Chapter 11
Nine p.m.
The store, swept by a storm of hunters clocking out, was considerably quieter than usual.
‘Just one more hour and I can clock out.’
Under normal circumstances, I would have been off work long ago.
But today, since I'd had to go to the police station over the doppelgänger case, Manager Jinjo had covered my shift while I was gone, so
I told her I'd stay and watch the shelves until late.
I should earn some brownie points while I can.
I didn't want to lose such a cushy part-time job.
“Uuugh……. Even so, the rush at the start of my shift was absolute hell.”
I hadn't realized it while working alongside the manager, but trying to handle things alone, there had been so many customers it was downright brutal.
I'd been so overwhelmed that I'd somehow managed to avoid making several mistakes.
“Hey, part-timer! This mana potion is zero-sugar, right? I'm on a diet these days, so I'm sensitive about calories!”
Then there was the beastfolk who piled a whole basket high with snacks while grabbing several zero-sugar drinks because they were on a diet, and
“Excuse me, do you have any fire-resistance masks? I'd appreciate it if you could hurry! Why are you taking so long?”
a woman who looked like a fire mage hurriedly grabbed a whole armful of fire masks, while
“Why the hell won't you take mithril coins?! Just calculate the exchange rate and give me the change in bills!”
even a shameless goblin tried to exchange mithril coins for regular currency.
Every time a difficult customer showed up among the crowd, I swallowed a sigh.
After weathering the rush, I felt as if every ounce of energy had been drained from my body.
“Still, you can't beat this place when you factor in the hourly wage.”
With today's work nearly finished and the end of my shift approaching, every scene unfolding before me looked pleasant.
Humming to myself, I began sweeping in front of the shelves.
Ding!
Someone entered the store with the clear sound of a bell.
“Welcome.”
I greeted her out of habit and looked at the woman who had opened the door and entered.
She had pulled a black baseball cap low over her face, wore a black mask covering more than half her face, and had on a loose gray zip-up hoodie.
The black tail sticking out from behind her pants suggested that she was beastfolk.
The way she furtively checked her surroundings made her look suspicious, but.
‘It wasn't like she was a convenience store robber…….’
I soon decided it was nothing worth worrying about and resumed sweeping.
This was Taepyeong City.
After all, in a place where orcs who smashed displays, doppelgängers who copied memories, and elderly elves who caused a scene after drinking in the afternoon all came in, a customer wearing a hat and mask?
That was practically civilized.
If she were a thief, she surely would have made a flashy entrance using some method I didn't know.
Like suddenly casting magic.
Or tying me up and subduing me in an instant with something like a spiderweb.
Something along those lines.
‘Since she's keeping quiet, she's probably just a customer, not a thief.’
The suspiciously dressed woman kept stealing glances at me.
Judging by her tail, she looked like wolfkin.
‘Do wolfkin usually come out at night? I don't think I've ever seen one in the morning.’
Thinking that, I continued tidying up the store.
…….
When our eyes met, she abruptly looked away and flinched.
What? Was she really a thief?
‘Should I call Manager Jinjo for help?’
I'm screwed.
The woman who had been avoiding my gaze flinched, then began drifting between the shelves like a ghost.
Right.
There weren't any other customers anyway, so I might as well see who would blink first.
She seemed to be trying to steal something while I looked away.
Absolutely not.
I stared at her.
After skulking around for a while, she picked up a soda and a tuna-mayo triangle kimbap from the refrigerator and approached the counter.
She hadn't stolen anything.
“I'll ring those up for you. That'll be 2,700 won.”
I scanned the barcode and told her the price, but she didn't even reach for her wallet. She simply stared at me.
The golden eyes glimpsed between the brim of her cap and her mask shimmered strangely.
“Ma'am? Are you paying? Or do you need a bag?”
“Excuse me.”
“Yes?”
“You don't know me, by any chance?”
“Huh?”
What was that supposed to mean?
Was there someone in this city who knew me?
Or was this some kind of hidden-camera prank?
No way.
Flustered, I peered closely at her face.
Usually, there were exactly two reasons someone asked a question like that in a convenience store.
Either they were a regular who felt wronged after being asked for ID, or they were a genuine problem customer.
“Are you perhaps a regular? If you're a regular and I failed to recognize you, I'm sorry. I'm a new part-timer and haven't lived in this neighborhood long.”
“You really can't sense anything at all? You really don't know who I am?”
“I'm not sure. You didn't pick anything that requires an ID check. Do you need cigarettes?”
The woman's golden eyes widened for an instant.
And then.
“Even now?”
The woman took off her cap and pulled her mask down beneath her chin.
Pitch-black wolf ears and strikingly beautiful, exotic features came into view.
Her golden eyes, visible through her disheveled hair, curved softly beneath the lights.
She really was beautiful.
That was my only thought.
Other than that……
I had no idea who she was.
“I'm sorry. I've never seen you before.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. Am I supposed to know you?”
“N-no, not exactly…….”
She blinked at me.
Her eyes held the bewilderment of someone who couldn't understand why I didn't recognize her.
Hmm, maybe she was someone I shouldn't mess with.
You know, people like that.
People high enough in rank that offending them meant serious trouble.
I wondered if I'd accidentally offended someone like that.
This world was full of different species, and with even an Elven Queen around, I couldn't assume there were no social ranks.
Just as my thoughts reached that point and I began to feel uneasy.
“H-ha ha…….”
A powerless laugh burst from her lips.
“I'm sorry. You look like someone I know……. Oh, and I don't smoke.”
“??”
“It's been a really long time since I've met someone who didn't know me.”
Was she some kind of celebrity in Taepyeong City?
Honestly, I had no idea.
I still had a long way to go before I could really call myself a resident of this city, after all.
