Adele had skipped dinner due to being busy with various tasks.
However, she was used to missing meals, so it wasnât a big issue.
More importantly, she had to think about what was to come.
Adele was now penniless.
Her parents had given her nothing.
The tuition fees had been fully paid, and that included the cost of school meals. So, she wouldnât have any trouble eating three meals a day, as long as she ate at the school.
However, in exchange, she couldnât have any snacks, eat out, or buy anything else, including clothes, underwear, soap, notebooks, pens, or ink.
...It was impossible to get by like this.
What were her father and stepmother thinking?
While pondering this, Adele decided to visit the dorm supervisor the next day and slipped into bed. There was nothing else to do.
As she drifted off to sleep, Adele thought:
This time, I will live as an ordinary person.
Iâm tired of being seen as special and having too much expected of me.
I want to be on equal footing with everyone else, have equal conversations, and maybe even make some friends...
âPlease introduce me to a job!â
âWhat? Right from the start... Well, I did tell you to come if you needed a job, but on the first day...â
âI currently have no money and only two pairs of underwear. I have an exam tomorrow, so if I donât earn some money today, it will be tough until the weekend when I can work again...â
The dorm supervisor pressed his temples and frowned.
â...Have you ever worked before?â
âNo.â
Adele had never even had a part-time job in her previous life.
âFollow me.â
The place Adele was taken to by the dorm supervisor was a bakery.
âAaron, Iâve brought a candidate for a salesperson. What do you think?â
The dorm supervisor explained Adeleâs situation to the bakery owner.
He was a penniless student, wanted to work only on weekends, and had no work experience, among other things, all told honestly.
âHmm, if you recommend her, she should be fine.â
The bakery owner then explained to Adele:
âOur bakery supports peopleâs tables, so we canât take a day off. But if we donât, weâll be worn out. So, Iâve been thinking of baking all the bread in the morning once a week and taking the rest of the day off. Normally, we bake twice a day, in the morning and in the afternoon.
So, Iâve been looking for someone to work as a salesperson from morning to evening on one day a week.
How about it? If youâre okay with it, would you like to work here? If it doesnât work out, you can quit anytime.â
For Adele, it was an ideal job.
She just needed to remember the prices of the bread, which a 10-year-old girl could easily do. Compared to Japanese bakeries, there were fewer varieties of bread. ...Of course, Adele could learn the prices quickly even if there were more varieties.
Moreover, it was rare to find a job that only required one day of work per week.
âPlease, Iâd like to work here!â
With this, she could manage a normal school life.
In this world, a week consists of 6 days, and 6 weeks make a month.
Ten months, each with 36 days, make a year, totaling 360 days.
Additionally, there are 5 special days: 2 days to mourn the passing year and offer gratitude, 1 day for the transition of the year, and 2 days to welcome and celebrate the new year, making a total of 365 days in a year.
The weeks and months are divisible by many numbers, making things convenient.
One of the 6 days in a week is a general day off for the public, including the school, and this was the day Adele would work at the bakery.
Adele didnât have a day off, but that couldnât be helped.
Since the school was for children aged 10 to 13, it wasnât tiring, and no homework was assigned. Some students studied voluntarily after returning to the dorm, but Adele didnât need to.
It wasnât a holiday today, but the dorm supervisor left Adele to work as practice, out of concern for her starting immediately.
Adeleâs on-the-job training went well.
In her previous life, Haili had hardly interacted with people, not because she was bad at it, but because no one had wanted to interact with her. Haili hadnât wanted it either.
For Adele, who now had Hailiâs memories and knew Japanese customer service, playing the role of a young shop girl was easy, and she was very well-received by the customers.
By evening, Adele was heading back to the school dormitory, tightly gripping two silver coins in her hand.
(My first money earned by working! The reward for my labor! Money I can use freely!!)
Adele was elated.
However, suddenly, anxiety welled up inside her.
(What if I drop them...? What if theyâre stolen? What if I encounter a robber?)
It seemed unlikely that a 10-year-old girl would be targeted by a robber, but Adele was very worried. Part of her still felt like she was 18, which contributed to her anxiety.
(Thatâs right, the item box!)
If she put the coins in the item box, they wouldnât be lost or stolen.
Adele smiled at this brilliant idea and cast the spell without incantation, using only her thoughts.
The silver coins in her palm vanished.
Next, she tried to retrieve them.
The feel of the silver coins in her hand. She immediately put them back in the item box.
Feeling good about her success, Adele suddenly turned pale.
(If I had failed the item box spell, I might have lost the hard-earned silver coins! I should have experimented with a pebble or something first! Iâm so stupid...)
Well, it turned out fine in the end, so itâs okay. From now on, Iâll be more careful and cautious, Adele thought as she returned to the dormitory.
Incidentally, in this world, if we consider the value in Japanese yen, a copper coin is worth 10 yen, a small silver coin 100 yen, a silver coin 1000 yen, a small gold coin 10,000 yen, and a gold coin 100,000 yen.
Agricultural products are cheap, meat and luxury items are expensive, and tools and jewelry are much more expensive than in Japan, so a simple monetary conversion doesnât make sense. However, from the perspective of the amount of money needed for a normal person to live, these values are appropriate.
A typical craftsman with a family earns about 3 gold coins a month.
With 30 working days a month, this is equivalent to 10,000 yen per day.
In comparison, Adeleâs pay of 2 silver coins (2,000 yen) per day is about 250 yen per hour, which is a sufficient amount for a child working as a shop assistant. With 12 silver coins (12,000 yen) a month, she could buy daily necessities. It wouldnât be enough for clothes, but she could wear the school uniform provided.
The school maintains its standards by offering free repairs or replacements for uniforms that are damaged or no longer fit properly. The "free" repairs use the prepaid money.
Adele didnât need to buy chest protectors, which made things cheaper for her. She didnât consider this a blessing, though.
In any case, it seemed that Adele had managed to escape her financial crisis.
On the days Adele worked, the bakery owner would start baking bread early in the morning. He would handle customers buying fresh bread for breakfast and those buying bread for lunch on their way to work, while continuing to bake. After finishing the bread he usually baked in the afternoon, he would hand the shop to Adele and either rest or go out with his family.
This way, the bakery owner could also avoid the crisis of his health and his familyâs growing dissatisfaction.