Volume 9: Chapter 22 - Imperial Firewood House (1/2)

Volume 9: Chapter 22 - Imperial Firewood House

After the Vice Manager entered him in the registry, he said, “Alright, go and stand on the left side. Someone will take you to the gardening department soon. Next!”

   ……

It was finally my turn. I hastily moved forward and said with a bow, “Lord Vice Manager, you can call me Eighteen. My role is to split logs at the firewood house.”

When the Vice Manager raised his head and looked at my appearance, he furrowed his eyebrows as he said, “What on earth were those brats doing to recruit such an ugly person? But I’ll let it slide and allow you to be as ugly as possible as no one will see you anyway. You’re to behave and be diligent in splitting logs after today.”

I hastily agreed. “Thank you, Vice Manager. I will definitely do my best.”

“En!” The Vice Manager agreed as he motioned for me to stand aside.

Finally, everyone’s names had been recorded by the Vice manager and taken to their respective workplaces. I was led away by a fatty along with two others. He led us to a big building before saying, “This is the kitchen. You’ll be working here in the future. Ugly, you’re to head to the rear courtyard of the kitchen. There’ll be an old fellow there that will assign you your work.”

I immediately agreed and dashed towards the rear courtyard alone.

The courtyard was large and contained many people, some were washing vegetables while others were cooking meat, all contributing to the bustle of the kitchen. There were a pile of logs at the north-east corner of the grounds. This should be the place I am to be stationed. When I walked over, I saw an old man with snow white hair splitting logs.

I respectfully said, “Greetings to you, sir.”

The old man raised his head and looked at me before replying, “What do you want? You need something?” His tone, devoid of any humility, suggested that he was anything but a log splitter.

I replied. “I have been assigned to assist you in splitting the logs.”

The old man sized me up before saying indifferently, “Then go and find some logs to split. Remember, you’re to chop them evenly to avoid having those picky fellows from the kitchen complaining again.”

I nodded as I found a log and sat down. The old man tossed me a firewood axe before pointing to the circular logs at the side.

I placed a circular log in front of me before I gently struck down with the firewood axe. I used my strength to cleanly split the circular log in two. It was a pity that I couldn’t use my magic and battle spirit. I would have to just split it with pure strength.

When the day ended, even though I didn’t split many logs, I was so tired that my waist was sore and back ached.

When it was dinner time, unbeknownst to me, the old man had procured some food and shared half of it with me. “Eat up and rest early. Tomorrow, you’re going to continue splitting logs. Your current pace is incomparable to this old man’s pace. How can that be satisfactory?”

After taking my portion of food from him, I asked, “How long have you been here?”

The old man dazed a little before saying, “I’ve forgotten. It should at least be thirty years.”