It was rather funny that Claude hadn't received a single salary even though he had been the supervisor of Normanley Wood for more than two months.
When Maria returned to the royal capital, in order to help Claude stay in the wood, she not only wrote a letter to Morssen, but also left him a ten-crown banknote.
It was a banknote issued by the town's national bank, which meant that there was an account with ten crowns in it. The banknote could be used to withdraw ten crowns in one go. He could also withdraw small amounts of money multiple times. All he had to do was exchange the banknote for the money in the account.
Maria left the banknote to Morssen so that Claude's monthly salary as the supervisor of the wood would come from the banknote.
As Claude's father, the banknote showed how much Maria valued Claude. That way, he wouldn't stop Claude from becoming the foreman of the wood.
Ten crowns was a huge sum of money to the commoners of Whitestag, but it was nothing more than a pittance to Maria.
She was more than willing to use that bit of money to help Claude leave his home to train in meditation, magic, and herbalism at the same time.
That was especially so after Claude gave her five of his rarely-seen foundational spell formation blueprints. She felt even more indebted to him. That was why she went to the town hall to hire Claude as the foreman of the wood before she left and left a note to force Morssen to agree to it.
If Morssen were to reject the job, it would mean that he had offended Maria.
That was also the reason why Claude became the supervisor of Normanley Wood before the age of eighteen. Many people in town were envious of Claude's luck to be able to gain Maria's favor and get a job with a salary comparable to Morssen's father's even before he came of age.
However, Claude had plenty of money at the time and never thought about asking for a salary from his father.
However, he didn't think that conducting alchemical experiments would cost so much money. Putting aside the money he spent on decorating the study, he spent almost all the money he had on the raw materials and ingredients for the basic potions. He didn't even have a single thale left, which made him feel like a pauper.
There were more than 40 Crystal Potion Tubes and more than 20 Perfect Grade Basic Health Potions.
He also put the dagger and crossbow he seized into the alchemy rune to refine them. However, he still did not know how to enchant them, and it was not mentioned in Landes' diary either. So, he only increased the strength of the dagger and crossbow and changed their original appearance. That was it.
He had also learned how to refine metal objects in the alchemy array.
If he wanted to continue with his alchemical experiments, he would first have to solve the problem of funds.
He still had nine shaliuns on hand, but he felt that he would be at a disadvantage if he were to exchange them for them at Hurian's shop.
After all, the underground magic market used shaliuns as the standard currency for transactions. He didn't know if he would go there to purchase battle spells or magical materials in the future, so it would be best if he kept the nine shaliuns he had.
Landes had also mentioned in his diary how to create a shaliun coin in an alchemy rune circle.
He mentioned that when he became a two-ring rune magus, he spent some time in the magic tower making shaliuns.
He could only make seven shaliuns a day at most and was even rewarded by the owner of the magic tower, Loenk, a seven-ring archmagus.
As other magi could only make five shaliuns a day, Landes received his first shaliun as a reward.
Claude was only a one-ring rune magus and couldn't make shaliuns in the alchemy array yet.
Making a shaliun wasn't easy either. It required the help of four other magic materials.
One of them, lapis powder, was already extinct on Freia. It could only be found on Higros Island, where the evil magi resided.
That was why his dream of making a fortune by melting two or three crowns into a shaliun wasn't going to come true.
On his way home, he suddenly thought about his salary. Three thales a month. That meant six thales in two months. That would be enough for him to buy the cheapest materials for his alchemical experiments.
For example, he had once thought of trying to make a gun barrel and other accessories in the array to see if he could make a flintlock. In any case, metal ores were very cheap, and he might be able to invent a revolver if he experimented a bit more.
Morssen looked at him with a surprised expression. "You're out of money?
I remember you got five thales from selling that niros crocodile, right? How did you spend all that money? "
Claude didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Father, that was a year ago. I've already spent all the money I got.
Now that I'm learning herbalism, I have to experiment with a lot of things myself. Just buying the ingredients and equipment costs me a lot of money. "
Five thales aside, if Morssen found out that Claude had spent 15 crowns in the past year, he might have a heart attack or fly into a rage.
Money was hard to earn, but it wasn't easy to spend. That was the truth no matter the world.
Claude had once asked Borkal to sell a shaliun to him and it sold for 15 crowns.
Back then, he hadn't met Maria yet and didn't know that a shaliun could be exchanged for 20 crowns in the underground magic market.
