Chapter 44: 44

Job-hunting

The sword dance was said to be a procedure to imbue a sword with magic power.

It was meant to strengthen the sword and was a more difficult technique than just releasing magic, but it had nothing to do with Sheila, who had no magical power. Therefore, she was exempted from the class.

She suddenly had free time.

Claushezade told her to work hard on her studies, but the first thing that came to mind was finding a job.

Sheila had been putting a lot of effort into redecorating Claushezade’s room, but she always felt bad about doing it with the allowance Felix had given her.

She thought it would be a good opportunity to find a way to earn money in the royal capital.

Sheila’s specialties were hunting and making medicine. That’s why she would like to find a job where she could make use of them.

‘Previously, Zechs said that the medicine made in the village has value.’

The recipe wasn’t a secret like the spiritual arts. It wouldn’t be a problem to wholesale it to pharmacies.

So, Sheila holed herself up in her room and spent endless hours decocting the medicine.

The medicinal herbs she had previously collected in the mountains were moderately dried, so she knew she would have to prepare a batch of medicines at some point. This free time was really convenient.

The sound of the herbs being ground quietly hit the room. The strong smell of the herb, which increased as it was crushed, became addictive.

Sheila suddenly paused and remembered the other day when Wilfrecht spoke to her. The prince, whose presence was as beautiful as it was made out to be, contrasted with his lonely appearance.

Though she was quite far from the training hall, she could hear the special courses being taught. The sound of sword fights and the noisy voices of the students.

Wilfrecht’s loneliness might be like listening to his friends’ laughter in a dimly lit room.

After decocting everything, she wrapped it in a medicine packet without mixing it. Now that she had a good amount, all she had to do was to distribute this to the pharmacy.

Sheila cleared her mind, stood up, and began to prepare to go out.

◇　◆　◇

She had never been to a pharmacy before, although she was used to walking around the royal capital.

She had looked in every store along the central street so far, but she didn’t recognize any stores that dealt with medicines. Was it located off the street?

As she proceeded while asking passersby, the number of people was getting fewer and fewer.

The backstreets of the royal capital were quite deserted.

There were many cracked cobblestones and even some areas that had been peeled off and left as they were. The space between buildings was narrow, and not much sunlight reached them. She walked through the dimly lit alleyways, feeling a bit uneasy even though it was daytime.

When she reached the outskirts of the royal capital, she finally saw a pharmacy.

The door, which seemed to receive very little customer traffic, was completely rusted at the hinges. The tiled exterior walls were so deteriorated that it was hard to tell what color they had originally been. The ivy-twined windows made it impossible to see inside.

After pacing around the store for a while, Sheila put her hand on the door with determination.

When she opened the door, which made an eerie sound, she smelled the scent of medicine. Behind the simple counter, there was a row of small, square medicine cabinets. The interior of the store looked like a decent pharmacy.

There was a person inside the store.

A woman in her twenties or so, wearing an apron dress, looked back.

She had shiny brown hair that reached down to her waist and scarlet eyes. She was a strikingly beautiful woman with tall stature and a waist so thin it looked as if it might break. Her drooping eyebrows and eyelashes smoldering her eyes were ephemeral.

Slightly nervous, Sheila entered the store and bowed her head.

“Hello.”

The beautiful woman smiled at Sheila’s greeting.

“――Hello, lovely kitten.”

Sheila’s expression froze as she realized that the beautiful woman’s voice was lower than expected. Somehow, she felt like it was too low.

“….. Huh? Are you a man?”

When she asked straightforwardly, the presumed woman puffed out her cheeks cutely.

“Oh my, it’s rude to ask a woman her gender, you know?”

“I-I’m sorry.”

She remembered hearing that it was rude to ask someone’s age, but apparently, it was also rude to ask someone’s gender. At any rate, she had to apologize.

The woman-like person stood up gracefully and slowly approached Sheila. Sheila wasn’t uncomfortable when the woman lifted her chin, perhaps because of her appearance, or perhaps because she was too careless.

The person, who was far more feminine than Sheila, smiled at her.

“You’re not so different. You’re an incredibly pretty girl, but you dress like this.”

“Oh, no, I’m not.”

Sheila was in turmoil because she was easily recognized. This was the first time she had been detected in one shot.

A well-manicured finger was placed on Sheila’s lips.

“I’m sure you have your reason, though. It’s okay, I won’t ask any more questions. A good woman doesn’t pry too much.”

She was very attractive as she winked.

“Thank you very much. Actually, I want to wholesale medicine ingredients.”

“Oh my, so you’re here to discuss business. Of course, you are welcome here. This way, please.”

As she led Sheila to the counter, the hypothetical woman looked back at her.

