Chapter 6: Laying Low

It’d been a few days since I had begun my trip to the neighboring country’s capital. Luckily for me, I happened to get a lift from another kind merchant. It was times like these where it was really useful that I look way younger than fifteen. Oh, hey, maybe I’d even be able to stretch out my time looking to get hitched at this rate.

That gatekeeper guy was really nice, though. To be honest, I already had plenty of water and food in my Item Box, but it was so sweet of him to be worried about me that I just took it without saying anything. I’d have to make sure and thank him somehow, when I got the chance.

The merchant I was riding with said he happened to own a shop in the capital, but he’d occasionally leave and do business on his own to gather more information, as well as to not forget the basics of his trade. Yep, that was pretty much what every merchant should aspire to. It seemed like the guy would leave his son in charge of the shop while he was gone, but that same son told him to stop going on these trips because of how dangerous it was for him.

I was bored, so I’d moved up to sit next to the merchant so I could chat with him. He was a resident of Grua, the capital of Balmore, so I definitely should get something useful out of talking to him. Grua was on my list of places I might want to settle down, so I had to find out all I could about it.

“Oho, so that store’s sales actually dropped, you say?”

“That’s right. People weren’t seeing the prices as half-off on the weekdays; rather, the prices were double on days off. They called the normal prices a rip-off, since they figured that store was able to make a profit selling things at half-price anyway.”

“I see...”

The merchant was pretty interested in my story about a certain fast food restaurant that went under in my past life (I guess that’s what you’d call it?) in Japan, so we worked out a deal where I would tell him more business horror stories from back home, in lieu of paying for the ride.

“So even though the store was trying to get rid of their leftover food by offering huge discounts on it all right before closing, all their customers would just wait for the discounts without actually buying anything.”

“Hmm... So it’s just like I thought.”

Oh, has our merchant friend thought about giving discounts right before closing shop for the day? Then maybe I’ll tell him about this next...

“I see... So since they offered that sort of service, it made those deal-seeking customers, who they couldn’t make a profit off of, stay longer, while the regular customers had no place to sit and left... Goodness, the service business is hard to figure out.”

Alrighty, let’s try talking about marketing next...

“Featured bargain items you use to draw customers in? Package deals?! That’s just an affront to the trade business itself!”

Well how ’bout that, he’s an honest-to-God businessman after all. I guess I’ll tell him about some more ethical business techniques then.

“Customer loyalty, you say? And you narrow down the type of customer you want? But if you do that, then won’t you end up losing a portion of your customers instead...? Wait, don’t aim for one out of a hundred, but for two out of ten? Tell me more about how that works!”

...Why is he the one asking me for more information here?!

She’s a pretty interesting gal.

The Abili Trade Company was said to be one of the most prominent enterprises you could find in the royal capital—and it also happened to be my company.

I’d worked my way up from when I was just peddling wares out of my one wagon, but found myself in a bit of a rut as of late. I began longing for the days where I had no money but had enjoyed getting out there and selling things, so I left my store to my son and went out on a bit of a trading journey. I was almost back to Grua when I happened to pick up a young girl along the way. She looked to be about eleven or twelve, and was strolling with barely any luggage to be seen. She said she was on her way to the capital as well, but where could she have been walking from while carrying almost nothing on her? Judging by the way she walked, it would take her much longer to get where she was going compared to any normal person. She had such a delicate-looking body that it wouldn’t even take a monster to finish her off... Maybe a single stray dog would be enough to spell the end for her. I had a daughter as well, so I couldn’t just leave her be.

There was space in the back of my wagon, but she seemed a bit bored, which was probably why she came and joined me up in the passenger seat. She asked me a whole slew of questions about the capital, and it sounded like she was looking for work there. The conversation eventually turned to the trading business, and she started telling stories about “stores she knew” or “what she heard from other people.” I was shocked, frankly. How did she know so much? No merchant worth their salt would tell some girl living out in the sticks these sorts of things so easily. She wasn’t just repeating these stories without understanding what they meant either—she understood why these things happened, and was even adding her own opinions on the stories. Not only that, but she had some pretty sharp takes on them too!

I hadn’t really thought about discounting things until now. It cost money to get inventory for the store, and you had to find a way to make reasonable profits off it all despite that. You also had to consider the trust between the maker, vendor, and buyer, as well. You couldn’t sell your products at too high or low a price; you had to find an appropriate cost for it. Any merchant should want to avoid doing anything to disrupt the flow of the marketplace. But what this girl told me about pricing and discounts had really captured my interest. There were things that reaffirmed my convictions about the trade business, and she also offered some very appealing ideas, as well. She kept saying she’d only heard these stories from someone else, but it was obvious there was some other reason behind why she knew all this. This was a girl for whom I could look forward to seeing what the future had in store.

