The church was located in the shabby part of the town. I’d already visited that place and I knew my way around. I saw many mean looking people on my way, and for some odd reason they all nodded at me.

Almost feels like I’m committing a crime… Wait, could it be… could it be that they were nodding at me so I’d lead Mike to them and- Oh no…. “Are you sure you want to go there?” I said. “I might have acted like I wanted to work in front of the guild lady but-”

“Well, I kind of just wanted to meet your mother. See how she was and all. If you’re uncomfortable, we can go back.”

“Yeah I am kinda-” I froze.

A lady came over. I knew her. The barely clothed lady. “Good morning, Lord Soler. Your classmate I presume?”

“Yes. We’re here to visit the West Minister Church. I heard they were hiring cleaners….”

“Cleaning duty? But my lord, you’re the first son of the Barrack family!”

“But she’s helping there too, right? Besides, it is a noble cause!”

What the fuck am I even saying!

“Very well then, follow me.”

“You’re easily influenced, huh?” Mike whispered.

You’re the last person I want to hear that from!

Took us a few minutes but we reached the church area. It was in the middle of a slum. There were people everywhere, just sprawled on the ground. Some on top of mats or cloths, while others just lounging on the solid ground. Some of them had something fancy called a tent. The smell was as you’d expect; profoundly nauseating.

Luckily the church was kind of far from the guild main building while also being close to the academy, albeit still being half an hour away on foot. Not to mention I’d have to come through this shady area.

As I walked past the crowd of malnourished people, their eyes glanced at me, darted around before going lifeless again, uninterested.

“Weren’t most people here just students and their parents?” I asked.

“Yes, but not everyone can pay tuition. And not everyone’s parents live forever,” she said. “Besides, we get our fair share of refugees and they…”

So when luck fucks you over, you end up like this? The nearest city was about three days of journey away. On a carriage you could probably cover the distance in a single day. So, these people didn’t have the means to do even that? Or maybe they didn’t have the will to.

Maybe some of them had run from home, came here for a better life but instead got fucked. Now they could no longer go back. If somehow, I ended up screwed in my previous life, I probably would have been like this too. I probably would have never gone back home even if I lost everything….

“That’s the church,” the lady said. “Lady Alayla should be inside.”

“Thank you very much,” I said.

“Of course, my lord!” She left with a smile.

She’d been treating me kindly but I’m sure she knew I wasn’t part of the Barack family. These people can act pretty well… I didn’t even know her name though.

They said this church was one of the biggest of the town but it was pretty rundown. One story building with a dome on top and some pillars barely holding down the building. Some parts of the walls were missing. It looked more like Greek ruins than an actual church. People live here?

“It’s not going to break down or anything, right?” I mumbled.

“Let’s hope not,” Mike said.

I almost knocked on the door but opted not to. The wall next to the door had a large hole, so we went through that instead. “Anyone here,” I said.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Like a Christian church, this place had some seats. There was an alter at the very end and some glass windows above, on the dome. Very reminiscent of the churches I was familiar with. However, there were scales and paintings of dragons everywhere. Specially the windows above.

Two women stared our way. One had a nun uniform while the other… a priest. Just staring at her and that dark suit reminded me of certain stuff from the past.

“Yes?” The Nun said.

“We’re here on a cleaning quest,” I flashed the paper. “We haven’t accepted the quest. We’re merely here to get details about what we’d actually be doing.”

“Shouldn’t you greet your mother first?” Mike whispered.

“I don’t know which one is, I’m only half you see,” I whispered.

“Oh…” He cleared his throat. “Micheal Chewbosky, Second Son of Duke Arale,” he said.

Duke? As in… fuck. Wait, you were Important all along! The fuck! And wait, wasn’t Duke Arale like the most prominent Sovereign of the east port?

I didn’t know jackshit about nobles and titles but even I knew about that guy!

