However, Ms. Danielle is a bit too idealistic, just like her father. Her requirements for applicants are that they must know their native language, understand at least one foreign language, be able to quickly complete currency calculations within 10 pounds within five seconds, and quickly memorize the specific brewing methods of more than ten different flavors of coffee after taking up the job.
In addition, she also has requirements for the applicant's character, facial features, and figure, and will ask the applicant to guarantee that they must take a shower every day on weekdays to ensure personal hygiene. If they have facial blemishes, they must wear makeup when they go to work... and so on."
Benson listed the conditions that he thought were unreasonable in a somewhat long-winded manner, shaking his head as he spoke.
If it were the previous Klein, he would probably still be confused. These are obviously very basic requirements, so why do they become unrealistic in Benson's eyes?
But he has initially adapted to this world and knows that it is not as inward-looking as the 21st century Earth where he once lived... Or rather, the person who has the conditions to meet the above requirements that he thinks are reasonable can definitely not be a "lower-middle class" woman.
What's more, faced with cash transactions that far exceed their spending levels, not everyone can remain true to themselves and not be tempted by money.
Melissa also said: "So this is why we always see recruitment information for that cafe in the newspaper."
"I heard that many of the waiters working at Deville Cafe now are maids in Sir Deville's family..."
As if realizing that he had gone off topic, Benson coughed lightly and turned the topic back to Klein.
"In short, although Miss Alice said that she only plans to do a short-term job for one to two weeks as a way to experience life, Klein, if you get off work early in the afternoon and have more time, it would be best for you to go to Hall Street and pick her up on the way home... Do you understand what I mean?"
I understand, but I would rather not understand...
Klein forced a smile awkwardly, drinking the sweet iced tea that Alice brought back, and nodding to perfunctorily answer Benson and Melissa's joint sermon. He felt like a super bad student who was caught by the head teacher and deputy head teacher for failing the exam.
After waiting for a long time for the brother and sister who were worried about his love life to go their separate ways and continue their unfinished study plans for the day, Klein had already finished the cool, sweet and refreshing ice drink and was playing with a paper cup out of boredom.
Seeing that he was finally free, he did not delay and hurriedly said that he would go upstairs to read. After throwing the paper bag on the table, he ran to the second floor. Of course, before going upstairs, he did not forget to take a look at the mailbox outside his house.
Very good, no dark letters.
Klein breathed a sigh of relief and walked up the stairs to the second floor. He then moved and stopped at the door of the guest room at the end of the corridor.
Knock knock.
He bent his fingers and knocked on the door twice, and called her softly: "
Can we chat for a while, Alice?"
After a few seconds, Klein heard footsteps coming from far away in the room, and the second after the footsteps stopped, the door was opened from the inside.
"What's the matter?" The girl blinked her beautiful emerald eyes, letting them be filled with confusion. "Don't say you're not used to living alone and want to chat with me... This is only the second day since I moved out, right?"
Klein subconsciously wanted to reply to her, don't make such a ridiculous joke. But the words were on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't say them.
The girl leaning against the door had most of her golden hair tied up into a neat ponytail with a hair tie, and the remaining part was left hanging loosely and casually in front of her body, falling on the beautiful curves of her soft and plump body. What she was wearing at the moment was clearly a loose, casual home dress. The style was conservative, but for some reason it had a magical charm that made people's hearts beat faster.
Stop, stop, stop. Wake up, Klein! Don't forget to stay alert when facing the witch, and don't be easily seduced by her again!
Klein summoned up all his willpower and
managed to calm himself down: "Yes, there is something. It's very important."
Alice glanced at the corridor behind him, then opened the door a little and gestured:
"Since it's important, then come in and talk... or should we talk in your room?"
If possible, Klein really hoped to resolve all his doubts in the corridor. After all, if he was in the same room with her, he really had no confidence that he could resist her charm or illusion ability.
But that was ultimately not a topic that Benson and Melissa should know. Klein had no choice but to nod his head and walk into the guest room that was now assigned to Alice. He then turned around and locked the door.
