System vs Rebirth

"Hello, you're new here, right?" A man came to Elaine with a bucket of water.

"Y-yes." Elaine nodded, confused. She thought she would be bullied in this place.

However, the man simply said, "Please use this to wash your face. If it's still not enough, you can use the public bathroom to wash yourself."

"I-Is that so?" Elaine raised her eyebrows in amusement. As a noble, she was obviously familiar with this treatment. In fact, she usually washed her face in the morning and cleaned her body during the night. In addition, there would be a bath every week.

However, the man actually said she could wash her body in the morning.

'Is such a thing possible?' Elaine contemplated before asking, "Are you sure?"

"Of course." The man nodded.

This made him even more suspicious. She had prepared herself to be treated harshly by the people, but she could actually maintain a part of her noble lifestyle.

"Are you the one bringing the water?"

The man looked surprised and remembered something. "Ah. Now that I think about it, you've just arrived in this town yesterday. Miss Rose has asked me to show you around and treat you like normal workers here. Don't worry. If you're worried about water, we have plenty of it. Please take a look at that."

The man pointed at the window, specifically the maids and butlers that gathered water from faucets. "We just have to open the faucet, and the water will come out. There is no need to worry about the water. If it can make you feel refreshed, it means that the water has done its job. Just make sure you work hard today."

"…" Elaine fell silent for a moment. She suddenly remembered that when Rose brought her to the dorm. Each room was extremely small.

The bed took up the entire left side of the room and a table was next to the bed. On top of the table was a window, which would bring in some light. However, Rose said that she could put a small box next to the ceiling if she needed some light during the night. She hadn't tried it, but after seeing how easy it was to procure water, the room might not be as simple as she originally thought.

"I will take this." Elaine grabbed the bucket.

"Sure. If it's not enough, you can go to the worker's bathroom. The Lord said that we don't need to care about how much water we use, but still, the habit from old days keeps haunting me. So I don't dare to use too much water."

"Understood. Thank you."

"Sure. If you're done, meet me outside. I'll show you around."

"Yes." Elaine suddenly remembered something and stopped for a moment. "Ehm, I am Elaine. What is your name?"

The man smiled. "Jack."

Elaine nodded before walking away. When she passed the bathroom, she heard the splashing sound of water from the inside with a few people talking lightheartedly. They seemed to be happy with their current lives.

A person came out of the bathroom, the towel was still wrapping her hair and there was a cool atmosphere around her. There was no bad smell whatsoever. Normally, commoners hardly wash themselves. Most of the time, they would just wipe their bodies with wet towels once a day or every other day.

So, it wouldn't be weird for their body to release some foul odor. Only those who worked around the lord of the city would maintain such a good look, since if their foul odor displeased the lord, there was a chance they would be expelled or even beaten.

Yet these people actually got such a thing even though they didn't work directly in the Lord's mansion.

Elaine hurriedly looked away and awkwardly left.

After that, Jack began to guide her around the area, including all the facilities and divisions around her.

Their division was under one of the pillars of the Ardagan family, which meant Rose would be her direct superior.

It took them a whole day to go around because they kept stopping whenever they met something new. Elaine couldn't help but ask about all of them.

And before retiring to her room, she finally stopped by the worker's bathroom.

"In that case, I have done my job for today. You can wash yourself here and retire to your room. Tomorrow, I will bring you to your post."

"Yes. Thank you for everything." Elaine nodded.

"Anyway, we don't understand your capability right now, so we'll be paying you the same amount as the new worker, which is 5 silver coins per day."

"Am I really getting paid?" Elaine widened her eyes in shock.

"Yes. Is there something wrong? Everyone who works deserves to be paid." Jack tilted his head in confusion. "You can spend the money as you like. Maybe buy some clothes or pay for some entertainment."

Elaine was staring at him in disbelief. Considering her position, she thought she wouldn't be paid at all and would be worked to death in a harsh environment.

Five silver coins might not be a lot for a noble like her, but it was at the level of a maid in her family's mansion. After all, being a butler or a maid for the Lord was an ideal job in the kingdom. They were paid well, and there were a lot of bonuses.

