Reward (3)

Several days after the commotion raised by Cecil running away from home settled down, Allen once again visited Krena Village through a Shared Bird G.

Ever since July the previous year, he had sent the parrot back home regularly to bring money to his parents. He had done it more than ten times by now.

Clink.

When the sound of the coin hitting the earthen floor rang out, Theresia turned around. "Oh, good morning, Pippi. You've brought us another one? And there's a letter too."

'Its name is Chappy, mother.'

"Pii!"

Right next to the gold coin at the bird's feet was a sheet of parchment. It had held the gold coin in its beak and clasped the letter with its claws.

Theresia picked both up.

The third time Allen sent money back, he had sent Chappy all the way inside the house, so Theresia finally caught sight of the bird. Ever since then, he had also included a letter with the coin.

The first letter had only said "Allen." Although his parents were for the most part illiterate, they still knew how to read and write the names of their children. This was how they learned who the sender was.

"It's Pippi!" Myulla, who was now four, rushed out to the earthen-floored room in an effort to catch Bird G. Even though Allen had set "Chappy" as its name, his family had taken to calling it "Pippi" instead.

'Hah! There's nothing you can do if you can't catch it!'

With more than 200 Agility, Bird G had no trouble zipping around the small room, elegantly evading Myulla's lunges.

"Myulla, hon, settle down."

"Okay, mommy..."

"Oh! Another letter! How's my boy?" Rodin just happened to come home. He went straight over to the family water jug and took a long draft.

It was now time for lunch. Rodin, Theresia, Mash, and Myulla gathered around the dinner table. Despite having become commoners, they still lived in the same house and ate the same food.

"A letter came?! Let me see!" Mash said, reaching out for the parchment that Pippi had brought.

'Oh? Let's see how much you've learned!'

One reason Allen had started including a letter with the gold coin was to assuage his family's suspicions about the money he was sending back.

Another was because Mash had started learning how to read and write.

A tutor had arrived at the village last year to prepare Krena for the Academy's entrance exam. She only had two years to learn everything she needed to know.

Thanks to the Village Chief's arrangements, the tutor also agreed to teach a few more children at the same time, including Mash, Dogora, and Pelomas. Allen had not watched any of the lessons himself, but he had gleaned that the tutor was teaching reading, writing, and math. Every day, Mash came home with a parchment bearing words written by the tutor and read them out loud repeatedly, doing his best to commit them to memory.

Although he stumbled a few times, Mash managed to read the full letter out loud. "Father, mother, Mash, and Myulla, how are you doing? I am doing great. Father, don't drink too much. Myulla, go to bed when mother tells you to. I will write another letter next time."

'Hey, he's gotten pretty good at reading. Looks like his studies are going well. Honestly, I'm pretty sure that if father puts his mind to it, he'd be able to learn reading and writing pretty quickly too.'

In this world, the Intelligence stat affected how well someone could remember things. Even if Rodin's Intelligence was ranked at D or E, considering how many levels he had gained from all the boar hunting he did, he should still have a much better memory than the average person. By Allen's estimate, he could probably learn how to read and write if he applied himself seriously for a year.

Mash turned to look at his sister. "Myulla, Allen told you to go to bed when mommy tells you to."

"But I do!" Myulla retorted in between bites of her steamed potato.

Rodin sighed a little. "Is Allen really doing all right? He keeps sending us so much money."

Even though Allen had said many times in his letters that he was making more than enough, his parents still worried about him. For both serfs and commoners, one gold was a lot of money.

The truth, however, was that ever since he had started selling armored ant shells, Allen's monthly income, combined with his salary, exceeded ten gold. Sending one gold home was not all that much of a burden on him—conversely, he was holding himself back and keeping it at one gold in order to avoid causing undue worry.

Although he had not been able to do anything for his family in the first year and a half after becoming a manservant, thanks to Sharing, he could now do so with ease. There was no such thing as insurance in this world. Allen was hoping that this money could help tide his family over in case—knock on wood—anything happened to them.

