Chapter 38: At Your Discretion

"I’m not from that neighborhood anymore, you know? You’re not going to tell me to go back, are you?" Bodo asked.

"No, I want to use your connections to gather underworld information and rumors."

"Information and rumors from that neighborhood aren’t exactly reliable, you know?"

Well, yeah. But wasn’t there a gem buried in there somewhere? The reason I wanted to groom Bodo as an informant was that I knew how powerful information could be. Starting from the bottom, but who knew if this expertise would become a valuable asset down the road?

It’d be nice if it paid off, but even if it didn’t, there’d be something to learn.

"Sifting through it is your job. So? Can you do it?"

"It’s not that I can’t, but it’s super annoying, you know? Super! Super annoying."

"Oh my. Even if you pull that face, it’s useless, kid. Your opinion doesn’t matter. I’m a manager who knows how to put the right people in the right places, but the most important thing is that I’m your master."

"Wow, that’s really too much. Then why’d you even ask?"

Bodo balked.

When I stared at him, he sighed deeply and said:

"Haa. Fine, if you’re going to make me do it, at least take away bath water duty."

"Okay, I’ll hand that back to Sabine."

"..."

Bodo’s expression seemed to contain every curse in the world. Time to stop teasing and dangle the carrot—that was a manager’s leadership strategy.

"But your salary will go up significantly."

"How much? Not just a few measly copper coins, right?"

"Three hundred copper coins. And unlimited necessary expenses."

"Unlimited? So if I say I need 10 silver coins, you’ll hand it over?"

"At your discretion. I need to give you that much authority for you to work with real enthusiasm."

Bodo seemed deeply torn, darting his eyes around and running calculations in his head. This was the kid who, when he’d found out the meeting place, had tried to sell me information about the organization later for 100 copper coins after only telling me the location. But he’d had principles—a perfect fit for cunning (good).

That was why I was entrusting Bodo with broad authority from the start, on faith.

"Okay. If you trust me, I’ll do my best."

"Of course I trust you. But Bodo? From now on, this is your home and where you always come back to. Never forget that."

"Wow, you sounded like an old man just now. I got the same feeling when we first met too."

Well, I was an old man on the inside. If I’d married in my mid-twenties, I’d have a kid his age. In fact, not just Bodo, but Sabine (12) and Daniel (13) were also the age my children would’ve been. Of course, my current self was the young age of 15, but I’d lived far longer as an old man, so I still sometimes did a double take in the mirror.

Bodo seemed genuinely happy that I trusted him completely. Perhaps because he’d been looked down on as a stray, he had a deep craving for recognition.

"But it’s too broad to just gather stuff at random, you know? You’re not telling me to track down even drunkards’ ramblings, right? Even hiring street friends would be tough."

"Prostitution guilds, slum organizations, nobles, bureaucrats. Let’s start with those for now."

"That’s still a lot, but if I just filter for the important stuff, well, it’ll work out somehow. But I can’t dig deep into slum organizations. I don’t want to die."

"Never do anything dangerous. Just gather information while putting your safety first."

Of course, I had absolutely no intention of sending Bodo into danger. So I set safety over forced intelligence-gathering as the standing policy. And I also approved Bodo’s plan to personally recruit street friends to serve as extra eyes and ears.

If Bodo produced results, I was thinking of formally hiring those street friends too.

"Gathering information is fine, but how do I record it? I can’t write."

"...I momentarily forgot about medieval illiteracy rates."

"What are you talking about?"

Should I ask Göring? Maybe he knew someone skilled at teaching writing. Not just Bodo, but all of my retainers were illiterate. I’d received a good education, so I knew not just German but Latin too.

No, when I’d first examined our family’s financial situation, that had likely been system compensation. I could teach them myself, but that was too tedious and impractical.

"Just bring it to me verbally for now. I’ll record only the essential parts."

"Okay. My memory’s pretty sharp, at least."

After finishing Bodo’s new assignment, I called Oscar and Ted in. I’d hired them as soldiers, but in truth I didn’t know much about these two in detail. Since I’d already started with Bodo, I needed to sit Oscar and Ted down for an interview and hear their stories—if not a model of labor-management harmony, at least proper communication.

"My mother died early, and my father sells eggs at the Beien Boulevard shopping district. Since my older brother and his wife will inherit the family business, I had to strike out on my own. So I joined the inspector unit the Finance Department was recruiting, and now I’m serving as a soldier under Sir Wolfgang."

Oscar Greifs had a calm, cautious personality. Yet he didn’t hesitate to put his life on the line to carry out my orders. That was why he was the soldier I trusted most.

