Chapter 24 – Margrave Breithilde Hosting a Garden Party

“Wow, we had a big catch today.”

“We were able to hunt a big bear.”

“Right. It stopped Erw-kun’s blow splendidly.”

“Although I had calculated it, I wasn’t able to damage the bear’s gallbladder properly.”

Before we knew it, the two pretty girls we had saved from a pack of wolves had entered our party. Rather, I became the new party leader before I knew it.

The thought that I didn’t even have any experience being class president in my previous life had crossed my mind, but when I actually tried doing this sort of thing, the conclusion was that it surprisingly doesn’t take that much work.

After school, the four of us would move towards a distant hunting ground that has little competition, and then I would use detection magic to locate prey.

The qualified members would make the effort when we were hunting something easy, and we would fight with all four of us while taking advantage of our party’s characteristics if we were against something big.

I was a bit anxious about teaming up with both of them at first, but it seems like they may have just been unlucky with the pack of wolves.

With Ina’s skill in spearmanship, she’s sometimes able to kill a charging wild boar with a single blow. In Luise’s case, thanks to her special ability to approach her opponents by erasing her presence, she’s capable of easily catching the guinea fowls that are deemed difficult to catch even for professional hunters.

In addition, since the four of us are working together, there’s no need to panic even when we’re attacked by a pack of wolves or several bears. Instead, it’s more efficient this way and the profit is also quite good.

Nowadays, it’s become natural for the four of us to go hunting together.

“Should we have dinner at Leaf Bower?”

“I wonder what today’s recommended menu will be?”

When we tried to eat dinner after selling all of our catch at the purchase location, the familiar looking homeroom teacher could be seen running up to us from the prep school building.

He is a mid-level staff member of the guild, and he’s also a former adventurer with considerable skill.

Unfortunately, he was forced to retire due to an injury, so now he’s working vigorously to guide the next generation.

He’s 37 years old this year, and has a wife and two daughters.

He might have a hard time feeding his family.

“Hey you guys.”

“Seeckt-sensei, did you need something?”

“Yeah, this was delivered through the prep school.”

Our homeroom teacher had four envelopes, and when I cut the seal of the one addressed to me, there was a letter of introduction to a garden party inside.

“A garden party?”

“Since it’s hosted by Margrave Breithilde-sama, you have to go.”

“Got it.”

For some reason, we will be attending the garden party hosted by Margrave Breithilde.

***

“But why was I invited to a garden party?”

“Perhaps it’s because the family of Wend-kun’s parents are Margrave Breithilde’s vassals?”

Three days later, before noon on our rest day, the four of us dressed accordingly and headed towards the meeting place where the garden party was being held.

Erw and I were in formal noble dress which had been hurriedly made.

Incidentally, because it cost two silver plates, or around two hundred thousand yen, me and Erw were half crying due to the sudden expenses.

Because they both had dresses at their parents’ homes, Ina and Luise didn’t need to have one hastily made. However, they were weeping as well because they were forced to waste money on accessories and shoes.

Both of them were saying, “The savings for purchasing new equipment is…” and ended up fainting in agony.

Since they were both born as pretty girls, I thought that they would be happy to be able to dress up.

“Which reminds me, you’re right. My parents’ family are Margrave Breithilde’s vassals.”

“What do you mean…”

“Since it was like it didn’t have anything to do with me at all…”

They had experienced a terrible incident because of Margrave Breithilde, but he was still their lord, so the relationship couldn’t be cut so easily. Would this be called the lamentation of a small noble?

However, when I thought back on it, father and brother have never participated in a garden party or social gathering for some reason.

To be more precise, they never leave the territory.

Of course, they would have to cross the mountain in order to attend, but still.

“In my opinion, Margrave Breithilde-sama also didn’t want to cause unnecessary burdens for the Baumeister family by having them attend these unimportant garden parties and social gatherings.”

It may be exactly as Luise has guessed.

However, as nobles, I wonder if it’s really okay for father and brother to miss these chances to make connections.

It’s worth it to make connections and meet new acquaintances over the course of your life.

In my previous life, it would be like those old men that act as company counsellors in the morning gatherings.

“This time, since Wend is staying in Breitburg, I guess you’re being treated as their representative.”

“Representative, huh…”

I can’t declare that I’m abandoning my right to succeed the Baumeister household before I come of age, so I’m still a noble right now.

Erw’s circumstances are similar to mine, while Ina and Luise are the daughters of vassals.

