#21 - I Started Working at a Tavern to Make Money
"Haaahhh...."
"Sheria, you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine...."
Back in my dorm room at last, I went through the motions of getting ready for roll call while starting to review the location of the second relic — the one I'd spent all this time taking notes on. Its location I knew for certain. The second relic — the Turenne Family's Stylus — sat in none other than the Royal Library's annex treasure vault. The scale of the thing had suddenly swelled into something enormous, and it unnerved me a little, but there was nothing for it. I had to rob the Royal Library's annex vault.
"Whewww...."
One small problem, though: the Royal Library's annex vaults numbered far more than one or two. To keep the treasures donated to the Royal Library safe, vaults had been established for them all across the kingdom — and I had no idea which of those countless vaults was the exact location.
"The exact location of the vault... haaah...."
It wasn't as though there was no way to find it. If anything, the method was simple enough: I would go and lay eyes on every single vault myself.
Not that I'd memorized the layout of every dungeon back in my gaming days. The version I'd played was the alpha build — barely playable to begin with — and compared to the official release, those 'unreleased' builds were slated for sweeping, wholesale changes. Come to think of it, if they'd been squashing bugs and revising the original design along the way, then every betrayal and every curveball I'd run into so far actually started to make sense.
...But that wasn't the point. The point was that I had never played those unreleased builds thoroughly enough to chew them up, tear them apart, and savor every last corner. With so much obviously due to change by release, I'd only ever sampled the game — gotten a rough taste of what it was.
Which meant that from here on, my task was to visit those vaults in person, one by one, compare each against the layouts in my memory, and rob whichever one matched most closely. So — could I even get inside the vaults at all? Amazingly enough, the answer to that question was yes.
Half a month from now — in other words, early next month. When the new month began, the Philology Department's field study would take us to the Royal Library and its annex vaults. All I had to do was tour the vaults in one sweep, note their layouts, and find the one where the Turenne Family's Stylus was kept. Simple as that.
One blessing, at least: unlike the Karel Family's Silver Plaque before it, this time I had time to spare. With the Silver Plaque, the moment the relic went up for auction, tracking its whereabouts would become a problem in itself — the clock had been merciless. The Stylus, though, had been donated into the Royal Library's annex vaults, and there wasn't a single reason under heaven for its location to change. In other words, I had far more breathing room to prepare my countermeasures, too.
When I stole the Silver Plaque... well. There was nothing to be done about that one. It was a genuinely unavoidable accident. I'd built an entire strategy around bribing the guards based on the game's own information — never dreaming the guards couldn't be bought at all. Since the same kind of disaster could easily strike twice, I needed to grind through the advance reconnaissance and somehow hammer out a plan to actually steal the thing.
So, with half a month now in hand, did that mean my to-do list was short?
"There's going to be a lot to do, isn't there..."
That much I could say with certainty. Absolutely not.
For starters, this last outing had cost me my entire stock of theatrical fireworks — burned through while I was being ravaged by goblins and humiliated by the Man-Eater — and back when I stole the Silver Plaque, I'd used up any number of magic tools as well. Which meant the magic tools needed replenishing, and so did the kit of burglar's tools I relied on for the actual thieving. And every last bit of it was money. Money, I tell you.
There was the sum I'd meant to slip Gerhardt under the table — since he'd refused to take it, I technically had money left over. Of course, it was easier to treat that money as already spent. It was earmarked for keeping the hideout running, after all.
Anyway — there were a handful of ways to make money. This game was an eroge, and in an eroge, selling your body was an option. Here in the Violet District, where my hideout happened to be, no less. But there were plenty of routes besides flagrant prostitution; the most classic examples were part-time work at a shop, or part-time work at a tavern. Unfortunately, shop work paid pitifully little — which left me, in practice, with exactly one option: the tavern.
"A part-time job... I really do need one, don't I..."
Tavern work. In the end, the only job I'd be taking was this tavern job, and—
"Honestly, I don't want to."
Tavern jobs came with lewd events almost without fail. One wrong move and a drunk would grope you, have his way with you — and on certain days, apparently, the uniform changed. Thinking it over, there was no universe in which I wanted this job. But if I turned it down, what remained was monster hunting, shop work that paid nothing, or selling my body. Which meant that, all things weighed, the tavern was the least terrible card on the table.
