The very next day after breaking into my tenth jeweller, my daily routine changed up a bit again. For once, I had one on one lessons with either Mr Schlaumeier or a substitute tutor for very specific topics. But I wasn’t the only one learning stuff. The children at the orphanage did so too and even those in the eastern slums if they wanted.
I specifically hired a few sons and daughters of low noble families or similar to teach them how to read and write. In return, they would not only get a bit of pocket money, but we would also offer each and every one of them a post in the east once they spent five years teaching. Especially quite a few poor students of the academy used that offer, mostly because Mary managed to coax the headmaster into giving these students quite a few benefits if they could keep up with their own studies while teaching my orphans.
And so, Mr Schlaumeier and I sat at his desk to discuss a few proposals made to the king. Sometimes, I even had the feeling he wasn’t even trying to teach me anything, but rather wanted to hear my opinion.
“There was the proposal to increase the grain tax by about eight per cent. What is your opinion?” He asked and looked into my eyes deeply. His piercing gaze always tried to find out what was hidden behind my own eyes, but he never caught onto me thus far. And I was sure he wouldn’t do so after that day either.
“The grain tax is a horrible concept in itself. Farmers usually produce grain and here, mostly because they need to feed them and a hundred thousand more. But they are also on the bottom of the social ladder, especially because their profit margins are so thin. Nobody has ever gotten wealthy by doing manual labour on the field, but it is still a very important job. In my opinion, the burden they carry is way too much already. We have to find more fair ways to tax the citizens. We cannot expect the poor to pay even more than they already do.” I said and smiled bitterly. While I was indeed advocating for an abolishment of the grain tax, it was for vastly different reasons than I presented. I had to feed hundreds and hundreds of hungry mouths daily, which started to annoy me quite a bit.
We still had enough money by simply washing everything we earned through auctioning off all the valuables, but even the twelfth restaurant we acquired wasn’t capable of even getting close to the revenue we needed to run the orphanage. Thankfully, there had been quite a few donations, which lessened the burden on our criminal underworld considerably in the past few days. Thus, the White family finally had some money to spare, which was directly invested in renovating the garden a bit for ‘security concerns’.
Still, I could cut my own costs even further if I could cut the grain tax completely, but I already knew this was a pipe dream. Even if Mr Schlaumeier relayed my opinions to the king, he wouldn’t be insane enough to abolish the tax.
“Interesting.” That was all Mr Schlaumeier had to say, but this was already not my main concern anymore. We were way past our usual ending time, and I really wanted to get to the orphanage. We just finished settling in four hundred kids there, which was a miracle in itself. I mostly used my own funds for this, but we did manage to score a few contracts with a few churches, including the church of life who promised to run a part of the orphanage. It was already the largest orphanage in the kingdom, but it was still growing in size because of all the demand from all the slums. While we had trouble keeping up with the sheer number of orphans, we did manage to increase our capacity by buying the surrounding offices and warehouses for quite the hefty sum.
It would take time, but I was sure that one day, I would make a home for every orphan there was in the capital city and the surroundings. And an hour or so after my tutoring, I was earning the fruits of all that labour and money.
Dressed in simple clothing, I ate stew with some of the orphans who waited for me to eat together. For them, I was just a normal child like they were. Sure, they knew I was the saint and they also knew I was of noble blood but then, these things seemed more distant than ever.
At least my trips outside the city walls came to a halt as Mary managed to secure identification cards for everyone living in the eastern slum. As new houses were built, shops opened outside, and jobs were created, from smiths to artisans, the king couldn’t find any reason to deny their citizenship any longer. Thus, those kids who still wanted to fool around with their old friends, could visit them every day and even grab a free meal, incentivizing hundreds of kids to visit the orphanage every day.
For everyone, it felt as if things finally turned for the better and they weren’t the only ones to reap the benefits. No more were the headlines of ‘Saint Lucy – A hoax or real?’ as the reporters mostly focused on their old tasks. Even then, there were a few of them always around me whenever I was in public, but they didn´t dare to interrupt in my happy time after I promised them to answer all their questions once a week. On that day, the newspapers discussed me again, but otherwise, it was strangely quiet around me.
At least on the surface, everything was improving without an end in sight, but that was honestly just if one ignored the stuff happening at night. In the darkness, the players played their cards, one after another. And this all accumulated exactly two months after I arrived in this city.
For the first time, all the leaders of the three, no, four major criminal gangs were inside a single room, discussing the prospect of a potential war amongst themselves at the invitation of ‘The Crown’.
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