Since those two entered the adventurer’s prep school with excellent results, they will be claimed before it’s too late.

Nobles are creatures that scheme many things behind the scenes, after all.

However, that’s just my guess in the end.

The party is being held in the garden of Margrave Breithilde’s mansion, which is located in the heart of the city of Breitburg.

As expected of the garden of the lord’s mansion, there were hundreds of invited guests that were eating, drinking and chatting leisurely.

This garden party is held once a year in Margrave Breithilde’s home, and invitations are sent out to local and foreign nobles along with their families, vassals along with their families, merchant dealers, and various other guild and church officials.

Even the scholarship students, principal, and some teachers from the adventurer’s prep school had been invited, regardless of whether they were nobles or not.

I was even able to see some of them around.

“On occasions like this, I can be identified as a noble.”

“Erw, have you participated in a party like this?”

“Yeah. Since our house has a lord they follow. That lord would hold parties regularly.”

Despite being a low priority since he’s the fifth son, Erw has still gone to several parties like this.

“However, it can’t be compared with a party hosted by the family of Margrave Breithilde, the head noble in the southern region. The food and wine here is extravagant. Since the lord of my house is a viscount, the quality of his party’s contents is slightly lower.”

As Erw was saying that, he was aggressively making a move on the dishes.

I can understand that feeling.

This party stole our happiness from making all that money recently, after all.

We had to spend a lot of money for the clothes that we were wearing to the party.

Because of this, he was trying to regain at least one more copper by desperately eating the food.

In particular, it seems that he’s concentrating on the expensive meat.

“You aren’t eating, Wend?”

Similarly, despite being girls, Ina and Luise had more appetite than sex appeal.

On their plates, dishes centering on meat had been piled up in heaps.

“Of course I’ll eat, as well. I can’t recover even a portion of what these clothes cost by doing so, but…”

Despite our blunt speech and behavior, this is the reality of the children of small nobles and vassals.

It was a similar situation with the other prep school students as well. They could only enter the adventurer’s prep school, so they are aware that they’re no longer nobles.

If they can’t even realize that much, then they won’t be able to live in reality.

“But?”

“Well, I have been thinking since I came to Breitburg…”

After leaving the Baumeister home where I was born, I was wondering what the heck was with that place, where every meal consisted of hard brown bread and soup that was lightly seasoned with salt just like what a sick person would eat. I would feel lucky if the meal contained some small pieces of meat.

When I went hunting, the food was added onto the menu, but that still didn’t change the hard brown bread and thinly seasoned soup.

It was only after I secretly came to Breitburg that I realised just how delicious the stew I ate in the restaurant was, which I got using the money I made from selling the prey I caught in the bazaar.

I can’t believe that a Japanese person who is obsessed with food like me had gotten accustomed to that thinly seasoned soup.

“Ah, so it’s about the Baumeister house.”

“Does Ina know something?”

“When I was still a kid, I heard about it from my father.”

To put it briefly, because the Baumeister house sent their troops on that expedition, they have fallen into a financial crisis.

Since the territory is isolated, in order to sell speciality products to the outside world, they have entrusted them to the caravan which has crossed the mountains at fixed intervals for many years. There has been no need to deliver them by specially passing through the mountains themselves.

However, it must be hard and time-consuming to transport a pack of food through the mountain path without a magic bag.

That said, with the demand for wheat being comparatively high, Margrave Breithilde’s house decided to voluntarily accept it from them without yielding any profit, and this has gone on for a long time.

Then, since someone would buy the wheat, father led the expansion of agricultural land so that they could sell even a bit more of it, which resulted in me being ignored completely.

Because I’m just a kid in the eyes of my father and brother.

It’s no wonder then, that while imagining there was such circumstances, I wished that they would think of some other specialities in order to earn money at such a time.

And with father and the territory people busy producing wheat, the time they spent hunting and gathering was reduced, resulting in our meals being significantly lacking.

Although wheat as a specialty product is a little lacking, the Baumeister Knight Territory is blessed by nature, so a lot of meat can be obtained. In addition, one can also obtain fruits, wild vegetables, river fish, wild yams, and honey from gathering.
(CAUDYR NOTE: It said “bread” at the start of the line originally, but there was NO mention of bread before as a product of the territory, so I feel like it’s talking about wheat instead, heh.)

It’s just that these goods can be produced normally in Margrave Breithilde’s territory beyond the mountains, as well.

As a result, they can’t really be exported, otherwise father would have been motivated to go after them.