If she’s looking for a job, then she should have no qualms about coming to work for me. I’m sure she’d happily accept as soon as she hears the name of my company. All right, that’s what I’ll do!

The wagon arrived at the gates to the capital. It would only be a few minutes until the two reached the end of the line to get inside.

“If you want, how about coming to work for me, Kaoru? The job comes with a place to stay as well, so you don’t have to worry about finding living arrangements.”

The girl thought it over for a second, before smiling and giving her answer.

“Thank you, but it’s all right. I’ll look for work on my own.”

“Huh? Oh, right, I haven’t said the name of my company yet! I may have been out on a trip for my own fun, but I’m actually the owner of the Abili Trade Company. That’s right: I’m the Johann Abili, head of Abili Trade!” he declared confidently, a big grin on his face. “Well? Surprised?”

“...I see. Oh, I have to register as a newcomer, so I guess this is where we part ways. Thank you very much for letting me ride with you. I enjoyed talking with you as well. Until we meet again!”

The girl hopped down from the wagon and walked away. Johann Abili, the head of the Abili Trade Company, could only watch in blank amazement as she did so.

“Um... The Abili Trade Company is said to be one of the most prominent enterprises in the capital, and is even famous in other countries, with tons of people who would love to work there... It’s the one place anyone from the countryside would love to get in with... You know, that...Abili...Trade Company...”

Johann’s voice gradually became weaker and weaker, before petering out entirely.

That merchant seemed like a pretty nice guy with a large shop, but working at a place like that means I’d have to start from the bottom. I’d probably just be loaded down with a whole bunch of busywork as a newbie, too. Pretty sure I’d have tons of coworkers and people working above me, so there’s a good chance I wouldn’t even get any time to myself. Seems doubtful I’d have any days off, either. I don’t want to keep doing menial labor my whole life here. I need to be out there gathering information and getting things in order so I can open my own shop someday, so I want to find a job that lets me be a little more flexible with my free time. Once I’ve done enough prep work, I need to start making a name for myself, and all sorts of other stuff to get my shop ready, too.

No matter how big and famous the shop may have been, if it didn’t match up with Kaoru’s goals, then there was nothing else to be said on the matter.

I’d made my way to the job-hunting agency in Grua.

Hmm, I wonder if there are any good ones here... I pondered to myself as I browsed through the available jobs.

A good while had passed since I began looking at the postings. I’d already gone to the receptionist to apply for two of them that would’ve been perfect, but she turned me down because she thought I was a minor. They weren’t even anything fishy, either...

There was a man doing office work here who saw me get rejected, and called out to the receptionist.

“Hey, Aria, how about recommending her that one job at Bardot’s place?”

“Oh, that one? Let’s see...”

The receptionist looks me over for a few seconds before calling out to me.

“How are you with housework, miss? Cooking, cleaning, those sorts of things.”

Mom and Dad both had full-time jobs, so I’d been doing chores and taking care of the house since I was in middle school. Just leave it to me!

“My mother was always working, so I’m great at housework and taking care of kids!”

“Great, then this might work out after all. I have a housekeeping job that comes with a place to stay, as well. What do you say?”

According to the receptionist, there was a small workshop that had put out a help-wanted ad for someone to basically come and work as a maid for them. Including the owner, there were five of them working there in total, and it was supposed to be a bit of a...“quirky” workshop. They weren’t bad people by any means, but none of the help they took on seemed to stick around for long. They would often come back to repost their ad, and the amount they paid in fees to the agency was nothing to sneeze at.

For the job itself, they needed someone who could cook, clean, do laundry, and other odd jobs around the workshop. Everyone besides the owner himself commuted there, but they would all eat at the workshop together, probably because it was too much trouble for them to go all the way home to make food for themselves.

It wasn’t supposed to be a job that kept you busy around the clock, and it sounded like I was free to do whatever I wanted, so long as I finished the work they asked me to do. I could go out and about during the day if I was done cooking, for example. They even gave the help days off too. It seemed like the workers would go out to eat on those days, or make do with what they had on hand. It sounded like they’d gone through a few periods of not having anyone to help out, so I guess they had learned to do at least that much.

But wait, seriously? This is, like, the perfect job for me!

“A pleasure to meet you. My name is Kaoru; I was referred here by the job-hunting agency.”

“Nice to meetcha. There’s no need to be so stiff at our place, so feel free to relax and be yourself,” the man said with a smile. He was Bardot, the current head of the Maillart Workshop, and I was incredibly happy to hear how lax he was with the formalities.

“Let’s call these next few days a ‘trial period,’ if you don’t mind. All those fees to the agency keep building up, since our new hires always quit right away, and they’ve even started letting us get extensions for paying them now,” Bardot said with a bitter grin. “Now, let’s get you introduced to everyone. If I’m being honest, just let me know anytime you think it’s not gonna work out. I’m already used to it by now, so it won’t bother me at all...”

