Chapter 157Lady Maria’s Gift

Claude realized that he got busier than ever. He had to send his sister to school daily and pick her up after school. Not only that, he had to take care of his mother and brother at the wood to prevent the bear-child from getting into trouble. At the same time, he had to patrol the place and make three meals each day properly. He couldn’t simply gloss it over like he did when he was living alone. He also had to feed the snowhound. All the chores gradually stacked up.

Not only that, he prepared a new room for his mother and that included changing out the wallpaper and curtains for new ones. The bed and couch were all designed by Claude himself. He got them made at a furniture shop in town so that he could provide the best environment possible for his mother to recover more quickly.

He was worried that his mother would dwell on the past, so he didn’t bring the furniture in his mother’s room from the old mansion to the wood. However, that meant that he had to burn through his reserves. Not much of the money he got from robbing the Blacksnake thugs remained after he bought some materials required for the alchemical experiments. Even so, his mother’s condition seemed to be improving by the day. The environment of the wood seemed to be rather conducive for her recovery. After some ten days, she could already get out of bed and move about, though she was still a little weak.

As the 4th month was approaching, she called Claude into her room and gave him an account book from the national bank. Stored in that account were 44 crowns and three thales. She said that it was something his father left behind. He had intended to use that money to run a business and start over, but now he no longer had the chance.

She grieved for a moment before taking out a goatskin money pouch from the bottom of her pillow. Within it were more than ten contracts, and Claude saw that they were for the rent.

She said that after his father turned the mansion into an apartment, it had two attics and six suites to rent out, as well as two large shoplots at the ground floor. The rent collected from all of them amounted to around eleven thales and two riyas, so each year would net them around 25 crowns of income. Taking out the maintenance of the mansion, there would be a profit of around 16 crowns.

The rent was collected once each season, and since the 4th month was approaching, the tenants would be preparing to pay it. Before, his mother had taken care of all such matters, but now that she was ill, she left Claude in charge of them.

So Claude found himself getting busy over collecting rent and spent three days on that. He took care of cleaning his old house and renting the place out too. That way, the rent they could collect each month would amount to around three crowns, which was the average peasant’s yearly income. Claude estimated that as long as the mansion was there, his mother and younger siblings would no longer have to worry about their living costs. They could live comfortable lives.

Kefnie often drove The Mermaid’s transport carriage to the wood to visit Claude. There wasn’t any reason why she might do so. She would watch as Claude carried out his work or help out with the chores from time to time. Since Claude didn’t really mind, she didn’t either. She got along with Madam Ferd quite well and often brought her out for walks around the wood. Even Bloweyk had quite a good impression to this elder sister who often brought him nice treats.

As a result, every time she left, Claude’s mother would go on about how nice a girl she was, obviously impatient for Claude to propose to her as soon as possible and bring her into the household. The kingdom’s laws allowed youths of 18 years old to marry, after all, and the two of them just hit that age.

Just as Claude was being nagged by his mother about the benefits of forming a family early, Rodan arrived at the wood carrying a letter Maria wrote him.

She said in her letter that she was made aware of the tragic suicide of Morssen and felt really distraught at the brave sacrifice he made for his family. She also expressed her condolences for their loss. However, as she wasn’t able to leave the royal capital, she couldn’t come over to personally join the mourning and could only regrettably write to them.

There were two reasons she sent Rodan over. The first was to give the land of approximately three qing, which rounded up to around 200 thousand square meters, around the wooden hut to Claude as a gift for his coming of age. In other words, if Claude agreed, a large part of the wood near the hut would become his private property and would no longer be part of Normanley wood.

That was something Claude simply couldn’t see coming. Maria had actually given a large part of her manor, including part of the wood, to him. He was so shocked that he didn’t know how to react.

“Master Claude, the lady has already made the necessary arrangements. The proof and deed are here and all you have to do is to sign. I shall submit the documents once it is done.” Rodan didn’t understand why his mistress would be so fond of Claude. Even though he had learned herbalism from her and also knew magic, he was nothing but a rogue magus. Yet, that didn’t deter Rodan from finishing the assignment his mistress gave him.

“Oh.” Claude nodded and put that matter aside first before he continued reading the letter.

Maria didn’t just ask Rodan to come over for the ‘gift’. Instead, she gathered three hundred crowns and asked Claude to help Rodan buy as much property as he could in Whitestag. He didn’t hide the decision Stellin X made. It was decided that Whitestag would be taken under the administration of the royal capital instead of remaining under the jurisdiction of the three southwestern prefectures and be elevated to the status of city. It would be the location where the new naval base would be built.

It was akin to telling Claude that Stellin X had chosen to use the solution proposed by the prime minister, Cryus Man Dengkin, to develop Whitestag on a large scale and making it into a naval stronghold like Port Neru to defend the waters of the new sailing route to Nubissia.

