Moving Up in the World

“C-can you take me home?”

The words were like being punched in the gut, but he helped Levi onto his feet. He didn’t have anywhere for the boy to stay, but he would figure that out.

“Not quite, I am… I am searching for a way.” Oliver stood closer as somebody walked past, trying to conceal the bag.

”Tell me, does anyone else know where you’re from?”

Levi looked apprehensive, but he nodded. “The guards that took my dad…”

His face scrunched up, Oliver somewhat insensitively shushed him before he could start crying and draw attention.

Levi continued, whispering. ”T-they thought there were two of us, but they didn’t see me.”

“Do they know what you look like?”

The boy shook his head, “I don’t think so”

“Also, please hide that.” Oliver pointed at the handbag. Levi stuffed it under his shirt.

“Stay with me.”

They went to an inconspicuous alleyway where they had more privacy.

Oliver turned Levi around by the shoulder, so they were facing each other. “How old are you?”

“Nine.”

Oliver thought for a second, “I’m living at the place I found work for the moment, I don’t have money to pay for a place to stay until tomorrow, so you have two options.”

Oliver held up one finger, “The first is that you come in with me, sneakily. People might ask questions.”

Levi looked hesitant.

Oliver held up a second finger, “Otherwise, we can both try to sleep outside on the streets.”

Levi spoke up, “... I do have some money.”

Oliver shook his head, “Money from home doesn’t work here.”

Levi frowned, “No, I mean I have coins. I’m not stupid.”

Oliver raised an eyebrow.

—

They entered Explorer’s Rest and asked for a room. Levi’s dad had beaten someone up on the road, and had come away wealthier for it.

Levi’s dad sounds like an impressive guy. Oliver’s eyes darkened.

The kid seemed autonomous. Enough that Oliver assumed he didn’t need constant attention, which was good, because that was impossible. Even if his eyes were glazed over half of the time, Oliver was surprised he was holding up.

Being with Levi was a big enough distraction that Oliver only thought about his new failure half as much as the last. Every execution was a failure. He didn’t have time to rest.

It was nearly time for the dinner rush when they sat down in the common room. There were a few people about, including a certain young scholar, who shot Oliver looks, which he ignored for the moment.

The pair of otherworlders ate a simple meal without saying much of anything, after which Levi looked quite exhausted. Oliver led him to the room to sleep in, the kid curled up on the bed around the handbag, hopefully he could sleep at all.

Oliver locked the room from the outside with the key, and went back to sit in the common room. He could have gone back out searching, but obviously wasn’t too comfortable leaving Levi alone. He muttered, "Hopefully, my job won’t be a problem…”

“Hey. You’re lucky to be working under that official, but I’m going to be an official myself in the next round of exams. Just you wait.” Oliver was brought out of his thoughts by the (as yet unnamed) young scholar that stood across the table from Oliver.

Oliver didn’t know what this guy’s deal was, but he had less and less reason to be cordial with people these days. He was able to put on a show, but just because he was able didn’t mean he thought it was necessary.

“Yeah, I expect I’ll be waiting a while.” Oliver didn’t actually know how well young scholar did, but it seemed to be impactful.

Young scholar spluttered, “I wasn’t trying to–”

Oliver cut him off. “Have you ever tried to do anything?”

Young scholar’s face was dismayed and hurt, rather than angry. Oliver felt a bit bad. Then, Oliver felt his chair disappear below him, and saw the whole room lower.

Oliver was hooked under the shoulders from behind and lifted out of his seat. He flailed his legs. “Hey hey HEY!” Oliver wasn’t a small guy, but he was useless against whatever this new entrant was doing.

A gravelly voice cascaded from behind him. “Don’t insult Edward again, if you know what’s good for you.” Then dropped Oliver back into his seat.

Oliver, free, turned around to find the musclebound behemoth he’d passed on the stairs the first day, he loomed over Oliver from above. Oliver swallowed. “Right, I apologise.”

“Hmph.” The muscle-man spun young scholar Edward around and guided him to a far table, where they both sat down. Oliver just put his head in his hands, he wondered if mana enhanced muscle growth was a thing.

Eventually, he went up to Levi’s room and slept on the floor.

—

As Oliver got up, he saw Levi was already awake.

Oliver decided he was going to have to take Levi to work. He didn’t have a good excuse to give Emilia, but he wasn’t about to leave a nine year old to fend for himself. Especially with monster sized people around.

With Levi’s remaining funds, they walked through a market and bought him a simple change of clothes; a mini tunic and pants, both yellow, weathered and most likely second hand. Slightly oversized, but nothing egregious.

The large amount of yellow and blue products was somewhat restricting, but Oliver guessed they were popular due to them being the ruling family’s colours. Oliver also picked up a light blue sack with strings so it could secure to Levi's back. Levi shoved his handbag in.

Freshly dressed, they entered the ministry. They got looks, but nobody really said anything. Levi was despondent, and didn’t seem entirely trusting of Oliver, but he followed.

When Oliver swung open the door to Emilia’s office, she looked up from a conversation with another Official and frowned. Said Official seemed jubilated.

“Oh. This must be your assistant of recent days, yes?” His sharp black goatee cut the air as his big head turned.

Oliver held out a hand for a handshake. “Oliver’s the name. I’ve been helping out.”

The Official gripped it firmly “Yes, yes I’ve seen the reports. Middle Official Terique. A pleasure.”

Terique was a hefty man, and had a bureaucratic air to him– not efficient, mind, just bureaucratic. The Middle Official looked down at Levi, behind Oliver. “Younger brother, perhaps?”

