The woman tossed the plates and bowls—still with some leftover food—unceremoniously in front of the nine-year-old boy. "Don't break anything," she warned, her voice devoid of mercy.
Without waiting for a response, she walked off, leaving him alone with all of it.
"I'm really tired…" Draco muttered under his breath.
Yes, Draco—that was the name he'd given the inn's owner since he wasn't in any condition to remember or use the original name of this body.
Still, he couldn't leave. Not yet.
With a sigh, he picked up another plate. He had begged to get this damn job. Literally. He didn't think he'd ever begged like that before—and if he had, it had never been this pitiful.
First, he pleaded with the cleric who reluctantly brought him here. Then came the harder part: convincing the inn's owner, who didn't even want him as a waiter. Too risky, she'd said. Too clumsy. One dropped plate or spilled bowl, and she'd lose customers.
So he switched tactics—claimed he could clean and wash. Had to demonstrate it, too. Only then did they let him stay. Barely.
As for sleeping arrangements—well, after his first day of work, the innkeeper seemed moderately impressed by his diligence and asked where he'd be staying. When she found out he had nowhere to go, she offered him a room. Sort of.
It was at the topmost corner of the building, with a cracked window that wouldn't shut and no bed—just a splintered floor and a torn blanket to call his own.
And yet, despite how that might sound, it wasn't cruelty. In fact, it was kindness.
He had a job. A place to sleep. And they were paying him—actually paying him.
You couldn't look at this world through the lens of modern sensibilities. Not here.
In just two days, he'd seen kids both older and younger than him—barefoot, bruised, hollow-eyed—begging for scraps on the street. Some looked more like shadows than children. Their presence wasn't just pitiful… it was unsettling. Creepy, even.
Compared to them, he'd hit the jackpot.
He didn't have to fight for bread or guard a corner of pavement to sleep on. He had a shot at surviving.
And in this world, that already made him lucky.
Over the past few days, he'd also managed to get a basic grasp of the setting. This territory was under the rule of Baron Kagenou, who in turn served the Midgar Kingdom—governed by King Klaus Midgar.
And based on what he'd observed, Draco was almost certain this world was The Eminence in Shadow.
The Baron's second child was a boy named Cid. That alone was a massive clue. But even so, Draco wasn't entirely convinced.
Because something was… off.
Because this version of Cid… wasn't quite right.
This Cid wasn't some goofy, average-acting kid. People said he was talented—legitimately talented. Even his sister, Claire, didn't overshadow him completely.
That inconsistency made Draco wary.
After all, he'd read fanfictions with alternate timelines, gender-swapped casts, and weird butterfly effects triggered by transmigrators like himself.
Maybe this world was one of those twisted, halfway-AU versions. Familiar at first—until everything started diverging.
What really bothered him, though, was the uncertainty.
He couldn't tell whether Cid was a reincarnator or not.
The boy wasn't flaunting futuristic tech or quoting Earth trivia like he'd memorized a Wikipedia page. Then again, maybe he was doing things behind the scenes.
Draco wasn't sure.
And that uncertainty annoyed the hell out of him.
Because if Cid was the real deal, the original chuuni mastermind from the anime… then things were already moving.
But that was a worry for another day.
For now, the innkeeper had come to finalize his duties.
The inn was large enough to require multiple cooks and waiters, so work was divided into shifts. Draco was assigned morning prep and late-afternoon cleanup. Exhausting, but manageable.
Honestly, he felt grateful.
If he'd landed under a cruel owner or in a more dangerous part of town, who knew what might've happened?
He washed his face, took a breath, and left the inn just as the sun climbed higher in the sky. Daylight meant safety—or at least, relative safety. He never stayed out past sundown. Once the light faded, he went straight to his room and didn't come out until the next meal. It wasn't caution. It was survival.
Today's goal was simple: test something. Anything.
He followed a path into the woods just beyond the town's edge, stepping between trees until he reached a familiar clearing. The same spot where he'd seen it before.
And there it was.
Just ahead, wobbling in the grass, sat a dark, blob-like creature.
A slime.
Draco crouched low behind a patch of tall grass, eyes fixed on it.
He couldn't help but feel the pull of opportunity. In the anime, Cid had started his early experiments with slimes. Draco didn't have Cid's edge, or his chuuni energy. He didn't even know the basics of this world's magic.
But still… he wasn't about to just walk away.
He might fail.
But it was better to fail than to miss out.
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Suggestions for mc