Booming Business

News of the orcs had come from the border, and most civilians along the Kingdom of Selt's frontier had grown tense, afraid that the savage orc horde would break through the defenses and destroy their homes.

　　Donald, who had heard the same news, felt no worry at all. Instead, he was faintly excited. Quite a few ambitious noble youths and commoner Adventurers shared his feelings.

　　The knight examination and inheriting his title had once been Donald's foremost concerns. But after becoming an Apprentice Mage, he no longer cared about next year's knight examination.

　　According to royal law, anyone seeking the title of knight had to reach the Black Iron high stage to pass the examination. Of course, apart from knighthood, which had always been considered a noble profession, Donald could pass the examination and earn the title of knight by reaching the Black Iron high-stage standard in any other combat profession.

　　There were also assessments of noble etiquette, literature, the arts, and other accomplishments. But those were meant for ordinary commoners and minor nobles. The children of great nobles had their own ways of passing, even if they failed to meet the standards. That was why the examinations for lower-ranking knights in human kingdoms had become increasingly lax.

　　If a down-at-heel noble without a fief like Donald failed to earn the title of knight, then according to the rules, he would lose his right to inherit his family's hereditary knighthood and forfeit his noble status.

　　But now he was already a full-fledged Black Iron Mage. Under the law of noble inheritance, if an heir entered any spellcasting profession, no one could strip him of his rightful inheritance unless he committed the grave crimes of treason or blasphemy.

　　So Donald no longer worried about his title at all. No one would dare strip him of his noble status even if he skipped the knight examination. His old anxieties had vanished, and the burden of his obligations had lifted with them. Now, not only had Donald secured his noble status, he had also gained two manors. He set his sights on even greater ambitions.

　　Donald wanted more than to preserve his noble status. He wanted greater wealth, a title, and a territory of his own. If he could distinguish himself in the war, he could achieve all of them.

　　For Donald, who was eager to build up his strength, the orc invasion was undoubtedly a perfect opportunity to earn merit.

　　"Manors alone can only bring him income. A true fief, though, will let him raise his own army and claim a foothold in this world."

　　"A noble's private territory is like a little kingdom of his own. Once I have one, I can develop it however I please."

　　Donald knew that his personal strength alone would not be enough to protect his increasingly prosperous holdings. Only a powerful army could intimidate the Merlin Family's enemies and make them abandon any thoughts of attacking the family.

　　This small-scale war was the perfect chance for Donald to reclaim his family's fief.

　　But the news was still unconfirmed, and the Kingdom had not issued a summons calling on nobles and commoner warriors from the various regions to join the fighting. Donald had no way to simply barge into a border military camp.

　　Nobles had a strong sense of territorial rights. Unless they were merely passing through, nobles from elsewhere who entered a local lord's territory and planned to stay for a while would formally notify their host and state their purpose. Otherwise, they could easily be suspected of harboring ill intentions. Even if no other action were taken, the matter could be reported to the Noble Council Administration Office and might end up in court before the royal tribunal.

　　And that was only an ordinary noble's territory. Donald's destination was a heavily guarded royal border garrison. If he entered without permission, he could easily be treated as an enemy spy and punished accordingly.

　　Though Donald was eager to prove himself, he still held his excitement in check for the time being and continued with his daily life.

　　Ever since his Moonlight Wine series had found its way into the hands of Mages, word of it had spread through the mouths of nobles who were on good terms with them. Before long, Moonlight Wine had stirred up a quiet buzz in Giant Stone City and across the entire North Shire.

　　After tasting its flavor and experiencing its unusual effects at the Mages' homes, many nobles wanted to buy some. But as the Mages had said, this miraculous wine was currently reserved exclusively for Mages. It had also been created by a Mage, and had not reached the hands of any merchant on the market.

　　Out of courtesy and habit, the Mages did not reveal Donald's identity. To them, betraying one of their own was unforgivable, even if it meant revealing only a little personal information. Even when two Mages had irreconcilable grudges, they settled things according to the rules of their profession and rarely dragged anyone else into it.

　　And the Mages valued the wine's effects far more than the pleasure of savoring it. They naturally would not sell their Moonlight Wine for money, especially when it was practically an alchemical potion with no side effects.

