Chapter 25
“Manager? Why are you here at this hour?”
She always said she hated the daytime and only came in during the evening.
She had forced herself to work during the day when I wasn't here, but ever since I started working part-time, she never came in unless there was something specific to do.
For a vampire like that to come to the convenience store in broad daylight, with the sun blazing overhead.
It was a sign that the sun was about to rise in the west.
The manager entered the store with an imposing air, but instead of coming to the counter, she took a quick lap around the store.
Then she began stuffing expensive liquor and costly honey-water gift sets from the shelves into her arms.
She even started grabbing expensive magic-tool batteries and other such items.
‘Something's strange. Why is the manager taking those?’
My head felt hazy.
The flow of my thoughts wasn't working properly.
What was this?
Something was strange…….
The manager looked completely different from usual.
I could sense that something was off, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
It was as if my head were filled with fog.
It was ambiguous.
The manager approached the counter with her arms full of expensive goods and held out her hand imperiously.
“Vassal, give me the money in the POS terminal. Ah, take the money from the safe as well. The True Ancestor will take the day's cash directly to the bank and deposit it.”
That was something she would never normally say.
The manager was going to the bank herself?
The woman who absolutely refused to go outside during the bright daylight?
Even when she counted the day's cash, she always went at night.
Hadn't she said there was a bank that opened at night for nocturnal races?
Wasn't the bank manager supposedly from an owl beastkin family?
An owl? No, I think it was a bat.
I couldn't remember clearly.
Useless thoughts kept popping into my head.
“Vassal?”
“Ah, yes, Manager.”
“Did you hear what the True Ancestor said? I asked for money.”
“You want money? Ah, I'm sorry. I was thinking about something else for a moment.”
“…That can happen. I understand. Hurry up and move! We don't have time!”
What was she talking about, when she had more free time than anyone?
I opened the POS terminal and placed my hand on the bills.
Right.
“Manager.”
“Hmm?”
“Come to think of it, you never told me the safe's password.”
“……Huh?”
The manager's red eyes widened in apparent panic.
“Did I? I didn't tell you?”
With my hand still on the POS terminal, I bent down to take the money from the safe.
“Tell me now, then. I'll take it out for you.”
“Ah, no! Never mind! Just give me the bills in the POS terminal!”
“No, tell me. We need to take it out and balance the books together.”
“I said never mind?! Just open the POS terminal!”
“Tell me. If the cash count comes up short, it'll be deducted from my pay.”
“Agh, seriously! I said forget it!!”
The manager shrieked irritably.
Then she abruptly turned around and said,
“Give me the bills later! I shall go find more of the items I need!”
The manager started walking back toward the shelves.
Wait.
Didn't she just say “I”?
Since when had the manager referred to herself as “I”?
The first time?
No.
At first, she had definitely called herself the True Ancestor.
But just now, she had definitely said,
‘She said “I.”’
I had never heard that even once.
She always called herself the True Ancestor.
I didn't know whether it was because she took pride in being the True Ancestor, but she had never let that title leave her lips.
She had even kept calling herself the True Ancestor during the tense situation when she was falling behind in the raid competition.
Right.
The manager, who called herself the True Ancestor in every situation, would never refer to herself as “I.”
She had been strange from the very beginning.
For one thing, she showed no sign of discomfort despite coming in under the blazing midday sun.
She had even suddenly started doing things she never did before.
She was sweeping goods off the shelves and suddenly demanding money.
But why did she look like the manager to my eyes?
My realization came later than expected.
I clearly thought that the manager standing before me wasn't the manager.
But my eyes insisted that she was the manager.
Had some kind of magic been cast on me?
‘This isn't some kind of test……right?’
The manager wasn't the kind of vampire who would conduct a test like that.
One strike.
Still, I needed to be certain.
“……Manager.”
I called out to her.
“Hmm? What is it, vassal?”
“About the figurines.”
“…Speak.”
“They're pretty, aren't they?”
The manager's eyes darted rapidly from side to side.
She seemed to be frantically racking her brain, then lifted her chin arrogantly and answered,
“Very pretty indeed! Mwahaha! They are the figurines the True Ancestor cherishes most!”
Two strikes.
I already instinctively knew that this being wasn't the manager.
But still.
Just in case.
“Speaking of which, I was thinking of moving those to your house this time. What do you think?”
“…To the True Ancestor's room?”
“Yes. They'd probably fetch more than five million won at auction. So why not take them home this time?”
“Really?! Truly? That figurine is worth that much?”
Three strikes.
You're out.
“Hey.”
