A strange world

"Oh, beautiful morning, good morning, dear Aunt Susan."

Annan stood in the sunshine and bowed to greet Aunt Susan who was busy in the yard.

"Why does he talk like that?" Aunt Susan immediately asked Martin, who was with Annan, "What did you teach him!"

"I taught you nothing!"

"None of us talk like that," Martin and Annan said.

"Of course, my friend." Annan imitated the tone and words of the bard last night, "I just can't help but sigh: Aunt Susan, your beauty is like a rose with dewdrops in the morning light."

"I told you no one is like this-"

"Martin! We must respect Annan's family tradition!" Aunt Susan's glare made Martin shudder. He turned to Annan and regained his gentleness: "Dear Annan, just do what you like."

"Thank you, kind 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 the pumpkin pie delicious for free?"

"Delicious! Very delicious!" Martin 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 sell it at the market.

Annan wanted to help Martin carry part of the load, but Martin refused, 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..."

Not surprisingly, the words contained many terms that Annan had never heard of.

Arriving at the lively market, Martin was selling firewood, while Annan was wandering around, talking to the vendors to practice his speaking skills.

“How much does the shirt cost?”

However, he never only asked if he wanted to buy it. Occasionally he would point to the text and ask what it meant, which attracted 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 returning to Martin's place, he had sold out all the firewood and was waiting for Annan to return.

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 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, "My town has a library!" and the passing caravans sigh, "There is a library in such a poor place. Pavilion?".

Listening to Martin chattering beside him, Annan suddenly saw a familiar figure walking into the bookstore.

Their boss, Fast, was rude and muscular, and never left his body with a thin sword at his waist. He did not look like someone who liked reading.

Martin didn't see his boss, still staring at the young women choosing clothes in the window of the clothing store across the corner.

Returning to 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.

Beginning with the gentle music of the bard, Annan began the seventh day of 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 a boss and a guard at the same time. 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, reluctantly picked up his wine glass and came to the wine table, using gorgeous words to defend himself: "Beautiful lady, I wish you a wonderful night."

"Do you think I'm still a lady?" The teasing came 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: "A bud that has not yet bloomed."

The lady chuckled frivolously, her plump chest rippled, and 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 in 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 the lily.”

There are no secrets in the tavern. 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 arrived, and the soothing sound of the piano filled the tavern.

"Evelyn, please give me a glass of rye."

The wine lady had already left, and Annan consulted the bard with a glass of the cheapest beer as usual.

But today Annan was not satisfied with this. He asked about magic.

"You want to be a magician?"

"certainly."

The bard looked at Annan. 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. The price is one jinnaar."

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 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 does Evelyn make more than we put together." Martin saw Evelyn's salary for the first time.

"I'll give you 50 copper coins, can you give me 70 copper coins? Why do you think those drunkards asked Evelin to send them wine?"

Martin understood Mr. Fast's meaning more quickly than ever before.

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 she had just wiped the table with.

"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 change soon." The bard complained.

Annan didn't want to face it. When he needed money the most, he was temporarily unemployed.