　　This only made the nobles who had tasted Moonlight Wine even more restless. The fine wines they had once savored now seemed hard to swallow, and they grew increasingly eager to obtain this peerless drink.

　　The common folk in this world had few material comforts. Even most lower-ranking nobles had little more than the same handful of foods and goods to choose from, barely reaching the standard of a modest household in Donald's previous world. Only the truly great nobles could enjoy a wide variety of cuisines and entertainments.

　　But to Donald, who had once lived in a world with a rich entertainment industry and a rapidly developing, vibrant society, their amusements seemed especially dull and boring.

　　The old Donald had been so poor and down on his luck that he could barely afford even the cheapest wine, let alone fresh fruit and all kinds of food. Now that he had the means and the strength, there was no reason to keep living so austerely. He needed to cultivate some of the good habits befitting a noble.

　　He had already taught the cook and maids Code had hired some recipes from his previous life that they could make with the ingredients available. Even a homebody knew how to enjoy himself; in his previous life, Donald had been a regular visitor to food websites.

　　His breakfast now consisted of steak, sausages, and fried eggs, accompanied by fresh milk, fruit juice, and other simple yet hearty foods. Dinner was usually pan-fried meat, bread with fresh vegetables, or thick soup. The cook had also learned to make pizza and pies, using ingredients from this world, of course. At afternoon tea, the maids carefully prepared rich milk tea and delicate black tea, along with simple, sweet pastries they had made themselves.

　　This world had nothing like the many varieties of tea drinks in his previous life. The beverage most commonly enjoyed by nobles was made from fresh milk and a fragrant stimulant the Mages had discovered, called Emerald Leaf. Since it tasted much like the milk tea of his previous life, Donald simply called it milk tea.

　　As for black tea, Donald had specifically sought out an herb called Red Licorice in a reference on plant materials used in alchemy. Its flavor was, of course, different from the black tea he remembered. Alchemists had originally used it as an auxiliary ingredient in restorative potions. After experimenting with it, Donald discovered that the fragrant, slightly sweet leaves made a delicious brew. It also warmed the stomach, strengthened the spleen, and aided digestion, bringing many benefits to the body. It had fewer side effects than the tea leaves of his previous life, making it ideal for everyday drinking.

　　And so, the noble drink that would later sweep across the entire continent—black tea—was invented in the little kitchen of Donald Manor.

　　Though the available resources sometimes fell short of what he needed, Donald used the knowledge he had brought from his previous life to cleverly raise his standard of living to the best currently possible. His lifestyle was already better than that of ninety percent of the nobles in the Giant Stone City area. Perhaps only the local lord, the Viscount, could regularly afford goods from other regions and rival him in variety and quality.

　　And when it came to the range of dishes, even the Viscount's kitchen probably could not hold a candle to Donald Manor's little kitchen.

　　After all, the history of this world's living beings stretched back tens of thousands of years, and human kingdoms had been formally established for several thousand. But the influence of true gods and powerful Professionals had greatly suppressed human intelligence and creativity in certain areas, stunting their development. As a result, society and productive technology remained in a transitional stage between slavery and feudalism.

　　The common folk at the bottom had no access to any systematic education. Generation after generation had lived the same way, so there was no need to mention developing new and convenient tools or devices.

　　Still, every world had its own circumstances. Though Donald had, for the time being, adapted to this one, he had no desire to change it. Besides, no single person could alter such conditions. No matter how capable an individual was, in the tide of history they could often raise no more than a few waves. Some powerful beings had even tried to change the world, only to be stopped before they could stir up so much as a ripple.

　　He had always been extremely discreet about the gods. The waters of this world ran too deep. Not to mention the gods high above, even the legendary powerful beings and the forces behind the various races filled Donald with dread. After all, he was an undocumented traveler from another world, an atheist raised on socialist education. If someone like him were exposed, he would probably be sent to the stake and roasted alive!

　　Donald had no such mad ambition. He only wanted to protect himself in this world as it was. If a little mortal like him revealed himself, the gods in the starry sky would not even need to lift a finger. They could easily crush him by sending over some high-ranking follower.