Exploring the City
Yesterday, I cried and cried and cried. My parents got mad at me for dropping their comforter on the ground, and dinnertime came, but I just kept crying without reacting that much. When morning came, I had cried so much that my eyes were dry and puffy. My head pounded with pain.
But my fever had gone down, and I didn’t feel nearly as sluggish. Plus, I felt a lot better in general since I had cried my heart out. Though my family basically had no idea how to treat me at breakfast.
“Mmm, looks like your fever has gone down.” Mom touched my forehead with a hand that was cold from having just washed dishes. She also lightly pressed it against my swollen eyes. The cold felt so good. “If you’re feeling better, Myne, would you like to go to the market with me? One’s being held today.”
Wait... Didn’t she say something about this being the busiest time of the year at her dyeing job, and that she had to go to work even while I was sick with a fever?
Mom, seeing my confusion, lowered her eyes sadly. “It’s been so long since Tuuli’s had a chance to go outside instead of taking care of you, and she was so worried yesterday when you wouldn’t stop crying. The only thing we could think of was that you got lonely on your own, so I made the effort to convince my coworkers to cover for me today.”
Upon hearing that, I gasped. I can’t believe I actually cried all day with people watching! I want to dig a hole and jump inside of it. Not much was worse than calming down and realizing how hard you embarrassed yourself the day before.
“U-Um, I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize, Myne. We all feel weak-hearted when we’re sick.” Mom rubbed my head gently, consoling me, but the kinder she was the more guilty I felt.
I’m really, really sorry. I cried exclusively out of despair over the lack of books. I didn’t feel lonely without you at all. Tuuli was that worried about me, but I just cared about her leaving so I could look for books. I’m so sorry.
“Tuuli’s going to the forest with everyone else, but you’re still too weak for that. Want to go shopping with Mommy?”
“Uh huh!”
“Oh my, I wonder where that enthusiasm came from.” Mom smiled happily, thinking that I was excited to be spending time with her, and I responded with a bright smile of my own. “Ahaha, I knew you would be excited for this.”
Mom looked so happy that I didn’t go out of my way to correct her — my enthusiasm had just shot through the roof since I was excited about potentially finding a book outside.
I would go shopping with her and have her buy me a book. I didn’t need a thick book in particular. Anything that I could use to learn this world’s writing system would be enough. Honestly, I’d be fine with a workbook aimed at children. If a book was too much, I’d settle for a chart of this world’s alphabet or whatever.
I’m sure if I say, “I won’t be lonely if I have a book! I’ll stay home alone all day every day!” in a really cute voice, she’ll buy a picture book or two for her sick little daughter. Eheheh. I can’t wait.
“Okay, Mom. I’ll be back later!” Tuuli peered into the bedroom with a full smile. Since Mom was staying home, she didn’t have to babysit me all day.
“Stay with the other kids, okay? Be careful.”
“Okaaay.” Tuuli strapped a large basket onto her back and skipped out of the house. It seemed like she was going out to play and have fun, but she was actually helping out the family in a crucial way: collecting firewood. She would also grab nuts, mushrooms, and other stuff while she was at it. Whether or not we had good, cheap meals each day depended largely on Tuuli.
Um... Do your best, Tuuli! My lunch is counting on you!
This poverty-stricken world didn’t have any schools, so children largely helped around the house or had jobs. Or at the least, schools never came up in Myne’s memories. Once kids got a little older than Tuuli, they began working as apprentices. If given the choice, I would’ve preferred to work as an apprentice librarian, or apprentice book saleswoman. Going to the market would provide the perfect opportunity to gather information on this kind of thing. I’d find the nearest bookstore, befriend the owner, and become an apprentice there.
“Okay, Myne. Let’s go shopping.”
It was the first time I was leaving home since becoming Myne and my first time wearing anything other than pajamas. My outfit was made up of worn out hand-me-downs from Tuuli and I had to put on several layers of the thick clothing. I was so bundled up it was kinda hard to walk, but nonetheless I took Mom’s hand and took my first step outside our home.
...So cold! So narrow! So stinky! Perhaps due to this being a stone building, it felt like cold air was flowing from the walls themselves and not even my several layers of clothing could stop me from feeling a chill. I really would have liked to have a fleece jacket or some hand warmers. Not to mention a mask to block the smell and help stave off a cold.
“Myne, be careful not to fall.” Right outside our home was a staircase leading down the building. My body was the size of a three-year-old toddler’s and each step was so large they filled me with terror. As Mom pulled me forward, I practically jumped down each wooden step one by one, listening to them creak as we spiraled down to the bottom of the building. For some reason, only the steps from the second floor downward were made out of pretty stone.
We all live in the same building, why do they get special treatment? I pursed my lips, pouting, as we finally reached the bottom and went outside. If my counting was accurate, we were in the apartment on the fifth floor out of seven. To be honest, for someone as weak, small, and sickly as me, just getting out of the house was enough to be exhausting. Now I knew why almost all of my memories took place inside. Even now, I was out of breath by the time I got outside. It seemed likely that I would just pass out before we reached our destination.
“Haaah, haaah... Mom, it’s hard to breathe. Wait a second.”
“But all we’ve done is leave the house. Are you okay?”
“I just... need a little, break...”
As I steadied my breath and reminded myself I needed to shape up if I wanted to reach a bookstore, I looked around to get a grasp of my surroundings. A short distance away from our housing complex was a small plaza with a well in the middle. Only the ground around the well was paved with stone, and I could see several older women talking while washing their clothes. That was definitely the well Tuuli used to wash dishes and get our daily water.