What topic should I start with...
Klein knew that he had too many doubts and puzzles now. All his understanding of Alice came only from her own narration and the brief time they had spent together in the past few days.
If these were all fake and untrustworthy, then the Alice in front of him would be just a stranger who looked somewhat familiar.
"Is the cake delicious?"
Alice was the first to speak. She lay back on the bed without any hesitation, picked up a book that was upside down next to the quilt, and seemed to be reading silently with her eyes lowered.
"Not bad…"
Klein glanced at the words on the spine of the book and found that it was a book introducing the festival culture of the Feysac Empire.
...Is she interested in the Feysac Empire? Is that her next target? He withdrew his gaze and couldn't help but let his imagination run wild.
"That's good. I was a little worried at first that such sweet snacks and drinks might not suit your taste..."
Alice didn't seem to mind his absent-mindedness. She supported her head with a smile and casually turned a page of the book while speaking.
"Now it seems that you should like most of the desserts served in that cafe. Next time if you have a chance, you can come over during my working hours to try it, and you can also get a discount with my employee benefits."
"...No, no, that's not the point, right?" Klein finally recovered and expressed his shock and confusion to the girl, "How did you think of going... to find a job? And to what, a maid cafe..."
Didn't this witch set up the persona of a noble lady in front of him? Not only did she go there to work, but she also had to dress up as a maid?!
If this wasn't for the purpose of acting out his "joy," Klein couldn't think of any other reason.
"What's wrong with a maid cafe? I've always wanted to try dressing up as a maid, but unfortunately I never had any good opportunities before."
After hearing the question, Alice just shook her head and smiled, squinting her watery eyes that seemed to be filled with mist, with a very happy expression on her face.
Klein couldn't help but look away and no longer look at her, lest his mind and heart slip into some irreversible abyss along with the strands of hair that fell into her collar.
"So you go to work for fun...for happiness?"
He tried to make his words sound more normal so that the other party wouldn't think the wrong thing.
...No, in this case, should I say, to prevent her from thinking in the direction of the correct answer?
Alice obviously couldn't hear Klein's inner struggle.
She just looked up at him, then chuckled and said,
"Maybe you can say that? After all, my original intention was just to experience life, and I will probably resign when I've had enough fun."
So, she really is the "Witch of Pleasure"?
Klein was a little confused.
"To experience life... I pretend to be a maid?"
There should be no connection between witches and maid waitresses... right?!
"What else? Acting is also a kind of fun." Alice raised her head from the book, always feeling that this person was weird today.
...Wait a moment.
Klein used his meditation skills to withdraw his mind from the chaotic conversation and tried to review the entire process from the moment he entered the room to the present with a calm and objective perspective.
Alice believes that acting is a pleasure in itself, rather than a means to gain "joy"...
Is this still the potion acting method he believes in? Why does it feel like the two of them are not on the same wavelength?
No, no, neither "acting" nor obtaining "pleasure" should be his focus right now.
What he should understand most is why Alice used charm on him, and whether she is using illusions to deceive him or tamper with his cognition.
With this thought in mind, Klein paced back and forth in the room for a few steps. He finally chose his words and prepared to speak:
"Alice, you—"
Before he could finish his words, he suddenly turned his gaze away. His attention was drawn to something on the desk, and he was speechless for a moment.
Alice didn't react like him. She just glanced over there and said casually: "
By the way, this letter suddenly appeared on my desk just before you knocked on the door. Hmm - you look like you have some clues?"
"This is probably a letter sent to you."
Klein said word by word. After confirming that she didn't show any abnormal emotions, he slowly recounted his previous attempts and discoveries in detail.
During this time, he also took out the junk advertisements that were put in his pocket to support his statement.
"It's really strange."
Alice nodded, and at the same time changed her posture from lying down to sitting up, and she carefully put aside the book about the festival customs of the Feysac Empire.
"Do you... have any friends who would send you a letter in this way?"
