WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Abood

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Friedrich's Battlefield

Chapter 1: Friedrich's Daily Life (1)

One wonders, how many can truly say they lived their lives in contentment?

At the very least, he was not one of them.

So thought Friedrich, an eighteen-year-old young man living in the small frontier city of Volga, as he sat before a stack of papers with his hand steadily at work.

In a society where the literacy rate barely reached twenty percent, where being able to write one's name and perform simple calculations for shopping was considered impressive, Friedrich could read and write fluently and handle all four basic operations of arithmetic.

And so, here he was, indoors, seated at a desk, carrying out dull, monotonous work.

One part of his mind wandered in endless circles, questioning his life and circumstances, while the other stayed focused on the text before him, guiding the pen in his hand. He copied the characters down mechanically, one after another.

He continued like that for some time, lost in boredom, until the task came to an end at last.

“......”

His hands and eyes were tired. He stretched silently while thinking that. He closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and reached both arms high above him. Feeling slightly refreshed, he opened his eyes and found a face peering down at him.

“Good work, Friedrich. I just finished up too, you know?”

With a voice like the chime of a bell and black hair flowing behind her, it was Yurika. Friedrich’s childhood friend, who's two years older than him, greeted him with a smile.

“Yeah, good work, Yurika. Now then, time to report in, get our pay, and head home already.”

Saying that, Friedrich stood up as they went and picked up the completed stack of papers. He then made his way to the master of the manor while accompanied by Yurika. Moving with the ease of someone well familiar with the place, he walked through the halls to the back of the manor and knocked on the office door.

“Mr. Hermann, we’ve finished.”

“Hmm? Oh, it’s Friedrich. Come in.”

After being granted permission, he stepped in facing Hermann, the master of the manor. This is the steward’s manor. The owner, Hermann, happens to be the steward of the small city of Volga.

“That was pretty fast. Are you sure you did it right?”

“After all the requests we’ve handled for you, and you still don’t trust us. That makes me sad.”

Speaking the words without looking particularly sad, Friedrich held out the stack of documents. The steward’s manor also served as the city’s administrative office. In the course of managing the city, a large number of documents were produced, some of which required multiple copies.

Naturally, all copies of the documents had to be written by hand. As long as one could read and write, it was simple yet repetitive work.

In a small city like Volga, there were no real bureaucrats to speak of. Hermann, who handled nearly all of the city’s administration by himself, had a strong dislike for this kind of menial task.

And so, Friedrich was hired. He was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic by his foster parent, and made a living as a day laborer doing mental work, occasionally receiving jobs from Hermann as well.

Yurika, while not as skilled as Friedrich, also had a grasp of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and often helped him as an assistant. She always handled the tasks Friedrich judged safe to leave in her hands.

“Hohoho. Merely a jest. It’s not as if I don’t trust you… hmm. It seems everything is properly written this time too. You’ve done well.”

After thoroughly inspecting the stack of copied documents, Hermann rose to his feet, his round belly swaying as he moved, and retrieved a small pouch from the shelf behind him.

“Here, this is two days’ pay. Yours and the girl’s too, it’s all in there.”

Friedrich nearly fumbled the tossed pouch, but Yurika caught it beside him. She handed it over, and Friedrich opened it to check the silver and copper coins inside.

Three-hundred Twenty Slone. The exact amount we agreed on.

Pretending to count the coins with his eyes, Friedrich fell silent for a moment before finally looking up.

“Certainly. Now then, if there happens to be more work, please call for us.

Friedrich managed something resembling a smile as he thanked Hermann, then turned to leave. Like a moody cat, Yurika ignored Hermann and everything else entirely, her eyes fixed only on Friedrich’s back as she followed him out.

……

Friedrich and Yurika left the steward’s manor, and walked down the path to their way home.

“...we just received our pay, might as well spend on some luxurious food to eat, no?”

“Good idea. I want to eat some meat. Not jerky, but real meat.”

As Friedrich lightly tapped the pocket holding the pouch, Yurika took his arm and gave him a sly, satisfied smile.

“Well then, let’s stop by the butcher on the way and get some pork… If I hadn’t been a former orphan, maybe we could’ve afforded beef instead.”

Friedrich replied with a faint, ironic smile.

Normally, the going rate for mental labor was no less than 120 slone per day.

Yet the payment they’d just received was 320 slone for two people over two days — 100 slone per day for Friedrich, and 60 for Yurika.

It was clearly a lowball offer, taking advantage of them. The reason for this treatment being Friedrich and Yurika’s background.

The two of them were former orphans. Both had been abandoned as infants. With no family name to claim and no memory of their parents' faces, they had lived their lives constantly viewed as outsiders by society.

That was why, despite possessing the skills to earn the standard rate, Friedrich received less than he deserved. As for Yurika, her pay was barely equal to that of a typical manual laborer.

This treatment was nothing new. Friedrich and Yurika had always taken on work like document copying, letter writing, bookkeeping for shopkeepers, compiling inventories, and helping self-reliant farmers who struggled with reading, writing, or arithmetic — all for pay below the going rate.

By hiring former orphans like Friedrich and Yurika, clients could secure mental labor at a discount. In turn, Friedrich maintained his place in the city’s workforce by offering his and Yurika’s skills cheaply, avoiding being pushed out by other, more socially accepted workers.

As a result of the power dynamic and the balance of interests between Friedrich and his clients, he and Yurika earned more than most from an orphan’s background, but less than what a skilled worker in their field should. Even on days like this, when they managed to earn a decent sum, they chose pork over beef to save money.

They no longer felt anger over how they were treated. In the early days, when Friedrich had just started working seriously, he would sometimes protest to his employers. But after learning that such complaints only ever made things worse, he had long since stopped bothering. Whether he had truly come to terms with it in his heart… was another matter entirely.

Footnotes:

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