Chapter 62
It was early March, a little before noon, and the sunlight felt pleasant. Allen was riding in a carriage.
Since becoming a gamekeeper at the end of December last year, he’d been hunting two days out of the six each week.
As a result, his goblin hunts had gone well, and he’d leveled up from 13 to 19. The EXP required for each level kept increasing, but so far, his progress had been steady.
The New Year’s celebration at the mansion had been held on a grand scale, with influential people from town invited. The White Deer had been served in abundance. Allen had also hunted one White Deer in January and another in February.
As a gamekeeper, hunting monsters and bringing them back was part of Allen’s job. In winter, though, Horned Rabbits were about the only game available for meat. Thinking it might be good to have other kinds of meat, too, he’d decided to hunt a White Deer about once a month.
When he brought back his third one, he found a large board set out in the garden. The gardener told him to put any monsters he caught on it from then on. The White Deer weighed close to a ton, and the garden soil rippled beneath it. Apparently, the mess from butchering them was another reason.
Now that it was March, the weather had grown warmer, and the monsters hunted for food were becoming active. Allen planned to hunt monsters that became active in spring on his next hunting day.
“Hey, why are you sleeping?!”
While thinking about what to hunt on his next day off, Allen had dozed off. It had to be because the weather had gotten so warm. Cecil, sitting across from him, scolded him and kicked him in the shin with her toe. It hurt a lot.
(Hm, so people don’t sleep while traveling. This really is another world.)
Allen didn’t really see himself as a footman.
“My apologies, Young Lady Cecil.”
“If you do that in front of Brother Mihai, I’ll never forgive you!”
She glared at him with her sharp, crimson eyes. They were on their way to the magic airship landing area to welcome Mihai, the eldest son of the Granvelle family.
Cecil sometimes took Allen out with her like this. Sometimes she needed help shopping, and other times she had various errands. Allen often wondered if he really needed to be there. Apparently, she was at the age where she wanted to take him everywhere.
They arrived at the landing area on the eastern side of Granvelle City. Since magic airships nearly a hundred meters long landed there, the place was as empty and flat as an airport in his previous life.
Before thirty minutes had passed, a dot appeared far off in the sky. It grew larger and larger.
“Whoa!”
With a thunderous roar, the magic airship flew overhead. It landed slowly and vertically some distance away.
(Amazing. What makes it float? Lift? Magic?)
It had a plump shape, like a whole ham. As Allen watched in awe, something like a ladder or staircase extended from the underside of the airship.
(This place is pretty high-tech. Their clocks use base sixty, too. This other world is surprisingly advanced.)
Most of the time, the civilization seemed like an undeveloped medieval one. But whenever Allen saw impressive magical devices like this, he could feel how advanced things were in certain areas.
People began filing off the airship. When Allen glanced to the side, he saw Cecil fidgeting. Apparently, she adored her eldest brother.
Someone waved from a distance. They had the same pale purple hair as Cecil. It seemed to be Mihai. He was carrying a large amount of luggage and approaching alone.
“Hello, Cecil. Have you been well?”
“Brother Mihai, I’ve been very well!”
(Well, aren’t these two close? He’s been attending the academy since last year, so he must be thirteen or fourteen by now. He seems a little mature, though. Do people grow up faster in this other world?)
Mihai had been attending the city of academies since last year.
It looked like a happy reunion between siblings. Watching them reminded Allen of Mash and Myura. Mihai had a lot of luggage, so Allen helped carry it as they got into the carriage.
“Hm? And are you a new servant?”
“Yes. My name is Allen, and I’ve been serving the household since last autumn.”
He answered when Mihai spoke to him in the carriage.
“Allen is my footman.”
“Oh? Father’s already given his permission, then. I see, I see. This is a good opportunity, Allen, so do your best.”
“Y-yes.”
Allen didn’t want to answer, but he gave an affirmative reply. He couldn’t exactly say no here.
