"So, my brother has explained the events which led up to your arrival here." Arsral laced his fingers together in front of his mouth and stared imperiously at me. I shifted nervously and my back automatically straightened under his gaze.

Name: Arsral of Cleimeph

Level: 17

Age: 15

Race: Human [Details]

Afflictions: Chronic Mana Deficiency [Details]

Occupation: Shopkeeper

HP: 165/165

MP: 5/700

[Attributes & Titles]

[Background]

[Skills]

We were sitting at the opposite ends of a wooden table in the kitchen. The frying pan that had been summoned with me lay in front of me. Arswen was off somewhere else washing the blood off my slippers.

When Arswen had told me about his sickly brother, I had imagined a soft, gentle looking pretty boy stuck in a wheelchair, with a motherly smile and disposition. I only got the pretty boy stuck in a wheelchair part right. Arsral looked and acted more like an ice queen than a mother, and his almond eyes only added to that image.

"He has not, however, told me your name."

"I'm Joan." Going by the 'of Cleimeph' part of the brother's names, I figured only nobles and the like had family names in this world.

"Joan? What a strange name."

"Ahaha, I am from a different world, that might have something to do with it...?"

"Hm. What level are you, Joan?"

"Uh... 1?"

Arsral arched an eyebrow. I opened my mouth to explain. He waved his hand dismissively. I closed my mouth.

"As long as you don't have the attributes of a baby, it doesn't matter. I saw you lift that frying pan earlier, so you obviously don't," he said. "How old are you, Joan?"

"16."

"Can you read?"

"I could read your father's journal."

"Have you ever worked in an item shop before?"

"Sorta? Last summer I got a job in a stationery shop."

"Summer?"

"The, uh, hottest season of the year, that where I come from starts in December, the last month of the year and lasts three months, ending in February, the second month of the next year, and uh, how do your calendars work? Are there twelve months as well? Does each month have around 30 days? Does each day contain 24 hours? Wait, do you even use those units of measurement? Wait, do you even-"

"Shut up."

"Yes, sir." I obediently shut up and made a zipping motion over my mouth.

"We do seem to use the same units of measurement for time. A day is 24 hours, an hour is 60 minutes, and a minute is 60 seconds. Am I right to assume it's the same where you're from?"

I nodded twice in confirmation.

"Seven days is a week, four weeks is a month, and 13 months is a year. We don't have names for our months."

I nodded again, this time in understanding.

"The last day of a year is not part of any month and is a holiday, that, in Talcapian, we call Risday. There's a story behind that, but you can ask Arswen to tell you later. I think Esturus calls Risday 'Vonior'."

I wanted to ask if they had leap days, but then decided that it was too much trouble.

"Right now is the 2nd day of the 5th month, and of the week it's Fourday. Fourth day of the week, obviously."

It was similar to how China named their calendar as well. I nodded.

"Now that that's out of the way, can you do simple calculations?"

I nodded.

"What's 6+19?"

"25."

"15+89?"

"Um, a hundred and... four?"

"4x9."

"36."

"6x12?"

Uh, 5x12 is 60, add another 12 is-

"72."

"Alright," Arsral acknowledged. "That's good enough. You're hired."

"Yay."

"Welcome to Cleimeph. And as our newest employee," he said, rolling around the table and handing me a broom that had previously been propped up against the wall, "your first job will be to clean up the mess you made in the empty storeroom."

"That's fair."

"And that adds up to 1350 tals in total." I smiled brightly as the adventurer fumbled one large and four silver coins out. A small silver coin was worth 100 tals, and a large one was 1000. I swept it off the counter into the coin drawer and handed back five large bronze coins back. They were worth 10 tals each. Small ones were worth 1. There were also small and large gold coins, worth 10000 and 100000 tals, but most people preferred to carry around silvers. "Here's your change. Please come back to shop at Cleimeph again!"

As soon as the customer had left the shop, I slumped over the counter bonelessly and sighed. To be fair, as far as retail jobs went, this one was pretty good. Most of the customers were well-mannered, my boss was fair, and I didn't have to worry about food or board or school.

We'd get the occasional asshole, but Arsral had even less tolerance for them than I did and fully supported telling them to get the hell out. That was made easier by the fact that my 165cm stature was about the same as the average adult male in Talcapian. Which meant it was entirely possible for me to be the tallest person in the room. I was absolutely ecstatic when I realized.

I'd been here for about whole week now, and had gained three levels. All my skills apart from [Deal] had also risen to level 4. My summoning had been on Fourday night, so after I'd finished sweeping all the toothpicks into a bag, I had been led to the spare room and told that was where I'd be staying from then on.

In the room had been a bed and nightstand, an empty closet, and a washbasin with a magic stone to produce the water. All I had to do was touch it and it would take some of my mana and produce water. The used water was then poured out the window at the back of the building.

My job as Arsral's assistant also involved activating magic stones for him, as his chronic mana deficiency kept his MP levels at an already dangerous 5. Any lower than that and he'd slip into a coma until someone got his levels back to normal (for him).

The next day was Fiveday, and I spent it learning the ropes of managing the shop. I watched Arsral smile and make small talk with customers, and was just slightly weirded out by how different it was from what I had seen so far.

In the evening, an old woman whose hair might have once been a deep purple came over for dinner. That was another difference between our worlds. Over here, hair colours like purple, blue, green and pink were common, red, ginger and blonde was uncommon, and naturally brown and black hair was unheard of. Because of that, I got more than a few stares from people who came to the shop.

Arswen and Arsral called the woman Aunt Detion, and her visit corrected one misassumption the brothers had.

"So your name is Joan? Have these boys been treating you well?"

"Yes, ma'am. It was really nice of them to take me in and give me a job after they found out I had nowhere to go."

Even though it was Arswen's fault in the first place that I'm here.

I smiled winningly at the old woman. Always be polite to your elders, people, they might give you food later on.

"Just call me Aunt Detion. Hm, you say that, but is it really alright for a young woman such as yourself to stay in a house with only boys?"

"Um, Aunt Detion, Joan is male," Arswen piped up.

"I am?"

"Joan is?"

Aunt Detion and I spoke at the same time, looking at the boy in confusion.

"You're not?"

Arsral and Arswen were both confused.

"No, I'm female," I said. I ran a hand through my short black hair. "Is it the hair?"

"Partly," Arsral answered. He gestured to his ears. "And the height. It was mostly the piercings though. Generally, only men pierce their ears, and only the most testosterone driven pierce their ears more than just once or more than just their earlobes."

He gave a pointed look to the triple lobe piercings and single cartilage piercing in each ear.

"Where I come from, it's fashion," I defended. "This is pretty mild, compared to what some people do. I once knew a girl who had so many piercings on her face that we always joked she was more metal than flesh. And you didn't have a problem with it before."

"That's because I thought it would help drive out annoying customers. If you kept your mouth shut and frowned, you'd be pretty intimidating."

I blinked. Was that a compliment?

"Really, your personality is just so disappointing."

"Hey!"

At the end of the meal, as Aunt Detion was preparing to leave, she came up to me and pressed something wrapped in paper into my hands.

"Here," she said, "sweet pastries as a welcoming gift. If you ever have any problems, come to Aunt Detion, alright?"

Score. Pastries. And a person to ask for help when my period came.

"Will do."

See? Be nice to old people, and they'll give you food.