I can see why Klaus, the village head, wanted me to become the family head.

I suppose he wasn’t simply thinking about his own greed.

“What’s wrong, Wend?”

“Well, I can only imagine my parents’ family declining in the future.”

“My condolences.”

Although Ina bluntly said that, and it might be harsh for me to put it this way, but neither of us have any interest in the future of the Knight Baumeister family’s territory.

As the eighth son, I had no interest in inheriting the territory to begin with, and the story of a nearby territory was completely unrelated to Ina.

If the succession to my parents’ household had really happened, its lord might have felt somewhat uneasy about the story of their vassal governing their territory.

In addition, regardless of whether or not we were born when the expedition to the demon forest occurred, sacrifices appeared from the families of Ina and Luise’s parents, so wouldn’t they be likely to hold some estrangement?

However, she has also said, “Sine I was still a baby at the time, I wouldn’t remember even if they had mentioned such a thing…”

“Our family ties will be cut in three years, so it doesn’t bother me.”

“Well, I think that you’re a little naive, Wendelin von Benno Baumeister-kun.”

Suddenly, I heard the voice of a young man other than Ina, so I turned to face the direction that voice was coming from.

Standing there was a young man in approximately the first half of his thirties, with gray colored eyes and elegant brown hair.

Well, I guess he wouldn’t mind being treated as a young man despite his age.

“Erm, who might you be?”

“Wend, you idiot!”

When I asked for that young man’s name, Ina, who was next to me, pulled my arm in a panic.

“This gentlemen is…”

“Ah, I hope it’s not too late to introduce myself. My name is Amadeus Freitag von Breithilde. You must be the magician that was born in the Baumeister household. It is an honor to meet you.”

I can’t believe that the young man who came to greet me was the young family head of the Margrave Breithilde household, my Baumeister family’s lord.

“I apologize for my rudeness. I humbly beg your pardon.”

“I heard that Wendelin-kun has never made an appearance in a place like this. You’re not even the heir of the Baumeister family, either. It’s reasonable that you wouldn’t know my face.”

Although I feel that it’s unheard of for a vassal’s child to not know the face of their own lord, it seems that Margrave Breithilde wasn’t really concerned about it.

“However, you enrolling in the adventurer’s prep school has saved me some trouble. The people of the Baumeister household were invited to a gathering like this, but it’s a pity that they couldn’t come, so…” (CAUDYR NOTE: The original second sentence in this line before editing it was: “The people of Baumeister house were invited to gather like this is a pity so…”…I don’t even know what to think about this, lol. Made the best sense of it I could based on the surrounding text, but…yeah.)

They need to pass over the mountains in order to attend the party, after all.

In addition, the Baumeister house’s financial state is currently in bad shape.

On top of all of that, since it was their own fault, father and the others didn’t come to the party so that they wouldn’t be criticized. However, because father always refuses to come, the surrounding vassals seem to be criticizing their irresponsibility.

“Many people are dissatisfied about it. That’s why you saved me some trouble by coming.”

I didn’t learn etiquette for this kind of thing either, and I can escape from the etiquette of nobles with regards to dancing since this is a garden party. I wasn’t thinking about anything else other than eating a large amount of expensive food, but apparently there’s significant meaning in someone from the Baumeister family attending this party.

Nobles really are troublesome creatures.

“Because the greetings are finished, let’s get to the main subject. Can I have a little bit of your time?”

“I don’t mind, but did you have business with me?”

“Yes, it’s not anything important, though.”

I, who went to the mansion after being invited by Margrave Breithilde, never thought that this was an outright lie.

***

“Sorry for taking up your time.”

“No…”

I was guided by Margrave Breithilde to his private room.

Moreover, it was just the two of us in the room.

At first, some of the maids were brewing black tea, but after that they immediately left the room after bowing.

“So, what is your business?”

“You haven’t noticed yet?”

“Well…what could you be talking about?”

“Your talent has been guaranteed. However, it seems that you are still lacking in experience. Burkhart.”

After saying that, when Margrave Breithilde called someone’s name, a single man came in.

His age should be somewhere around the latter half of his forties.

He has black, crew cut hair with streaks of gray in it, and sharp eyes that made him seem like he may be a veteran adventurer.

In addition, he was dressed in a robe, which is something that magicians often wear.

That means that he must be a magician.

“He is our head magician retainer.”

“I am Burkhart Ringstadt. As you can see, I used to be an adventurer.”

