Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

Chapter 86: Gold Coins and Sweets

A few days have passed since Cecile’s runaway commotion. Allen has come to the Kurena village as the G-rank Bird.

Today I’m bringing in another batch of Gold coins to send home. I started sending money last July, and till now I’ve sent money more than ten times.

Ka-chin

The sound of Allen, a.k.a. Bird G, dropping a Gold coin onto the garden floor caught Theresia’s attention as she turned her back.

“Hello, Pippi. Did you bring me another one? I see you have a letter for me today.”

“Pi!”

At the feet of the G-rank Bird was a single Gold coin and a letter written on a piece of parchment. The bird had the Gold coin in its beak and the letter tied on it’s foot.

Theresia approached and picked up a Gold coin and the letter that had fallen on the garden.

On the third time, G-rank Bird was found by Theresia. Or rather, it allowed itself to be found.

The third time I sent money, I sent a letter for the first time. In my first letter, I wrote only one word.

“Allen.”

That’s all I wrote. My parents could barely read. They could only understand the names of their family members. But that was enough for them to understand.

“Pippi!”

Muras, now four years old, came out of the living room to the garden to catch Pippi. The name “Pippi” stuck instead of the nickname I gave it.

As long as they don’t grab me, I’m fine.

G-rank Bird has over 200 [Agility]. Even in a narrow place, it can brilliantly escape the clutches of my sister Muras.

“Stop it, Muras.”

“Yes.”

“Oh! He’s here again? Is he okay?”

Rodan entered the house. He then started drinking water from a water jar.

It was around noon, and the family was about to have lunch. Rodan, Theresia, Mash, and Muras were having lunch. We are now commoners, but our house was still the same, and the meal scene was the same as usual as well.

“Oh, a letter? Let me see.”

As he said this, Mash took the letter that Theresia had picked up.

(Oh? You can read now, can’t you?)

The reason why I started sending letters was not only because my family would get suspicious when Gold coins fall out of nowhere. Also from last year, Mash started learning to read and write.

Last year, a lecturer came to the village and began teaching Kurena for the Academy exam. It was a two-year course of study to get into the Academy. By arrangement with the village mayor, Mash was allowed to study with her. Several other students, including Dogora and Peromus, were also studying with Kurena.

I’ve never seen the study itself, but apparently, there were lessons on learning letters and arithmetic. Mash brought parchment which had letters in it and desperately tried remembering them.

He read the few words I had written.

“Father, Mother, Mash, Muras, how are you doing?

I am in good health.

Father, don’t drink too much alcohol.

Muras, sleep well at night.

I will send you another letter next time.”

(You’ve learned to read pretty well. But to be honest, I think you could learn faster if you wanted to.)

This is a world where the speed of remembering things changes with the increase in [Intelligence] through leveling up. Even if Rodan’s [Intelligence] is D or E, I think that he will be able to remember things better than normal people because of the levels he has gained through hunting Boars. I think that he can read and write sentences if he works diligently for a year or so.

“Muras, your brother wants you to sleep properly.”

“I’m sleeping properly.”

Muras grabbed a handful of steaming potatoes and chewed on them, insisting that she was a good girl and sleeping properly.

“Even so, will Allen be okay with sending money like this?”

I have written several times that I am fine with sending money, but Rodan was still worried. A single Gold coin is quite a sum, both for a serf and for a commoner.

Since I started selling Armored Ants armor, I have been earning more than 10 Gold coins a month along with my salary. Sending home one Gold coin is not a burden for me. I just keep it at one Gold coin so as not to worry too much.

I had been a manservant for over a year and a half, and I had never done anything for my family, but <Sharing> made it easier to send money home.So, I started doing that. In this world, life is not as secure as it was in my previous life. I will continue to send money for the time being since I don’t need it.

While I was instructing G-rank Bird via <Sharing>, Cecile called out to me. The Baron’s family was having lunch in the dining room right now.

“Allen, come to my room later.”

“Yes, Miss Cecile.”

Cecile seemed to have managed to get her mind back on track in the past few days. It’s not as stable as it was before the Royal Messenger arrived, but it’s not as unstable as running off somewhere anymore.

She also seemed to have become slightly kinder to me. Her tone of voice was still the same, but her gaze had softened slightly.

I finished my serving duty and headed to Cecile’s room shortly after. I knocked and was told that I could enter.

“Allen, you did a good job finding me the other day.”

“Thank you.”

As soon as I entered the room, she thanked me for finding her the other day.

“Come here.”

“Yes.”

Cecile’s room looked luxurious compared to the scenery of my parents’ house that I had seen earlier.

Cecile told me to come to a small round table in the room, small enough for two people to have tea.

She told me to sit down. There was tea and sweets on the table. It looked more luxurious than the sweets Cecile usually ate.

“Allen, you’ve been my personal manservant for three years now. The other day, you found me. This is your reward.”

(Oh! Sweets! My reward! Anyway, there was no anniversary for the second year as a manservant, but will there be a third?)

Cecile rewarded me for completing one year of being her personal manservant, and with that reward, I was able to take a magic class. Thanks to her, I was able to learn about the relationship between Mages and [Intelligence] in this world.

Last year I thought about asking for some sweets for the anniversary, but there was no second anniversary, to begin with. I thought maybe she forgot or got bored with the first anniversary, but it seems that there will be a third-anniversary reward for me, including her recent runaway case.

I sat on a chair.

Cecile began to explain how she prepared this snack.

She asked the Baron for some money and had the Head Chef make the sweets for me. It seems that these sweets included a thank you from the Baron.

(Oh! That’s our Chef, a former Royal Chef!)

Looking at the gorgeous sweets, I remembered what Rickel had told me before.

I was told that there were two people in this mansion who used to work at the Royal Castle.

One of them was the Head Chef, who had worked as a Royal Chef at the Royal Castle until he was over fifty, when he retired and came back to his hometown, Grandver. I wondered if he could still be a Royal Chef with that tone of voice.

The other one was Cecile’s teacher. The old man who taught me a lot about magic used to work at the Royal Castle. The Grandver was not his hometown though.

He said that his reason for his job here was all for Cecile.

Even if it is customary, if a Noble has the talent to use magic, he would hire and teach to teach him/her magic.

However, Cecile has the rather valuable talent of being a Mage. If she was only a Magician, no one would bother to come from the Royal Castle.

She had the Talent of a Mage, and since the old man wanted to retire soon, he chose to be her teacher. Now, he gives Cecile a lesson once a week and usually lives in seclusion at the residence he was given in the Noble district.

“Come on, eat up.”

“Yes.”

I was told I could eat, so I crunched on some sweet baked goods.

(It’s so good!)

Allen, who had a sweet tooth, to begin with, gobbled up the sweets without hesitation.

“Allen, you don’t have to worry about that.”

“What?”

(What are you talking about?)

While I was eating, Cecile seemed to still want to talk to me, so I stopped and listened to her.

“It seems that you were worried about the future and told me about being an adventurer, but you don’t have to worry about that.”

(Adventurer? Oh, you mean what I said in the alley.)

When Cecile ran away from home and was sitting in an alley, I talked to her about becoming an adventurer to cheer her up.

“You are doing a fine job. So, I’ve told my father to make you a Valet as soon as possible.”

Boom!

Cecile smiled and said she would promote me from a manservant to a Valet. I could only reply with, “That’s too good to be true.”