Chapter 22: Is This First Love?

Around the time Louisa turned 10, a butler and maid came to the slums of Carruzan, both beautifully dressed. From the perspective of the residents, there was such a difference in social status that even mere maids and butlers seemed high up in heaven while they were on the ground.

Even though there was a class difference, it does not mean that such distance is determined by law. However, many of the butlers and maids who serve high-ranking aristocrats are the second sons and daughters of aristocrats who are valued less in their Houses. If you don’t have reasonably high education, you can’t work as a butler or a maid worthy of a higher aristocrat’s house, so naturally, those who serve such a House will also be of noble birth.

No matter how much Louisa is at an age where she’s prone to dreaming, she understands that a poor child cannot suddenly be employed as a nobleman’s maid like in a fairy tale. Even if it is out-of-sight heavy lifting or delivery work, those who go to such a House must be worthy. An unreliable courier or gardener would not be allowed into a noble’s home so easily.

Furthermore, there is no way that a slave or a poor man whose identity is unknown can become a maid who takes care of her mistress’s personal belongings. It’s a fantasy world that doesn’t take reality into account. While there may be spies and assassins sent by political enemies, there is no way to use uneducated people who may be rude to guests, let alone gain their employers’ trust.

However, that doesn’t mean that ordinary people can’t have a relationship with aristocratic households. If the count’s butlers and maids are from the viscount’s household, then those who serve the viscount’s household are from the baron’s household. Then what person would serve a barony or a knighthood? If there are no aristocrats below them, then those who serve them are from the commoners.

Of course, not just anyone can do it. Generally, the butlers and maids who serve the barons and knights are the sons and daughters of very wealthy families or wealthy merchants. Ordinarily, poor people can’t become noble servants. It’s only natural that you can’t serve unless you’re from a family that can educate their children at an early age and raises a well-mannered person.

However, on rare occasions, when it comes to knighthoods, there are cases where commoners or even those from the poorest are taken as concubines. Higher-ranking aristocrats also take them in as concubines at the least, but those are generally former high-class prostitutes. 1 In contrast, lower nobles who have more opportunities to interact with the commoners will have a first wife decided through a political marriage, but there are times when they fall in love with the daughters of commoners and take them in as concubines.

That’s why Louisa couldn’t say for certain that she had no chances of being courted by the son of a lower noble somewhere and becoming a concubine. However, to do that, it is necessary to have not only to have a beautiful appearance but also beauty inside. Other than that, if you don’t have special skills such as considerable magical talent, such a chance won’t come around.

And while Louisa was thinking about such things, a young, handsome butler and a fairly old maid were going around several houses in the slums. Although there were people called “Chiefs,” they are not gangsters or political leaders, but rather people who in modern Japanese terms are like the chairmen of a community’s board or homeowner’s association.

The butler and maid seemed to have visited several houses and talked about something, then left for the day. After that, it seems that the Chiefs gathered the surrounding adults and discussed something, but the details weren’t shared with Louisa and the others.

The butler and the maid in question had come to the slums several times and had discussions with the adults. Louisa is curious about the content, but she can’t help but guess what was going on unless they could tell her. One day, when she was living her daily life, her father and mother called her in to listen to the talks.

The visitors said that some noble person will open up a farm. It seems that the butler and the maid had come to recruit children to work on said farm. From Louisa’s family’s perspective, since they’re poor and have so many younger children of both genders, they want Louisa to go to work as soon as possible at her age. However, there are not many jobs that uneducated children from the poor can get, and even if they do get a job, it is normal to have a low salary and hard labor.

Louisa wondered why she hadn’t told her sooner that she had been offered a job on the farm, but after hearing the conditions, she was convinced something was up. The terms are too unreasonable and too suspicious.

According to them, the work is basically only for half a day in the morning. If for some reason overtime work is required, the employees would be notified and given additional wages.

According to them, child laborers are made to experience all of the work in order to learn the process, but they are not allowed to do heavy work that puts a strain on the body. If you have to do heavy labor, they’ll give due consideration to their physical condition by taking several breaks and changing shifts with others.

According to them, in addition to the children, retired veteran farmers are also being recruited at the same time. The old farmer’s main job is to guide and supervise the children, and heavy labor is not imposed. As part of guidance for the children, they are asked to demonstrate the work.

According to them, the employees will take a vacation once a week on a rotating basis. If you need time off other than your regular vacation day, let the employer know as soon as possible after you need it. Considering the situation and the work performance of the worker, consideration will be given as much as possible, but if it is absolutely impossible, a consultation will be required.

According to them, the salary will be based on the average daily wage of a farmer in Carruzan, and will be added after considering the work situation and labor ability.

Louisa doesn’t understand what they mean anymore. If you work half a day and get paid the same as other farm workers, then it’s safe to say that your wages are effectively doubled. Even Louisa knows that much.

Farm work generally starts early in the morning and the main work is done until noon. However, if it is a normal farm, there are a lot of things to do even in the afternoon. After finishing the day’s work and finishing preparations for the next day, it’s only natural that it would take until near sunset to end your work.

She doesn’t really understand the meaning of not letting children work hard, giving vacations, and paying extra allowances if they work outside the normal time. It is common to be forced to work hard from sunrise to sunset every morning on any farm. It doesn’t matter if you are a child or an old man as long as you receive a salary.

There are no holidays in agriculture. There is no way you could have a day off every week and not take care of the crops on that day. Both agriculture and animal husbandry deal with living creatures, and if you don’t take care of them every day, you will be in big trouble. Even if you have a lot of workers, you won’t hire a surplus labor force that just so you can give the first group such lax and leisurely vacation terms. It’s normal to only hire as many people as you need for as much work as there is then no more.

