8

After that, the Daijo staff’s transfer to headquarters proceeded smoothly and quickly.

Cornelia, Pinea, Nicola, and the branch manager were currently in a carriage heading to Rusera.

Pinea stared blankly at Cornelia dozing across from her.

‘I’m actually going to Rusera with her.’

Pinea lived with her father and a much younger brother. Their mother had died early, so she had taken part-time jobs from a young age. Her father had said it was fine, but after realizing her brother was smarter than most, he wanted to send him to school.

She only knew simple work, but she was quick and diligent. That was a strength Pinea recognized in herself. She had lived believing she must work that way. So when she saw people who didn’t, she got angry.

For example, people like Cornelia who couldn’t even do the basics.

‘She suddenly changed.’

The useless girl who had been skipping work claiming to be sick had overnight become a competent and diligent worker.

They hadn’t worked together long, but it was clear: dealing with problematic customers, organizing troublesome documents, she seemed to have been hiding her abilities.

For some reason, Pinea thought that cutting her hair short signaled an emotional change that made her reveal herself.

Pinea liked the current Cornelia better. So despite fear at the sudden headquarters transfer, she decided to go along. She wanted to keep watching this friend.

Actually, I pretended to sleep in the carriage, but my head was busy with many worries.

Being assigned to the capital Rusera was certainly unexpected. Because of it, the worries I had planned to handle step by step rose to the surface all at once.

At first I planned to go up to Rusera alone. It matched the independence I’d been thinking about. Also, opportunities to earn more money were always greater in a big city. But I ran into fierce opposition from Marcella and Julie.

‘They want a girl to work alone in the capital? Absolutely not!’

‘Sister, your body still hasn’t fully recovered, it’s dangerous!’

I once again told them I wasn’t Cornelia but someone else, but it didn’t make the slightest difference to them.

Of course, thinking about it, it was understandable. In a place without advanced communication, sending a 20-year-old sister far away would be worrying. They might also think her memory wasn’t intact.

And there was one more reason.

‘The capital has priests and renowned doctors, so it will help treat my younger brother.’

It was what the branch manager told me after announcing the transfer. The town was small, so people seemed to know each other’s circumstances.

Looking back, maybe Cornelia hadn’t been fired before because they knew we siblings were struggling and let it slide.

Anyway, the branch manager’s words put me in a dilemma.

‘Without me, it would be hard to cover Rio’s medicine costs.’

I had sold my hair, but it was temporary money, and I’d need it to live in Rusera. Still, since that day I rushed Rio to the clinic, I couldn’t easily let him go.

‘Right, once he gets healthy, this anxious feeling will disappear.’

That was it. So we agreed I’d go to the capital first, find a place, and then Marcella and the siblings would join.

‘But… who is it?’

The question that followed was the identity of the recommender on <Praise>.

According to Pinea, <Praise> recommendations were so rare that if you got one, the branch’s rating received a big boost. That’s why our branch manager was transferred to headquarters and was able to bring three employees.

‘He didn’t say it out loud, but among the three you must have been essential.’

Those were the kinds of rumors going around.

I tried to recall which customer from that problematic incident would have gone to the trouble and paid out of pocket to send a letter, but I had no idea.

I had poured all my nerves into getting the problematic customer out to avoid being fired.

It had been a fight for survival. The only thing I remembered clearly was the customer wrapped in a black robe who I served right before stepping forward.

‘…Definitely not.’

I shook my head; even imagining it felt rude.

I thought maybe I’d find out at headquarters and tried to imagine which noble bought the black wig. But there was no noble I knew, so it was a waste of time. Nobles didn’t come to the shop themselves; messengers did.

But the capital would be different from rural Opel.

‘There’ll be emperors, Archdukes, Dukes, counts, and nobles throwing balls and such, right?’

Now I finally felt like I’d moved into a fantasy world.

In web novels, the possessed heroine falls in love with the crown prince in a legendary romance and shows future knowledge, but reality just makes my mouth water and nothing more.

‘If only I could know who the recommender and the wig buyer were.’

Instead of futile hopes about another world, I fell into a real sleep imagining a map of Rusera’s best restaurants.

The first thing I did upon arriving in the capital was look for a place to live.

