Chapter 60
As soon as Gabi saw Priella, she covered her nose and waved her hand.
“What kind of elf is dirtier than a goblin that’s rolled around in the dirt? Ugh, what a smell.”
“W-what! You’re still as rude as ever! I’ve just returned from experiencing the sacredness of labor! A-and besides, elves are supposed to smell like the forest!”
Priella snapped at Gabi.
“Ugh, you smell like an old tree……. Granny elf.”
“G-granny?! You know our race has a long lifespan, so how dare you pick a fight over my age? If you think about it, you’re older than I am!”
Priella pointed accusingly at Gabi, outraged by the age attack.
But Gabi merely shrugged and smiled nonchalantly.
“What are you talking about? Angels don’t age physically in the first place, you know? Time flows differently for angels~. I’m eternally twenty.”
That didn’t sound like something the person who had been chain-smoking that morning with dark circles under her eyes should be saying.
I swallowed that thought instead of saying it aloud.
Priella let out an incredulous breath.
“You shameless brat! Your feathers only smell like stale cigarettes! You unemployed pigeon!”
“Eek, pigeon? That’s a little harsh. I don’t smell that bad, you know?”
“Hmph, you’re a NEET who spends all day cooped up in your room chain-smoking. Of course you smell.”
Apparently, that struck Gabi too, because she hesitated and took a step back.
“Ugh……. And I’m not unemployed, okay? I’m a respectable person who earns an honest living through gold farming.”
Priella let out an exasperated breath at Gabi’s shameless insistence that she wasn’t unemployed.
“Then what are you going to tell other people your occupation is?”
“Hmm……. Ummmm……”
After thinking for a moment, Gabi snickered and shrugged.
“Why bother explaining it to other people?”
She dodged the question.
“You admitted it! You admitted that you’re unemployed!”
“I didn’t! It’s just hard to explain. It’s a little embarrassing to tell people that I’m protecting multiple worlds.”
Priella let out a deep sigh at Gabi’s shameless response.
“Forget it. What’s the point of talking to you? I feel like I’m the only one getting dumber.”
After scratching her head, she turned to me.
“Oh, and Mr. Mincheol, I think you need to be careful from now on.”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“I was looking at the community on my way home, and there’s been a lot of talk lately about the person who conquered the seventy-fourth floor. They say he has the exact same name as you.”
“Ah……”
“They say he’s an incredible reclusive master, strong enough to support that wolfkin kid from the Seven Heroes on his way out. Apparently, the Project Guild is in an uproar……. Well, I suppose it’s only natural they’d be shocked when someone stronger than their guild’s representative hunter appears.”
Priella glanced around, leaned toward me, and whispered.
“If they find out that a weak human with no mana like you has the same name as that person, some nasty people might see your name tag and pick a fight with you. So it would be better to cover that name tag for the time being.”
Priella advised me with a serious expression.
I couldn’t bring myself to tell her, ‘I’m that Kim Mincheol.’
Gabi seemed to realize right away that I was that Kim Mincheol.
Ms. Priella really isn’t very perceptive……
At that moment, Gabi’s shoulders began to tremble.
“Pfft, hahaha! The name tag……! Cough! Cough! Kyahaha!”
In the end, Gabi couldn’t hold back her bubbling laughter and leaned against the wall, clutching her stomach.
As Gabi slapped the wall with her palm and laughed until she was out of breath, Priella clicked her tongue.
“Honestly, you’re like a pigeon with no manners whatsoever. Anyway, Mr. Mincheol, you should avoid revealing your name as much as possible for a while. Understood? Don’t take my advice lightly.”
“Uh, well.”
“…Yes. I’ll keep that in mind. There’s no harm in being careful.”
I discreetly turned my name tag around.
Only then did Priella nod in satisfaction.
“But did you come here because of that? Aren’t you going to buy anything else?”
“Ahem, I-I’d like to buy something too……. But payday was a little while ago, and my finances aren’t in very good shape yet.”
After fidgeting for a while, she took a lollipop from the counter.
“Just this one……”
“That’ll be five hundred won.”
Gabi, who had been laughing for a while, looked at her and cocked her head.
“Huh? Ms. Priella, don’t tell me you still haven’t spent that money on yourself?”
“Be quiet.”
“You make a ton of money working at construction sites. So wash up, buy some pretty clothes instead of sweats, and treat yourself to something delicious. You’re so kind it’s stupid, and all you ever do is suffer.”
There was a strangely pointed barb in her words.
Her tone was sarcastic, but if one listened closely, it was a nagging lecture tinged with sympathy for the elf queen who kept working one hard-labor job after another.