He’d heard about footmen and noble children from Rikkerel, the head footman. Even though Allen hadn’t asked, Rikkerel had told him all about it. It was like a nightmare.
Noble children usually got a footman when they were around ten. Their parents generally chose one, though the child could also nominate someone. It was common for a footman to be chosen when the child was around twelve and become their personal attendant. The footman gained experience while growing up alongside the noble child they served.
Then, when the footman was around fifteen, they would be promoted to an attendant. They would serve the noble for the rest of their lives, even after the child came of age. A footman who served a noble child had a promising future and could potentially rise to a position above attendant.
Some remained attendants. Others were eventually promoted to butlers or knights.
That meant that even if you became a footman in a noble household, you couldn’t become an attendant unless you served a noble child. You had to spend years doing odd jobs and earn the trust of the child you served before you could become their attendant. Rikkerel, who was already eighteen, had said it would be difficult for him to become one.
He’d also said that if a footman became a chef or coachman, they could no longer become an attendant. They’d become specialists.
Allen had already secured a position as a noble child’s footman. If things stayed as they were, he’d be serving Cecil for the rest of his life. It seemed he’d gotten on an escalator he shouldn’t have. He didn’t know how to get off, but he had to figure something out.
What Mihai had just said amounted to, ‘Baron Granvelle really let Cecil have a footman when she’s only eight?’ Cecil’s brother Tomas didn’t have a personal footman. A maid took care of him.
“You said your name was Allen, right? So you’re that capable?”
Mihai looked at him with the same crimson eyes as Cecil’s.
“Not at all. This is thanks to Young Lady Cecil’s kindness.”
“I see.”
Mihai said it as if he’d come to some sort of understanding.
“That’s enough about Allen.”
Cecil told Mihai that she wanted to talk with him.
“Oh, right, Cecil. I bought you a souvenir in the royal capital.”
He took a glossy butterfly-shaped hairpin out of his luggage and handed it to her.
“Oh, thank you so much!”
She accepted it happily with both hands and gazed at it, turning it this way and that as her eyes sparkled.
“I’m glad you like it. I couldn’t come home for summer vacation.”
The souvenir seemed like an apology.
“That’s right! Didn’t you say summer vacation was long?”
“It was, but they said I’d be expelled if I didn’t clear a dungeon.”
He said this apologetically.
(A dungeon? The academy requires its students to clear one? And they’ll expel you if you can’t?)
“Oh! Please tell me about it!”
Since they were talking about the academy life she admired, Cecil listened with shining eyes.
Apparently, August and September were the two months of summer vacation. Students could generally do whatever they liked, but they were given one assignment: clear any one of the several dungeons in the city of academies.
Mihai hadn’t been able to come home for summer vacation because he’d been clearing a dungeon. His teacher had told him, “If you can’t clear one, there’s no point in attending the academy. Go back to your territory.”
“Oh my, is that all right, Brother?”
Mihai was the heir to a baron’s family. There were children from even more prestigious noble families, of course. Cecil wondered if the academy could really expel children from such families.
“Of course. Well, that’s the headmaster’s policy.”
Apparently, the headmaster even boasted that he wouldn’t listen to the king when it came to the academy. Allen remembered Baron Granvelle telling him that the headmaster would fail even a Sword Saint in the entrance exam.
The city of academies seemed to enjoy considerable autonomy.
“Wow, that sounds difficult.”
It sounded like a very demanding school life. Cecil looked worried for Mihai.
“Well, there are some pretty tough parts, but the other day I got sword lessons from Sword Saint Doberk-sama!”
He spoke happily, touching the sword he’d removed from his waist before getting into the carriage.
(Oh! Sword Saint Doberk. I’ve heard that name now and then. So he gives lessons to students in the city of academies, huh?)
Mihai spoke about academy life with shining eyes. He’d sounded mature a moment ago, but now he seemed his age. Mihai and Cecil continued talking all the way back.