“All right, I understand.”

Man, just how low is his self-esteem now...?

With that, he led me to the main workshop, which looked more like some sort of laboratory if you asked me. Then, the moment he opened the door...

“...Eugh...”

It reeks in here...

It smelled like sweat, B.O., chemicals...and like something was rotting. Seriously, did something die in here?

Next I saw four men, two of them currently sprawled out on the floor. One of them was middle-aged, two were young men, and one was just a boy. Well, I say “boy,” but I guess he’d be considered an adult here.

“Carlos, Alban, wake up. We’ve got a new potential helper who I need to introduce!”

The two of them jumped up at Bardot’s words.

““Thank the Goddess!””

“Hold it, this is just a trial run, got that? A trial run!” Bardot fired back, emphasizing the last part.

Beginning with the oldest, there was Carlos at thirty-two years old, Achille at twenty-one, Alban at nineteen, and Brian at sixteen. Everyone here was doing their best to become a first-rate engineer, apparently.

According to what Bardot had told me, this wasn’t just a workshop that made things to sell to cover living expenses. It was something more akin to a research and development lab for new gadgets and products. They weren’t getting any financial support for their work, though, so they’d also make goods they could sell to cover their research costs and make enough money for their everyday lives. They were all skilled at what they did, so the quality of their products was actually pretty good. The only problem was that they were a group of inventors who only cared about research, not profits, and weren’t suited to be merchants. As such, they basically had no money. And since they were a group of inventors, the concept of “working hours” didn’t exist for them. They could get so wrapped up in their research that they wouldn’t bathe or change clothes for days, would forget to eat and eventually collapse from hunger, and would even spend days on end in the lab. They never ran out of things to say when it came to their research, but were clueless on what was going on in the world.

Ah, I get it. I’m basically here to babysit the five of them.

I finally had an idea what my job really entailed.

After the introductions were finished, we moved right into Q-and-A time. A flurry of questions came from the guys, one after the other.

“Can you cook and clean and stuff?”

“I’m probably as good at cleaning as the next person, but I’m pretty confident in my cooking skills. I always cooked for my family, and the restaurant I worked at before this even decided to serve some of the dishes I’d made.”

The expectation in their eyes was at an all-time high.

“So when you’re cleaning, there are a few things we want you to be aware of...”

“Oh, like how everything looks messy, but you actually have it like that on purpose and know where everything is? Or that even things that look like scraps of paper actually have something really important written on them, so you don’t want me to throw them away? Or like how there’s plenty of dangerous chemicals here, so I shouldn’t try to smell, touch, mix, or toss them?”

“““Whoa...”””

“Um... Have you ever worked in a place like this before?”

“No, not really.”

“““...”””

“Erm, well... We lose track of time a lot when we get into our work, and sometimes we just forget to eat...”

“Aren’t all boys like that?”

The four of them turned to look at Bardot, their eyes brimming with hope. Even Bardot looked somewhat cheerful about the whole thing. It was like they were all thinking I might be the one to actually stay.

Yup, I already know plenty about how to handle boys, thanks to living with my dad and big brother.

Several days later, I was officially hired for the job, and the workshop had paid the job-hunting agency the fee for my referral.

I was knocking the cooking thing out of the park, if I did say so myself. I got better at recognizing the right time for when everyone was about to reach a good stopping point in their work, and in finding ways to get them fed, even if they all came in at different times. Eventually, I innovated (cough cut corners cough) and began making simple dishes like sandwiches and onigiri that they could eat while working on things in the lab, which made my job so much easier. I put my newfound free time to good use, doing things like walking around town and going to the library (going to the library was expensive in this country as well, so I didn’t really go that often, though). And thanks to the “Kaoru’s Special Deodorizer” I’d told them I made from fruit juice and tea and a bunch of other stuff, the horrible death-stench in the workspace became something actually tolerable.

Because of all that, I’d secured myself a place as an invaluable asset here in the workshop.

“Oh? Are you making something, Achille?”

One day, I’d spotted Achille working on something to sell to make a profit instead of his usual research, so I called out to him.

“Yeah, it’s a flask. Kinda like a canteen or something that you can put alcohol or other strong spirits in. I’m supposed to make it lightweight and sturdy, and make it out of something that won’t affect the taste of what you put in it. We should be able to sell the extra high-quality ones to aristocrats for a good price. That said, it’s a whole other story trying to make ones from metal with fancy decorations and stuff on them. What I’m working on here should be fine for normal, everyday use.”

Surprisingly enough, Achille was the only member of the workshop who was actually a noble. That said, he was only the third son of a viscount. He still had another older brother, should something happen to the oldest one, so there was an extremely low chance he’d succeed his father and take over the household. Because of that, and due to Achille’s decidedly un-aristocratic love of research and experimentation, his father allowed him to do whatever he pleased. That wasn’t to say he was being abandoned or ignored, though, but his father was allowing Achille the freedom to do whatever he wanted with his future. He got along well with his brothers, and loved his family as well.

