Mastore 158 - Dumpster

Magic Realm Convenience Store – Ch. 158

Heavy front feet, light hind feet (3)

I've been watching this whole time to see him do the same thing he did with the giant octopus in the sewers against the Black Wind Gang.

But the situation didn't progress as I imagined. First of all, the Black Wind Gang who had been biting Doggy's tail and ears abruptly stopped their movements and sat down on the ground.

"I simply cannot understand. Do you find it so enjoyable to bully the weak and bite off their fur?!"

Mongmong moved his patched-up body where fur had been torn out everywhere, stamping on the ground in frustration, and even bit the front ankle of the Black Wind Gang...

“To the extent that you would make a living out of it?! The tyranny you are wielding is too much to be considered a struggle for survival. Look at my body. This, this... where did my fur go. I'm asking where did my fur go!"

He was stomping around Black Wind Gang’s legs while ranting like that. Judging from how disorganized his words were, it was clear his emotions had taken over logic.

In contrast, the Black Wind Gang remained impassive. Black Wind Gang underling A naturally answered Mongmong's question about where his fur went.

“Woof, woof.”

“That’s not what I was asking, obviously it’s in your stomach! So how did it taste then? Like cotton candy?! Mud?!"

"Woof."

"If you're going to say it has no taste anyway!! Why on earth did you bite off my fur!! At least say it tasted good!"

"Woof."

“It’s too late!!”

Watching this ridiculous excuse of a conversation, I thought about it. Noona called this a ‘command speech’, and Manager interpreted it as ‘maybe his sincerity got through’, but…

It's unlikely that Mongmong was really curious and asked about the taste of his fur just now. As I blinked at the spectacle, Hana tugged my sleeve again,

“Mister, why are the doggies acting wike that?”

"I don't know. How does it look to you, Hana?"

"Umm... it looks like they'we listening well."

They weren’t listening well. They just listens. True listeners would've apologized when asked about the missing fur.

That ‘too late’ remark probably came from expecting a line like ‘yeah, it was tasty’ in response to ‘you could’ve at least said it tasted good.’

I’m not sure if his ability was really a command speech or a sincere conversation, but it was clear that he was not handling that ability properly.

"Look at them! Sir Sapsaree you dragged here, the other three too! All trembling under your tyranny, unable to speak and can’t even speak!”

“.....”

The ability doesn't distinguish friend from foe.

It seems that because Mongmong said stop, the other four dogs besides the Black Wind Gang also froze in place. As for me, I just feel dumbfounded...

"...Hana. Don't you feel any urge to stop?"

"What feeling?"

“No. Just keep holding my hand."

"Un."

Maybe it was because I was holding her hand, but she didn’t seem affected by Mongmong’s word. It'll probably be clearer if I take my hand off, but I don't really feel like doing that.

As I continued watching, the situation escalated to catastrophe.

“Everyone’s turned mute like they’ve eaten honey! Or is it because I'm such an insignificant being?! Even at this moment, I'm nothing more than mere entertainment, is that it!"

Judging by this, Mongmong's thought processes seem to be melting under his ability's side effects.

If he just thought about it for a moment, he would immediately realize that the current situation isn't normal, but he doesn't even seem to have the luxury of that brief moment of thought.

“.....”

“Very well! Then this humble dog shall prove to you all that I am not someone to be taken lightly. Sir Black Wind Gang, form a proper line!”

At Mongmong's words, the Black Wind Gang and stray dogs gathered in a single file. Looking up at the one in the very front, he lowered his body and took a stance.

“The coward who has only trembled in fear until now will disappear as of today!”

"We should probably stop him now, Hana. Hold this bag for me."

"Eh... Un. Come back safely."

"Those moments you mocked me felt like eternity to this humble dog! Whenever you pinned my head to the ground and walked away, I had to brush off the dried sand from my nose with my front paw to swallow the humiliation! But now!!”

Front paws heavy, hind legs light.

He took up a battle stance so that he could pounce in at any moment, and muttered a line whose origin I don't know but sounded cool anyway, then closed his eyes tightly and muttered softly.

"A strong dog doesn't bark easily!"

"Woof."

"So I will speak no more. Come at me one by one! Even if my hide is torn to shreds, today I shall fight to the death—!”

Just before Mongmong could finish his sentence, I tapped him lightly on the head.

The moment my hand touched him, Mongmong came to his senses with a gasp and then the atmosphere of the Black Wind Gang standing in a row became chaotic.

They frantically looked around or sniffed with their noses, then looked up at me, all with expressions that seemed to say: why did this human who was just watching from a distance suddenly come here?

That's how it looked to me, anyway. Feeling somewhat awkward, I immediately took out my smartphone and launched the app I had installed earlier. A sound amplification app.

Then I played a video. A 30-minute video of fireworks exploding.

―Bang! Ratatat, sssssz. Boom—!

Dogs go crazy hearing these sounds. Dobermans in particular are born guard dogs with hearing far more sensitive than most.

"Kyaeng! Kyaeng, kyaeng!"

"Woof, woof! Ruff!"

At the sound of fireworks echoing throughout the park, the Black Wind Gang raised what little fur they had and began fleeing in all directions.

Some leapt two meters into the air, others buried their heads in the ground before springing up to stomp their feet. I tried to track where they ran off to, but a few vanished in the blink of an eye.

I kept my eyes on one mutt as it vanished past the lawn, and as it disappeared, I turned off the app and pinched my nose shut. My eardrums probably tore at least 2mm from that.

As I was blowing air into my pinched nose, Mongmong who had been trembling on the ground muttered.

"B... B- Boss. What was that sound just now...?"

