Chapter 18
“Now I’m even doing the serving!”
Ellen brought the coffee and placed it in front of Max and the Employee.
Then she stepped back from the Reception Sofa and looked at her Smartphone from the computer chair.
The Association Employee’s eyes kept glancing at Ellen.
He couldn’t seem to calm down even while drinking his coffee.
“…Max-nim?”
“Yes.”
“Um, you mentioned you hired an Employee…”
“That’s her, though she only works about two to three hours a day.”
That probably wasn’t the answer the Employee wanted.
Max knew this too, so he immediately followed up.
“She is a Person of the Magic Noble Family Clements, but her employment at the office is Unrelated to her Family. She also said she didn’t want it to be known.”
“Unni~ Please keep it a secret, okay?”
Even if he asserted it was Unrelated to her Family, he knew well that it wasn’t Unrelated. Still, Max had no choice but to say it like this.
“…”
The Employee, who had kept his mouth shut for a long time, stood up from the sofa.
He straightened his back, politely gathered his hands, and spoke to Ellen.
“Ms. Ellen Clements.”
“What is it?”
“May I report your presence solely to the Association President? It is too great a secret for a mere Employee like me to keep.”
“Who’s the Association President? I don’t even know which Mercenary Association Oppa belongs to.”
“It is the Bohemian Mercenary Association.”
“Ah~ He’s under that old geezer? Not bad.”
The Association President was an old geezer! High-level information dropped unexpectedly from Ellen’s mouth.
The Employee also shot a flustered look at Max, but it was too late.
Was he going to argue with Ellen here that she shouldn’t talk about the Association President? That was obviously impossible.
Ending the conversation before more information came out was the answer.
“…Yes. I would like to ask for your permission.”
“Go ahead! I don’t care. That Old Man will hear it and act accordingly. He should know who the next master of Clements is.”
“Thank you for your broad generosity, Ms. Ellen Clements.”
“Whatever. Didn’t you come, Unni, because you had business with Oppa? Don’t mind me and do your work. I’m just gonna goof off.”
Only then did the Employee sit back down on the sofa.
He looked like he had aged ten years in that brief moment.
“…Max-nim. I will check your tier.”
“Go ahead.”
The Employee opened his bag and took out a metal plate.
Max complied with the request to place his palm on it and let a little magic power flow.
As if that alone were enough to finish the verification, the Employee put the item away.
“It is confirmed. I will update Max-nim’s information registered with the Association to the 3rd tier and reflect it in your Request Reward.”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
“I will process it quickly.”
The Employee nodded with a stiff face and quietly stood up.
He carefully approached Ellen, who had placed colorful bottles on the desk and was doing her own nail art.
“Ms. Ellen Clements, would you give me a chance to correct my mistake?”
“Huh? What mistake?”
“I should have stated my name and affiliation and introduced myself first, but I committed a discourtesy out of nervousness. Allow me to greet you again. I am Meredith of the Bohemian Mercenary Association.”
So his name was Meredith.
Max also learned this for the first time.
“Ahaha! You’re exactly the kind of diligent Unni that old geezer needs. I don’t care about stuff like that.”
“Thank you. I will excuse myself now.”
The Employee left the office just like that.
Ellen chatted with Max for three hours, registered her fingerprint on the door, and clocked out.
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Days passed one after another.
[I’ve taken all the medicine.]
Max checked his side as soon as he woke up in the morning.
“Holy moly.”
The effects of the Cell Proliferation Therapy were incredible. The use of an outdated model left a scar, but considering how deeply he had been cut by the knife, he was satisfied that there were no lingering aftereffects and that he hadn’t died.
[If I hadn’t taken the Gold Nectar, my side wouldn’t have just been split open; my body would have been chopped in half.]
He also felt that the Genesis Bio Solution the Broker had procured for him had preserved his life.
It was clear that he had used the money earned from stocks efficiently.
“Huuup!”
He stretched and came out to the office.
He had a meal with the side dishes Flora had left behind and washed up.
After finishing preparations to receive a Customer, he turned on the Office Sign to indicate it was open and left the door open as well.
He popped a Lollipop into his mouth while looking up news about Gaia Food on the computer.
It was mango-flavored.
The sticky Sweetness woke up his mind.
[I should be getting some proper requests now.]
While focusing on his treatment, Max handled a few light requests.
There was a time a little kid came in unable to open a beverage cap, and he opened it for him for free.
There was a request to chase away a pack of wild dogs that had taken over an alley, and an out-of-the-blue request from someone who brought a crowbar and asked to be taught how to fight.
