The Department of Labor opened on the first of September, exactly the day when, according to the old custom, the city residents had to line up at the branch to submit harvest-praying offerings.
There were no harvest-praying offerings this year.
Instead, people set up six long tables covered with coarse cloth in the courtyard in front of the branch. Two people sat at each table, one holding a pen, one holding a ledger. A wooden board with large words was hung behind their backs:
[Lyra City Department of Labor: job registration, free of charge.]
People arrived to register when the sky was not yet fully bright. Their initial purpose was to test whether finding a job was truly free of charge or not. "Free of charge" were three words that carried a terrifying weight in a city where, previously, wanting to apply for a porter job at the docks also required bribing the foremen two silver coins.
