'The truth, huh? I don't want to reveal my power. Then, let's go with that. It's fine even if she doubts me.'
"Sigh, well, if you insist. I knew that you were close to taking your own life and I didn't have the heart to let it happen. You can say that life is slightly more valuable these days than during your time. Also, if I didn't do anything, I would remember that I let you die for the rest of my life, even though it wasn't so hard to help you. Is that answer good enough for you?"
It wasn't correct to say life wasn't valuable during her time. To be more precise, it depended on the circumstances. Newborns weren't truly considered alive until after they reached a certain age because stillbirths, neonatal deaths, and newborn deathly diseases were so common. In the same manner, provincial lords would draft peasants and serfs in high numbers and grind them against other drafted peasants in horrific wars. In these two cases, life was indeed very cheap.
On the other hand, skilled serfs were extremely valuable to small lords and nobles. This was because their income depended mostly on these people. That was why serfs were usually forbidden from leaving their birth territory. Most of the people in those times lived all their lives in the same place. Losing even a few skilled serfs due to a disease or any other sort of incident was a big loss for these lords. Any smart small noble took care of the people under him since they were his lifeblood. In a way, it was the same concept as companies did with their employees in the modern world.
("He didn't want me to die? But then, why does he know all of this, including my what I was thinking about? He was only sitting next to me for a few minutes in the morning.")
"Why do you know all of this? This is weird."
("Or is it normal in this future world? I don't know.")
"You're right. But I can't tell you about this. Everyone has a secret they want to keep to themselves, right?"
'Except that no one can keep their secrets from me. Well, that's just how it is. I'll use what I must if that allows me to survive. I'm already in a weak enough position as it is.'
Aginaci frowned, unsatisfied by my answer.
"I can only say this. I don't want to harm you. I don't want anything from you except one thing, and that's for you to be on my side. That's all. Now, you're free to believe me or not. It's all up to you."
("If he's telling the truth, I'm being rude to someone who helped me. But I shouldn't let my guard down. I've had enough of being betrayed.")
"…Fine. I still owe you my gratitude. Thank you for what you did today."
("Even if it's just for the "doner kebab", it was worth it.")
'I guess I'll have to treat her to it again soon. But, my finances…'
"You're welcome. Now, I think you still have a lot to learn. I also need to think some more."
She nodded and went back to the screen, entering a new search.
'Now, where was I? Oh right, finding a way to grow stronger without alerting these people. Hmm. What if I get them to teach me? I can make them my friends and turn the discussion in that direction. Maybe.'
I would need to think about it some more. The last thing I, or more exactly we, had to worry about was what to do after five days passed. Taking the worst scenario where Aginaci would need to leave, what then? We couldn't throw her to the streets.
In the best scenario, she would have a place to live. That means renting something, which implies a lot of money. Perhaps not that much if she got something small and cheap but still much more than whatever remaining money I possessed. Plus, she would need money for other expenses, like food, clothes, water, electricity, and so on.
So, it was all about money in the end. The most money I had ever gotten my hands on was the salary from a small summer job to repair a house. It had only lasted a few days and I had gotten less than a hundred bucks. With school and my other plans going on, there was no way I or Aginaci could do this.
Was there an easy way for a mind reader to earn money? I thought about it for a long time but no good ideas came to mind. I even took my phone out to search the internet for more inspiration. There were a few topics about people talking about what they would do if they got my ability. On the money side, some said that playing money games would be the easiest way. Some others said that scamming people would be even more effective. There were a few opinions about trying stocks while having insider knowledge. None of that was appealing or realistic to me, a simple high schooler.
During the rest of the evening, I spent my time thinking about all these issues while Aginaci was glued to the computer. Eventually, it got late enough that we had to get to sleep if we wanted to be able to wake up tomorrow.
There was a blanket on top of the living room sofa, probably prepared by my mother. I made sure Aginaci was comfortable enough and went back to sleep in my room. Until the end, Aginaci wondered if I was going to ask her to sleep with me. She was more bewildered than relieved when I didn't do anything. However, with everything that happened during the day, she was quite tired. I soon noticed she fell asleep when her thoughts became blank. I wasn't in a much better state. Not too long after, I followed her in the dream world, or more probably, the nightmare world.