Chapter 1: Daily life
I woke up early in the morning and looked around. Where was I?
I heard someone mumbling in their sleep and looked at them. Felt looks like she's having a good dream.
Wait, it wasn't a dream I really have been transported to another world.
I have to get used to this because this is going to be my new life.
I looked around to see where Rom was and I saw him at the counter wiping some plates and cups.
I got off of the bed and went towards him.
Rom noticed my presence and looked towards me.
"You're awake already kid," he said in a surprised voice.
I would always wake up early because my house was quite far from the school but it was a good school so Dad made me enrol there. So I got used to waking up in the morning quite early.
"Yep, do you need help with anything?" I asked.
If I'm going to be living here then I shouldn't be a freeloader. Everyone is doing something, I can't just be doing nothing.
"Can you help me wash the plates?"
"Ok," I replied.
I walked towards the sink and started washing the plates.
I stopped and looked at the sink curiously. How do these things work, do they work like modern taps but this world looks like it's in the past so it shouldn't have modern things. Is it powered by some kind of magic? I will ask about it later.
While I was humming the theme song of one of my favourite anime, It suddenly hit me. I don't even know what Rom does for work.
I wonder what Rom does. If Felt's a thief then what does Rom do?
"Hey, Rom,"
"What is it?" He asked while looking at me.
"What do you do for work?"
"This loot house is a bar in the morning. At night we get people who come here and pay me to evaluate things because I have an eye for these types of things."
So that's what Rom does. I wonder why people don't ask professional appraisers to appraise things. I'm not mocking Rom but he's from the slum so I wonder why people trust him because he could scam them.
"You're wondering why people ask me to appraise things," Rom said.
I flinched at how accurate he was.
"I knew you would be thinking of that. Well, the people who ask me to appraise things are usually from the slums so they can't ask a professional because they don't have enough money. And even if they do have money people from the slums usually steal things if they take it to a professional they would get caught. There are also other things like some appraisers discriminating against demi-humans and I'm a giant so the demi-humans trust me to be fair," Rom explained.
So that's why they trust Rom. Rom is one of them so they trust him not to sell them out. I also learned that Demi-humans are discriminated against.
I nodded my head and was satisfied with his answer and went back to work.
I spent 2 hours helping Rom clean all of the loot house. When we were done I couldn't help but feel a bit of pride because of how clean it looked. We also made sure to do it quietly to not disturb Felt and wake her up.
Felt started to wake up and opened her eyes. She looked like she was still half asleep and was yawning. She stretched her arms out to remove the stiffness in her arms. Once she was fully awake she looked at me and Rom, she looked at me with a surprised expression on her face.
"You really do wake up early and I thought I always wake up early," she said.
"I can't be slacking off and I always used to wake up early."
"Can I get something to eat before I head out?"
"Sure," Rom replied.
Does Rom need my help in making anything? I've never helped in cooking before but I want to try it.
"Can I help?" I asked.
I wanted to try cooking. I've never done it before.
"Do you know how to cook?" Rom asked.
"Ummm no," I said nervously.
Rom just looked at me then sighed.
"Well, there is always a first time for everything. Come help me cut the vegetables," Rom said.
"Eh! You're adding vegetables to it Rom-jijj, why!" Felt said in a whiny voice.
Even if she's a thief in the end she's still a kid. Now that I think about it I used to complain a lot about vegetables, especially peas. I hate peas. I can eat other vegetables now but I absolutely will never eat peas.
Those little green things are disgusting. I wonder if those abominations exist in this world.
"You have to eat your vegetables if you want to grow up with a healthy body," Rom said.
Felt clicked her tongue and went down to go eat.
Suddenly my stomach made a ridiculously large growl. I looked down and tried to cover my red embarrassed face from being seen.
Both of them just stared at me and laughed.
"So you're hungry as well…" Felt stopped mid-sentence."Wait, you've never told us your name!" she showed while pointing at me.
"Now that I think about it you've never told me," Rom said
Now that I think about it, yesterday Rom kept calling me kid. I didn't really pay attention at the time but I thought he just didn't want to say my name could. How I forget to tell them my name when I'm going to start living with them. Stupid Subaru.
"My name is Natsuki Subaru and I am 11 years old. Nice to meet you," I said.
I would use Dad's cool pose right now but I haven't mastered it yet. Well, one day I will master it and be able to do it perfectly.
"My name is Felt well you already heard it from Rom-jiji yesterday since you did say it." She said,
"You have a name that's foreign to this land. It sounds like kararagi. Are you perhaps from there?" Rom asked.
"Nope. My homeland is east of here," I said while shaking my head.
