Chapter 384: Interlude – The Proof is in the Pudding

Ratcatcher sat back in his chair, taking off his glasses and massaging his eyes.

Kelpie was a mess. The runic language had been invented by one of the seafaring folk, but none of them could agree who. Not even a race, let alone a specific author. They didn’t have the same traditions of respecting authorship like the elves did, and all of the records conflicted.

Ratcatcher had a special interest in wizardry languages, although he had no talent for wizardry himself. He enjoyed unraveling their history, their story. It was his niche, and the School allowed him to explore that to his heart’s content.

His eyes drifted back to Elaine’s signature, the girl’s claims absurd. He’d done a bit of reading into the subject, and she was essentially claiming to have founded medicine.

Ridiculous.

He took her signature, and went to grab a copy of the Medical Manuscripts from the library. The School was primarily on the Yaris branch of copies, and he sat down at a table right there to compare.

[All the Tiny Threads of the Rainbow] was his skill, and as expected, the signatures didn’t match.

But they matched enough. No copy was perfect, and signatures in particular were finicky. The higher level the [Copier], the better the signature. With that being said, people did start their lives at a low level, and had to work anyways, regardless of how ‘perfect’ their work was. It usually didn’t matter for day to day life, but it got more interesting when trying to trace the exact history of a book.

Most [Scribes] and [Actuaries], when comparing signatures, really checked for the match to be above a given threshold, then simply reported back if it was a ‘match’ like that or not.

Ratcatcher’s skill was a little more nuanced than that. Not only did it give him an exacting percentage, but it told him where and how the signature matched. It was incredibly useful for rederiving book genealogies.

The percentage that did match was fairly high, far higher than random chance. Ratcatcher’s own signature, if he wrote the word ‘Elaine’ instead of his name, would be maybe a 2% match. This one was closer to 40%.

Normally, 40% would be enough for him to entirely dismiss her claims. But the Medical Manuscripts were ancient. 40% of the signature matching was enough for him to continue investigating.

He [Noted] which portions of the signature matched, then went through the library until he found a copy of the Medical Manuscripts on the Rudolf line.

Another solid partial match. He [Noted] what parts matched, then went back to the archives.

The Lucienne copy was an ancestor of both the Rudolf and Yaris version of the Medical Manuscripts, and the School was blessed enough to have a copy in its archives.

Another partial match. The parts that were a match on the ‘later’ generations of the Manuscript were also a match against this sample. Interestingly, some parts that Rudolf, Yaris, and Lucienne all had in common weren’t matches, which implied they were miscopies that had been ‘properly’ copied down.

It meant one of two things.

Either Elaine was one of the greatest [Con Artists] Ratcatcher had ever encountered, or she was actually who she claimed to be.

Critically, if she was a [Con Artist], the high signature match, and the proper alignment to the Lucienne copy, implied that she had access to a much, much older version of the Manuscripts.

Either way, it was worth digging into further. Ratcatcher would have to see if a member of the Acquisitions team could be persuaded to borrow an old copy of the Manuscripts from a private collection, or maybe the Academy would be willing to lend them a copy.

He was friends with the town’s auction house [Appraiser], and maybe she’d be willing to take a look and give her opinion. Elaine was claiming to be the original, and that was more in their domain.

Marcelle was deep into her bottle of bloodwine. She’d specifically tweaked her personal tolerances such that she got exactly the right level of drunk when she’d drunk the perfect amount of wine. Handly life hack for a [Biomancer].

If she really wanted to, she could directly manipulate her blood alcohol content, getting her to the right level of intoxication. It was an interesting exercise, but it entirely defeated the fun of drinking.

The fun was the social aspect, drinking with friends and socializing. Hence her social circle.

She was gloomily mulling over Elaine’s claim. Why would her star student do something like that?

The annoying part was, even if she was right, she should’ve known just how impossible it would be to prove her claim. Inventing a cheap Immortality potion was worthless if the recipe couldn’t be distributed, after all. It just ruined the reputation of the person making the claim, and reputation was everything. People didn’t trust strangers because they didn’t know their reputation. A [Carpenter] who made wobbly chairs would find their customers going anywhere else.

Ratcatcher had mentioned some promising initial results though, and Marcelle felt duty-bound to give the matter some cursory thought. If nothing else, it could protect her from the fallout of her mentee’s fall from grace, if she was the one to poke a hole in the story, or stop it from spreading too far.

Elaine seemed to have some sense on that front.

“… and I leveled! It’s been months since the last time, I thought I was more than due for one with all my efforts.” One of Marcelle’s friends said.

A minor spark lit in Marcelle’s mind as she offered congratulations, along with the rest of her friend group.

There was the mystery of Marcelle’s recent leveling speed. Could Elaine’s claims be true? Could they be related?

“Do you have a student called Elaine – yes, her name is Elaine – in your class?”

She shook her head.

Another one of Marcelle’s friends spoke up.

“I do. She’s one of yours, right?”

Marcelle swirled her glass, taking a measured sip before responding.

“She is. Have you been leveling much lately?”

He shrugged.