"I'll explain later. The Black Wind Gang all ran away, so you can get up now."

When he showed no signs of moving despite my words, I picked him up to show him our surroundings. He just stared in the direction I turned his body, then curled his tail into a question mark.

"What... how did this happen?"

"I stepped in because it looked like big trouble was brewing. Man."

This guy was in the middle of saying ‘come at me one by one’. Had I left him to it, he would surely have had his remaining fur completely plucked out, becoming a cotton candy without the cotton.

So I stopped him, but now I’m wondering if I should explain what exactly happened or not.

While I hesitated, Mongmong stared at the gathering of Sapsaree, Malamute, Poodle and Jindo then muttered just one word.

"...What..."

Then he went completely limp in my arms. Same phenomenon as in the sewers. He passed out.

I gently pushed up his eyelid with my thumb, and seeing his black pupil rolled upward, it seemed he had fainted quite soundly. I stared for a moment, then returned to Hana.

She looked at the limp Mongmong in my arms and asked.

"Mister. Is Doggie sweeping?"

“Yeah. Hana, open the bag for a second. I need to pack this guy up.”

* * *

Sapsaree, Poodle, Malamute, Jindo.

These four followed timidly behind us as we left the park. I looked back a few times, and none of them took their eyes off the cloth bag Mongmong was in.

They probably think I'm going to eat him or something. When we reached the park entrance, I also felt uneasy, so I stopped for a moment and tried to talk to them.

“I’m not gonna eat him, you dogs. Can you stop following us already?”

"Keuung...."

Of course they didn’t understand. If we kept going like this, they were going to follow us all the way to the store….

"Dowgs."

Hana spoke up midway, rummaging through her backpack and taking out something again. It was bread, and there were quite a few varieties. Red bean, cream, and so on.

"I was saving these to ewt later with Mister and Unnie, but..."

"Kiing."

"Can I give them to the doggie? Mister?"

I told her to do as she pleased. Nodding, Hana unwrapped the bread and placed it on relatively clean ground. The dogs approached but only watched warily without eating.

"We gotta go, doggies."

“.......”

"So, can we twade this for Doggie?"

Whether they understood or not, the Malamute gave a soft bark.

“Woof.”

Only then did they all take the bread into their mouths and begin devouring it hastily. We left immediately and after walking for about 10 minutes, I asked Hana.

"Hana. Where'd that bread come from?"

"Um, I was keeping it secret from Mister, surpwise Mister when Mister got hungwy..."

"Aha."

"Doggies looked waaay hungwier. I'm sorry."

“No, it’s fine. The hungriest should eat.”

I was too drained from what happened earlier to put anything in my mouth anyway. I'm not even sure what exactly I witnessed today...

Without much more conversation, we walked for another twenty minutes and arrived at the store. There were still no customers inside, and only Manager was sitting alone at the register while munching on snacks.

Hearing the bell, she stood up to look at us, swallowed her snack and asked.

“Took you a while. Did you meet Mongmong okay?”

"We didn't exactly meet him well, but we did package him up nicely."

"Package?"

After placing the non-woven bag on the register, I pointed to Mongmong that had fallen asleep inside the bag and briefly explained what had happened earlier. This Mongmong had Mongmong’d things again.

"You mean he did that same thing we saw before?"

"Yes. But the process was a bit different."

Back in the sewer depths, the situation had gone something like this: we asked the octopus to ‘please stop', and upon hearing the request, the octopus stopped bothering us.

Back then, Manager, Noona, and the Elder had all been perfectly fine. Not like this time, turning everyone into stone statues without distinguishing friend from foe.

"That... in my opinion, it might be a matter of purposefulness."

"Purposefulness?"

"Back then, the doggo had only one clear desire, right? For the path to be cleared."

But this time, all he wanted was to release some long-held resentment, and he didn’t really have a specific target or goal in mind when he spoke. That's why the targets were also randomly determined...

“Magic that manifests this way tends to be extremely sensitive. Not just purposefulness, but wording, tone, context, breathing. You need to pay attention to everything."

If we were to frame it as magic, the act of speaking becomes a kind of equation. Manager added at the end of the explanation.

“Of course, we still don’t know if it really is magic, so the whole thing’s just getting deeper into mystery.”

"Right...."

Manager seems to find joy in watching this guy's process of awakening to his ability. My honest opinion is that it is a very dangerous ability to enable someone listen to everything they ask for...

I’ll have to tell him someday. This guy keeps passing out every time he uses his ability, so he at least needs to know why it’s happening.

But not now. Occasional snoring sounds can be heard from inside the bag. As Manager lifted and cradled the bag, she looked up at me.

“Chan, are you heading out to look for a place to live now?”

“Yeah. It's already almost… almost noon.”

"Then Chan will go and do that, but what about Hana? Will you stay and eat chocolate with Unnie?"

As Manager pulled out a chocolate box and placed it on the register, a ringtone started going off from inside Hana’s backpack. It was the default tone.

"Ah. Mommy’s calling!"

Hana did carry around a feature phone that could only make calls and send texts. She immediately took off her backpack, pulled out the phone, flipped it open, and put it to her ear.

"Mommy! Yes!"

―.....

"Yes. Yes, uh-huh... Really?"

She was smiling brightly at first, but then her expression changed to one of shock.

"Eh... so... Ah. Fresh air!"

―.....

“Un! I’ll come wight away.”

After that, the call was abruptly disconnected, and Hana looked up at the manager with an apologetic face.

“Unnie. Um....”

“I guess your Mommy is looking for you.”

“Un. Mommy said she’s done with work and I need to come home now… or ewse she’ll come hewe.”




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