Chapter 5

"Well, I have sword practice from now on."

"Thank you, Brother Ehrich."

"Oh, it's nothing, for my cute little brother."

After breakfast, Ehrich, the fifth son, who still looked quite young, had given me a detailed explanation of the family. However, he left the mansion, saying he had sword practice.

From the content of yesterday's dream, it seemed that Brother Ehrich wasn't very good at swordsmanship. Even though he was a low-ranking noble, he was trying to learn the sword early and was practicing on his own.

However, it seemed that there were no swordsmen with exceptional talent in the Baumayster family.

One might think that everyone in this territory, surrounded by monsters, would be in a constant state of real-life "○n Hunter," but apparently, that wasn't the case. For thousands of years, monsters had never left their territory, which was a significant factor.

There was a neighboring territory inhabited by monsters, but as long as one didn't step into it, there was no threat from the monsters. Moreover, the Baumayster knight's domain was a poor rural area, and except for the head of the household, Arthur, and the heir, the eldest son Kurt, everyone was assigned some kind of work.

While no one was plowing the fields, they were gradually developing the untouched plains inhabited by no monsters to accommodate the growing population of the Baumayster knight's domain. They hunted in the forests, where only ordinary wild animals lived, to obtain meat, and fished in the rivers.

It didn't seem like the work of nobles, but perhaps it was fitting for this large, poor knight's family.

It seemed that the situation was similar in other local low-ranking noble families.

In addition, they practiced martial arts like swordsmanship and archery, and horseback riding in their free time.

"Hey, don't you learn etiquette, reading, writing, and arithmetic as a noble?"

"Etiquette? What would we, border nobles, do with etiquette? We have no business in the capital except for investiture."

Surprised by the lack of content in their training, I asked my new mother, who was diligently making ropes, and she answered with a puzzled expression.

In short, as long as one was in the Baumayster knight's domain, one only needed to travel to the capital for investiture when the head of the household changed. Otherwise, there was no particular need for noble etiquette.

And even that investiture was a simple exchange:

"I, King Helmut XX of the Kingdom of Helmut, hereby confer the rank of Seventh-Class Knight upon you, XX."

"My sword is for the king, the kingdom, and the people."

It seemed that was all there was to it. The king, being busy with many knights, wouldn't spend much time on such matters.

My new mother explained this while skillfully tying the rope.

Indeed, if this exchange only happened once in a lifetime, there was no need for etiquette. This was different for high-ranking nobles and those who held positions in the central government.

"What about reading, writing, and arithmetic?"

It seemed that these were also not very necessary. I was surprised that even as a noble, but I remembered reading that in medieval Europe, many nobles couldn't write. They could sign their names, but they left the calculation of taxes and other matters to the village chiefs and elders, so they didn't feel the need for such skills.

While it was unacceptable for nobles in the central palace, it wasn't a significant issue if they could maintain order and excel in war. After all, they usually stayed in their own territories, so there was no opportunity to display these skills.

Even in medieval Europe, some people ate meat with their hands.

Getting back to the topic, everyone in our family could at least write their names, and some could read and write simple sentences. That was the extent of it.

"By the way, Vendelin, you could read and write simple sentences, right?"

As the eighth son, I wasn't counted as a labor force from a young age like the commoners. Before I possessed him, Vendelin was a child who would often lock himself in the study and read books.

The main job of the eighth son, the misfit, was not to get in the way of the working family members.

"Yes, a little."

"You need to try harder."

My mother urged me, but thinking about it, as the eighth son, I couldn't inherit the family, and it was even questionable whether I could stay in this domain. Brother Ehrich, who was diligently practicing the sword despite his lack of skill, was probably looking ahead to the future.

Moreover, Brother Ehrich was exceptionally good at reading, writing, and arithmetic in this family.

"I read books in the study."

"Yes."

After finishing the conversation with my mother, I hurried to the study.

Everyone was busy, and I was a misfit and the eighth son. I was much younger than my older brothers, especially the eldest and second sons, so we hardly had any conversations. This wasn't because they disliked me, but because the age gap was too large.

In the dream, I had just turned six and had started some sword and archery practice, but it was too much for a six-year-old, so I spent the rest of the time not getting in the way of the other adults.

This was my mission.

"Wow, there are quite a few books."

Even in a poor noble family, there were many books in the study due to the family's long history. The genres ranged from history and geography to literature, mathematics, minerals, biology, monster studies, and simple fairy tales and picture books, as well as cookbooks.

While we had cookbooks, our meals were still poor, but I resigned myself to the fact that we couldn't obtain the necessary ingredients.

"I can read them normally. Actually, in Japanese."

I had a feeling that this world used Japanese, as I could converse with my family in Japanese. However, there were some differences.

First, the text for commoners and low-ranking nobles who had no connection to the central palace used no kanji at all. The kanji parts were written in hiragana, and the hiragana parts were written in katakana.

Most of the texts in this world were in this format, which I found difficult to read. Next, the texts used by the royal family, imperial family, high-ranking nobles, central government, church, guilds, scholars, and academic societies were closer to standard Japanese.

I found these texts very easy to read, as they were familiar to me. However, some words were incomprehensible. Some nouns were mixed with English words, and some were written in Roman letters.

While the English words were at a high school level and most of the text was in Japanese, some books had nouns written in kanji but in Roman letters, and I couldn't quite figure out the rule.

Furthermore, the ideal ratio for beautiful and polite official documents was 70% hiragana and katakana, 20% kanji, and 10% other.

While I didn't really care, it seemed that bureaucrats and officials in any world were concerned about such things.

For now, as a six-year-old, I should focus on building my physical strength and martial arts training, and read the books in this study to gain knowledge about this world.

As I thought this, I looked at the end of the bookshelf and saw the genre of books I most wanted to see.

"Beginner's Magic, Intermediate Magic, Advanced Magic, Basics of Alchemy, Beginner's Magic Item Making. Wow! Magic really exists!"

I picked up the books, my heart racing with the possibility that I might be able to use magic.