***

While Allen was enjoying time with his family while Sharing with Bird G, Cecil called out to him. It was lunchtime here at the Granvelle mansion too, and Allen was on serving duty.

"Allen, come to my room afterward."

"Understood, milady."

Cecil seemed to have pulled herself together over the past few days.

Although she had not completely gotten over what had happened, she no longer showed signs of being so unstable as to run out of the house again.

And ever since that day, her treatment of Allen seemed to have gotten slightly kinder. The way she spoke remained the same, but the way she looked at him had grown a little softer.

After lunch, Allen knocked on the door of Cecil's room. Upon hearing her "Come in" from within, he pushed it open. Due to having just seen his family's home, the sight before his eyes looked a bit grander than it usually did. Cecil was sitting at a round table that was just the right size for two people to have tea at.

"Allen, good job finding me the other day."

"Thank you, milady."

"Come over here."

"Yes, milady."

When Allen reached the table, Cecil told him to take the seat directly across from hers, so he obliged. The table was loaded with tea and snacks that looked much fancier than what Cecil usually enjoyed.

"Allen, you've been my manservant for three years now. You even helped me out the other day. This is your reward."

'Yay, snacks! Yay, reward! Funny, I didn't get a celebration last year, but I got one this year.'

After Allen's first year as manservant, Cecil had offered him a reward. Thanks to her arrangements, he had gotten a lesson with her magic tutor. That was where he had learned how magic in this world worked and how it was related to the Intelligence stat.

Last year, Allen had planned on asking for the snacks he had forgone requesting for his first anniversary, but Cecil never brought the topic up. Allen thought she had forgotten about the anniversary or had gotten bored of giving out a reward after the first time, but here she was with a combined reward for his third anniversary and his service the other day.

"Go on, it's all yours," Cecil said, gesturing at the baked sweets.

"Thank you!" Allen, who had always had a sweet tooth, dug in with gusto, showing no sign of reserve despite being in front of Cecil. 'IT'S SO GOOOOOD!'

During that time, Cecil explained that she had asked her father for an allowance and then paid the head chef that money to have him bake all this for Allen. In other words, these baked sweets were also partly a gesture of gratitude from the Baron.

'I never knew Mr. Dudley could bake something this delicious! As expected of a former Royal court chef!'

Upon learning that it was the head chef who had made the sweets he was now eating, Allen recalled how Rickel had told him previously that there were two people in this mansion who once used to serve in the Royal court.

One of them was Dudley, the head chef, who had worked there until he retired after turning fifty and came back home to Granvelle. Allen remembered thinking, How did someone with such a coarse tongue make it in the royal palace at the time?

The other person was Cecil's magic tutor. The elderly man who had taught Allen so much about magic had also come to serve at the Granvelle mansion after retiring from the Royal court. However, unlike the head chef, Granvelle was not his hometown. The reason he was here in Granvelle City was entirely because of Cecil.

It was customary for noble families to hire a tutor for their children when they were identified as having a Talent for magic through the Appraisal Ceremony. If the Talent in question was only a one-star Talent, such as Mage, then a fellow Mage would suffice. However, Cecil possessed Wizardess, a rare two-star Talent.

Back when the Baron was looking for a tutor, he happened to hear of someone with the same Talent who was nearing retirement age and so approached him with an offer. Now, the elderly man came around to the mansion once a week, spending the rest of the days in his house in the nobles quarter and enjoying his life after retirement.

"Allen, you don't have to worry."

"Hm?" Allen looked confused. 'What's she talking about?'

Apparently, there was something that Cecil still wanted to talk about.

Allen stopped his hand, which had been reaching out for another piece of baked confection, to listen to her.

"You mentioned becoming an adventurer when you were talking about the future. But don't worry."

'Oh, she's talking about what I said to cheer her up back in the alleyway?'

"You're very good at your job. I know. So I've told father to make you a gentleman-in-waiting as soon as possible."

'You did what?!'

The only thing Allen could say in response to Cecil's bright, innocent smile was, "You honor me too much, milady."