Jack added, "Well, I have only heard of it, but if you do some good work, the Lord will actually properly reward you. I've heard that there was a maid creating a new menu that was so delicious that the Lord gave her a few gold coins. There was also a blacksmith who made a breakthrough and got rewarded with a hundred gold coins.

"Hence, there is a rumor going around among us. The Lord is trying to activate a new system that is based on people's merit. It encourages people to do better.

"And there is even a more ridiculous rumor. With all the technology, the citizens have enough spare time to actually learn a thing or two. They are thinking about sending their kids to the school, which the Lord is still considering. They want their children to be smart and do good work so that their family can achieve what they normally can't."

"!!!" Elaine widened her eyes in shock, thinking, 'Merit? Public school?'

"Anyway, I'll take my leave here." Jack waved his hand.

Elaine was still in a state of shock. She entered the bathroom while her mind was still too occupied with all kinds of thoughts.

They could actually take a shower in this place. Since all of them were women, there was no problem. Elaine just chose to forget about her identity as a noble and wash herself here.

Once she returned to her room, she had completely cooled down, feeling refreshed after a long day.

'To think that the people in this city can get all the benefits of a noble. We can wash ourselves two times a day and the wage is high.

'If people know about it, they will surely want to come here. No, if nobles know about all these things, they want them for themselves and won't share them with the people.

'It can be said that the Lord has grasped the people's hearts. With such a kind Lord, it's obvious why the people love him so much. I can kind of understand why they looked like they wanted to butcher me when they knew my identity. It was like the Lord actually spared my life when he told them not to help me. They might come at me and beat me while trying to 'help' me.'

Elaine chuckled. "Still… a wage, huh? If I do something big, will I be rewarded with money as well? What if I can earn thousands of gold coins and use them to pay the debt? Won't it help my family that way?

"No. I should aim higher. If I can earn tens of thousandswho of gold coins or even surpass a hundred thousand, my family might be able to escape from this debt a lot sooner.

"Besides…" Elaine couldn't help but remember Jessi's words about atoning her mistake by making the people that had suffered happy.

"Oh wait." Elaine suddenly lowered her vision and noticed the small box on the table. "If I'm not wrong, I should place this on the ceiling."

Elaine grabbed it and tried to place it next to the lamp, which suddenly shone. "What? Bright… No, wait. It actually shines. So I need to hang this box here?"

When Elaine climbed down the chair, she was surprised that the entire room lit up.

"This is bright. No candles can go against this." Elaine glanced at the paper. If she could get this kind of light during the night, she might be able to work the regular job during the day and continue with her 'great work' during the day for the reward.

This was actually an opportunity for her.

"Since the royal family has abandoned us and won't cooperate with us in the future because of the punishment… I should do things differently. If I can become irreplaceable in the Marquis's eyes, I can get a lot of money and might not need to die. No, he might not even restrict me from contacting my family anymore." Elaine had just gotten a new goal and started scribbling a few things on the paper, pouring all her ideas onto the paper.

Little did she know, everything was actually Noel's plan.

Even Jack, who guided her around and told her all kinds of things, returned to Rose.

"Yes, I have told her about all of it, including the wage and merit," Jack reported.

"Good work." Rose handed him a small pouch containing several gold coins.

"Thank you very much."

…

…

…

Time went by swiftly.

Without her realizing it, Elaine had stayed in this place for a week. She had written dozens of ideas like a merit-based system or even public education, like what she had done in her previous life.

Feeling a bit tired, Elaine stretched her body while yawning. Her eyes couldn't help but look at the window, noticing the falling white particles falling down. "Mhmm? Snow, huh?"

Just like Elaine, Noel and Anna were actually watching the snow.

"It's finally snowing." Anna smiled, feeling excited. "We can go hunt now!"

"Indeed. I've finished all my jobs, so I'll just let them do the rest." Noel smiled. "Let's sleep early and leave early in the morning."

"En! Let's get enough demon crystals to become a Spirit Transcendence in this hunt. Peak Level Demons, Superior Demons, we're coming for you." Anna pumped her fists.

Noel and Anna were smiling. Unbeknownst to them, this journey to become a Spirit Transcendence was actually much harder than they originally thought as a beast much stronger than anything they had faced in their whole life would soon become their obstacle.