Looking at the bustling caravan that was trundling down the road and towards the Barony, I guided my family's donkey towards Hothal Aldu as I thought back on what had happened in the past week. Neara and her guards had joined Benedict and I as we made our way home, and while on the return trip I had learned that Benedict's class was that of a Divine Battle Mage. This was one of the greatest hero classes to have ever been recorded with many stories of ancient heroes being about people who had awakened the Divine Battle Mage.
Another thing to note was the fact that a Divine Battle Mage always seemed to have awakened during some of the continent's, and even the world's, greatest strifes. As for other things, it appeared that dear Neara appeared to be entirely smitten with my brother, and the guards made it clear that they only saw me with contempt, though did an amazing job not letting Benedict see the treatment they gave for me. This only acted to reaffirm that I had made the right decision in staying at Hothal Aldu instead of following my brother.
After we got home, our little hamlet was drastically excited to learn that the Baron's daughter had come to bring my family to the Barony. When my community learned that I was classless, they gave me many looks of pity, and among the children around my age and younger, there were the looks of more contempt and mockery. Several boys who hadn't gotten along with me were truly happy at my misfortune, and for those who were somewhat okay with me only found it funny for their own amusement.
My younger siblings who were old enough to understand what had happened to me held sadness in their eyes as they came up to comfort me, but as for my parents, though they didn't say anything in response, I could see it in their eyes. Their looks were like that telling me how much of a failure they saw me as. At that time, I had just internally cursed them since I didn't want to cause any conflict in front of my younger siblings.
After that, the festivities had returned, and far more drastically when they learned Benedict's class. The party had lasted late into the night, but no one except for my youngest sister Haley, had noticed my disappearance when I had returned to my room and gone to bed early.
The next day we had spent packing everything that we could using the few wagons that Neara had brought, we were ready to go and once more made our way back to the road. During those three days, no one other than my little siblings spoke and interacted with me. Benedict was too busy talking with Neara and our parents as they began planning his future, and when we finally reached the road, my parents didn't even give a good bye to me as they all left.
I let out a soft chuckle, never thinking of seeing my parents ever again after this treatment, and I quickly made my way through the gate. Today I would move my things into the room that would be assigned to me, I would also have to sell my donkey since Otto was unable to get me a stall within the guild's stables.
Finally, I arrived at the guild hall. I had received several glances from both the guards and the adventurers, but now, when many of the recruits were going about for their classes, I was even receiving several of their gazes. I didn't like it too much, far too many eyes were on me, watching my move and what I was doing. I guess this unease could be caused by the fact that I was attempting to hide amongst them in plain sight, of which I knew that I would have to get accustomed to being able to deceive everyone with complete and utter ease. After all, pretending to be classless is far easier than trying to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why I was trying to listen in to several classes.
I brought my donkey over to the stables where one of the stable hands would allow me to tie him up until I had dropped my stuff off in my room. Grabbing the few bags of things I brought with me, I quickly entered the manor and made my way towards the infirmary to rendezvous with Otto.
"Greetings Teacher!" Seeing him exit the herbal brewing room which was across the hall from the infirmary, I called out with excitement, immediately catching his attention.
"Ah, Eric, you've returned." He greeted me, giving me a quick once over and seeing the few bags I carried with me. "Come with me to your room. Since you'll be staying in the guild hall, breakfast is served around dawn, lunch around noon, and dinner will be served roughly around late afternoon, early evening. You can join my other five healers in their lesson tomorrow after dawn and before lunch. In the afternoon, you will have your own time to do whatever it is that you want, but I must inform you, that since you are not a staff working for the guild, and nor are you an adventurer who is undergoing training, you will have to come up with a way to pay for both your lesson, room, and meals. I was able to talk Avgran into giving you the entire month free before he begins charging you for your costs of the following month."
By time he had finished telling me this, we had arrived at a hallway deeper in the wing that appeared to be housing several rooms for trainees who were from other hamlets and who were now staying in Hothal Aldu after receiving their classes. Leading me down to the end of the hallway, Otto opened the door to an empty room on the right, before following in after I had entered.
"As you can see we have just a basic bed, a desk, a chest and dresser for your clothes and items, and the bathroom right over there."
After setting my bags of stuff on the large luggage chest at the end of my bed, I went and opened the bathroom door, finding a small room that had a carved indent into the stone floor to act as a bathtub, along with a bench region that acted as a location for fecal matter to be disposed of. I nodded in appreciation since this bathroom was far better than the wooden bucket of a bathtub and shitting outdoors back home in the hamlet.
"You can open the latrine by unclasping that clasp and when the latrine bucket is full, you can empty it out in the back of the manor in the composter." Otto noticed me looking at the fecal bucket, and I nodded in response to him, though I did quickly look at him in confusion.
"Composter?" I had never heard of this construct back in the hamlet, nor had I heard of it during any of the festivals my family would come to partake in.
Otto chuckled with a slight gleam in his eyes. "It's something new that collects waste and over time turns it into soil to be used on crops. It was supposedly designed by the elves and was quickly caught on by different aristocrats in the capital before spreading out here. All that matters is the fact that people no longer throw their shit into the streets like before since the guild is willing to pay a copper piece per bucket of waste brought. In exchange we get very good soil that can be sold to the town's potion maker for one silver per bag of fertilizer as he calls it."
Hearing that, I was quite shocked by the fact that one bag of soil was being sold at the expense of one silver, but I was truly curious of how much of a profit the guild was making from this venture since Otto hadn't really told me how many buckets of waste went into a single bag of soil.
Seeing me about to ask the obvious question, Otto nodded towards me before he continued, "It usually takes about fifty buckets of waste to make one bag's worth soil, meaning we are making a profit of fifty copper pieces. We then in turn use those copper pieces to pay all of the adventurers who stay as guardsmen, repairing their weapons and tools, and assisting the village leader in funding infrastructure and resources needed for the survival of the village."
After he had shown me my room, we returned to the hallway before he led me to a nearby exit that gave everyone easy access to the back of the manor. From there we walked for several minutes down a path through the garden and training grounds before we reached a small patch of trees that surrounded a poorly constructed shack.
"Here is where the composter is. When you come to empty your pail, you can just dump it in one of the opened containers here. Once the container is full, just let one of the staff know so they can seal the lid, allowing them to move the container elsewhere where it can go through the process of composition before being bagged and sold." Otto pointed to several open crates that were the size of a small chest.
"How long does it usually take for composition to occur?" I was curious since this was something that we in the hamlet had never learned.
"Roughly a month, month and a half between the late spring and early fall, during late fall and early spring, it can take several months, or even not compost at all due to the cold weather."
I nodded as I listened, and after this had been shown to me, we quickly made our way back to the manor so that I could go and sell my donkey while Otto would go and complete whatever tasks he needed to complete.