A container, huh... Maybe it’s about time for me to make a move.

“Oh, that’s right. I happen to know someone who does glass work. They’ve never tried selling it, because they do it for fun, but they’ve always said they wanted to try selling something at least once. You think we could try leaving one of the containers they made on the workshop store shelf?”

The store shelf was where we’d leave our products for customers to see for themselves, or to display our workshop’s prowess in creating new goods. All the products on display had a price tag to go with them, so everything was indeed for sale as well. Since the workshop usually only made things to order, there was still plenty of space on the shelf.

“Hmm... I think it’d be alright, but you should probably ask Bardot if it’s okay.”

“All right, got it. I’ll go try asking him then.”

And just like that, I got permission to go ahead with my plan. This was a request from the girl who always worked hard, made delicious food, and, above all else, actually stayed. Anyone at the workshop seemed happy to grant almost any request I had for them.

“It’s...”

Bardot and the others were at a loss for words when they saw the glass container I’d made.

“It’s so beautiful...”

“The design and the craftsmanship goes without saying, but just look at how clear that glass is... Look at how it sparkles! Just what is this?!”

The workshop members were in shock over the glass container that my “friend” had made. It was a perfume bottle made of sparkling crystal glass that boasted an asymmetrical design and ended with an extravagantly large stopper at the top. The stopper itself was made to look like a winged goddess sitting on the lip of the bottle, and it was hard to tell if the bottle or the lid should be the main focus... No, scratch that—the stopper was definitely the main attraction here.

Crystal glass is created by adding lead oxide to the raw materials, making it much more translucent and sparkly than your average glass. It’s a bit of a misnomer to call glass “crystal” when it lacks a crystalline structure, but we’ll let that slide since it’s just the commercial name for the glass itself. Anyway, it sells for a much higher price than your average glass back on Earth, and it hasn’t actually been used in this world yet. Normally, it’s better to cut crystal glass instead of stretch it, since that’s the best way to bring out the natural sparkle it contains. It’s a fairly common practice not to do too much extra work to preserve that sparkle—but this container was different. There were a plethora of finer details worked into the glass, with almost every inch of it having been cut in some way.

“Kaoru... D-Do you think we could meet the person who made this?”

“Oh, the family of the girl who made this is pretty strict, actually. It seems like she made this in secret in-between doing work around the house. Besides, she doesn’t do too well around guys...”

“Sh-She did it...in her spare time...”

Ah... They’re more bummed out about that instead of not being able to meet my fake friend...

“Um, I can ask her to make more for us.”

Oh, they recovered fast!

In the end, we called off putting the bottle on the store shelf. We’d already seen the reaction it caused here in the workshop, and it’d be a problem if people thought all our products were made with this much detail and quality. That was why I’d decided to find a noble who might be interested in purchasing it, and had them buy it directly from me instead.

The results: I’d sold it for a whopping three gold coins. I paid six small gold coins to the workshop as a handling fee, which was about the price of a month’s worth of groceries to cook for everyone here (not including the price of the firewood I needed as well).

Not only did I have the power to create any medicine with the exact effect I wanted it to have, I could create any container I wanted it to be in, too.

Even if I can’t sell potions or use my modern-day knowledge, I can still make money!

And so, my peaceful days helping out at the workshop continued. I had plenty of money, thanks to the crystal glass I’d sell every once in a while, and I could go to the library anytime I wanted, now. My Item Box was packed full of supplies, so I could tackle any unforeseen circumstances that came my way. I had plenty of food, spare clothes, a knife, some flint, and even a warm blanket, to name just a few things. I was hoping nothing would happen, since I wasn’t planning on running away from anything right now. This was all just in case, though.

I’d finally gotten to the point I could say I knew as much as the average person living here, so all that was left now was to find someone who had my back and to carve out a place for myself in the world. It wasn’t like I hated how I was living right now, but I wasn’t planning on being a housekeeper my entire life here, you know? I’d been reincarnated in a whole different world with cheat powers, so I wanted to have a bit more freedom with how I lived my life. The one and only Goddess of this place had even told me it was all right to influence the world if I wanted to. First, I would play it safe and make a plan for myself. After that, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to be proactive and get myself some self-protection. It’d be nice if I could help people out with my potions somehow, as well.

I guess there was no rush, though. For now, I’d just wait for my chance to come...

One day, when Kaoru was cleaning the entrance to the workshop, a street urchin happened to pass by her. When they were gone, they left a balled-up piece of paper in their wake. She stooped down to pick it up before sticking it in her pocket. She was cleaning after all, so it was only natural for her to pick up trash.

What wasn’t natural, however, was what had just gone down.

