The day of the Job awarding ceremony has finally arrived.
Today, I and other kids my age are coming to church to get our own jobs.
Although, apart from that, there is something else that is bothering me right now.
"Are you okay, Lala? You disappeared somewhere yesterday..."
"Y-yes, don't mind it... I just went out for a while because I remembered that I had to do something..."
"Is that so? Then it's okay..."
I listened quietly as my parents talked while walking right behind me.
That's right, the thing that bothers me is about my mother, Lalaine. She has been acting a little weird since she came back. I can't express it very well, but for some reason it seems like she is wary of something.
David didn't seem to realize it, but I could know it. Because of my previous life experiences, I realized that paying attention to your surroundings and understanding what the people around you are thinking are no less important than being able to predict what is likely to happen in the future.
Therefore, I can now say it with certainty after looking at Lalaine's face.
Anxiety. Prudence. Fear. Even though she seemed to be trying to hide it from us, I could still understand it.
She really looked like someone who had something she couldn't tell anyone. And that must have been a big secret. She was afraid that this secret might affect us, her family, so she tried hard to cover it up, huh?
However, someone like her is absolutely will be consumed by their own secret in the end. I can say that for sure because I've seen other people who were in similar situations to Lalaine in my previous life.
But, "Let's take care of the matter before me first."
Setting priorities is important. After all, you only have one body. You can't do everything at once. Anyone has a limit, fighting excessively to exceed your limit at any time will only make you lose everything.
That's why, let's focus on the Job Awarding Ceremony for now. My career in the future will really be determined by what kind of job I get later, anyway.
It's true that I don't have to be a farmer even if I get a farmer job. I still have the option of running our family bakery.
However, there are also some jobs that will not allow you to choose your life path freely.
For example, high-level jobs such as Holy Knight or Saint. Those who get such jobs will usually be obliged to serve the Church or country they are in for the rest of their lives.
Of course, in return they will also receive various kinds of benefits. However, their freedom will be completely restricted. In addition, they must also always be prepared to protect the city in times of emergency crises such as monster attacks.
Jobs like that have really been blacklisted by me. I wouldn't be able to be happy if I had to be someone's puppet like that.
Time passed, and now we were inside a small church building built around the District. Although I call it small, the church is still quite luxurious with much of it decorated by gold carvings and the size of the building clearly exceeds the overall size of our shop.
There sat about 68 children including myself with each of their family members. There are also those who look like they don't have a single family or look thin and dirty. However...
Well, I don't need to talk too much about them. They are orphans who lost their parents to monster or bandit attacks outside the city and children from slums.
Since the commercial district was close to the slum district that did not have a single church built there, it had become a common sight for children from the slums to come here to undergo the Job Awarding Ceremony.
The faces of them looked very motivated, even with a rundown appearance.
Well, I understand their feelings, anyway. After all, no one says that the job you get depends on your social status. There was even a Hero who turned out to be a child from a slum far in the past .
They must have been determined to change their living conditions and achieve a normal life like other children.
Although I respect their determination, the world will not be so easy. Especially the adult world where money and status are paramount.
"Royn, Apprentice light megician!" The pastor announces the job of a boy from a slum who seems to have obtained a fairly high job.
Appreintice light megician it is a job that specializes in mastery of support and healing magic. Despite not having high combat capabilities, the owners of this Job are likely to become Saints in the future and that will certainly be of great value to the Church.
A big smile was clearly displayed on the pastor's face as he led that boy to another room.
Well, at least that boy will get a better life than the life he has been living, anyway.
After that, one by one other children continue to be called in turns with various Jobs they get such as Knight, Soldier, Adventurer, Swordman / Swordwoman, Spearman / Spearwoman, Archer, Appreintice elemental magician, Appreintice water magician, Librarian, and various other types of Jobs.
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And finally, it was my turn.
"Arisa Waterbloom." The pastor's voice echoed inside the church when he called my name.
David and Lalaine immediately looked anxious shortly after. Are they perhaps nervous? Well, more importantly, "Yes." Answering briefly to the pastor's call, I stood up from the chair I was sitting in and began to walk before the pastor.
The pastor stood with a black crystal ball in his hand. The crystal appears to be a device called the Job orb. A crystal ball that will pass blessings on the god to you when you touch it, or things like that the book I read said about the crystal.
"Please touch this orb and say 'By the great Otheus!'"
Following the pastor's instructions, I touched the crystal ball with my right hand.
"By the great Otheus!"
Eh?
As soon as I said that I disappeared like a whiteboard full of graffiti in an instant suddenly becoming a clean, plain blackboard.
Slowly, one memory after another kept coming from both of my lives. Whether it's memories that I can still get like yesterday or memories that I have forgotten.
And when I came to my senses, I was back standing before the priest, with the crystal ball shining with a faint purplish red light.
"T-his is..." The priest looked surprised as he looked back and forth between the crystal ball he had in his hand and me.
"What happened?!"
"What kind of job did my little Arisa get?!"
Because of the strange atmosphere that suddenly surrounded me and the pastor, David and Lalaine who were worried began to lose their cool.
