Mastore 77 - Dumpster

Magic Realm Convenience Store – Ch. 77

Your Name

First off, the bear in front of me was definitely a bear. My instincts were pretty clear on that.

It wasn’t like some wild bear had just burst in, though. This bear was wearing a rugged fishing vest on top and cargo military pants below, and even without a belt, the waistband was about to burst—

“Don’t avoid my gaze.”

“Yes…”

"I'm asking for the third time. Are you Lee Chan?"

I answered reflexively.

"No, this is Patrick Star?"

(I think this was reference to Spongebob scene. The one that Patrick work as the cashier.)

Right now, being Lee Chan felt like a very bad idea. After hearing my answer, he took something out of his pants and put it on his eyes. It was glasses.

"I'm going to check your ID now..."

“Mine?”

“If the name written there isn’t Patrick Star, I’ll let you know exactly what happens to people who lie to me.”

In this Isekai, customers are checking the clerk IDs!

I knew how unreasonable this was. His rudeness was off the charts, so much so that other customers around him were frozen in place, intimidated by this overwhelming display.

Only one person dared to point this out, and that person was Manager.

"Customer, I see you came here through Yoonha."

"...Yes, but are you this punk's superior?"

"Yes, that's right."

The bear's height was roughly 250cm, Manager about 160cm. Because of the bear’s overwhelming height, she had to crane her neck all the way back to look at him, but her face stayed as bright as ever.

But her words were anything but bright.

"So, could you please stop referring to my employee as 'this punk' and 'you'?"

“... ....”

“He’s a valuable employee of mine, you know.”

And that, right there, is exactly the right way to handle a bear. Make eye contact and let the bear feel a little threatened in return.

The well-known method of playing dead is more like a second-worst option when you absolutely can't use this method. If you encounter a bear, just stare at it. Even if you say that a hundred times, how many people can actually do it?

But Manager could. And damn good at it too.

For a moment, Manager's face actually seemed scarier than the bear's. Maybe I feel this way because I've only seen her smiling face usually.

The bear must have felt something, too, because after a beat, he gave her a small nod and said,

“You’ve got guts.”

"I hear that often."

“If your employee here had even half your guts, we would be in a much better place.”

I should be reborn as an elephant or hippopotamus next life, if only to avoid this unfairness.

"So... I'm asking for the fourth time. Is your name Lee Chan?"

“Well, that would be me, but....”

"I'm this kind of person."

With that, the bear took out a business card case from the same pocket as his glasses and handed me a card. I took it and gave it a quick look-over.

[Salmon Hunter Office, Director Bell]

How is the office name Salmon?

Seeing the card, I immediately understood why he had come looking for me and how we were connected. This bear was the director of the office where Noona worked.

And he also happens to be the actual owner of that corporate account I drained dry. I thought we would meet face to face someday, but I didn't expect him to come looking for me himself.

"If you still play dumb after seeing this... our next meeting will be at the district court."

"Please don’t. I understand, I get it, so—"

I asked right away if we could talk outside separately.

“Chan. is this something I shouldn't hear?"

"Well, that's..."

To be honest, Manager was exactly the person who should be hearing this conversation. I just didn’t want her to.

The only people connected to this convenience store are two of us: Noona, who handles supplies, and me, the one at the counter.

But Noona can't properly deliver supplies because she's working overtime on this issue, and I'm about to get caught up in a civil lawsuit. If this went sideways, we would be looking at empty shelves and an empty counter.

If Manager found out about this, she would definitely burst a blood vessel and end up in the emergency room. I wanted to avoid that scene, so I tried to resolve this quietly without her knowing...

"Why should I accommodate your convenience?"

"Well, we could chat outside, enjoy the weather, talk about the state of the world—"

"I have no interest in discussing the state of the world with you punk."

Looks like he still had quite a grudge against me. There didn’t seem to be much I could do about it.

"...Manager, I’ll explain what happened once he leaves."

"Then I’ll just listen from side."

“Okay.”

I just hope this doesn't drag on too long. Because customers were putting their items back down and leaving, thanks to the bear standing firm at the counter.

The bear noticed too, and after glancing around the store, he let out a huff and said,

"I’ll keep this as brief as possible. The fault here lies with you, not your superior."

“Thank you....”

“To start with the obvious, our office incurred a loss of 870,000 won that day."

That's three months' rent. Isn't this an exaggeration? Is there evidence?

There was. The bear director took out his smartphone, tapped a few times and showed it to me - it was message history. It was a text message history. Most of the history was about penalty payments for breach of contract.

