Oh My, I Messed Up the Story

Chapter 125: Reference

Florian reiterated what Hugo had said about getting to the Kanta region, although he did it more kindly than his son had. Abby truly would need a reference to board a ship. But where on earth was she supposed to get one?!

Hugo couldn't even help her out because he wasn't an official Warrior yet. He still had about three months left of his apprenticeship before he took an exam to become the lowest level of Warrior.

"You could always stick around here and earn your keep for three months," Hugo suggested with an indifferent yawn as he stretched. "I could get you on a ship then. But you would have to pay for passage on your own. Good luck earning nine silver pieces in three months; that's more than most families make in a year."

Abby pouted. Couldn't this guy be a little less harsh with his words?

She would figure out how to do it. Katie was out there somewhere and she would find her if it was the last thing she did!

She was a talented modern girl who had gotten a half-tuition scholarship to a prestigious university and worked at a solid company straight out of school. She could totally do this!

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Abby couldn't do this. Milking a cow was the most daunting thing she had ever done in her life. Weren't there recorded cases of people dying by getting kicked in the head by cows?!

This was too difficult. Working for Florian's family only paid for her room and board, not for anything else. She would have to find an additional job in town if she wanted any money of her own.

She decided to give it a go as soon as she finished milking this dratted cow. It was a bit spotty for a while but she eventually got the hang of it, trying to remember everything Abella told her about how to do it right.

Her chores consisted of milking the cow, watering the vegetables, and feeding the chickens. All of those things together only took about two hours so she should be able to get a part-time job or even two no problem.

What was that in the face of working part-time and having sixteen credit hours in a single semester? Abby was used to functioning on little to no sleep.

The town was quaint and much less shabby than she expected but it was pretty far from the farm. Her benefactors clearly lived in the poorer part of this area. No wonder Hugo wanted to become a warrior to gain glory for his family.

Abby stood out like a sore thumb in this city of silver-haired violet-eyed people. But it ended up working out in her favor. Multiple places wanted to hire her because they thought she would be a draw for the curious horde.

Some people in this town had never seen a foreigner in their entire lives since they were so far inland. There were a few more refugees or immigrants closer to the sea.

Apparently that was how Hugo knew what the Kanta were supposed to look like. His training had taken him to a port town once and he had seen a family of Kanta clansmen heading on a ship back to Annalaias not long after King Franz made the announcement that their lands were returned to the clan leader.

She had asked him how long ago that was and he had looked at her like she was stupid and said it happened two and a half years ago. Katie had been here so long!

The events of the novel took place over the course of about a year and adding that time on meant she had lived in this other world for three and a half years. She had been apart from Abby much longer than Abby had been apart from her.

The timelines were all screwy but that didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. Though she had to admit it would be weird meeting her older sister in a younger body now.

What exactly did Catherine du Pont look like? The novel described her as a blonde blue-eyed angel but that was from Al's very romantic point of view. Even though they didn't look the sameKatie had to have at least retained some of her original mannerisms.

She wondered if she would even be able to recognize her sister at first sight. The Kanta all looked roughly the same so Al's description wouldn't be a very helpful identifier. The novel mentioned that many Kanta had intermarried with other nations so there would probably be a handful of other blonde people there as well.

Abby shook those thoughts free. She could worry about that later. Right now she needed to focus on making money so she could even see her sister again at all.

In the end she took on three different part-time jobs. She filled in as a cashier in the book shop for a few hours in the morning while the owner tended to her ailing mother, assisted an overworked tailor in the afternoon, and washed dishes at a restaurant after the dinner rush.

She still had to wake up early to finish her chores so she hardly got any sleep and ate her meals at irregular hours. But she didn't care.

The allied countries of this part of the world all used the same currency to make trade easier. There were twenty copper pieces to one silver piece so she would need ninety in order to afford passage to Annalaias.

Each of her jobs paid three copper pieces per week. In three months, she would have enough for passage with money to spare. That should help her make it to the Kanta region from the port in the capital of Annalaias.

Abby was undeniably smug when she ran into Hugo a few days into her jobs. "Looks like I'm not so useless after all. You better pass your exam so I can hitch a ride on your credentials."

He wasn't pleased by the insinuation that he would fail. "Have fun working yourself to death River Rat. We'll see who is laughing three months from now."

She seethed as he walked away, completely unperturbed by the effect his words had on her. She would certainly show him! She had survived much harder workloads than this and her motivation was unshakeable.

But really, he better not fail. Her entire plan would be ruined if he didn't manage to pass his exam. She didn't know how good of a potential Warrior he was either since she had never seen him train.

'Don't let me down, you big jerk,' Abby prayed fervently.