruction.”

 

Oops.

 

“Thanks again for the help, Eustace. I’m just going to take her to get measured for a hat and a few outfits, then we’re going to head back. We don’t want to get caught in the dark on the way back.”

 

Wait.

 

What was that about severe punishment?