Mysterious Myne

Myne split up with the boys to do her own thing.

She looked at Tuuli's knife. It got dull that Gunther had to resharpen it in the barracks for her before coming home with a sharp blade.

Its normal to trust kids with these here?!

Anything can go wrong!

Then again...medieval world kids are forced to grow up so soon.

Education was skills they'd need in life. No time nor room to play around, nor studying subjects they won't even use in half their lives. Kids even speak in straight sentences when even six years olds back in Earth, would still stumble around in their very few vocabulary. For pete's sake, a six year old kid can cook soup, make candles, crafts, mastered how to weave in half a season, and how to sew her own clothes the rest of the winter! In a dark candlelit room!

This world's kids put Earth kids to absolute shame here.

And she is glad that she studied cooking now back in Earth. She can get creative over here anyhow. For breakfast, she made a sandwich with fried eggs and sausages. Apparently, times are 'hard' when winter ends that families have a dang good reason to buy as much meat as possible, and preserve it. Bread was a staple whole winter. And on clear days, the poor bakers are overworked, but all are financial winners in the end as in a peasant's household, a table that has no bread in it is the height of poverty!

They call it 'potatoffel' here. Calling it potato is much more NORMAL!

She knows the basic standards for survival. How to make this and that and she never dreamed she would need her culinary and hygiene know-how...considering she reincarnated in a world like this!

And now, she collected edibles, in the form of mushrooms.

Hello, it's early spring and snow is just halfway melted? Do you seriously expect many things to be ripe, at this season? Bitch, please.

But still, she saved up so many seeds of vegetables and fruits from months of food prep, and strategically planted them here and there, and gave the seeds enough magic to grow to full maturity in an instant, by imagining her magic having the abilities of Regermination Potion. Thus by planting them in soil, caused them to immediately do just that! They grew to full planthood!

They'll still bear fruit at their proper season ingrained in their genetics though. Ah well. She also tapped every tree that bears edibles, feeding it a season's worth of magic. To make as many stuff as possible come their seasonal time. This also helps drain her excess, pent-up magic. She couldn't use up energy in winter...as she has no idea how peasants will react to magic. Euuurrgh...so she compressed when she was full at her own risk, but risks she was aware of. Her magical energy is thus highly condensed and concentrated.

...equals pure power. That she can't afford to lose control. So as she went, she bled her excess into sources of edibles to help herself, as well as others.

For now, she gathered mushrooms, and firewood. And magically dries firewood for use.

Still magical as ever...but if fruits and veggies are all about vitamins...mushrooms...are all about minerals they lacked. And mushrooms here, are as large as children's fists!

Very filling for the tummy! And juicy when chewed!

Problem? Energy-Consuming to grow, even as parasites that feed off trees. So she had to feed trees her energy in excess to sustain both itself and their little hanger-ons. Mutual Benefit there, no?

Now then, she needs help. Public help and a little demo to justify to the boys why she picked mushrooms...

'Oh, boys~'

xxx

'...mushrooms?' Tuuli and Effa blinked as beneath firewood Myne brought home, were mushrooms they've never seen before.

'Well, there's nothing else.' Myne said wryly with an armfold. 'Snow is just thawing and mushrooms are all there is...and I went trial and error on my own, feeding stuff to bugs the boys catch for me till I figured out how to work them.' she said as she recalled the favor she asked of the boys.

'If its good enough for bugs, its good enough for us!'

Thus she taught her family how to food-prep magical mushrooms. Some can be roasted and skewered, some can be processed into flavorings, and some boiled in soup.

YUMMY! Her mother and sister swooned in deliciousness!

And Gunther when he came home? Also swooned in flavor goodness.

'Some mushrooms are poisonous so we thought nothing of it...but if prepared correctly they're actually good...' Gunther scratched his head. By early spring when snow fully-thaws, he will officially work and get paid as a Major. Myne helped him out with her magic, in making him learn quicker, and get motivated to write neater. Neat handwriting gets you more respect after all.

'Well, some are confirmed nasty. Others are just undiscovered goodies for early spring.' said Myne. 'Just because some are confirmed poisonous doesn't mean all else is. And until everything Tuuli taught me grows up, mushrooms and bread are really all we have.' and they ran out of meat not long ago. So its vitamins all spring to autumn, protein in winter and minerals in early spring? Not bad. Its a healthy diet.

'That's true...' her family sweatdropped.