No simple street urchin should have something as valuable as paper, and they certainly wouldn’t just toss it away as garbage. Kaoru went to the kitchen before taking out the scrap of paper and reading what was written on it.

“a mother and a kid in the slums. shes honest she gives everything to raise daughter. nobles hurt her really bad, lashed out at her”

The note was written in an untidy scrawl by the only one of the vagabond children who could actually write.

Kaoru suddenly had plans for the evening.

After I made dinner and cleaned up after myself at the workshop, I made some late-night snacks for later and left them on the shelf before changing into some comfier clothes. Everyone was so focused on their work they didn’t notice me quietly sneak outside. Even if they had, I was sure they’d let me off saying it was only a kid enjoying some nighttime fun.

After walking a bit, I saw a kid who looked to be a street urchin in front of me. I kept a good distance between us as I followed behind them. Eventually, I found myself with several other raggedy-looking kids trailing behind me. They kept their distance from me as well, keeping a wary eye on their surroundings. We walked along like this as we headed into the poor district of the city, eventually coming to a small shack of a house. The boy I was following stopped and gave me a signal, then went off to hide.

So this is the place...

I drank a potion to change the color of my eyes and hair, then put on a mask to hide my face, before donning a cloak and entering the shack.

“...Who is it?”

A little girl who couldn’t be more than five or six was on full alert as she warily responded to me breaking and entering. The tone in her voice showed she was prepared to protect her mother, who was bedridden due to her injuries, at any cost. A person had just essentially broken into their house wearing a mask and a cloak... Yeah, even I couldn’t think anyone else looked more suspicious than I did right now.

“Just a messenger,” I answered the little girl in a gentle voice.

“...A messenger? From who?” the girl asked back, not letting down her guard.

“Celes.”

“Celes? Who’s that?”

“Oh, right. Maybe calling her ‘Celestine’ might make it easier to understand?”

“Ah!”

There was no blasphemer in this world who’d name their kid after the Goddess, and there wasn’t anyone who would do evil in her name, either. She wasn’t just an imaginary concept in this world, but had actually made appearances here up until a few decades ago. She was a real god who’d come down, save people, and hand down divine revelations.

“I want to give your mom some medicine. Would that be okay with you?”

“Yes, please!”

The mother was lying on the floor, staying so still I couldn’t tell if she was sleeping or had lost consciousness. She looked to be in her late twenties, but I bet a native would say she looked about twenty-two or twenty-three. That was about the same age I was when I bit the big one back on Earth, and that was just when I’d gotten a job after graduating college. Here she was, working so hard to raise her kid, and she’d been beaten half to death just because an aristocrat was having a bad day?

Screw that! Like hell I’ll just let that slide!

“The righteous shall be healed by my hands!”

I raised my right arm into the air and summoned forth a potion in the shape of a mayonnaise squeeze bottle, filled with a red potion. I had the little girl lift the upper half of the mother’s body while I held open her mouth with my left hand, putting the tip of the bottle inside and gently wringing out its contents. The red liquid poured down her throat as the small girl gulped and watched me as I worked.

One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand...

Five one thousand, six one thousand, seven one thousand, eight one thousand...

“M...mmgh...”

“M-Mommy!”

“Ko...sha...?”

“Mommyyy!”

Right around the time Kosha stopped crying, the mother turned to look at me with a curious look on her face.

“U-Um... Who might you be?”

“Oh, I’m just a simple pharmacist. I’ll be taking my leave now that we’re all finished here. As for my fee...”

““What...?”” Kosha and her mother both turned pale.

I already knew they didn’t have money—but cash wasn’t the only payment method I took.

“All right! Then you can pay me by letting me poke and squish Kosha’s cheeks until I’m satisfied!”

““Huh?!””

“All done. Thanks for leading me here.”

“Then we’ll all be your escort on the way back to the workshop.”

“Right, I’m counting on you.”

“...”

Though he said that, Emile didn’t budge an inch as he stared right at my face.

“Something the matter?”

“...Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Why does your face look so smooth?”

“...It’s a secret!”

It had all happened a few weeks back. Kaoru was out in the marketplace doing some shopping when a street urchin had collided with her. She watched as the boy ran off without stopping before sticking her hand into her breast pocket.

Yup, it’s gone all right...

It should go without saying, but she’d just been hit by a pickpocket.

Though she looked like a child herself, Kaoru would go out into the town market every day to buy groceries. Anyone seeing the armfuls of food she’d bring with her on the way back could guess she had a decent amount of cash on her. Since she was only a little girl, there was no need to worry about getting caught and taken away even if someone flubbed an attempt to steal from her. She was the perfect prey for street urchins and pickpockets. It was times like these when the Item Box came in handy. She kept her real purse stored safely away in there, while having a fake tucked away in her breast pocket. As for what was inside it, well...