"...... I guess I'm going, after all."
With that, I finished my bath and stepped back out — where Line was waiting for me.
"You're back. Want me to dry your hair?"
"Yes... please."
"Okay~"
Line settled in behind me and pulled me into a light embrace.
"Eek—!?"
"So squishy and soft. Feels wonderful~"
"L... Line? Unnie...?"
"Oh my, sorry. Our Sheria is just too cute — I couldn't help myself."
"Don't tease me...."
Still chuckling to herself, Line soon set about drying my hair — with a towel and the gentlest wisp of heat magic. Dried soft and fluffy thanks to her, I grew pleasantly drowsy and began to nod off, and as she stroked my head, Line spoke up.
"Sheria, sleepy or not, you can't fall asleep yet. The dorm head professor will be by soon."
"Mm... 'kay... I know...."
Nod, nod — even half asleep, I managed my answers, and somehow made it through Professor Lobel's roll call before I could finally sleep. Perhaps because he'd had his fill of toying with me during the day, Lobel didn't subject me to any sexual harassment today. The fact that I was happy about that was pathetic in itself.
The weekdays ran their course, and Friday arrived. Having filed an outing request just like last week, I headed out and made for the back alley where my hideout lay — the Violet District. I reached it only once night had fully fallen, and there, on the biggest tavern in the district, hung a sign:
— STAFF WANTED —
"Whew... here we go."
The door creaked open with a jingle of its little bell, and inside, a packed crowd was drinking, feasting on meat, and making merry. Some of them looked like adventurers, some like thugs, some like vagrants — but they all shared a single thing in common. Whoever they were, the look in their eyes as they took me in was thoroughly, unmistakably lewd. I was wearing a robe, so I'd figured that today, at least, I'd be in the clear — but this damn figure of mine simply refused to be hidden.
I made my way to the bartender at the counter at the back of the tavern and asked, as casually as I could manage.
"Um — you're hiring staff, aren't you?"
"...... The robe. Take it off."
"Yes...."
The robe slid to the floor, and the bartender gave me a slow once-over before diving straight into sexual harassment.
"The brothel's next door, not here."
"...... I came to work at the tavern."
"Hoo... I see. Put you on the floor serving drinks and the customers will love you. How long are you planning to work?"
"Only Friday and Saturday nights."
"Friday and Saturday nights. Fine. Then the wage I can offer you is twenty gold a week."
"Ten gold a day, then. Understood."
"And any tips that come your way, you keep for yourself. Might not hurt to butter the customers up a little harder if you want bigger tips, hm?"
Butter them up harder. What a hateful thing to say. And yet there was nothing I could do about it — I needed the money.
"I look forward to working with you."
"Right. Pay gets tallied by the day. What's your name?"
I couldn't give my real name here, so I threw one together on the spot.
"Rie... it's Rie."
"Right, Rie. Come in and work whenever it suits you. And I'm the manager of this place, so call me Master or Manager, whichever you like."
"Yes...."
Whenever it suits you — that was probably because this was the Violet District... the back alleys. In a place like this, there couldn't be many people able to keep a regular schedule.
I dipped my head in a bow, then slipped into the staff room behind the bar.
"Find something that fits in there and change into it."
I slid out of my clothes and started looking through the rack. And of course — of course — every single garment was shamelessly, outrageously lewd. Nothing but maid outfits, one after another. From among them I dug out the one with the longest skirt — the relatively longest, the truly, comparatively longest — and even that didn't come close to covering my butt.
From now on I'd be wearing this, hauling drinks and food while enduring the men's teasing — and depending on how things went, I'd probably have to sit down beside them and drink, too.
"Haaahhh...."
How on earth had it come to this? Sighing my fill yet again today, I pulled on the maid outfit. On top of everything, the bra had to come off — the straps would show. In that state, uncomfortable beyond all bearing, I slowly walked back out.
"Your shift starts right now."
"Yes, Manager."
With one last bow to the manager, I walked slowly out into the tavern.
A part-time job drenched in sexual harassment — here we go.
