CHAPTER 1 STORY 21
Amnesia’s Anguish
I had been having a hard time finding a business that would hire me, given that I was a mere outsider.
When we’d first arrived in the country, I’d set out looking for work with a lighthearted attitude. “Hmm. For now, I’ll find any old place where I can make money, and after making a suitable amount of cash, I can move on.”
But I had faced nothing but difficulty in my job search. It was a spectacularly awful disaster, bad enough to make me wish that just once I had chastised the version of myself who had first entered the country, who had been scrutinizing each business so carefully, touting her high ideals.
“Eh? You’re a traveler? Which means you’ll be leaving before the week is out? Well…we don’t really have the leeway to hire someone who’s only going to work a few days…”
“We’re not recruiting for any short-term jobs… Sorry…”
“If you’re just window shopping, get outta here!”
That’s all.
That was how my search for a part-time job had gone. Unfortunately, I hadn’t found any employment.
Whenever we arrived in a new country, my younger sister, Avelia, and I always searched for jobs so that we could make enough money to live another day, but every single time, I had a terrible time finding work.
“How does Elaina always manage to make money…?” I recalled my benefactor, the girl who had previously rescued me, and grumbled, “Next time I see her, maybe I’ll get her to teach me her moneymaking methods…”
In response to my question, Avelia declared, “I’m not really sure why, but I get the feeling she has a hand in some shady business.”
“Why do you think that?” I cocked my head.
“Woman’s intuition,” Avelia asserted bluntly. Then she said, with some pride, “By the way, I found a job. Since yesterday, I’ve been working at a café.”
“…How did you find a job?”
“That was also thanks to a woman’s intuition.”
After that, my own sister, who had outmaneuvered me without me knowing a thing, said this: “Big Sister, in order for foreigners to make money, we inevitably have to get our hands into some slightly shady business.”
As she told me that, my little sister peered off into the distance. It seemed like somehow, without my knowledge, my sister had embarked into the adult world.
“You’ve really grown…Avelia…”
“No, I’ve probably just gotten a little soiled…”
Still, even after we had that exchange, I walked around town looking for a job. But sure enough, it seemed it would be difficult for an outsider to find work through respectable means.
I was tired from walking around being continuously rejected, and I decided to go into a café. It was a café I had found in town, where people were doing dangerous jobs in secret…a dangerous environment.
I casually opened the door.
[Publication Information] Volume 8
Toranoana Buyer’s Bonus
[Author Comments]
As a matter of fact, the bonus stories for Volume 8 all wound up being connected to the main storyline. Now, they weren’t quite good enough to put into the main book, but still, I wrote them as supplementary stories.
This is off-topic, but I love the dialogues between Konomi Kohara (Amnesia) and Miho Okasaki (Avelia) on the drama CDs.
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