For four years Mareus spent his day working for the Elder’s Hall and during the short span of a month he apprenticed at the Medicine Hall. There was more reading and gardening than he expected, which wasn’t bad on it’s own. However, when he started taking alchemy lessons things quickly changed. All of the theories, formulas, formations swam through his mind day and night invading his every thought. At one point it was so bad that he accidentally responded to people by reciting the process of refining a common itch cream.

Then there was ‘the incident’, the combination of three days where he couldn’t sleep and mistaking King Green-grass for Green King-grass led to the creation of a foamy mess that grew uncontrollably. The mass ended up contaminating several hard to obtain samples, some of which created reactions that added what his teacher referred as ‘unsavory characteristics’. One of which caused a small explosion that left everything coated in soot.

The elder of the Medicine Hall and almost all of the other elders agreed that he was too young for practical experience in alchemy. Since then he has only been allowed to study text and help harvest the garden. He was able to keep doing that much thanks to Grandpa Gin, who was also the only elder that didn’t want to restrict his practical training. Although that may have been for his own entertainment.

Since then he’s focused on the work, or chores, assigned by the elders. Today was no different as he reported to Secretary Huan.

“Good morning, Secretary Huan.”

“Good morning to you, Young Mareus. You’re early again today.”

Secretary Huan wasn’t necessarily a plain man, maybe the word flat fit him better. It was like all personality was sucked out of him until he blended in with the background unless he was talking with you directly.

Mareus picked up today’s scroll, “I have time since my morning exercises end earlier than the others.”

“Perhaps the heavens will smile on you one day.”

“Thank you for that.” He held the scroll up to the secretary. “Is this today’s?”

Mareus undid the loose knot and let it fall open before reading off his task.

Pick up a delivery from Elder Gin and deliver to the Elder’s Hall store house by end of day.

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Help harvest twenty jin of Spirit grass.

Repair multiple leaks found in the bathhouse.

“They don’t look bad. I guess I’ll start with the baths. Have a good day, Secretary Huan. I’ll see you later.”

Bigger families had their own private baths they would maintain on their own. Meanwhile, the regular families used the Myriad Waves bathhouse that was created by the elders and a rather enterprising uncle. It had one of the grandest designs among any of the public buildings, the building even rivaled some of the private ones the bigger families commissioned.

Myriad Waves housed three large baths and over a dozen smaller private baths that were regularly cleaned twice a day with the aquifer recycling water through an awe inspiring filter. Unfortunately, the mostly autonomous system had an issue with the large amounts of water pushing through a maze of pipes reducing their longevity.

Mareus broke out his tools after changing into more ragged robes and confirming the cloth tied around his face was secure, for the third time. He wouldn’t make the mistake of exposing himself to that smell again.

The job itself wasn’t difficult, he was supposed to repair what he could and report what he couldn’t. It was a delicate balance of making sure nothing became too critical before they started causing other issues. He started by emptying the reserve tank and siphoning the bath into the drainage; once the water the water was low enough the real work began. Mareus scraped away the eroded grout while checking for mold under the tiles he was working with.

Afterwards he moved onto the wood boards and the bamboo piping which was arguably the easiest part of his job. If at first glance things looked okay then they were left alone. It wasn’t often for any of the support pieces or the pipes themselves to fail completely, at worst he would use tar to patch any leak.

While waiting for it to dry he would do another round of checks. Clearing out blockages from abandoned towels or leaves before finishing with the in ground heating that warmed the water.

His favorite thing about working on the baths was being able to take one himself while testing if there were any unseen issues.

Harvesting Spirit grass was a simpler task that was deceptively more tiring. The upside he constantly reminded himself of was that since all the grass he needed to collect was located in the Medicine Hall’s garden. His harvest could get awkward though, specifically if he had to work with his old teacher.

An older woman thanked him. “You’re such a good young man. Gathering all of this grass really does a number on my back these days.”

Mareus wasn’t too close to this aunt, but he did see her enough for them to be more than strangers. Maybe he would go as far as a coworker?

He politely bowed after storing the last bundle and heading on to his next task.

It had just passed midday when he stepped onto the main street. Grandpa Gin’s tavern emerged from the side of another building as he came around the bend.

“Wave to big brother Mareus.” Wei Gin Mai coaxed her daughter.

Mareus waved to the young couple and Baby Ming as he ran past.

“You better be stopping by for dinner! Mai is making your favorite tonight!” Ganju called after him.

“Of course, I have to make sure to teach Little Ming to make sure you don’t slack off!”

Grandpa Gin’s door was only a dozen meters away.