Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: To Avoid Entering the Academy (2)
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Humans are creatures who, when faced with something inconvenient, will find a way to solve it and conquer it no matter what.
They chased off beasts that threatened their survival by lighting fires, and they built reservoirs to store water to prevent famines caused by a lack of it for farming.
If they hadn't known what was inconvenient, they wouldn't have bothered seeking solutions, lighting fires, or digging reservoirs.
Territorial reform is the same. To succeed in this barony, I need to figure out exactly what's lacking here.
Now that I've convinced the baron and earned a chance to prove my abilities, I returned to my room to prepare for a field survey of the territory.
But if I said I was going out alone, he'd definitely try to stop me, claiming it was too dangerous... Who should I bring with me?
As I pondered while packing my things, there was a knock at the door, followed by a gruff male voice.
"Young Master Siel, may I come in?"
"Who is it?"
The voice from beyond the door sounded hurt at my words.
"It's Baldt, Young Master. Why are you treating me so coldly...?"
Baldt. In the early parts of the novel, he was Siel's escort knight who followed him all the way to the academy, right?
And according to the setting, he'd known Siel for over ten years, like an uncle figure.
So I responded casually, as if speaking to an uncle.
"Come in."
The door opened, and a tall, muscular man with a bushy beard approached me warmly.
"I heard everything. You refused to go to the academy, huh?"
"Yeah. What's the point of going? They'd just teach etiquette and swordsmanship that a knight needs to know. I don't see why I should spend four years traveling far away to learn that stuff."
"Your swordsmanship is already on par with most knights anyway, Young Master. No need for you to go."
"Exactly. So why are you here?"
Baldt nodded at my words before replying.
"Baron Excellency ordered me to escort you. And he asked me to give you this."
I took the pouch Baldt handed me and opened it. Inside were about twenty gold coins the size of 500-won pieces.
Seeing them, Baldt made a fuss.
"One gold coin can buy a cow, so twenty... With that money, you could buy a small house with a shop attached right under the castle... Congratulations on getting rich, Young Master."
"Thanks, Baldt. Now that I have some money, I'm heading to the market. Come with me."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A street lined with shabby wooden buildings adorned with signs: a beer mug and pot for inns, a hammer and anvil for blacksmiths, a shirt for clothiers.
In one corner of the market, people had set up crude tents where they sold cheap farm tools, vegetables, or grains.
As we wandered the market, an employee from the blacksmith shop came out, offering a sword sheathed in its scabbard.
"Hey there, handsome young master. How about this blade? It's not quite fit for a knight, but perfect as a spare on the battlefield. Three silver coins, and it's yours."
"No thanks. I'm just browsing."
"Aw, come on, why not pick one up?"
As the blacksmith's employee persisted, Baldt, standing behind me, placed a hand on the sword and growled.
"He said he's not buying."
"Sorry, knight sir..."
"Then get lost."
With that, the peddler scampered off.
Baldt and I continued touring the market, observing and experiencing as much as we could.
We entered an inn together, downing cheap beer and an endless pot of dubious stew, then tried on the ragged clothes that serfs typically bought at the clothier.
At the blacksmith, we handled swords, spears, armor, and shields made by the smiths, even swinging a few, then grabbed some rye bread from a bakery—the kind common folk ate.
The rye bread had that characteristic heaviness and nutty flavor, but it also crunched with bits of stone from poorly sifted rye flour.
Baldt and I spent about two hours exploring the market near Kroitel Castle before heading to the outskirts.
"Why do those bakery guild bastards make bread for humans like that? If you're using rye flour, at least sift out the stones, right?"
"It's bread for the poor laborers around here. No one complains about a few stones."
His words reminded me of something my grandmother used to say.
"The rice they sold back in the day had stones mixed in, so you'd have to sift them out with a strainer before cooking."
Even in an era with mechanical threshing and milling, that was the case... Of course stones would turn up in bread for commoners here.
Lost in thought as we walked, I spotted a well ahead.
Women were gathered around it, chatting as they hauled up water with buckets tied to ropes.
"Heave-ho... Ugh, I'm gonna die just pulling this one up."