Should the announcement be made, Whitestag would undergo huge developments. Other things aside, the price of land and property would multiply a few times. So, Maria forthrightly said that she wasn’t interested in scheming and gaining an edge over the other nobles. All she wanted was to use the money she would make for some precious experimental materials. That was why she used the news she got early to have Rodan purchase property in Whitestag and sell them out once the kingdom made the official announcement. She would have more than enough money to spend then.

Even though news of those developments would only be announced after the national council during the 5th month, the various crucial departments of the kingdom had secretly sent people to survey the people of Whitestag about that. According to Maria, the Watch of the kingdom, also known as the Watchers in the Night, would soon be stationing people in Whitestag to set up a few branches. The Watch would always station people at crucial military locations to prevent spying and damage from evil magi.

So, Maria warned Claude to not carelessly expose his identity as a magus. He was a rogue magus after all, not one registered with the kingdom. Being noticed by the Watch would spell infinite troubles for him. The heads in that department loved hunting down rogue magi the most because that was the quickest way for them to get promoted.

Maria gave him the land and hut in hopes that he would be safer there. The mysterious magus that showed up in Whitestag had killed a number of thugs in town. While the Watch wouldn’t have cared about the mysterious deaths of a few thugs, they spent quite a bit of effort to search for the so-called ‘teacher’ Claude casually fabricated after getting word of it from the black magic market.

As a regular customer of the market, Maria was also made aware of that news. She knew right away who was responsible. She warned Claude that it was one thing to kill off the thugs in the past. But once the Watch took root in Whitestag, he ought to be far more careful and not show off his magic just because he knew a fancy trick or two. Even if she could probably protect him from losing his life, he probably wouldn’t like being detained for life either.

When he put his letter down, he felt a little lost. Even though he was thankful for Maria’s warning, not being able to rob Blacksnake in the future was quite a disappointment. He had been waiting on a chance to pay Butcher Bill back after all.

“Master Claude, the lady has instructed for the letter to be burned after you read it,” Rodan said respectfully.

If the letter fell into the hands of others, they would hold her weakness. Claude set the letter on fire and dropped it to the ground.

Only until it was reduced to ashes did Rodan open the sack of documents he brought and took each one of them out.

“This is the deed for the hut and the land around it, as well as the hills and wood nearby. Please sign here…

“And this one is for the right to use the path leading to the wood. Sign here…

“This is the terms of the transfer, and you’re required to sign it as well…

“And this here is the letter of attorney. With your signature, I can take care of the proceedings for you at the town hall.

“Oh, and this here is the salary account. The lady has deposited another 20 crowns into your account and you’ll be in charge of paying the salary of the Sioris from now on. We need your signature over here.”

Claude signed his name on more than ten documents and Rodan kept them all neatly into his sack. “Master Claude, I will be heading to the town hall to get these processed immediately. They should be finished in another two to three days. I’ll have the deeds sent back to you then.”

Now, Claude was someone that owned property. Even though he was but a youth of 18 years of age, he already owned three qings of land in Normanley Wood, which was easily worth up to eight hundred crowns. He could be considered to be part of the upper middle class in town.

Claude was quite aware of why Maria would give him that much land from her wood. She appreciated his talent and believed that he would be going places in the future, at least, that was the cover story. It would to let the townsfolk of Whitestag know that Claude had gained the favor of the Normanleys and would have them backing him up. That was to prevent the Ferds from being taken advantage of following their fall to peasantry.

The real reason for the gift was Maria’s desire to pay him back. Before she returned to the royal capital last year, Claude gave her the spell formation diagrams of Magus’ Hands and three other spells. Maria said that these four spells were all forbidden and could sell for at least one to two hundred crowns each. One would also have to be lucky enough to find them in the black magic market. There was no way she could have afforded to learn those spells from Claude.

Yet, he had given them to her in an envelope just like that to thank her for her sincere care and guidance she provided him. Claude was truly grateful for what she did for him. She was the first female magus he ever met. Even though she was a registered magus, she did help bring Claude into the world of magic formally and imparted upon him much information about the status of magic in the kingdom. That was far more beneficial than if he had to learn it all alone in secret.

He understood her personality well and told her that it was advance payment for any combat spells she found in the black magic market. Only then was she willing to accept the spells.

But now, it seemed that Maria probably wasn’t able to find any. Yet, she didn’t want to owe Claude so much. She also couldn’t afford to pay him money for those spells. The fact that she could only gather three hundred crowns to buy property was a sign of how tight her financial situation was. As such, she sectioned off a part of her wood to be given to Claude. Since each mu (666.7 square meters, one qing is 100 mu) of land was wroth around three crowns, three hundred plus mu, or more than three qings of it was worth more than the combined price of the spells he gave her.

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