Kaoru leisurely strolled in the direction the boy had run off in. Getting pickpocketed meant the perpetrator would take the cash out of the wallet once they were safe, then ditch the wallet itself. Even if there were people who wrote their name on it beforehand, no one would ever write it on their money; there wouldn’t be any evidence left of the crime. That was why Kaoru had set up her fake wallet with something that happened almost instantly:

“AUUUGGGHHHHHH!”

There it is!

Kaoru followed the scream, finding herself face-to-face with a young boy clutching his right hand in agony. It was the same street urchin who’d bumped into her earlier. The boy’s right hand had swollen, taking on a ghastly shade of purple. It looked like the pain was as bad as it looked—which is what she expected, since she’d made the potion to do just that. Tears welled up in the boy’s eyes as soon as he saw Kaoru, pleading with her to help him.

Oh, fine...

Kaoru took a potion from her pocket and handed it to the boy, telling him to drink it. His hands shook as he downed the medicine, and the pain and swelling from his right hand were fixed almost immediately. She’d actually made it so the symptoms of her trap would disappear on their own after a few hours had passed, just in case the culprit managed to elude her. They’d have to suffer through the pain until that happened, though. Even if someone stole from her, it wasn’t like she wanted to cause them any real harm. At most, Kaoru wanted to traumatize them a little with the experience.

“Stealing from a god, are we... You must not care much for your life, boy.”

“Huh? G-God...?”

“You won’t be getting off with just this when I bring down my next divine punishment,” Kaoru said with a grin on her face.

“A-Ahhhhhh!”

The boy threw himself to the ground and prostrated himself before the girl as she placed her hands on her hips triumphantly. It was a very strange scene, the fiendish look in Kaoru’s eyes just making it seem all the more suspicious. If she just stepped on the boy’s head now, then...

...Wait, why did it turn out like this?

“I’d ask you what you’re doing stealing...but I think I already know the answer.”

It has to be so he can get himself something to eat.

“Actually, Belle hasn’t been doing so good...”

Uh-oh, someone’s sick... That changes things!

“Lead me there.”

“H-Huh...?”

The boy had no choice but to comply, leading me to a run-down house in the slums with crumbling walls and a dilapidated roof. Living inside this ramshackle home were an assortment of seven boys and girls. I guessed they wouldn’t really be street urchins if they actually had a place to live, huh?

When I asked who was sick here, they all raised their hands.

Got it, so that’s how it is.

“Everyone, line up!”

All the kids looked especially confused when I said that, so I had the boy who tried to pickpocket me earlier line them up for me since he seemed to be the oldest one of the group. Being eleven or twelve may be considered young here, but since I looked like around fifteen or sixteen, tops, there shouldn’t have been any problems with me putting him to work!

“All right, everyone come take turns getting one.”

I handed out an assortment of potions to cure various injuries and diseases.

“All right, and here’s another one.”

Next, I whipped up a potion to restore their deteriorated muscles and organs, and even improved their health as well. It looked like they were all suffering from a variety of different afflictions, and I thought it might be a bit overboard trying to squeeze too many effects into one potion, which was why I’d split them up into two instead.

“Huh...?”

“My leg doesn’t hurt?”

“I feel so light now!”

“My chest doesn’t hurt anymore...”

The children let out cries of surprise one after the other.

Hmm... What to do, what to do...

At this rate, they’d just end up right back where they started. This was only a way to stave off the inevitable. But would some girl working as a housekeeper be able to look after all these kids? Should I have just ignored them in the first place since it had nothing to do with me? I thought not. I wouldn’t have come here in the first place if I was going to do that.

I’d already said it myself, and I quote: “I wanted to have a bit more freedom with how I lived my life. The one and only Goddess of this place had even told me it was all right to influence the world if I wanted to. First, I would play it safe and make a plan for myself. After that, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to be proactive and get myself some self-protection. It’d be nice if I could help people out with my potions somehow, as well.” It was about time to do just that! Kaoru Nagase was the type of girl who avoided danger and always chose the safe way in life! (Though I did end up dead in some freak accident...)

So did that mean I was just going to repeat that same lifestyle again here? Was I just going to live my life protecting my close friends and family, even after I’d gotten these powers from the Goddess? Should I not get involved with other people?

That would be way too boring.

The old Kaoru Nagase was dead. I was a brand new Kaoru, given a fresh start in life here. I wasn’t the same “Kaoru Nagase” from Japan, but just “Kaoru,” a girl free to live her life the way she wanted in this world—and with permission from the Goddess who watched over this world, even!

“Listen up, kids!” I declared, placing both hands on my hips and sticking my chest out. “I’m Kaoru, a friend of the Goddess Celestine. She has given me free rein to do as I see fit and enjoy life in this world as a normal human.”

Nothing I said was a lie so far, but the kids didn’t really seem to get what I was talking about.