Although she didn't show any dissatisfaction with his previous attempts, Klein couldn't help but feel a little nervous and asked carefully.
"No. Let's not consider whether the cross-border letters can be delivered... No one will write to me here."
Alice denied it very straightforwardly.
Klein had no choice but to ignore the information in her words and suggested that she recall whether she had overlooked any details, such as where she went and what she did last week to be targeted by an unknown Beyonder, and even have her residence found out by the other party and sent this strange and weird letter.
"You said before that you felt there was something not so good in the letter."
Seeing Alice's serious expression gradually fading from her smile, Klein nodded.
"And this letter would reappear in the mailbox downstairs every time it disappeared beyond a certain distance, until the last time... it was 'delivered' directly to me."
Hearing this, Klein could only nod again.
"But I don't think I've done anything that would cause anyone to have bad intentions..."
After she said this, she turned around and saw Klein's expression of "Really? I don't believe it." She found it a little funny, but for some reason she suddenly felt a sense of loss and pain.
"You don't believe me?"
Alice finally realized the alienation he showed today.
Klein could foresee that he would waver when she saw through his suspicions, but he didn't expect that what made him hesitate the most was the lonely look in her eyes that she had never shown before. The mist in her eyes seemed like a sharp blade piercing through armor, stabbing fiercely into the heart of everyone who saw this scene.
...Well, Klein had to admit that beauty was indeed a woman's most powerful weapon.
He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and said cruelly:
"...I have my own criteria for judgment, Miss Alice, and I know too little about you."
"That's true." The girl lowered her eyes and nodded, and then fell silent.
Just as Klein was wondering if his tone was too harsh, Alice spoke again:
"It just so happens that what I've seen and heard these days is not suitable to be told in a relaxed and happy environment. It's better to say that the current atmosphere is just right and it feels great."
"...What did Miss Alice see and hear?" Klein was a little stunned.
"Since you lack understanding of me, and I also lack understanding of you and the world, why not just listen, Mr. Klein."
The blonde girl smiled again, but it was no longer a joking, bad-tempered smile. Instead, it was a very light and shallow smile, as if it was a sigh.
"After listening to this, I'm sure you will understand that what I've seen and what I'm doing... although it may not be considered a good deed, it will not fall to the point of being despised by others."
...That's not what he meant! Klein opened his mouth, but was unable to come up with an explanation.
Because the girl had turned her eyes away, turned her memory back to a few days ago, and began her story -The first place chosen by the traveler from another world who goes by the alias Alice to stay after escaping was not Tingen City in Ahowa County.
The young magician in a white robe with gold edges stopped her spell in a village far away from the town. Her exquisitely crafted leather boots stepped on the muddy road after the rain, and she almost got splashed with mud.
But it doesn't matter, clothes with self-cleaning spells are not afraid of this level of dirt.
She maintained her illusion spells and observed the village with only about a dozen households for several rounds. Then she realized that this was a dying village that had almost become an empty village.
Why use the word "almost"?
Obviously, most of the farmland belonging to this village is abandoned, but not all of it.
An elderly peasant couple were the last residents of the village.
They work from sunrise to sunset every day, diligently farming, watering and fertilizing, and feeding the few remaining chickens, ducks, cats and dogs in the village.
This is a village so quiet that it is almost dying.
The young female magician used magic to disguise herself as an ordinary traveler in appearance and clothing, and cast a spell to make the old couple ignore her "Lune" with a strange accent. With almost no effort, she received their warm hospitality.
And all she did was chat with them for a few hours.
The Joneses had not seen any visitors to the village for nearly two months.
Of course, the people who originally came from this village moved away from their hometown and went to big cities long ago.
According to the Joneses, since the crops grown in the village have become difficult to sell, many farmers have given up their fields and gone to big cities to work as workers as they have been unable to make ends meet and feed their families.
If they were a few decades younger, they would probably make the same choice.