“What’s more, he was the master of Alfred Reinford, who was our previous head magician retainer.”

“Eh?”

When my master’s name was suddenly mentioned, anyone would be able to understand that a surprised expression was clearly visible on my face.

He became a talking corpse after his death, and he managed to maintain this state for more than five years in order to teach his own magic to a promising successor. Master’s wish was finally fulfilled after he met me.

I had intended to take this story to my grave without telling anyone else about it.

The matter about master becoming a talking corpse, about him meeting me so that he could teach me magic, and finally about me taking over his legacy.

Especially the last one, since it’s actually fraught with big problems.

Margrave Breithilde’s army that had been annihilated in the demon forest, the expedition that they went on had included a long distance march that exceeded several hundred kilometers, and with that shortcoming, the supplies had been entrusted to master.

The food and resources required to support an army of two thousand men, all of it had been stored in the magic bag that master was carrying.

In addition, because Margrave Breithilde’s army had been annihilated, most of these supplies had not been consumed.

This ridiculous amount of resources is still within his magic bag.

On top of that, the magic bag that all of the resources are in is currently attached to my waist.

This magic bag is something that master handed over to me, so it’s natural that I’d have it with me.

“I told you earlier, right? You’re still lacking in experience.”

“Since I am just a kid and a student.”

“Yeah. You can use magic well enough, but you’re still insensitive to the signs of other magicians. Weren’t you being taught by Al?”

“Eh? I don’t understand what Ringstadt-san is saying.”

As expected, the master of my master knows what he’s talking about.

He’s noticed that I learned the basics of magic from master.

However, it would be dangerous if I admitted that fact so easily.

That’s why I decided to act ignorant for now and observe the situation.

“Oh? Did I make you feel like you’re in danger?”

“Isn’t that bad, Burkhart?”

“Listen, boy. I’m not going to punish you. It’s the same with my lord.”

“I want to negotiate with you. And Burkhart wants to know the final moments of his disciple. Would you please trust us?”

After being persuaded by both of them, in the end, I decided to talk about my only secret with master.

***

“I see. You’ve even done capacity adjustment. Al must have liked you quite a bit.”

For a while after that, I had a long talk with them.

About when I started practising quietly in the forest after I realised that I had talent in magic, and about when master, who had become a talking corpse, showed up there to make me his disciple.

I had only studied under him for a short time, but it’s thanks to that that I’ve become who I am now.

I talked about how my final graduation test was to help master die peacefully by using holy magic to purify him before he became a zombie.

I also talked about how I inherited the contents of his magic bag as a thank you and graduation gift.

While I was talking, they listened to the story with a serious expression on their faces.

“Really. So he was satisfied and died peacefully.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“No, I’m not doubting you or anything like that.”

Burkhart-san, who is my master’s master, has a special ability that can’t be used by other magicians.

Once he has remembered and registered someone’s magic power, he is able to sense the owner of that magic power’s whereabouts.

Honestly, this ability is amazing.

No matter how much magic power a magician has, they normally only release a small amount from their body.

In fact, an excellent magician being sensitive to the signs of other excellent magicians is simply some kind of intuition, and that detection range can be up to several hundred kilometers.

Master, who had become a talking corpse in the demon forest, was able to notice my existence, which was almost at the limits of his detection range.

For Burkhart-san, once he remembers someone’s magic power, he can detect them from a distance of up to several thousands of kilometers.

This can only be described as something amazing.

“Well, despite the fact that that ability is amazing, my magic capacity is around intermediate to advanced level. Even for Al, who you call your master, it may be presumptuous to call him that when he made such a mistake so easily.”

Burkhart-san said that, for some reason, he had felt master’s magic power in the southern region’s demon forest for more than five years.

“I even expected that he had become a Lich.”

A Lich is a kind of undead monster that is ranked higher than a zombie.

They have no reasoning, but unlike zombies which can’t speak or use magic, Liches are monsters that are capable of using magic, though it may not be on the same level as when they were alive.

“Although he may have become a Lich, that Al was a genius. We needed to eliminate him, but we were obstructed because of the location.”

Although we finally had the military forces, it would be almost impossible for adventurers to reach him inside the demon forest.

“Luckily, he didn’t leave that place.”

However, master’s magic power had suddenly started to move.

That must have been when he went to meet me.

For Burkhart-san, he must have thought that a Lich had started moving into a frontier village.

“I had considered going to subjugate him myself, but I was still an adventurer at the time. The request didn’t come out either, and it would be unjustifiable for my companions otherwise, so I didn’t mention it.”

