Negotiation (2)

It was mid-November, and the days were so cold; the first snowfall of the year could arrive any day now.

Allen woke up in his attic room once again. Because it had become common practice for him to wake up at 6 a.m. every day to do his daily skill training, oversleeping was never a concern for him.

In the dim light of his room, he accidentally bumped his hand against a planter. He had "borrowed" this from the storage shed in the yard on his third day here. Several servants had seen him along the way, but he knew that the best thing to do in such situations was to act confident. If anyone asked, "Why are you taking that?" he had prepared to answer with, "Lady Cecil told me to," but no one had stopped him in the end. In this way, he had successfully brought two planters to his attic room.

One now had an Aroma tree growing inside, the product of a Grass F card's Ability. This tree had the effect of speeding up Allen's MP recovery.

This was the specific description that Allen had written down in his grimoire:

___

Effect of Aroma:

For 24 hrs after smelling its fragrance, MP recovers to full in 5 hrs

___

The only way to gain Skill XP was by expending MP, which recovered back to full naturally six hours after the last skill usage. However, thanks to the Aroma tree, that time was shortened by one hour. When his MP recovered, it did so all in one go, so fast that Allen could not see the numbers tick even if he kept his eyes glued to his grimoire.

The other pot was filled with dirt to create Leaves of Life with Grass E cards. Allen now had three Leaves of Life inside his grimoire's Storage, but he had no immediate plans to use them. Based on their name, they likely helped recover HP, but there was no way to tell just how much. Allen had to wait to encounter someone hurt to test their efficacy.

The Leaves of Life were not the only things he was having trouble studying. During the past two years, Allen had been swamped with housework, farmwork, hunting, and playing knight. On top of that, Mash would also tag along behind him practically every moment Allen was at home. Due to this, there was still much that he did not know even about his Rank F Summons, let alone the newer Rank E ones.

'Another reason I must succeed in today's negotiation.'

Today, Allen planned on asking Sebas for something. After waking up and converting his MP into Skill XP, he went downstairs and had breakfast as usual. Today's fare was, of course, soup with meager ingredients and bread.

This was the norm for servants.

After finishing his breakfast, Allen went up to the third floor to put away Cecil's pajamas, empty her garbage bin, and generally tidy up her room. This one room alone was more spacious than his entire house had been when he was a serf.

The third floor was the living quarters of the four members of the baron's family: the Baron; his wife; Thomas, his second son; and Cecil, his third child and only daughter. His firstborn son, Mihai, was studying at the Academy at the moment, and therefore his room remained unoccupied.

On the second floor was the family's dining hall, reception room, guest quarters, and the butler's, housekeeper's, and head chef's rooms. On the first floor was the kitchen, the servants' dining hall, servants' quarters, and more guest rooms. There was a cellar underground used both as a pantry for foodstuffs and an armory for weapons and armor. There were quite a few servant rooms underground as well.

Cecil had a light breakfast of bread and soup followed by some tea. She loved spreading a thick layer of jam on her bread. In the afternoon, she had lessons five of the six days of the week. Education was important for nobility.

"You're a new face," said Cecil's tutor of the day when he found Allen waiting for him in the lobby.

"Yes, sir," Allen replied. "His Lordship took me in last month. My name is Allen."

The tutor nodded, but did not say anything else. He silently followed Allen to the reception room on the second floor. Most of Cecil's lessons took place in this room.

'Today's teacher is wearing a robe. Is he teaching Cecil magic?'

Although Allen had an interest in magic, naturally he was not allowed to take part in the lessons. He opened the door to the room, announced the tutor's arrival, then let him in.

'Well, there's no telling whether or not I'd be able to use magic even if I took classes, what with being a Summoner. But still, a magic teacher, huh?

'And right after I saw all those adventurers equipped with blades and staves the other day. Boy, this really is a fantasy world of swords and magic.'

Once Cecil's lessons began, Allen was left entirely to his own devices. It was finally time for the negotiation. He headed to Sebas's room on the second floor.

Knock, knock.

"Come in."

"Pardon me."