"Quit exaggerating, lady."
"My back hurts. Husband overdid it in bed last night."
"Ugh, you hussy. My man's useless even with bread in him... You mocking me?"
They laughed it off, but filling massive jars with these buckets couldn't be easy, and then they had to lug them home. That alone was no small task.
If I could fix even this a little, wouldn't I win the support of the serfs and townsfolk?
Grinning at the sight, I turned to Baldt.
"Got a great idea. Let's head to the blacksmith."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ By the door stood a furnace and bellows for melting iron ingots, large and small hammers for pounding, an anvil and stool for shaping hot metal nearby.
Inside, about four smiths were heating iron, hammering it into shape, and sharpening blades.
The heat hit like nothing a sauna could match.
Baldt, unable to bear it, grumbled.
"Young Master, we'll be cooked alive like this. Why come to a place like this and suffer?"
I ignored him and called over a smith hammering near the anvil.
"I need something made quickly. Can you help?"
"The master's sharpening blades in the back. Ask him."
I approached the man he pointed to, who seemed to be the master smith.
"Heir to the Kroitel Barony, Siel von Kroitel. I need something made urgently. Can you help?"
The master swung his hammer idly in the air, looking annoyed.
"A fancy noble like you wouldn't come here in person for something made. Get lost, or I'll call the guards."
I felt a pang of injustice, but nobles rarely visited places like this, so his reaction wasn't unreasonable.
I drew my dagger emblazoned with the Kroitel family crest and repeated myself.
"I am Siel von Kroitel. I need something made."
Seeing the crest, the master switched attitudes instantly, prostrating himself before me.
"Forgive my ignorance of such a noble guest... Please, not the crime of disrespect..."
"Forget that. Just make what I want as fast as possible. I'll pay... one gold coin upfront."
"One gold coin?"
"Yes. I need eight round iron pieces thick enough for a sturdy rope through the middle, eight matching rings for the rope, a wooden post and base strong enough to hold the weight."
The smith thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Understood. Even rushing, it'll take until the day after tomorrow. That all right?"
With two weeks left, two days was fine.
"Good. Deliver it to the Kroitel manor in two days and collect the rest."
With that, I left the smithy and returned to the manor.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ When the promised time arrived, the smithy guild delivered my order.
In the manor's inner courtyard by the well, I directed the servants to assemble the custom pulley system for the bucket, explaining each part.
Then I demonstrated it myself.
"Listen up. With this, you won't need to strain pulling the rope like before. Just lightly turn the handle, and the bucket comes up."
As I turned the handle, the pulley drew the bucket up smoothly.
The servants marveled.
"Drawing water was such a pain, but now just turning it without force...?"
"We heard you were smart, but inventing something like this..."
"Pulleys are used for heavy loads, but attaching one to a well bucket would make watering fields so much faster and easier... Why didn't we think of it?"
Once the bucket was up, I poured the water into a nearby jar. The baron, who had been watching unnoticed, approached from behind.
"This what you commissioned from the smithy guild? Handy, sure, but you're not saying you'll skip the academy over something this simple, right?"
"It might seem like just an easier bucket now, but install it by deep river wells or near fields, and it'll greatly speed up drawing water."
"True. Easier water means easier transport with carts... which makes farming simpler too. Well done. You've proven your resolve isn't empty."
Words of approval from the baron—surely he'd reconsider the academy now?
I looked at him hopefully, but his next words dashed that.
"But what you've shown is the skill of a craftsman, not the governing ability of my heir. I can't indulge your stubbornness to skip the academy over this."
"But..."
"Of course, I'm proud my son whipped up such a fine tool in just two days. So I'll support you fully at the academy. On top of living expenses, two gold coins pocket money monthly. And before you go, spend those twenty gold coins however you like."
Securing twenty gold coins and monthly allowance of two was nice, but it didn't change the academy mandate.
Going there means I die, and this territory falls.
No choice now...
I knelt on one knee before the baron again, head bowed.
"Give me one more chance. This time, I'll show governing ability befitting a ruler."
The baron replied arrogantly.
"Fine, do as you please. But fail this, and you go to the academy without argument."