The two guards withdraw their swords to make room for me to enter the Palace. I go ahead, I thanked them and walk normally in the Palace. I open the second door of the palace, which I think measures more than three or four people in height, with difficulty because it was made of very heavy wood, and I'm still a "kid". When I opened the door completely, I'm going inside that palace and look for that room that needs to be inscribed with "Human Resources.". That room could help me find a job as a scout and other jobs for my age. Thank Lord the nuns have taught me this thing a few days ago at the classroom.
After I arrived there, I saw a crowd of kids in front of me. Some people there are at my age or older. There aren't many, but it was a crowd who lasted just fifteen minutes. When the last person who was a lizard man who had to sign a parchment to be given a piece of wood that is engraved with charcoal the address of the place where he should go, it was my turn. I entered the "Human Resources" room and the person there saw me, as he looked a bit at a parchment sheet and told me:
"Hello! How can I help you?"
"Hello! I am Judah Judas and I came here to find a job as a squire." I said to the man in front of me.
"Okay. How old are you?"
"Ten years."
"Oh, good. I thought you were eight or six. Anyway, are you an orphan or with a family?"
"Orphan."
"I see." said the man after he takes a blank parchment and started to note a few things. "I'm sorry about your life."
"It's nothing," I respond thinking that man he felt sorry for me being an orphan.
After a few seconds, he looks at me like a nun looked at me when he started to ask some question in the class:
"Species?"
"Human," I respond directly because I am sure I'm human.
"I see..." said the man in front of me starting to write something on parchment. "Man, or Semi-Man?"
"Man."
"House address?"
"I don't have a house at the moment."
"We write here as a squire who asks for accommodation then ... So, the weapon you have?"
"I don't have a weapon at the moment. But I can use magic."
"Alright. What kind of spell you use?"
"...Slowing and healing." I said after a few seconds thinking of what that dear nun explained to me after I left the house. "Oh, and Fire. And Shield."
"So ... preferences for what kind of person you would like to be their squire for three years maximum?"
"Not. I have no preference."
"So... The salary?"
"What is the most used term?" I ask after a short break when I was thinking about the salary because I do not truly care that much of money.
"They usually ask for one hundred coins every three weeks, others even ask for two hundred or even five hundred, which makes finding a job as a squire very difficult and impossible if we are to tell you the truth."
"Then... One hundred coins every three weeks."
"Okay ... now you just have to sign and tomorrow morning we'll give you the verdict."
"What verdict?"
"Well... This was the first round, the completion of your working contract. Tomorrow, if you pass, we will post the ad in the entire kingdom to the Taverns, Market zones or the residential zones."
"I see."
The man hands me the parchment and the goose feather to sign it, I take those things and I begin to sign the place where he asks for my signature. After I signed, I said goodbye to the man and I thanked him for helping me. After that, I left this palace feeling relieved that I had escaped an obstacle which I thought it would've been hard. I leave the Palace and I head to the closest bench at the Royal Palace, and I sit there.
After a few minutes standing still and looking at people who are doing their business or chores, I decided to explore the kingdom because I still have time till tomorrow to see if I get a job.
After a few minutes of walking through that Kingdom, I noticed a lot of people entering some weird building shaped, building which are much larger than the Orphanage I have lived. I think those buildings are known as markets or tavern if I'm not mistaken. So that is how business are made and done into this kingdom. I have heard a lot of kids from the Orphanage who want to get their hands on a house and create some kind of market or Tavern.
But I also noticed something strange when I was walking, some knights, wearing shining armor, with their weapons on the table or under the table sitting at some tables in front of a building that says "Misu's Tavern" and drinking from a very large cup a yellow liquid with white foam. Being at the Orphanage and the age of ten, I never saw this strange thing.
Seeing those four knights drinking that yellow liquid with white foam, talking, laughing and playing a card game made me jealous of them. Of course, at the Orphanage, I played cards, joked with my friends there, but I never drank that liquid because I never saw it in the Orphanage.
A knight gets up from that table and goes inside the building. I wait a moment to look at that tavern, then I see that knight who had entered the building coming out and running to the Kingdom with a spear. I looked at that gentleman for a few seconds, then I continued to walk again.
"It must be nice to be a knight," I said to myself while I walk down the street to nowhere for an unknown time.
After another fifteen minutes of walking, I arrive in front of a cathedral, and there I notice a lot of people, more old people coming out and feeling very good. I have heard a lot from this Cathedral from the nuns who take care of me. The name of this place is Saint Iona and saint Freya. I don't know much about those saints, but I heard that religion considers them the makers of rivers at Kingdom of Romania.
A young lady left that Cathedral and comes right to me with a worried face. At first, I did not recognize her, but as she spoken, I could resemble that voice very easily:
"Hey! Are you the guy called Judah Judas?"
"Yes," I respond with a worried face. "And you are Nathalie?"
"Nathalie Von Graves." says the girl smiling. "Did you remember me, right?"
"Um... Well...Of course. We were roommates at the Orphanage."
"You do remember well."
"How are you doing?"
"I just finished my job. You?"
"I have graduated."
"My Gods. Congratulations!"
We both slap our hands.
"So. are you still shy around some boys?"
