The Help He Needed Was Close to Home

Dawn broke. Sunlight streamed into the alleyways.

It was a miserable morning for Yohane.

He led the children out of the now-empty alley and to the guard patrol's station.

Theft, breaking and entering, and embezzlement on top of that.

They would answer for their crimes. He'd keep his word about sparing them the flogging, but the road ahead would be hard.

If they'd understood that a criminal record would follow them, they never would have been so short-sighted.

He handed over the three children.

He and Kanaha exchanged no words.

Back to the shop.

Azu tried to say something to comfort Yohane but couldn't seem to find the right words.

"Take the day off. You haven't slept, Azu."

"I… No, understood."

"I'm going to go do a bit of shopping."

"I'll head outside for a while too."

"Do what you want."

Yohane said that to Azu and the others, then went back to his room and sat down in his chair.

He stared blankly at the ceiling for a while.

When even that lost its appeal, he pulled a bag of sunflower seeds from his desk and started eating.

The sound of cracking seeds was the only thing breaking the room's silence.

"Give me some of those."

He was about halfway through the bag when a voice came from the window.

Only one person would come in that way.

"You're back."

"Yep."

Yohane turned toward the window. Finn was perched on the sill.

She was dressed in her usual all-black outfit, but something was different.

Bandages were wrapped around her left leg and right arm.

Yohane tossed the bag of seeds to her.

Finn caught it with her left hand and set it on her leg, picking at the seeds.

"That looks inconvenient."

"Just a little. Mm, these are good."

Yohane pulled a potion from his desk drawer and lobbed it to Finn.

She paused her snacking, caught the potion, and drank it down.

The potion worked its magic, healing her injuries, and Finn began unwinding the bandages.

Beneath them was smooth, unmarked skin.

"This is the good stuff. You're not gonna charge me for it later, right?"

"I'm not that cheap."

"Hmm. You look pretty worn out. Sounds like things got interesting while I was gone."

"You already know? Would've been solved in no time if you'd been here."

Yohane said it like a complaint, and Finn burst out laughing.

"Too bad. I've been busy. I'll help out when I'm free, though."

"Yeah, that's fine, but… Hey, do you know someone called Iefuda?"

Yohane thought for a moment, then brought up the man's name.

Finn might know something, he figured.

"Iefuda? Oh yeah, I've been hearing that name a bit lately. Simply put, he's a con artist. Apparently he used to be with the Church of the Sun God, but they kicked him out for pulling all kinds of stunts. He's the one who got you?"

"He just caused a little trouble."

"You seem pretty worked up for 'a little trouble.' Oh well. Oh, right, stay away from the Empire for a while. It's a mess over there."

Finn said that, then pocketed the entire bag of seeds and vanished from the window.

There was a lot more Yohane wanted to ask her, but it had happened in an instant.

Anything beyond that would come with a fee, he supposed.

It was nearly time to open the shop.

Sitting around wouldn't accomplish anything, so he left his room and headed to the storefront.

The employees were just unlocking the front door, so he joined in with the opening preparations.

He kept the explanation about Kanaha brief, simply saying she'd quit abruptly.

It wasn't really their concern.

Imports from the Solar Union were still inconsistent, but supply from other sources had finally picked up enough for the shop to maintain the same selection as before.

Between that and the money he'd squeezed out of Logos, he wanted to expand the operation further, but the bottleneck was staffing.

Scaling up without more hands would overburden everyone and the whole thing would collapse.

He'd been putting out job listings, but there were no applicants.

That was exactly why he'd brought in Kanaha from the orphanage. And look how that had turned out.

He was seriously starting to consider buying a new slave to work the shop floor.

Just before opening, Kaimol said he needed to talk, so they stepped into the back.

Hoping Kaimol wasn't about to say he was quitting, Yohane waited for him to speak.

"With the new hire leaving so fast, I wasn't sure if I should bring this up, but…"

"What is it?"

"The diner my sister was working at is closing down, and she's looking for a job. I was wondering if maybe you'd be willing to at least talk to her."

Yohane put an arm around Kaimol's shoulders.

And grinned.

"You should've said something sooner. Bring her by tomorrow. If she's your sister, I trust her."

"Oh, great. That's a relief. Winter's coming, everything gets more expensive, and the pay here's good. No unreasonable work either."

"That's right. I put a lot of thought into that, you know."

He pulled his arm away and gave Kaimol a light clap on the back.

"Ow, that hurt."

"Sorry, sorry. Counting on you again today."

"Sure thing."

Kaimol headed back to the shop floor looking relieved, his step noticeably lighter.

Of course he wouldn't turn down a referral from family.

There'd be an interview first, naturally, but as long as she could hold a conversation, he intended to hire her.

She'd be pulling her weight in no time.

The auction was fast approaching, so he planned to leave the shop in his employees' hands again and focus on that.

He went back to his room and took the ticket out of the safe.

It was an entry ticket. With just this, he could only buy.

Yohane's connections didn't reach far enough to get on the selling side.

Since Azu and the others had won some excellent items, he wanted to sell them here for a good price if he could.

An orb with anti-magic properties.

He could give it to one of the three, but since he had them working as active adventurers, they wouldn't be able to make full use of it.

Given what the item was, if only he knew the right people, he could have made a private sale. But he didn't.