14 Temporary Solution

It took me a bit, but I found where the head butler's study was. Upon knocking, the door opened, revealing a man with a black suit on.

I was already considered pretty tall, but he still had half a head over me. His hair was bright yellow and long for a male, contrasting with mine. His eyes appeared to be blue, but they were rather dull, making it easy to mistake them for gray instead.

I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, he simply sighed.

"Lord Bryson, I've already told you that I cannot transfer you to Class S. Give up on that already. Perhaps if you were the direct son of the King, then something could be arranged, but the power as a Duke's son is limited."

I raised a finger, wanting to let him know that's not what I was talking about, but he simply cut me off once more.

"There is simply nothing you can do about being born with a weak magical affinity. Instead of complaining, you need to work hard to show results despite that and get to Class S yourself."

...Can this guy just let me talk?

My thoughts unconsciously wandered to the book, as it also talked about my weak affinity. I threw those thoughts out of my mind to focus on what really mattered, but at that time the head butler seemed to be giving up on me.

He proceeded to sigh once more, ticking me off slightly.

"If there is nothing else, then I will be taking my leave. I must attend to matters."

I cleared my throat.

"Can you just hear me out first, Head Butler?"

He looked back at me strangely.

"...Just call me James. You're creeping me out."

My eyelid twitched, but I nodded.

"Then James, there were two things I came here for. First off, when would be an appropriate time for me to go to someone else's manor?"

James continued to look at me as though he was looking at some sort of freak.

Was I really being all that weird?

After a few moments of silence, he shook his head.

"Well, in four days you will be attending a ball, so these next three days are free."

I blinked a few times. After scratching the side of my head a little, I responded.

"A ball?"

James looked at me with a bit of exasperation.

"I informed you several days ago, but it appears you were not listening. You cannot skip on this ball lest you offend the nobles that invited you."

I narrowed my eyes slightly.

"Ah, alright then. So tomorrow is fine?"

James looked at me strangely.

"Lord Bryson, I'm sure you already know already but you cannot go to another noble's manor without an invitation."

A smirk formed on my face. Jokes on you, I do have an invite!

"They were the ones that invited me, asking me when I could come."

James continued to look at me for a few more moments.

"Do not go to a lower noble house just to cause trouble."

I felt a little peeved. What did he even mean by trouble?

"I'm not causing trouble, I'm just going to visit..."

James narrowed his eyes. From what I could tell, he definitely didn't believe me.

"Just know that I will be reporting the news to your father, so don't step out of line."

I raised both of my hands up like I was surrendering.

"Alright. Can I talk about the next thing?"

James took a deep breath. He seemed a little upset that I was still talking to him, which honestly made me feel a little weirded out. Weren't butlers like, lower in status compared to the people they served?

I guess maybe it's different for the head butler, or maybe it was just something about this family's scenario.

James raised an eyebrow as he spoke.

"What is the next thing?"

I wanted to do something about the Peasant Rebellion, but frankly, I wasn't too sure of what to do. But still, I wanted to at least try something to maybe lessen its effects. However, it was a little hard for me to open up about my intentions.

After all, I wasn't just going to say that the commoners were going to freak out down the line and I was planning on stopping that.

After a moment of thought, I decided to ask indirectly.

"How much money do I have?"

James looked back at me with a glare.

"Magical Elixirs can only improve your strength by so much. They are inherently limited due to their nature."

My eyebrow twitched, while my thoughts drifted to the book again.

Crap, now's not the time!

I hurriedly cast those thoughts away before clearing my throat.

"I'm not asking because I want to buy... Magical Elixirs."

James sighed. He looked at me with tired eyes. It still looked like he did not believe a single thing that I was saying. Right when I thought that I was just going to be left with a staring contest, James stepped back and gestured toward me.

"If you have so much to say, then let's discuss it while sitting."

He went to sit down in the study, next to a table. There were countless papers on top which looked a lot like taxes and other such things, but honestly, I wasn't too sure. Another thing I noted was that this study was considerably smaller than the other one I was just in.

There was a chair across from the table James, so I just sat in it.

James tapped his finger against the table several times.

