Chapter 20: Chapter 19: Hard Work but No Pay? Unfair!

“Ah! Lady Elidranthia! Greetings, milady. If I may ask, are you undertaking some mage jobs as well?”

Alicia met with Eli at the fountain when she was about to install another pump. She had to use polite language since Laura was there.

Why was she there? She would never know. Elidranthia had forced the matter of doing mage duties on her father, the count, during her lessons with Laura. Since she was still on the clock—even though she had no experience nor expertise in teaching mage lessons—Laura had to force herself to follow Elidranthia on her mage duty.

It was one of those few instances where Eli had caused trouble for her surroundings.

“Pleasure meeting you, Alicia. Yes. We have studied together; it was only right that we strive to better our territory, right? That’s why I pleaded with my father to be allowed to do my mage duty,” Elidranthia curtsied.

Alicia could see Laura sighing.

“Hm… But you have no water affinity, right?”

“Alicia, in this day and age, one does not need to have the perfect affinity to be of use to society. Even dark mages can install pumps now. It’s all thanks to these mana scales. They can transform my mana into water mana. There is no problem whatsoever.”

“I see…”

Alicia knew about these loopholes. Despite her childish attitude, she was a college graduate in her previous life, after all (Not yet, Alicia missed her graduation.). But those scales have 50% efficiency, she had no idea why Elidranthia still went on with it instead of dumping the work to those more proficient. As always, Alicia was lazy.

What bugged Alicia was how eager Elidranthia was to work as a mage. It was incomprehensible for the lazy Alicia to seek a job for herself without any significant benefit. Especially if there are others who are more proficient at hand.

“Let’s work together!” Alicia said. It didn’t matter to Alicia what Elidranthia wanted. She would welcome her. The more things they could do together, the better.

“Lady Elidranthia. How much do you think I have helped the territory? I am a maid, but I haven't received my allowance yet...” Alicia shamelessly asked her boss for an early paycheck.

The food the mansion provided was delicious, but she would love to have some pocket money. She was gifted with a beautiful body and a cute face. It would be a shame if all she had to wear was a maid outfit. She would love to custom order some clothes and let the people in the town fawn over her as a beautiful and kind mage.

“Well… I shall ask my father.” Eli frowned. She thought Alicia was a little rude, asking when her salary would be paid right when doing her job but after a few thoughts, Eli came to terms with it. It was logical to ask for your benefits or payments. Usually, this was done before employment, but Alicia was a bit of a special case.

Alicia had been accepted into Shadowstep as a maid without as much as a fuss. She was a level 8 mage—anyone would accept her. One must be paid according to their merit. Alicia had done much for the county (She hasn’t yet, she merely installed 5 pumps), so it would be natural to ask to be compensated.

In fact, Eli hadn’t heard anything from Rodrique or her father about how much Alicia would be paid to be Eli’s personal maid and Shadowstep's mage.

“Thank you! I shall help you install these pumps! Albert said the arcane stone needs to be installed right here to ensure that nothing is amiss. Installing these pumps is super easy. You just let the worker—” Alicia, knowing her boss would talk to the manager immediately cheered up and explained the work.

“Ahem!” Laura coughed.

“My apologies, Lady Elidranthia. I was wondering whether this job truly does fancy you. A mage's duty encompasses many things—some of them would be more fitting for a refined lady such as yourself. For example, may I recommend filling arcane stones in the town hall?”

Alicia rolled her eyes. But her speech had certainly satisfied Laura.

A chuckle came from both the butler and the soldier who accompanied the girls.

“Alicia, one must strive to better oneself. Shouldn’t we challenge ourselves with new tasks? Only by overcoming the unknown can we improve ourselves. Don’t you agree?”

“As expected of Lady Elidranthia, you are the epitome of nobleness!” Jadenbale, who accompanied Eli, praised her.

Hearing such praise made Alicia realize that she was wrong. She needed to help more people if she wanted more praise!

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“I will help you!” the vain Alicia proposed. Little did everyone know that Alicia wanted to help Eli so she could get some of the praise herself. As expected, Alicia was a little devil at heart.

If one looked at it from another angle, people like Elidranthia—who genuinely wanted to help others—were rare. Maybe, just maybe, these two reincarnated people were the same at heart.

They both wanted recognition. One desired recognition from the masses, while the other desired recognition from a god.

“Alright. With this, I just need to put the mana scale here, and… done!” Eli said. A sense of fulfillment filled her heart.

She had heard about rich people who dug wells in poor villages as publicity stunts. In fact, she had used such wells herself when she became a child soldier in wars.

At that time, she wondered why people were so kind, doing something so vain. All that she could think about at that time was how to kill her enemies. How to avoid punishments from superiors. Even when her life changed when she turned into the FBI’s assassin, all that changed was how much she was paid.

“All hail Goddess Repeara! She might have worn black clothes, but she is a true goddess. She has shown me the way!” Eli offered her silent prayer to her god as she watched how the townspeople began using the pump she had just installed. A sense of fulfillment filled her heart.