But didn’t that apply to Gabi, too?
Wash up, buy some pretty clothes instead of sweats……
Gabi wasn’t exactly in a position to criticize anyone else.
But I felt like the sparks would fly toward me if I interrupted here, so I kept my mouth shut.
Someone once said that silence could sometimes be the best medicine.
“There are elves in this city who trusted me and followed me here. When I think of the future of the elves, I can’t spend extravagantly on myself. As their queen, I have a responsibility to support and lead my people!”
“Well, aren’t you a splendid queen? If you work yourself to death, your people will be absolutely thrilled.”
“I’m at least a hundred times better than you, wasting your time cooped up in your room!”
As though she had found an opportunity to counterattack, Priella pointed at Gabi’s stretched-out sweats and three-striped slippers.
“You should work, too! Work! How did someone who was once so incredible end up like this?”
“Ah, why would I go through the trouble of doing that?”
Even at Priella’s words, Gabi leisurely stretched.
“I’ve spent my entire life working myself to the bone for other people, you know? I’ve done enough now, and I even receive a pension, so there’s no reason to go looking for more hardship. I’d rather stay exactly as I am than get tangled up with angels again.”
“That’s escapism! Aren’t you ashamed to let your abilities rot away in a room?”
“Why would I be ashamed? Living foolishly like Ms. Priella is even more idiotic~.”
“Y-you irredeemable pigeon……”
The two glared at each other before turning their eyes toward me.
“Mr. Mincheol, what do you think? Surely you believe labor is important, too?”
“Mr. Mincheol, say something to this stuffy old lady. She doesn’t understand my NEET life.”
Hmm.
The sparks I had tried so hard to avoid had finally landed on me.
It was just when I was wondering how I should answer.
Ding-.
The employee-only door opened, and.
“Do not bully Jinjo’s right-hand man.”
The savior had descended.
The manager, who had already changed into her uniform, looked back and forth between Priella and Gabi with an exasperated expression.
“If you are going to come to someone else’s store and interfere with business, then get out immediately.”
“Ugh……”
“Eek.”
At the manager’s appearance, the two people(?) who had been fighting so triumphantly shrank their shoulders a little.
“I do not know why you keep coming here to bully my right-hand man……”
The manager approached the counter and looked up at Gabi and Priella, who were both taller than her.
“Are you not ashamed to be an angel? Even my right-hand man works this hard.”
“That’s right, that’s right. Even the vampire can see it. You need to be more cutting with your words. That’s the only way they’ll come to their senses.”
Priella added her own comment to the manager’s words.
The manager’s eyes narrowed when she heard that.
“…Freeloader elf, I understand that you want to save money for your people, but you cannot proudly take our convenience store’s expired lunch boxes just because of that, can you?”
“Oh my, Elfie, you do that too? No matter how you look at it, stealing expired food from someone else’s workplace is a bit much.”
This time, Gabi added her own comment.
The manager glanced at Gabi and clicked her tongue.
She clearly had plenty to say, but was holding it all back.
“…Tsk, enough. Everyone has their own reasons, so what good would it do to say anything? Now go. Shoo!”
The manager waved her arms as though chasing away bugs.
But neither of them moved an inch.
“I can’t leave.”
“Why?”
“There’s something I need to receive from Mr. Mincheol.”
But Gabi, too.
“I won’t leave either!”
“Freeloader elf, why are you staying?”
“Because I have to ensure Mr. Mincheol’s safety!”
Priella didn’t leave either.
She was probably staying to protect me from hunters who might mistake me for the person who shared my name.
The manager let out a deep sigh when she saw them.
“Right-hand man, how did you ever grow attached to these two? You should have taken in a cat beastkin you found on the road instead.”
“I’m sorry.”
I wasn’t sure why I apologized, but I felt like I should be sorry, so I lowered my head without thinking.
“Mr. Mincheol, if you keep acting like that, should I reveal your secret?”
“Mr. Mincheol! Are you ashamed of me?”
Their reactions made me feel like I should lower my head even further.
Leaving the two noisy burdens(?) behind, the manager and I reconciled the register.
There was nothing in particular to hand over, so we finished quickly.
The manager watched the two people snarling at each other in the corner of the convenience store and let out a sigh.
“…Do not let those two grab you and drag you around for no reason. Go straight home.”
“I’d like to, but I promised to buy something for Gabi.”
“…Are you planning to buy her a hamburger?”
“How did you know?”
“It is obvious what a NEET fallen angel wants.”
The manager, who let out a deep sigh, seemed much more mature than those two over there.
Even though she looked far younger than them.
