Chapter 165
“Eat up. Your circumstances haven’t been good lately, so you probably haven’t been able to eat properly.”
“No, it wasn’t to that extent.”
I’ve been eating and living so well lately. Sey’s House, in particular, has a suspiciously large number of good ingredients, making me so happy to be freeloading there.
Of course, before moving into Sey’s House, I hadn’t been eating that well, but I still managed to eat three meals a day, even if I had to make do with low-grade meal packs…
“No, a meal pack!”
Ms. Kim suddenly burst into tears again. No, why again? What’s the problem this time?
“To think a kitchen that made first-class cuisine was reduced to surviving on those tasteless factory meal packs. Your circumstances really were bad, and you couldn’t eat properly!”
No, this is normal, living in The Deep. In fact, someone like me didn’t even have to worry about starving.
Considering how many people in Dusk City can’t even afford a meal pack, what a gold spoon remark this was!
I guarantee that if you carelessly said something like this on a street in The Deep, or at our bar, you’d get your head smashed in and then some.
It was when I was thinking that and awkwardly looking around.
People were whispering again.
“Goodness, a meal pack…”
“Isn’t a meal pack that thing? The thing they make at your factory? I heard that’s what beggars eat.”
“Was that something a real person could actually eat? Even my smarty-pants at home wouldn’t eat it when I gave it to him.”
My head spun for a moment.
Every single one of them was spouting unimaginable remarks. Are these people really living in the same world as me?
“Come to think of it, it really is Another World.”
If you said something like that in The Deep of Dusk, you’d immediately get into a fight and be beaten to death. However, this is the upper levels, and The Consortium Club on the top floor at that.
In the world inhabited by the prominent tycoons invited here and their companions, what they were saying was extreme common sense, and what I was saying was Strange Nonsense.
To think I’d feel the Wealth Gap in this kind of way.
'I’m craving a proletarian revolution…'
For a moment, the urge to become a New Mecha Communist and advocate for the Abolition of Private Property flared up like wildfire, but after taking a bite of the fried cod steak served as the main dish with a thick, spicy tomato sauce, that anger naturally melted away like snow.
This place is really good at cooking. At first glance, you might wonder if it’s really that amazing of a dish, but once you eat it, the flavor contained within is extraordinary.
I could feel the kitchen’s inner mastery. It was to the point where I wanted to see their face.
As expected, nothing makes a person happier than delicious food. This Fantastic Cuisine must also be the sweet fruit of a capitalist society…
No matter how irrational the world is, it’s nearly impossible to be angry at reality while tasting such a delicacy. Just like that, the specter named Communism that had been roaming inside my chest lost its power and faded away.
Ridiculously high-level cuisine continued to come out, which I savored and ate deliciously, while the people around me repeatedly watched with pitying eyes.
Considering it the price to pay for enjoying a filling gourmet meal at a high-end hotel restaurant, I wasn’t bothered at all by the questions Ms. Kim threw in between.
“So, if it’s not rude to ask - what did you talk about with Miss Alexandra? From what I saw, you two were whispering like lovebirds at a distance close enough to feel each other’s breath. Now, what’s the relationship between you two!”
“I think it’s exactly the same as the relationship between you and me, Ms. Kim, nothing more and nothing less.”
“Oh my, how sneaky of you… Was our relationship at that level? Comparable to your this and that relationship with Miss Schneider?”
I’d love it, but - no, I’m a person with a partner and principles. I shouldn’t just give in so easily. Absolutely not. But if you push a little harder with some force, I might just give in without realizing it…?”
As she said that, she sent me a Seductive Gaze, and a cold sweat ran down my neck from the creepiness.
The fatal seduction of a woman with male genitalia between her legs. I feel this every time, but it’s truly hard to get used to.
The problem is that this is a Cyber-Gender Punk World where you have to adapt to survive, damn it.
“Of course, it’s the relationship between an ordinary customer and an employee met at a bar. Just like you, Ms. Kim, Young Lady Schneider also visited Dragon’s Lair. Though it was only exactly once.”
“Oh my, she visited exactly once, and with that single shot, you shot cupid’s arrow right into the Young Lady’s heart? This is why you have to be careful around bartenders. Every single one of them is a player/pro.”
I lightly ignored her and continued speaking.
“I helped her out with something back then, and I just heard her Words of Gratitude a moment ago. It was quite a surprising experience for me as well.”