I take three steps back very fast because that girl almost takes the dagger from her pocket to cut my throat. This girl called Nathalia was the first girl who punched me in the face because I tried to share with her an apple at the Orphanage. This girl is really weird when she sees boys approaching her. I think it's some fear or allergy that only girls have, I don't think it would be anything else. After all, I am still small and I still have a lot to learn from this life.
Sometimes she is nice, and sometimes she is a monster, on an innocent and scared kid skin. Nathalie puts her dagger back in its sheath and looks at me with a look of shame:
"Sorry, the force of habit."
"I-I see." I tell to Nathalia, then ask her: "Do you know a place where I can stay till night?"
"I'm not inviting you to my house, you little kid!"
"I'm not asking to come to your house, by the way, we have the same age! Calling me a little kid means you are a little kid too."
After I said the last sentence, Nathalie was silent, ashamed, and handed me a piece of wood with an address.
"That's the address of a Tavern who can let you sleep there for a night," says Nathalia looking at her shoes because she doesn't want to show her face to me after the incident. "It's called Misu's Tavern, it offers drink, food and even sells cheap weapons for new squires."
"Thank you." I say to Nathalie, and I take the carved wood board with the address. "It was nice to see you after a very long time."
"Same." says Nathalia looking at me again. "Well. I gotta go. Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
Nathalie returns and leaves in a hurry, taking a road full of people sitting on the stairs and smoking in their mouths with the help of a parchment and playing with some dice I used to play board games with the kids there. I don't know what those papers are, but from the faces of the people who put them in their mouths and made smoke with them, I can be sure that they are not good in taste or helps you in life. I was looking at the piece of wood and when I read the address I realized where the building where. I go back and take the road I came on.
After another fifteen minutes, I arrived at the same Tavern I was looking at a few moments ago, "Misu's Tavern". I take some courage and walked to the door of that Tavern. Arriving in front of that door, I noticed a person coming out.
I take a few steps back so as not to be hit by the door or by the person coming out of the Tavern. The person who came out is a blonde girl dressed in a shiny armor, with a hood on her back for this cold time, feet armor, and she carries a very large sword on her back. That blonde girl saw me and said:
"Hello, kid!"
"H-Hello." I replay to the girl.
"You aren't too young to go into a Tavern?"
"Um... I have ten years."
"Good luck, then." she said with a smile to me.
And after saying this last sentence, she left me and went to do her business. I don't know much about female knights or girls, but that sword is way too big to be held by one person. Anyway, I walked to the door, pushed the door a bit, and entered the Tavern.
When I entered, I didn't see anything weird there. Just three men dressed in normal clothes sleeping at a table holding huge wooden glasses in their hands. I look at the counter area to see a plump gentleman cleaning some bottles that are supposed to contain that drink I just saw earlier at the knights. I walk to the counter with a normal gait and look at that bald male at the counter who is probably the owner and ask him:
"Hello! Is there a-an available r-room?"
"Of course, it is, young man." says the bald guy with a smile to me. "How many nights?"
"Just one."
"Okay."
The bald man leans under the counter, takes a key from there, then hands it to me and says:
"How old are you?"
"Ten years," I respond to that man.
"For this I can let you get the room with a discount."
"T-Thank you very much."
"Very well. You can rest in room 45. It's located on the second floor."
"Thanks."
I take the key from on the counter, I'm heading to the stairs and start going upstairs to the second floor. After I arrived on that floor, I see on my face a woman almost naked.
That woman wore only a rag on her chest and legs. Seeing her, I blushed because it is the first time in my life when I see a woman who is not wearing clothes. When I was at the Orphanage, the nuns wore only holy clothes every day, but why did they wear them? I have no idea, but when I saw that woman I started to feel something down to my feet, I look down and I don't see anything, but I feel something touching my underwear. Then I remember a discussion or a lesson about the autonomy of men. I decide to go ahead and keep my eyes on that "woman" until I get to my room because I don't want to be seen by a woman who will probably cut off my organ that helps me do my little work in the bathroom. I don't know what that organ is called because I never liked anatomy.
I successfully arrived at my room without looking at that naked woman. I take the key from my pocket, insert it into the lock and then I rotate clockwise. The door got unlocked, I give a small push to the door and then I headed into the room. After I entered the room, I close the door, locked it and then I jumped on the bed, which was very comfortable and full of pillows made of goose feathers and probably sheep fur. The pillows are very comfortable but the blanket wasn't like what I expected because it was cold, it smells bad and it has white liquid on it. Whatever that liquid is, it's probably not poisonous or organic. So I threw the blanket, and used the bed sheet as a blanket.
After I stayed in bed for a short time, I started to try falling asleep. It took me thirty minutes to try, then I remember I can do magic. I look at the ceiling, remembering a spell a character from a novel was using a technique I learned at my Orphanage Library. Just strangle yourself till you can't breathe and after that stop breathing for 40 seconds. Pretty easy, right? Wrong. It's very hard to do that while you hear a girl and a man screaming at the next door about a God and probably a mother and something like "Wrong hole!". Whatever that means.
While they were making... whatever those sounds are, I decided to try something I never do, trying to make myself sleeping using magic. Even though I never know how I'm doing spells, I decide to give it a try saying something like "Sleeping spell!". And in just three seconds, I was starting to sleep until morning. Easier than I thought.