"Hey, isn't it the boy. Did you come to sell your catch today too?" (Merchant)
"Yes." (Wendelin)
"You're working hard to earn money." (Merchant)
For the past three years I've frequently visited the merchant town Breitburg in Margrave Breithilde's territory.
I've finally turned eleven years old, but nothing big has happened for the last three years.
Since my treatment at home got complicated because of magic, I wake up early every morning and after finishing breakfast and practicing swordsmanship, I immediately enter the depths of the forest and depart with teleportation magic.
The destination is somewhere in the southern part of the undeveloped lands.
I can do special training in magic as needed, I can also try alchemy in various ways with materials like ores taken from the mine and I can try creating various foods and dishes from hunting, gathering, and fishing.
Thanks to my magic bag, a large amount of food, ingredients, materials, metals, and other goods that were successfully produced with alchemy was stored in it.
While making large quantities of things to train my magic, I make a lot of food because it won't go bad when its stored in my magic bag so I repeatedly put everything in the magic bag as a result.
But what could I plan to do with a hundred thousand self-made jars with ten kilos of salt purified by magic in it?
But magic power still needs to be consumed in great quantities if I want to raise my magic power which has become huge but is still growing because of special training.
As it would be very stupid of me to invoke high rank attack magic that looks brutal, I may have no choice but to comparatively use magical power by firing many special magics in a barrage.
The same can be said with the sugar, miso, and soy sauce contained in pots that can exceed fifty thousand pieces in number easily. I calculated that it was enough for a lifetime supply.
The most common item would be sugar purified by magic from sugarcane that grows naturally on an uninhabited island in south.
I can also make miso and soy sauce in my free time since soybean is available for purchase even in Breitburg.
Since the quality improves when making large amounts, I had been immersed in production without even thinking about the necessary amount.
And there are also a lot of iron, copper, gold, silver, and platinum ingots as well.
Development of the area will begin after a few hundred years anyway. As such, I can use it a little until that time. There are also many abandoned mines with every metal taken.
Rather, it's just me that is aware about the mine's existence so no one will know that the mine has already become an abandoned mine.
And I don't have any talent as a craftsman in alchemy and magic tool creation.
I just store everything in the magic bag, even the unrefined ingots.
Though with the purity method, all of them were top quality products as my magical accuracy has risen.
I spent my time in the Savage Lands for about three days like this and then head to Breitburg again.
With the rabbit, weasel, badger, mink, and guinea fowl I've killed during my hunt, I join the bazaar as a dutiful son that comes to sell the catch for the household by himself. I later buy rice, soybeans, and other household goods from the profits.
The rice in particular is an essential item.
I am originally Japanese so I really want to eat it everyday at any cost.
There many kinds of rice even in this world.
There is red rice, black rice which is called "ancient rice", the long grain, half-length grain, and medium grained seed that are mainstream in Southeast Asia during my previous life.
The short grain species that is mainstream in Japan.
All of it is from ancient magic during the civilization era, and seems to be the result of diligent selective breeding.
But the breeding is not making any progress recently.
With ancient magic during the civilization era, there were people who used the magic "Growth Stimulation" in order to improve the efficiency in breeding the plants, which is rare now.
So that's how it is.
I can't use it either but humans that can use it with its effect can be found. It is a weak magic that is released everyday from morning until night which reduces the time of harvest by about half.
They can not improve the breed so easily since they have not developed a place like the Agricultural Experiment Station from my previous life.
I have mainly purchased the short grain species, though it was the most pricey.
I also bought the long grain species for fried rice and pilaf, as it was quite unusual for someone to buy the ancient rice.
And I also bought glutinous rice.
I can make steamed rice cakes with it.
Soybean flour can be made from the soybeans that I have purchased as material for miso. I can also make a bean jam if there are red beans.
Since there is sugar, I can make Kinako and Ohagi regularly.
I can cook for myself like in my previous life if that happens.
It was impossible to do every day but I take it as a hobby to cook on my day off.
For the sweets, I give thanks to my grandmother who taught me how to make miso.
That reminds me, how is she now?
