Up in the park treetops, Emiya was clutching the handbag in his arms, panting like a cow. Just this one simple robbery job had left him feeling more exhausted than wiping out an entire mafia estate.
[Task complete. Reward: 40 task points.]
As the system notification sounded, Emiya felt like he'd been granted amnesty.
He slumped onto a tree branch like a puddle of mud, every bit of strength drained. Right now he only wanted to go home and eat a proper meal made by Vera.
"Judging by your expression, you finished the task, didn't you!"
"Ah!" Emiya jumped in fright, about to bolt, only to realize it was Acheron. "What the hell, you nearly scared my heart to a stop!"
"Cut it out, didn't think your skin was this thin." Acheron rolled her eyes. "Since you finished the task, go return that bag. That woman's about to cry herself unconscious."
"You can actually return it...?" Emiya suddenly realized.
His guilty conscience lightened immediately. He stuffed the work uniform and stockings into Acheron's arms, then nimbly leapt down from the tree and ran toward the bag's owner.
"This guy... gotta admit, he's got decent taste." Acheron couldn't help but laugh when she noticed the pink peach patterns on the stockings.
"Alright then, since you're busting your ass, I can't fall behind either!" Stuffing the stockings into her pocket, Acheron tightened her grip on the nylon bag in her hands and turned toward her assigned area.
His good mood ruined by this farce, Emiya sighed in dejection after returning the handbag to its owner.
Looking at the blazing sun overhead, he felt it was still too early to go home. If he went back now, Acheron would only make fun of him.
With no better choice, Emiya decided to first grab a bottle of soda at the convenience store to fix his mood, then continue looking for jobs.
"Oh! Guess my luck isn't over yet!"
On the glass to the right of the convenience store entrance, a bold job notice was posted, Looking for a strong male, mainly to handle unloading and stocking. Work hours, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
His supermarket shift started at 8 p.m., and this place was less than three kilometers away. It was basically a dream arrangement.
His bad mood finally lifted quite a bit, and Emiya couldn't help letting out a long sigh of relief.
"Excuse me, is anyone here?" With the sound of bells jingling, Emiya pushed open the convenience store door, only to find it empty inside.
"Ugh..." A faint mosquito-like groan came from the back door.
Following the sound, Emiya found a slightly overweight middle-aged man pinned beneath two boxes of apples and a stepladder. Looked like he'd been stuck there for quite some time.
Seeing someone come in, the man instinctively tried to struggle, but it pulled at his injuries, twisting his face in pain.
"Don't worry, I'll get you out right away."
With quick, practiced motions, Emiya removed the heavy boxes and gave the man a rough check. Multiple scrapes and displaced bones, but thankfully no damage to the organs.
"By the way, how did you get stuck like this? Isn't there anyone else working here?"
"I was trying to move the apples from the top shelf and then, ah!"
Taking advantage of the man's talking, Emiya quickly pressed and adjusted his bones back into place, even taking the chance to clear up the blocked meridians in his waist.
After the short burst of pain, the man tried moving his arms and legs. The symptoms had already improved a lot, and even the chronic back pain he'd had for years was much lighter.
"Y-you... what kind of master are you?" The middle-aged man was overwhelmed with gratitude. If Emiya hadn't shown up today, he might have died in despair in that storeroom. "Please, how can I ever repay you!"
"Haha, it was nothing, really." Emiya smiled and waved it off, helping the man to a chair. "I noticed the job posting outside. Do you still need someone?"
"Yes! Yes, absolutely!" The man nodded quickly, though his gaze was full of doubt.
"But looking at your aura and skill, you seem like someone from a wealthy or noble family. Why would you want to work in a small shop like mine?"
"You've mistaken me. I'm just a plain poor guy, looking everywhere for part-time work." Emiya scratched his head awkwardly.
Sometimes he really missed his past life's dumb face as Shirou Emiya, if he still had that face, there'd probably be way fewer misunderstandings.
"I see... every family has their hard story." The man saw Emiya didn't want to explain further, so he didn't press.
Instead, he solemnly held out his hand. "Hello, I'm Kurokawa. I'm honored to have you working in my shop."
"Hello, I'm Emiya. Please take care of me from now on."
They chatted a while longer until Kurokawa's eldest daughter, Mami, hurried in to take over. After quick introductions, Emiya got up to leave.
"Um, please wait!"
Mami instinctively ran out and grabbed Emiya's arm, but realizing what she'd done, her face flushed red. Under Emiya's curious gaze, she stammered for a long while before barely managing to say,
"Will you really come to work tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I agreed with your father. My shift will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Please take care of me."
"O-okay... see you tomorrow."
Mami waved shyly at Emiya, watching his figure disappear in the distance, still grinning foolishly in that direction.
"Mami... don't tell me you've fallen for Mr. Emiya?"
Kurokawa looked conflicted. His eldest daughter was very beautiful, and many men had chased after her, but she'd always seemed cold to them. Now she was already 23 and still hadn't dated once.
Normally, seeing her finally show signs of affection should make Kurokawa happy. But his life experience told him that this man named Emiya was absolutely extraordinary, and Mami would probably end up heartbroken.
"Dad, it's way too early to say that. Don't overthink things!"
But even as she said it, Mami couldn't stop replaying Emiya's handsome face and tall figure in her mind, her cheeks burning red.
———
In just one day, Emiya had secured two jobs. The timing was perfect, the bosses were decent people, and all the frustration from that "welfare task" had vanished. A smile crept onto his face.
To celebrate, he even went out of his way to buy a bottle of sake and some marinated dishes. But as soon as he got into the car, he realized he couldn't drink and drive, and he couldn't take it home either, or he'd set a bad example for Vera.
In the end, he had no choice but to give the sake to a scavenger old man by the roadside, then trudged home with just the marinated food.
The front door was wide open. From a distance, Emiya could already see Vera's tense little face as she struggled to peel the skin off some kind of round creature on the cutting board.
"Vera... don't tell me you caught these frogs yourself..." Getting closer, Emiya broke into a cold sweat.
Not only was the sink piled high with frogs, but at her feet was a bucket with two live, writhing venomous snakes.
"The frogs were caught by Grandpa Sato and Lily. I traded him three snakes for the frogs." Vera said this as she reached into the bucket to grab a snake and skin it, but Emiya quickly stopped her.
"These snakes are poisonous. Let me do it!" Emiya wiped the sweat off Vera's forehead with distress. He was supposed to be the adult looking after the child, yet all this time it was Vera who had been taking care of him.
"It's fine, I learned how to skin snakes from Grandpa Sato during the day. You just go rest." Vera pushed Emiya aside, then deftly grabbed a snake and, in three swift motions, peeled the skin off perfectly like taking off clothes.
"But why go for this stuff anyway? Wouldn't it be better to just buy pork or lamb at the shop?"
"Wild animals grow slower and eat a more varied diet, so their energy content is much richer than farmed ones. As long as it's not illegal, I'll choose wild food whenever I can."
Vera leaned close to Emiya's face and inspected him carefully, her eyes full of worry. "You have to bleed regularly to treat Lady Acheron. You must eat well, you've gotten thinner."
"Speaking of Acheron... where is she?"
"Lady Acheron went scavenging with the Garbage Picker F4 from Yamashita Village."
"What the hell is a Garbage Picker F4, and isn't scavenging garbage illegal in Japan?"
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