Mastore 85 - Dumpster

Magic Realm Convenience Store – Ch. 85

The drug that carries love (5)

I was dumbfounded for about 20 seconds when Manager asked this.

After sitting there blankly and sold a pack of cigarettes, this was the answer I managed to pull out of my mouth.

“What if I take the drug twice? Maybe my inner and outer selves could communica—"

[Chan, is self-splitting possible?]

“Something like that, won't it work somehow if I try hard enough?"

[Even if it’s possible, I hope Chan doesn’t do that...]

I don't want to split my mind in two either. However, it's also true that I couldn't think of any other way right now.

No, really, what am I supposed to do? Wear a sign on my body and run out and say let's love each other for a little while? Grabbing just anyone?

I don't know what the difference is between this guy and someone who just escaped from a mental hospital. Luckily, Manager was calm.

['A potion that makes two people in love become honest with each other,' that's what they said.]

“Yes.”

[Then, what should be the standard for how much they love each other?]

"Standard?"

[To put it simply, I'm asking whether the drug only works if they love each other very much, or if it works even with just a little love.]

I had no idea. I hadn't even thought of asking such questions, and even if I had, I probably wouldn't have bothered asking. But considering marketability...

"Um... I think it would be better if it worked with just a little love..."

If you make a drug targeted at couples who’ve been together a year, it can still be used by couples who’ve been together for ten years. But if you target it at ten-year couples, one-year couples won’t be able to use it.

I think that in order to sell it to many couples, it makes sense to lower the usage restrictions as much as possible. After answering, I immediately asked something that came to mind.

“But, Manager-nim, is there even a standard for measuring how much or little love is?"

[I don’t think there is, but the marketing team at that pharmaceutical company would’ve had to figure something out. If they didn’t set a standard, it could be considered false advertising.]

I thought about why that would count as false advertising, and then it clicked. Imagine that there could be claims like, ‘We're in love, so why doesn't the drug working? Are you saying we need to love each other more?'

[And as Chan said, the lower the standard, the more people it can sell to. So they probably set it as low as possible. But how low is that?]

How am I supposed to know what the minimum standard for love is?

To me, love was just that thing everyone else managed to do but I couldn’t. Still, after forcing myself to think about it, something did come to mind.

“Uh… maybe just having a crush?”

I think love can start in all sorts of ways.

A young master who got slapped might fall into something like love saying ‘You're the first woman to hit me’, or someone might fall in love with the nurse who treated them when they were dying from a gunshot...

Whatever the case, I believe love can’t exist without some level of mutual affection. If love exists only on one side, that's not love but obsession. And if neither side has it, that's out of the question entirely.

[I think so too. Love starts when both people feel some affection for each other.]

“But, Manager-nim. If the potion works with just a little affection, wouldn’t that cause its own set of problems…?”

[It won't? As far as I know, you need a prescription to buy the drug anyway. From a psychiatrist.]

I tried imagining a new couple holding hands as they walked into a psychiatry clinic together, but I couldn’t. Couples who just started dating probably wouldn't choose a psychiatric clinic as their date course.

[It's a bit roundabout, but here's the point. The love drug works as long as two people have mutual affection.]

In other words, I didn’t need to grab someone and force myself to fall in love with them. Affection. Just a positive feeling toward the other person would be enough.

The difficulty bars has dropped, but it's still hard. If I had to think of someone... um...

“Manag-”

[I like Chan too, but I won't help with that request.]

“I see....”

[Besides, I’m always honest with Chan, drug or not. I don’t lie at all, so it wouldn’t even work on me.]

It's a magic drug because it makes people speak honestly....

No. Manager is a magician. She must know how to avoid being affected by drugs.

[And Chan'll be honest with me too, regardless of the potion. Remember? Chan promised me.]

“Yes. I did promised.”

I already went through trouble once for hiding what happened with Noona, and I promised I wouldn't hide anything from Manager for a while. No need to take a truth serum just to prove it.

[Looking at how things are going, I think consulting with that succubus would be right... what do Chan think?]

I agreed. Giving it to anyone outside the involved parties would count as a security breach. But if you ask whether I have positive feelings for that succubus, uh...

Honestly, our first meeting was a disaster.

Still, if I ignore that and just focus on today, she agreed to all my requests. She’s going to bring the potion, work here, everything. Sure, maybe it was just work for her, but she didn’t even complain once.

Bottom line is, I didn't dislike her. So that must mean I like her.

"I'm fine with it. The question is what she thinks."

Realistically, if you lined me up next to her, anyone would see a monkey and its trainer Especially in terms of facial features.

Unless she feels pity for how I was born, it's hard to even jokingly say she might have positive feelings for me. Here, Manager paused for a moment.

[I think that part will be fine, but...]

"Well, whatever. Can't be helped. It's work."

[...Well, it should be fine...]

It sounded like she was holding back something she wanted to say, but I didn’t press. There must be a reason she's not saying it.

[Anyway, Chan need to explain this well. Chan know that all this is asking too much of her, rught?]

“Yes.”

I'm asking her to take a new drug that hasn't even gone through clinical trials. It might be fine for me since I’ve got a constitution that can handle weird stuff, but that succubus isn’t like me. There's a possibility of 'psychological side effects.'

