A non-typical day in the new world… (10 days ter.)

  Nox looked up at the dark-blue sky that was brightening in the rays of the rising sun. As far as she could tell that sky was normal, as were the clouds in it. And when she could see the sun, it too would appear… well, mostly normal. She’d never been a person to spend much time outside in the sunlight, and so she wanted to lie to herself and cim it was just her imagination, or a part of the nightmare that’d sted far too long, but that sun was quite a bit smaller than the one she recalled.

  Sighing, the girl rolled over and sat up from the cobblestone road where she’d been sleeping for the st ten days. She scratched at her filthy hair and winced. There would be no warm showers, or any showers at all, and certainly no shampoo or soap. She’d never considered herself overly vain, but the state she was in now horrified her. And the worst thing about it was that she knew it was going to get worse. Nightmares of this detail didn’t st ten days, so either she was in a hospital somewhere unconscious, or she was actually in a new world. In either case, for now this was her reality and in this world she was homeless with no way to make enough money to survive on.

  Taking a deep breath, Nox tried to ignore her aching stomach and stood up. She was a girl who was in love with computers, and the idea of hard physical work had never really appealed to her, but that was now her life. Not that there was much she could do. Sure, her knowledge in some fields, such as math and science, was probably far ahead of most in this world, but for now those were useless. And as for what she knew of computers? Well, in a world without computers that knowledge was pretty pointless.

  Sighing, the girl looked around, noting that she wasn’t alone in being homeless. In the alleyway where she slept, there were around a hundred other people ranging from girls younger than her, to women she pced as being in their te teens or their early twenties. There were few older women and, thankfully, there were no guys. While the city did allow people to sleep in the alleys, those people were separated based on gender. The women had one alley. The men another.

  Wanting to sob, she held her breath and made her way to an opening in the road where, with her complexion as pale as death, she squatted. It was almost too much for her to bear, yet this was now her life. Sure, there was a little crook in the alley which hid her from most of the women, but not all.

  With no water or soap to wash her hands, she then made her way to the entrance where she nodded at Ri, the woman who was there each morning. The woman handed her a rge slice of bread with rat meat and other stuff baked into it. Being about as cheap as a meal as one could get that was still nourishing, it was what she now subsided on. As for Ri, only she was allowed to sell to those in the alley, and most of the girls and women in the alley handed whatever money they came across to her for safe keeping. Somehow, even without writing anything down, the woman always remembered every face and how much each of the hundred-or-so women had given her.

  Having long accepted she was eating rat meat, and not daring to question what else went into the bread, Nox nibbled on her breakfast. So far it hadn’t made her sick, something she could only hope would remain the case.

  Stomach full, sort of, she left the alley and walked less than a hundred meters to another alley where she nodded at another woman.

  “You’re really not cut out for this, are you,” Ci commented.

  “Nope,” Nox admitted, taking the crude, bronze-tipped spear the woman handed her.

  “What Blessing are you hoping for?”

  “At this point I’ll take anything,” Nox replied.

  Ci shook her head. “That’s not the way it works,” she chided the girl. “Pick something you like, and work at it. That way the odds are you’ll get a Blessing you’ll like. Of course, it’s best if you start while you’re young.”

  Nox nodded. In this world children would start doing part-time jobs when they were around seven, and by the time they were her age they would usually get their Blessing based on the jobs they did. Which was really bad news for her. Even assuming she was able to get a Blessing, not being from this world and all, it could take her anywhere from seven to fourteen years during which she would have to live without one. Nor were her job options optimal.

  Her modern knowledge of math might let her do some basic calculus, but that was useless in this world; a shopkeeper, for example, would hire someone with a trade Blessing, nor would any math beyond making change for a customer be needed. And while whatever had taught her the nguage of this world had including writing in that, there weren’t many jobs where she could put that to use, and those would require recommendations and other knowledge, as well as a Blessing of some sort.

  Nox felt like sobbing.

  Seeing the girl’s expression, Ci patted her on the shoulder.

  Giving the woman a wry smile, Nox stood back while other girls poured into the alley and also cimed a spear. With most of those newcomers being kids who looked to be seven or eight, Nox really had to work hard to not break down into tears. It was like being sent back to kindergarten again.

