Chapter 4 : It was Like When Your Job Application Got Rejected Many Times

 

The next day.
I emptied my dormitory room and left the school.

My luggage was only a bag of change clothes.
My pocket money was only 150 pels. It was the amount of money that was only enough for three days of sleeping and eating at an inn.

Due to the National Adventurer Support System, I received subsidies for food expenses while I was in school, but starting today, I can no longer rely on that.

My home is at Cornell Village. It takes two days by carriage to go there, and it costs 150 pels.
I can barely go home with my pocket money now, but…

「No… I can’t go home… I can’t say to everyone in the village that I was dropped out of school…」

If I tell everyone, it’s the same as tainting Laney’s name.

Even if I couldn’t become an adventurer, I decided to at least become a full-fledged adult before going home.
And to do that, I have to get a proper job.
Of course… a job other than adventurer…
I have to find a job that doesn’t require the use of weapons.

Therefore, my destination wasn’t the Adventurer Guild, it was the employment agency.
And I’m in the middle of an interview for a job right now.

……..but.

「Can you show me your tool level?」

「Y, Yes…」

An aunt employee asked me to show my level.
I have no choice but to expose it…

「Tree・Open!」

After I said that, a picture of a tree popped out from around my chest and projected in the air like a hologram.
It was a so-called【Skill Tree】. Everyone in this world knows about it. We can check our skills and levels in this tree.

What looked like tree branches were actually the branches of skills.

When you acquire a skill, the branch of that skill will shine, and it will get brighter as the level goes up.

For example, even if there are two warriors who both have sword level 10, their characteristics won’t be the same depending on which skill they choose.
If they choose【Powerful】, their muscle strength will be improved and they can become a heavy warrior. If they choose【Acrobatic】, their agility will be improved and they can become a light warrior.

It is said that you can get stronger more quickly if you just collect similar skills and become a specialized type rather than collect various skills and become a universal type.

…….Well, things like specialized or universal have nothing to do with me though…

「What is this!? You can’t even use any skill!?」

「Uuuuu… I, I’m sorry….」

Right…
Not only weapons, I also suck at using other tools…

Normally, if you use tools in your dailies, you can easily hear the “Piron ♪” sound and get level 1 or 2.

But… I never heard my “Piron ♪” even for once.

「There’s no way I can introduce a job to an incompetent like you! It will affect our reputation if I do that!」

While saying that, the aunt employee made a gesture as if she shooed a cat, “shooー shooー”.

 

「Uuhh… It looks like she won’t introduce a job to me no matter what…… What should I do now… 」

I was frozen, standing in the middle of the city. I was at loss…
To receive such treatment at the employment agency… I’m shocked.

Maybe it’s impossible for a person who lacks talent and social experience like me to get a job.
I felt really frustrated, but I tried to hold my tears.

「I still can go back to my village… but……」

I reached out my hand to my cloth bag just to make sure, but… ehh…? I felt like some of my coins were missing.

「………Ehh!? 140 pels!? I’m sure it was 150!」

I’m pretty sure when I left the dormitory, I had 150 pels.

…..Hm?

And then I cursed my own stupidity.

Before I realized, I had three meat skewers in my hand.

Right. After I left the agency, I was lured by a delicious smell while I was at lost and unwittingly bought the skewers.

Actually, I have a habit of eating like crazy when something unpleasant happened. And it seems that habit came out unconsciously.

「I can’t go home now…」

It can’t be helped.
I put a dice of meat that remained on the skewers into my mouth while sobbing a little.
This skewer was very seasoned and delicious.

Alright, enough with this! Let’s take the situation positively!
Now that the retreat route has been cut off, I have no choice but to gamble in this city. Besides, I already decided not to go home in the first place.
When it comes to this, I don’t care what kind of job I can get. I’ll do it!

After that, I walked around the city, asking if there’s a job I can do.
I went to the inns, restaurants, tool stores, ect.
However, they said they couldn’t trust someone who didn’t apply through the agency, which meant they didn’t trust me.
Besides, if I show them my Skill Tree, obviously they won’t accept me.

I’ve never cursed the existence of Skill Tree as bad as this time.

 

 

♦♦♦

 

 

The days have passed.
I finally ran out of money.

I’ve been sleeping outside since three days ago, and have been drinking only water from a well without eating since two days ago. It was a torture for me, who easily get hungry.

Gurururuー
My stomach kept growling.
My clothes also kept getting stinkier because of my sweat.

「If I get more shabby than this, no one will hire me….」

I decided to ask the church for help. Maybe I can get food there.

In this Agarest Continent, there is a polytheism which teaches that Gods dwell in every tool.
Among them, there’s a God who is very merciful, The Goddess of Cooking, Falma.

Maybe the people from Falma-sama’s church will help me and bless me with some food.

Thinking that, I asked the people in the city where the cathedral was. It was on top of a hill.
I desperately made my way up the hill to the cathedral, but… it was still under construction.

「W, Why…?」

There was no stone statue of Falma-sama holding a pot, no sacred-patterns-embroidered carpet, and no stained glass depicting her pilgrimage journey.
There was only a wooden frame of a building.

My heart was filled with despair and my stomach was filled with hunger.
I didn’t feel like going down the hill to go back to the city.

「….. Oh, well……」

I entered the unroofed cathedral and lay down.
Due to fatigue and malnutrition, my vision became blurry.

「I’m tired…….. I feel very sleepy somehow………」

Am I going to die here…?
If a beautiful angel comes to pick me up, maybe it’s not bad….
If I can be born again, I want to be born with a talent…….

 

「―――ii.. Ooiii―! Are you okay little missy―?」

A voice called me out. Who…?
I opened my eyes.
I thought there was no one here, but it looked like someone was here before me.

I looked around and found a man, who seemed to be in his late thirties, was standing while resting his back on a pillar.

「E, Excuse me….Could it be… you are the priest here?」

I wasn’t sure if he was a priest because his face looked so grumpy and his body was muscular.

Responding to my question, the man laughed.

「Gahaha! Why do you think like that? This cathedral has been burned down by fire. Now we are rebuilding it. Not only God, but the priest is not here either. If you’re looking for salvation, you should go elsewhere, missy」

「I, I see…」

It seemed this man was a carpenter.
I can’t get in the way of his work. Moreover, I can’t die here, it will trouble him.

I got up weakly and tried to leave the place.

「……..Wait」

Then, the carpenter stopped me.

「If you’re hungry, I can give you some food」

「Eh? Really!?」

「Atabou yo」

「A, Ata…bou?」

「It means ‘of course’. I’m building a church, so I’ll will got devine punishment if I ignore a hungry children, right?」

*/ Atabou is a dialect from Edo for ‘atarimae’ which means ‘of course’

 

 

Author note :
For some reason, I admire people who are working as a carpenter.
It’s almost time for Hanna to awaken!

 

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