"In previous years, seeing so many empty fields, old Thompson, who loves to take advantage of others, would have been very happy and would have rushed to plant his oats on the vacant land." Mrs. Jones said this, pointing to a large field overgrown with weeds outside the window, with a look of regret on her face, as if she was reminiscing.
"At the beginning, we were thinking that with the price of grain dropping so low that we couldn't even make back our costs, who would be willing to sell it? After a while, the bigwigs in the city discovered that no one was selling grain anymore. Then we could sell the stock in the granary to them and we would definitely be able to make some money back. Who knew..."
Old Mr. Jones took her to visit a sealed granary. The wrinkles on his face were weathered and deep, and there was no trace of sadness or joy in his tone.
"The best grains were moldy and rotten and couldn't be sold. In the end, it was little John who took a torch and burned all the stinking rotten stuff inside... We old guys probably never dreamed that the things we grew with our own hands would be burned by our own hands in the end."
"Where are your children?" she heard herself ask.
"We have eleven children in total. Three of them died young and didn't live past the age of five..."
"The eldest son went to Jianhai County to transport coal for the factory owners there. The second daughter had a difficult delivery when she gave birth to her fourth child several years ago and didn't make it..."
The old couple Jones counted on their fingers. Every time they counted a wrinkled finger, it was a statement of fate.
"...Sixth brother joined the army some years ago. He might be on a ship now. As for seventh brother..."
"Old man, you are getting confused! Seventh brother is the one who joined the army. Sixth brother went to fight underground boxing some years ago and got into trouble."
Mrs. Jones corrected her husband in a hoarse voice.
"Oh, oh...it seems so. I'm old and my memory is not good..."
Mr. Jones, who is over 70 years old, touched his gray and almost bald hair, shut up obediently, and let his wife continue the narration.
"...Our little daughter left the village last year. She said she was going north to Tingen to find a job.
I don't know how she is doing now." The young magician was silent for a while, then asked:
"Have you ever considered letting one of your children stay, or go to the city with them?"
Let their children stay? The old couple Jones shook their heads after hearing this.
"They have their own lives and their own choices. Why should they stay with old guys like us?"
It is even more unrealistic for them to follow their children to the big city to make a living.
The Jones couple said that they knew nothing except farming, and going to the big city would only hold their children back, so it would be better for them to stay in the village, at least they would not starve to death.
"Actually, it's pretty good. We have a lot of work to do every day. When we're done, we wait until dark, drink some homemade beer together, and read the newspaper. Life is very comfortable."
The young magician knew that the old couple meant reading newspapers, which meant spreading out two or three newspapers that had been overdue for who knows how long, and reading them word by word. They didn't know how many times they had repeated this.
So after a night's rest, she said she was going to the northern city of Tingen to visit the old Jones couple's little daughter, Mary.
When the girl arrived in Tingen and found Mary Jones who had become a textile worker, she saw her black and white photo in the cemetery.
According to her co-workers, Mary was so sleepy and tired one night that she didn't pay attention to the headscarf loosening up, and her hair was accidentally caught in the machine, and she was gone.
All her savings were just enough to buy the small piece of land that now holds her ashes and this tombstone without an epitaph.
Mary left no other relics.
During her lifetime, she lived in a cheap hotel on Lower Iron Cross Street in the slum area. There was almost no privacy in the rooms there. More than a dozen people were crowded in a room full of bunk beds, like a group of rats in a cage.
Finally, the girl had to find a way to "copy" a black and white photo on Mary's tombstone, returned to the dying village, and gave it to the old couple Jones.
"She is living a good life and is in love. Maybe she will get married next year or the year after,"
she said.
There was no need to bring bad news to these two old people who could not see the distant future, right?
But before leaving, she seemed to hear suppressed crying coming from the only house with lights on in the village.
…After that, the young magician returned to Tingen.
She stood in front of the camera store, quietly wondering how she could return the film she had "borrowed".
That's when she felt the gaze.
A young girl visitor from another world met a young man named Klein Moretti.
