Chapter 52
The convenience store at sunset.
At the Hunter Tower branch, the evening rush—when office workers and hunters got off work and students got out of school—had filled the store with customers.
“Sir, this is a 2+1 item. Can I switch one of them for a different flavor?”
“Hey, hurry up and choose! I’m going to be late for cram school!”
“Please heat up just two chicken skewers.”
“Hey, give me one cigarette.”
Ding-a-ling-.
Beep, beep-beep.
The bell ringing as the door opened, the customers’ voices, and the barcode scanner beeping without pause.
It was dizzying.
Had there always been this many customers?
It had been nearly a month since I started working here, but this was the first time the convenience store had ever been this busy.
Even having two bodies wouldn’t have been enough.
The one saving grace was.
“This, pro, motion has, ended. Ex, changes are, not pos, sible.”
“The micro, wave is, lo, cated by, the win, dow.”
Today, the red golem resembling the manager was helping me.
The red golem kept restocking the shelves and quickly answering the customers’ questions.
After the day the angels had conducted business in our store, the manager had gotten angry and gone all the way to Salvation Trading Company’s headquarters.
-They won’t dare show their faces around here again!
The manager had boasted that everything had been resolved, but said the red golem would remain running around the clock for a while, just in case.
-It will protect my trusted subordinate if anything happens!
-The store will get even busier after school from now on, so you’ll need the golem’s help.
Thanks to that, I had some breathing room despite the huge number of customers.
If I had been dealing with all of these customers alone…….
‘Just imagining it makes me hate it.’
Just as I was finally wrapping up the rush of customers.
“You’ve, worked, hard.”
“The manager should be here in about thirty minutes.”
Once the manager arrived, I’d finish the handover and go inside to rest.
There had been unusually many customers since lunchtime today.
There were days like that when you worked part-time at a convenience store.
Days when an unusually large number of people came in.
Days when you didn’t have a moment to rest and had no idea how the time passed.
Today was exactly that kind of day.
Already time to get off work.
“When I get home, I’m just going to wash up and sleep soundly.”
Maybe it was because there had been so many customers.
I was completely drained.
Should I consider myself lucky that there hadn’t been any troublesome customers?
I had worked so hard that sweat was running down my forehead despite having the air conditioner blasting.
Someone might ask what there was to sweat over as a convenience store clerk, but a shipment had arrived at the same time, so I had also shifted quite a lot of boxes.
I was looking at the quieting convenience store and thinking about what to eat after work when.
Ding-a-ling.
The bell rang, and a customer entered.
The moment the door opened, a strange smell brushed the tip of my nose.
The smell of sweat?
The smell of perfume?
No, it was slightly different from either of those.
It was more like a heavy scent that settled deep in my nose.
A harsh smell that didn’t easily fade once I had inhaled it.
Could I call it an unpleasant smell? Not quite.
But it wasn’t a pleasant smell, either.
It smelled melancholic.
A woman wearing a black cap pulled low over her head and a mask covering half her face.
A customer whose black tail and ears were visible.
“Welco…… Huh?”
It was the regular customer who had given me perfume.
The customer who occasionally came to our store, bought a triangle kimbap and a drink, ate them, and left.
Sonya. Right, she had said her name was Sonya.
But she seemed strange today.
Her shoulders were heaving as if she had just sprinted all the way here, and her breathing was rough as well.
Tiny beads of sweat had formed across her body.
So it was the smell of sweat.
Apparently, she had come to our store after finishing a run.
No wonder I’d thought I smelled something.
But the moment she entered.
“Cough! Cough!”
“Oh dear.”
Several customers who had stayed in the store to eat cup noodles glanced around nervously before slowly standing up.
The customers streamed out.
On top of that, the red golem standing at the counter beside me quietly took a step toward me.
“Cau, tion re, quired. Dan, ger, ous.”
“What do you mean, dangerous?”
What was going on?
Why was everyone singling me out?
Sonya’s masked gaze turned toward me.
When she saw me, her body flinched, and she averted her gaze.
Then, as always, she headed for the food section.
Step, step.
She staggered through the store and grabbed a triangle kimbap from the food section.
And at that moment.
Crack!
The triangle kimbap burst in her hand.
“Uh-oh?”
She seemed surprised herself and looked down at her hand.
“……Ahem.”
Then she grabbed another one.
Crush!
Another triangle kimbap finally met its end without ever becoming her meal(?) for the day.
After staring blankly at the hand covered in rice and seasoning, she headed toward the liquor refrigerator.
Crack-crunch-!
“Ah…….”
The moment she grabbed and pulled the refrigerator handle, the handle on the glass door tore off completely.
“Eek!”
“W-what the hell is that woman?!”
“This is why wolfkin are no good.”
