The Wanderer

CHAPTER 5-A NEW LIFE BEGINS

The physician also tells him to meet one of his old acquaintances upon his arrival there. It said, this person is in charge of the astronomy division in the magistrate's office. Maybe this friend of his can help Haruto. Then Haruto decided to go to the capital city the next day. Maybe there, he will find what he needs. In short, he arrived at the capital city, which was called “Fuku'an-Jō/Fú'ān-Chéng (Fu'an-City)”. Then he went to the magistrate's office to find the astronomy division after asking someone for directions. A moment later, he met this person, an old man. Not many people knew this old man's background or even his name. They only know this old man, usually called the “Old-Guan”. They say that every time he focuses on and observes the sky (sun, moon, stars, etc.), he becomes so obsessed that he can do so for many hours without eating or drinking. From then on, they called him Old-Guan. Afterward, Haruto told the Old-Guan about the purpose of meeting him and also the whole story, even though Haruto didn’t even know if Old-Guan would believe him or not. However, Haruto was wrong. The Old-Guan actually believed in his story.

Haruto: “So can you help me, Old-Guan?? I want to go back home…”

Old-Guan: “I'll try... I haven't seen a case like this before, but I'll do my best.”

Haruto: “No problem… Just do your best. Currently, only you can help me…”

So Haruto entrusted his personal problem to Old-Guan, but he also told Old-Guan not to tell anyone. However, life must go on. While he waits for Old-Guan, he has to stay in the capital city to find a job and a place to live. Since he was new to this capital city, he asked Old-Guan for a job recommendation. However, Old-Guan was quite a weird person, so he didn't have many friends or even connections to help Haruto. But he did know, recently, a constable division at the magistrate's office wanted to hire some constables. Maybe Haruto could try there, Old-Guan said. Luckily, Old-Guan’s nephew was working in the constable division as the constable head, so Old-Guan said to just mention his name, and his nephew would help Haruto to pass the selection. Since Haruto didn't know what kind of job he could do here, he decided to give it a try. In short, Old-Guan’s nephew helped him, and coincidentally, he was quite fit for the role after they considered it. They give him a 3-month trial first. In the magistrate's office, they have a dormitory for the constable who comes from another town or city. Haruto can stay there, too. A few months later, after he became a constable, his language had improved. His fellow constables knew that he was not a Shou citizen. They just don't know he was time-traveling from another place, another era. They just knew that he must be from another foreign country that somehow ended up in the Shou empire, based on his talking style. Even though he spoke their language quite fluently, his accent was still quite different compared to theirs. Not only that, his katana sword and his martial arts sword skills were completely different from what they recognized. Even so, they still treat him like their own; only a small part of them do not like him. However, he didn't care. His priority was to quickly find a way to go back to his home, not to stay there for the rest of his life. For those few months, he helped them solve several criminal cases, including two major ones. Not only that, but he was also very skilled at confronting criminals, such as robbers and bandits. Most criminals couldn't escape his grasp. That's why his constable fellows thought that he must be a highly skilled swordsman before, in his hometown. However, none of them knows the truth as he did not tell them either. He thought that even if he told them the story, they wouldn't believe it, so he decided to keep it for now. The Song dynasty martial arts from the fellows, as he thought it would be useful for him to survive in this era. And for the feedback, he also taught his fellows some martial arts techniques from his country. This is the way he socialized with them. Three weeks after he joined, they received a big case involving a thief who stole from a high-ranking officer's house, and the last time he stole was at the imperial palace, where the emperor lives. That's why the emperor had the local magistrate make this a top priority. Several times when they wanted to catch him, he always got away. This thief was very hard to catch because he only moved at midnight or after. That's why it was so hard to predict when he would appear. He can always escape freely. Since then, the citizens there have given the thief a nickname called “the flying-cat”.