  What followed was a two-hour lesson on the use of spears, during which Nox noted just how much better the other kids were. But then she’d only had eight lessons, while those kids would’ve been coming here for months, and would’ve had a hundred or so lessons by now. She also noted just how attentive the kids were to the woman. But they knew their future might depend on this, and neither they nor Ci tolerated troublemakers.

  Her daily lesson in the use of spears done, Nox descended into the sewers where she looked around. Scowling, she started walking. It was far from well-lit, but the luminous moss, or lichen, or whatever, that grew in abundance on the walls did light up the area some. Behind her a few of the kids also followed suit, but they were in a group and always had someone older with them. They went one way, while Nox went the other.

  Seeing a rat, Nox cringed. Not from the sight of rat, which she was getting used to—but from the embarrassment she expected to follow. Lifting her spear, the girl threw it. The rat didn’t even bother to dodge as the projectile missed it by a good three feet. With a deep, disgusted sigh, the girl edged her way around the critter and picked up the spear. With the rat apparently not afraid of her, she approached it to take a jab with the spear, only to have her prey scamper off.

  Upon seeing another a few minutes ter, Nox pondered her options, and just decided to charge. She wasn’t sure how far she chased the rat, but apparently it was faster than her, and it easily outpaced her to go scurrying off into the gloom.

  “Frig,” the girl muttered under her breath, knowing that at this rate she was going to starve. And her clothes, not designed for the rigors of this world, were already showing serious signs of wear and tear. It wouldn’t be too long before…

  “Frig,” Nox again muttered under her breath. In her heart she knew she wasn’t going to make it. Maybe if she’d paid more attention to athletics back in school, but she hadn’t. Nor did she have the time to build up her strength and develop the skills to use a spear. And even then, rats were what kids killed as practice. It made some money, but not enough to live on.

  Considering her options, the girl took a deep breath and kept walking through the sewer.

  The clothes she wore, being her only material goods in this world, were those of a kid from an orphanage; nor, unlike in some isekai shows, were they worth selling. As for her costs, so far she’d stuck to two meals a day, which had cost her 2 coppers per meal. With her having had 18 meals over the st ten days, her total expenses to date had been 36 coppers.

  And as for her income, over her time here she’d killed 42 rats whose cold corpses she’d sold for 1 copper per 10 corpses, netting her a total of 4 coppers. Along with the 32 coppers she’d started with, that made 36 coppers—all of which she’d spent.

  She was out of coinage, and hence out of food. Tonight she wouldn’t eat. Nor would she eat tomorrow. Nor the day after. The day after, perhaps by then she would’ve killed enough rats for another slice of bread.

  The girl paused and stared up at the stone roof of the sewer. She was scared. Even more scared than the time when Mrs Albright had yanked on her shirt in css and she’d though the fabric was going to tear. Unless she woke up from this nightmare, or something un-isekaied her, she was going to die.

  Taking a deep breath to quell the trembling in her hands, the girl continued to ponder her options. She didn’t like them… but there was one chance to extend her life. Maybe. She had some knowledge of the customs of this world, but it was far from complete. It left her wondering, and more than slightly nauseated. Clutching her stomach, Nox swallowed, struggling not to waste the food she so desperately felt like throwing up.

  Too nervous to focus, she walked in a stupor through the tunnels, fumbling every attack she made as the rats mocked her.

  …

  “None,” a sickly-green Nox told Ci when she handed the spear back.

  The woman nodded. “Better luck tomorrow,” she told the girl, smiling. “You’ll get better, and before you know it you’ll be killing dozens a day.”

  Nox tried to smile back, then stumbled off.

  No, the girl told herself, again turning her one st hope over in her mind. I don’t want to die, was the frightened, emphatic response that came back.

  Taking slow, deep breaths least she pass out, the girl stumbled along the roads until she came to the one pce where she least wanted to be. Around her, away from the alleys, everyone was dressed in decent clothes, and they smelled a lot better. As she threaded her way through them, many-a-nose turned up, and they hastily moved aside to allow her passage least she soiled their clothes.

  Then she was at the doors of the brothel where a guard stared at her as if to ask, ‘What the heck are you doing here?’

  The woman didn’t say anything though, and it was left up to Nox to make her plea. Except she couldn’t bring herself to speak the words.

  “If you don’t have business here, please leave,” the guard politely requested.

  “I want to, hmm, suggest a deal,” Nox stated.

  “Deal,” the guard repeated, making it a question.

