Chapter 46
The story continues off the page
Floaties for Everyone
Swim lesson at the water park, and she's demonstrating on you
After work, the place we were going to was a furniture shop with the rather stiff name ‘Namdaemun Office Furniture Distribution.’
The way there was, naturally, public transportation.
The bus.
“Why, why do we have to? W-we don’t have a car.”
“Ooh, it’s cramped.”
“There’s no car for a tiny business like ours.”
It was rush hour, so the bus was packed with people. On top of that, there were a bunch of big male orcs, which made it even more crowded.
There was a big gym near the stop, and they looked like the orcs who worked there.
Lenea and I were standing while holding the straps, and since she couldn’t reach, she was practically hanging off my waist.
[This stop is Cheonggang Financial Dome. This is Cheonggang Financial Dome.]
“We’re going to have some people getting off here, so hang on.”
“Boss. I feel sick.”
“I said I know, so just bear with it.”
“I-I should’ve just. G-gone home after work.”
Who told you to come along?
People poured off at the Financial Dome. But as if they’d been waiting for that, people took the seats, so most of us couldn’t sit.
Except for Lenea.
Seated in the priority seat, her crumpled face relaxed and she smiled brightly.
“Phew. I can live now.”
“Well, you sat down just fine.”
“Isn’t this basically a reserved seat?”
“You can’t tease old folks, you know.”
Even with our teasing, Lenea seemed delighted just to be seated at once, humming while swinging her legs back and forth.
“Hey, hey— you brat!”
If it weren’t for the old man who suddenly appeared, that is.
“Eh? A-are you talking to me?”
“What do you think you’re doing sitting in the priority seat! Get up right now!”
“……I’m quite old myself.”
Lenea looked young on the outside, so it was an easy mistake.
Normally, when it comes to elves, you can’t really pin down their age, so people usually don’t mess with them.
It seemed the old man had just gone ahead and blurted it out.
“Older? How dare a child mock an adult!”
“Hehe! Sit here!”
The moment she heard herself called a ‘child,’ Lenea popped right up and gave up her seat.
Was that basically a magic spell?
“Uh... ahem! Y-yes, good girl.”
The old gentleman sat down awkwardly, apparently flustered too, and then stared out the window, embarrassed.
I casually asked Lenea, who was even more cheerful now and humming away.
“Can you lend me some money?”
“What’s with that out of nowhere?”
“You look younger.”
“……How much do you need?”
“D-don’t do that.”
Kim Yang immediately hit my forearm to warn me.
So it was really a magic spell.
[Next stop is Container City. This is Container City.]
“This is our stop, let’s get off.”
Soon enough, our stop came up, so we got off the bus.
For the record, I paid the bus fare too.
I didn’t know why I had to pay after work, but I didn’t want to be petty about something like this.
……Though it was a little painful.
“It’s about a ten-minute walk, so let’s go. They’re probably about to close.”
“W-what are we eating?”
“Hm? The old man gave it to me earlier! Bleh!”
A hard candy, shown with her tongue out.
You really milked that for all it was worth.
Ten minutes later, we arrived at ‘Namdaemun Office Furniture Distribution.’
A massive rectangular warehouse building, with containers of various ages lined up beside it. They probably kept adding them because the warehouse alone couldn’t handle everything.
Seeing three more than the first time I came, business must still be going strong.
“B-but this isn’t Namdaemun.”
“He used to work in Namdaemun, and his business did so well he got bigger, but when it came time to expand, the rent there was too much to handle, so he moved here.”
I still remember looking at this place and dreaming that if Meracle ever did well, I’d expand someday too.
“Boss, are you in there?”
As we went into the warehouse, the familiar scent of raw wood and dust welcomed us.
An orc in jeans and a tank top, well over two meters tall, immediately came out when I called.
He greeted us with a grin, tusks and all.
“Ah, you’re Meracle, right? It’s been almost two years since you were here.”
“Hm? How did you know?”
“My goodness. You’re a customer, after all. I remember everything.”
Wow.
Successful businesses really are different.
‘I’m learning something here.’
Since I’m the one who especially has to face customers directly, I need to pay even more attention to these little details.
“What are you here for?”
“I came to look at some more furniture. Here’s the office photo for now.”
I showed him the photos I’d taken on my phone and started getting advice on furniture.
* * *
6th Floor Cyber City.
In the building’s semi-basement, a translucent monitor was the only thing shining in the dark room.
A man with purple hair and sunglasses was grinning toward the camera with his mouth stretched so wide it looked like the corners would rip.
The man’s name was Rex.
A streamer from Cyber City.
He was famous for provocative broadcasts, and what he was most famous for was his specialized Floorist stream.
Floorists were discriminatory zealots who believed the higher the floor number, the more superior you were.
“Now then! Can our high-end big brothers see this?!”
Rex brought the invitations in both hands close to the screen.
A pure white background, green embroidery, and white rose sealing wax.
It was an invitation to Tophon’s ‘White Rose Banquet.’
