Chapter 33: How much is enough?

I might not recognize them even if I meet them again somewhere someday, but at least the fact that I educated them properly was certain. That was enough.

“You don’t have to use formal language with me. I’m also someone working in this mansion, and I’m only one year older than you.”

“No, you will be teaching me from now on.”

Another certain thing is that all the children who came to this mansion after Tommy were quick-witted and stubborn in their own way.

Among the six or seven children I taught, not a single one spoke informally to me. Even the one who was a couple of years older than my body.

“Okay, then. Have you eaten?”

This question, very routine for a Korean, often becomes quite an impressive question for children here.

“Ah, no.”

Ian, who had been stiff trying to read the room, shook his head with a bewildered expression.

“I will feed this child first, tidy him up, and then have him greet the Duke.”

Looking up at Philip, who was still slightly taller than me, Philip looked down at me intently without answering.

“Is there anything else you want to order?”

“…No, nothing.”

Sometimes Philip makes an expression as if suppressing something he wants to say to me. Just like now.

“Yes. Let’s go. Follow me.”

I don’t bother asking about things he doesn’t tell me.

I took Ian and left the place.

****

“You can bring as much food as you want and eat.”

Entering the dining hall, there were few people left as the servants’ mealtime was almost over. Bread was still plentiful, but only a couple of pieces of everyone’s favorite food like bacon and ham remained.

Ian brought all the remaining food in the dining hall on a tray. Since it was a sight I was seeing for the sixth or seventh time, I had prepared an extra tray in advance.

“How much do you usually eat?”

“In a day?”

“In one meal.”

“It was fortunate if I could eat one meal properly a day.”

“Then move only the amount you usually ate at once here.”

Ian’s eyes wavered wildly. The sound of him gulping down saliva echoed loudly too. When I signaled with my eyes to move it quickly pointing at the empty tray, Ian raised his hand as if he had no choice, trembling.

Ian, whose physique showed no flesh despite his height, put enough stew to pool at the bottom of the plate and placed one bread next to it. As I kept staring intently, he closed his eyes tight, broke the bread as big as his face, and placed a small piece, only 1/3 remaining, on the tray.

Ian’s drooping appearance, like a puppy inflated with expectation then told ‘no’, attracted the attention of the few servants remaining in the dining hall.

Since it was a rite of passage happening roughly once every three or four months, whether the sixth or seventh time, they soon clicked their tongues and turned their heads.

Someone sent me a look saying ‘that cruel guy’, but that was all. They also knew what result would come if I let the guy across from me do as he wanted.

“You can’t eat all that you brought at once anyway, but even if you force yourself to swallow it, your body won’t digest it. I won’t stop you if you want to know the pain of your stomach twisting.”

“…Yes.”

Although he looked pitiful, Ian nodded obediently without talking back to my words. Seeing him tear the 1/3 remaining bread into small pieces and put them in his mouth, I placed half a strip of bacon and cheese the size of a fingernail on Ian’s tray.

“If you suddenly put greasy food into a stomach that’s practically starved, you’re bound to get sick. You have to increase the amount slowly. And the food in the dining hall is for all servants working in this mansion. This bacon and ham were also left by others for me. No one likes you if you try to monopolize things out of greed when you can’t even eat it all. You have to learn to take care of yours, but also to share.”

“Yes.”

The answer this time was quite clear. It seemed to be the effect of half a strip of bacon. Ian ate the slightly hardened white bread deliciously as if it were a supreme delicacy.

I held back a sigh. Seeing him so tall even though he ate like a bird, his genes must be capable of easily exceeding 2 meters if he had eaten and grown properly.

Not many people can fully display their innate potential in any era, but even so, the environment of this era was certainly harsh.

Every time I saw the children, I realized something called limitation. A limitation the children could never approach. And my own limitation as well.

Although I can’t convey it directly in words, I taught the children who never had anything to lessen their greed first. I wasn’t a good teacher who let children unfold all their dreams. Indeed, a good teacher would remember the children’s faces and names properly even after parting.

Honestly speaking, I have no desire to do more than my duty in a relationship with a set end.

“Listen while eating. From now on, reading and writing lessons will be held in spare moments during every mealtime like now. You have to review what you learned after work and get inspected by me the next day. Arithmetic, history, geography, etc. will be adjusted according to the speed you get used to the lessons.”