“……Vassal, you?”
“Who are you?”
My voice was so cold that even I could hardly believe it.
“What do you mean?”
“Who are you, pretending to be the manager?”
“……”
The monster pretending to be the manager—no, not the manager—stiffened as it looked at me.
“A genuine otaku as hardcore as the manager doesn't look at figurines in terms of their price.”
“……”
“But you were talking about a figurine's value in terms of money. Until I mentioned five million won, you weren't interested at all.”
“That's how you figured it out?”
The voice coming from the manager's mouth was different.
A low, deep voice.
A man's voice.
Hearing a man's voice come from the manager's cute face was seriously jarring.
“No, there were plenty of other things that bothered me. But that was the decisive clue.”
“That's strange. It shouldn't be possible. Your perception should definitely have been altered.”
What the hell was this thief talking about?
“I called the police, so put everything back where it was and get out right now.”
“Don't tell me you're human?”
There was no need to waste time talking to a thief.
The thief interpreted my silence as an affirmation and clicked his tongue.
“Tsk, so that's why it didn't work properly.”
The manager's eyes fell on the back of my hand.
Where the hell was that guy looking?
And at that moment, my field of vision changed.
The hazy feeling subsided, and my vision returned to normal.
It was the same convenience store.
The first thing I saw was green light shimmering across the back of my hand.
I knew what it was.
Pollen from the World Tree.
The pollen that had cooled the minotaur's heat, and that Sonya had bought from me.
The light shimmered and enveloped me.
Next, I saw that the person standing before me wasn't the manager at all.
A young man who looked to be in his mid-twenties stood in her place.
He looked exactly like the courier who had delivered the package to me.
Unlike his blurry appearance earlier, he had shaggy, unkempt ash-gray hair.
His haggard complexion looked as though he hadn't slept in several nights, and deep dark circles hung beneath his eyes.
On top of his head were round, fluffy animal ears, and a thick tail protruded from behind him.
“A raccoon……?”
“I'm a raccoon! You ignorant human! Can't you see the clear stripes on my tail?!”
How was I supposed to know that?
A raccoon and a tanuki looked exactly the same to me.
In truth, whether he was a raccoon or a tanuki wasn't important.
He was a thief trying to rob our store. Why should his species matter?
“You're the shopping-district burglar from the news, aren't you?”
“I am somewhat famous.”
“What's there to be proud of about being on the news as a criminal?”
“Tsk, this is why you shouldn't share a table with ignorant idiots.”
The thief clicked his tongue.
Then he pulled something from inside his clothes.
“Stealing like this isn't really my style.”
A sharp knife.
Now things were getting serious.
“The police will be here soon. Are you sure about this?”
“Cut the crap. I know you never pressed the button.”
That was true.
In fact, saying that I had called the police had been a lie.
False information intended to scare him into running away.
This wasn't easy.
“It's easier if you're a species the Phantom Flower's effects don't work properly on. I can just crush you with brute force.”
“Then why didn't you?”
“Because that's crude. You need to use a technique with style, like me.”
“Give me a break.”
What a ridiculous thing to say.
“What kind of technique is it if I saw through the whole thing?”
“Laugh while you can. This is the last time you'll be laughing.”
That was when he adjusted his grip on the sword.
Jingle-.
“What on earth is going on here?”
A familiar voice rang out.
It was Ms. Lumina.
“Ah, fuck, seriously!”
“Ms. Lumina, that raccoon beastkin is a thief! He's the thief from the news who tricks people by pretending to deliver packages with no recipient listed, then steals their belongings!”
“Fuck! I told you, I'm a raccoon!”
Lumina's face turned toward the raccoon beastkin.
She looked him up and down once.
“A thief? Ah…….”
Then her eyes fell on the knife in his hand.
“Did you threaten our cutie with that knife?”
Lumina's voice grew somewhat menacing.
“Y-you bastard! If you get out right now, I'll pretend I didn't see this, so outsider, get lost!”
The raccoon beastkin shouted as he hurriedly backed away.
Click.
Lumina took a step toward him.
“I asked you. Did you harass our adorable part-timer with that knife?”
Click.
“Answer me.”
“W-what are you going to do if I did?”
Click.
Lumina stopped walking.
“Depending on your answer, I might have had a reason to let you off. But you've done something I can't overlook, haven't you?”
“W-what rotten luck. I came because I heard the True Ancestor would be away during the day……”
Ms. Lumina scratched the back of her neck as if this were a nuisance.
The cornered thief wasn't about to let that defenseless opening pass.