Having to travel over a mountain and then fight with a Lich who was originally a genius magician; the cost would be far more than the reward.

Burkhart-san wished that the subjugation request would come out quickly.

“However, he stayed in one place. Furthermore, he disappeared around two weeks later. I thought that somebody must have defeated him on the other side.”

However, there shouldn’t have been any magicians in a frontier village, so who did it?

His work as an adventurer had become limited while he was thinking about that, so he changed jobs and became a magician retainer for the Margrave Breithilde household, replacing his disciple that had died. Then, for a while, he forgot about it.

However, a rumor had suddenly started spreading here recently.

Someone from the Baumeister household enrolled in the adventurer’s prep school as both a scholarship student and as a magician, even though they shouldn’t have had any magicians in their family.

“What’s more, I’m convinced after today’s events. I can see that you’re wearing Al’s magic bag right now as well, boy.”

“I may have stolen it.”

“That’s impossible. That magic bag can’t be used by anyone but Al, unless he changed the owner himself. That means that Al didn’t become a Lich. He must have entrusted it to you as a talking corpse, boy.”

A talking corpse tries to clear its remaining regrets from when it was alive.

The fact that no rumors of his subjugation appeared even though his magic power disappeared means that he must have successfully done so.

“Indeed, since Alfred didn’t have any family.”

“Al was very popular with women, though.”

After he turned fifteen years old, he worked for more than fifteen years as an adventurer before master became a magician retainer for the Margrave Breithilde household with great fanfare. However, because he was an orphan, he apparently held some fear towards making a family.

Many women tried to make advances on him, but in the end he ended up dying without establishing a family.

“That’s why there’s no problem whatsoever for you to inherit Al’s belongings, boy. He transferred it to you himself, after all.”

They had still been his belongings even though he had become a talking corpse.

Because of that, Burkhart-san seems to think that there are no problems with me inheriting master’s belongings.

“I also feel that there are no problems with that.”

Although he said that, Margrave Breithilde seems to have some concerns.

I can easily guess what they are, but because there’s a possibility that it’s something different, I’ll let him say it himself first.

“Alfred played a major role in my father’s expedition to the demon forest. He was the vice-commander and chief of staff for the expedition army, the captain of the magic forces, and the captain of the supply troops.”

As a magician, you could probably count using both hands how many existences there were on this continent that were like master.

He could use advanced level magic that is said to be magic of the highest level, as well as various other types of attack magic. I, who had studied under master, was able to test out an assortment of these magic spells, and I had widened that repertoire since then as well.

Of course, because of his power in battle, he was recognized as the second in command for the expedition army.

As for him being the captain of the magic forces, there were only a few other magicians available, all of which were at the beginner to intermediate level with no ability to maintain their power. Because of this, he was automatically appointed as the captain.

As for his appointment as the captain of the supply troops, it was because he had put all of the resources in his magic bag and transported them that way. The fact that there wasn’t a lot of people with high social status in the supply troops played an important role, as well.

“He stored the huge amount of resources in his bag, and the things that were placed inside could easily be taken out again. Thanks to that, there were no problems with supplying an expedition army of two thousand people.”

Besides, the most important thing is carrying the load so that the supply troops won’t be delayed.

When an army is briskly marching, the available resources that can be transported will decrease accordingly.

“That magic bag must have the expedition army’s supply goods stored inside it.”

“Yes.”

I had decided that it wouldn’t matter if I kept the goods as long as he didn’t know about them, but that I would return them to him if he ever found out that I had them.

Since I’m going to the adventurer’s prep school in his territory anyway.

Honestly, I didn’t really take my parents’ home into consideration, though.

“By the way, here is the list.”

When master was still alive, he had meticulously and dutifully checked the number and kind of resources that he had in his bag for the expedition army every day.

I showed them the memo he had made that had his handwriting on it, and then handed it over to Margrave Breithilde.

It contained a list of things like various types of food, water, medicine such as medical herbs, materials, and even spare armor.

In order for him to purchase monster materials and other resources obtained in the demon forest from the soldiers, he had stored a considerably large amount of money in the bag, as well.

Furthermore, some of the reward had been handed out to them.

It included a large number of monster materials, medicinal herbs, and ores as well.

“We didn’t get the material for the elixir that would cure brother, but as expected of the demon forest, most of these materials are valuable.”

“So you want me to return the goods?”

