Mastore 139 - Dumpster

Magic Realm Convenience Store – Ch. 139

Regular customer assembly (2)

I agree with what Chihuahua said to some extent. Why the hell did this damn gate have to appear right in front of my workplace, where I haven't even received my first paycheck and start wreaking havoc?

The reason I didn't say this out loud was wondering what meaning there would be in asking anyone. If I were lucky enough to commune with the gods of this world later, I could whine at them about why they did this to me…

What can't be helped can't be helped. Might as well focus on the things I can help with. After finishing my statement, I waited for someone to speak for several seconds, and then Chihuahua spoke for the first time.

"If I help you, can I take a shit afterward?"

“I can't guarantee that, but if you don’t help out, your bathroom at home will probably stay underwater forever.”

“Fuck.”

And then there was silence. I decided to take it as agreement. Next was the gentleman Elder.

"My companion has a hobby of growing flowers, Boss."

“Huh? Flowers?”

“Yes. She was quite worried this morning, saying the flowers might wither if this weather continues.”

Gazing calmly at the dark clouds outside, Elder Wolf turned back to me and smiled gently.

"Since you seem to be trying to stop the rain, I'll also do my best as far as my strength allows."

What a romantic. Elena seemed to find them touching and began softly clapping while exclaiming ‘Waaah….’.

Then, as if snapping back to reality, she raised one hand timidly near her ear and spoke up.

“Um, Chan. If there’s anything you need, I'll also do what I can..."

"Don't feel pressured. I'll also only be doing what I can manage.”

"...Okay."

I responded gently to ease her worries, and she quietly nodded, lowering her gaze again. Considering how shy she usually was, even speaking up must’ve took lots of courage.

The officer, who had been staring at Elena, adjusted her police cap and turned to Noona.

“Ms. Yoonha. May I do as you requested earlier?”

“Yes. Please do exactly that.”

“What’s this about, Noona?”

"I asked him to watch over the store while we’re gone. Not everyone here can use magic, you know."

The current occupants of the store could be divided into two groups: those who could protect themselves and those who couldn’t. The former includes Manager, Noona, the Elder, and the officer.

The latter includes the Chihuahua, the succubus, the dog, and myself, four of us. Noona said that just a moment ago, she was planning to ask the Elder and the officer to take care of us four.

“Even if we try to get out of here now, there’s not much we can do besides getting swept away....”

Noona trailed off, listening quietly to the sound of the rain. I listened too. It seemed even heavier than before.

"...If we go out and it gets worse, we’ll be in real trouble. Better to stick together here."

"About that, um. Couldn't Manager-nim do something with magic?"

After all, she had literally teleported here. When I looked at him, Manager met my gaze and slowly shook his head.

"I’m only authorized to use magic nine times today, Chan-ah.”

“You mentioned earlier that you could be invincible seven more times.”

“Right. But after I use up those seven times, I'll just become an ordinary convenience store manager again.”

What is this, Magical Girl Manager?

“So I’ll leave this to the officer and follow Chan and Yoonha to help.”

“I can use magic too. To some extent.”

The officer interjected. She had already taken out a notebook from her back pocket, one with a completely different design from the notebook I had seen before.

Navy blue, with a large magic circle drawn on the cover.

"I’ll need this to cast properly, though…"

“Will that be alright?”

"Yes. This isn't a situation where I'm pursuing a fleeing suspect."

She seemed to imply that using magic wouldn’t be difficult since this wasn’t a tense scenario like sprinting and leaping over fences. As we talked, the space between my thumb and forefinger grew damp.

I looked down and saw Mongmong in my lap, licking my hand with all his might. I spoke to him.

“Let’s think later about what you can do too, Mongmong.”

"Huff, huff, huff."

"Did that lunatic get rainwater up his nose? Why the hell are you talking to a dog?"

"Why so grumpy? We might need to communicate with animals that don't understand our language..."

