Upon taking a bite from the soft bun, Elena's eyes involuntarily teared up. This was the first proper meal she was eating after a long time. At the slave market, all they could get was a bowl of plain rice and some cheap vegetable curry, which was barely edible.
Being the weakest among the slaves, Elena's portion of the rice was often snatched by others, or the slave merchant simply ignored her, leaving her starving for days.
"Aiye... don't cry, little girl. Come here when you are hungry; giving you a serving of food won't really matter to us," the stall owner's wife said with a smile.
The stall owner also looked at the crying Elena. From her thin frame, it was apparent that she was malnourished, so he didn't refute his wife's words and simply started to engage in his own work.
Elena forced a smile on her face and thanked her, "Thank you, madam. I will find a job quickly and pay you back the money."
"Fine, fine. Pay me back when you have money. Now stop crying and eat," she said, then left to attend to other customers.
After finishing her meal, Elena once again thanked the lady boss and left the shop. Now, the biggest objectives in front of her were finding a place to stay and a job to sustain her daily needs.
The only memory Elena had was of the time after she woke up at her foster mother's hut in the mountains four years ago; it was as though all those memories before that were completely vanished from her brain. In the village, the only skills she learned were cooking and drawing.
Elena used to be an artist in the village before she was captured by the bandits, so now the only skill she was confident would make her some money was also being an artist. Thus, unhesitatingly, Elena found a painting shop after asking around.
In Celestia, there are modern printing machines, photos, and all, but talented artists and portrait artists were still popular, as having handmade pictures is considered a luxury here and a way for wealthy people to flaunt their status by asking famous artists to make their happy moments into paintings.
Although the painting shop Elena found was not short on employees, they still lacked truly talented ones. So, the boss of the shop, an old woman in her late 60s, still gave Elena a chance to prove her skills.
Elena's performance was also outstanding; she effortlessly drew a stunning portrait of the old lady within half an hour.
"Elena, is it?" The old lady looked at the painting Elena had made with squinted eyes and asked her in a soft voice.
Elena nervously nodded, as the old lady's judgment would determine whether she could secure a job here or not.
"Well then, my name is Gracy Wilson. You can call me Grandma Gracy from now on. Come back to work from tomorrow onwards. Also, your salary will be based on the works you complete; for each painting sold, you will give 20% to the shop, and the remaining 80% will be yours to keep," Gracy said, looking at Elena.
Elena smiled like a blooming flower upon hearing that her job problem was settled. "Thank you, Grandma Gracy."
Gracy nodded. "So, little girl, where are you from? Your hair and eyes remind me of a friend from the heavenly world. Are you a member of the Gracewill family?"
Elena sighed; several people had asked her the same question due to her unique purple hair and eyes. "No, I am not. I lived in a mountainous village in the Dragon World before; I am not from any royal family."
"You are right. Although having purple hair and eyes are traits of the Gracewill family, it's not as though others can't have the same eye and hair color." Suddenly, Gracy thought of something and asked, "Oh, by the way, if you are from a mountainous village, then where are you going to stay in Starshine?"
(note: starshine is the capital city of dragon world and the place were now Elena is at)
"I am looking for a place to stay. It's not settled yet," Elena said with a troubled look on her face.
Gracy thought for some time and said, "How about this: the upper floor of this shop is my house. In the past, my daughter and I lived there, but since she got married, she's been staying with her husband. You can use my daughter's room if you want to; just pay me rent at the end of the month correctly."
Elena's eyes lit up; this was simply a blessing straight from heaven. She was already troubled about finding a place to stay since she was penniless, and there wouldn't be any tenants willing to give her a house to stay in without a guarantee amount paid in advance.
Now that Gracy had agreed to give her a room for rent with rent paid at the end of every month, she now had a month's time to earn money and stabilize her life.
Thus, a month passed...
Gracy's store was named "Memories," a simple name and a simple two-story building with the lower floor dedicated to the art store. There were only three employees in the shop, including Elena; all of them were women, so Elena got along with her two colleagues pretty quickly.
Moreover, being an artist with remarkable skills was pretty awesome, more so than Elena had expected. In the mountain village where she previously lived, all her paintings were sold to a merchant from the capital city for a mere sum of 100 or 200 silver coins.
But now, she realized she had been fooled by that old man in the past. Here, for each of her paintings, she was paid a minimum of 2000 silver coins. Making this much money was already like a dream for her.
Elena's relationship with the steam bun stall owner's wife also improved a lot. She now addressed both of them as uncle and aunt, and even the usually stoic stall owner would smile when he saw Elena coming to his stall.