“I’ll carry you on my back, Myne.” Mom, who must have thought our shopping would never get done if she waited for me, somewhat forcefully plopped me onto her back and started walking away. I couldn’t remember this myself, but judging by how she had something like a baby carrier on her back, she was probably used to carrying Myne around.
The plaza with the well was surrounded by tall apartment-like housing complexes on all four sides, with just one path leading to the outside. After passing through the narrow, dark alleyway, we emerged onto a large road.
Wow! This looks exactly like one of the old European cities I’ve seen photos of. An unfamiliar scene spread out before me, with carts pulled by horses and donkey-like creatures passing each other by on a wide cobblestone road dotted on either side by stores. I spun around, looking everywhere like a tourist in my quest to find a bookstore.
“Mom, which store are we going to?”
“What are you saying, Myne? We’re going to the market. We almost never go to any stores.” According to Mom, most of the stores near ground level sold products for relatively rich individuals and had little that poor commoners like us could buy. We bought the majority of our daily goods at an actual marketplace.
Mmm, in other words, a bookstore is probably a ground floor store just like these? I looked around for a bookstore while Mom walked, and soon saw an especially large building that would serve as a solid landmark. It was made of white stone and, despite its simple design, there was a sort of majesty to it that made it stand out.
“Um, is that a castle?”
“No, that’s the temple. You’ll be going there to be baptized when you turn seven.”
Aaaah... A temple. It sounds like religion is enforced here, which sucks. I’ll try to avoid that place as much as possible.
My instincts and knowledge from my past life made me want to keep my distance from religion. But I didn’t know if this world would be too kind to an atheist, so I kept my mouth shut and looked at the walls surrounding the temple.
“Mom, what are those walls?”
“Those are castle ramparts. Inside is the castle where our lord lives, and the mansions where nobles live. Well, in the end, nothing behind those walls has much to do with you and me.”
The tall stone walls looked more like the gate to a prison than grounds where royalty lived within a castle. Maybe it would look even more like a prison if the guards were ever on high alert and defending against something. The blank white walls continued on either side, and although it looked like they had been designed with imposing dignity in mind without any artistic flourishes, they didn’t quite feel like the brutish walls of a fortress. It felt like they had been built only for the purpose of separation, and would be defenseless if ever actually attacked.
Mmm... They do look a little different from the European castles I’ve seen in historical films and stuff.
“Okay, Mom. What about those other walls?”
“Those are the outer walls. They protect the city. You know Gunther works as a guard at the southern gate, don’t you?”
I knew from Myne’s memories that Dad worked as a soldier, but I didn’t know that he guarded one of the gates to the city.
Hm... There’s a castle where the lord of these lands lives, and there’s both outer and inner walls here. I guess it’s safe to consider this a capital city? It doesn’t seem like that big of a city, judging by the length of the walls and how many people are walking around. But I shouldn’t think on the scale of Tokyo or Yokohama anymore.
It would be a huge city in comparison to the historical fortress cities I read about in my past life, but in this world where it’s normal to have green and blue hair, there were no guarantees that my Urano knowledge would remain accurate. It would be risky to settle on the idea of this being a large or small city before I learned more about the world.
...Aaah, the size of a city will change what kind of bookstores it’ll have, but I don’t understand what makes a big city here! Is this city big?! Is it small?! Tell me, someone!
“Myne, we need to hurry to the market. Everything good will get snapped up before we get there.”
I looked around desperately in search of a bookstore on our way to the market, but most of the stores on either side of us just had simple drawings on their signboards. The signs were either wooden with the art painted on, or metal with the art engraved into them, but either way I didn’t see anything resembling letters. That was good for someone like me, who couldn’t read the letters anyway, but a cold chill was starting to run up my spine.
...Wait. Um, I don’t think I’ve seen a single letter in this whole city. Is the literacy rate that low? Or does writing itself not exist in this world? The very idea made my blood run cold. I hadn’t even considered the possibility of a world without letters. Without letters, books couldn’t exist in the first place.
We reached the market while I was still stunned. I lifted up my head at the cacophony of noises and saw a lively bunch of stands lined up next to each other with plenty of people passing through. It looked so much like a Japanese cultural festival that I felt a little nostalgic. I subconsciously smiled and, after peering into a nearby fruit stall, saw something that shocked me to the point of smacking my mom’s shoulder.
“Mom, look! What’s that board?!” A board with some symbols written on it was stuck into a box with fruit in it. I couldn’t read them, but at the very least, that confirmed that this world had letters or numbers or something. I was so starved for letters that the mere sight of such symbols was enough to make my face flush with excitement.
“Oh, that’s the price. It tells us how much we need to pay.”
“Hey, Mom. What’s it say?”
Mom looked surprised at how excited I was getting, but I didn’t care about that. I had her read out the numbers on each board I saw, and I could feel them start to connect with the letters I already knew.
Okay, great! Keep it up, my precious synapses!
“Okay, so this says thirty Lions?” After Mom had read out several numbers to me, I tried reading some numbers on my own while gauging her reaction. I must have been right, given how she turned her head around to look at me while blinking rapidly.
“I’m really surprised you learned them that fast, Myne.”
“Eheh.” There were ten distinct symbols for what seemed to be numbers, so I assumed operating with base-10 math would be fine. I’m really glad they don’t use base-2 or base-60. I should be able to do math no problem if I can just memorize all the symbols.
...Oh wait, am I going down the child prodigy path here? At age ten I’ll be God’s gift to mankind and at age fifteen I’ll be a genius, but once I hit twenty I’ll just be a normal person. Oh well.
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