The whole winter, the effects of Parue Soap are on Gunther that Effa wanted to use it too as soon as the company opens up for business as she remarked that 'her husband is back to our younger years!' That the week before shop opens again, Effa spent the week cleaning and laundry with her daughters, and scrubbing their clogs so that it looks clean, using their stock of soap they saved up for spring use.

When snow is fully-thawed out, but still freaking cold...Effa got the same perks, and dye stains on her fingers and nails are gone. Her yellow, thickened and cracked nails, and thick skin on her fingertips caused by harsh dyes since last year, are regaining its health thanks to healthy eating, and Parue soap benefits in terms of skin, hair and nail condition. Her nails are now healthy and pink again. And her skin on her fingers back to normal.

End result of having a clean appearance all in all, along with clean clothes? She got relocated to being a quality inspector that pays a lot more. She now earns 1 silver and her job alongside others, is operating Dyeing Equipment! She no longer has to dye fabrics by hand. But she is still in an 'out-of-the-way employee'. Why?

Effa's clothes have patching. She must own six decent dresses to wear without patching so she's presentable to the public, that's the thing! Because customers are either wealthy or nobles!

Once she meets the requirements, she will be immediately promoted to Quality Inspector, a job that pays 3 large silver, assessing plainly-dyed fabrics. If she wants to get promoted further, she will train to become a saleslady which means getting license to become a Merchant affiliated to Heuss Workshop so she won't be the Traveling Merchant type-she'll stay home in Ehrenfest, and sell their dyed wares to Tailor Guilds. Becoming a Salesman/lady, their pay is gonna be 3 large silver and 5 small silver. The Second Rank for subordinates, will be Beruf, or Foreman gets 4 large silver who answers to Overseers who earn 6 who in turn, answer to their boss.

Effa felt she's not cut out to be a saleslady so she'll stay Quality Inspector as the highest position she can go.

It'll take time for that! Not when Effa's too busy with Tuuli's dress that she's halfway done with.

Baptismal Dresses must be white, embroidered with the divine color of their season's patron deity, with the embroidery showing the life of the child in question. The collar shows the father's occupation which also doubles as Family Head symbolism, and the design on the sleeves and skirt hem represent the child's life with mother and siblings. It's symbolic. Patterns married wives learn in the temple for a month, upon getting married.

And Tuuli is busy making herself a new closet so she immediately has a high-paying position in her apprenticeship.

Apprenticeships' pay are understandably low. The lowest you can get is 8000 silver while the highest an apprentice can go is 20000. Because the lowest pay an adult can get, is 4 small silver or 40000.

Cleanliness, is justice. Being cleaner you are relegated to higher-paying public jobs. While the smellier and dirty you are, along with dirty patchwork clothing, you get lousy jobs with lousy pay, and hidden away like the shame of your employers, when she translated her mother's innocent way of describing her workplace in Heuss Workshop. It's why many commoners, are so dirt-poor and their lives never improved.

xxx

'...so by being clean, we get better jobs come apprenticeship, huh.' said Ralph as Myne told her three new friends what she learned when her mother told her stories about the workplace. But she told the boys in a way her mom told her and Tuuli, and let the boys interpret that story on their own.

'Yup. When we invested in a serious bath by scrubbing ourselves with coarse cloth and washed everything fabric we owned, dad got promoted last year, and mom got promoted just recently!' said Myne. She hid the fact that they have soap as the 'nice-smelling soap' will be atrociously expensive for commoners like them.

'...we oughta do that.' Ralph mused to Fey, his cousin. 'We've got time, right?'

'Yeah.' Fey nodded. 'We should use this time to wash everything we own and scrub ourselves silly on the week before summer.'

'Come to think of it, you're always clean.' Lutz noted as they're on their way home. Myne was always clean. She wears the same dress every day that gets dirty from forest work. But her hair and skin always remains clean even if she sweats a little.

'Well, we take a bath every Earthday.' said Myne. 'We're too busy to do it every day now...its frantic because of Baptism Day and no doubt it'll be just as crazy when its our turn next year...' she sighed.

Early Spring ended in three weeks, that its now time for fruits and vegetables season...

'Waaaaah!' her friends and other kids from different neighborhoods went starry-eyed.

With good reason.

Trees and shrubs they frequent for food, are full of food!

So. Much. Stuff!

'Let's go and get some! This year is awesome!'

"Well, you brats owe me big time for this!" Myne thought smugly as the rule was pick what you need for the day to be fair to everyone, and the rest is dedicated to gathering firewood for cooking. But still, it also makes her feel good that she's able to help poor kids who are likely, hungry most of the time.