“Get in my way and I'll kill you first!”
The thief kicked off the floor and sprang forward.
He might have been small, but he was still beastkin.
His movements were quite nimble.
The gleaming knife shot straight toward Lumina's slender neck.
But there was one thing the thief didn't know.
“Hup!”
Lumina was a headless dullahan.
Lumina raised her helmet high above her head.
Whoosh!
The knife uselessly cut through the empty air where Ms. Lumina's neck should have been.
“……Huh?”
It was a bizarre sight—the sight of her pulling off her own head(?).
The thief's movements stopped dead, knife still in hand.
His pupils shook wildly, as if an earthquake were happening inside them.
“Oops? Where'd my head go?”
Lumina's voice was full of laughter as she spoke to the thief.
“Oh my, you saw it.”
The inside of her helmet flared fiercely.
“I can't let you live now.”
“E-eeek! M-monster……!”
The thief shrieked in terror, his hand gripping the knife trembling.
“You're beastkin too. Who are you calling a monster?”
Lumina casually reached out her hand.
Then she grabbed him.
“Aaaaargh!”
The thief, his wrist caught in one of her hands, let out a desperate scream.
Crack!
With a gruesome sound as his bones were wrenched out of place, the knife dropped to the floor.
A dullahan's strength was far beyond what mere beastkin could withstand.
Lumina seized him by the collar and ruthlessly slammed him into the floor in front of the counter.
“Ghk!”
It took one blow.
That was all the force needed to subdue the resisting raccoon beastkin.
“Ta-da~. How was my magic show? It was a magic trick where I separated my head.”
After subduing the raccoon beastkin in an instant, Lumina spoke to me with a mischievous smile.
How did I know she was smiling?
The flames flickered faintly, forming a curved line.
“His memories should be sufficiently erased by now. He doesn't know I'm a dullahan, right?”
Lumina nudged the fallen raccoon beastkin with the tip of her foot and spoke.
“Did you use magic?”
“No? Physical force. As they say, overwhelming strength is hard to distinguish from magic.”
“…How do you know that?”
“I'm an expert when it comes to heads.”
She tapped her helmet lightly.
“Well, if he hasn't forgotten, I can just beat him until he does, so don't worry.”
I thought I saw the raccoon beastkin's body twitch.
It was probably my imagination, right?
After completely subduing the thief, she looked at the box tucked into the corner of the counter.
“So this must have been the cause.”
It was the package with the manager's name written as the recipient.
When Lumina opened it, she found a flowerpot containing a single pink flower.
“It's a method of using a Phantom Flower to make the target hallucinate, isn't it? Classic, but reliable.”
“What's a Phantom Flower?”
“It's a flower that uses hypnosis to show the target hallucinations and make them obey the caster's words as soon as they encounter them. It's not a common flower, so many people don't know about it.”
So the sweet scent I'd smelled had come from this flower?
“But is it okay to open it like this?”
“It's fine. The caster has already passed out. And there are two of us here at the scene.”
I wondered what that had to do with anything and looked at her.
“The way to avoid a Phantom Flower's hallucinations is simple. Two people just have to stay together. Then they'll recognize each other and won't fall under the hallucination.”
“You know a lot about it.”
“I used to climb the Tower.”
Speaking in a bitter voice, she retrieved the Phantom Flower and called the police.
The thief and the Phantom Flower were promptly handed over to the police.
The golem police were delighted to have caught such a troublesome thief.
-From the doppelganger to the serial burglar targeting properties with no recipient listed, at this rate, you ought to receive this month's Citizen Award.
They even added that.
“That ended easily. It's a huge relief the manager didn't come.”
Lumina said this as she watched the thief being dragged away by the police.
“What would happen if the manager came?”
“What do you think? There'd just be one more mummified corpse.”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it.
The manager looked like an incredibly powerful vampire, even at a glance.
“But what brings you here?”
“I had a personal favor to ask of the manager.”
She took out a box.
As with the first one, the manager's name was written as the recipient.
“Don't worry, this one isn't a scam. It's a smartphone. The manager called me, saying she absolutely had to buy one for you today. So I came here myself.”
If the manager had arranged a separate delivery for a gift, of course she would have asked Ms. Lumina to do it.
I felt pathetic for having carelessly left a suspicious box inside the convenience store.
“Thank you.”
“Thank the manager. She picked out the phone herself. But you know……”
She took a step toward me.
“I don't think I've received my reward for chasing off that thief yet.”
A sweet scent suddenly wafted from her body.
“I'd like to receive that reward in the flesh.”
“M-my body?”