Fiona's grades were excellent.
But nothing else was.
This was nothing like the life she had imagined.
She had thought that after coming to Larven, this famous great city of the continent, every aspect of her life would improve, and she would live the life of her dreams.
After all, according to the rumors, gold lay everywhere in this city. Any job could earn more than she could ever make back home. Everyone was friendly and kind. There was no need to worry about falling sick, because the Clerics of the church would treat people for free. Even the air was said to be steeped in a sweet fragrance—
Yet reality could only be said to partly match.
She did make far more money than back home, but the expenses were equally staggering. She now lived in a tiny attic, and one year's rent could have leased over twenty acres of farmland in her hometown.
Nor was everyone necessarily friendly. Perhaps they seemed pleasant enough on first meeting, but people digging pits behind one another's backs and scheming against each other were no less common—perhaps even more so. In a small place like her hometown, the entire village knew one another, were connected by blood or marriage, and were all poor in much the same way. There was nothing worth plotting over in secret.
Free treatment did exist, but the Clerics of the church were usually terribly busy. Religious affairs mattered far more than helping the poor. If one wanted to wait for aid, it could take weeks or even months, depending on luck. Fiona felt that by then, minor illnesses would have healed themselves, while serious ones would have killed the patient, making treatment unnecessary.
As for the sweet scent in the air, that part was true. But it