“Oh, yes, my name is Amy. Nice to meet you.”

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“Ah, my name is Sheila Danau. Is that your real name, by the way?”

“It’s. a. secret.”

It was probably not her real name. Sheila wasn’t exactly a good woman, but she decided not to pry.

When she offered her the medicine packet, Amy tied up her hair and rolled up her arms to examine the ingredients. Her appearance leaned more toward males when she was near her.

When she put her nose closer to check the smell, Amy looked somewhat complicated.

She scooped out a spoonful, dissolved it in water, and dripped the solution onto a piece of paper that she pulled out of the drawer. The paper looked no different.

Amy, who had been staring at the piece of paper with serious eyes, placed a very small amount on the tip of her tongue. While she savored it as if scrutinizing it, Sheila laid out her medicine packages one after the other.

“This is barrenwort, this is five-leaf akebia, and this is dogtooth violet. If you don’t want to go through the trouble of refining it, please consider buying it.”

Amy raised an eyebrow as she finished carefully checking all of the medicine packets.

“Hmm, I’m stumped. It seems that there are many medicinal herbs that you brought that I have never dealt with. They probably aren’t available anywhere in the royal capital.”

“I-Is that so?”

Amy’s words made her break out in a cold sweat. If she didn’t buy it, all of her plans would fail.

Sheila was afraid that the deal would be off, so she desperately tried to sell it.

“Um, but they all work really well. My friend Zechs Gallant, who is the son of a merchant, also said that they are more effective than the medicines in the capital.”

Amy responded to Zechs’ name.

“Oh, my. It has the seal of approval from the son of Gallant’s merchant family. Then, I can rest assured about it.”

“Oh…. though, he’s only the fourth son who is aiming to be a knight.”

“Every child in the Gallant family is learning about business. You can’t go wrong with their keen eye.”

“I see……”

She had taken him at his word when he said he was the son of a little merchant family, but perhaps his family was quite well known in the capital.

When Sheila was inwardly feeling shaken, Amy put her hand on her cheek and sighed.

“However, I’m really confused. You can’t make medicine with just the ingredients you have here, can you?”

Certainly, it would be difficult to make medicine with only the ingredients brought in.

Sheila was also troubled by the problem in front of her.

“Well, it would be nice if there was daylily….”

“Oh, my. I have some at home.”

Amy suddenly looked up. Her eyes, a mixture of orange and red, were somehow sparkling.

“You know, I have a suggestion. ――Would you like to work here?”

“Eh?”

Sheila blinked her eyes at the unexpected words.

“I’m interested in your pharmaceutical skills, which are recognized by the Gallant family. It would be a waste to just wholesale the ingredients. You’ll have to mix them one by one according to the customer’s constitution.”

The idea seemed to be coming together in her mind as if it was somehow finalized.

However, with all due respect to Amy, who was happily talking about it, Sheila had a problem.

“But it’ll be somewhat difficult. I also have to take supplementary classes…”

When she bowed her head in apology, Amy waved her hand to tell her not to worry about it.

“Of course, I won’t ask you to come every day. It would be great if you could come twice a week, after school and a little bit before dinner. It would be very helpful if you could come on a lunar day once in a while, but work is prohibited at the Royal Academy in the first place.”

“――Eh?”

That was unexpected. She came here on a whim, so she didn’t check it with anyone else, but that meant even wholesale businesses shouldn’t be allowed to operate.

‘She even knew the academy I attend…. I know I said I wouldn’t pry, but I think she knew most of what was going on….’

Scary. She felt like she was being rolled around in the palm of Amy’s hand.

“You know what, I’ve come up with a great idea.”

She clasped her hands together in front of her firm, heaving chest and smiled like a pretty maiden.

However, the glint in her eyes told her that she wasn’t smiling. Shayla felt a twinge in the back of her neck, as if she were a small animal being preyed upon. A chill ran down the back of her neck with a bad feeling.

“It’s okay as long as no one knows that you’re Sheila Danau, a student at the academy, right? In other words…. ――Let’s dress up as women, shall we?”

“… What?”

“If you insist on dressing like a boy, I won’t force you. But if you dress like a pretty girl, I don’t think anyone will notice.”

Amy took the stunned Sheila’s hand.

Her hands were well-groomed and feminine, but very large, and in the back of her mind she realized that Amy’s gender was male.

“You can make money without the academy knowing and I can use your pharmaceutical skills to sell better medicines. On top of that, being able to dress up a pretty girl…. Oh, how wonderful! It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement, don’t you think?”

Amy moved her face closer to hers.

Even though she was smiling, it was probably not possible to escape.

Sheila realized instinctively.

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