Nick was sorry about his past deeds

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“It does seem like the day you rescued the girl, matches with the day that I started to see them more often. Perhaps it was because Deam gave out an order…”
“Do you know him?”
“I should be asking you that.”
“Well…sort of. Haha.”
“Wuff.”

I didn’t if the two things were directly related, but it was possible that they were searching for Liza. It did seem that he wanted to use hatred against the beastkin as a way of controlling the people.
Regardless, I was a little surprised to hear Nick talk about Deam.

“Well, I understand why you don’t want to talk about it. He seems like the kind of person to silence others so that they don’t expose him.”

Apparently, Nick seemed to have misunderstood me a little.
Also, it was clear that he knew him.

“So you know a lot about Deam?”
“Aye. I am from the slums, after all… And though I tried to leave and get a job… No one would hire me… There were some places that gave me work for just a day or two…but nothing like what you did, brother. I suppose it had to do with my origins, and the way I talked.”
“I see…”

Apparently, Nick had originally lived in the slums.
Now that I thought about it, I didn’t know much about Nick.
He called me brother, and seemed to be happy to see me. Also, he was a hard worker now.

As for the way that he talked, as Mr. Kalis said, it had improved compared to before.
Regardless, as he was from the slums, no one would give him a proper job.
Though it seemed he would sometimes get hired for a day…that would not be enough to make a living.

“And so in the end…I needed money, and just started threatening people in stores. But that didn’t go well… And as I wondered what to do, I was approached by some people from a different town. You know the rest, brother. Hehe.”

Nick said with a laugh.
He had been approached by some thugs that wanted to use him, and they had attacked us when I was with Ms. Claire and the others…
He had been dragged down the path of villainy, and then ended up bumping into the duke’s daughter right after. Luck was certainly not on his side…
In the end, I had helped him, and he was now sorry about what he did… So perhaps it had turned out alright for him after all.

“Now that you mention it, have you gone to apologize to the stores that you attacked?”
“Aye! Mr. Kalis and I went around and talked to them. Mr. Kalis is close with the duke, so they were all quick to forgive me. Well, because I felt bad about what I did back then, and wanted to do something to help, I decided to patrol the area so that the people from the slums wouldn’t work any mischief.”
“I see… So you’ve been working hard then.”

Patrolling the area was Nick’s way of doing some volunteer work.

“I am able to live properly, thanks to the money you pay me. Besides, I now make sure to buy from the stores I stole from, as a way of making up for it.”
“I see… Uh, and you really have enough money? If you don’t…”
“No, no, I’m fine. You pay me more than I would make at any of these other stores! I could not ask for more!”
“Indeed…”

Apparently, he was contributing to the sales of the other stores as a way of apologizing.
As for his pay, I had discussed it with Sebastian, and decided to give him a little extra, which seemed to be a lot for Nick.
Especially since he had never been paid properly before…

Now that I thought about it, perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to ask a duke’s butler about average salaries…
He probably got paid a lot… I should have talked to Mr. Kalis instead.
Well, it wasn’t like I had financial troubles, and if Nick was working hard, then it was fine.

Money wasn’t everything, but you should be paid well for your work.
…I knew from experience that working overtime for minimum wages, with no hope of a raise no matter how hard you worked…was bound to make you lose motivation.
And since I would have to hire personnel to help with the medicinal herb fields, this was something that I would have to continue to keep in mind.

Next Chapter

My Beloved Dog is the Strongest in Another World