That thought makes me feel uneasy.
After being in charge of foodstuff purchase for domestic and foreign uses in a second-rate trading company, it is somewhat useful as experience.
If I did not know to some extent the type and amount of spices used as material for the curry that I've succeed in reproducing the other day, it would have taken more time to find that mixture.
It would be unremarkable even if it takes a long time as I am just working alone.
Besides, I can spend my own money for lunch and dessert in town.
And there also a library in this town.
I can be there all day with just one copper plate as the admission fee so I am reading books whenever time permits.
I've already read all the books in the study room in my house. There are a lot of more valuable books stored in here.
I still don't have that much involvement with others, but I can only be a loner as I can't afford to reveal my identity.
Magic training, including food, greatly improves my life.
I'm busy, which is the big reason I don't feel that much inconvenience.
But I still write a reply regularly to the letters that comes from Erich-nii-san once every few months.
It's said that after Erich nii-san passed the test for a petty official in the Imperial city, he seems to be favored now by his boss.
He was introduced to his boss's daughter and is apparently dating her with prospects of marriage.
That's the intellectual and good-looking Erich-nii-san for you.
He seems to be walking without a hitch on the road to a fulfilled life.
It's a large difference compared to his loner younger brother that got addicted to magic.
And that boss girl is the only daughter of a lower class vestment noble.
Which means he will take over the boss's house as the future spouse.
That can be called a set life already.
Anyway, even if one is born to a noble house in this world, there are many sons that eventually lose their social status.
And it was said that my other two brothers are also becoming members of the Imperial City Security Force.
Marriage has still not come yet, but my belief is that Erich-nii-san is aiming to be the one adopted into his wife's family which is a knight peerage house with only a daughter.
Why I know this is because it was written in a book that it is not uncommon for the second sons of noble houses onward to find a job with a royal employer as a petty official or soldier aiming to be adopted into one's wife's family to succeed the title.
Second sons of noble houses live for some time as a noble house member but they're not treated as a noble unless they succeed the title and must pay for their own food cost.
One can own territory but be without a role and there is also a chance of inheriting a title even without territory, but they must earn their own living costs.
This is the same as the samurai and nobles from a long time ago in my previous life.
I originally have no regrets as a noble, but it's a good story for me who plans to live as an adventurer in the future.
"I need to pass the time for one more year."
I will be twelve years old in another year.
I'm still not treated as an adult but I have found a way to speed up my independence.
It's to enter the adventurer prep school that the adventurer guild of this town manages.
Adventurer prep school is a place to become an adventurer, which is possible from the age of fifteen. It was a school made with the purpose of teaching needed techniques before that.
One admission condition is an age of at least twelve.
Anyone below twenty years old can enter, with at least one year to learn the necessary techniques as adventurer.
The basic training is not performed in the monster's domain.
But once every few months after entering the school for more than one year, outstanding students with a professional adventurer as an escort can participate in training in monster habitats with lower difficulty.
"That sound nice. I'm gonna participate in this."
And in this prep school, one will be exempt from all tuition if they are deemed to perform excellently in the entrance exam.
I can pay the money if needed but since I want to keep silent about my magic bag's contents, I am going to persuade them by saying "I'll strive for the tuition to be exempted so I can manage to cover the tuition and living expenses by hunting".
After all, my family does not want to expose me to the subjects as much as possible. As such, they will not object if I cover school expenses and living cost in some way by myself.
In fact, father didn't object to this after I returned home and talked to him about it.
Though the conditions were that I need to manage the tuition and living expenses by myself, I can manage that so I want for this one year to pass quickly.
But there is nothing I can do before prep school enrollment.
I'm going to keep training in martial arts and magic instead like usual.
So with my future career path having been settled without problems, I go into the forest as usual and try to teleport from there.
But today is the first time I end up being interrupted.
I had put up detection magic for caution so my teleport magic would not to be seen, but today is the first time there is a reaction to it.
"Six people in the southwest direction?"
I have never felt these humans response before.
It is highly unlikely that other humans would enter this forest, as the Baumeister house has exclusive rights to it.
