People in Baumeister knight peerage house.
“That’s it for now, as I have sword practice after this.”
“Thanks, Erich nii-san.”
“No worries, it is for my cute little brother.”
After breakfast, Erich (the fifth son) explained in detail about our family to me who still considered young, due to my appearance. He later left the mansion saying he has sword practice.
From the contents of yesterday’s recollection, Erich nii-san is not really that good at the sword. Regardless, he seems determined to learn the sword quickly and trains constantly, despite being a lower class noble.
However, there is no one in the Baumeister family that excelled in swordsmanship.
In fact, though our territory is surrounded by monsters, it does not seem to be in constant conflict with monsters.
It seems that monsters never come out of their own territory and this fact was without exception for the past several thousand years.
You could say that the area where the monsters live may be near but they won’t be a threat so long we did not step into their territory.
Furthermore, I feel bad for saying it, but the Baumeister knight family territory consists only of a poor farm village. Everyone except for the eldest son Kurt, who is father’s heir, is assigned some sort of work.
I never cultivated a field before but for the population of the Baumeister territory that increase gradually, we would need to reclaim the plains untouched or yet to be unoccupied by monsters. We also hunt in the forest for meat but only where common wild animals live and fish in the river.
I can’t really say that this is work meant for a noble but perhaps it is suitable for this poor knight family with a lot of kid.
Though, the other lower noble class family in rural area apparently in a similar situation.
However, they seem to practice martial arts such as swords and bows or horse riding in their free time.
“Eh? Why do we not learn etiquette, reading, writing, and maths as nobles?”
“Why should a lower class noble in the frontier, like us, learn etiquette? We don’t even have any work from the Imperial City other than the appointment.”
Since, the content of our lessons were surprisingly few, I had asked mother who was diligently making rope despite being a noble lady and she answered me with a puzzled look.
In short, in the Baumeister territory, with the exception of taking the long trip to the Imperial City in the event of the family’s head formal bestowal ceremony, there is no particular need to learn etiquette as a noble.
In truth, even the bestowal ceremony audience with the king, the armour worn is one that was handed down generation to generation within the Baumeister family.
“I, as Helmut’s king the (insert number) generation of Helmut kingdom, I grant thou, (insert name) the 7th rank knight peerage.”
“I wield my sword, for His Majesty, for the kingdom and for the people.”
It seems to end with just this exchange.
Since there so many similar knights in the kingdom, the busy king cannot even attend the ceremony for long.
My new mother explained to me while dexterously braiding the rope in her hands.
There certainly no need for etiquette if this exchange is only once in a lifetime.
Save for the high rank nobles and the nobles that enter government service at the capital city.
“Besides, about maths, reading and writing…”
This also seems to not be needed much.
Even though I thought we were nobles, if I were to think about the Middle Ages in Europe, I heard that there were many nobles who could not write.
So long as you were able to write your own name, you can just leave everything such as tax calculations to the village chief and the village headman. I remembered in a book I read that knowledge in maths wasn’t needed at all.
That unlikely for noble in the royal palace but it’s hardly a problem if the role was to take an active part in keeping the peace and waging war.
However, since most enemies stay in one’s own territory, there is no opportunity to hone and show off those skills either.
Even within the etiquette for the Middle Ages in Europe, there were also some people who ate meat by grasping it in their hand.
I can write all of our names but some people can only read and write simple characters.
“Come to think of it, was Wendelin even able to read and write a simple sentence?”
I am just the useless eighth son and I am not really counted as manpower within the lord’s territory since I am just a child.
For that reason, it seems that Wendelin was reading alone in the study room before I possessed him.
The first job for the useless eighth son is to not become a hindrance for the working members of the family.
“Yes, only a little bit.”
“You need to work harder.”
This might hurt mother but it was natural since I can’t inherit the family territory, if I think about it, I doubt I can even remain here.
Even brother Erich who is not that good at the sword, works hard on learning it as he most likely foresees the future.
However, it seems Erich is unusually good at maths, reading and writing, considering this house.
“I’ll be reading a book in the study room.”
“Okay.”
I hastily went to the study room after talking with mother.
Everyone else busy, I am just a useless kid after all.
The age gap with my brothers is quite big and I do not really talk to them, especially with the eldest and second son.
That’s doesn’t mean I am being hated; the more correct answer is that there is no point of initiating contact since our ages is so far apart.
In my recollection of the dreams, I began to practice the sword and bow for a little bit after becoming 6 years old but the training was unreasonable for a 6-year-old kid. In the end, I just wanted to avoid disturbing the rest of the other adults.
I can say it was a mission imposed on me.
“Oh, the number of books is surprisingly many.”
Even a poor noble family has its own history so there were many books in father’s study room.
There were books from numerous fields, from history to literature, mathematics, mineral, biological and monsterology, a book on geology that matched a high school graduation level in Hesei era Japan, a simple children’s picture book, and even a cookbook.
I feel that our meals are poor even though we have a cookbook; you can assume that they had given up since the materials used in the recipes cannot be secured.
“I can read it normally, I mean it’s in Japanese.”
Though I had such premonitions since I have conversations in Japanese with my family, the common language in this world seems to be Japanese.
Though there are slight differences.
Firstly, is the format or style adopted by the lower class nobles that have no relationship with the plebeian or the royal palace in the capital but can read and write a little.
They don’t use kanji at all.
Kanji part in hiragana, part of hiragana are described in katakana.
This is seems to be how most sentences are formed in this world which I feel is rather difficult to read.
Next is the format used by the kingdom and the neighbouring empire, primarily by the royal family, high ranked nobles, the upper echelons of the church and various guilds, scholars or academic societies of the various fields of study. It is also the standard used in official documents published in the central government.
And it seems that this format, used by those in high position, is closer to ordinary Japanese.
I can read this quite easily
There are even English words mixed in some nouns for some reason.
Or part of the Japanese sections are written in romaji.
The more complicated English verses were quite difficult though I don’t have much issues because a majority of the books were written in kanji but depending on the book, it may be in the Romaji notation. The law governing all this was a little unclear.
Even the official document, with the ratio of hiragana and katakana is 70%, kanji is 20% and the others are 10%.
I honestly felt that it didn’t matter but I am worried since bureaucrat and government officials are such creatures in any world.
Since I am just 6-year-old kid right now, all I can do right now is to continue working hard at my martial arts and to build up my stamina though it will be good to store up the knowledge of this world by reading the books in the study room, for later.
I thought this to myself as I looked through the bookshelf, till I spotted the one subject I really hoped to find.
“Beginner magic, intermediate magic, advanced magic, foundation in alchemy, producing magic tools for the first timers. Oh! There is really magic!”
I pick it up, feeling excited that I may be able to use magic.