After installing just one pump (which also happened to be the last pump they had to install today), they returned back to the mansion.

Elidranthia was skipping her steps as she finally did something useful.

“Oh yeah, Alicia, tomorrow you need to prepare to depart to Village Quatrobale and Einostein. We need to install pumps there as well,” Jadenbale said.

“Eh… aren’t these pumps enough? They just need to carry these pumps with wagons to the next village, right?”

“Erm… no. The water that is needed there is different. It will be used for irrigation, so we need much more water,” Jadenbale said. “The device is noticeably different as well.”

“I see. Well, if I get paid, I will do it! Tomorrow then?”

“Yes, that is correct, Alicia. Man, John is very lucky. It must be nice to have a mage daughter like you, Alicia. The moment you got in, he applied for a long leave. Well, he was too hardworking for goodness’ sake,” Jadenbale commented.

Alicia snapped her eyes toward him in shock. His words were confirmed by the fellow soldiers who accompanied him.

“Hahaha! You are right! It was rare not to see his face at the gate. He did work hard, but look at his appearance. He is too fuckin’ gloomy! Glad to see some breath of fresh air, hahaha… Um… no offense, Miss Alicia. Nobody in the squadron hated him. We’re just poking fun at him. Him taking a break now means he’ll finally get some rest. I’m sure he’ll come back refreshed,” the soldier blurted out but corrected his words.

John did nothing wrong, but his gloomy appearance certainly left something to be desired. He guarded the gate from morning to night—his face looked like a corpse every time someone saw him.

It was hard not to comment on him. Even Alicia agreed that John looked like an exhausted salaryman who worked overtime with no extra pay.

“Pay🎵 pay🎵 It’s time to get paid!” Alicia hummed as she skipped her steps to the mansion after installing other pumps, refrigerator, and charging the fountain. She certainly had worked hard. (Not really half of that was Eli's doing.)

On one hand, she was so shameless for asking to be paid even though she had only been working for a week. On the other hand, she hadn’t been offered a contract of employment from Shadowstep. It’s time to make it official. She was a high-level mage, after all. Her salary was bound to be huge. This time, she needed to properly manage it.

“My pay before was docked because of that chicken. Now it’s time for some real money. Man… gambling was scary. No wonder people ruined their lives over it. I couldn’t believe I wasted a month’s salary on just a single egg. Gacha games on Earth were much cheaper… it just needs like 5 or 10 dollars to get ten or twenty pulls.”

She didn’t waste just a month’s worth of salary. She wasted an entire year of a normal person’s salary. The indulgent Alicia positioned herself as a mage, and to her knowledge, mages were paid 1 gold per month.

“Greetings, Count Shadowstep. I, Alicia, seek to counsel with you. I have been working for you tirelessly for one month, yet I have yet to know my wage. Your wisdom has certainly towered above me. So, I plead for you to look down a bit at this commoner and enlighten me, milord.”

Alicia spoke with such fluency that Elidranthia and the count were caught off guard.

Alicia had learned etiquette from Laura. If she put her mind to it, she could do it gracefully. Right now, since her salary was at stake, she decided to show her etiquette prowess.

“Hm? You are asking to be paid? Of course not. You haven’t even paid your debt,” the count said. This time, he said it without a scoff—that’s how Alicia knew the count was no longer joking. Since Alicia didn’t belittle etiquette, the count responded in kind.

“Huh? My apologies, milord. I was wondering whether there had been some miscalculation. I recall my debt was already paid when I charged almost 100 stones with Lady Elidranthia at the town hall. Did I incur some other debt? Was there any unknown interest in my debt? I believe the wise Lord of Shadowstep couldn’t possibly have failed to inform me that my debt from buying a magic beast’s egg had an interest.”

Alicia tried to smile, but her smile had cracked. She wondered whether this count was trying to take advantage of her by making her work for free.

“No. I didn’t miscount, and there was no interest on your debt either. The debt I’m talking about is related to your father, not the monster egg. Your father borrowed 150 gold coins. You are in my custody until he repays the debt.” The count said flatly. He might be an arrogant cunt, I mean, count. But he knows when things are serious.

“...” Alicia gaped at the news. The scene when John patted her head, when he kissed her forehead—it struck her.

Alicia was not the only one. Even Elidranthia was surprised. She thought her father was reasonable. She thought her father was kind.

She would have never thought her father would engage in such a despicable act. Slavery was illegal in the Althemer Empire. Was he so desperate to secure Alicia?

“Please excuse me.” Alicia turned away. When Eli looked at her, her eyes pierced her like a needle. Eli suddenly remembered when her target had died—when she stood before their cold corpses. They glared at Eli the same way. The same hatred. The scene where her FBI boss had betrayed and killed her replayed in her mind.

This wasn’t supposed to be my life. Why did things happen this way?

Both girls' thoughts coincided.

After Alicia had gone, Eli soon confronted her father. This time, she had to be direct. Otherwise, her message might not come across. She must stand against all injustice.