"The medical service is pretty great. Even the cuts are all gone."
When you fight, you get hurt.
Whether big or small, wounds always leave scars, but after using the treatment service, they all disappeared. Of course, this service healed all external injuries, internal injuries, and diseases. However, it couldn't regenerate severed body parts. It cost an astronomical 5,000 points, but I thought of it as the price of staying alive.
Thinking back, it was truly insane.
Trade flesh for the kill?
That's easier said than done—I could never do it again.
To avoid that, I needed to get stronger.
[German Swordsmanship Manual]
[Stage 2 Training Quest]
[Refine 5 Meisterhau (Scheitelhau–Zornhau–Schielhau–Zwerchhau–Krumphau)]
[Basic Stance Correction]
[Proficiency 99/100]
[Reward — 1,000 points, 1 silver coin]
But the problem was that Stage 2 basic training proficiency had stalled at 99. I'd thought the quest would complete after killing those damn vipers and Frost, but my expectations were thoroughly crushed. What the hell was the clear condition? I needed to complete this to advance to Stage 3, but it was stuck.
Stage 1 had gone smoothly, but I couldn't figure out the Stage 2 clear condition, and it was maddening. Meanwhile, Bodo woke up. At first he was disoriented. He didn't understand why he was here. When I said this would be his home from now on, it finally seemed to sink in.
"Sir Knight, can I really live here?"
"Why don't you call me Wolfgang now too? We're family."
"So I'm in your employ, sir? I don't have to go back to the streets?"
Having come to, Bodo seemed deeply anxious, unable to adjust to his suddenly changed circumstances. Having lost his mom and family, he must've been bracing himself to become a street urchin, but since I'd decided to take responsibility, I planned to look after Bodo so he could live without worry.
That would give me peace of mind too.
"Oh my, Master! Is this child a new member of the family too?"
"Yeah. He lost his mother, so take good care of him."
"You're like me, then. I'm Sabine Flamm."
"...Bodo. Bodo Werner."
Fortunately, Sabine welcomed Bodo, saying she'd gained a little brother.
The kid who'd grown up around prostitutes was shy around Sabine.
When Daniel heard he had a successor, his eyes lit up.
Hmm, planning to play the stern mentor again?
Bodo might look like a pitiful kid now, but he's cunning, so Daniel might end up getting outfoxed. He's the kid who'd tried to sell me information about Schlange on the side.
Anyway, the Streit family's retainers increased to six in total.
Attendants — Daniel (300), Bodo (200)
Handmaid — Sabine (400)
Soldiers — Hans (500), Oscar (500), Ted (500)
Monthly wages = 2 silver coins, 400 copper coins.
Since I was responsible for food and lodging, the actual expenditure came to 4 silver coins per month. But I was steadily earning copper through repetitive training quests and jobs, so I didn't need to worry about upkeep. I earned an average of over 250 copper per day, so based on roughly 25 working days, that came to 6 silver coins.
Of course, there might be days like this where unexpected business kept me from doing repetitive quests, but I earned a hefty sum of silver through major quests. Combined with the silver Father had left me and silver earned through major quests, I now had over 70 silver coins.
The Medici Bank treated me as a valued customer now too.
The title of "poor duchy knight" no longer suited me.
With no points left, accumulating points was more pressing than money, though.
"Can we lay Mom to rest at the church?" Bodo asked.
"I'd like to, but I don't know if the church will accept her," I replied.
"Right. Mom was a prostitute."
The church had long branded prostitutes as sinful and despised them. Even while acknowledging them as a necessary evil, the church never granted prostitutes a day of rest. When prostitutes came to services, they even designated separate areas to keep them apart from regular parishioners. Yet prostitutes were the church's biggest donors.
The reason prostitutes donated most of their income to the church was for the sake of the afterlife. They believed that otherwise they couldn't ascend heaven's stairs and would languish in purgatory until Resurrection Day, suffering.
When prostitutes died, they weren't blessed by the church or buried in consecrated ground but were interred in the common cemetery in the brothel district, or often dumped outside the city walls. Sometimes even burned. Medieval people believed that if a body was burned, it couldn't be resurrected whole on Resurrection Day.
And they considered burial in the church cemetery the greatest honor.
Bodo at least wanted his mom laid to rest in the church cemetery.
"I'll have to consult with Kisling parish, but I can't promise anything. Sorry."
"Please, I'm begging you. I hope Mom can finally have peace."
Bodo shed tears and pleaded.
The parish would be reluctant, but wouldn't it be possible if I donated generously? I didn't know how many silver coins it would cost, but if it gave Bodo peace of mind, I was willing to pay.
"The Pauper's Crown? They're cleaning that place up right now, though."
"Mom had saved some money. I know where it is. I'll give that money to you, Wolfgang. Then I'll be useful too, right?"
Bodo seemed to have an inferiority complex. At first he must've resented me, but nobody could've predicted things would spiral that badly. So I'd decided to take responsibility for a child left alone without family.
That's why Bodo had opened up to me.
But could I really take that money?
"That money is your inheritance from your mother. There's no way I can take it," I said firmly.
"But it's too much money for me to have, right? Maybe a few copper coins, but..."
"Let's do this—I'll hold on to that money for you until you get married."
"Come on, how would I ever get married? So you'll end up keeping it anyway."
Bodo seemed convinced he could never get married.
What? I was planning to marry off everyone in my retainer group, starting with the oldest, Hans (22). It was my job to raise my retainers to be appealing enough that brides' families would take interest, but regardless, I had absolutely no intention of keeping any lifelong bachelors or spinsters under my roof.
The higher the Streit family's prestige rose, the more marriage prospects would open up, and we could forge strong alliances through marriage—marriage was the cornerstone of the medieval world. And among those, my own marriage was the strongest card. I needed to bring in outside support so the Finance Minister couldn't meddle.