Oliver and Levi didn’t have a whole lot of resemblance, but it was a possibility. “Something to that effect.” Levi didn’t seem to mind.

“I see, I see. Well Mr. Crest, I have something of a proposition for you!” Terique smiled broadly. Emilia looked inconvenienced.

“Go on?” Oliver replied. He hadn’t told this man his surname.

“I’ve evaluated your work, and I will say I am quite interested in your methods. To get to brass tacks, I want you in my team! I will give you five gold a month, what do you say?” Terique waggled his eyebrows.

Shameless. Right in front of his current employer, Oliver wasn’t impressed.

Not that Oliver particularly knew the market, but one night in the Explorer’s rest was two silver and five copper. Obviously an apartment would be cheaper per night by some degree, hopefully, but five gold didn’t seem realistic.

Oliver peeked at Emilia’s expression behind the Middle Official. She went neutral quickly as Terique followed Olvier’s eyes, but Oliver had glimpsed a smile.

Employee loyalty would hopefully give him some leverage.

“Middle Official, thanks for the offer, but I’ll have to decline. I’m quite happy with my arrangement as it is.” Oliver was cordial– if things fell through with Emilia, he didn’t want to burn any bridges, money was money.

Terique didn’t seem to expect that, but he didn’t negotiate. “Quite so?”

“Yes.” Oliver nodded.

The Middle Official stood straight, and smiled. “Well, it seems there’s nothing more to discuss.” He walked out past Oliver and Levi without another word.

“So, what do I get for turning that down? It’s payday today right?” Oliver rubbed his hands together and grinned villainously.

Emilia crossed her arms. “Yeah, I get paid twice a month. You get seven gold, four silver this time.” She held out a small sack. It weighed his arm down when he took it.

He hefted it, turns out gold is heavy, and peeked inside to count.

Emilia looked at Oliver like he was an idiot. “You do realise my whole job is to count money.“

Oliver didn’t glance up. “I don’t want to get underpaid.”

Unsurprisingly, the entire amount was there.

As Emilia sighed, Oliver followed up with a new question. “In terms of housing, I can’t exactly keep staying in the ministry,” he glanced down at Levi, "Any advice on places to stay?”

Emilia eyed Levi. “I thought you didn’t remember anything. Who is this?”

Oliver added the pouch to his belt, then reconsidered, and put it in his laptop bag. “This young man is just recently out of a place to stay.” Oliver smiled wanly. “If you know a place, we’d like recommendations.”

Emilia looked at the pair for over ten seconds, “There are orphanages, government funde-”

Oliver shook his head, serious. “I’ve taken it upon myself.”

Emilia thought for a moment. Then spoke, “... Are things like these going to keep happening?” which sounded more like ‘Don’t drag me into any scandals.’

Oliver knew it was sketchy, but he put the conversation back on track. “We stayed in an inn last night, I didn’t want to leave him alone there. Hopefully an apartment would be more secure.”

Emilia dropped into her chair, and massaged her temples. “Alright… Alright, well, there’s a few things to think about. Such as proximity to the ministry, insulation, security, whether or not the toilet’s shared…” She glanced at Levi.

Oliver baulked, some apartments don’t have private bathrooms? The inn had a single shared toilet, but he thought that might’ve just been an inn thing. The ministry had excellent toilet cubicles, granite! No flush mechanism mind you, so just holes leading into the primitive sewer, but still granite.

The Lower Tax Official laced her fingers. “I’ll think about it as we work, we do have records on all the places in town, so I’ll compile some after we go through today’s workload. The little man can stay here as long as he’s quiet.” She gave Levi a stern look, then passed him a sheet of paper and a stick of charcoal. “You can draw if you’d like. Just be careful how much paper you use.”

Levi brightened up a bit, and Oliver was glad to see it. They went about their workday.

—

At around five in the afternoon, Emilia gathered some records of current rental properties and tenants, how many each place had, how much they were paying, et cetera. It was convenient to work in the finance ministry when it came to things like this. In Oliver’s pay range, and in reasonable distance of the Finance Ministry, there were only a few.

“We are near the centre of town after all. The further districts are less well served by the sewers, these would have the best amenities.” Emilia presented her list to Oliver. “These places have openings as far as I can tell from financial documents. It might be hard to get your foot in the door at such short notice, so I’ll come with you.” She adorned her peaked cap, brandished with the ministry’s symbol.

Oliver signalled Levi to get up, and all three of them left together, down the stairs, and past busy ministry workers. At least a few turned their heads for reasons unknown to Oliver.

They started with the closest place, which was a two story block of four apartments. It looked gaudy which gave Oliver a bad impression, but he didn’t have to worry, because it was apparently only open for short term stays to wealthy merchants.

“Of course, for a finance official, we could make an exception!” the plump man rubbed his clammy hands together. He reeked of tax evasion, alas, this was not the place.

Oliver spoke to Emilia as the three continued on to the next place. “Should we get whoever’s in charge of this area to look into that guy?”

Emilia shrugged. “Not my purview.”

Such was workplace competition.

The second place looked much more promising, at least, in the context of the town.

It looked like most of the other buildings in the street, which was residential.

Rows and rows of townhouses, some had external access to each level, one of which being what the three were standing in front of. A freestanding wooden staircase connected each balcony to the other, with front doors leading in.

According to their documents, the owner lived on the ground floor.

Oliver knocked on the door and waited alongside Levi and Emilia.

And waited…