Book 4: Chapter 10
“Thirty-thousand gold coins?!”
See? I wasn’t joking. Even a Valkyrie who has no concept of money and gold is shocked by the sum. Nier looked at me with astonishment. I’m honestly a little proud since that’s the first time I’ve managed to shock Nier like that…… Okay, it’s nothing to be proud of, nor is it something good.
“Yes, thirty-thousand gold coins. If he can’t pay it off in a month, the orphanage will probably be torn down.” I snuck a glance at Nier who was walking beside me. Nier wore a very interesting expression. Nier isn’t incapable of showing expressions. It’s just that there’s rarely ever anything that could give her a reaction. Nier only reveals various interesting expressions if it’s related to kids.
I got fifty gold empire coins as pocket money today. Why does this matter? If I gave my wallet to the kids in the slums, they wouldn’t suffer from the cold for the entire winter. They would even have enough to eat the things they usually can’t. I could buy any single thing at the market with fifty gold coins, and offer quite the challenge at an auction. My wallet is refilled every day. If I were to spend all fifty in one day, it would be refilled with fifty gold coins the next day. However, if I didn’t spend any on a particular day, it wouldn’t be topped-up.
Mom doesn’t care how I spend the money. These fifty gold coins are honestly just spare change for her. I could use these fifty gold coins to help the kids in the slums. However, if I want to help the orphanage, I’ll have to save my pocket money every day. And six-hundred days later, in other words, in fifty months, I’ll have thirty-thousand gold coins. That’s fifty months with humanity by the way. Otherwise, I need a hundred months. A hundred months is… about eight years. Yeah. We won the anti-Japanese by then.
The children probably wouldn’t need these funds anymore either, and who knows what this floor would be covered in.
There’s no way that will work.
The reason I want to help this orphanage isn’t because I’m a nice guy. I only have one reason. This orphanage is being threatened by the church. The block of land is owned by the church. Since it’s related to the church, it should be connected in some way. If I start investigating from here, I might discover something.
But that’s just “if”, because I need to be able to get thirty-thousand gold coins first. I don’t think donations will work. After dinner comes the reckoning. If I use the money donated by others to help the orphanage, I won’t be able to turn down requests to do them favours afterwards. Castell also warned me that I needed to maintain neutrality between the two factions if I didn’t want to get dragged into the political battle. If I start a charity, I’ll become the one the two factions try to win over, and end up getting dragged into the whole affair.