Feeling a tug on his sleeve, Louis turned to look at her. She still had bits of bread near her mouth, as she chewed hard while speaking.
"Are you a guide?" he asked, sizing her up.
She shook her head quickly. "No, but I can see you're new here, and I know where everything is in town," she replied with palpable pride.
Louis nodded. "Why do you think I'm new here? Are you a security guard?"
"No, sir. It's because of your hair and the way you walk. You're wandering around aimlessly, and also, haven't you seen everyone else's heads around here? Black or dark hair is typical, but I've never seen white hair before." She responded quickly, which surprised Louis.
Still, he had nothing else to say.
"Well, if you say so," he replied and allowed her to lead him.
"Haha, I assure you, you won't regret it." she said, stepping forward and taking another bite of her bread.
But Louis was curious about something.
"What can you buy with 2 Jens here?"
Since she had said that for 2 Jens, she would take him wherever he wanted, was 2 Jens enough in this area?
She turned to look at him and nodded.
"Two Jens is practically half the daily wage for most workers in this area, sir."
"Huh?" Louis was shocked to hear this and stared at her, thinking he had been tricked, but she nodded again, as if she were stating common knowledge.
'Two Jens is equivalent to half the daily wage? How much do they earn? 150 Jens a month?'
She looked at him so confused that she spoke again. She knew that her job as a guide was to teach him about this place.
"As expected, you are a foreigner. Sir, most of the people who live in this area are laborers, poor individuals, or immigrants from smaller countries, as well as orphans like me, and those who live on the streets. And 150 Jens a month is still enough for a lot."
"On Bread Fragrance Street, ten loaves of bread are sold for 1 Jen, and each loaf is big enough to eat twice a day, so it's a lot of money. Although life is hard, it's better than in the small nations."
'150 a month... According to my uncle, the minimum is 1,500 according to the Emperor's Law. Is this blatant theft, or is it because they are immigrants and needy people?' He frowned.
There was nothing in common between 150 and 1,500, except for the first two digits of both numbers, but the amount was 10 times less.
Even so, having found a good source of information, Louis asked the girl to take him to Bread Fragrance Street.
It wasn't far from there, and the street was lined with bakeries and little else, all selling food.
The smell of bread here was strong enough to mask the smell of oil, so Louis loved this street after smelling oil for so many hours.
He saw many things here. The first thing was the bread the girl had mentioned.
Sure enough, ten pieces of bread cost 1 Jen and were always available because every shop sold them. Now, even for Louis from Earth, who had often had to go hungry, this bread would not be enough for two meals a day.
As he walked, he realized that there was a lot of need on the roads, but somehow everyone walked carefully.
This was strange to the girl, and she frowned.
"Sir, I think..." Before she could finish speaking, a commotion broke out in one of the bakeries.
Two people flew out of it and fell to the ground, while four people came out behind them. Three of the last four wore leather armor infused with a resistant metal, and two of them placed a foot on the chests of those on the ground.
"Tell me where those damn traitors are, and I'll leave you alone. Your shop won't be harmed either." The man who spoke came up behind the two who were stepping on those on the ground.
He was dressed in fine, high-quality clothing, indicating that he was a member of the nobility.
People who saw it immediately stepped back, and several stores closed abruptly. No one dared speak, and soon silence reigned in the street, where only eight people remained.
Two were on the ground, four were standing, and two were standing in the distance, watching everything.
Meanwhile, the girl grabbed Louis's hand. "Sir, we have to go," she said quickly, turning around and darting into an alley.
As she did so, the four standing in the middle of the street looked back at where she had been.
'An animal?' they thought, and stopped gazing at nonsense, focusing on the problem at hand.
Behind the wall, Louis stopped the girl just in time, before she could run off.
"Who are they?" he asked, looking out from behind the wall.
Seeing that they weren't following them, the girl took a deep breath and peeked out as well.
"They're from the Church."
"The Asoist Church?"
"Yes. They're dangerous. They belong to the Order of Knights of the Church, and that one over there must be a magician," she replied softly.
Louis frowned. "Who are they looking for?"
"They're looking for the Revolutionaries."
Louis glanced at her and nodded.
'It's politics, then. It seems like there's a strong dictatorship here, and it's not very democratic,' he thought.
He looked closer.
Just then, he heard all the information the bakers gave to the four standing there, and they let them go. They were coming this way, so Louis frowned.
"Let's go," he said quickly, and soon they were both out of there.
As long as he knew nothing about this world, he didn't want to get into trouble with those people, especially if they were involved in politics.
"Do you know where the House of Shadows is? That's where I'm headed." Since he had already seen prices in this area and how people lived, he didn't need to see anything else for now.
So he decided to move to the place he needed to go.
She looked at him strangely. "Do you need to go there? That... is a place where only unhappy people like me usually go. I don't think you'll like it. It's dirty, people are shouting all the time, and..."
Louis nodded calmly. "It's okay, just take me there. I'll pay you well."