“Yes. As expected of Alfred, I really appreciate the fact that he divided his assets dutifully.”

As I had decided to return the resources, I matched the mouth of my magic bag with the magic bag that Burkhart-san was wearing.

After that, when I specified the stored items in my head, they moved from my bag to Burkhart-san’s magic bag one after another.

With this method, the transfer ended immediately without me having to bring out all of the resources individually.

“It’s almost at the limits of my magic power. There’s nothing we can do about the goods that were consumed during the march and invasion.”

The magic bag that he owns can only be used by magicians. However, even though using the bag hardly consumes any magic power, it has a nasty function where the amount that it can store is limited by the amount of magic power that the magician possesses.

It seems that Burkhart-san was able to confirm once more the amount of magic power that his disciple had possessed.

“So, you didn’t even know the name of a famous magician like Burkhart.”

“Although what my lord said is accurate, the boy doesn’t know much about other magicians.”

“You’re right…”

Due to my upbringing and my current lifestyle, I don’t have that much knowledge about the world’s famous magicians.

My library card account expired a long time ago, so I can only see the descriptions of some historical figures.

“However, I’m still pretty famous, you know. That said, Al was a genius who far surpassed me. Truly, the loss of a precious man.”

While Burkhart-san was grieving over that fact, Margrave Breithilde, who had the list in his hands, was hastily calculating a rough estimate of the value of the returned resources and assets.

“It’s easily over fifty platinum coins.”
(CAUDYR NOTE: The original said 50 platinum plates, but that’s an ABSURD amount of money, and just doesn’t fit given the text that we see later…he wouldn’t get gold plates if it was that much either, heh)

Ironically, the materials obtained from the demon forest accounted for quite a lot of that net worth.

Other than that, the things that people would normally consume like bread, dried meat, water, and wine had been preserved.

In addition, there’s the spare armor and tents used for lodging, though the price of all of this shouldn’t be that high.

Instead, the high value materials that had been collected in the demon forest made up a significant portion of the estimated value of the assets.

“This will reduce the pressure on my territory’s finances.”

Despite all the heavy losses that the territory’s army suffered almost twelve years ago, recovering the loss of close to two thousand people would take some time.

Aside from increasing the military expenses, the internal affairs can’t be neglected during this time either.

In addition to increasing the cultivated land, it’s also necessary to develop the town as the population of Breitburg and its surroundings gradually increases as well. Because of this, even with Margrave Breithilde’s household income, it couldn’t have been easy on his finances.

It looks like the resources that I returned have made Margrave Breithilde really happy.

“You really saved me.”

It’s something that could only be given up, so I, who was living so close by, obediently complied in returning it.

He seems to be pleased.

“And about the reward…”

“There is one?”

“Of course.”

In this case, the resources inside of master’s bag had been left behind in the demon forest until now.

No adventurer would take the request to go and collect it.

With that in mind, paying me a reward was cheaper.

“The reward will be 20% of the estimated value. Please take ten million cents.”
(CAUDYR NOTE: In coins, this would be 10 platinum coins, 100 gold plates, or 1,000 gold coins)

Surprisingly, he is quite well prepared. Margrave Breithilde immediately handed over the previously mentioned reward of 20% of the estimated value.

In the end, he didn’t give me any platinum coins, but all of it was paid using gold plates instead. Platinum coins are used by wealthy merchants to settle large transactions, as well as to maintain the assets of the imperial family and important nobles so that they won’t become bulky. Because of this, they aren’t readily available on the market.

Instead, if I went to use one in a shop, I would be refused since they have no way of exchanging the money.

That’s why it’s meaningless for me to have them.

However, for some reason, around ten plates were included among the things I inherited from master. …Let’s just say that it’s possible for an adventurer to earn this much by risking their life.

I returned the resources in the end, but I still ended up getting a reward. Master’s belongings and the materials that I had obtained on my own weren’t affected at all, either.

If I had unexpectedly refused to return the resources, I would’ve made an enemy of Margrave Breithilde, who is the largest power in the southern region of the continent. However, if I obediently returned them, he would have a favorable impression of me and I’d obtain a connection with him out of it as well.

I wouldn’t be able to live as I like if that happened since I’m only good at using magic anyway, so I don’t think that I made the wrong choice here.

At the very least, I decided to think that way.

’10 platinum plates would be approximately 10 billion yen…’
(CAUDYR NOTE: The original line here said it was 1 billion yen, but since 1 platinum coin is 1,000,000 cents, and 1 cent is ‘converted’ to 100 yen a few chapters before this, 1 platinum coin would be 100 million yen. As a result, since 10 platinum plates is 100 platinum coins, it should be 10 billion yen.)