"Remember that if you wish to use funds larger than one thousand gold pieces in a week, then I must know exactly where it is going. So far, you've already used fifty-three, so you can only freely use a little over nine hundred without my supervision."

He closed his eyes.

"If you wish to use more, then I will purchase them on your behalf."

I thought about it for a moment, with my head down and chin in my hands. However, any thought at this point was kinda useless because I still had no idea what the value of a gold piece was!

...Hopefully, he wouldn't suspect me poking around.

"How much would the average meal for a person cost?"

James looked at me questioningly. He took a little while to respond, seemingly thinking about something.

"It is a few gold pieces, is it not?"

I pursed my lips in a bit of fear. The words Nathan had said before rang out in my ears. 18000 people. That was how many commoners there were. Surely not all of them would need help, so maybe if it wasn't too expensive, then I could help those that needed it most.

"...How much exactly would you say?"

James continued to look at me like I was crazy.

"Roughly ten gold pieces, if I had to put on a number."

I felt a little demoralized. The prices on the menu in school were basically the same amount.

Shit! If I only had access to one thousand gold a week, that meant I could only prepare one hundred meals a week, which was only about fourteen meals per day.

What the fuck was helping fourteen people going to do if there were eighteen thousand in total?

Nothing! It's like pouring a singular drip of water into a blazing forest fire!

Not to mention, even supposing I could end up feeding like, one thousand different people, I would also have to consider that there needed to be people to cook the food. They would probably need to be paid too.

"...As a side note, how much are chefs paid?"

James blankly spoke.

"They are one hundred gold pieces for every month."

...Well, fuck.

I laid back in my chair defeated. The energy was sapped out of me entirely. It looked like Nathan really was right that there was only so much that I could do...

James furrowed his brows intensely as he stared at me.

"Just so you understand, you can perhaps spend five hundred gold pieces on a meal, but any more than that will simply be a superfluous waste."

Why did you have to bring that up? Why? It's like beating a dead horse here!

Wait.

He said I can only use one thousand gold pieces without supervision, but if I could get him to agree it seemed like I could use more.

I immediately got up in my chair and turned serious. From the look of things, I obviously couldn't feed that many mouths forever, but what if I did it temporarily? Then that would buy us a lot of time to work on a real solution.

It might only be keeping the problem at bay, but that time could be crucial!

"How much money can I use while under your supervision?"

James seemed to notice my change. Though somewhat reluctant, he answered my question.

"A little over one hundred thousand gold pieces. Though you have received an allowance for quite a long time, you were not one to spend much of it. Remember, you must have my permission before you go and spend it on anything."

I was stunned. One hundred thousand sounded like an absolute crap ton.

...Sorry Bryson, but I will be spending all your dosh! No hard feelings, right?

But how long would it last me? Being generous, I just decided to ignore the costs of the chefs and focused on the ingredients.

One hundred thousand would mean that I could do ten thousand different meals. That was still not enough for each commoner for a single day, but surely not every single person needed the handout, right?

Maybe only one thousand would need that many? But that would only last me ten days assuming I did it every day.

No, the process to set everything up would definitely be quite hard if there were that many.

What about... one hundred?

That's a decent amount, and should be enough to last one hundred days. If we really didn't figure out anything by then, I guess we really aren't suited to saving this kingdom.

I clenched my fist and let out a long sigh.

"I wish to use the money I have to purchase food. First-"

I suddenly cut myself off. There was something I remembered randomly. In a business class I took in high school, the teacher kept yapping about something called supply and demand.

If there was a lot of something and little demand, then the price would go down. On the other hand, if the supply dwindled, the price would soar rapidly if the demand didn't go down similarly.

Food would always be in demand for obvious reasons. But what if I were to spend all my money on acquiring food from this city? Then that would just make the prices higher, and in the end, not much would be solved.

I still remember that one history lesson when Germany was forced to print a crap ton of money. It very quickly became worthless, which screwed people over.

Damn, thank you Ms. Palene and Mr. Giovanni! Though I hated school, it turns out your lessons actually did help me!

Just maybe not in the way most would expect.

"First... How much would it cost to buy food from places outside of the kingdom? Are there merchants that have those products for sale?"