And there are many other forests like this one that other villagers that can use for hunting and gathering.
It is just that with all of the undeveloped land, other than this forest, the Baumeister house has issued permission to go freely into the forest as long taxes are paid.
So the subjects did not even once complain in this matter.
"So what are they here for?"
They have already come into my sight.
I had no reason to run away by magic but, since they have come closer, I decided to intimidate my opponents instead.
I did not like their attitude for sneaking around.
"Who are you guys!" (Wendelin)
When I raised my voice at the direction I felt people, six people show up from the shadows of a large tree.
I recognised them when I saw them.
My father's mistress Leila, and her father Klaus who is the village headman of the near village.
Followed by her children, my half older brothers and older sisters: sixth son Walter, eighteen years old, seventh son Karl, seventeen years old, eldest daughter Agnes, fifteen years old, and second daughter Karina, fourteen years old.
They're pretty much my acquaintances.
But we actually exchanged conversation for the first time at the eldest son Kurt and second son Hermann's wedding, or only at our seating in the party afterwards.
They are my siblings even if only half blooded, but as my mother is a noble-born and they are commoner's children, even if they're from the village headman, that treatment changes significantly in this world.
First, a child will have no inheritance rights if not from the legal wife. Even the girl won't become a tool for political marriage unless recognized by the father.
The majority of illegitimate children entered the house of a vassal lineage as an adopted son or as son-in-law. It's a custom to take over village headman or village head's house.
With such circumstances, other than my father since they are his children, even eldest son Kurt and second son Hermann hardly ever speak to them.
It was obvious that they keep their distance from the legal wife who is also my mother.
In fact, my mother also didn't speak with them, maybe because of the difference in social status.
I, on the other hand, do not hold many conversations even with my real family.
I live as usual, and naturally I hardly talk with these people who I only met twice.
And yet they clearly have business with me now so I had appeared in front of them like this.
"I'm sorry for our sudden rudeness. Wendelin-sama." (Klaus)
Klaus as the village headman greets me on behalf of six people.
His age is nearly sixty years old which in this world treated as an elderly person, but he looks ten years younger.
For generations, those born into village headman's house manages the nearby village and farmers. His predecessors, like his grandfather and father, are trusted men with their high reputation all around.
And despite the knights who cannot read kanji and people in the Baumeister house that barely can calculate taxes, he can read and write and do maths normally, collect tax from the subjects, bookkeeping and accounting, and everything else on the financial side.
Though he is retired now, as a Baumeister house retainer in his younger days he went with the reinforcements in response to Margrave Breithilde's doomed request several years ago. He also participated in a skirmish over the territory boundary between Margrave Breithilde and Viscount Ainsbach.
I can see why he has a countenance of alertness.
I am just the eleven year old eighth son, and he hasn't had any chance to talk to me who is the son of the legal wife.
To come to this idiotic and uneducated me, who has only lineage to show for, and has no power to speak so impolitely.
It does not matter to me, but there is a big distinctions in status between commoners and nobles in this world.
I am still a noble, so this tone in front of Klaus is the correct one.
Actually, Leila in the back as well the other brother and sisters have been quiet.
The other four people who, apart from me not being born from Leila, are my older brother and sisters don't talk to me so familiarly. That alone is proof of this world's big distinctions in status.
Especially in the central part near the Imperial city. There is a case where a commoner was cut down by noble for just talking impolitely.
That does not mean that all nobles are arrogant.
This class system is not just in the Helmut kingdom, it has also served as a source of stability for the nearby Urquhart Holy Empire as well.
But there are only a few commoner killed by that. Most only end up with a whiplash instead.
"That doesn't matter, what do you want? I wanna go hunting now." (Wendelin)
"I'm sorry for appearing in this place so suddenly. I come here with a request for Wendelin-sama." (Klaus)
"Request for me?" (Wendelin)
"Let me put it bluntly. I'd like for Wendelin-sama to succeed the Baumeister house." (Klaus)
"Huh?" (Wendelin)
My eyes were bulging out from the sudden request.