9 AMBER, THE WOMAN IN PANTS

"Good morning, Amber!" greeted May when she saw Amber walk downstairs. "Do you have any plans for today?"

"Yeah! I'm going to look around and see if I can find something interesting."

"Then, I hope you'll have a great day!"

Amber just waved her hand and went out of the inn. As soon as she stepped out, she saw a man pushing a cart with four baskets of apples. Although he was using a cart, because of the heavyweight and the gravity making things hard for him, he was still panting as he pushed the wooden cart toward the market.

"Do you need help?" Amber asked with her hands behind her. "Though you have a cart, it seemed really heavy."

"No, but thank you for offering. I can handle this."

"I think it would be quicker if I help. I'm on my way to the market, anyway."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah!" Amber said and lifted one of the baskets full of apples.

The man was so shocked by her action because he thought that Amber planned to help him push the cart, not carry the basket with both arms. By the time he returned to his senses, Amber was already walking ahead of him.

"Tell me which stall is yours," Amber told the man as she waited for him to catch up with her. "If you feel tired pushing the cart, I can also help you with that, but the handle is pretty small," she added while ignoring the stares that people threw at her.

She knew she was strange in their eyes, so she didn't bother herself to change.

Not long after, they arrived at the man's fruit stand. "You can put that basket over here," he said while pointing to the vacant spot next to the basket of mangoes.

"Here you go," Amber muttered and placed the basket on the ground. "If you ever need help again, just let me know."

"I'm very grateful for your help. Will you please take this as my compensation?"

Amber took the paper bag and checked what was inside. There were apples and peaches inside it. "Life is hard and I know that you don't earn much from just selling fruits. I'll take one apple instead."

"But - "

"Don't worry, I won't ever take this against you. I helped you on my own accord." The man scratched the back of his head not knowing what to do. "How about you give this to other people who need them the most?"

"O-okay. I'll do that. I'm Eric, by the way."

"Call me Amber," she said and waved her hand to leave.

System: "You've helped 1 person. Help more people to get points."

The announcement made Amber look for another person who might need her help. Then, she saw a child who stumbled while chasing after her brother. She just helped the child to stand up and chase after her brother when the system announced it was another successful case.

It was at that time that she realized whether she helped them big time or not, it would still be counted as help.

From that point onward, people saw Amber everywhere. She helped someone polish a shoe, fix a broken window, hang laundry to dry, trim flowers, paint walls, sell veggies and fruits, catch fish, and just do every little thing she could to help.

In just one day, her name was spread all over the outer town – Amber, the woman in pants.

They totally forgot about her words yesterday because of all the good things she did for the townsfolk. In fact, some of the nobles heard her name as well, but they didn't pay attention to her because she came from the outer town. No matter how great she was for being helpful, it didn't matter to the nobles.

[Let's call it a day and just help people on the way back.] Amber thought while helping Mrs. Petra, an old lady about fifty years old, to keep some of the vegetables that she was unable to sell. She saw the not-so-green leafy vegetables on the basket and knew that they won't be sold anymore the next day. Wondering what she should do, she remembered previous Amber's memories.

Compared to her who lived a happy life on Earth before her death, the other Amber didn't have the same privilege as her. Thinking that other kids might suffer the same fate as her because of stealing food and running away from the dogs, she decided to buy the vegetables.

"What are you going to do with all of these veggies?" asked the old woman while putting the vegetables inside a paper bag. "You won't be able to finish all of this in one night. They will be bad by tomorrow."

Amber leaned closer and whispered to the old woman, "I'm going to help others with this."

"Why would you do that? They are not your responsibility. The kingdom doesn't even care!" Mrs. Petra retorted after looking left and right to make sure that no one heard them. "Don't poke your nose into their well-being."

"Mrs. Petra, have you heard something about me yesterday?"

"Like what?"

"Like a rude woman who thinks so highly of herself while looking down on parents who sold their kids?" Mrs. Petra didn't nod her head or deny the statement because Amber was aware that people must have heard about her rudeness already. "In my previous town, we had this thing called 'Bayanihan'. It's an act of helping one another to survive. If a family doesn't have much food to eat, the other families will give one fruit or vegetable to them. In that way, they will have something to eat while the parents work to support their future needs. No one goes to sleep with an empty stomach. It was the reason why I acted that way yesterday. I thought everyone is doing the same thing as us because that was what they instilled in our minds since we were young."

Hearing her words, Mrs. Petra didn't know what to say. It was the first time they ever heard of such a thing. "So, this is why you are helping us?"

"Hn. I just want to follow the values that my parents taught me. So, if the kingdom will hate me for this, at least, I helped someone, right?"

Mrs. Petra just agreed with her in silence while putting in more vegetables than Amber paid for. What the lady said to her was an eye-opener and she wanted to help even in the tiniest way possible.

On her way to the slum area where the poorest families live, Timothy watched her in silence. Regis told him to get something from the noble's district and on his way back to the kingdom, he heard about the strange woman who arrived in town yesterday. She was the only woman they ever saw wearing pants and curiosity got the best of him, so he decided to take a short detour and find this woman.

It didn't take long for him to know where she was but he didn't expect that she would be talking about the kingdom's policies with someone else. She was even saying something about 'Bayanihan' which was an unfamiliar word to him.

Timothy thought she was just faking her kindness, but to his surprise, she really went to the slum area to help the families there.