After another day of shaking iron pans, my arms were trembling. I worked the night shift for seven hours straight, starting at six PM. I was used to working in the kitchens after my dad, a farmer, died when I was only fifteen and one of the cooks in my hometown employed me. But I was still dead tired after my shift.
“Wheeew…”
I pulled off the sweat-soaked handkerchief I’d tied over my hair and headed out of the scorching hot kitchen into the large hall.
The dozen or so oil lanterns fastened to the wall painted the entire hall orange.
The drunkard regulars who’d been drinking until not too long ago had left the chairs in disarray. A few of the thirty-eight round stools had been knocked over, and the rectangular tables were misaligned. All I could do was smile wanly at the ruckus they’d managed while I was stuck in the back.
“I’m exhausted…” I righted a stool at my feet and sat myself down on it, almost falling into the seat.
“Good work today. There sure were a whole lotta customers again.” A young girl’s voice addressed me.
I looked up to find a brunette. The apron-style dress she wore was wide-open at the front. She had a smile that seemed immune to fatigue as she thrust a stein at me. It was filled with ordinary cold water.
“Sorry, Ilecia.”
I bobbed my head at her as I took the stein and drained the water in one go. “I was so busy today that I didn’t even have time for a sip of water.” I laughed and let out a languid sigh.
Ilecia tilted her head to the side and smiled, her long loose curls fluttering down as she did. She perched herself on the edge of the table and started to chat with me.
“You better not faint on us. If you do, the boss is going to give us a hell of a time now that he’s feeling so rushed.”
“Seriously, though, what the heck happened this month? I feel like we’ve been serving up all the expensive booze we rarely ever bring out…”
“Oh, that. There have been reports of this mysterious group of people handing out money.”
“They’re handing out money? Did the trade city get their own Robin Hood or something?”
“I just heard about it today from old Mr. Coulon. Apparently, someone’s been visiting the poorer neighborhoods and using people there for a search party or something. I think they’re a scholar of some sort? Maybe a government official? I don’t really know for sure, but apparently, someone with a whole lot of personal baggage drifted into Raddermark.”
“A scholar, huh…? I wonder if they stole an old relic or something.”
“As a result, some of our regulars are a lot more well-off now, and some of that cash flow’s trickling to us, too. I’m sure it’ll settle down eventually. I mean, they’ve been guzzling booze without sparing a thought for anything else, after all.”
Raddermark was a trading city of three hundred thousand that had been developed on a major road connecting the land of Shidoh and the land of Rodoh.
The north was occupied by the Academy, which produced summoners, while the east was where the large marketplace was situated, where you could find anything from ingredients for dinner to magical tomes. The sprawling land was unencumbered by outer walls, so the place had developed aristocratic manors, slum streets, cathedrals, a red-light district, a library, theaters, sewage systems, and even an underground cemetery. The large city was only outmatched by the land of Shidoh’s capital.
And this place that I worked at, the Horse’s Drool Pavilion, was right on the border of the great market and the red-light district. The clientele tended to be upper-lower class. Our regulars were the laborers with small salaries—so people like the assistants at the markets or the manservants at the red-light district.
“Someone touched my butt again today. Don’t they know that’s a terribly rude thing to do to a future star?” Ilecia complained.
“Well, they’re all a bunch of good-for-nothing drunks. Hey, maybe we could add that to the menu. Cop a feel for just fifty thousand.”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha! That’s way overpriced! They’d only be touching, right? I think the going rate for that kinda service is around ten thousand. If I debut on stage and make a name for myself playing a dashing heroine, then we can bump it up it to fifty.”
As I was chatting with Ilecia, a twenty-one-year-old future actress, a giant dish appeared on the table right in front of my eyes. It was piled high with fried chicken and fried veggies.
“Oh, Feil, you have school in the morning, don’cha? After you eat, hurry up and head home.”
“Oh, geez, boss,” Ilecia said. “You can’t serve someone fried food this late at night.”
“It’s fine. Being a summoner drains the stamina like nothin’ else. So meats, veggies, and fats are the best thing for us.”
The meal had been provided by a bald bodybuilder.
He was shorter than me, but the muscles bulging from his short sleeves were nothing to scoff at. His eyes, with their folded lids, glinted like a hawk’s. If someone had told me he used to be a knight captain or something, I would’ve believed it just based on how intimidating he looked.
“Thanks for the food, boss. I appreciate it.”
He was also my direct supervisor as the Horse’s Drool Pavilion’s head chef. I stood up and bowed.
“By the way, the owner said he’s uppin’ both o’ yer hourly wages by a whole hundred gants.”
Ilecia leaned forward immediately when she heard that, and she was already shouting, “Are you for real?! Boss, you’re not pulling my leg?!” Then she thrust her fist in the air and said, “All right! I can buy makeup now!”
I’d also clenched my hand into a fist before I’d realized it. A hundred-gant raise was enormous, especially sprung on us like that.
“This pub wouldn’t function without the two of ya around. Every one of our floor employees is out the door by eleven—everyone except you, Ilecia. And, Feil, you’ve pretty much got the taste of our grub down perfect.”
“Can’t believe that stingy owner’s finally recognizin’ how much we’re worth. I gotta hand it to you, boss,” I said.
“That reminds me. What do you two wanna do about next week’s shift? Think you can stay till closing like you did this week?”
“Oh, sure,” Ilecia said. “Especially with the raise.”
Next was my turn. “Sorry, boss, could I get a day off next week on Saturday?” I bowed my head real low when I said that.
He looked a little put on the spot as he rubbed his bald head, but he didn’t say no.
“Well, sure ya can, but… Somethin’ happenin’ at school?”
“I’m going with my teammates to the floating cemetery. It’s gonna pass by just next week. Sorry, don’t mean to cause any trouble.”
Ilecia, who was from the countryside, seemed kind of puzzled, but the boss got it.
“I got ya. Didn’t realize it was that time of year already. Well, you are a summoner.”
He growled out a laugh and headed back to the kitchen.