Evelyn didn't shortchange Ryan on his pay, but she didn't agree to lend him money either.
Ryan figured that once he had a little more to spare, he'd pay her back with interest; either way, he reckoned the two of them had plenty of days ahead together.
After dinner, as the sky darkened, Ryan led Ellie into the slums in the corner of the city.
The house Evelyn rented to him was there.
The conditions here were wretched and the safety worse: the narrow dirt lanes were flanked by stinking ditches piled with filth, and plenty of homeless beggars and idle hooligans loitered about.
Ellie followed behind, studying the crooked houses nearby with a thoughtful look; what was on her mind, there was no telling.
Just then Ryan passed a house that had caved in, and he stopped before the heap of rubble and sighed.
The houses in the slums were nearly all like this — timber for a frame, with stone too dear to afford, so they were built from clay and straw-mud, and with bad luck a house would collapse in twenty or thirty years.
As it happened, the house Ryan lived in was exactly this sort of death trap.
He silently prayed it wouldn't cave in while he was asleep...
Ryan kept walking toward home, and soon they stopped before a house that looked a touch cleaner than the rest.
This was the house Evelyn rented to him.
Housing in the city wasn't cheap. Even an old, draughty place in the slums ran at least twenty or thirty silver for half a year's rent, and you had to pay a deposit up front before you could move in.
But the generous Evelyn, finding Ryan handsome and dashing, agreed to charge him only half, and to let him move in first and pay the rent after six months.
Otherwise Ryan really would have ended up sleeping in the streets of this world.
"We're living here. The conditions are a bit rough — bear with it."
Ellie scratched her ear and said nothing.
Ryan pushed open the wooden door, and a faint, musty smell wafted out.
Inside it was pitch black.
He picked up the oil lamp from the table and glanced back at Ellie. "Can you light this for me?"
A flame sprang to life at Ellie's fingertip and lit the wick in an instant.
The faint glow lit up their surroundings, and Ellie's eyes shone.
Ryan couldn't use magic; in the old days, lighting a single lamp would have meant fussing with a flint for half an hour at least.
Now that there was someone in the house who could use magic, things were far more convenient.
He let out a long breath, unbuckled the sword at his waist, and looked around.
The house had only a single main room: a rickety wooden-plank bed in the corner, a chest for clothes beside the bed, and across from the chest a small hearth that hadn't been used in ages. Beyond that, there was scarcely a stick of furniture.
"Four bare walls" was no exaggeration for Ryan's situation at present.
Ellie stood off to the side, staring into space; what was going through her mind just then, there was no telling.
Ryan looked at the narrow bed, dug some of Evelyn's old castoff clothes out of the chest, and spread them flat in the corner, arranging them into the shape of a cat bed.
A little cat sleeping in a cat bed — no problem at all.
Ellie watched his every move, lost in thought.
Ryan pointed at the cat bed, a little embarrassed. "We're short on means. Sleep here for tonight, and once I've earned some money I'll buy you a bed."
Ellie said nothing. She quietly sat down on the little pile of clothes and stared blankly, hugging her knees.
Curled up in a ball like that, she looked so shabby, so pitiful...
Ryan was dirt poor; for now this was the best he could manage.
He pointed to the water vat beside the hearth and went on, "If you want to wash your face, you can use the water in there."
As he spoke, something occurred to him.
He glanced at the bathtub in the corner and asked Ellie, "Can you make water with magic?"
In the half month since he had crossed into this world, even taking a bath had been a struggle for Ryan.
To bathe in the city you first had to draw water from the public well, and filling a tub meant several trips back and forth; for the locals here, going ten days to half a month without a bath was the norm.
Or you could pay to bathe at a bathhouse — five copper tree coins a wash, the same as a bowl of rye porridge.
And if you wanted a bathhouse girl to provide certain special massage services, that cost still more...
"I can."
Ellie stood, set the tub level, and a stream of clear water flowed from her hand out of thin air.
She carefully rinsed the tub once, then poured it out and refilled it.
Ryan's eyes lit up at the sight.
From now on he could finally bathe to his heart's content.
Once Ellie had filled the tub, Ryan stripped off his clothes and shoes, climbed straight in, and bathed in blissful comfort.
At first Ellie just stood by and watched him bathe, but she soon realized this didn't seem quite proper, so she turned to face the wall and even folded her ears down flat against her head.
After his bath, Ryan felt refreshed and clear-headed.
Changing into clean clothes, he sat down comfortably on the bed and dried his hair with the clothes he'd just taken off. "If you want a bath, you can take one too."
Ellie unfolded her ears and shot Ryan a glance.
She didn't say a word; Ryan was truly curious what was going on in her head.
That left Ryan a little surprised.
"Bathe if you want. I've no interest in you — I won't peek."
Ellie said nothing. Seemingly not caring in the least about Ryan's eyes, she pulled off her top, baring two rabbits bound tightly under a wrap of cloth.
Then she reached behind her and quickly unwound the cloth coiled around her chest, loop by loop.
The two white rabbits sprang free, bobbing up and down with her movements.
And she made not the slightest attempt to cover up or shy away, generously displaying the curves of her body just like that.
Ryan's eyes went wide; a game of Minesweeper had launched itself.
With behemoths like those, no child of hers would ever go hungry...
Ellie took off her long dress, folded it, set it aside, and stepped into the tub to rinse her body with clean water.
After bathing she didn't even dry off, just made to put her clothes straight back on.
Ryan quickly dug out one of Evelyn's old garments and tossed it with unerring aim onto her dripping hair. "Dry off before you get dressed."
Ellie took the cloth, gave her head a couple of rubs first, then wiped down every inch of skin one by one.
Ryan lay on his side on the bed, getting an eyeful, and was just about to let his imagination run wild when Ellie walked over to the bed, took away the clothes he'd changed out of without being asked, and set to scrubbing them in the tub.
Laundry service, no less.
"Thanks for the trouble," Ryan said softly to her back, feeling his eyelids grow heavier and heavier.
It had been a long day of running about — picking out a slave at the market in the morning, killing goblins outside the city in the afternoon. Now it was time for a good night's rest.
"Once you've finished the washing, get some rest too. We're going to the tavern again tomorrow morning, and once I've earned some money I'll buy you a couple of outfits and some shoes." The more Ryan talked, the drowsier he grew; he yawned, eyes barely able to stay open.
"All right. Goodnight, Master."
Ellie wrung out the clothes and hung them on the line by the hearth, then quietly sat down on the little pile of clothes, watching as Ryan drifted off to sleep...