In terms of behavior, the manager was much more……
-Bwaaaa! Didn’t you say we should play games with Jinjo!!!
-Jinjo is dead. There is no more Jinjo.
Hmm.
Or maybe not?
Anyway, the manager definitely looked mature right now.
“But you don’t say anything to Gabi.”
“What do you mean?”
“The last time an angel came, you even stormed into Salvation Corporation’s headquarters. But you don’t seem to say much to Gabi.”
“Ah.”
At my words, the manager looked at Gabi.
“What would be the point of hating a fallen angel who has no intention of returning to heaven? And Jinjo did not hate angels. Are angels not customers of our store as well?”
“Then why……”
“It was that ridiculous act of daring to lure someone to heaven from Jinjo’s territory that made me use my power. And the target was even……”
Her gaze turned toward me.
“My right-hand man.”
“Ah.”
“Do not misunderstand. I, I simply could not let them take my only part-time employee, and if my right-hand man left, I would have to work alone again, would I not? That would be a little, no, very boring……”
“Thank you. I didn’t know you thought I was that important.”
“Hmph! The position of my First Familiar is not given to just anyone!”
After checking the cigarette stock as well, I changed out of my uniform.
“Then I’ll be heading home.”
“Be careful.”
Beside me as I left work stood.
“Come on, time to collect my payment.”
“Where exactly are you going? We should go straight home.”
Gabi, who was determined to get her hamburger somehow, and.
Priella, who had sworn to guard me.
“I like McDoria. Booger King isn’t really my thing.”
“McDoria? Booger King? Are you really planning to buy this NEET a hamburger? No! Absolutely not! You shouldn’t buy her one unless dirt fills my eyes! If you buy her one even once, she’ll keep freeloading off you!”
“Elfie, this hamburger isn’t free, you know?”
“I told you not to call me Elfie! You pigeon!”
“Take back ‘pigeon’ and I’ll call you an elf, Elfie.”
Ah.
I missed the manager.
“If you two keep fighting like this, hamburger or no hamburger, I’m going straight home.”
“Eek!”
At that, Gabi was the first to shut her mouth.
“That’s a good idea. Going straight home is……”
“If you don’t want to see the World Tree anymore, keep fighting.”
“A-anything but that……”
Priella also fell silent when I brought up the World Tree.
It’s finally quiet.
By the way.
‘That’s unexpected. I thought she and Ms. Belarus were practically sworn enemies, but she doesn’t seem to get along that badly with Gabi……’
A fallen angel is an angel who has fallen, right?
Then wouldn’t she be almost on the level of a demon?
Judging by the reactions of the angel employees at Salvation Corporation, they acted as though they had encountered a demon.
Surprisingly, Priella didn’t seem to be on such bad terms with Gabi.
They kept bickering, but fighting this much usually meant they were close enough to be comfortable with each other.
If they had genuinely hated each other, they wouldn’t have spoken at all.
Thinking that, I arrived at the nearby McDoria with the two of them, who had finally fallen silent.
The logo, with an M and an L overlapping, glowed red.
Taepyeong City’s signature fast-food joint.
“Welcome~. This is McDoria~.”
A dog beastkin employee in a uniform greeted us, and.
“Ms. Gabi, choose a set.”
“Hehe, the premium set is okay too, right?”
“Of course. Since you’re here, get something tasty.”
“As expected, rich people think differently. I salute you.”
Gabi carefully chose her menu.
But Priella was fidgeting restlessly beside me.
“What’s wrong?”
“I-it’s just that it feels a little awkward to hang around when I’m not even going to order anything……”
Ah.
Her financial situation was worse than anyone else’s I knew.
Her finances were probably even worse than Gabi’s, who was beaming as she chose a hamburger.
She seemed to have her own story, but I still hadn’t heard the reason.
Seeing how obsessed she was with elves and the World Tree, I could only speculate that the two were connected somehow.
Since she had come all the way here with us, it felt wrong to simply tell her to leave.
She had followed me to protect me from the hunters.
It wasn’t as though I didn’t know about her financial situation.
“Ms. Priella.”
“Y-yes?”
“Pick something. I’ll buy you one.”
“…B-but……”
“You treated me to a meal once before. This is my way of repaying you.”
My words made her face turn red.
“Th-then, if you don’t mind……”
Just as Priella was looking at the menu to choose a hamburger.
“Mr. Mincheol, you’re quite the player.”
Gabi had approached at some point and was grinning at me.
“It’s not like that.”
“What a sinful man, blessed with such luck with women. At this rate, you’ll charm even an angel.”
“……”
“I’m just kidding.”