Allen explained that he had something he wished to discuss, and the butler gestured toward a sofa, taking the one directly across for himself. The room was quite spacious, at least twice the size of that of any other servant's, as befitted someone of Sebas's stature.

"So, what is it that you wanted to talk about?"

"If possible, I want to take full days off."

Allen did not beat around the bush. Currently, he was allowed half a day off on two out of six days per week. He wanted to combine those two half days together so that he could work five full days and take one full day off.

Sebas went "hmm" and seemed to give it thought. After remaining silent for a while, he said, "Allen."

"Yes, sir."

"How long has it been since you joined us?"

"I started around the end of October, so it has been around twenty days, sir."

The reason behind Allen's request was that he wanted the full day to go outside the city to raise his levels and explore the capabilities of his Summons. The Rank E Summons were around one to two meters long, which made them too large to Summon inside his small attic room. Still, he was a brand-new hire knocking on his superior's door to talk about his off days almost immediately after starting work. This was the same as a new company employee suddenly demanding his salary.

"What if...I said no?"

"Then I'm ready to resign."

"What?!"

Allen's answer shocked even Sebas who, at almost sixty years of age, had been surprised by fewer and fewer things in recent years. It had been quite a while since he was so taken aback he let it show on his face. This was because Sebas understood just how much of a privilege working for a noble truly was.

During this brief period of time, Sebas had received multiple reports of Allen's work performance. He greeted everyone courteously, learned his work quickly, and even helped with the laundry—a task that no one liked doing—when he had spare time. He had a lot of strength despite being a child, and was generous with it, helping make many other servants' jobs easier. There were even some who doubted his origins as a serf due to his admirable attitude and actions.

Although it was still early, Baron Granvelle and Sebas had discussed raising Allen's salary—which was currently half the amount those of his station normally received—little by little. But then today's talk came out of the blue. Sebas found his evaluation of the boy being slightly shaken.

"The frontier village is a success."

"I'm sorry, sir?" Allen looked confused at the sudden change in topic.

"And the Land Reclamation Decree is still in effect."

The butler closed his eyes and slowly began talking. As long as the Decree was in effect, all nobles owning fiefdoms were obligated to continue establishing new villages and expanding viable farmland. This was true even of Baron Granvelle, who had already created one success story.

"Yes, sir," Allen replied, indicating that he was listening carefully.

"It's still a secret, but we are already in the middle of deciding where the next village should be founded."

'Where's he going with this?'

"Of course, the new village will need a village chief. This is also confidential for now, but one of those being considered for the role is Rodin."

"Huh?"

As Sebas put it, Baron Granvelle was a man who valued merit over bloodline. As such, he currently held a very high evaluation of Rodin in light of his contributions to Krena Village.

He had helped found Krena Village, stood up to provide leadership to the serfs, and was now highly respected by all the villagers. If he was entrusted with starting another village, many would surely follow him. Then, in all likelihood, that new village would host great boar hunts as well. The new village would need a Boar Hunter champion too. The kingdom was in dire need of boar meat, after all.

"And this is why, Allen, your work here holds real meaning."

In so many words, Allen was now working for the lord who ruled the realm of Granvelle. No one could tell how far up he would eventually climb in the hierarchy among the servants, but everything he learned in his current position would prove useful if he were to succeed Rodin one day and become Village Chief himself. In other words, he should be satisfied with his current schedule of two half days off each week.

Allen's answer, however, was silence. Even after hearing everything Sebas had said, he showed no intention of changing his mind. Back when he had been born in this world, Allen had already decided he would challenge this world with all he had. He had already decided how he would live.

Namely, he would focus on leveling up and getting stronger. If he could not have his day off each week, he considered staying here at the mansion a waste of his time.

As the silence dragged on, it was Sebas who finally folded in the end. "So, this is that important to you. I'm not sure I get it, but very well. You may have your full day off."

"Thank you, sir."

In the first place, although taking two half days was the general rule, there were indeed a few servants who took one full day off instead due to family circumstances. It was simply because Allen had brought the matter up so soon that the butler felt he had to give at least a little bit of a pushback.

In this way, Allen managed to secure one rest day each week for his leveling up.