"Do you know what sort of work our office handles and how it operates?"

"No, I don’t."

"We fulfill contracts from the government, public offices, or private outsourcing for dealing with magical beasts, demons, gate occurrences, illegal magic, and other difficult-to-handle matters. We keep our scale moderately discrete."

I understand that magical beasts, demons, and such are the main work of hunters in this world. I also know that it sounds like a whole new world to me, a civilian.

“Most of our work happens sporadically and at short notice. People using illegal magic or gates don’t exactly announce their schedules for us."

"Sounds similar to responding to fire emergencies."

“I use that analogy a lot, too. Especially since it also grows exponentially if not dealt with quickly."

The difference is that there are way more incidents than there are fire emergencies responses. So although work hours are irregular, the pay is solid, or so he says.

“If only you punk hadn’t caused the accident, we would have definitely made money that day.”

"So... what should I do?"

“Let me finish. Because the operating account was frozen that day, we had to pay penalties for three contracts scheduled for the morning. Each penalty was 20% of the contract fee, totaling 870,000 won.”

“My paycheck comes at the end of the month, you know?”

“Even if you pay me, I have no intention of accepting it. And even if I did, it wouldn’t come close to covering the lost credibility from the unfulfilled contracts.”

However, credit isn't visible, and it can't be clearly proven, so he didn’t plan to make me pay for that directly.

Instead, this bear demanded something else in place of money.

“You’re going to work for my office. Twice.”

“Why twice?”

"Because our office staff's average daily revenue is around 450,000. The excess 30,000... do you like jjajangmyeon?"

I do.

"Then I'll cover your meals and transportation. Though I tried to keep it brief..."

He glanced sideways at Manager and added.

“If your superior here doesn’t agree, this conversation might go on a bit longer.”

Manager couldn't be happy hearing him openly say he's going to take her employee to do their work. That's why I couldn't even look at Manager's face.

As I stubbornly kept looking straight ahead, Manager answered quietly.

"If Chan wants to do it, I won't mind."

To my ears, this sounded like 'if you say you don't want to do it, then I'll start minding.' As soon as I heard this, I knew what I had to answer.

"I'll do it."

"Good. Then right now—"

"If you'll agree to a few conditions."

When I said this, I could see the bear's eyebrows contort.

“You’re hardly in a position to be making demands.”

"These are necessary."

From 10 p.m. to 10 a.m., I absolutely have to be at this convenience store manning the counter. I made that commitment to Manager.

So, I won’t be working outside those hours. After explaining that, I added one more condition: I’ll do the work, but I’ll choose the tasks.

"If it's something that takes a month to finish, I won't do it. I won't do anything that'll wreck my health, and nothing shady, either.”

It's not that I'm worried about getting involved in crime. Noona wouldn't work at that kind of office.

My point was that there should be no changing terms halfway through. When I was on a business trip here and there for work, there are more than one or two times when I was pushed around by the boss saying, ‘There's another store nearby, so you should go there while you're at it’.

I don't want to come all the way to another world just to face power harassment over unwanted work. So I want clear notice of when and how the work will end.

“I don’t think I’m asking for too much. In fact, I think it's quite reasonable."

"You're saying you want to pick and choose your work, but do you think you deserve such treatment?"

No idea. Not even sure if assigning yourself some kind of ‘value’ matters anyway. I’m just doing what I’m told.

"Didn't you come here after talking to Yoonha noona? About how I good at my job?"

That must be why he came in person. Though I still don't even understand half of why I'm valued this way...

Since I’m already being hyped up, I might as well put on some air. If it gets me in trouble later when the bluff’s revealed, then that’ll be a problem for later and I just need to secure enough now to make it worth getting crushed for, right?

If they can't even agree to this, well... I guess I'll be making my first court appearance in my life.

I must be spouting every line I can to defend my position at the counter. While thinking this and looking at the bear's face, his fangs were fully visible. He looked determined to chew me up, tear me apart, taste me, and spit me out.

"...When I first heard about you punk from Yoonha..."

"Yes."

"Honestly, I was surprised. It was the first time I heard the Deputy Director praise someone like that."

I guess not. Wait, Noona's the deputy director?

“Of course, regardless of ability, I don’t hire anyone who lacks the guts. Hunters like that usually don’t last long.”

“Then wouldn’t it be better not to hire me, don’t you think?”

“That’s what I thought up until now…”

He put his glasses away and glanced at Manager, adding,

“Listening to you, I don’t think so anymore. Conditional as it is.”

