The Resigned Dilettante

Chapter 121: Staring at a canal and contemplating a potential end.

[So I woke up this morning and realized that I had completely forgotten to post this yesterday. Extremely sorry. No excuse. Think I came up with a better title than I would have though.]

[Not...

Chapter 120: Conversation predicated on an unexpected revelation.

“I see,” I say, “Um… I’m not certain what to say. But suppose I am this person you seem to think I am, I don’t see why you would say that. After all, I am favoured by the Empress. Why w...

Chapter 119: A Sudden pain in the... back.

After grabbing my thrown blades, I liquify everything and clean up, grabbing only their coins and two enchanted weapons: Briarhart’s sword, which is iron-phasing; and a basic enchanted dagger of ...

Chapter 118: An Unexpected Tenderness

I try desperately to go to sleep before the boon fades, hoping to acclimate to the slowness and weakness while unconscious. Not that there’s much chance of that. So, I just lay there, staring at ...

Chapter 117: Clutching the Last Wisps of Power

I leave Lingonhill more laden than I arrived: three extra heavy crossbows, a handful of magic bolts, a light item, a spyglass and a tidy amount of assorted coin. I first head to one of the towns th...

Chapter 116: A Slight Complication

“We had them. The plan worked flawlessly. They were cornered like rats, and our mage was burning them out. Then we were attacked from behind. Dozens of large chimeras swarmed us, allowing Ser Pre...

Chapter 115: Mounting desperation

I tell the chimera leader to clear his pack away from Ser Terry’s route, and he complies, but a few attacks still come. Ligryn leads the way, cutting down any that come while Emily pre-emptively ...

New story!

Hey, I got a new story, "The Boundaries of Light"! Be sure to check it out.

Allia Tred...

Chapter 114: Cat and mouse...and bigger cat.

[Good news everyone, I have a new story! In celebration I’m going to be increasing the rel...

Chapter 113: Into The Dark

[So Grammarly has apparently been down for the past 8 hours. I find it more amusing than anything because I just use the most basic features (free with generative ai option turned off) to act as a ...

Chapter 112: An Answer

[I'll be out of town tomorrow so I decided it would be easiest just to put this out the night before]

Not having time to let the lord overcome his drug induced slumber on his own, I plant a s...

Chapter Eleventy-one: The Plentiful Bounty of Lingonhil

Lingonhill is a sleepy little village in the valley created by three nearby lightly wooded hills. I look down on it from the southwestern most one and watch as people amble out of bed and go to wor...

Chapter 110: Yet More Unjust Rewards

“…This bond you said I’m forming with the dagger? If I used it for the Anar sacrifice ritual, would that strengthen it?

“Um…” The Mynharran hesitates.

“Because I should re...

Chapter 109: A Wild Prophet Appears

Pelliphos is fatigued from the gallop, so I ride the agent’s larger horse, who also carries the corpse ball without complaint. I divine the nearest stream to be only ten minutes away, so we go th...

Chapter 108: Pursuit of the masses

I don’t dare use my concealment spell to escape unaccosted, but it turns out changing my cloak from mirror to concealer suffices. Eventually, I do find a spot to use my silver divining rod and ea...

Chapter 107: The Gift of Fear

Despite the muffling enchantment on my boots, my footsteps seem thunderously loud. What is going on? Why does the Empress even know my name? The quarrel with Vincent? The mysterious mandate that go...

Chapter 106: The Empress Descends

The empress’s colour is crimson. Not the blood red I imagined, but something vibrant and vital. Gold is the secondary colour, spread through her attire like strangling vines. Her outfit’s form ...

Chapter 105: The Equinoctial

Ser Terry doesn’t try to recruit me. He does end up talking with me after law class, but it’s just to tell me he’ll be gone during the break, so regretfully he can’t socialize with me durin...

Chapter 104: With friends like me...

The servant Princep Theodore promised to send doesn’t come by for another two days, and by then the meeting time everyone agrees to is earlier in the week. Likewise, we have next week off for the...

Chapter 103: Concern

It’s odd. It takes a few hours to go through everyone’s wounds, during which I do unfortunately have to grow a few herbs for some lingering ailments. I expected the itching to intensify from be...

Chapter 102: Keeping resolve

[I’m going to be honest, I struggled having Jules say her questions and Malichi answering in a way that reflected both her education level and the conceptions of the setting. Like I say force whe...

Chapter 101: The lance of absolution

[I added a small section in ch96 talking about how most of the Anar spells have more formal names, which Malz ignore in favour of more descriptive ones. The concealment spell being the Veil of Mith...

Chapter 100: A Militant mindset.

What was Princep Talia trying to say, and why was she trying to say it? The crux of her claim was that the empire had access to methods that would have cut short the Caethlain conflict but chose no...

Chapter 99: Protracted engagement

Princep Cecilia does not show for the Dialectical Magicalism club. Erika is upset at the disinterest from her royal patron, but I think everyone else is relieved, except Ligryn, who seems troubled ...

Chapter 98: Notions of justice

“If you’re both going to sit by me again, then I am going to move.” I say to my two friends who happened to come into the law classroom at the same time but by opposite doors and are now maki...

Chapter 97: Some nice tea

[I suddenly realized while writing this that I somehow added a class to Malichi's schedule from what he had the previous week last chapter. It's just a minor mention, but it may turn out to be more...

Chapter 96: A highly prestigious group

[Sorry I got this out a bit later than usual. Been a bit busy the last couple of days.]

Riley agrees to the mutual surrender, but is rather particular about the details of the written ...

Chapter 95: The duel

“You’ve been spreading rumours about me, Riley!” I half shout, slamming my open hands on the desk in front of him for emphasis.

I managed to focus on the history lecture, but had to exc...

Chapter 94: A bit of relaxation

[A couple of things. To avoid the mistake of two chapters ago, I have decided to forgo the file upload in favour of copying the text over. Let me know if this causes any problems. Second, recently ...

Chapter 93: Contingent possibilities

So sorry I messed up last chapter. I only just now noticed that I had downloaded the first part of this chapter instead of 92. It should be fixed now.