Foreigner Of Time [Book II]

17

Jennie's fine brows knitted slightly, then she gave Lisa a glance from the side. 

She did not want there to be any misunderstandings between them, and groundless misunderstandings like these even more so.

"My husband has asked a question, just say anything you have to say." Jennie said calmly.

Hearing that from Jennie, Lisa was reassured at once. 

She believed that her Nini definitely wasn't the sort of person who would do anything by force.

And so, she said the same, "Talk about it then."

Toji sighed, then he said helplessly, "It's shameful to say this, but the two of us brothers have always been rowdy since we were young. We brandish weapons all day instead of tending the fields. We were able to earn enough to cover our living expenses by working with the guards-for-hire by the water route, but things changed last year when a new Vice-Magistrate came to the city. He took charge of the port right away, and without mentioning how he raised the berth price, he took a cut from it too. The money that reaches contractless guards like us naturally lessens too. That's fine, but for some reason, the amount of water transport in the city suddenly decreased by more than half. The guards-for-hire that employed contractless guards isn't a big establishment in the first place. This small guard-for-hire suffered the most from the decrease in water transport. The two of us had no more work to do, so we stayed at home all day. Although our family owned a few small fields, we had never done such work before, so we couldn't get the hang of it. Watching the two of us eat away the food at home all day while being of no help to him, our old father was so furious that he fell sick. The cost of his medicine was a few dozen coins a day, and it quickly burned through our family's savings. Master, you know this too: when it comes to farming, no matter how much effort the two of us put in, we still have to wait for it to grow. In the end, we sold all of our seeds too. But my father's illness still didn't turn for the better, so we had no choice but to look for another guard-for-hire. We signed contracts and got ourselves enough silver to get a doctor for our father, seeds to plant, and extra for our mother to keep. But a few months ago, our old father couldn't make it past the winter. When we came back from a job, our father was already gone."

The frame of Toji's eyes reddened when he spoke to this point.

Sukuna took over for him and said heavily, "Now our old mother is the only one left at home. The two of us have sold ourselves pathetically, but fortunately, working as guards only keeps us busy for a few months. When there aren't any goods to escort, we can still stay at home. The guards-for-hire that we threw ourselves into closed down at the end of the year, and our contracts were resold to the Stark family's guards-for-hire. After that, the two of us caught the lady's eye, and then we were made to be the master's servants. Logically, it is our fortune to follow the master's side. We should be happy that we do not have to live with our lives on the line and sleep in the wild. But once we entered the estate, we became house servants. We will eat and sleep on the estate from now on, but our poor old mother is left alone with no one to care for her."

Lisa fell silent for a moment, then she threw out a question, "You mentioned earlier that you worked on water routes. Although there's less water transport than before, there should be more land transport too. Why not work as land transport guards instead?"

Toji said with his fist wrapped in his palm, "Answering the master, escort guards are not cheap to hire. People who come to hire escort guards either need us urgently or have valuable things to protect. Guards to escort valuable items are very expensive, and it'll never end up on common guards like us. Horses are required to escort urgent goods, and the guards must have a horse of their own. A long-distance horse cost at least ten liangs of silver; how could ordinary folks possibly afford that?"