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It’s not enough to just live. What was necessary for a stable life?
A house, food, clothes and many other things, but first was money.
You need a steady job to have a stable income.
Some think about how to make some money every day. Also, get rid of the idea of being supported by someone else once and for all.
Yes, we need to get regular jobs.
We need a job to get out of the lower poor class as quickly as possible and into the middle class.
There was no law against child labour in this world anyway. So, I decided to look for a place that needed help while looking for food.
The only thing to keep in mind was to make sure it wasn’t an entertainment place. I warned Rille-nee that she couldn’t accept jobs where someone didn’t tell her what she was supposed to do and just took her somewhere.
A quick look around town revealed that there were a variety of jobs.
There were a lot of retail shops and the most common were cloth shops.
I often saw peddlers in wagons trading a large quantity of cloth in front of stores, so that might be this region’s specialty.
Other than that, there were many inns and restaurants. There were also a few bars, probably because a lot of people came from outside. There were also a few blacksmiths and other shops around.
I saw people washing dishes at the restaurants, workers loading cargo at the carrier services where there were a lot of horses, and employees sweeping the entrance of inns and large merchant shops. We thought we could get jobs at these places, so we tried talking to them, but it wasn’t that easy.
It was hard to get a job when people were afraid that we would misbehave when we approached them.
Even when I finally got a job washing dishes or cleaning the entrance, they really only gave me enough pocket money for a kid, and they only ask me to do it when they’re busy.
But I’ll do anything, so it was fine for me to receive a small amount of money for it. They instantly become reluctant when I ask them to hire me.
It wasn’t like I was asking for two days off a week and 300,000 yen for social security benefits, so why won’t you hire me? You tell me you want someone who can do the work straight away, but if I can do that without being taught, then I’d start my own company.
No, well, that was the complaint of a friend from my previous life. Honestly, I didn’t have trouble finding a job myself, so I took it lightly. Can’t they hire a motivated five-year-old?
I was supposed to meet up with Rille-nee at night even if there was nothing important to talk about.
I exchanged the few coins I had earned for pea soup and bread, and I shared it with her before I reported the results of my scouting.
“I tried a lot of places, but everywhere turned me down.”
Rille-nee’s results were the same as mine.
Most of the small shops are family run because they can’t afford to hire anyone, and the big stores don’t want to deal with dirty kids.
I wanted them to hire both of us if possible… Both Rille-nee and I sighed, then quickly regained our composure.
No, no. Stop getting depressed.
“――― Now, don’t give up and let’s look around. I know there are places that will hire us. Let’s look for jobs while earning a little bit of money.”
“Yeah… you’re right. We have to try hard.”
Although she was speaking in a strong voice, her face showed signs of fatigue. I was probably the same.
I was spending a lot of energy and not replenishing it in time. I was only managing to move with my willpower.
People say that you will die if you don’t have enough energy to be active but have to move around.
There is no leisure for the poor.
So, I went around town looking for work without rest the next day.
I left Rille-nee in the middle of the main street and went into the back alleys.
Some of the stores looked suspicious, like the hair seller huts, but there were also ordinary stores.
There were also shopping streets with tents to shelter from rain and sun, which sold piles of vegetables, grains and daily necessities on the stands.
I set my sights on one of them.
“Hello.”
I smiled at the middle-aged woman who was selling produce and greeted her politely. Even in this world, bending your back and bowing was also a way to ask for a favour or show respect.
The woman, whose face was wrinkled like a red bean bun, called out my name in a friendly manner, “Hi Aime.”
“You’re here again today.”
“Yup! Do you need help with anything?!”
I have been coming here every day since I bought some fruit as a customer.
I was in the middle of my plan to impress her by showing her that I wasn’t a bad child while shopping, and then gradually gain her trust, and get a job by offering to help her without being pushy.
I also took advantage of the shopkeeper’s chatty nature and told her about my life to gain her sympathy.
“Then, can you pick the cleanest ones from this box and put them in the front for me?”
She had usually turned me away politely by saying she didn’t need help, but today, she gave me a job.
It was a simple job. I had to put as many blemish-free fruits at the front of the stand as I could and put the ones with insect bites and half-rotten ones at the back (but they still sell, apparently).
I was paid with six bags of unsold European pear-like fruits with insect bites on them. Yay! Her guard was definitely down!
But well, I don’t think I was anywhere near getting hired, though. I was just glad I got some food.
We spent most of our money yesterday, so I was relieved since I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to eat anything today.
I still had some time before I had to meet Rille-nee in the evening, so I slowly made my way back to the main street while looking for a new place to work.
A peculiar smell hit my nose on the way.
The smell was coming from a small, cosy shop.
It was probably an apothecary.
In a city full of all kinds of scents and odours, the smell of herbs which were similar to Chinese herbs, was different.
I’ve walked by this place several times, but the entrance was always closed, and there was an open window which had no glass, through which the smell leaked out from.
I didn’t know if it was open for business or not, but there was a sign out front. I can’t read the words of this world yet, but I can guess if a sign says something like ‘Open’ or ‘Welcome’.
I’ve seen the same words a lot on the signs in front of other stores, so I was pretty sure I was right.
However, the tightly shut door didn’t seem to welcome customers at all. The exterior of the shop was also eerie, with ivy crawling on one wall, giving it a dark and gloomy impression.
I wondered what kind of medicine they were selling.
My instincts were telling me that it was best to avoid this place.
I quickly walked past the shop and met up with Rille-nee in the evening without any further success.
Rille-nee hadn’t made any money today, so we were both absorbed in biting into the fruit and sipping the dripping juice for a while.
“How was it?”
Needless to say, it wasn’t good, but when I asked Rille-nee how the fruit was, she answered with the fruit still in her mouth, “Hmmm?”
I waited for a while, but she didn’t continue.
“… Rille-nee? Are you alright? Are you tired?”
“Hmm, I’m fine.”
She smiled.
It didn’t seem like she was forcing herself to smile, but it was mildly uncomfortable, and I spoke again.
“If possible, it would be nice if we can work and live in the same place.”
I wanted to say live-in, but my vocabulary was still lacking in this world. I wondered if that kind of work existed in this city.
“Hmm~…”
Rille-nee’s response was vague once again.
“If we work at a restaurant, I wonder if they’ll give us food to eat. Do you want to look for work in that area?”
“…”
Huh… oh, now she was ignoring me.
“… Rille-nee?”
Rille-nee’s body collapsed to the ground.
“Rille-nee?”
For a moment, I stupidly thought that the fruit had been poisoned.
But Rille-nee’s breath was rough and her body was hot, is this… A cold?
No, what if it was something worse than a cold? No, but the common cold was also dangerous!
I knew numerous ways in which she could have gotten sick.
Her fever was high, so she must have been holding it in this whole time. She had probably been sick for a long time.
Argh, how could I not have known?!
Even though it was still early autumn, she will die if I leave her on the dirty streets.
I quickly put her on my back and dragged my feet since I wasn’t able to lift her up, then I rushed to a certain place.