NOVEL NEXT Chapter 26 (A time well spent)
It had been a few days since the rift had opened up, and honestly, I couldn't help feeling like I had only wasted the time I had spent. Repairs took up most of the first day, and as they were partially my fault I offered my help to fix the place, which Mariam was all too happy to accept, besides that though I really didn’t do much. Like seriously, I had to wonder what the hell I was doing with myself at this point. Like the first day, sure I was all shook up or whatever, but I still couldn't figure out how I was conned into doing this for her. Just as that thought continued, an old-looking customer walked into the shop with a strange smile on his face that turned to worry. He quickly stalked up to the counter and cupped his hands out to Mairam, standing.
[Old man], what happened Are you okay? Mairam, you finally hired someone? You're not sick, are you, or being held hostage?"
With a sigh, I turned around from the exchange and bent down mindlessly, organizing a few coffee beans. I was quite glad I could understand the language, or I was worried Mairam might really start trying to be my teacher too. Picturing her trying to tutor me on language caused my hair to stand on end.
I was a little annoyed as I heard Mairam talk increasingly more and more about how she had saved me or something. At the start, she had done okay at censoring herself, but after far too short of time, she had begun to treat me like the shop’s mascot.
Trying to cut out the sounds of them talking, I continued my reminiscence.
As soon as things had settled down after the incident, she wasted no time informing me about starting my new job with a bit of a smug look on her face. She said she couldn’t pay much(I didn’t know what “much” was anyway), I also got a room and food. I feel like maybe I was being taken advantage of here, but whatever, it's not like I was in any position to complain about anything. It didn’t really bother me either, it honestly wasn't all that bad, all things considered. I did have a few reservations at first, but those quickly faded after I started working. My first few days... oh, someone's calling for me, one moment.
Snapping out of my thoughts, I saw that the man who was talking to Mairam had stepped away and found a seat. As she looked at me with a large smile on her face she motioned for me to grab a few things from the shelf, I smiled suddenly as I got the items down with practiced movements. It made me think of when I first started working. Not that it had really been that long, but just let me have this, okay?! Initially, she had been very hands-on, guiding me like a child through the process at the shop, but after the first day, I managed to get the hang of things. The conversations of customers became the background noise of my work. I now knew gossip, about more names than I cared to mention; however, something that hadn't seemed quite right to me was how calm everyone was about the rift. They spoke about them as if they were any other natural disaster, pitying the ones who lost their lives while criticizing the government's response whenever a mess-up happened. I was still mulling over these thoughts as I brought the requested items to Mairam. walking up to the counter, I saw the customers giving me strange smiles, so I hastily retreated back, going back to sorting the items in the shop. My mind drew a blank, and I half wondered what I was thinking again before I remembered. Oh yeah, that's right. So when I first started here, she had been a real busybody about everything, flying about like some sort of free-spirited bird, chirping this way and that about her systems of organization, how she liked to talk to customers, how she cooked the pastry, and her methods for brewing coffee before sitting me down at the cash register and explaining that to me as well. This was quickly changed, however, as I supposed my communication skills were not up to par or something of the sort. Mairam wouldn't tell me straight, instead assigning me to mindlessly sorting the inventory of the shop.
In doing so, I quickly learned that despite her puffed chest when she spoke about her systems for organization, as far as I could tell there wasn’t one. Items were hastily thrown about, some bags in an empty closet, a broom stored on a shelf so high I wasn’t even sure how Marim got it down let alone put it up. It made me wonder how anything got done in the place. It took me nearly three hours to sort the items to something I was happy with, to which Mairam was quite surprised when she stepped into the storeroom that same day.
Working here really did feel odd compared to my past life's job. I felt entirely overqualified for it, and yet somehow I was constantly being scolded. When I tried to bring out food to the customers, despite the fact that I was proud that I balanced everything perfectly and had prepared it in my opinion perfectly, I was told it was the wrong item, or I got complaints about how I was rude or something. I kept being thrown about the shop all over the place, and after the first day, I sort of got used to it. That or the customers got used to me.
I did see Mairam often whispering to them something about me which caused their faces to get a bit flushed. But it's not like I could do anything about it. In my head, I had unconsciously marked the ones Mairam had talked to as strange, and those she hadn't spoken to as normal. Well, maybe not normal, but at least more tolerable than those pity-filled glances from the older-looking customers. Some would even offer cookies to me. Still, deep in thought about the cookies, I accepted the money handed to me in this world's paper currency as I deeply bowed to the customer and walked away. Huh, isn't this a 50% tip? I mean, as a customer service rep, I tried my best to serve others, but for some reason, whenever I bowed or acted respectfully, I got pitying looks from the people around me as if I had done something wrong, causing me to only act more apologetically. I didn’t really care about the glances all that much, but, how servers should behave. If a customer is unhappy, it's their problem to deal with.