Back then, Claude thought that the 15 crowns would be enough for him to spend for a few years, so he spent lavishly. He thought that it wouldn't cost much to buy his siblings some good food, a few new clothes, a few good meals with his friends, and a few new books. He didn't go looking for women or gambling, so he couldn't mistreat himself now that he had the money.
In fact, it wasn't much at all. He only spent around two crowns a year.
But he didn't expect that after getting to know Maria, he would learn about Hurian's underground store and find all the ingredients needed to set up an alchemy array there.
As a result, he couldn't close his wallet anymore and his savings flowed out like water.
The alchemy formation still cost two more crowns than the usual shaliuns.
But now that he had the array, he had to decorate his room and buy furniture. He also had to buy ingredients and ingredients for his alchemy experiments. That alone cost him around ten crowns.
Other things aside, the crystal ore itself was quite expensive. Claude spent more than 20 thales to buy it, but he only managed to make 40 or so crystal potion tubes.
Morssen didn't say anything else. He tapped his pipe on the iron ashtray on the table and stood up. "Come with me."
Claude followed his father to the study on the second floor. Mr. Morssen sat down behind the desk and took out a bunch of keys from his pocket. He found a small brass key and opened the drawer of the desk. He took out a small green book with a golden National Bank emblem on the cover and placed it on the desk.
"This is the ten-crown account book Maria gave you. She asked me to give you your salary every month, but you've already grown up.
You'll be an adult after the new year, so I'm giving you this account book. You can draw your own salary from it in the future.
I'm very busy and often forget to pay you, so it's best if you take care of it yourself.
Also, I hope you have some self-control and don't draw on money that doesn't belong to you. Do you understand? "
Claude nodded. He wondered if he should go to the bank to withdraw a bit more. That way, he could buy more ingredients for his experiments.
He sighed and pushed the green Nationalbank account book towards Claude.
Claude took a step forward and took it. "Thank you, Father."
"Claude, you're a smart child. You're getting more sensible as you grow older.
Perhaps House Ferd will be counting on you in the future. You have to take care of your siblings and don't let your mother get angry, "Morssen said with a forced smile.
Something didn't feel right. Claude felt that the atmosphere in the house was a little strange, especially when his father said something like that. It was rather odd.
"Father, are you alright?" Claude asked as he looked at Morssen.
Morssen waved his hand and picked up his pipe. "I'm fine. You can go out first. I still have something to take care of here."
Claude went downstairs and saw that Angelina had already returned from school. She was helping her mother wash the vegetables.
Claude went over to her and asked if something had happened at home.
She whispered to Claude that there was another banquet at home two nights ago.
However, the atmosphere wasn't that great. The guests got into a heated argument and even got into a fight. In the end, the banquet ended on a sour note.
Her father and a few of his friends stayed in the study until midnight, discussing something.
As she stayed in her room the entire time, she only heard the sounds of fighting and didn't know what happened.
However, the atmosphere in the house was rather tense. Her father didn't go to the town hall and her mother wasn't in a good mood either.
Her younger brother, Borke, had been asking for something delicious to eat and got beaten up by her mother. Her father and mother even got into a fight and were still in a cold war with each other.
Arbeit, on the other hand, was rather tactful. He didn't want to be a punching bag for his parents and didn't go home at all. Nobody knew where he went.
So the two of them got into a fight. No wonder the atmosphere in the house was so weird.
Claude didn't have much to do with his parents' conflict. They would make up in a few days, so he didn't have to worry about it.
It was already five in the evening and the national bank was already closed. It seemed that he would only be able to withdraw money for the materials the next day.
Claude's mind returned to his alchemical experiments.
After a decent dinner, Claude went to the attic to pack his clothes and played with his brother and the snowhound for quite some time. He stroked his sister's hair and bade farewell to his parents before driving the carriage back to the wood.
Next up was some metal forging and alchemical experiments. After withdrawing money from the bank the next day, he would go to Big Hammer's smithy in the south of town to buy some metal ores. It wouldn't cost much to buy a few, but he would still have to buy some magic materials for the forging of the metal. He was pretty much out of whiteroot powder, so he would have to buy a box of it.
As he drove the carriage, he calculated how many materials he would have to buy. Suddenly, he remembered that if he wanted to make a gun barrel, he could go to Eriksson and borrow his short musket.
After all, the effective range of his alchemical formation was only one meter and the barrel of his gun was 1.2 meters long. It wouldn't be easy to make a barrel of the same length.
If he tried to make a short musket barrel first, he would save a lot of materials. Or he could make a flintlock to confirm its effectiveness before changing it to a flintlock.
That's a good idea. Let's do that.