The customers who had managed to stay behind took one look at the grip strength with which she had torn off the handle as easily as pulling apart tofu, then shrieked and fled.
She herself seemed flustered, too.
“Huh, wha……?”
But her confusion lasted only a moment.
“Store pro, perty dam, age con, firmed. Threat level, high. Begin, ning sup, pres, sion.”
The red golem resembling the manager stepped forward and stood before Sonya.
After witnessing her damage to the store’s property, it had classified her as a troublesome customer—one with a high threat level.
“Ah, this is, um……”
“Warn, ing, warn, ing. Step, back. If you do not, step, back, I will at, tack.”
As the golem’s hostility reached her, the flustered woman’s eyes began to waver.
Her pupils contracted, and her eyes locked onto the golem.
I knew nothing about fighting, but I could tell that she was studying the golem’s stance and searching for an opening.
Her eyes gradually grew redder.
Uh-oh, they’re turning red.
Isn’t this dangerous?
Grrr.
A beastly growl came from Sonya’s mouth.
I suddenly remembered hearing on the convenience store gallery that beastkin, especially carnivorous beastkin, sometimes had periods when they became violent.
There was no fixed manual because the timing and manner differed depending on the animal species.
But I remembered being advised not to pick a fight for no reason if a violent beastkin showed up.
-The best thing to do is calm down a rampaging beastkin.
└Is there actually any way to calm those people down?
└You should assume there isn’t. Smiling and letting it slide is probably your best bet.
└Fuck, so you’re just telling us to run away?
└At least don’t try to fight them. If you apologize, they’ll let it go. A lot of carnivorous beastkin are crazy about fighting.
Avoid fighting at all costs.
That advice flashed into my mind.
‘I absolutely can’t let them fight.’
It was a hair-trigger situation.
The kind of situation where a fight would begin the moment either one of them moved.
‘No. If they start fighting, the convenience store will be completely destroyed.’
I could already picture it.
The golem, which would never back down while protecting the convenience store.
The beastkin customer, who would never try to end a fight once it had begun.
And the manager, furious at the sight of the store destroyed by the battle between those two beasts(?).
“Mr. Golem, stop! Please stop! She’s a customer!”
I hurried out from behind the counter and stood in front of the golem.
“This is, an ob, vious hos, tile act.”
“I’ll handle this. She’s a regular who often comes in when I’m on shift. She isn’t that kind of person. She just lost control of her strength a little. We can solve this by talking, so there’s no need to fight and make the damage worse. The manager wouldn’t want that, either.”
“…Under, stood.”
The moment I finally managed to calm the golem down and turned around.
“Huh, wha?”
I had no idea when she had approached, but she was right in front of my face.
I tried to step back in surprise, but she moved slightly faster.
She pulled her mask down beneath her chin, then thrust her face toward me and buried it near the nape of my neck and shoulder.
Sniff, sniff.
Like a beast searching for the scent of a companion, she deeply inhaled the smell coming from my body.
“E-excuse me? Customer?!”
I was so flustered that I froze with my shoulders stiff, but she paid no attention.
I had sweated a little today, so I probably smelled a bit of sweat.
Of course, she also had a strange, somewhat sensual scent about her.
Something resembling the smell of sweat.
Even so, she was actually sniffing me like this.
Of course, we were somewhat acquainted…….
But wasn’t this far too close for someone’s personal space?
“Excuse… me?”
There was no answer.
Sniff sniff.
She only inhaled the smell of my body more deeply.
“Haa…….”
A long sigh filled with hot breath escaped her mouth.
At the same time, her red eyes gradually began to regain their original amber color.
“Even now, I can still, sub, due……”
I stopped the golem as it took up an attacking stance.
This seems to be calming her down.
I didn’t know why the customer who always bought triangle kimbap had suddenly broken the refrigerator door and approached me like this.
But I thought there had to be a reason she was doing this.
‘At any rate, she seems to be getting better…….’
Contrary to what the convenience store gallery users had said about there being almost no way to calm her down, she was gradually calming down.
I stood there awkwardly, letting her use my body.
Letting her smell me was far better than letting her destroy the convenience store.
I could feel the heat radiating from her body, which was a little hotter than an ordinary human’s.
How much time had passed?
At some point, Sonya stopped sniffing my body but continued standing there, half leaning against me.
“…Fin, ished?”
At my question, she nodded.
“I’m, sor, ry.”
She said she was sorry, but she was still clinging tightly to me.
“If you’re calm now, please put some distance between us first……”
“Excuse me, Mr. Mincheol.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you wear the perfume I gave you?”
After finishing her question, she raised her head and looked up at me.
Her amber eyes were half unfocused.
“…What?”
“I said it was a gift……. Why didn’t you wear it?”