They both looked at me with a sceptical gaze.
"Hey even I know this but Lugunica is the most Eastern country on the map,"
"Seriously!" I shouted.
They both nodded their heads.
"Well, we can talk about where you come from another time. It's not like you have to tell us. Anyway, let's eat."
I thought they would have been mad at me for not telling them but they really are kind people.
My stomach started to growl lightly this time. Now that I think about it I never ate dinner and then I got teleported to another world so it makes sense why my stomach is growling.
I helped Rom set the plates on the table and Felt got the fork and knives.
Once we finished putting everything on the table we sat down and started eating.
"Itadakimasu."
Both Felt and Rom looked at me weirdly.
"What?"
"What does that even mean?" Rom asked.
"It's a culture from my homeland. It means to eat and receive. It's a way of saying thank you towards all those who made it possible for me to eat these foods," I answered
"So you're saying thanks to everyone. I really don't understand why." Felt said
"I'm quite surprised your homeland has a tradition like that but I can understand. Think about it like this. If there are no farmers we wouldn't be able to enjoy this meal or any merchants to deliver the food."
Once Rom explained it, Felt understood.
"Then I want to try it. Itadakimasu," Felt said
"Hmm guess I will try it as well even if it's nothing special. Itadakimasu."
We all started eating after we finished saying it.
"Hey Felt, I can tell your purposely avoiding your vegetables," Rom said.
Felt flinched and looked towards her plate. She picked up her vegetables with her fork slowly and ate the vegetables but immediately made a bitter face.
"It's disgusting!"
Rom started laughing at Felt's bitter face. It seems like they had a close relationship. I wonder how Rom and Felt met but they didn't question my home so I shouldn't question them.
"How can you eat all your vegetables?" Felt asked me.
"I was forced to eat them and I eventually got used to them," I replied.
"Is there anything you can't eat Subaru?" Felt asked me curiously.
"Those horrible little green monsters," I said in a serious tone while looking her in the eye.
Felt was surprised by how serious I looked.
"Green monsters. Those sound scary, why would you try to eat them and who would even make people eat them," Felt said.
"I have to admit they do sound quite scary but I would be able to kill them with my club."
"I don't know who thought it was a good idea to make it into food but don't worry about it."
We all finished eating our food and Felt stood up. She went over to one of the shelves to pick up a small dagger that fitted her hand. She probably used that for self-defence in case anyone tries to harm her. I got threatened with a knife so it's understandable why you would take something to protect yourself. She picked up her red scarf and wrapped it around her neck tightly so it wouldn't be loose. Felt headed towards the door and opened it.
"See ya. I'll be back by the afternoon today."
Felt said while closing the door.
Once Felt left it was only me and Rom in the loot house sitting together in awkward silence.
"Hey Subaru, do you know how to protect yourself?. Rom asked.
I looked at him with confusion because this question came out of nowhere.
"If you're going to be living in the slums now you have to have some form of protection," Rom explained.
"I know the basics of how to use a sword but only the basics," I said.
I got curious about what kind of sport Kendo is so I just did it.
"That's at least better than nothing. You need to work out your body, there is no way you can pick up an actual sword with those weak arms."
"Hey! I'll swing that sword before you know it," I started doing the action of a sword swinging.
"Is that so?" Rom laughed while looking at me.
I'll show him that I'll be able to use an actual sword.
"Do you know what your magic affinity is or if you have one,"
I'm not really that surprised that magic exists since things like divine protection and demi-humans exist.
"Nope I don't have a clue," I said while shaking my head. "Do you or Felt have one?" I asked
"I don't have one but Felt does. Her affinity is wind. She doesn't want to learn magic because they would charge her money to learn it and she's saving up to leave this place. So she relies on her divine protection instead of learning magic," Rom said.
So one of the elements is wind.
"Hey Rom, what are the all elemental affinities?"
"Geez, you don't even know what the elements are. Where did you grow up to not know the basics? Fire, wind, water, earth, yin and yang, those are all the elements." Rom replied
I ignored the comment about my lack of knowledge and instead asked about something else.
"What do yin and yang do the others are easy to imagine."
"Yin blinds your opponent and takes away their sense. It could be used to make a fight difficult. Yang enhances someone's offensive powers and has other benefits."
So they are just debuffs and buffs in game terms.
I should get a proper explanation of the other elements because they might be different from what I consider fire magic since this is a different world.
"What do the others do? I said it's easy to imagine but a proper explanation will be helpful." I asked.
Rom just laughed.