I could probably erase those side effects. I know from experience that I can touch someone and erase magic from their body.

But I can’t erase the fact that she experienced those side effects in the first place. This is essentially like giving someone a disease just to cure it.

"Will those side effects be severe?"

[It won't be that bad. If they were severe, they wouldn’t have even proposed the Phase 1 clinical trial. Still, uh… make sure to reassure her, okay?]

“Got it.”

[Anything else Chan want to ask?]

I was going to ask about the best way to reassure her but decided against it. That seems like something I'll have to figure out when the time comes. Instead, I asked something else.

“…Do you mind me doing this?”

[Doing what?]

“Not focusing on the convenience store and taking on a side job like this.”

[We already finished discussing that.]

“Still.”

From Manager's perspective, it probably isn't pleasant having someone who takes her money openly asking about and seeking advice for other work. At least, that’s how I would feel.

After a moment of silence, Manager spoke, her voice a little calmer.

[...Chan. Do you know what my daily routine is like?]

“You probably spend 12 hours working at the counter, but I don’t know about the rest.”

[After I clock out and go home, I crack open a can of beer. Watch some TV. Sometimes I just lie in bed doing nothing, staring at the ceiling, scrolling through my smartphone.]

"You should get some fresh air sometimes."

[I thought about it, but once my head hits the pillow, it’s like my head and the pillow are glued together….]

“Haha….”

I laughed because it was funny. I could imagine Manager lying lazily in bed, debating whether to go out for fresh air.

[Before Chan came, I was at the convenience store 24 hours a day. If I got bored after working for days straight, I would lock up for a bit to grab a coffee, chat with Yoonha or something….]

“That… must’ve been rough.”

[It wasn't. But still... it was lonely. Sure, this is the life I wanted, but the problem was that I got exactly what I wanted. Every day, every week, month after month. Steadily.]

I like a stable life. I've lived an unstable life for half my life, and experienced too many shitty things because of it.

So while I couldn't easily empathize with Manager's words, I could understand them. After all, even I’ve gotten used to dealing with goblins, orcs, and elves being nuisances in this other world. I sometimes found myself silently praying they would stop coming.

[But then Chan came. I'm from a different world, I don’t know any magic, and I've never seen other species in my whole life. Why am I even here? While saying things like that.]

“That… Please understand. It’s not like I walked into the convenience store expecting the front door to be a portal to other world.”

[I'm not trying to say anything. It was just... fun.]

"Fun?"

[Thinking about the answers to the questions Chan asked back then. They were all things I was thinking about for the first time. Does another world really exist? Are there really no elves or orcs there? Things like that.]

Well, it does exist, and no, there aren’t any elves or orcs. That’s all there is to it.

[That's not all. My part-timer, who I thought was just an ordinary person from another world, turned out to have exceptional talent in anti-magic. Do Chan know how surprised I was when Chan talked about that constitution?]

“How surprised were you?”

[Surprised enough to drop the beer can I was holding! Ah, it was an empty can, so don't worry.]

"I was just about to.”

[I knew Chan would be. Anyway, I took the long way around again, but the point is... it's enjoyable.]

“....”

[Every day, for the first time in a long while.]

Talking to me every day, calling each other, seeing me deal with strange, surprising, and outlandish things while finding my footing.

She says all of that is enjoyable. Now I understand why Manager always replies to my messages without delay. Not because she's worried about the store...

She needed my replies just as much as I needed hers. I couldn’t bring myself to say that out loud, though.

[Even Yoonha says I’ve been smiling a lot more than I used to. Does it look that way to Chan too?]

"I don't know what you were like before, Manager-nim. You've always smiled at me."

[Is that so? Either way, I’m fine with Chan taking some days off the store to do side jobs. I like living with a smile.]

"Me too."

[Yeah. So... don't ask questions like 'don't you dislike what I'm doing?' I dislike that more.]

Got it. Won’t ask again.

Just as I was about to answer, a customer came in. An elf wearing a shabby fishing vest came straight to the counter and asked me.

“Where’s the butane gas?”

"Over there in the fourth aisle..."

I pointed toward it, but this yangban swayed on his feet right in front of me. Seeing him wobble while holding onto the counter, he seemed heavily drunk.

In this situation, it would be better to bring it myself rather than arguing, so I told Manager.

“Manager-nim. A customer came in. I’ll hang up now.”

[Okay. Ah, call me if there's any trouble.]

“…Yes.”

Call if there's trouble. This phrase was interpreted as meaning to end our casual conversation here. After hanging up, I went to the aisle where the butane gas was displayed, and there were four sealed together.

Without much thought, I ripped open the packaging and grabbed one to bring over. But as soon as the elf saw it, he got irritated.

"Not the single ones, I want the four-pack."

"Uh... I thought you wanted just one, so I opened the package."

“Ey, shit. Oi, convenience store dude. Who buys butane gas one at a time?"

For example, me.

But sensing he had grumble all day if I argued, I made the big decision to pack them in a recyclable bag and rang him up. Without charging for the bag.

Afterward, I sat down, waiting for something to happen. But the rest of the night stayed quiet, no problems at all.





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