  “I, um….”

  Nox gulped.

  “I’m, um…” The girl took a deep breath. She knew if she left right now, she would end up back here. Only by then she would be starving and somehow she didn’t think waiting would make it more bearable.

  “I, um…”

  Nox ground her teeth, angry that the words wouldn’t come out, yet terrified of what would happen if they did.

  The guard took a deep breath, and Nox knew she was about to be chased away.

  “I want to auction my virginity,” the girl gasped, finally managing to get the words out.

  The guard blinked, and Nox knew she’d gone wrong somewhere. She knew back in her old world guys bragged of… that sort of stuff. Well, she’d only been heard scraps of such rumors, but when she’d talked to Callie, the girl had cimed they did, and mention any such number of cims made by such and such a guy.

  “Do you have the prostitute Blessing,” the guard asked.

  “No.”

  The guard blinked again, as if trying to fathom something outside of her worldview.

  There was a snicker from behind Nox, and she turned around to see a tall, extremely well-endowed woman trying to suppress further ughter. Despite the snicker, only amusement, not cruelty, lit the woman’s stunning blue eyes.

  “Sorry,” the woman told the girl. “I’m Nora, by the way. And you are?”

  “Nox,” Nox squeaked.

  Nora nodded. “Guys do like to brag about quite a few such silly things,” she agreed, cringing—as if the weight of having to patiently listen to ten-thousand times ten-thousand such brags were weighing her down. “May I ask what your Blessing is,” the woman asked.

  Nox gulped and kept quiet.

  “I see,” Nora said, again nodding. “We’ll I’m sure you’ll get one eventually. But you see, it’s illegal to offer such services unless you have a Blessing. And at our institution, we restrict that even further to those who have the prostitute Blessing. So we can’t fulfill your request. Nor, if they wish to remain wful, can any other brothel within the city. And while guys do like to brag… anyone without the prostitute Blessing can’t match the pleasure given by those with the Blessing. So such an auction would not net you much coinage.”

  Red-faced, Nox didn’t know what to say. Nor could she understand why the ground didn’t open up beneath her to forever hide her shame.

  “But if it’s silver you want,” Nora mused, eyeing the girl. “I do know a way for you to make some quick coinage.”

  Despite the shame she could feel burning her face a bright red, Nox’s hopeful eyes focused on the woman.

  “Few people have such long hair,” the woman mused. “I’ll offer you one gold for it.”

  “Two,” Nox immediately snapped.

  Frowning, Nora paused.

  Nox gulped, wondering if she’d gone too far. Maybe the one gold had been the woman being generous. It was quite a bit of coinage, and if her greed had caused her the deal… She gulped again.

  “Okay,” Nora finally agreed. “A tad bit more than what I’d pnned to pay, but up until recently it’s been well cared for, and the color and length is quite nice.”

  As relief tore through her, Nox almost colpsed. She would get to live a while longer, and she would get to stay away from guys. About the only thing that could make the day better would be if she was isekaied back to her own world.

  Nora beckoned the girl inside where Nox froze. The pce swarmed with people, half of who were way too scantily cd. In a daze, she noted that roughly half of those who were so attired were men. And of the more conservatively dressed people, who she assumed were the clients, a full half seemed to be women.

  The girl looked away and focused on the floor.

  “I see,” Nora mused. “And here you were expecting to offer your services here.”

  Refusing to look up, Nox gulped. Despite her grim-encrusted hair, she felt the woman pat her on the head.

  “Are you sure you’re okay with parting with your hair,” Nora asked.

  The girl nodded. It wasn’t as if she had a choice, and it was a deal she was more than happy to make.

  “Hmm. Well, let’s give it a wash before we cut it,” Nora mused. “And while we’re at it, we might as well get you cleaned up.”

  Hesitant, and wondering at the offer, Nox allowed herself to be led off. The wash turned out to be a shower that involved a bucket of warm water hung on a rod extending from a wall, and a handful of soap. With her hair being the object up for sale, the girl frantically scrubbed at it, and in the st minute when she sensed the flow from the bucket slow down, she desperately wiped at the dirt that coated her body. The filth she’d been coated in made her want to puke.

  Peering out from behind the curtain, she saw her clothes in the space of the time taken to shower had been washed and dried, all without her knowing it was happening. Hurriedly, she slipped them back on.