“Basically, she told me I can do whatever I want.”

Nod, nod.

“That’s why I want to offer blessings to those who are pure of heart, just like I did with you all.”

The children finally came to realize, tears in their eyes, that it was a miracle that all their ailments had been cured. Even though their fellow humans had abandoned them and treated them like nothing more than garbage, they’d received the blessing of the goddess.

“However, trying to find those deserving of these blessings without being discovered by those who’d want to take advantage of them is quite the task, considering I’ve taken on the form of a human myself. That’s where you all come in. How about becoming my assistants to help me out? As a reward, I’ll keep you healthy, while bestowing you with all sorts of food.”

The seven children all threw themselves down at my feet, and that was how I gained seven new members of my own personal defense force.

Afterward, Kaoru had made sure to tell the children to keep this a secret. If someone appeared who wished to use the powers of the goddess for less than wholesome motives, then divine punishment would befall the world, and Kaoru would have to return to the heavens. Even if the kids tried to sell her out for money, a truly evil person wouldn’t just pay for the information; they’d kill the children, so they’d be the only ones who knew.

Though Kaoru would cure them and give the children enough food to get by, she claimed that just providing them with everything wouldn’t make them successful people. She made sure to let them know that they’d have to work to earn anything other than that for themselves. The children had no reason to doubt her words, especially after having experienced her miracles with their own bodies. They turned away from crime and went for work running errands or other odd jobs to improve their quality of life. On top of that, they went around searching for rumors about pure-hearted souls suffering from injury or sickness, and served as the personal bodyguards to the goddess who’d come to the world as a human.

Kaoru had prepared herself a cloak and mask to hide her true identity. Though she was under the impression that it looked pretty cool, it was actually a little much. Like, enough to make a child cry if they ran into her in the middle of the night.

That was how Kaoru began working her miracles in secret. She used the information the children brought her to help those who needed it, one person at a time.

There was a rumor slowly spreading among certain people who lived in the capital:

Those who were righteous and pure of heart would receive the blessings of the goddess. You could never let anyone whose hearts were tainted by greed know of her existence, and you mustn’t betray the goddess. The eyes of the goddess saw everything.

Back at the headquarters for the secret organization, “The Eyes of the Goddess”—

In reality, it was just a busted-up house, the same one the seven kids were living in.

“You think we can stop with that name?”

“““Never!”””

They turned me down, even though I was supposed to be the goddess here...

Today I was extra lazy...er, ahem, very efficient...preparing meals for the workshop, so I thought I’d stretch my legs and head over to the slums to make dinner for the kids. They were always cooking for themselves, using a pot that had definitely seen better days, and the food they made was... I shouldn’t sugarcoat it—it wasn’t good. That’s why I thought it was nice to do this every once in a while.

After dinner had wrapped up, they gave me their report. I’d already told the children how I was enjoying my life here, and they could just speak with me normally, as long as they kept my secret. Basically, they could just think of me as a nice girl who would cook for them every so often.

“So that merchant’s daughter is sick, then. But they must be pretty rich, right?”

“There are some things you can’t fix with money. Besides, they’re a really good person,” insisted Emile, the leader of the ragtag group of kids, the one who’d tried pickpocketing me. Anyway, he made a good point. “This guy is always down here in the poor district offering food for everyone, but he always says the same thing: ‘I’m nothing but a hypocrite. I only enjoy the self-satisfaction I get from this sort of charity work. I could get used to this feeling of superiority!’”

Oof... I mean, uh... They sound like a good person...I think?

It was the dark of the night when I knocked on the back door of a certain merchant’s house.

“...Who is it?” a woman’s voice answered in response.

“A thief, put ’em up! No, but seriously, it’s the pharmacist.”

“...Ah... Please, come inside.”

It’d be impossible for an amateur like me to try sneaking my way into a big-name merchant’s house, so I made sure they knew I was coming. That said, all I did was give some spare change to some random kid to deliver a letter to them beforehand. There was pretty much nothing more suspicious than that.

But as the doting parents of a sick daughter, they were grasping at straws looking for solutions, and I was supposed to be coming alone. Even if they were on high alert and had a guard or someone here, I figured they’d at least let me inside. If they knew their visitor was a child, I thought that’d make them a little less on guard...or it could have made them even more suspicious.

I had a backup plan in case they tried to catch me, of course: I’d already made an extra-strong batch of tear gas, which would cause a good deal of confusion and chaos. Since they didn’t have any way of knowing what it was, they’d probably think a demon had suddenly appeared to wreak havoc or something. I’d drink something to neutralize the effects of the gas, then change my clothes and the color of my eyes and hair once I managed to get away.

“We heard you would be coming. Right this way, if you please.”

