Chapter 4 4. Forced to enjoy the holiday
“Oh, beautiful morning, good morning, dear Aunt Susan.”
Annan stood in the sun, bowing to greet the busy yard Aunt Susan in .
“Why did he talk like that?” Aunt Susan immediately asked Martin, who was with Annan, “What did you teach him!”
“I didn’t teach him anything!”
Martin and Annan said: "None of us talk like this."
"Of course, my friend." Annan imitated the tone and wording of the bard last night, "I just couldn't help but sigh: Aunt Susan, you The beauty is like a rose with dew in the morning light."
"I told you that no one is like this-"
"Martin! We must respect Annan's family tradition!" The glare made Martin shudder, and he turned to Annan and regained his gentleness: "Dear Annan, just do what you like."
"Thank you, amiable Aunt Susan."
Aunt Susan was in a good mood and went into the kitchen to heat up the pumpkin pie they brought back last night.
Annan didn't eat much of the pumpkin pie, so he broke open the brown bread and put it into the rice soup while asking: "Is this pumpkin pie delicious for free?"
"It's delicious! It's very delicious!" Martin He said loudly while stuffing it into his mouth.
After breakfast, Annan and Martin, who were gradually getting used to manual labor, continued to chop wood and send it to the market for sale.
Annan wanted to help Martin carry part of the load, but Martin refused while saying that it was easy for him and bragging about his previous experience as a miner.
"When I was...a miner, I used...to carry...a hundred pounds..."
As expected, the words were mixed with many nouns that Annan had never heard of.
Arrived at the lively market, Martin was selling firewood, while Annan was wandering around, talking to the vendors to practice his oral skills.
"What's the price of the shirt?"
But he never just asked if he wanted to buy it. Occasionally he would point to the text and ask what it meant, attracting some strange looks.
Annan didn't care what these locals, who would have almost no interactions with him in the future, thought of him. After a while, I returned to Martin. He had sold out all the firewood and was waiting for Annan to come back.
On the way back, they passed a library - it was incredible that there was a library in this remote town. Martin said it was an old man who insisted on doing it, and there were almost no visitors.
Building a library is a wonderful vision, but doing so in a town with a literacy rate of less than 1% will only make the townspeople think "There is a library in my town!" and make the passing caravans sigh "This kind of thing" There is a library in a poor place?"
Listening to Martin chattering beside him, Annan suddenly saw a familiar figure walking into the bookstore.
Their boss, Fast, is rude and muscular. He never leaves his body with a thin sword at his waist. He does not look like someone who likes to read.
Martin didn't see his boss, still staring at the young women choosing clothes in the window of the clothing store across the corner.
Back at Aunt Susan's house, Annan's life did not change much in the next few days, except for learning more and more common language from the bard.
Starting with the gentle sound of the bard's piano, Annan began his seventh day's work.
There were not many guests today, and the relative silence allowed the bard's voice to become clear, except for Martin's muttering of "I have no food to bring back today."
Fast leaned against the wooden pillar beside the counter, looking like both a boss and a guard. Annan, Martin and Evelin huddled behind the counter, occasionally busying themselves when customers came or walked by.
"Annan."
Mr. Fast pushed a glass of juice to him and pointed to the lady sitting in the last seat: "Send it over."
Annan, who was ready to become a joke again, was helpless. Picking up the wine glass, he came to the wine table and defended himself with gorgeous words: "Beautiful lady, I wish you a wonderful night."
"Do you think I am still a lady?" The teasing did not come unexpectedly. .
But Annan is working really hard these days.
"Your beauty and whiteness are like..." Annan sorted out the words he heard from the bard: "buds that have not yet bloomed."
The lady chuckled frivolously, and her plump chest rippled. Annan looked firmly into her narrow eyes. As Annan's words of praise and as a reward for not looking around, the lady took out a coin, which fell softly and hardly into Annan's hands at the same time.
A silver coin worth a week's salary shone coolly under the light of the oil lamp.
There are not many rich people in the town.
Drunks don't waste their money on anything other than beer. So Annan quickly realized after joining the company that the "tip" promised by Mr. Fast was just a trap. Martin, who had been working here for almost half a year, received less than enough tips for a glass of rye.
"Your generosity is as noble as lilies."
The tavern has no secrets, Annan returned to the counter amidst the strange whistles.
Knock knock——
Mr. Fast knocked on the counter and looked around the pub. The presumptuous guests kept their mouths shut. Then he reminded Annan who came back in a low tone: "Listen boy, I am your boss, and the wine lady is your big boss."
"Did I do something wrong?" Annan thought his praise went beyond the rules.
"I mean..." Mr. Fast showed a meaningful smile, "If you really have the ability, why don't you try to be the boss's wife?"
Soon after , late at night comes, the soothing sound of the piano fills the tavern.
"Evelyn, please give me a glass of rye."
The wine lady had already left, and Annan, as usual, consulted the bard with a glass of the cheapest beer.
But today Annan was not satisfied with this. He asked about magic.
“You want to be a magician?”
“Of course.”
The bard looked at Annan, and if Martin had asked him that, he would have told him to get out.
“If you want to be a magician, you must first test your qualifications, which cost one gold.”
Generally speaking, one gold coin is stable at the ratio of one hundred silver coins to ten thousand copper coins.
Annan now has one silver coin and thirteen copper coins.
He is only 98.87% away from testing qualifications.
……
At 12 o’clock at midnight, the Dawn Tavern closes.
Mr. Fast returned to Evelyn, who was wiping the counter with a rag, and began to hand out Annan and Martin's wages for this week: 1 silver coin and 70 copper coins. Evelin's is 1 silver coin and 50 copper coins.
“Why Evelin earns more than us combined.” Martin saw Evelin’s salary for the first time.
"I will give you 50 copper coins and you can give me 70 copper coins, okay? Why do you think those drunkards asked Evelin to send them wine?"
Martin understood Fast at an unprecedented speed Mr. meaning.
After paying the salary, Mr. Fast took off his rapier and threw it on the counter: "Pack it away, you won't come tomorrow."
Martin and Evelyn are used to this.
"Boss, are you going to the city again?" Evelin picked up the rapier and wiped the blade with the rag that had just been used to clean the table.
"Well, I'd better come back in seven days." Fast threw the money bag to the bard with a pleasant clanking sound.
"Unlucky, I can feel that the profession will soon change." The bard complained.
Annan didn't want to face it. When he needed money the most, he was temporarily unemployed.
(End of this chapter)