There are a lot of conditions that can only be said to be suspicious even if a child like Louisa hears them. No wonder the adults didn’t immediately jump on this offer. They can’t help but wonder if it’s some kind of unscrupulous aristocrat who gathers children under the pretext of farm work and is plotting something terrible.

Even among the common people, fairy tales that can’t even be called gossip are spreading, such as unscrupulous aristocrats gathering women and children to abuse or kill them. Most of them are just baseless myths, but there are also rumors of a daughter who did serve a noble family and went missing.

But, Louisa thinks about it. Even if the basis of this offer is a lie, if she can arrange a job on the farm, she would like to get a job under the same conditions as a normal farm. Children aren’t that good as part of a labor force, so they can’t get hired. And even if they are hired, their wages are low, and sometimes they overwork their bodies and break them.

In such a situation, she would appreciate it if she could just have a normal job arranged. There is no doubt that the conditions are too unconventional and shady, but staying at home will only become a burden on the family. If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go out to work even if it’s just a trial for Louisa. In the unlikely event that this story is a lie and someone gets involved in something, even if Louisa disappears, if she wasn’t working it will only make the household finances easier, and it seems that there will be no demerit.

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Of course, from her parent’s point of view, even if you say that she isn’t working outside the family and earning money, Louisa is taking care of her younger brothers and sisters, and also from their perspective, all their children are important. They don’t think it’s okay for Louisa to leave the home just because she’s not making money.

It’s just that the adults in the slums agreed to send the children to work on the farms, so they started talking to them. Otherwise, if they were going to refuse, they wouldn’t have gone out of their way to talk to them like this. Louisa’s parents were also reluctantly persuaded to let Louisa go to work, so they spoke to her.

Thus, Louisa and the poor children went to work on a newly opened farm.

On their first day at work, Louisa and the others were surprised when they were led out of the town’s north gate by a soldier who had come to pick them up. Before they knew it, an enclosure had been built on the north side of town which was supposed to be a barren grassland.

Louisa and other children were greeted by gentle-looking old men, who kindly and politely taught them how to work with brand-new farming equipment. The old people are relaxed and teach the work leisurely and gently, probably because they are being harried by their employers. It’s like grandparents playing with their grandchildren.

At first, the children were scared because they thought the soldiers who came around regularly were watching them, but they gradually got used to their presence. The soldiers patrol the northern forest and chase away wild beasts and monsters. They should be grateful to the soldiers who protect them, so they shouldn’t be hostile to or scared of them.

They can choose to be paid daily, weekly, or monthly, so families who need money immediately can receive it immediately in installments, and families who have a little extra money can receive it in a lump sum.

There is no delay in the payment of wages, and there are no demerits and reductions. Such a high-paying job would not normally exist. They had to say that they were lucky enough to get such a job.

In particular, many poor people have large families, so being able to go home after a half-day is helpful. In the afternoon, they can go home and take care of their younger brothers and sisters, which big help for both the parents and siblings. Life was incomparably easier, not only in Louisa’s house but also in any house that sent its children to work on the farm.

One day, while working on the farm, as usual, Louisa suddenly noticed that among the soldiers on patrol, there was one who looked like a small child. He stared back at Louisa as if he noticed her as well.

He’s a little shorter than Louisa, who is 10 years old, and his physique isn’t good either. He appeared to be blonde as far as her eyes could see, though most of his hair was hidden by his helmet. When Louis thought that his beautiful pale blue eyes were staring at her, he smiled and waved his hand.

Louisa’s cheeks suddenly became hot because he was like a doll or a handsome protagonist in a story, and she looked down without being able to turn away. The handsome boy followed the patrol soldiers to the other side with a disappointed expression on his face. Louisa sees the boy soldier off with deep regret.

About a week has passed since the handsome boy started following the soldiers on patrol. The boy always looked at the farm workers with interest. His curiosity suggested he wasn’t the son of a farmer but rather the son of a nobleman or something.

That day it happened that Louisa was standing by the road that ran outside the farm. Louisa didn’t mean to do that, she just happened to be working there at that time. However, Louisa was also a little nervous. That road is always on the patrol soldiers’ route, and they should be coming soon.

While Louisa was a little nervous as she worked, the usual patrol came from the west. As she watched off the patrols, which were divided into groups of their own, the last person arrived and caught Louisa’s attention arrived. And Louisa was upset by the unexpected development.

“Hey, you’re the girl I see all the time, aren’t you?” he said. “My name is Floto, a knight apprentice. You would be?”

No way. The handsome boy soldier that I was interested in stopped and talked to her. She thought it would be nice if she could see him up close, but she never thought he would talk to her.

“Ah, is it okay for you to be making conversation in a place like this? Aren’t your fellow soldiers already gone?”

She wanted to slap herself for blurting out unnecessary things about too many matters. Even though he took the trouble to talk to her, she couldn’t understand why she was being so hostile to him.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Floto said. “I told them I’d stay here from today onward.”

Hmm? From today? At first, Louisa didn’t understand the meaning of those words. After staring at the knight apprentice who called himself Floto as if he was just waiting for something, he turned red and averted his gaze.

“A-Ah, I’m Louisa. I guess I’m the leader of the children here,” Louisa said.

She thought she had said something unnecessary, but it was too late.

“I see. Nice to meet you, Louisa,” Floto said.

He held out his hand as if he was excited to see her. Louisa wondered if it was okay to touch his hands with her soiled, dirty hands, but she couldn’t ignore Floto’s dazzling smile and grabbed his hand.

Footnotes

Historically, this is true. Being a consort in certain noble courts afforded you incredible power and influence, not the least of which was because the people in more public-facing areas of power let their guards down and share intimate secrets with you in private.

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