Chapter 2 — Barcelona, I, León Vidal, Am Here
Standing naked in front of the mirror!
The man in the mirror had a powerful build, an eight-pack, the V-lines at his hips, straight short black hair and deep dark eyes, naturally stern and resolute.
He grinned slightly, and there seemed to be something aggressive in his smile.
León was very satisfied with this body, and his fingers gently traced a scar on his forearm.
This was where the blade had cut him in the Pyrenees, and now it had already begun to heal!
This surprised him!
Although he didn't know how long he had been in the water, he reckoned it was only a day or two.
On a normal person, an injury that serious would take a month or two.
And in such a short time the wound was about to scab over. His powers of recovery were amazing.
His healing speed was almost ten times that of a normal person!
"This must be one of the perks of crossing over!"
León said with some delight, and he found that it wasn't just his ability to recover.
Even his strength was much greater, and his stamina was even more abnormal. His endurance he hadn't had time to test; he'd try it when he got the chance!
His whole body seemed to have been strengthened!
"Next, the space warehouse!"
Having studied his body, León focused his mind and entered the other dimension with a pair of scissors in his hand.
Sure enough, the scissors vanished from the outside world and appeared in the warehouse!
He really could move real things into the warehouse.
And he found that no matter how long he stayed in the warehouse, time outside always stood still.
In other words, even if he stayed in the warehouse for a day and a night, or even longer, outside it would still be the same moment!
"This cheat's a bit powerful!"
"If I go into the warehouse to sleep when I'm tired, doesn't that mean in reality I don't need to sleep at all, twenty-four hours a day!"
León's eyes lit up. This was like getting half a life extra!
"Ha ha!"
León looked at himself in the mirror and smiled wickedly!
Since God had arranged for him to come to this era, and with so many cheats, he'd be letting himself down if he didn't make something of it.
"Barcelona, I, León Vidal, am here!"
…
Putting on the clothes of Carmen Molina's late grandfather and stuffing himself until his stomach was full, León said he meant to leave.
It wasn't that he was ungrateful, but he could feel that Señora Molina was still a little wary of him.
After all, there were only two women in the family, a grandmother and her granddaughter, and the granddaughter was so pretty; it was normal to be wary of a strange young man.
Moreover, houses in Barcelona were expensive; even in Barceloneta, grandmother and granddaughter had only two rooms.
Moreover, they weren't well off. León had two hands and two feet, and he didn't want to cause them more trouble.
He simply made up his mind that when he made his way in the future, he would repay the kindness of this meal!
"León, you've only just come to Barcelona and you don't know your way around. Take this for now!"
Señora Molina took a handkerchief out of her pocket, slowly unfolded it, took out a crumpled banknote and put it straight into León's pocket.
"Señora, I can't take this money!" León quickly refused!
Although this was a hard time in Spain, with rationing and shortages, that didn't mean ordinary people's lives had got any easier.
Prices were rising fast, and everything was ridiculously expensive on the black market.
An ordinary worker earned only about two hundred pesetas a month, and grandmother and granddaughter were obviously worse off than an ordinary worker.
A thousand pesetas was a lot of money to them!
But even so, Señora Molina insisted.
"How can a man go out into the world without a penny?"
"You've no family here. If you can't find work, at least it'll keep you from starving!"
Señora Molina said softly, her clouded eyes showing wisdom and firmness.
She had been through too much in her life, and she was willing to help this young man, whom she rather liked the look of, as far as she could.
"León, just take it!"
"Abuela and me gather shellfish and sell it at the market. I can make a hundred pesetas a day on my own!"
Carmen raised her little head and said proudly.
But León felt very sad hearing that. Refuse as he might, he could only accept the money for the time being.
He made up his mind to make money as quickly as possible and improve life for the grandmother and her granddaughter.
"Señora, when I make money, I'll definitely come back!"
León said firmly.
Then he patted Carmen's head: "Listen to your grandmother, study hard, and next time I come back I'll bring you something nice to eat!"
León was very tall, and although Carmen was tall and slender, she was still a bit young and came up just to León's chest.
Looking up at León, Carmen's cheeks suddenly went a little red.
But she said stubbornly: "Pfft, I don't want it! I'm not a child any more."
"I want churros!"
…
After leaving Carmen's house, catching the tram and arriving in the city centre an hour later, León first got himself registered at the comisaría, naturally in the name of León Vidal.
At the moment it was relatively easy to get a residence card in Spain as a French displaced person. In a few years, people from across the Pyrenees and further afield would be pouring in, and there would be more restrictions.
With papers, he was no longer entirely invisible. Next, León had to solve the problem of survival!
In this era, Spain's economy was at its lowest, and even basic food was hard to come by. The cheapest meal on the black market cost fifty pesetas or more.
León had only a thousand pesetas on him, and it wouldn't last him more than a few days.
So finding a job to keep himself fed and clothed was the top priority.
In the end, thanks to his height and his handsome looks, León found a job as a waiter in a café.
The pay was only three hundred pesetas a day...