"Fire controls the temperature so it can create ice and fire. Water can poison things, heal things and also create ice. The wind is just wind. Earth magic has the power to manipulate earth but it can also duplicate things. I'm not sure about Yin but Yang magic can make attacks that work at lightspeed."
"Wait didn't you say it enhances someone," I said.
"People only see yang as enhancing magic because the true potential of it has been lost in history. I saw it over 80 years ago."
"80 years! How old are you?" I asked
"I'm 123. Giants live longer than humans," Rom said while laughing. "Well enough chatting customs are going to be coming in and you're going to help me today."
"Ok." I nervously said.
"What's wrong?"
"I know this is really selfish but I want to find out what my magic affinity is," I said.
Rom doesn't have a reason to check my affinity but I want to see what it is. If I find out that it's something useful then I might be able to help.
"Haha, so that's what it was. I'm meeting a friend in a week who's a mage, he would be able to tell you your affinity."
"Really!" I shouted with excitement in my voice.
"Sure. Let's get to work now."
Rom opened up the loot house and put an open sign at the front of the door, multiple people started walking in and sitting at the table.
I was going around and listening to the orders and writing them down on a notepad. One thing I realised is that most people are from the slums but it makes sense a normal civilian would go to a better bar. And another thing is that alcohol does not smell pleasant. I wonder why people even drink it.
I didn't complain about it.
"Hey Rom is this another kid you picked off the street like Felt," a drunk man shouted.
"He's probably using them to collect money in return for giving them shelter," someone else shouted.
What the hell do these guys know about Rom. They don't know anything about him so why are they making assumptions. Rom saved me and gave me shelter and never asked me to pay anything.
I gripped my hands and bit my lips but didn't say anything.
"Yeah, yeah just shut up," Rom said nonchalantly.
Rom brushed it off so easily. Is he used to this kind of treatment? Why does he just dismiss it?
Rom just looked at me and shook his head. I could tell that he's telling me to ignore them. I continued doing my job and ignored all of the bad talking towards Rom. I even heard them talking bad about Felt.
I don't understand why adults are talking bad about a girl who is only 9 years old. Is everyone like this from the slums. I'm glad Rom was the one who took me instead of these bastards.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone trying to steal a sword hanging on the wall. They didn't look drunk and I could tell that they were trying to steal.
"Hey!" I shouted at him.
This caught Rom's attention and he looked towards the guy and bought out his club. The guy immediately ran out of the loot house. Most people are afraid of Rom because of his strength as a giant.
"Good job kid catching that guy," Rom said.
"Does this happen often?"
"I wouldn't call it often but it happens around 3-4 times a week. Some of the other people of the slum try to steal from me to get money," Rom explained
"I thought you said that people of the slum work together not steal from each other."
"There are some that just go around stealing things from others and don't care about the damage they do. We can talk about this later, let's get back to work."
For the next few hours, I worked and I managed to ignore the comments about Rom and Felt. They still make me mad but at least it doesn't show on my face.
When the last person left the shop Rom removed the open sign off of the front of the door and took it inside.
"So how was your first day working here? Was it too difficult for you?" Rom asked with a smirk on his face.
"It's not difficult at all. I can go twenty more times and still be fine," I said.
I want to ask why Rom is being treated like that by the others but I feel like I shouldn't ask. But if I don't ask right now then I will never get the chance to ask.
"Hey Rom."
"What is it?"
"Why were they treating you like that?" I asked.
"Ah that. That's because they're jealous."
"Jealous?" I said while tilting my head.
"Felt has a divine protection that helps her steal but they don't have anything like that. That's why they talk bad about her." Rom said.
Ah so in the end it's because of jealousy. Rom said having a useful divine protection is rare and none of them has anything like that so of course they would feel jealous.
"It's also one of the reasons they try to steal from this place," Rom said.
That makes so much more sense. The only reason they go to Rom's bar is probably because it's a big bar in the slums.
Bam! Suddenly the door went wide open and Felt came in with a happy smile on her face.
"Look here Rom and Subaru today I got a big haul!" she shouted while holding a bag of money.
We both smiled at her and all the gloomy atmosphere was gone and we were all smiling happily.
This is going to be my new daily life.
To answer a few questions you might have I'll be explaining things a little here. Some of this might contain spoilers so pls read at your own risk. If you're wondering why Felt isn't using big bro that's because she's closer to the older Subaru because they went through a life and death battle with Elsa and this Subaru she's only known for one day. You might be wondering how does Rom know about jiwald. Rom was active in the demi-human war and was one of the leaders. Jiwald is a yang spell that is lightspeed heat ray if you're wondering what it is. I don't think I need to explain anything more.
