Getting Work

Soon after, Carolyn saw Mila coming out of the kitchen with her order.

"Here's your order."

"It looks delicious. Thank you, Ms. Mila."

With a simple nod in response, Mila left to serve other tables while Carolyn looked at the food spread in front of her. There were three food items on the table: a bowl of chicken soup, a plate with roast beef, and a plate of bread. Carolyn started with the soup and was pleasantly surprised. In her experience, chicken soup was often either too salty or bland, but this soup was able to hit the right balance. With her expectations raised, Carolyn went for the roast beef next, and she wasn't disappointed. She had to put in a bit of effort to chew, but she was rewarded with meat juice that was almost like a drink in itself. The bread had the same taste as she was used to, but she could get free refills, so that was another high point.

She was so captured by the flavours that if she didn't catch Mila out of the corner of her eyes, she would have forgotten about watching her. Even if just to eat food like this for longer, Carolyn became more determined to get employed here.

Unless someone troubled her, Mila handled all her tasks with effortless indifference, at first glance at least. Upon watching her more intently while eating, Carolyn discovered that the true emotion behind her movements was not apathy, but confidence. It wasn't as if she never made any mistakes. Though the mistakes she made were minor, when she apologized for those mistakes, she was sincere but not deferential. While some might argue that she should be more humble as a customer service employee, Mila never slacked in completing her duties.

Thanks to Mila, Carolyn believed she was just one step away from finding what she was lacking, but before she knew it, she had already finished eating.

"It seems I don't need to ask if you liked the food."

"? Oh! Yes, your recommendation was great. Thank you, Ms. Mila."

"No need to thank me. Are you turning in for the night?"

"I, guess so. Oh, but I was hoping to wipe off first. Could you show me where to get the water?"

"Oh, the well. Can you give me a couple minutes first?"

"Sure."

"Okay. I'll be right back."

Carolyn knew her skin wasn't thick enough to stay in the tavern and keep watching Mila, so she hoped to make the most of this remaining time. Carolyn had yet to notice, but after Margaret called out Patrick, there were significantly fewer lustful gazes directed at her and even the ones that remained were intermittent. Still, she would need to find that missing piece before she could overcome the discomfort associated with these gazes.

After bringing out a few orders and talking to Margaret, Mila returned to Carolyn's table.

"Follow me."

Carolyn got up and followed Mila to a door next to the kitchen. The door had to be unlocked by a key that Mila had, so it looked like she would have to ask for permission each time she wanted to use the well.

"There's a bucket you can use. If you want to fill something bigger, then I suggest waiting until the tavern is closed, since we'll need to make multiple trips."

Outside the door was a small fenced lot with a few trees at the back, a small shed on the left and a well in the center. In villages, wells were rare natural resources, but artificial underground water channels flowed beneath most cities, carrying water from the many rivers and lakes in the region. As a result, wells were common and only the most destitute wouldn't have quick access to water in one form or another.

Besides the background noise coming from the tavern, the only sounds were random clattering, the rustling of leaves and the blowing of the wind. There weren't any streetlamps nearby, so the only source of light was the crescent moon and round moon fragment. The origin of the moon fragment in the sky was a long disputed topic in astronomical and religious circles, but the only thing that was commonly agreed upon was that there used to be a second moon but that moon had been destroyed.

"Thank you. The bucket will do, but is it okay if I use this one?"

"It's fine; we have others. You can keep it in your room for the night and bring it back in the morning."

"Okay."

Carolyn approached the well with curiosity. She had used wells before, but the design of this city well was noticeably different from the ones in the village. The general shape was the same, but on top of the well was a device known as a hand pump. Carolyn had never operated one, but Hanson had described it to her before and praised it for being very convenient. The only reason the village didn't have any was because their distribution was strictly managed, so a hidden village wouldn't be able to get one without less than legal measures.

"This should be the lever? So I push, no pull."

Using the device was fairly intuitive, so after recalling what Hanson told her, Carolyn could get it to work with a few attempts and fill the bucket that was nearby. Carolyn then lifted the bucket and returned to the door.

"Will you be okay bringing that to your room?"

"Yes, I'll be fine."

Seeing that Carolyn wasn't struggling to hold the bucket, Mila believed her.

"Okay, you can go now. I need to replace the bucket."

"Right, sorry for the trouble."

"Don't mind it."

After passing by Mila, Carolyn headed straight to her room. She had to go through the tavern, but fortunately, she wasn't troubled by any customers. Once she reached the second floor, Carolyn planned on going to her door, but she paused when she noticed a secretive gaze from one of the rooms on the left. Through the small gap of an open door, she found the origin of the gaze, but the door was quickly closed before she could see who it was. She sensed that the person was merely curious about her, so she decided to pay a visit to her neighbour after putting the bucket in her room.

Once Carolyn placed the bucket inside her room, she went over to her neighbour's door and gently knocked.

"Hello, my name is Carol. I'll be living here starting today. Would you like to talk?"

"..."

Even after waiting for a while, Carolyn heard nothing from the other side of the door. Given that she first noticed this neighbour peeping at her, it wasn't a surprise that they didn't want to speak face to face. Still, it was impossible for them to stay inside their room 24/7, so she believed she would meet them eventually.

"Okay. I'll go now. I'll be ready to talk when you are."

Carolyn then returned to her room. She wouldn't leave for the rest of the night, so she wiped off her makeup along with the dirt on the rest of her body. This was her first time wiping off since leaving the village, so it was quite refreshing, but she couldn't go straight to bed.

After changing into a nightgown, Carolyn took a book from her bag and wrote about her recent experiences and thoughts inside it. Though it was in a different format, Carolyn took inspiration from her mother and had her own diary to help organize her thoughts. Writing it down made it clear that a lot had happened in just two days, but she also felt that there were many things she could have done differently. She had regrets, but she didn't let them stop her from looking forward.

"This is just the beginning. I'll probably have many more regrets going forward, but if I want to reach the truth, then I can only do my best."