WMFW 08 - Visiting Valenford

Despite increasing his total Mana by 40% the previous day, the amount of Mana Raphael had was still very low.

Having been considered a complete waste in terms of magical potential, this only highlighted how bad Raphael's situation was.

To consider that he had a minimally acceptable talent, he would still need to increase his Mana by 10 to 20 times the initial amount he had when he arrived in this world, so he still had a long way to go to become a real magician.

But thinking about the possibility of being able to use real magic made Raphael's heart race.

He didn't care about battling other wizards, demonstrating dominance in the realm through force, or acting like the protagonist of a cultivation novel he read in the other world, here he just wanted to fulfill the other world's dream of being able to use magic freely.

Who hasn't read Harry Potter and thought how cool it would be to use ‘Wingardium Leviosa’ to pick things up from a distance? Or to ride a flying broomstick and soar through the skies as free as a bird?

So when he discovered that he could learn spells from the books he created and that his Mana would increase according to the number of people who read his stories, the first thing he thought of was recreating something with more advanced and interesting powers, but seeing how expensive it was to learn even the most basic skills from [Hansel and Gretel], Raphael postponed this idea and decided to follow a gradual path.

‘It doesn't make sense for me to try to make very advanced books and not be able to learn the powers in those books, but it also doesn't make sense to make books that don't add anything to me, so I'll have to take that into consideration for my next work...’ Raphael thought.

[Hansel and Gretel] was a story that he had chosen casually from the popular fairy tales he knew, fortunately in this story there was a witch with some nice and useful spells for him to learn, otherwise it would have been a good opportunity wasted.

At the moment William was dealing with the purchase and refurbishment of a small store in the center of Valenford to open a store for his books, so for the time being the only thing Raphael had to do was use the grimoire to copy the book every day.

After copying the daily book and increasing the number of copies of [Hansel and Gretel] to 3 books, Raphael became curious about the store William had chosen and decided to leave the castle for the first time since he came to this world.

To ensure his own safety, he left with two guards who would stay a little away from him, but still close enough to protect him if anything happened.

And unlike what he imagined walking around the city would be like, looking at the city through his own eyes changed Raphael's perception of this world.

When he realized that he had come to a fantasy world, Raphael could only think of the good things, how magic would make people's lives easier, how crops would be more abundant, how people would be healthier, how the sky would be bluer than in his other world.

Unfortunately, the only thing he got right was the color of the sky, because everything else was very disappointing...

Magic didn't make anyone's life easier, since magicians were largely descended from nobles, and why would a noble spend part of his time improving the lives of commoners if it wasn't going to help them at all?

It's not as if there was a magic school called Hogwarts here, which sent out invitations to commoners with magical talent to study for free, and who in the future could use their magical knowledge to improve the lives of other commoners.

Unfortunately, in this world magicians were nobles, or future nobles, who only cared about their own interests.

As for people's health? Worse than the third-world countries of Raphael's past life.

Few people had medical knowledge, and those who did, usually charged fortunes to treat patients, making it common to see people with infected wounds walking down the street, or with slightly deformed limbs from suffering an injury and not recovering properly.

Instead of the lively, happy village that Raphael saw in the Isekai anime, what he was seeing in front of him was the harsh reality of the Middle Ages, people who were hungry, in poverty, and without any source of entertainment.

If it were in Averclyne, the capital city of the Von Kaelen family, there would surely be dozens of troupes of artists performing around the city for a few coins, but in a town as small and poor as Valenford, what group of artists would waste their time here?

So when Raphael arrived at the store where William was organizing the renovation, it wasn't so surprising to see a bunch of children gathered around the old man.

Looking from afar, Raphael saw that despite being busy, William still found time to chat gently with this group of children who wouldn't stop talking to him.

Curious, Raphael moved closer to hear more about what was going on.

“Is it true that this gentleman read you a story about children who found a candy house?” A child dressed a little nicer asked the other in a ‘quiet voice’, trying to be discreet.

The other child, dressed in simpler, worn-out clothes, nodded as quickly as he could while answering with an excited smile on his face. “Yes, yesterday he came to the orphanage with a magic book that the baron wrote and read that story to us!”

Hearing this answer, the first child's eyes began to shine with curiosity and excitement, staring at William with the hope of being able to hear this story.