Just why is everything damn expensive, huh?

Say for example, a fruit costs 30 rions. When it should cost less than that. Heck, a kilogram of bananas when she was ten years old ages ago costs 1 pound and 18 pennies!

xxx

'Oh, you can finally go out Tuuli?' Ralph was sparkling as Tuuli came out for foraging instead of Myne.

'Yes. Mom decided Myne should sew her own clothes so she has something nice to wear on my big day.' said Tuuli. 'Dad and mom have nice formal wear and she doesn't, so she has to sew one new outfit. She'll still grow, so she'll sew her new clothes this winter.' she explained. 'What do you guys think about Myne?'

'Your sister is sorta weird.' said Fey.

'Weird?!' Tuuli squawked. 'But since getting better she became a real sweetie!' as opposed to her jealous temper tantrums in the past because her fevers are painful and she's bed-bound as opposed to Tuuli living freely and no pain...

'Well...' the boys exchanged looks.

'Tuuli, have you gotten the feeling that Myne knows a lot? Like, too much?' Lutz asked her. 'Or has she done strange stuff since getting better?'

Tuuli thought about it as they walked together.

'Well, other than becoming better in attitude since she's no longer having painful fevers, she was horrified with our old food. How we used to cook it.' said Tuuli. 'She complained its too salty or too sour, wondering if we're eating pickled vegetable soup. Dad laughed because there's no way we'd eat something so yucky. But to Myne, our food made her tummy hurt. She swore to find a way to make food taste better after hearing from mom how food is made...and she discovered what I shared to you guys and life got a lot better since!'

'Next was that she learns too quickly...what took me days took her a few bells.' Tuuli pouted. 'Then again she was looking whenever mom teaches me...and during Winter Prep work? She manages to finish real fast somehow and spends the rest of the day sleeping! Making clean oil for lamps and making candles! And finally...her cooking...its not just soup...if I am a genius seamstress in my family's eyes, Myne's future is a genius cook and she'll make whatever restaurant she works for happy until she opens her own place...and she tends to be too focused on whatever she's doing at the time to the point she can't hear you unless you wave your hand in front of her face.' she finished wryly.

'But still, after years of being in constant fevers...' Tuuli sighed. 'She doesn't act the way we do and does her own thing. She listens to what she was told and knows nothing else beyond that...its a little weird, but we got used to it. Well, at foraging I'll be wearing my old dresses. Bad to get my new ones dirty...I'm to only wear them at work.'

And at home?

Effa had taken Myne to shops to give her an idea about the world's fashion.

For commoners, it was practical style. While for rich people, its indeed gorgeous, but it limits your movements too. As if saying, you can afford to be waited upon hand-and-foot wearing those.

Upon getting some ideas, they left the store, so Myne can get working.

She chose a yellow button- up shirt design, a dark orange jacket and a light-orange skirt.

'Alright, I'll get you the material dear.' Effa did just that, so she can get working.

"Uggh, sewing by hand's a real pain." Myne pouted. What she'd give, for a sewing machine when her mother is around!

She made the button-up blouse and her sleeveless jacket in one day. And the second day to make herself an a-line skirt. Not a circular kind, lest she go Marilyn Monroe on a windy day, while still functional enough to help her run when needed.

'My girls will make lovely wives one day! My two daughters are good at sewing their own clothes!' Effa squealed in pride and joy, admiring the stitches on Myne's work when she turned it inside-out. So neat!

Tuuli beamed at the praise, while Myne felt overwhelmed because...well...nobody EVER praised her for HER work...it was only ever comparing her to her parents. Either that, or she never matched up. Even Moony and Padfoot. Everything she's done was always attributed away so she stopped trying in public, and only doing her best for herself in private.

But to be praised by a PARENT with genuine pride and joy for her own efforts? She had to rely on magic to avoid crying on the spot even if she beamed like Tuuli did.

But being acknowledged for her own efforts...had quite the effect on her.

xxx

For many days, Myne released her magic, as Compressing it till she was full took a toll on her she feared she'd explode in the city. So she fed her mana through spring in the forests. Resulting in very happy children. She stole expensive stuff from the shops only the rich can go to such as spices and planted them around, so she and her family have access to high-class goods. She has used the equivalent of allspice and bay leaves as these were commonly used in Britain by homecooks, not restaurant-cooks. And she can get away with this world's equivalent of those two things, along with peppercorns.