Master actually had a lot more money on him than what they gave me.

Even so, this amount was a lot of money. To be honest, considering that I never spent a lot of money either in this world or in my previous life, receiving it obviously made me quite tense.

I carefully took it in such a way that I wouldn’t ruin it. Either way, I’ve decided to continue with my current life.

Since I can’t buy a high-quality imported car, I could spend a lot of money on clothes and accessories if I wanted to, but unfortunately, I have no interest in that field.

Let’s assume that if I was an adventurer or magician, I would use it to buy expensive materials, or weapons and armor with magic abilities. However, when master was still an adventurer, he had obtained a large number of fairly expensive things, all of which had been stored in his magic bag.

I didn’t see the need to buy new ones.

“Now, through some unexpected good fortune, I was able to earn some extra income. However, I have one more thing that I need to hand over to Wendelin-kun.”

“One more thing?”

“Right. You are eligible to inherit the belongings of Alfred, who was the head magician retainer of the Margrave Breithilde household. At present, you have formally received the contents of his magic bag, right?”

“Yes, I have received it.”

“He also has property elsewhere. It’s not just what’s in the magic bag.”

According to what Margrave Breithilde said, master had also purchased a mansion in Breitburg after he retired as an adventurer.

In addition, he had even deposited a certain amount of money at the adventurer’s guild.

“Even if an adventurer has retired, that doesn’t mean that they no longer have any relations with the guild.”

They can be employed again by the guild, and they can also use the famous name that they were known for as an adventurer to receive an honored official position. In addition, the money that they had earned when they were still active adventurers can still be deposited at the guild.

That deposited money is used to give basic education to newcomer adventurers, lend funds at a low-interest rate so they can buy their initial equipment, and to generate a profit by giving low-interest loans to the merchant and craftsmen guilds.

The deposited money generates no interest, but no one is stupid enough that they would steal it from the adventurer’s guild. Just depositing a large amount of money would be credited as contribution to the adventurer’s guild, and retired adventurers often entrusted the money that they didn’t use to them.

Since there’s no such thing as a bank, adventurers that keep their money safe are helpful existences.

This also known as a give-and-take situation.

“But master has been dead for more than ten years. Does that money still exist?”

“There’s also some circumstances behind this…”

Master had no family, and compared to now, the finances of Margrave Breithilde’s territory were in a bad state.

For this reason, his inheritance should have been confiscated not long after his death.

“The money was deposited in the guild, so it’s still there. Since the amount of money remains in their records, it will be easy to withdraw it and hand it over to you. Was it 10 million cents?”

“…”

Master was a famous adventurer, after all.

A lot of money had been deposited in the guild.

“Is this really okay?”

“Rather, it has to be transferred to you.”

Although this territory is the area that Margrave Breithilde governs, various laws have been enacted to operate it.

When it comes to transferring someone’s inheritance, many fights occur yearly over who gets it, ranging from small fights to large ones. The office workers on Margrave Breithilde’s side have a hard time making a decision whenever that happens.

“Since we are following strict laws in this regard, they have to follow the rules. That’s why I can’t violate it. You are the one that Alfred had formally transferred his belongings to. For that reason, I also have the obligation to hand over the other parts of his inheritance that had been confiscated.”

“It’s just as Margrave Breithilde-sama says.”

“The mansion he owned is close to the prep school. You can move out of your dormitory today and start living there instead.”

In addition, since it was close to the office headquarters of the adventurer’s guild, master had built his home near that location.

“Many years have passed, but it still remains clean because it’s had state preservation magic applied to it. The furniture inside has also been left as is.”

“Why is that?”

“Thanks to a magic tool, Alfred’s home security is pretty strict.”

I thought that the house’s furniture would have been removed a long time ago, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Burkhart-san told me the reason why.

The furniture in the house can’t be used by others because it was remodelled with a magic tool. When someone tries to forcibly take the furniture outside, the small golems guarding the house will take action.

These small golems are also a kind of magic tool, but apparently master got them from some ancient ruins he explored during his time as an adventurer.

It seems that they are made in a much more advanced way than the golems that are made now. This led to the conclusion that using any means possible to remove them is impossible.

“In other words, it was convenient to force the house onto me when I showed up?”

“Don’t say it like that. Also, I expect that the exclusive servants can likely have their ownership transferred to you since you have the magic bag, boy.”