I sniffed hard and could have sworn there was snot leaking out. The eyes turned to me. “So-Soler A. Barack…”

The priest came close, gently knelt down and dragged me to her chest. “I thought you’d come sooner,” she mumbled, wiping my nose with a handkerchief. On a closer inspection, I did see some resemblance to Shia. Chestnut hair, a beautiful face and really amazing figure. You wouldn’t be able to tell she had kids. “And job well done,” she whispered and winked.

What job?

She gave Mike a glance and turned back to me. “So, you’ll be cleaning from today, right?”

And wait… wait, she was a priest? Like an actual priest?

Doesn’t that mean I’m fucked?

***

Our work was simple enough. We just had to keep the floor clean. There was one tiny problem though. The walls kept on drizzling dust everywhere. I’d been told the walls would hold for at least a century longer. It’s literally falling down, mam.

Apparently, they were using a magical device to hold the place together. But said device couldn’t keep the dust out, so they had to clean the place regularly. That’s why they needed helpers. Since the academy was half an hour away, I could always just come here running in the morning instead of just jogging around the academy. Mike wanted to do the same but I didn’t want him to. He still took the job though.

“You sure about this? You’re technically a very high ranked noble and stuff,” I said.

“Who cares about that crap? Besides, wasn’t it you who said ranks shouldn’t matter in our friendship? Also, I believe you said cleaning the church is a noble cause and stuff.” Dude really had me there.

Yeah, that’s because I thought you were a commoner and would have hated me for being a noble and acting like one… anyway- “Glad to hear that!”

We were going to be paid 1 silver every time we showed up and cleaned the place. If we came again in the afternoon, we’d be paid 2 silver a day. That means if I kept doing this 4 days a week for a month, I’d earn 16-17 silvers. That was more than what the library was paying me. Combined I’d have about 30 gold at the end of the year. Still 20 short of tuition and lodgings. Not to mention I had to worry about food. Maybe I can come in three times? No, their budget was four silvers to begin with.

My head was clouded with thoughts but I kept my arms and hips moving and dusted and wiped the whole place. I lived alone for quite a few years and had a habit of keeping my room clean after randomly catching chronic bronchitis from my garbage filled room. So, this was an easy-ish job. Especially because there weren’t any people here. Apparently, people prayed 3 days a week, the days I didn’t have cleaning duty. Of course, some pious people prayed almost every day but those were rare. This meant there wouldn’t be that many disturbances in this job.

Meanwhile, Mike had a hard time getting the hang of things. I suppose he never spent time learning how to clean. He was the son of a Duke, so he probably had loads of servants and stuff. He was trying hard though. Commendable if nothing else.

“Speaking of money,” Alayla had shiny coins in her hand. “How much is your allowance right now? I forgot to give Sharmon his allowance, so maybe he didn’t give you much?”

Hmm… was she giving him allowance? The what? Wasn’t Slovenian nobility a patriarchy? Or maybe Mrs. Barack just did things differently. Well, while he is lazing around, his wife is working, so maybe….

“I’m not taking any allowance, part of why I’m trying to work-” I shut up.

Alayla glared down at me. She really did. “That imbecile,” she sighed. “Take these. Must have been hard to live on barely nothing,” she gave me a pouch full of coins. All silver. About thirty. That’s more than the whole’s months salary!

“I can-can’t take this. Besides, Shia was buying me lunch every now and then and-”

“Oh you two get along, nice,” She smiled and brushed my hair with her hand. Her smile ceased as she grabbed my hair gently. Eyes came close, they were quite open. “Take the money, eat, exercise, study and live proud like a noble; I have high expectations from you. Working at the church is a noble duty so I’ll allow it. But don’t do anything stupid,” she emphasized, moved back and smiled. “Understood?”

If I said no, will she gut me? Because I got the same impression from serial killers… and I might or might not have been friends with one. Come to think of it-

“Yes Mother.”

“Good.”

What the fuck? This woman reminded me of my birthmother, that woman was oppressive too. But she wasn’t this scary!

Mike took his payment, and with that we were out of the damn church. I breath a heavy sigh of relief as I traced my feet outta there.

“I can see why you didn’t want to come here. Honestly man, she’s scarier than my mother.”

“Yeah…”

Sigh… I missed Lin.