"So this store will be used to sell the books that the Lord Baron writes? Just like [Hansel and Gretel]?" A child asked worriedly.

William smiled gently and answered patiently. “Yes, we're renovating this store now to open it in the next few days.”

A little hesitantly, the child asked again. “And what would the books be worth?”

William realized the reason for the child's hesitation, but there was nothing he could do, so he answered honestly. “The book of [Hansel and Gretel], written and illustrated by hand by Baron Raphael Von Kaelen himself, will sell for just 12 pieces of silver.”

If that figure had been said in Averclyne, even to commoners, people would surely have been very excited, but as the people who heard it were a group of children, and a group with a lot of orphans, the reception of the price was one of sadness and disappointment.

Who could say that collecting twelve silver coins, even one silver coin, would be a miracle among the children of the orphanage who were struggling with hunger.

Some of the children in the group, despite being stunned by the price, didn't seem as desperate as the children in the orphanage, which made Raphael deduce that they were the daughters of commoners with better living conditions.

Seeing an opportunity arise to fulfill two objectives at once, to test how much Mana he would receive from this group, as well as to start advertising his books in the city, Raphael smiled as he approached William.

William quickly noticed Raphael approaching and bowed to him in respect.

The children were paralyzed for a moment when they saw William bowing. Then they all looked at the same time in the direction he was coming from.

Raphael walked in calm steps, with a straight, confident posture, wearing clothes that looked more expensive than anything they had ever seen. His black hair was slightly messy, but with the impression that it was intentional, the shiny fabric of his blue and silver clothes, the way he walked... it was as if he had stepped straight out of a story about kings and princesses.

One of the younger girls even tugged on her friend's arm and whispered with wide eyes: “Doesn't he look like Hansel?”

And for a moment, the whole hall fell silent.

Although the little girl spoke quietly, as all the children were silent, everyone heard the little girl's question.

For the children who had seen the [Hansel and Gretel] book at the orphanage, that question awakened something in their minds, making them realize that it really was as if they were seeing a young-adult version of Hansel in front of them!

And remembering that Hansel had won a lot of gold coins and jewels at the end of the story, that could explain why he was wearing such expensive and luxurious clothes!

Unfortunately, even after looking around, the children didn't see the beautiful Gretel, but that didn't dampen their excitement, increasing the comments they made amongst themselves even more, even though no one had the courage to speak directly to this ‘Hansel’.

Raphael smiled at the children and arrived at William's side. “Hello William, is this the store where we'll be selling my books?”

“Yes, Young Master, from what I've researched around town, this store is the one that will best meet the requirements you mentioned, and the previous owner was very happy to sell at the price you offered, so in a few days the renovations will be finished and we'll be able to start selling.” William replied respectfully.

Looking at the store, which although not small, wasn't very big either, Raphael was pleased.

Because he didn't have many books, buying a huge store wouldn't be very useful, so he opted for a medium-sized store, where customers could browse through a public copy of each book to decide before buying, just like in the bookshops of his previous world, so that the store would always be busy, even if some people didn't want to buy it, and these people wouldn't fill the store completely, as would happen if the store was smaller.

Looking at the children who stared at him with such varied expressions, Raphael smiled and suggested his idea to William. “William, since these children have come here to congratulate our store, how about we hold another reading session for them?”

Hearing this, William became excited, before replying in disappointment. “I'm sorry, Young Master, I didn't bring a book.”

Smiling, Raphael took a book from his waistband and handed it to William. “Here, I brought one.”

Unlike William who had come alone, as he was with armed guards, Raphael didn't have to worry about his own safety, let alone anything damaging the book, as he could just make a new one later, so he had brought a copy of [Hansel and Gretel] with him just in case.

And that guarantee paid off.

Looking at the beautiful book being handed from Raphael to William, the children's eyes lit up even more, quickly gathering around William and sitting down politely on the floor.

Even some of the adults watching the commotion from a distance also became curious and approached with interest to find out what was going on.

Before long, a small crowd of a few dozen people stood around William, looking at him with curiosity and expectation.

And William didn't disappoint them, beginning a performance as calm and dedicated as the one he had given the day before at the orphanage.

Looking at the large number of people in front of him, Raphael was curious to know how much Mana he would receive after this reading session.