Today's lunch is rice balls and water.
I can't afford tea leaves. Tea leaves are quite expensive. Besides, it's not the Japanese tea I know; it's what you'd call black tea. I haven't seen or tasted the kind of tea found in Japan yet.
I hadn't eaten rice at the orphanage, so I thought it didn't exist, but it was being sold normally.
Just like in many light novels, rice was livestock feed. I'm glad I went to the store selling feed on a hunch.
I use Kanji Magic (a name I came up with myself) for polishing the rice. Since I live alone now, I can use magic normally at home.
The Gatten Workshop has a dormitory, but as a typesetter, I couldn't get in. That's because I'm not a regular employee. I'm not even on an hourly wage; it's a complete commission-based system. A system where the guaranteed salary is 0 yen and you only get paid according to your results seems common when hiring people from orphanages. I don't know the details, but it's basically like saying they don't trust those without guardians or guarantors and don't want to hire them, but if you're okay with low pay, they'll let you work.
Some might get angry and say I'm being exploited, but I'm just grateful to be employed at all.
The rice balls are just plain salt ones. I've been looking for seaweed, but I haven't found any yet. I hope to find some eventually.
"Mmm. Delicious."
The Gatten Workshop has a lunch break. We have to take turns resting. Since I'm on commission, I'd rather work through lunch if I could. But it's a workshop rule, so I have to take a break. It's about an hour long. We're supposed to eat lunch during that time.
Now, let me tell you about this world. For commoners, two meals a day is the norm. Therefore, most workplaces don't have a lunch break. Once you show up in the morning, you work straight through until evening. But this Gatten Type Foundry is different. Viscount Gatten believes that two meals are inefficient. He thinks that by taking lunch and resting, workers can recover from fatigue and maintain their concentration and judgment in the afternoon.
And even though it's a workshop where commoners work, there's an employee cafeteria. Apparently, this is a revolutionary attempt.
It's an employee cafeteria famous among those who work at the royal palace or lordly estates. And the Gatten Workshop has one too. Of course, I, who am sitting here eating rice balls, can't use it. Since it's free to eat there, it's not that I'm not using it because I have no money. Well, in short, it's a facility that only regular employees can use.
It's a bit disappointing, but I'll definitely become a regular employee one day. I grip my chopsticks tightly. (People in this world normally use chopsticks.)
"Hmm?"
But if I become a regular employee, it's a fixed salary. Maybe commission is better after all...
"Oh well. I'll think about it if I ever get an offer to become a regular employee."
There's a saying about counting your chickens before they hatch, after all.