chapter 7

I had no bleach.

No ammonia, no citrus acid, no industrial sanitizers. Just wood ash, vinegar, lard, and time. And yet… I made miracles.

Every day after farming, I carried my cleaning supplies around the village. The same brush and rag. The same bar of homemade flower-scented soap. My iron bucket, worn smooth by daily scrubbing.

I didn't do it for coin. The most anyone gave me was a few copper or stale bread. But I didn't care. I didn't do it for reputation, either or not really. I did it mostly for experience.

Five more levels in cleaner in a single year. And I felt every one. My hands moved faster now, almost instinctively. My eyes could spot dust from meters away. I could smell filth in a room the way a dog smells meat.

"Too bad I don't have bleach," I thought once, scouring a village latrine until the floorboards shimmered.

"I'd have hit Level 15 in cleaner in a week."

But even without bleach, at least the good word was going around . People began whispering things.

"That Ren lad's not like other boys…"

"He works harder than most men, and he's only ten."

"He cleaned my house for two coppers, and now it smells like a temple."

And eventually, when I stopped hiding my strength…

"He lifted a whole barrel of rainwater without spilling a drop."

"Carried three sacks of wheat alone."

"A gift from the gods, that one."

I leaned into that, even if i know that the 4 gods were players that dead hundreds of years ago.

One day, after cleaning the village shrine until the wooden altar gleamed like lacquer, I stood tall in the morning sun and smiled at the elders.

"I think I was blessed by four gods before I was born," I said calmly. One old woman who works at the shrine asked ask me why. I gave a childish smile, clutching the rag to my chest.

"One gave me strength."

"One gave me energy."

"One gave me skill with my hands."

"The Last One gave me a good heart"

And over the span of a year and after all my work they all started to believe me. Why wouldn't they? I was ten. Built like a young man. I could clean a barn until it sparkled. I never got tired. And I never ever got sick. Some days, after cleaning, I still helped my mother in the garden. I didn't do it for XP anymore. I knew I had hit the wall, beacuse i level up once more in farming, half a year ago which makes it 4 levels in the farm jobclass, and the average farmer being level 4, so i think i hit the limit of my farming for now. That was as far as this little village could teach me. The soft plateau of rural agriculture. Without irrigation, new crops, tools, or techniques, my growth was capped. And I accepted it. But food was food. And the land had raised me. I wouldn't abandon it just because I couldn't squeeze another level out of it.

But there was another reason for the "Four Gods" tale.

I wanted literacy. The village chief, old man Dorvan, was the only literate person for miles. A former city clerk, now retired and half-blind, he spent his days puffing pipe smoke and reading parchment form the noble of this land, that no one else could understand.

"I need him to teach me."

But I couldn't just ask. I had no noble blood, no money, and no status. So I made myself useful. Every day, I cleaned his porch. Trimmed the weeds outside his fence. Fixed the creaky gate. Rebuilt his henhouse roof after a snow collapse. Always free. Always cheerful. And finally, one foggy morning, as I was polishing his shutters, he called out to me:

"Ren."

"Yes, Chief?"

"Tell me what you."

"..??!."

"I know ass-kissing when i see one, i have kissed nobles's asses for many years, tell me what you want, BOY"

"i just want to help... :)"

He squinted at me with those old, ink-tired eyes.

"Why do you work so hard? don't act like a child. You don't play. You barely speak to anyone your age. You clean like a priest. You lift like a soldier. And you move like a man five times your age."

I paused.

Then smiled gently.

"Because I was blessed by four gods. And because I want to help."

There was a long silence. Then a raspy chuckle.

"Hah. What a load of poetic nonsense."

He took a puff of his pipe and stop talking as he kept looking at me.

"Fine, i want to learn how to write and read"

"Now was that so hard to ask, I'll be happy teach you your letters. Under One condition."

I stood straighter.

"Anything."

"You clean my house like you cleaned the shrine. Top to bottom. Scrub the parchment ink off my floorboards and make my inkstone shine like obsidian. I used to be a bucher when i was a young lad, even after 30 years my home still smells like raw meat and i hate it with every fiber of my being. Make my home smell like flowers, and i'd teach everything i know, so what do you say, Kid?."

"You got yourself a Bloodly deal"

That night, over soup and bread, I told them the truth. Well… some of it.

"the villagers think I'm blessed by four gods," I said, wiping my hands. My mother blinked. My father stopped mid-chew.

"what?" my father said.

"And why?" my mother asked.

I shrug. "I'm strong. I clean. I work. I don't get sick. It makes sense to them."

My father leaned back in his chair and gave a low, slow laugh.

"Well… it ain't wrong. Just a bit dramatic."

My mother gave me a worried look, then softened.

"If it helps you stay safe. If it helps you grow. Then fine. But be careful, Ren. When people start saying you're divine… the church might come."

"And not all of the 4 churchs like competition, and some might kidnap you, i put my money the church of the water god, something not right with them," my father muttered.

I smiled.

"I'm gonna be fine."

"No," he said, "but you're not normal, either."

Then he ruffled my hair, pride glimmering beneath the caution in his voice.

"And you're our boy. Four gods or none"

[REN INFO CARD]

vermin killer: 8/15

Farmer:4/15

Carpentry:1/15

Blacksmith:1/10

Cleaner:8/15

Cook:1/10