"If you can’t even understand the dog, what’s the damn point, shithead?"

I didn’t bother replying to that. Instead, I scratched my head and turned to Noona.

“Noona. Looks like we’ve got everyone’s agreement roughly sorted….”

"Yeah."

“But what do we do now?”

* * *

This seemed like territory where an expert needed to step in. At my question, Noona paused, then shot Chihuahua a look of sheer exasperation and asked.

“What is your name?”

"The fuck? You want me to sign a petition or something? Why’s my name matter?"

"Fine then. You seem good with computers, any chance you can contact the Magic Bureau in 10 minutes?"

"No, how the fuck am I supposed to make contact when there's no signal, shit. Unless you get me a carrier pigeon or some shit…"

“Oh, for fuck’s sake."

At that moment, Yoonha seemed ready to throw her shoe at him. Thankfully, Manager intervened at just the right time.

"If I could solve the signal issue, even a little, could you make contact then?"

"And how do you plan to do that?"

“I brought something just in case, something the Magic Bureau staff use to contact each other.”

With that, Manager pulled a small magic stone from his pocket. The color wasn’t much different from other magic stones I had seen, but its surface was far smoother.

"It's for emergency contact, only usable between Magic Bureau personnel. Would that help?"

It must be something like a high-performance magic pocket Wi-Fi or something. Or maybe a radio that can only transmit and receive radio waves. Chihuahua eyed the stone for a second, then immediately spoke.

"Code."

"This one’s A3FK9027."

“Just a minute.”

He flipped open his laptop, placed it on his knees, and started typing furiously that the laptop monitor started shaking.

About ten seconds later, he suddenly addressed Manager.

“Hey, pipsqueak. These bastards are all hogging the lines with their damn calls right now."

“Yes.”

“I’m cutting it off once.”

He announced this without a shred of hesitation and hit Enter, then looked up at me, pointing at the laptop's side socket with his claw.

“Plug in your phone cable.”

I didn't have one on hand, but I remembered seeing one floating in the floodwater near the snack aisle. I rushed over, ripped open the packaging, and plugged one end into my phone and the other into his laptop’s port.

"It'll connect to the Magic Bureau operator now. Say what you need to say."

“Already?”

“Fuck, would I say it’s ready if it wasn’t?”

How does someone this skilled live with getting tormented by a Beagle boss at work?

The question crossed my mind, but I figured I'd ask later. As I raised the phone to my ear while the call was connecting, I asked the Chihuahua another question.

"It feels ridiculous to ask after requesting your help, but is this really okay?"

"As long as that cop doesn't put handcuffs on me."

This would indeed violate telecommunications security laws. I subtly glanced toward Officer Iruel, who lightly tapped her head with her baton and answered casually.

"This is an emergency situation. We'll discuss it at the station later."

"What?"

“The seolleongtang there is quite good.”

Chihuahua made a face like he had bitten into a poop just as the call connected. Perhaps because they were using an emergency network line they share among themselves, I heard a voice immediately without any automated message.

[Yes, I've answered the call. Which department are you calling from?]

A woman's voice, polite but slightly flustered. Since the Chihuahua just forcibly disconnected their lines, she had probably been cut off from another call just moments ago.

Using an emergency channel like this, an external call would obviously seem suspicious. So...

"I'm not actually with the Magic Bureau, but..."

[Pardon?]

"...This is Professor Deckard, currently serving as an advisor for the emergency committee. I am contacting with a magic stone borrowed from an employee of the Magic Bureae accompanying me.”

[Professor Decard. Confirmed.]

My improvised lie seemed to work. The guy who volunteered to be my supervisor should be able to clean up this rookie's mess.

However, now that I had introduced myself as a professor, any extended conversation would quickly become risky in terms of credentials. It seems best to just state my business...

[What can I help you with, Professor?]

“…Well.”

I removed the phone from my ear and looked toward Yoonha, who promptly provided the key points.