“What kind of ‘conditional’?”

“You don’t have to know. I’ll write up the contract as you’ve specified, and I’ll send it through Yoonha. Is that acceptable?”

"Yes. Since we're on the topic, is Noona still working overtime today?"

“She is, but this should be the last day.”

Thanks to the early end of disinfection, it seems noona's overtime will end early too. Just as the bear was about to leave, he turned back and asked me,

“By the way, you sell energy drinks in bulk?”

"They're right there in the back."

We have two boxes today. When I pointed, he turned around, grabbed both boxes, and presented his card.

After I rang him up and returned the card, he held both boxes in one hand and bowed to Manager.

“I apologize for any trouble I’ve caused.”

“It’s all good now. And actually, I’ve been curious about something myself.”

"Please ask."

“The way you were mad at Chan at first—it seemed like there might have been another reason behind it?”

I thought I deserved whatever punishment I got for this incident, but still. At Manager's question, the bear hesitated briefly before answering.

"Due to the contract breach, my office staff took some abuse from clients."

“Aha.”

“So, I was angry on their behalf, as their representative. It’s an excuse, but there it is.”

“I get it. I’ve been in similar situations.”

"Thank you. And you... I'll make sure the staff won't harass you over this, so don't worry too much."

Not that I was planning to worry about it. It's true that I did something that deserved to be cursed at.

With these final words, the bear bowed and left through the front door, and I shared my impressions about him with Manager.

"The bear turned out to be a nice person."

“Seems like it.”

Considering how he made Noona work overtime, I thought he would be super conservative, but after meeting him in person, I start thinking there must have been reasons for that too. I probably should’ve asked him more about it.

"And, um..."

I was about to explain what exactly I did to get myself into this mess, but Manager beat me to it.

"Chan don't need to explain. After hearing everything, I think I understand what happened."

“...Is that so?”

"I understand why Chan did it too."

So, there’s only one thing for me to say.

“I’m sorry, Manager-nim.”

When something you tried to keep under wraps comes to light, there’s only one thing to do in social life: bow your head and accept whatever’s coming your way.

Even if I say that I did it because I didn't want to worry Manager, it's just a story in my head. It would clearly sound like an excuse made up on the spot to avoid immediate scolding.

So I just apologized. Whether this becomes an official warning, results in a pay cut, or extra shifts, I'm prepared to accept it. After a moment, the manager spoke.

“It’s okay since I know.”

“Yes?”

“Even if I don’t say anything, Chan will blame himself.”

That's true. Manager did tell the bear earlier, didn't she? Because I'm a valuable employee, don't call me 'this punk' or 'that punk.'

But here I am, a ‘valuable employee’ who didn’t do what he was supposed to and just poked and poked at Manager’s patience. Personally... I think this incident will stay with me for a while.

“This doesn’t mean I’m letting it go. I almost ended up very lonely, you know, and I almost didn’t get to see Yoonha either.”

“Then what should I do?”

“Just… next time you’re wondering if you should hide something or not, go with ‘don’t hide it.’ And we’re done with this.”

Shouldn't this be where she tells me not to cause more trouble...

I was about to ask but stopped myself. If the superior says drop it, then you drop it.

“Chan-ah. Just hypothetically, what would Chan do if some easy job came up right at 10 p.m.?”

"I wouldn't do it. I need to man the counter."

“Don’t do that. Let’s change our shift then. Chan should finish it quickly so he can work with peace of mind later.”

"You don't have to go that far..."

“Hush.”

This must be some kind of employee welfare thing or something.

She said various other things too, like absolutely don't do anything that'll harm your health, ask Yoonha Noona for details about the work before doing it, and so on.

If I had been wearing a suit, she probably would’ve fixed my tie too. After finishing what she had to say, she changed into her uniform, gathered her things, and said finally:

"See you tomorrow morning, Chan."

“Yes, take care, Manager-nim.”

And then she left. I haven't even started the work yet, but I already want to collapse.

Still, thinking I should finish my tasks before passing out, I counted cigarettes and printed receipts, and checked for any empty spots on the shelves to restock when the front door bell rang.

I figured I should just ring up their purchases when they're done shopping, but... why did the bell only ring once?

The door hadn’t shut. In this world, leaving the door open is just asking for trouble. A passing minotaur could easily smash the door in a fit of anger.

I don't like bugs getting in either, so I came right out to the front to close the door, but... no...

"......"

“Wel... Welcome, Customer-nim.”

"......"

"......"

Customers had arrived. Skeletons.



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