With a slightly pale face, the pastor began to look back at the people who were still there including my parents, "Th-his is never happened before... A-arisa waterbloom has four types of jobs."
That's right. On that crystal ball, written four lines of jobs that seemed to belong to me. It says: Appreintice water magician, Appreintice Fighter, Appreintice Dark magician, and a job written not using the language of this world but the language that comes from the earth, Loser.
***
After what happened in the church, David and Lalaine didn't say anything to me and just hugged me in silence before taking me home.
Even everyone in the church at that time, including the pastor, couldn't say anything.
Even me didn't say anything and went into my room as soon as I arrived at our bakery, which was also our home.
"That damned gods..." I don't even have a single energy left to curse.
They all fell silent not because I was great or anything. They weren't even surprised. They just... Feel sorry for me.
Having more than one job is not something profitable.
When someone has two or more jobs, all the experience - or Exp Points - if we put this together as a game, will be split between the Jobs you have even if you intend to only hone one of them. In other words, you'll need more effort than anyone else.
When you have 2 jobs, you will grow 4 times slower. When you have 3 jobs, you will grow 8 times slower. For 4 Jobs like me, they will grow 16 times slower.
That's why they all have pity on me.
However, if it was just like that I wouldn't have become so desperate. After all, although it will take some time I only need to try 16 times harder than normal people. And with that I will have the ability of three Jobs that will give me not only abilities in terms of magic but also physical.
The main problem was my fourth job, Loser.
Since ancient times, in the world it has become common knowledge that only job owners can know how exactly the job they have works.
And after I assessed this one job, I found an explanation like this:
-Loser: A sign of failure. The job owner's growth rate will be reduced by as much as 100× slower than usual in exchange for the job owner's rise in luck.
In other words, my Job's growth rate which is already 16× slower will be multiplied by 100, and become 1600× slower.
"Really, this is too much already."
Is this... indeed my fate? Do I really have to work hard desperately to get the life of my dreams?
In my previous life it was like that. Everyone thought that I was a serious person, didn't talk much, and cold. However, the real reason for that was actually because I was just too tired to carry out any act of communication with others.
In order to maintain my academic ability I must always reread the lessons I have to learn all day without a break until I can begin to understand them. Besides, I also still have to work part-time because I almost never got pocket money.
My sleep time has been reduced to only 1-3 hours every day with sometimes I don't even have a little time to sleep.
Really, this is really unexpected. This was too impossible to happen to make me think that this was actually a miracle.
I mean, even untalented has its limits. Isn't this even worse than my previous life? Sigh~...
I do have a safe choice which is to be the successor of this bakery. And if you ask me if I like or hate that then I'll say that I like that option enough.
However, if that's the case, I'll just be an ordinary NPC in this world.
If a war or monster attack were to happen to this kingdom, as an ordinary NPC running a bakery I wouldn't be able to know anything about the details of the disaster and how I should be dealt with it. Even if I'm not going to be strong enough to beat anyone, I want to at least get in a position where I can get enough information and connections to survive when bad things come our way.
However, in a situation like this, how can I achieve it? This world is not like the earth, laws and human rights have not been strictly regulated. In addition, here there is also an absolute threat from monsters.
I wouldn't be able to survive if I was only content with being able to live quietly as a bakery owner.
Even if I wasn't going to die by monsters because I didn't have to get out of the Capital with this job, I would still be in danger if robbers came knocking on my door.
Besides, I am a woman now. I can't imagine what the fate of a woman who has lost everything except for a sexy body and a beautiful face.
"Sigh... It seems that I have to work out some plans, huh?"
#POV: Third person view.
Go back to a while ago. At a time when Arisa and the others were on their way home from church.
They were unaware that someone had been targeting their eye on Arisa since the moment she left the Church.
In the tallest building in the Capital, the Capital's proud Thomscovert clock tower there is a woman wearing a unique red-and-black dress who smiles as she points her blood-red eyes at Arisa. It's an eye color that can really remind you of Arisa, with pupils narrowed slightly like the pupils of a reptile's eyes.
The woman's delicate pale white skin began to blush as she licked her red lips, "Ah, I finally found an ideal disciple..."
The woman looked at Arisa with a look like a Ceetah that had finally found her prey. Those red eyes, saying that she would not let Arisa go before she could make her her own.
Illust 2 [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C-RrChHKHiVC8v2_0zs59AH9HdN0htCo/view?usp=drivesdk]
However, soon, a light radiated from inside the church. The light felt very bright and holy, like a divine light itself.
"Tch." The woman's face immediately turned expressionless when she noticed the existence of the light.
"Alright, well, I'll go right away. As I promised, I'll leave as soon as I find what I'm looking for."
The woman said that as if she was talking to someone as she started drawing a blackish-red magic circle in the surrounding air.
Soon, the magic circle had surrounded the woman's body and she disappear swallowed in the magic circle after she left words to no one, "But, don't think about disturbing my prey, okay? I would never forgive you if you even did that. That's right, even if you're a goddess, I'll eat you."