There were no housing loans like modern deposit systems, but houses were noticeably cheaper than in Seoul, so I could find a place to stay for a while.

‘Thanks to the branch manager, I found one quickly.’

He knew that Pinea, Nicola, and I were new to capital life and connected us with an agent to find a suitable home. As a result, we signed a fair contract within walking distance of the company.

“Coco! We’re here!”

A week later, Marcella, Juliana, and Rio packed up and came up to Rusera. With little money, we at least sent a letter to our eldest brother studying abroad saying we’d moved.

‘I’m not sure it’ll even reach him properly, though.’

We couldn’t afford to use a gate, so we sent it by regular means; it might arrive within a month.

“The house is clean and nice.”

“Everything’s amazing since it’s our first time in the capital!”

“Wow, wow…”

Coming to the capital together like this felt like it would be good not only for Rio but for Julie and Marcella too.

‘Marcella is at a prime working age, and Julie and Rio will benefit from seeing and learning things here as they grow. And there might be better ways to treat Rio’s illness.’

The last reason was the biggest.

To come here, we sold our house, and after pressing Marcella, we sold off the family jewels our parents left, keeping only one apiece. We also used up half of the 10,000 zeni I got from selling my hair.

‘Still, my salary went up a lot because of this transfer.’

I shed my trainee tag upon arriving at headquarters. My pay rose from 40 zeni to 70 zeni, almost double.

The branch manager said it reflected the capital’s cost of living. Most new staff at headquarters supposedly earned that much. Whatever the reason, a raise is a great joy to a worker.

The new place was smaller than before but tidy. Since we had a patient, we chose a place where hygiene could be maintained. We only added a bed; we couldn’t afford a dining table or other furniture yet.

“I’ll get some wood and make one, no problem.”

Marcella said confidently that there was no need to buy one.

“You can do that too?”

“After our parents died, do you think there’s anything I haven’t done?”

“…”

It somehow made my heart ache. A life of constant sacrifice for family is hard. He’s at an age to be enjoying himself, working, and falling in love…

‘When I crossed into this world, they could’ve given me at least one superpower. Or let us be born rich. Then I wouldn’t have to feel like this.’

I knew it was pointless to wish now, but the more time we spent together, the more my heart ached.

‘With that face and that body, his head doesn’t seem that bad either.’

Nearly 190 cm tall with wavy red hair down to his shoulders and sun-kissed muscles, Marcella was objectively handsome, too good to waste on construction sites. He used his body to earn money on wall-building and heavy labor. I was surprised when I first heard it, but apparently he was known in his hometown as a notably strong man.

‘Can’t we make him a knight or something? Even a fallen noble is still noble, at least in blood…’

I decided to look into it and suggest it, and I looked around the house more.

“Thanks to you, I’ve had a chance to live in Rusera. What a thing.”

“Same here.”

To think that giving the senior a hard time and trying to showcase a little ability would lead to a transfer to headquarters. Life really is full of surprises.

“Starting tomorrow I’ll look for jobs and find a clinic to look after Rio, so don’t worry and just focus on work.”

Marcella said reassuringly.

I shook my head with doubt.

“There are probably a lot of people who scam country folk like us, so visit at least three places. Also look into healing magic or temples, they might be expensive, but they could be cheaper for the period of treatment.”

After all, the medicine we’re taking isn’t cheap.

“Okay, so don’t worry about me and just do well at work tomorrow.”

I flinched. It felt awkward to call Marcella ‘brother’, so I always just got to the point.

He didn’t believe my story at all, which made me sigh deeply. But since this body was twenty, I decided not to waste energy and let it go.

“…You too, brother.”

Julie and Rio, seeing that, somehow smiled at us.

The next day, with some tension, I headed to the Daijo headquarters building. A scruffy-bearded man greeted me with a nonchalant expression.

“Hello. I’m Cornelia Libertas, transferred today from the Opel branch to Rusera headquarters.”

It was the first time I’d used my full name since arriving here. But instead of a greeting, he responded differently.

“Judging by that unheard-of family name, you must be a fallen noble.”

‘Oh, throwing a jab on first meeting?’

A smile naturally rose to my lips.