Josh woke up with his whole body aching and burning as if he slept on an ant hill for an entire night, accompanied by a splitting headache and foggy memory.
What the actual fuck happened?
He felt in no way good enough of condition to get out of bed by himself and couldn't reach the bell to summon help either, so he just laid in his bed, trying to remember what happened.
I’m pretty sure I was in the garden, meditating, trying to gather mana.
As he was trying to remember what happened, an even worse headache assaulted him, completely numbing down any thoughts he had about remembering what happened that day.
I’ll have to ask Elaria.
With nothing else to do while he was incapacitated, he was just looking at the ceiling, trying to think of the plans on how to deal with the corrupt mayor of Daim Village or how he still hasn’t visited Shallow Lake Village. It didn’t take much longer than a half hour for Bella to break into his roam.
“Milord, you are awake,” she gasped, dropping clothes from her hands as she entered his sleeping quarters.
“H-h-ey, Bella, what’s up,” he replied, not expecting such a reaction from his maid.
For real, what the fuck happened?
“I h-have to go get lady Elaria,” she uttered and bolted out of his room.
“Wai-“ Josh sighed.
I guess back to waiting.
It didn’t take much longer for a whole entourage to burst into his room, which consisted of worried yet relieved faces.
“Lady Elaria, Sir Leo, what happened?” Interrupting the silence, Josh enquired.
“You’ve been asleep for a fortnight,” Elaria answered.
Two weeks?
I’ve been asleep for two fucking weeks?
“H-how?” he uttered with sheer disbelief on his face.
Seeing that their Lord was fine, everyone but Elaria left his sleeping quarters. She started explaining to him how when he reached into his emotions trying to gather mana,that he completely overdrew on ambient mana and that his body couldn’t handle it, so he erupted into a fire whirlwind. She especially noted that if not for her, he would be dead with the whole manor burned down. Before leaving him to rest, she also mentioned how he wouldn’t be able to use mana for at least three months and at least a week until he could get out of bed.
Way to go, Josh. Even in the first week of a completely different world, you literally blew up.
A week later, Josh was feeling much better. He was able to get out of bed and, more importantly, not be spoon-fed by Bella anymore, so he decided it was time to get to work.
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He invited Leo and Elaria to his study room, the latter so that she could cast [Oculus Comprehensio] on him so he could understand the various documents on the table, the former so he could learn about the Lord part.
His mentor, after casting a comprehension spell on him, didn’t linger around for much longer. She just dropped a couple of books for him to read so he could progress in his studies while he couldn’t use mana.
“Milord, you called me,” Leo asked with an enquiring gaze and a slight bow as he entered the study.
Josh put down the book he was reading to meet his steward’s gaze.
“Leo,” he paused to draw attention. “Can you teach me how to be a proper Lord?”
Leo’s rigid posture crumbled for a second, and his eyes widened in surprise. He quickly regained his composure and answered, "With pleasure, Milord."
With a smile, Josh pulled a document from the pile that described the finances of his manor.
“According to this, our all lands collect a bit over a hundred ten platinum coins a year, out of which fifty go to the crown for the taxes, twelve to the manor maintenance, twenty to the citizen's wages, twenty for the guards, ten for the food to fill the granary,” he sighed. “That’s a hundred thirteen platinum coins, Leo.”
We are losing each year around thirty thousand dollars for nothing.
“Milord, the previous lord knew about this issue but of no way to solve it,” he replied.
Josh sighed.
“How much money do we have in treasury at the moment?” He asked.
“Milord, the crown after the previous Lord’s death, confiscated most of the wealth, but when you got assigned here, you got a budget of thirty platinum coins. We still have twenty five of them and three gold coins.”
So they spent four platinum coins in the three weeks I’ve been here.
“Could you tell me where the missing coins went?” he asked.
“Milord, seven gold coins were used for maintaning the manor, four of platinum coins for your mentor's monthly wage,” his steward replied.
That’s forty-eight platinum coins or close to half our budget for her wage while we are going into deficit.
Josh clutched his head before asking. “How do you think we will afford this, Leo?”
“I don’t know, Milord,” Leo replied.
He’s definitely better at slaughtering goblins than managing finances.
Knowing that situation with their finances won’t be easy to overcome, Josh switched the topic.
“How are the Norfolk four-course farming tests going?”
“Milord, as you ordered before, we asked one-third of our farmers to switch to it,” Leo clutched his fist. They didn’t agree at first, as they were afraid of missing their tithe and being even more in debt. We had to make a promise to them that if their harvest was less than usual, we would cover the missing part while comparing it to last year’s yield.”
“That’s okay. There shouldn’t be any reduced yield. Even more importantly, we need to find where to buy livestock with our meager funds to make use of all the clovers our farmers will be growing,” Josh replied.
Though considering that in about ten months, I will be bankrupt, that’s impossible.
After discussing the most important things to managing estate for now, they chatted about more general stuff. Josh got a confirmation that a year here is thirteen months rather than the usual twelve, and each month has 32 days, which consists of four weeks with eight days, which prolonged the year from 365 days to 416 days, with no leap years.
The months, rather than having their own special names, were called simply early spring—middle spring—and late spring, with the same naming sense for all four of them and the thirteenth month being between autumn and winter. It was just called a transition month.
For the weekdays, it was simply called the first day of the first week and so on, with the current date being.
Early spring, third week, eighth day.
As Josh thought he knew enough about the general situation and wanted to end his meeting with Leo, he took out a letter buried deep in the document pile.
“Honored Baron Josh Brookes,
I, Maximus Voss, Count of Mosswood County, humbly invite thee to dine and greet at a banquet at my castle on the evening of Mid Spring, 2nd week, 6th day, 1074 Aurelius Year. It would be a privilege to meet thee, who falls under my command, and share a night full of merriment and discussion.
Please be advised that attendance is mandatory, and absence will not be acceptable.
With respect, Maximus Voss.”
Josh pushed the letter to Leo before asking “Care to explain who this Maximus Voss is?”
Leo quickly read the letter before sighing and replying, “Milord, that’s your direct superior. Our Daim Barony falls under his rule, as his county falls under Marquis Benedict Grove’s rule, which in turn falls under Duchy of Hespera, which in turn answers to the crown.”
Basically middle-management.
“I always wanted to ask is there a map somewhere?” Josh enquired.
“Milord, we did have a map of the barony. Sadly, it got destroyed a couple of years ago, and we had no chance to order a new one; I’m pretty sure, though, that the Count has a map of his whole County.” Leo answered.
“How long do you think it would take you to travel through this county or even the whole kingdom?”
Leo pondered momentarily before answering, “Milord, I believe it would take around a fortnight to travel with a carriage around the county. I fear a year would be insufficient for the kingdom, Milord.”
How fucking large is this country that 421 days with a carriage is not enough to travel through it.
“Of course, milord, that’s only considering mundane travel methods,” Leo said.
Josh sighed before throwing all the paperwork he had been reading through back on the table and asking his steward.
“Leo, can you prepare a carriage for me to visit Shallow Lakes Village? Also, please inform Lady Elaria that I would love for her to accompany me.”
I have to go visit the last village I haven’t seen yet. I also need to talk to her about my suspicions about Daim Village’s chief, as I still don’t really trust Leo about that.
“With haste, Milord,” Leo replied as he rushed out of the room.