Ian, with bread in his mouth, looked down at me with wide eyes.

“If you understood, just nod while eating.”

I can’t be a good teacher who unfolds children’s dreams and hopes, but I can be a cram school instructor. One with results proven several times already. For cramming knowledge into the head in a short period, cramming education is indeed the best.

Sympathetic glances poured once again on Ian blinking and nodding his head.

****

“He is the child brought on Bolton’s recommendation.”

“I am Ian.”

Ian, wearing the mansion servant’s long pants uniform and standing in front of the Duke, looked quite neat.

Though I struggled a bit to find clothes fitting that height and thin frame. Considering only age, Ian should have worn knee-length shorts and stockings, but I absolutely couldn’t find shorts fitting that height.

My kind offer to alter them for him was rejected at once.

“It’s a short time, but I hope you can learn a lot.”

When the Duke, looking up at Ian intently from a seated position, spoke with a light smile, Ian answered “Yes!” with a unnecessarily loud voice in a rigid state. His pale face looked like he was scared. Glancing at me sideways, he nodded trembling with an even paler face.

It was a bit of an overreaction, but understandable. The probability of a Beta from the slums meeting a high-ranking noble like the Duke is extremely slim. When I first met him, I also struggled to show the talents I had at the time.

“You may leave now.”

When permission was given, Ian left the study with cautious but quick steps.

“Don’t you need to guide him?”

Although he had a face looking like he would wander unable to find where the stairs were, I shook my head.

“I already guided him on the way here. If he still can’t find the way, he’ll ask someone passing by.”

“A strict teacher.”

“Because the teacher who taught me is a strict person.”

“Then will you be teaching that child in your leisure time now?”

“That’s right. Since I don’t have much spare time, I have to push him a bit.”

Most of my work is being with the Duke. As an exclusive servant, it’s natural. The only time I can teach the child assigned to me is the little time I’m apart from the Duke.

Thanks to that, my personal time is practically non-existent except when drawing design sketches in my room or sleeping.

“It seems I’ve become a wicked employer working you without giving rest time.”

“It’s okay because you pay me a lot instead.”

“Where do you use all that money you earn?”

Words like work-life balance don’t even exist here, but even in an era where such things can be considered, many people would say it’s not the situation to consider work-life balance if they could earn money like me.

Actually, teaching children, I worried a bit about curriculum composition at first, but now that it’s the sixth or seventh time, I don’t worry separately. For me, the time teaching children is rather break time. Though it wouldn’t be so from the children’s perspective.

If asked where I use the money earned so hard, I don’t use it. There’s no occasion to use it either. I’m not going to live luxuriously wearing shirts with gem buttons while being a servant.

“I plan to build a picturesque house on that green prairie later.”

Just preparing for a future someday.

“…That sounds good.”

“I like just thinking about it too.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to take a whole mountain as private land, cultivate a vegetable garden, and raise animals? It would be even more wonderful if I build a house fully equipped with water, lighting, and heating with magic facilities.

It would be good to make a study and fill it with books, or buy lots of favorite paintings and gems to turn the house into a gallery.

It will be a house where I won’t be bored even staying inside all day.

Though there won’t be anyone to call my name.

“Palmer has come at your summons, Duke.”

It was Philip who interrupted the chat with the Duke. After a light sigh, the Duke nodded, and Philip brought Palmer in.

“Welcome. Occasions keep arising to ask for your trouble.”

“It is a joy that I am still useful to the Duke.”

Palmer, a jeweler in Pistoga, was an old gentleman with good physique. He responded to the Duke’s words with a smile, but his hand gripping the cane was tense, perhaps because his knees weren’t good.

“You may sit.”

“Thank you.”

When I offered cold water and hot black tea with lemon to Palmer, who sat on the chair with difficulty taking time, he sent a glad eye greeting.

Since I saw him in the study several times already, I knew his preference without asking. I also returned the greeting with my eyes and returned to stand by the Duke’s side.

“I know well that you are the one with the biggest headache these days. Because of that damn war.”

When Palmer emptied a glass of cold water and caught his breath, the Duke opened the preamble. Palmer also made a troubled expression.

War was already one of the daily lives of people living in Henia. I was also one of the spectators of that huge show.