Spices of this world, can deal with all sorts of inflammatories...and clean fat from blood. WOW. And in a world like this, your state of health, depends on your cook's knowledge. Because peasants hardly eat meat, they like, have 2% of body ills as opposed to the wealthy who can enjoy meat every day, getting all the bad bits of a 'gourmet diet'.

'What a haul! Everyday is always what a haul! What changed?!' Fey was so happy as the kids happily walked home with full baskets.

'I don't know and I don't care as long as we have so much food!' Ralph chimed.

'Full stomachs...every day...' Lutz sounded dreamy. Myne really wonders now. Artisans are richer than Military Families, so why did Lutz say those words? Back in the day before Deid got injured, Lutz' family earns nine large silver, and apprentice carpenter boys in Zasha and Zeke earn pretty high too. And they own a chicken farm!

So yes, that's baffling.

Not only that, the boys also took to washing their clothes on Earth Day now too, and hanging them to dry in a different area from Myne's group of only girls. And then on the month before Tuuli's big day?

'You want me to make such a small comb not even you can use?' Gunther looked perplexed. It was an odd request as it was meant to be inserted into braided hair securely so the design and size his daughter requested is a little weird!

'Yup. On her big day I want to make her a hair accessory. But I need that bit but I can't do that...I'll be making the actual accessory with stuff I got from mom, I just need that small comb to attach it to with edile juice.' said Myne. 'A bit thick and strong enough to support 'flowers'.' she said, making quote marks in the air.

And at home?

Effa got the strips of fabric Myne requested. At a dark blue and a sky blue shade of colors, along with white.

What she did with it? Ribbon Crafts. She made flat ribbon roses and white ribbon curls, and sewed it all together and Effa watched her youngest at work to see how it'd turn out, and she had no idea such a thing was possible, when Myne was done with it. The tough part, was the ribbon curls that had to be carefully sewn by hand. The plan was a surprise for Tuuli that she was mostly, on her 'last month of foraging' while Myne stays home for House Work.

It was also during spring, that the girls take daily baths with their Parue Soap on times before the gate closes, as they take baths by the river.

Like their parents before them, their skin became shades fairer as much as their genes can afford them and evened out their skintone. Skin became smooth and baby-soft! Filthy, ruined fingernails became healthy and whole that they have to trim well with nail filing as nail clippers are expensive only the rich can afford. And nail filing, takes time.

'Wah, I can't believe this is me with Parue Soap after a month of use...' Tuuli croaked out as she looked at her reflection after dressing up into clean clothes.

'Yup, that's us. Cleaning sure makes us prettier to look at.' Myne giggled as they picked up their hung laundry. 'Tuuli will be the prettiest in her baptismal year!'

'Oh, don't be so silly~' Tuuli sputtered, going pink-faced from the flattery.

'Spend all night filing your fingernails OK? You have to look neat, too.' Myne told her.

'Right!'

And after dinner? Myne showed her gift to her sister. It was a gorgeous hairpin.

'So that's what you did with the weird comb you asked of me! It's so cute!' Gunther exclaimed, admiring the ribbon flowers arranged strategically so that two shades of blue stood out in Tuuli's hair.

'T-that's mine?!' Tuuli squeaked as it looked like a high-class accessory. It was both cute and beautiful! And because she was a summer baby like her sister, she has to wear blue somehow as an accessory. For Myne, well...no need. Her hair is blue! She'd wear an accessory that will stand out somehow.

'It was hard!' Myne sighed a long sigh as she remembered that its easy to plan, putting it into action is NOT! 'You will wear this on a special braid tomorrow morning. This is a ribbon flower hairpin! Mom will cook breakfast tomorrow so I can focus on your hair after you put on your dress. This type of braid is a little tricky it'll take me time so I can't cook.'

'It has to be non-messy so Tuuli's dress won't be ruined by food spill...' Effa fretted out.

'Scrambled eggs and pancakes.' Myne recommended. 'No soup till Baptism is over!' was her declaration as spilled soup is bad luck already on an important event.

Apparently, children until baptism day, are considered 'do not exist'.

This is because mortality rates for children are VERY HIGH, even for the rich. They thus consider age 7 as 'strongest'. Thus baptism happens at age 7, to officially recognize them as citizens as they were strong enough to live that long. Its the same law everywhere. Thus for their first six years of life, their parents are solely responsible for their kids. Anything happening to them until age 7, its unspoken that nobody's gonna give a damn.

Well...malnourishment due to how people cook their food IS the problem...people of this world are so short, that the tallest is 5'5 in men, and 5'1 in women. Peasants barely get by thanks to Parue Fruit if they can get any!