When you got down to it, almost all I'd done was work at a convenience store.
Seeming to relax, she leaned comfortably against the counter.
“Ring me up. I won't collect any points.”
She handed me a black card, paid for her things, then sat at a table in the corner of the convenience store and took a bite of the triangle kimbap.
She never took her eyes off me until she'd finished the triangle kimbap and drained her drink.
“Thanks. I'll come again.”
What was that about?
Was this really Taepyeong City?
***
Ding-!
The convenience store door closed, and the cool night air brushed against her cheek.
“Phewww…….”
Sonya pulled her cap low again and drew a deep breath.
The city's night air felt especially refreshing today.
The city's atmosphere, which would normally have felt stifling, felt pleasantly cool tonight.
She set off into the darkness of the night streets.
Her body felt incomparably lighter than when she had left the studio after breaking the Tower record.
‘This is the first time anyone's treated me so normally.’
She was one of the Seven Heroes and the most beloved celebrity in all of Taepyeong City.
Wherever she went, people's eyes followed her.
Admiration, cheers, and sometimes even jealousy and awe.
She had always lived a life from which there was no escape from other people's gazes.
Even covering her face completely with a hat and mask had its limits.
Sonya was wolfkin, a race notorious among beastfolk for its rough nature.
The rough mana unique to wolfkin was so distinctive that everyone in Taepyeong City knew it.
In particular, the presence of a hunter as powerful as her was not something clothing could conceal.
Sonya was the only wolfkin with an aura that powerful, after all.
Anyone who could sense even a little mana—or even someone insensitive to mana—would instantly realize that she was Kuroaki.
But that part-timer had been different.
‘Did the part-timer really not know? Or was the part-timer pretending not to?’
She had been suspicious at first.
There were plenty of sly people who pretended not to know her in an attempt to get close to her.
But the way the part-timer had stared at her throughout the convenience store,
and the wariness with which the part-timer had watched her in case she stole something, weren't things that could have been faked.
The part-timer had even treated her as an underage girl who had come in to buy cigarettes, despite her revealing her face.
‘The part-timer really doesn't know me.’
It was fascinating.
There was someone in this city who didn't know her.
Did the part-timer live without watching TV?
Maybe the part-timer was an elf who had only just come down from the mountains?
No, that couldn't be.
The part-timer didn't have elf ears, either……
If the part-timer were an elf, the part-timer would have recognized her from her aura alone.
The part-timer really didn't know her.
The part-timer didn't even think she was special.
Along with the wonder, she felt relieved.
Sonya felt the tightness in her chest release all at once.
Being a superstar, being unable to escape other people's gazes,
meant that she always had to show the proper, polished version of herself.
If she showed even the slightest sign of letting her guard down,
arrows would rain down on her, the focus of everyone's attention.
But she didn't need to do that here.
Because the part-timer didn't know her.
Because the part-timer was someone who didn't hold her to any particular standard.
So the triangle kimbap she would normally have paid for and taken home as if fleeing
was something she peeled open at a table in the corner of a convenience store for the first time in her life.
Throughout drinking her beverage and chewing and swallowing the kimbap, she kept her eyes on the part-timer sweeping the floor.
Would the part-timer perhaps show belated signs of recognizing her?
Would the part-timer suddenly approach her with shining eyes and act familiar?
But the part-timer remained indifferent to her until the end.
The part-timer merely stood in front of the register with an expression that said the part-timer wanted to clock out as soon as possible.
It was so comfortable.
The fact that she could be quiet even with someone nearby.
So even after finishing the triangle kimbap and drink, she sat at the table for a while and watched the part-timer.
She felt a little irritated.
She had even pulled down her mask on purpose so the part-timer would look at her, yet the part-timer didn't even glance her way.
‘Before I bought anything, the part-timer stared at me so intently.’
Was this what they meant by a customer becoming a caught fish once you'd rung them up?
She was amazed that she'd even had such a thought, and that showed how intoxicated she was by the comfort this place offered.
A faint smile spread across Sonya's lips as she walked beneath the streetlights.
The black wolf tail sticking out over her pants swayed happily.
Sonya hid herself in the darkness and looked back at the convenience store as she thought.
‘I should come here again.’
She began humming without realizing it.
***
“Manager, good work~!”
“Yeah, good work. See you tomorrow.”
After clocking out, I said goodbye to Manager Jinjo and returned home.
When I got back to my lodging, I saw a flashy display stand prominently placed in the spot with the best view of the room.
It was the display stand Manager Jinjo had set up with an acrylic case and all kinds of lighting, saying the manager would somehow take care of the figure.
The limited-edition figure was waiting for me on top of it.
“Wow, that's impressive.”
I felt this every time I saw it, but it was incomparably flashier than it had been in my studio apartment.
Back then, all I'd done was carefully place it inside the display case.
Beside it stood the World Tree branch Friella had given me, leaning against the wall.
Seeing it reminded me of what Friella had said today.
-If you haven't boiled down and eaten the World Tree branch I gave you, I recommend buying a flowerpot and growing it this time.
-Since it's a genuine branch of the World Tree, something good is bound to happen if you can grow it.
She had said that something good would happen if I grew it well.
Had she said that boiling it down and eating it was good for virility?
“This little branch is worth four million won?”
Normally, that was something I wouldn't have believed, but.
“She really does seem to be the Elven Queen……. She wouldn't have lied, right?”
Surely an Elven Queen wouldn't lie about something like this.
I took out the flowerpot where I'd once grown a succulent—now empty because the succulent had died.
Something a little bigger than my fist should do, right?
“I'm not exactly confident about growing things…….”
It had to be better than doing nothing.
I stuck the branch firmly into the pot and watered it.
“Will this do?”