The Idea of Brewing

Donald returned to the manor and received Sir Jesse, who had come from Giant Stone City, in the farmhouse room where he was temporarily staying.

Jesse had skillfully shown his goodwill and warmth without making his host uncomfortable. Once he had finished his business, he did not linger and soon took his leave.

Donald greatly admired the way this man, the first noble he had befriended in this world, handled affairs. Although Jesse accepted bribes, he knew where to draw the line. He got everything that needed doing done, without the slightest oversight.

If Donald had a territory of his own, he would certainly recruit the knight as his financial steward. A territory's finance officer was much like a kingdom's chancellor of the exchequer. If he did his job well and rendered meritorious service, the lord would not begrudge him a hereditary noble title.

That was why nobles in exile like Jesse could hardly resist an invitation from a noble lord. Even if, like Jesse, they worked for the Kingdom and earned plenty on the side.

Sir Jesse also greatly admired Donald, a noble among nobles who had become a full-fledged mage at such a young age. The two previous owners had barely taken over the manor before monsters began attacking people. But this mage had been here for nearly a month, and the manor was almost fully built. Livestock filled the grounds, and construction workers came and went, yet not a single accident had occurred! There was no denying that mages were a mysterious and powerful profession.

Donald had no idea that Sir Jesse credited his smooth takeover of the manor to the wonders of magic. In truth, the reason nothing had gone wrong for so long was that the manor had stood empty for more than half a month. Even if monsters had come, they would have found no living creatures there.

Now, the Tree of Life had taken root, and its Nature Barrier soothed the beasts and monsters nearby. As a result, the more dangerous and aggressive creatures stayed far away instead of entering the manor grounds to hunt.

After seeing Sir Jesse off, Donald knew that with the Tree of Life there, he no longer needed to worry about monster attacks unless someone deliberately sabotaged it or the monsters went on a rampage for some other reason. He therefore left without concern, planning to visit Giant Stone City and learn more about the commercial situation in this world. He wanted to find inspiration for the manor's future flagship product.

The manor's layout was mostly complete. Farms covering forty mu had been established on all four sides, while construction had begun on the foundations of a villa in the formerly empty central area. The Tree of Life stood behind it, near the forest. Its barrier covered almost the entire manor and extended beyond its boundaries. Within the barrier, the natural energy was at least five times denser than outside, creating ideal conditions for growing crops.

The farm already had houses for the tenants. Since they came from the Book of Truth, they were better built than the homes of ordinary small-time merchants, and there were more than enough rooms for now. There was no need to build more. As a noble, he needed a villa at the very least to suit his station. Its guest rooms would be enough for any visitors, and the servants would all have rooms of their own.

As for the farmland, the Tree of Life's barrier nourished all plants within a two-kilometer radius with the Force of Nature. Seeing how wildly the weeds were growing, Donald felt a great deal of hope for the manor's future.

"If the weeds can grow like this, then anything I plant is bound to flourish. I'll be rich in no time!"

Donald could not be bothered to have anyone clear the weeds outside the planned fields, especially in the pastures. They were thriving so well that, once harvested, they would make excellent feed for the livestock! Whether he let the herbivores graze or cut the grass and penned them up, he would save a great deal of money.

The only thing his manor lacked now was a unique and highly profitable cash crop.

Without a specialty of its own, the harvest from ordinary crops and livestock would barely cover the cost of living, let alone the expenses of a noble. Besides, he had his mage training to consider, and the Book of Truth was a glutton for crystal cores and energy crystals. He could not rely on hunting for money forever, could he?

With plenty of time to spare, Donald traveled to Giant Stone City by carriage instead of teleporting. Teleportation had a cooldown, after all, so it was best to save it for emergencies. If something unexpected happened while the spell was still on cooldown and he could not get there in time, things could go badly.

Dark Night Manor lay almost directly north of Giant Stone City, some eighty or ninety kilometers away. Red Maple Town lay between them; beyond it, the area consisted of uninhabited forests and hills.

Although North Shire was nominally under the administration of Viscount Macbeth, its governor, the entire region was not his territory. Only Giant Stone City, the Macbeth Family's ancestral seat in Distant Mountain Town to the southeast, and the fief of Lord Gerry, which they had acquired more than a decade ago, were directly controlled by the viscount or held by his vassals.

Other places, such as Red Maple Town in Baron of Red Maple's territory, Greenwood Town in the west under the military administration of Bloodstone Fortress, and Goldshire at the southernmost edge of North Shire, where it bordered both Marquis Ansel Territory and the Kingdom's Central Province, were not under the viscount's control. As governor of North Shire, Viscount Macbeth had only a measure of oversight over them.

Goldshire was particularly important. Situated at the junction of three provinces, it was a trade hub controlling the flow of goods between the western, northern, and central regions. Not only Viscount Macbeth, but many nobles in the Royal Capital too, coveted the vast wealth it generated each year.

