Welcome to the Fold, Vilia

"I want to be your assistant. You'll pay me seventy Sea Shell Currency a week, right?"

The girl looked at her with a face full of hope.

Tina also studied the little girl in front of her.

She was probably about one meter forty, and should have been thirteen or fourteen years old. Her features had not fully grown into themselves yet, and she had clear, bright eyes like a small animal. Chestnut hair was hidden inside her hood.

The girl's young, skinny body looked malnourished. She wore a coarse, ill-fitting brown hemp robe, and was definitely not a local Yao child.

"Do you know what my assistant has to do?"

Tina crossed one leg over the other and continued flipping through the day's Paper Report in her hands.

She had no prejudice against children from out of town, but there would be a lot to teach. She only wanted an assistant who could help with odd jobs, not an apprentice who would waste a great deal of her time teaching.

The frail girl said, "I heard them reading the Notice Board outside. It said you wanted to hire an assistant to make models for you. I can do it. I can carve wood, make pottery, stack stones, repair houses, and make bows, stools, and tables."

Tina looked at her. "Do you know what applied mathematics is?"

"No."

"Very honest. See that table in the corner? That was my previous assistant's workbench. There's wood, clay, bamboo strips, and some metal parts piled on it, as well as small tools like chisels, hammers, and rulers. Go over there now and make me a model cottage ten centimeters tall and eight centimeters wide. It needs two living rooms, facing north with its back to the south, and it also needs a bathroom.