Getting a Job & Bathing

"Uhh…" The old man was tuned for words at the sorry sight of the teenager whose body had been reduced to nothing but bare bones. Max was also looking at the old man to deduce exactly what kind of person he was.

The old man had white hair neatly combed back with a hairline that would make most men half his age; including the original Samuel, spit blood from jealousy, and an incredibly well-groomed white beard. Well, although the name reminded him of a certain super powerful 'father' this old man actually had a white beard and not a plastic white moustache.

His eyes were amethyst-blue and he had an overall gentle face. He was wearing a three-piece suit with the jacket removed and put somewhere out of view, while an apron was covering most of his clothes at the front, his white sleeves were folded away to prevent them from coming into contact with the drinks or food he made. Despite it being closing hours, the white apron still looked almost entirely clean except for a few stains of drying water.

Overall, Max got the impression of a caring old man with a certain not-so-civilian past based on the scarring he saw on his knuckles, who was now retired and running a café in the affluent part of the city, obviously not due to old age since his body seemed to be far to fit for it to hinder his activities. He either did something wrong, like pissing off the wrong individuals who had connections that go too high up, he was undercover which was unlikely since it was too easy to guess he was not ordinary, or something tragic or traumatic happened to him or his close family.

In just a few glances, countless thoughts ran through his mind, and Max could only hope the old man was not some ex-member of some gang who was on the run. Though this was unlikely he would not have opened up a shop so brazenly. Thus, his gamble might end up paying off.

As Max glanced around him through his hair, behind the detection of the old man, he spotted his most powerful weapon. A photo was placed behind the old man, just out of view of normal people, but Max, who was shorter than others and had been specifically looking for something personal about the old man, spotted it.

It was the picture of the old man who looked much the same, with a woman who also looked old with white hair, but due to her fit figure and surprisingly few wrinkles, looked about half the age of the old man despite looking old. It was odd. But more importantly, there was no child in the photo. Instead, there was a separate photo frame behind this one with the photo of a newborn child.

Clearly, the old man and the woman in the photo were too old to have a child, and if the child was still alive or living with them, they would have newer photos of him instead of the newborn one. 

'Ha! I can milk this!' Max exclaimed as he quickly thought of the most heart-breaking, gut-wrenching memories of both his lives, and as it turned out, most of such memories were of the original Max, and nor Samuel, who had spent most of his life in a sheltered society.

He thought of the times he was bullied for not being tall, the times when those f*cking thugs barged into their in-house workshop and beat up his father and mother, and himself, he thought about the countless times they would have to starve due to not having enough money, and finally thought about the final time when the thugs had had enough of father and mother not having enough money to give them, and decided to sell them off as slaves instead. 

Only, his parents fiercely resisted, getting killed in the process, and Max being shipped off in a cage all alone. He thought of the long journey while being all alone, with so little food and water to survive that at some times he could almost feel his parents calling out to him to just go to sleep and forget about everything.

Instantly, countless tears began to fall from Max's face, but his mood had considerably soured. He did not want to remember this. In the case of Samuel, most of his bad memories were just regrets and injustices done to him at school, college, university and his company; which would cause him to form fake tears of self-pity. This time, however, he actually felt terrible, not only for losing both his parents but also for all the stuff Max had to go through while just being a teenager.

Still, he was now Max, and Max was him, and wallowing in sadness would not yield much. Max looked up at the old man, who was frozen in shock at the tears flowing down the young child's face.

"Please mister, I have nowhere to go, and no one to go to…" Max said, conveying his meaning to the old man that he had no family, trying to milk out as much pity from the old man and sympathy from him, especially considering he likely lost his child or even his wife.

And just like that, Max found himself a comfortable job as a waiter at a café called Entwine Café, one that not only paid him a handsome amount, but also one that came with lunch, dinner, and a place to sleep included. It was essentially perfect for the time being.

…

May 6th, 1348 of the Fifth Epoch

It had been two days since Max had been taken in by Old Man Uxas three nights for those whose views are so specific with maths that they went back in time to have a chat with Pythagoras. 

In this time, he had gotten Max a haircut, well, it was a haircut in name. He had used what Max could only call sheep-sheers to remove all traces of his hair except 1cm from his scalp. He now looked like a fuzzy porcupine ball, but he felt it as at the very least a better look than the edge-lord hairstyle he had before, coupled with his sickly body, made him look like a drug addict… an edge-addict?

Anyway, with his new haircut came a long and rough shower where he was treated like a piece of cloth, thrown around and scrubbed until he felt like his skin was peeling off. Somehow though, Max came out fresher than ever after the shower. His skin had become a bright pink, and his silver hair, despite being 'just average length', had a slight shine to it. With the food provided to him, Max also felt more energetic than ever before, though his condition had not improved too much.

Old Man Uxas said it would take him weeks if not months to return to normal, and Max just sighed. However, progress was still progress.

At this time, as the sun rose and took out the blood-red moon from the throne of the sky, Max was looking at himself in the full-body mirror. His silver hair had become something similar to a fuzzy censoring to his head, and his red eyes stood out, especially considering the scar he got on his right eye, which had ended up not harming his eyes or even his eye-lid, just creating a scratch stretching from his right cheek to his forehead.

It appeared that Old Man Uxas definitely had some hidden past and had collected a considerable amount of money from it since the full-body mirror in the guest room had a deliquiate crafted wooden frame around it which would at the very least cost quite the sum.

Oh, the currency system here was horrendous. They had multiple names for sizes of currency to compensate for what Max could only assume to be the lack of knowledge among the general public about numbers, and the inability to produce banknotes of higher value. Or perhaps it was something else, but Max did not like this boorish method of counting money one bit.

Still, this was what he got, and he could only shrug as he recounted his monthly salary was 5 pounds, not taking into account that he would be given a place to sleep, as well as lunch and dinner. This was about the best treatment a Non-Beyonder would get without becoming part of the official churches, or worse, MI-9, which if Max recalled correctly was the Semi-Beyonder organisation under the current King of Leon? Max was not fully sure about it.

Taking in a deep breath, Max straightened out his white shirt and put on the coat, preparing to finally begin his job and start earning money.

'Let's go!' Max nodded to himself as he left his room, waiting for Old Man Uxas to leave his room, before the two of them left the house and headed to open the Café Entwine for the day, locking the door to the small two-story mansion in one of the normal neighbourhoods of Tingen City.