There were other trivial requests, but these were the only ones that immediately came to mind.
[It’s a relief I’m not in the red, but things are all so ambiguous.]
He spun his chair around, pondering the future.
How much power and honor would he need to accumulate to resolve all his curiosities?
Bzzzt! Bzzzzzt!
In the office where only the sound of mouse clicks could be heard, his Smartphone spat out a vibration.
[Layton Steiger]
A call from his father.
Max, who had been rolling the candy in his mouth, looked at the screen and arched an eyebrow.
[He never called at this time in the past, did he?]
Still, it made sense.
Just by his going to the meeting to be introduced to his remarriage partner, the trajectory changed from Before Regression.
“Yes. I’m on the line.”
─ Where are you?
“I’m working.”
─ I believe I told you I made a position for you to enter Cheonmyeong Pharmaceuticals.
If it were I from my immature days, I would have regretted answering the phone here.
But now, as someone worn down as much as possible by social life, it was different.
Even if disgusting feelings rose up, he didn’t show them. He had the will to drag out the conversation calmly to dig up information.
“What kind of work at Cheonmyeong Pharmaceuticals?”
─ Are you in a position to be picky about that?
“I’m a Person too, so why can’t I be picky? I need to know whether the place I’ll be rolling around in is a cesspool or a flower bed.”
─ A Person? Do they treat those without talent as humans in Haze? With that kind of mindset, you have no development!
“Father. How did you become a middle-aged man who only repeats the same words over and over?”
─ ···.
“Your way of thinking is outdated, too. The one that doesn’t treat people as human just because they lack talent is Steiger, not Haze.”
There was no answer.
It seemed hard for him to understand since the reaction of his son, who used to lose his mind and lash out at the slightest provocation, had suddenly changed.
“If Steiger wants to develop, it needs to reform and accept new things. If it can’t see the path, it needs to look around instead of being stubborn.”
─ Shut up!
“Are you still angry that the Steiger Family was pushed aside by the Esra Family and failed to join the ranks of the Magic Noble Family?”
─ I fed and housed you because you’re my child, and you──.
He yelled so loudly when a raw nerve was touched that the speaker crackled and the sound quality broke.
CRASH! The sound came from over the phone. Unable to overcome his anger, he must have smashed a desk or something.
“What can you do? The Esra Family is a perfectly superior version of Steiger.”
Max waved the candy, which had shrunk to a small size, in the air and continued his notification.
“I will drop by the Family Estate sometime soon, on a day not too far from now.”
Having said what he wanted to say, he hung up the phone.
He had the kind of personality that would throw a fit just from the other side hanging up first, so how much of a fuss must he be making right now?
[Am I still a brat too? I didn’t gain anything, but I feel good just from screwing with him.]
Max giggled and CRUNCH! bit into the candy.
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It was about an hour after Ellen had come to work.
A man wearing a neat suit and horn-rimmed glasses opened the door slightly and poked his face in.
“Excuse me… Is this the M-Mercenary Office…?”
His voice was one thing, but his hunched shoulders as he read the room made him look feeble. It was an attitude that did no good to show in a Mercenary Office.
He gave the impression of being completely Unrelated to actual mercenaries.
“That’s right. Please come in.”
Max stood up from his seat and guided the Customer to the sofa.
Ellen hummed a tune and prepared coffee. She made three cups, adding one for herself to drink.
“Is this your first time at a Mercenary Office?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right. I heard you also do dangerous work…”
“We do pretty much anything, as long as the pay is right.”
“How much is it basically…?”
“It depends on the request. For now, you just need to be aware that you are employing a 3rd-Tier Mage.”
“M-mage!”
The man muttered, tacking on the word '3rd-Tier' as well.
He took a handkerchief out of his inner pocket and wiped his cold sweat.
“The criteria that determine the request fee naturally include the level of danger, but the time consumed is also important. It’s fine if you just tell us the details and get a rough estimate.”
A Mercenary Office was a shop without a menu.
Therefore, the Client had to raise their voice from a position of power and negotiate the market price. If the Client couldn’t do that, they would end up paying a large sum of money.
“T-Then I will just tell you the details first…”
“I will listen carefully to what the Customer has to say.”
“Ah! Is confidentiality guaranteed, by any chance…”
“Of course we do. Trust is important for a Mercenary.”
Max smiled and offered the coffee he received from Ellen.
The man, having moistened his dry mouth, looked around before opening his mouth.
“I think my wife is having an affair…”
A topic that brought a rush of dopamine.
Not only Max’s, but Ellen’s ears perked up.