The sword had come out of it at evolution rank eight, and he asked his wielder which skills she wanted to put the points into.
Then he noticed how quiet she was.
She informed him that he was a bad teacher, and that all he had thought about while she was being scolded were his own skills. He restored her mood by talking about his curry, and about the ingredients that were going into it, and how good they were.
As for the skills: Fran suggested sword art and sword skill, which took them to level ten and unlocked mastery. The new sword mastery unlocked the sword attribute, and she began daydreaming about a blade sheathed in flame. Better still, Fran was excited about skill taker, because it let them take skills from anyone at all, even from people who had no crystal in them, and they agreed to raise it.
The sword put everything he had left into skill taker, which pushed his chance of obtaining a skill up to one hundred percent. The cost was that it could only be used once, and could not be used again for more than four hundred hours.
Later, Fran went to see the guild leader.
He took her to task for ignoring orders and going into the dungeon alone. He also knew perfectly well that if she had not fought the B-rank demon, the casualties would have been catastrophic — so he let it slide.
A corpse of that grade was rare, and the authorities would be taking it. What Clint was more curious about was the crystal, because an item like that was going to raise a great many questions. Fran answered that it had been destroyed when she brought the demon down, and had disappeared.
The guild leader knew she was lying. He let it pass, because he could tell there was no malice underneath the lie.
Right then the door banged open and a man came through it, and accused Fran of lying.
Lightning crackled across the sky outside. Fran stood motionless, her sword resting across her back.
A stout knight walked up to her with resentment dripping off his face. He stroked his moustache and labelled her a liar on sight.
Teacher found that odd. He had not sensed the man's presence at all before he walked in. The two of them wondered who this was.
The knight took offence at their confusion and introduced himself dramatically as August Alent, vice captain of the Alessa knights.
A memory of Miss Nell surfaced at once. She had warned them about the vice captain — how corrupt he was, and how he had refused to send a single knight to the goblin subjugation.
The knight dismissed Fran out of hand, mocking her for coming from a lowly class. He boasted about his unique skill, the essence of falsehood. Then he leaned in and told her coldly that lying would get her nowhere with him.
The rain kept pouring down outside.
Fran and August presented themselves before the guildmaster. August complained that the little girl claimed the crystal had disappeared, which was a lie. Fran defended herself and said she was telling the truth.
Teacher, meanwhile, had decided something here was strange, and demanded an appraisal. The knight's stats came up.
He was level thirty. His main piece of equipment was a presence-concealing ring — which explained why the sword had not felt him coming. And for a knight, his sword art was at level one, and the rest of his numbers were dismally low.
A memory came with the appraisal: August wrongfully accusing a girl of theft, a demonstration of how he abused his unique skill to convict people according to his own will rather than out of any interest in justice or integrity.
He also used the same power to keep track of his own lies.
The knight walked over to the guildmaster and demanded that the little adventurer be handed to him.
The guildmaster refused flatly.
That infuriated August. He protested that Fran had had the audacity to lie to a noble, and was being forgiven for it. The guildmaster reasoned that the knights would not be able to handle her — after all, she had single-handedly killed a greater demon.
Very well, August countered: in that case the knights would confiscate the loot and the crystal of the greater demon as compensation, and the matter would be left there.
The guildmaster could not see why he would ever accept such an unfair proposal. The knights had refused to take part in the subjugation. The materials belonged to Fran by right.
August tried to wipe the guilt off his face and retorted that it had not been appropriate to send noble knights on such an errand; that job had been work for low-class adventurers.
Those words made the guildmaster angry. He scolded August for looking down on brave adventurers who had risked their lives in the best interest of the guild. He also observed that there was no reason at all for Captain Rimmers to have declined the request, and made it plain that he knew whose doing this had been, and warned that it might well lead to an inquiry.
August found this barbaric. The thought of his father, Count Holmes, hearing about it crossed his face, and he denied having turned down anything.
Teacher suggested that Fran intervene.
Fran presented the goblin horns.
The knight recoiled in disgust and shoved them away, and Fran flared with anger and asked her sword whether she was allowed to kill him.
Teacher calmed her down and advised her to be rational about it. Then he told her that this was the moment for their newly learned skill: skill taker.
Fran raised her hand and a surge of purple light went across the room into the knight.
Teacher had taken the unique skill essence of falsehood 5. Fran had taken the unique skill court etiquette 4.
Fran decided to test what she had got, and asked August, quite calmly, how old he really was.
August, entirely confident that he could answer, began to stutter — and a slimy string of snot slid out of his nose.
He started to sweat heavily and to scratch at himself, and could not stop. He screamed at Fran to shut her mouth. She went on pestering him for the answer in the same calm voice. Baffled by his own sudden inability to reply, and thoroughly wretched with the itching, August fled the guildmaster's office, muttering excuses and saying that he did not feel well.
Nell came in. Fran's eyes lit up at the sight of her.
The guildmaster apologised for the whole scene and explained that August had bought his position with money and influence. Miss Nell added the part he had left out: the guildmaster could not oppose the vice captain, because August was the son of Count Holmes.
He thanked Fran, who was already flustered by all of it, and warned her that August would very likely hold this against her and would not let it go. Fran shrugged and told him she would handle it.