“I went there myself and signed up as a member to get this from those pig bastards on the lower floors.”
- WireEatingBear: How is it there?
- BlueScreen: Sounds like it’s gonna stink like crazy.
- cy148: Is it true those lower-floor pigs shit in the street?
“Ugh! That place is so disgusting I don’t even want to talk about it. The streets are filthy beyond belief. I went there myself and even paid money to sign up as a member. You guys get how much I suffered, right, big brothers?”
[Villansi has donated 1,000 coins.]
- Villansi: You’ve been through a lot.
- LowerFloorSlaveMaker: Big spender, damn.
- AnonymousUser: So what is it?
- qwer1234: Rex, you’re talking too much. Explain it already.
- ProfessionalFloorist: Those guys are just disgusting. Rip out all their vocal cords and crush their balls. Their very existence is a menace.
“Brother Villansi! Thank you so much! What this is, is a ticket to the pig bastards’ mating event! It’s a party where all the bastards who want to get married gather together, so if pigs gather and talk, that’s a pig party, right?”
- qwer1234: LOL
- ProfessionalFloorist: LOL, he’s good with words.
- WireEatingBear: That’s right.
- cy148: Isn’t this just them getting dosed up and going at it?
- ModuleDestroyer: Ugh! Just hearing it makes me want to puke.
“Haha! When I go there this time, I’ll show you exactly how those pig bastards live! It’s going to be so fun.”
- WireEatingBear: Rex, but they say they’re ranking people there. What rank did you get?
- AnonymousUser: Probably A-rank.
- cy148: Why are they even ranking pigs?
- Villansi: What does that matter?
“Hah, hahaha—! That’s right, big brothers. What does that matter!”
With his unstable income and over-the-top flashy appearance, he was basically clown-like.
Rex couldn’t bring himself to admit that he had only barely managed to get B-rank after showing a photo of what he’d looked like back when he was ordinary.
“I’ll film the pig bastards oinking in a way that’s absolutely hilarious, and I’ll mess with those guys there too! Everyone, make sure to come watch the broadcast that day!”
* * *
A few days later.
I said I was buying furniture, but looking at Meracle’s interior, which was still exactly the same, I couldn’t help letting out a sigh.
In the end, I didn’t manage to buy anything.
To be exact, everything was too expensive.
The furniture I wanted was the cheap stuff, but Kim Yang and Lenea stopped me at all costs.
They fiercely talked me out of it, saying I was going to turn the office into a place where gangsters ran illegal finance operations.
The two of them picked out things that looked lively and luxurious, but the price was pretty steep.
In the end, I put it off to buy later, once I made more money.
I’d even thought about ordering a separate nameplate, but that was cheap-looking no matter what, so I had no choice but to give up on that too.
“Haa…… I’m always short on money. Money.”
I opened a stock app, but it was a down market, so I closed it. Today was just full of things that put me in a foul mood.
“Why is it that I work hard, but my money never increases?”
As I muttered while slouching in the office, Lenea, who was eating Pepero beside me, tilted her head.
“Kim Yang said it’s because you throw everything you earn into stocks and then immediately blow it all?”
“…….”
“She even says you headbutt better than she does, even though she’s a sheep beastkin. Basically, if you’re going to waste money, it’s no different from shoving cash into the toilet and flushing it—”
“Ah, stop! Kim Yang said that much?”
Crunch, crunch.
Lenea kept eating Pepero without answering. It looked tasty.
“Give me one too.”
“Nope. It’s mine. The convenience store owner gave it to me to eat.”
“……That stubborn old lady.”
Crunch crunch crunch crunch.
Watching her tease me while chewing even faster was starting to irritate me a little.
“I-I’m here. Y-you idiot.”
Kim Yang came in through the door with her arms full of clothes.
The clothes she’d borrowed from the shop we’d contracted for styling services.
Today’s customer was none other than me.
“How many outfits did you borrow? You know they charge by how many items you take here, right?”
“Co-coat, shirt, sca-. Ah, d-do you want to die? J-just put them on.”
“…….”
Look at her being so snippy.
Had she forgotten I was the boss?
She neatly laid the clothes beside her so they wouldn’t wrinkle, then took out a cosmetics bag.
“U-uh, your face. B-bring it here.”
“Hey. You weren’t invited there for any good reason, you know.”
A competitor had suddenly invited us, so it obviously didn’t seem like such a good thing.
But Kim Yang glared at me with nothing but disgust.
“S-so. You’re going like that? O-old man?”
“Old man…… I’m still in my twenties.”
“B-but. R-right now, you’re an old man.”
“That is true enough. You do look older than me.”
“I don’t look like I’m 1,903 years old.”
“A-ah, hurry! Y-you want to die?”
You forget that I’m the boss pretty often, don’t you?”
With a sigh, I lazily went over and sat in the chair across from her.
Kim Yang put the foundation on her hand and immediately slapped it onto my cheek.
Pow!
“Aaagh?! It hurts! Do you normally start with foundation?!”
“N-no.”
“…….”
“S-so satisfying.”