518
Monday, the Tarot Club.
Having returned to Backlund, Klein soon found himself overwhelmed by the expenses required to play a wealthy man.
According to the list his butler provided, besides a house with an annual rent of several hundred pounds, maintaining his wealthy persona required a valet, two upper housemaids responsible for the bedrooms, two lower housemaids responsible for the drawing room and living room, two footmen to receive guests, a stillroom maid, a kitchen maid, two laundry maids, and two menservants for heavy work.
Besides these, he needed a cook, two gardeners, and two coachmen-or one coachman and an assistant. If necessary, he could add an attendant, an odd-job boy, a nurse, and an assistant cook.
Then there were the carriages. He would eventually need two: an enclosed four-wheeled carriage costing around 300 pounds, and a two-wheeled one costing roughly 100 pounds...
On top of that came a wine cellar, an estate, hunting grounds, occasional balls, and even horses and the requisite pets, all befitting his status. The enormous assortment of expenses made Klein's scalp prickle again and again, even with more than 3,500 pounds in hand.
He had already decided to hire Mr. Walter as his butler, and the various expenses were now all but unavoidable.
A little over 3,000 pounds would hardly sustain Dwayne Dantès's wealthy persona, not to mention the 10,000 gold pounds he owed Miss Messenger.
As a result, he was even looking forward to the Tarot Club gathering, both for a brief escape from reality and to quickly sell the Mystical Item he had obtained from Seniol, the Lucky Balance, along with other objects that were no longer much help, to supplement his household funds.
If only I could collect Admiral of Blood's 42,000-pound bounty... Klein sighed. Unfortunately, what Gehrman Sparrow had done