“Got an overdue level a few weeks ago, and got lucky on a second level recently. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary besides that.”

Hmmm.

As Elaine’s mentor, Marcelle had access to her schedule. It was worth poking around, and seeing if there was a correlation between people leveling up quickly, and having Elaine as a student.

Marcelle’s other leads and ideas on her higher leveling rate hadn’t panned out, and it was worth checking out. If Elaine really was the reason she’d been leveling faster?

Well.

That would be interesting.

“Professor Marcelle. Welcome. Is there something I can help you with?” Mormerilhawn stood up to politely greet his fellow faculty member and Immortal.

He saw it as his duty to guide the younger Immortals, help smooth their path through life. Guide them, in a sense. If he didn’t do it, they’d be blind and helpless.

“Yes, I was wondering if I could borrow a few minutes of your time?” She asked him.

The master of the arena gestured into his home, sitting down in the guest receiving room where he always had a small spread of snacks for any visitors.

Hospitality was important.

“Please, make yourself at home.” He waited for Professor Marcelle to sit down, before gracefully taking a seat himself.

The two made polite small talk for a few minutes. There was no reason not to, they both had eternity.

Eternity didn’t mean they didn’t have other duties, and soon enough they circled round to the topic of conversation.

“Is there an issue I can assist you with this… evening?” The island’s endless spinning around the globe made the greeting of the day permanently awkward.

“Yes. I’m wondering, have you been leveling at your usual pace, or if you’ve noticed anything unusual recently.”

The Black Rose immediately shook his head.

“I have noted no change in my leveling speed. Why, have you encountered some phenomena?”

Professor Marcelle gave a slow, almost hesitant nod.

“Indeed. I believe I have traced it to an individual – Elaine – and I’m interviewing people who’ve had extensive contact with her.”

That was more than a little interesting, given the tiny human’s history and prowess.

“Oh? What are your findings?”

“I’ll need to properly correlate my results, but as of this moment, those related to the medical and healing fields are seeing a marked increase in levels. Do you know anything about her history?”

Mormerilhawn let a minor grimace cross his face.

“It’s mysterious. I know what she’s claimed. A trip through the fae realm. The ancient Remus empire of old. I am unable to properly validate her claims, but they do not matter. I can tell you what I have noticed.”

Marcelle leaned forward a hair, a huge movement with the level of perception Mormerilhawn had.

“She doesn’t fight like any organization I know of. She moves like she’s expecting to have gear that nobody wears. She has experience in wars, and her kill count speaks of large-scale conflicts. The only conflict that springs to mind, given her age, is the Han civil war, although her monster count suggests a second large conflict on the northern continent.”

He raised an eyebrow at her.

“Between ‘being well-trained in a style that doesn’t exist, participating as a human in a secret war in the north, then campaigning relentlessly in the Han since she was 10’, or simply being a victim of the fae, a known, if rare, phenomenon, which do you believe is more likely?”

Marcelle looked thoughtful.

Flora stared at a few different reports that crossed her desk.

Her position was almost entirely hands off, letting her meditate and tend to her gardens. A calm, peaceful life that she had carefully carved out for herself.

The news was threatening her peace. It looked like somebody was claiming, once again, to be the Healer, the original writer of the Medical Manuscripts. Her mysterious disappearance when Flora was a little girl left the world ripe for imposters. The frequency had decreased as time passed and people forgot the details, but it looked like another one had been trotted out.

It had been quite some time since the last time an imposter had shown up, and Flora was wary. There had been a few attempts on her life, using the little-known connection between the two. The Witch in White had thought everyone that knew about their connection was dead – it had been over 20,000 years – but it was a little too much of a coincidence for this Elaine to be at the same School she was a board member of for her liking.

Seeing the name in the list of graduates had been one thing, but her claims were another.

Flora wasn’t particularly devoted to the gods, but she had a working relationship with a few of them. It was a pure business transaction. She provided them with mana, they kept a running account of how much she’d donated, and charged accordingly for various services or favors. It didn’t work for most Pallos inhabitants, but her level and longevity made her an attractive business partner.

Words anathema to any of the truly devoted, but Flora didn’t mind. She would never get a blessing, but at least she knew where she stood in relation to her gods, and they knew she was a thought away from joining them if she wished. Flora had been at the 3584 class up for so long, she’d immediately cap and ascend with a thought.

Delphine. Got an issue. Any insight? She prayed to one of her favorites – the patron goddess of flowers. She gave a quick breakdown of the issue to her goddess.

There was silence for a long moment.

Yes. It’ll cost though. The goddess replied.

Flora rolled her eyes. Of course it would cost.

How much?

Delphine named a number that was frankly usurious. It was only a mana request, against her established balance. No favors or offerings required. Flora could pay, and they both knew it. The goddess was simply getting as much as possible from her.

Deal. Flora replied.

There’s an Iona at your School. One of Selene’s [Paladins]. Can’t lie, can see statuses, close to Elaine. Talk with her, it’ll help.

Flora opened her eyes, a flowery clone flash growing on the main campus.

Time to do some digging.