“I’ll try to obtain the house.”

“Oh. I’ll be expecting it. Invite me to celebrate when you have changed homes.”

“I will once I’m done.”

There’s nothing wrong with inviting him to the party, but it was unexpected for me to be able to negotiate with Margrave Breithilde like this.

I lost most of the materials obtained from the demon forest’s monsters, but I got more things in exchange for them, so I can say that I’m really satisfied with the result.

“It saved me some trouble when Wendelin-kun set up his base here. By the time you have retired as an adventurer, you can be like Burkhart, and I would welcome you to serve me when that happens.”

“Yeah. It would definitely be difficult for me to remain active in my sixties. I’ll be relieved if the boy remains to succeed me.”

“Well…”

Other than inheriting master’s belongings despite not being his family, there was also this sort of reason for giving such good conditions to a youngster.

After my retirement as an adventurer, I won’t be hired immediately.

No matter how superior my magic capacity is, it would be difficult in many ways to become the head magician retainer of a great noble house without enough life experience.

Not counting his usage of magic, if you look at the way master took care of many duties when he went on the expedition, it’ll be necessary for me to accumulate various types of knowledge to properly carry these duties out myself. Gaining experience as an adventurer will be a good way for me to obtain that knowledge.

Basically, I need to obtain life experience and make connections as I grow older.

“I can’t promise anything right now, but…”

“Right now I just want to form a connection with you. You’re still a student attending the adventurer’s prep school, so there’s no need to rush it.”

I ended up becoming acquaintances with Margrave Breithilde before I knew it, and it looks like I’ve been claimed as a candidate to become a magician retainer in the future.

It’s not like I’ll be an adventurer forever, so having a second life lined up is a welcome story.

“My side will deliver the deposited money later. Now then, please go and enjoy yourself at the garden party.”

After everything was finished, I returned to the garden party’s hall once more and began to eat by hastily gathering the remaining dishes.

“Whoa, you’re eating so much even though you’ve just returned.”

“I’m hungry.”

“You were called by Margrave Breithilde-sama, right? Was it a matter concerning your parents’ family?”

“Something like that.”

There’s no way I can talk about the contents of that discussion with other people, so I gave an appropriate response to Erw’s question as I filled my mouth with the meat dishes.

I’ll add it as a reply to this message itself, but feel free to replace the text at the top in the same way as you did with the other re-edited chapters when you edited them, if you so desire. ^^

It will be edited, I think I even have some edited version laying around somewhere? Not sure though! (How great it would be to have an editor for that *dreams on*)
Will do a major overhaul during my vacations starting next week, so you will have to wait at least this long. It’s basically me running everything here, thus such things don’t take much of a priority, sadly.

The grammar is atrocious atm (and I know it’s from the other site’s TL, not yours, heh)…so I’m just wondering if there were any plans to edit it still, or if it was just being left alone. ^^

Been a long time since these comments, but I’ll chime in here as well, heh.

It’s not just what you said…but also the fact that the stuff that was handed over to Burkhart (Blanturk? UGH. -_-) and the margrave were things that Wend didn’t even NEED. None of it was actually things that BELONGED to him persay (well, technically they could, but he had no use for them).

He’s not being taken advantage of here. They gave him fair recompense for RETURNING it…and not only that, he gets in the good graces of the territory’s ruler and gets connections with him and Burkhart. Also, they ONLY took what Alfred had put on the list about the supplies from the expedition (including the monster materials from what they killed)…so it’s not like Wend really LOSES anything. Especially considering he’s got plenty of assets already, as well as plenty of ways to make money even w/o that stuff.

Either way, connections can’t be overlooked, something his own family doesn’t understand (but he does, heh)…so he went about returning that stuff in exchange for the connections. He didn’t even expect the reward, so…yeah, he’s definitely not being taken advantage of here. ^^

Yeah I agree. Quite a few errors got past the editing phase this chapter. Thank you just the same though.

He’s already said he only considers erich his family. The rest are just people whose house he (as a 25yr old man) got thrown into. So why should he care about their situation? the only reason he even stayed as long as he did was because he wouldn’t be recognized as independent for a few years and thus not taken seriously in the outside world.

indecently it seems i just got major bank for stealing the supplies, not returning them, then finally admitting i have the supplies after being cornered. It rocks being a poorly conceived mc in a badly written novel. Surprisingly magic is useful.

But my family starving to death has nothing to do with me.