***
The sensation at my fingertips was strange.
I had been hungry and had wanted to eat.
But before I knew it, the triangle kimbap crushed miserably in my grasp was tumbling to the floor.
I stared blankly down at the rice and seasoning stuck to my hand.
‘……I can’t control my strength.’
My mind was hazy, as though a dense fog had settled inside it.
The aftermath of the rampage I had experienced on the seventy-fourth floor still hadn’t completely faded.
I had thought I would be fine once I left the dungeon.
Just in case, I had run without direction to release the heat building up inside my body.
I thought I’d dissipated all the remaining heat.
But by the time I stopped running and arrived at the convenience store in a daze.
The heat began boiling up again.
Even though a long time had passed since I left the dungeon, my body was still full of heat that refused to subside.
‘No. If this continues…….’
To cool the surging heat, I blindly searched for something cold.
I merely grabbed the handle and pulled to open the refrigerator door.
Crack-crunch-!
Along with a terrifying metallic screech, the glass door handle tore off completely.
I blinked blankly at the chunk of metal in my hand.
Ah. I’d have to pay for this.
This was bad.
Why couldn’t I control my strength?
“Store pro, perty dam, age con, firmed. Threat level, high. Begin, ning sup, pres, sion.”
At that moment, the red golem by the counter began radiating a menacing hostility toward me.
Then.
-Fight.
-Kill it.
-Tear apart the enemy in front of you.
Numerous voices clamored inside my head.
The voices that had tormented me inside the dungeon.
I could hear the voices that had paralyzed my reason and urged me to act on nothing but the beast’s instincts.
Irresistible.
Deadly voices.
My vision began turning red again.
My muscles swelled, and the mana flowing through my blood rose to a razor-sharp edge.
No.
I can’t do this.
Don’t.
I—I’m one of the proud Seven Heroes.
I won’t give in to instincts like these.
I endured it before.
Whirr-. Whirr-.
Even the faintest sound of the golem moving reached my ears with painful clarity.
As the beast’s instincts filled the place where reason should have been, the beast’s dormant senses awoke.
Noisy.
Far too noisy.
That insolent lump of a golem.
How dare it order me around?
Does it even know who I am?
I wanted to bite through that noisy golem’s neck right away.
I wanted to smash its core and erase its very existence.
Just as I crouched down, preparing to kick off the floor and lunge forward.
“Mr. Golem, stop! Please stop! She’s a customer!”
Someone suddenly cut in with an urgent voice.
A familiar voice.
Kim Mincheol.
That human.
The convenience store employee.
The only man who hadn’t been afraid of me.
It was his back.
And the moment he stepped in front of me and approached.
Whoosh.
The deep, refreshing scent of a forest brushed the tip of my nose.
A clear, invigorating energy swept over me as if washing my entire body clean.
‘What is this smell?’
It felt as if my boiling mind had instantly turned cold.
The rampaging mana became calm as if by magic the moment it touched that fresh fragrance.
The voices that had sounded like static gradually quieted, too.
And amid that mysterious forest scent.
The rich scent of a male body, slightly damp with sweat, mixed in.
The raw, unadorned smell of a human male.
Desire began to boil.
A man.
A male.
The voices telling me to kill him gradually disappeared.
-Go to that man.
-Make that man yours……
The fading voices told me to approach that man.
For some reason, I didn’t want to resist them.
As if under a spell, I approached him and roughly pulled down my mask.
I buried my face between his neck and shoulder and inhaled deeply.
Sniff, sniff.
What a good smell.
“Excuse me? Customer?!”
I could feel him stiffen in surprise, but I couldn’t stop.
A little more.
Just a little more.
The voices clouding my mind disappeared completely.
I felt a little disappointed.
But that lasted only a moment, and I decided to lose myself a little longer in the comforting scent.
“Haa…….”
Exhaling hot breath, I let the tension fall from my shoulders.
I leaned half my body against him.
I’m calming down.
I want to keep leaning against him like this.
But at the same time, a small sense of disappointment stirred.
‘……It’s missing.’
It was definitely a refreshing, pleasant body scent.
A smell that made me feel at ease.
But the scent that should have been the clearest was missing.
The perfume containing my mana—the perfume I had given him myself.
I couldn’t sense the trace that would mark him as someone under my protection.
Even through my hazy mind, that disappointment spread into a strange sense of hurt.
Without lifting my face from his body, I slowly raised my head.
His flustered face, looking down at me, entered my view.
“Excuse me, Mr. Mincheol.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you wear the perfume I gave you?”
I asked in a small, petulant voice.
“…What?”
“I said it was a gift……. Why didn’t you wear it?”
I wanted my mark to linger on you.
Why didn’t you wear it?