The elderly servant who opened the door acted as my guide, leading me through the back garden and into the mansion, before showing me inside a room. She didn’t even bat an eye at the sight of a little girl wearing a sketchy mask. She was a pro, no doubt about it... I guess I should’ve expected that from someone who worked for a big name business.

The daughter in question was lying down in bed inside the room, her parents and brother sitting beside her in chairs. There were no guards to be seen. The jaws of the people inside dropped when they saw me enter the room. They were expecting the messenger of the goddess to be coming here, and they got a little girl wearing a weird mask instead. But could you really blame them for being a bit surprised?

“Wait, are you who I think you are?” I blurted out in surprise when I saw who was already sitting in the room. The person in front of me was the same guy who’d given me a lift all the way to the capital.

“Huh? Are you...Kaoru?”

Even after I’d gone out of my way to wear a mask and change the color of my eyes and hair, the merchant figured out who I was in an instant once he heard my voice.

““What are you doing here?”” we said in sync.

“Wh-Why are you here, Kaoru?” the merchant asked, eyes wide open.

“Well, you know... I was just thinking of healing your daughter’s illness, is all.”

“Wait... D-Does that mean you’re the messenger of the Goddess then?”

This was a guy who really understood the value of information. He’d already heard rumors of me, even though they shouldn’t have spread this far yet.

“Yeah, something like that.”

The merchant was at a loss for words, while his wife and son could only stare blankly.

Oh, whatever. I’m taking off the dumb mask. Wait...how come the lady who showed me inside just flinched when she saw my face? She looked like she couldn’t have cared less when she saw me all incognito with my mask and cloak! Is it my eyes? Is the look I always have in my eyes really that bad?! Well, I’m used to it by now, so it doesn’t bother me that much... Yeah...

“Have her drink this.”

The merchant took the small bottle I offered him with trembling hands. Taking every care in the world not to spill it, he placed the bottle to his daughter’s lips and had her drink what was inside. The pained expression on her face softened with each passing second, and the color returned to her cheeks. Her breathing calmed and soon steadied itself at a stable rhythm.

“““Ohhh...”””

The merchant, his wife, his son, and their servant all let out voices of admiration. Everyone here could see that the daughter had made a complete recovery.

“But why would the Goddess give her blessing to us?” the merchant asked me, his voice shaking.

“Well, you really helped me out back then. That, and I know all about how you feed people down in the poorer areas of town.”

He’d been giving blessings in his own way to the downtrodden and unfortunate till now, but even the rich and powerful needed help sometimes. Some of them were even good people, too.

I was wary of the powerful, since I could only imagine them trying to use me for their less-than-wholesome motives. Still, I’d need to make myself some friends in high places if I wanted someone to have my back here. Thinking as much, it might be about time to go about looking for someone just like that...

“Ah... Ahhhhhh!” the merchant, Johann Abili, had broken down in tears.

Everything he’d done until now had come back to him as a way to save his daughter. Even though there were times he’d blasphemed against the Goddess, she’d still understood all the same. His faith and conviction had saved his daughter.

“Thank you for everything, dear angel...”

“Oh, no, please. You can just call me Kaoru, like you did before.”

“But... Ah, I see... Yes, I suppose that would be for the best.”

That’s a smart businessman for you. He caught on quickly.

“So, what shall we do about the offering?”

It was true, I was accepting offerings from everyone I’d healed so far. Though, it wasn’t like I wanted to take money from people who didn’t have much to begin with; I just wanted their gratitude. It could be anything from a single radish they had in their kitchen, to a wooden good luck charm that their kid had made. One mother and child really didn’t have anything to their name, so I ended up patting and rubbing up against the little girl in question as payment, calling it “healing for the soul.” I ended up leaving them about twenty silver coins at the end of that particular trip. This was also a form of preparation on my part, for if I ever ended up doing similar services for a noble or some other wealthy person. I’d been doing this free of charge all this time, and it’d be pretty lame on my part to suddenly ask for a mound of cash for my services. That was why I decided to have people give me whatever they could that was within their means.

“Hmm, what should we do... Oh, I know!”

This may have been really good timing, actually. There was something he could get me that I thought I’d be needing soon enough.

“Do you think I could get some new clothes? More specifically, I’d like an outfit I could wear to fit in with the nobles.”

My old hand-me-downs I’d taken from the baron’s daughter were beginning to get a little worse for the wear, I must say.

“Ha-hah! I’ll devote the efforts of the entire Johann Abili Trade Company into doing it!”

“No no, you don’t have to go that far!”

I ended up having my measurements taken by the servant after being moved to another room.

“I’m counting on you, Ameri!”

“Yes, sir! Even if it costs my life!”

C’mon, guys, I just said you don’t have to go that far...

Afterward, the merchant went back to the way he talked with me back when he’d given me a ride on his cart, thank goodness. I guess I should get to remembering his name, huh. Let’s see... Johann, I think it was.