"Tell them we've located the core gate, give the coordinates, say we've got a little over two hours until natural dissipation. Request budget allocation and ask the Hunter Association for backup as soon as they have personnel available."

"Anything else?"

“They’ll take care of the rest.”

After I had relayed everything as Noona had listed, I waited for a response. After a brief pause and the sound of typing, the woman answered hesitantly.

[You’ve… found the core gate. Should I pass this along exactly as you've stated?]

"Yes. The situation is urgent, so I would appreciate prompt processing."

The tone suggested disbelief, but I hung up with the attitude of ‘believe it or not, do as you will’. At least now that I've reported it, they can't say I handled things recklessly.

"This bastard's a real artist at selling out other people's names."

"Whatever. Thank you anyway."

"Save your thanks and unclog my damn toilet first. And hey, pipsqueak."

"Yes? What is it, Customer?"

"Going to use the magic stone a bit more."

With that, the Chihuahua took his laptop and the magic stone in each hand and went to a corner.

I'm not sure what he intends to use it for, but I decided to understand it as erasing traces of the cut line. That's what they all do in movies.

"Noona. Anywhere else we need to call?"

"Nope. We've reported it, so that's that... Miss Elena?"

“Yes? ...Ah. Yes!”

Perhaps because Noona looked more like a model than anything else, Elena became very nervous and straightened her posture when called. Noona's sociability really is inhumane.

"It's a shame about the situation. Normally we would introduce ourselves properly and chat about all sorts of things..."

"Yes. Yes..."

“But we need a few magic potions. Could you help us out?”

* * *

Elena opened her swimsuit bag and dumped all its contents onto the table in front of the show window. Various shaped flasks and stands, a bag containing over a dozen reagent bottles arranged like crayons, a tripod, bundles of herbs, and so on.

Perhaps because it was such an out-of-place sight for a convenience store, all the customers except the Chihuahua gathered around. This made Elena shrink her shoulders and curl up smaller.

“....”

How could I help relieve her tension? I was trying to think of a way, but Manager spoke first with a tone of slight admiration.

"Wow, this is incredibly professional for a hobby. You don’t use a scale?"

"Ah... Yes! I've gotten used to adjusting quantities without tools, so I don't carry them anymore."

"Right, right, once you’re used to it, it just takes up bag space. You must’ve made a lot of these."

"D- Does it show?"

“A bit. I studied this briefly a long time ago myself.”

Elena clasps her hands together as if embarrassed, but I wonder if she could remain merely shy knowing Manager is a former great magician. Isn't this sort of an acknowledgment from Manager?

After chatting briefly, she seemed to relax a bit and looked up at Noona and me to ask:

"Um... but what kind do you need?"

“Good question. Noona, since we're going into the sewers, wouldn’t it be useful to have something for underwater?”

"It’d help. If the sewers are flooded, an hour’s worth should be plenty to get out."

"That exists? Like growing gills?”

"Ah, gills are illegal, so I can't make that.. I’d have to pay a fine.”

Apparently, there had been a huge uproar years ago over racial discrimination involving crustacean kobolds, and the world nearly went nuts. In this world, just when things start to make sense, something incomprehensible always pops up.

"Still... I think I can make a substitute."

"You breathe differently than through gills?"

“Yes, Chan. It’s a potion you spray into your nasal passages. After taking it... um..."

She explained somewhat haphazardly that it creates magic air bubbles that act as oxygen tanks inside the lungs, ensuring there's no problem supplying oxygen to the body even without breathing. The effect lasts for 30 minutes per dose.

I didn't really understand despite listening, so I stayed quiet. After a while, Manager muttered in a tone that was a bit more impressed than before.

"Even I have trouble making this..."

“You, Manager-nim?”

"Yeah. Miss Elena, can you make anything else?"

To Manager's question, Elena answered with a voice full of enthusiasm.

"Just tell me what you need! I've gotten pretty much all the relevant certifications!"




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