"Then I should buy eggs from there from now on."

"Sabine already buys from our family’s stall."

"She does? How’d she find out?"

"I introduced them when I went shopping with her."

"You didn’t introduce her to your family as your future wife, did you?"

"...I didn’t do that."

They were handling everything on their own without me having to oversee every detail. The more I saw of Sabine, the more she was a treasure. Yeah, the head handmaid position in our family seemed tailor-made for Sabine. At first, following Hans’s wish, I’d considered finding a good match and marrying Sabine off, but did someone who managed household affairs as capably as Sabine really need to be sent off to another family? I thought it’d be a tremendous loss.

"I have two older brothers. My eldest brother works at the Finance Department, and my second brother is serving in the duchy army. I caused a big incident and couldn’t find work anywhere, so I begged my eldest brother and barely squeezed into the inspector unit directly under the Finance Department inspector."

"What kind of incident?"

Scratching his head, Ted explained that he’d originally planned to apprentice under a blacksmith, but on the day the blacksmith’s son got married, he’d gotten drunk and danced so wildly that he accidentally toppled a huge cake onto the bride and groom, turning the whole affair into a disaster, and gotten sacked by the blacksmith for it.

He was honest (good) but showed signs of being a liability, so I flagged Ted as someone requiring special attention.

"I first met Oscar during recruit training. At first, I wrote him off as some wimpy bookworm, but he had tenacious grit, so surprisingly our teamwork was solid during training, and later we hit it off. Well, now we’re rivals over Sabine, though. Hahaha."

Ted Meyer had a cheerful personality. He was somewhat rash but never shied away from dirty work. He tended to slack off a bit during guard duty, but that was within acceptable limits. Both the same age (16) and fellow recruits, but objectively speaking, Oscar had received higher marks. Balancing the two was my job.

Next I called Sabine in.

"Fräulein Sabine. As the popular lady monopolizing every man’s attention, who will you choose?"

"Out of nowhere? I’m only 12, you know. Shouldn’t I be at least 15 to get married?"

"True, but I’m trying to sort out the romantic situation here. I think it’d be better for both you and me to match you with one of the retainers rather than marrying you off to another family. Pick one—Daniel? Ted? Oscar?"

"I think the master’s mistress position would suit me just fine?"

Cough, cough! I spat out the tea I was drinking.

I didn’t just mishear that, did I? What a dangerous thing to say.

"Oh my, are you okay?"

"I’m fine. Rather than being my mistress, it’s far wiser to pick a solid husband and build a happy family life. And I have no need for a mistress."

"That’s too bad. Then I’ll choose Daniel."

"Yeah? Good. Daniel’s persistence paid off."

"Watching Daniel fuss over me was fun."

...Honestly. Even at 12, a girl was a girl. Giggling with a sly expression—that might be Sabine’s true nature. It looked like Daniel’s fate was to live happily under Sabine’s thumb. Now that I knew Sabine’s wishes, I lastly called Hans and Daniel in.

"Hans, are you still thinking of marrying Sabine off to a good family?"

"Ah, yes. Do you have a good match in mind?"

"Rather than marrying Sabine off, I’d like to make her our family’s head handmaid. What do you think? It’s better for family to stay together."

"Well sure, but what about Sabine’s marriage?"

"I’m thinking of matching her with Daniel right here."

Daniel, who’d been silent, went wide-eyed. Hans, who’d frozen on the spot, turned his neck with a creak to glare at Daniel. Daniel, who’d been brimming with joy, shrank like a frog before a snake. Daniel carefully said:

"I’ll definitely make Nell happy, brother-in-law."

"Who’s your brother-in-law?! I oppose this marriage!"

"Hans, Sabine chose Daniel. I’m trying to match them while respecting her wishes as much as possible, but can you just oppose it like that?"

"Sabine... chose Daniel?"

Hans looked at Daniel with an expression of utter disbelief. Daniel already seemed ready to dance with joy, but I firmly established that it was an engagement, not marriage, until Sabine turned 15.

Even in an era with a low marriage age, marrying at 15 was standard. Childbirth at a young age was extremely dangerous. Even this era had that much common sense. So I officially engaged Sabine and Daniel.

I drove Ted and Oscar to despair, but I managed to appease them by promising to arrange good matches if I found any. Hans still didn’t care for Daniel but reluctantly accepted it since Sabine had chosen him.

Having sorted out the household’s romantic entanglements like this, I felt a weight lift from my shoulders.