The one thing me and Mariam did come into conflict about was sleeping arrangements, I said I could sleep on the floor rather than on Mairam's bed, but she insisted it was fine, mumbling something about wanting me to feel what it's like to sleep soundly or something, she assured me I was doing great.
After the first few struggles, I had settled down into my role, clearing the plates of the customers. I quickly rushed to the next one, fiddling with my manners, trying to make sure none of the plates moved in my hands. I gathered up everything as Mairam began to close the shop. In smooth movements, I began to clean and wash the dishes, finding myself zoning back to reminiscing about the time that had passed as I did so.
Mairam came over trying to persuade me to take a break or rest a little, but it's not like I was tired or anything. She was always so overbearing about me taking breaks, it grated on me a little, but I was starting to enjoy the kindness being paid to me, still, I couldn’t stop the worry from creeping into the back of my mind.
It's fine. I kept telling myself that, but with the ominous supposed apocalypse only a week or so away, I had begun to feel like I needed to do something. The problem was what. Siighing to myself, I saw Mairam looking at me happily, preparing two tea cakes at a table and some cups of freshly brewed coffee. Cleaning off the last of the dishes, I tiredly went over to the girl who could barely contain the excitement on her face. It had become our daily ritual to have tea like this after the work was done. Sitting in the chair opposite to her she started talking happily.
[Mairam] "You did a great job today. I kept having people compliment you, and it looks like you made a ton of tips, which, by the way, as I keep telling you, you need to keep for yourself. You don't need to give it to me. As I said, I can't pay you legally since I can't hire you, but if you need any money, don't worry about it! I'll make sure to take care of you."
Nodding my head slowly, I ignored the non-important parts and ate my cake, enjoying the taste of it spreading through my mouth. As it came over me, I pondered a bit as Mairam went on and on about what a great job I did and a few more concerning things about how cute I was or something, which as things stood, I wanted to ignore, or at least had little interest entertaining from her currently. Pondering the apocalypse as I shoveled cake into my mouth greedily, my thoughts and my actions seemed a bit counterintuitive, but let's just say the sugar helps me think and leave it at that.
I needed to spend the GP I had earned from clearing the goblins in the last rift.
The shop item I wanted now was a new armored dress, unfortunately, that's all. The stupid, crappy goddess had to buy. I feel like I've been too busy to curse her much, but let's just remember to put one in once a day for good measure. But I wasn't sure how to explain a random suit of armored clothing showing up out of nowhere. Maybe if I had been partnered with someone less inquisitive, it would be fine, but knowing Mairam, there's no way I could get away with that. Speaking of, looking up from my cake, I saw her coquettishly holding out a bite of her own cake towards me, as if she was trying to feed me.
Shaking my head, I wanted to laugh as she reluctantly put down the fork. Finishing mine, I stood up, not ignoring Mairam's protests but waiting only long enough to hear she wasn't serious to start cleaning the rest of the shop. Smiling while I cleaned, I couldn't help but enjoy this type of work despite the looming threat over me. It reminded me of helping my mother as a child, which made me a bit melancholy, but it's something I was used to at this point. If I didn't have all this other stuff to deal with, I'd be more than happy to just work in this shop, living a simple life, but it looks like I didn't really have this choice. Just my luck. Well, whatever, I was used to it at this point. All I had to do was get through it, and to do that, I'd need to get stronger. While Mairam worked, I had been researching the rifts on her computer, and what I had learned was both confusing and understandable. Oddly enough, it was hard to find news outside of this country. From what I can tell, the actual structure of the country was fairly normal.
They had a leader, a council, an army, and something called a Warden Associate. They dealt with rankings in the country and handled crises. They also mediated conflicts between wardens and people. It seemed that the rift I was involved in becoming a sore spot due to the death of Pual, (may he rest in peace). The point is the government seemed to have a fairly strong national entity it was competing with, which was solely responsible for dealing with the closing, destitution, and management of these rifts. I tried to look into the origin of the rift and the giant tear in the sky, but it didn't seem like anyone knew. There were lots of scientists making speculations about it, but even they didn't seem to have any better answers than it just happened to be that way. As a person who knew gods were real, I supposed the religious types were actually correct, though they did miss the point a little. I wonder how Mairam would look at me if I started preaching about my hate for the goddess cult.
Smiling happily to myself, I finished cleaning a little reluctantly, and Mairam seized the opportunity, and tried to convince me to go out with her for a little while. But I swiftly shot her down. I couldn't do that when I planned to use that time to formulate my plan moving forward. As of now, I knew that I needed to become a warden and join a group since they were the only ones allowed to actively hunt down the riffs, which seemed to be my best bet at getting stronger. But the main question is how. Mairam looked a little depressed, but sighing heavily, loud enough for me to hear, she slowly stalked to our room to get dressed. I shook my head at the obvious provocations and sat down in a chair. I was honestly a little tired from the stress of considering the end of the world. Despite myself, I began to doze off as the timer to the apocalypse counted down. I fell asleep peacefully, completely unaware of the old man lightly smiling while watching from across the street.