Since he was only providing the method of committing the crime, August considerately said he didn't need to be paid. Hope only had to agree to take on the translation.
August seemed to have made this dorm room his temporary base. He rummaged through a drawer and found a steel pen, ink, and blank manuscript paper, then handed them all to Hope.
"These are all yours. You can start whenever you like..." the drunkard said. "It'd be best to finish everything within ten days... but it's no big deal if you can't. Small publishers are pretty relaxed about deadlines."
Hope tried the steel pen and found it wasn't as good as his own, but he took it as a spare anyway.
August lay down on the bed. He was going to sleep. Since the room was unoccupied, it didn't even have bedsheets; the so-called bed was just a wooden plank raised off the floor.
August rummaged around under the bed, then looked at Hope. "Have you seen my alarm clock? I can't find it."
"Are you asking me?" Hope asked, puzzled. "This is my first time here, and my eyesight is... Wait, is that the thing by your bed?"
August rolled back onto the bed. "Great, that's it! Looks like I forgot to hide it when I left last time."
"Seven o'clock is a special time," he said. "I need to get up early, preferably leave here before seven. Otherwise, the caretaker might spot me while making his rounds."
He began to snore softly. He'd practically fallen asleep as soon as he put down the alarm clock. The fact that he'd remembered to find the clock before touching the bed and drifting off showed impressive willpower.
Hope suspected the caretaker had kicked him out before.
Just as August had said, it was a four-person dorm. There were four beds in the room, and Hope casually chose one to sit on.
Hope didn't mind the bare wooden plank. His own circumstances weren't any better, after all. But he didn't intend to sleep here.
He wasn't going back yet because he wanted to test the side effect of the Heart-shaped Padlock that made people weak.
It was raining outside, and it was the middle of the night. Even if Hope wanted to look for Elizabeth, he had no idea who to ask about where she lived. There was nothing for him to do.
So he brought the oil lamp over to the table in front of him, spread out the manuscript and the original text in Hex Language, and began his first job since coming to this world.
"As a pastry chef, I have to thank the scientists who invented such a marvelous thing as the refrigerator. Ice cream sales have soared, making it an affordable luxury for the masses, and its flavors have grown ever more varied. Praise be to the Lord who created all things..."
Hope's pen hand paused. He crossed out what he'd just written, then reread the original.
"Praise be to the Lord who created all things." That was indeed what the original said.
As Hope read the passage, he hadn't felt the slightest difficulty. Number One Hope knew Hex Language no less well than New Federation Language, so there shouldn't have been any chance of a misunderstanding.
But... "the Lord who created all things"...
Based on Hope's observations over the past few days, no religion was legal in the New Federation. Anyone who wanted to praise a god was a cultist, no matter which god it was...
Was it because this was a different country...? He had no idea where the Hex Kingdom was... More importantly, did this "Lord who created all things" really exist?
Hope shook his head. That was all far beyond him. Whether the Hex Kingdom had invented a nonexistent god, was being kept by an Evil God, or was protected by a true god had little to do with him.
Since his translation was correct, Hope rewrote the sentence he'd crossed out. He'd leave it to August to decide whether to keep it in the end.
He rubbed his aching wrist. It had taken him about an hour to translate the first page. At this rate, August had given him plenty of time. Translating twenty pages in ten days would only take about two hours a day.
Hope had plenty of free time and only needed to squeeze in a few spare moments. He just didn't know how much the payment would be, or how much purchasing power ten cents had... He shook his head, forcing himself not to dwell on that. Even without any pay, having the unauthorized use of this room in exchange was worth it.
He was already feeling a little tired, but the feeling wasn't strong enough for him to tell whether it was the Heart-shaped Padlock's effect or his lack of sleep.
August's snoring quieted. He started grinding his teeth with a grating sound and muttered something in his sleep.
Hope didn't pay close attention, but it seemed to be a person's name.
"Len..."
His voice even carried a hint of a sob.
What the hell, man? You're kind of scary doing that in the middle of the night. Hope grumbled to himself. Did you get dumped? No wonder you drank so much.
Hope put away the pages he'd translated, picked up the oil lamp, and looked around the dorm, trying to memorize as much of it as possible so he could use it as a waypoint for "Uncertainty."
He made a point of memorizing what it looked like beneath the beds. Teleporting to a small, enclosed space like that would make him feel safer.
He skipped only August's bed out of the four. The light might disturb him.
His fatigue grew more and more intense, until Hope felt unsteady on his feet. He quickly grabbed the table to keep himself from knocking over the oil lamp.
The Heart-shaped Padlock's side effect had kicked in.
He put the oil lamp back on the table and took out his pocket watch.
One fifty-seven in the morning.
It had probably been two hours since he left the room.
Hope silently noted the time, but still didn't hurry back. Instead, he found the key to the Heart-shaped Padlock and set it on the table.
He wanted to test whether his fatigue would fade after he let go of the key.
The instant the key left his fingers, his connection to the storage room vanished, but the fatigue remained.
Hope waited a little while before he started to feel some of his strength returning.
He picked the key back up and reestablished his connection to the storage room.
So it wouldn't recover right away...
Hope shook his head in disappointment. His hope of refreshing negative status effects by disconnecting from the item had come to nothing.
Although he hadn't been able to explore the Miskatonic University campus or find Elizabeth, having a temporary base on campus was enough to satisfy him.
He left the translated pages on the table in front of August's bed so that August could see them as soon as he woke up.
After thinking it over, he took out another sheet of manuscript paper and wrote a note, saying that he had to leave, but didn't know where August lived, so he'd bring the translated pages to the dorm every night from then on.
After hesitating, Hope chose not to leave his real name. Instead, he came up with a temporary alias: "Love."
Finally, he extinguished the oil lamp and closed his eyes.
It was strange. The rain at Miskatonic University had been heavy, but when he returned to Dunwich, the weather was almost clear, and the moon shone brightly overhead.
It seemed Dunwich was farther from Miskatonic University than Hope had imagined.
Hope lay in bed and recovered some of his strength, but forced himself to stay awake. Once he'd regained his strength, he brought the manuscript paper, ink, and steel pen to the Old Williams House.
Leaving them in the storage room made him feel unsafe.
Only after doing all that did Hope begin what little sleep he had left.
Before you continue