When North Shire was first established, even the royal family could not stop the greedy nobles from fighting over ownership of Goldshire. In the end, the Kingdom simply adopted the system used by the commercial kingdoms of the southern continent. Goldshire became a self-governing territory of the Kingdom, never to be granted to any noble and not directly administered by the royal family. Instead, an official was elected every ten years to serve as its acting mayor, and the town paid a hefty sum in taxes to the Kingdom each year. As long as they paid their taxes and obeyed the Kingdom's laws, anyone could trade and do business in Goldshire.

These were the first things Donald had learned after deciding to establish himself in this world and gaining a measure of influence. Having come from an information-saturated world like Earth, he understood that knowledge was wealth and information was money. That was why he had chosen the mage profession, the wisest and most learned of them all, as his primary class.

The Book of Truth offered many kinds of items that could enhance his abilities. He could have spent the same amount to improve his constitution or strength instead. Becoming a valiant knight would have been a fine choice too.

But while knights were powerful in this world, they were not Invincible. In the eyes of the people here, spellcasters were probably the strongest profession below the gods. That was not universally true, of course. There were also talented Warrior Professionals whose strength far surpassed that of others at the same level.

Mages were synonymous with mystery and power, the archetypal spellcasters. From the outset, they inspired others with a sense of nobility and an intimidating air of distance. That suited his noble status perfectly. If he had chosen to become a knight, then even if he had reached the level of a high-ranking knight, equivalent to a level-five Professional, he probably would not have had even a tenth of the reputation and influence he enjoyed now. His enemies could easily have joined forces against him.

From the very beginning, Donald had relied on both his power as a mage and the influence of the North Shire's only Mage Association. That was how he and the modest foundation he had built managed to remain untroubled for so long.

As the carriage traveled toward Giant Stone City, it passed a village in Baron of Red Maple's territory. Donald noticed rows of lush green vines laden with purple grapes in the vineyards on either side of the village, and his interest was piqued.

Baron of Red Maple's wine was famous throughout North Shire. The baron had his own private manor devoted to winemaking, where he produced fine wine. It was not the very best, but some of it was sold across the Kingdom each year to the nobility, bringing in at least a thousand Gold Sol in profit. This industry was one of the baron's most valued sources of income.

As a result, two villages in Red Maple Town's territory and the surrounding lands had also taken to growing wine grapes on a large scale. Each year, when the best grapes ripened, the baron's officials bought them directly. The villagers made wine themselves from most of the grapes of ordinary quality. Apart from what they drank themselves, they sold most of this ordinary or even poor-quality wine to taverns and inns in nearby villages and towns.

Compared with fine red wine that cost one Gold Sol a glass, the Barley Wine that cost just a few copper coins for a large mug was far more popular with travelers and Adventurers. Ordinary grape wine, which cost a Silver Moon for two or three glasses, was less appealing. Only wealthy merchants and mid-ranking officials generally had enough spare money to buy it with their meals. True nobles would serve their guests nothing less than quality wine of at least middling grade, or they would lose face.

Donald had the driver pull over and wait by the road. He got out and went to speak with several elderly villagers in charge of the vineyards, then found the village chief.

He had no other purpose in mind. He simply wanted to buy some of the wine the villagers had stored from the previous year.

In his previous life, he had also enjoyed making his own wine. It had only been a hobby, but he had once looked into the process in detail. Making a few barrels of red wine using the simplest method would be easy enough.

With Gold Sol in hand, Donald soon convinced the village chief to sell him all five barrels of wine that he had planned to sell to merchants and taverns.

Once he had bought the wine, Donald had several villagers help secure it on the roof of the carriage. He then decided not to continue on and told the driver, "We're not going to Giant Stone City. Take me back to the manor."

After leaving the village behind, Donald, eager to test his idea, put the wine barrels into his Space Mark. The driver, who was already used to such things, continued on to the manor alone, while Donald ducked into an unoccupied patch of woods by the road and teleported back to his room at the manor.

"You're back, young master!"

The steward, Code, was a little puzzled that his young master had returned so suddenly after setting out for Giant Stone City, but he said nothing.

Donald instructed him, "Code, go and fetch a few wine glasses from the house. I need them!"

Code went to fetch the glasses, and Donald took a barrel of wine, about two feet tall, out of his Space Mark.

A short while later, the steward returned. Donald opened the barrel and poured a glass for himself and one for Code.

The villagers' homemade red wine had been stored for a year, but it still tasted rather sour and astringent. Compared with the fragrant, clear wine of his previous life, the crude methods they used to filter it had left quite a lot of sediment, which detracted from its flavor.

"This wine is terrible. After getting used to the wine you buy, Uncle Code, this stuff is nearly undrinkable!"

Donald frowned as he swallowed the wine.

Code had taken a drink too. "This homemade country wine can't compare to the fine wine from Red Maple Territory, which costs fifteen Silver Moons a bottle. If you want to study winemaking, young master, you'd be better off planting some excellent grape varieties at the manor and carefully experimenting once they ripen. That's how you'll make good wine."

But Donald had other plans. He shook his head and took out two small crystal bottles, then poured the blue-glowing liquid from them into their respective glasses.