From that day on, part of her life was just as Klein knew. She would occasionally talk to him about topics at a supernatural level, but more often she would play tricks on him for fun. At night, she would sleep in the space behind the mirror, leading a casual and comfortable life.
What Klein didn't know was that Alice didn't do anything special during the day.
As she had told him, she was a magician who moonlighted as a bard.
However, she never sang, nor did she tell lyrics or poems about heroic stories. Instead, whenever she arrived in a new city, if she felt interested, she would take her musical instrument and walk through the streets and alleys, and then compose impromptu music.
Alice has not forgotten the bad experience when she first arrived in this world.
She was very careful to isolate herself from the sight of most people. Even the native extraordinary people in this world would forget her specific appearance in a very short period of time.
Therefore, this also allows her to observe this small town from the perspective of a passerby, like an invisible person.
She saw that elderly people living alone would rather cover themselves with damp quilts and eat moldy black bread than go to the workhouse, because it was almost like hell. The person sleeping in the next bed might be infected with a malignant disease. The dirty and smelly courtyard never saw the sun all year round...
She saw the workers walking on the docks carrying heavy goods, their spines bent and the remaining energy drained out of their bodies for the transportation that might cost less than half a penny a trip. Many male workers begin to lose strength when they are around 30, and have to stop and rest after moving a few loads of goods, otherwise unfortunate accidents may occur.
She saw greasy and dirty workers sitting on equally greasy and dirty tables and chairs in the cheap cafes in the slums, wolfing down dry bread with tea. Everyone ate with relish on the food scraps left by the previous customer, completely unconcerned about these indecencies.
...
She played the seven-string harp in her hand in the square, on the street, and on the simple lawn in front of the school.
Despite downplaying her presence, there are still children who start dancing to the beat during her impromptu playing.
They have an amazing vitality that is rarely seen in adults. Whether in the slums or the rich areas, the dancing of dirty and ragged children is not necessarily worse than that of those who have received dance lessons.
But only children under ten years old and her fellow wandering artists would respond to her music.
When these children grow up and become young boys and girls, they from the slums will wake up from the nightmare called reality, and the poverty and harsh environment will deprive them of the hope and smiles of their childhood. Those stunted and hunched bodies can no longer enable them to dance with the light and cheerful steps they once did. Instead, they become a burden, accompanying them as they leave their homes and go out to the streets to make a living.
She often played music at the town square near the intersection of Iron Cross Street and Daffodil Street.
So she knew that someone would stop to listen to her piano music, listen for a while from a distance, and then leave without coming closer.
She knew that he was worried that if he listened any longer, he would have to pay a few pennies for the pianist...even though she never placed any coin collection objects where she played.
Of course, in addition to the group of people living in darkness, she also silently watched the middle class and even the aristocratic people in this world.
They lived a respectable life, drank coffee or tea elegantly, and traveled by horse-drawn carriage.
The gentlemen all wore top hats, vests and shirts, with their collars and cuffs neatly arranged to be wrinkle-free. The ladies wore dresses or trousers in a variety of styles, some conservative and noble, and some heroic and valiant.
They discuss fashion, know how to enjoy holidays and lead a planned life, which most people take for granted.
But similar to the proportions she observed, the number of poor people far exceeds that of the wealthy.
When walking on the street, people always subconsciously ignore those hiding in the shadows.
They were cooks, coachmen, and workers who would not get off work until nearly midnight and return to cheap hotels to rest.
They are clearly human beings just like everyone else, but they seem to be wearing a strange filter and are often forgotten in the corner.
As for those who are glamorous and beautiful, they enjoy the gazes of their peers and the light of day focused on them.
They are the shining points in the paintings, the few people who possess wealth and status, and the upper-class elites who hold their heads high and do their best to show their dignity.
And Alice...
Alice hadn't actually thought about what she should do.
She knew that she was just a passer-by, an outsider, and had no right to judge the good or bad of this land and these people.
But she couldn't help but dig out a comment from a corner deep in her memory:
- This is the best of times, this is the worst of times.