In retrospect, I hoped that bringing Patrick into my service wouldn’t offend Sera — it was possible she’d been considering asking him to work for her — but I didn’t think it would pose a problem. Retainers in service to a specific family member were still expected to be a part of the household and work closely with everyone else in the house; serving me in specific was more of a formality, at least from my perspective.
Of course, if he actually wanted to try to marry her, that would be a bit more complicated, but I wasn’t thinking of that as a serious possibility. We were teenagers, and he had a passing crush.
Probably.
I didn’t really understand relationship stuff.
Anyway, with that hurdle cleared, I got back to my work and my newly-acquired pile of gold.
Sera’s letter had, unfortunately, left explicit instructions on what I was supposed to do with it.
“Corin,
I’ve been working on a priority list for items that I think we need for the next test. Of these, I believe my top priorities are as follows:
Mana storage or some other method of increasing my mana capacity.
A method for increasing the power of my summoned creatures. Ideally, something to provide a vast amount of power in an emergency.
Teleportation or flight.
Stronger defensive measures.
Healing.
I would like for you to build me as powerful of an item as you can for one of the five above functions, in order of priority. If any gold is remaining after the first item is completed, focus on the second, and so forth. You may keep one of the six coins as your commission.
See me if you have any questions.
Yours,
Sera”
I wanted to argue with her priorities to work on what I thought was important, but I couldn’t disagree with her. That was actually a really solid list.
I did, however, need considerably more detail to know which option to work with. So, I went to visit Sera to ask her directly.
She wasn’t at her room, so I ended up spending the rest of the day working on my own projects. I finally remembered to talk to her again a couple days later.
When she opened the door to her room, she folded her arms, glowering at me. “Corin. To what do I owe the magnanimity of your presence?”
I blinked. “I wanted to talk to you about the items you wanted?”
She wrinkled her nose. “What, you didn’t want to just, decide on something important like that without me?”
“Uh...no?” I scratched my chin. “You’re pretty obviously angry at me, but let’s assume I’m a complete jerk and don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Ugh. Come in.” She gestured and I followed her inside. She shut the door loudly, but I wouldn’t quite call it a “slam”.
Back to folded arms. “I just received a letter from father asking what I think about your decision to offer a retainer position to Patrick.”
Oh.
Well, this is awkward.
“Aaaand your mad because I didn’t ask you about it first?”
She nodded firmly. “Patrick and I are friends, too, you know! Did you never consider that I might have some input? And a retainer — that’s a very serious decision, Corin. Not just for you, for the whole house!”
I winced. She was right about that, of course. And, I’d more or less promised to treat her as an equal, so making an executive decision about Patrick without even bringing the idea up to her...might have been a little bit hasty.
“I’m bad at these things, Sera. Sorry?” I put my hands up in a gesture of surrender.
“This is not a matter where a simple apology will be sufficient, Corin. Did you ever consider that maybe, just possibly, I had been thinking about making him my retainer?”
“Afterward,” I admitted, “But that probably would have made things more awkward.”
“What, is asking me something really so difficult?”
I lowered my eyes, shaking my head while I considered how to address the situation. “Uh, no. It’s not that at all. There were...special circumstances? If I told you more, it might be a problem with Patrick.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Are you saying you didn’t consult me because Patrick has some sort of problem with me? Because, you know, that would be an even bigger reason to talk to me before—”
“It’s not that, Sera.” I sighed. “I’m bad at this, so Patrick is just going to have to forgive me for being blunt. Has he asked you anything...uh, event related, recently?”
She frowned, looking briefly introspective. “No?”
I wiped my forehead. “Okay, spoiling the surprise here. He wants to ask you to the winter ball. And, since you’re a noble now, he was worried that would be inappropriate. Of course, asking you to make him your retainer right before asking you to a dance would look like he was just trying to get in your pants to move up the social ladder. So...”
“...you made him your retainer, so that he could have sufficient standing to ask me to a dance.”
I made a concluding swish of my hands. “Precisely.”
She put a hand over her eyes. “Are you daft, Corin? You let him take a life-long sacred oath so he could ask me to a dance?”
“Mmm. When you put it that way, it does sound pretty bad. But he was so sincere and adorable about wanting to ask you—”
Sera sighed, folding her hands in front of her. “Corin. For the future, please promise me you will not make any life-altering oaths in order to influence my love life.”
I considered that for a moment. “Wait, wouldn’t agreeing to that be a contradiction? I mean, wouldn’t I literally be making a—”
She took a step closer, looking me in the eyes. “Corin. I’m not kidding with you here. I am not amused by this, but I can tell you didn’t have any malicious intent. You thought he was being romantic. Fine. That is not a sufficient reason to make a decision regarding our house without my knowledge. Especially if it was to enable someone to court me.”
That wasn’t the only reason. I really did want Patrick as a retainer.
I took a deep breath. I wanted to argue, to snap back that the oath was between me and Patrick, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that she had a point.