“She invited you to The Consortium Club just because you helped her a bit, and even stuck so close to you to talk? That’s a bit hard to believe.”
“Whether you believe it or not, I’m just stating the facts. Also, I received the invitation not from Miss Schneider, but from her father, Mr. Schneider.”
“Hmm? No way? From that old man? You’re not lying, are you?”
“Why would I tell a lie that would be found out so quickly?”
“If you’re really suspicious, should I show you the invitation?' When I said that much, Ms. Kim shook her head and pulled her body, which had been leaning far forward, back into her seat.”
“No, excuse me for that. I wasn’t trying to doubt you; I was just surprised. It’s true that you’re an incredibly interesting person, Mr. bartender, but I never imagined your demonic charm would work on the Schneider Family Head. Labyrinth…? Do you happen to know why he invited you?”
“Not at all.”
I said with a shrug.
I don’t know how I ended up here either. Just a few hours ago, I was rolling around on the sofa.
I have some guesses… but they’re just guesses, and I’d like to know the inner workings of Stance myself.
Ms. Kim, who had been persistently interrogating me, also seemed to lose interest and pouted her plump lips when I consistently answered all her questions with something along the lines of, 'Wouldn’t that be the Schneider Family’s business? As mere bar staff, I have no way of knowing, and even if I did, I don’t think I could tell you, Ms. Kim.'
“Hmm… You slip away so well like a sly fox. Why is the fun of teasing you less than the last time I saw you?”
“…Thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Praise be to the Ever Vending Machine Bobby and the numerous crossdresser customers at the bar who provided me with the foundation for a steel mentality that doesn’t easily waver even at vulgar sexual jokes.
Not that much time has passed, but I’m not the me of the past either. I’ve grown a level!
“Still, I saw a new side of you today, Mr. bartender. A former executive chef, who could have imagined? You’re handsome and good at cooking, plus, for some unknown reason, you have the connections to get invited by Schneider… You know what? I’m starting to like you more and more.”
“Uh…”
“Ahaha, it’s a joke. It’s a joke, so don’t make that face. I’ll get hurt, you know?”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
“But actually, it’s not a joke.”
“…”
steel mentality that doesn’t easily waver, my ass. I forcefully grabbed hold of my composure, which was shaking like a paper castle at the light one-two punch of the born predator, Ms. Kim.
“If there were no eyes watching, I’d just go ahead and commit a kidnapping… Even putting Isiho aside, that would be difficult because of the bar owner, right? What a shame. As expected, all the good men are already taken.”
Was it just my imagination that the pale light of the optic lens flashing past me gave off a creepy, calculated feeling, like that of a dealer/trader contemplating how to slaughter meat?
Ms. Kim smacked her lips as if it were a shame and snapped her fingers. At the same time, unidentified data was received through my Cyberwatch.
“It’s my electronic business card. It’s a waste to let your talent rot, and I genuinely covet you as a person, so think about it carefully. I’m even willing to hire you as an exclusive kitchen. No matter how scary Isiho is, my side is nothing to scoff at either, you know? I can cover that much with my power.”
Well, is that really true?
I know very well that Ms. Kim is no ordinary person. She must be a magnate beyond my imagination. It goes without saying, considering she can set foot in The Consortium Club.
But can she compare to Isiho’s Iron Blood Chairman? No matter how capable she is, her weight class, power, wealth, and even wickedness wouldn’t even compare.
I shouldn’t naively think that I can escape just by paying a penalty fee with a premium, like an exercise transfer.
I emphasize this time and time again, but the Isiho Chairman will absolutely never let go of the property in her hands, no matter what happens.
There’s no need to explain that I, a direct employee, am included as part of the Chairman’s property.
A human figure like a greedy evil dragon from an epic, who hoards treasures like a mountain and conducts thorough surveillance to ensure not a single piece slips away - perhaps closer to the classic image of a dragon than Dragon President himself.
For me to escape, well, Wouldn’t I have to offer up at least one profitable company as a price?
Even that might not be enough. It would actually be a relief if that alone could satisfy her.
Karin Isiho is the kind of person who, if I offered up a corporation, rather than giving me freedom in return, would say, “So you were this useful a guy! I need to keep a tighter hold on you,” and tighten the shackles binding me.
“Well then, I have some urgent business, so I’ll be going now. I spent too much time just because I saw someone I knew. There’s a special person I absolutely have to meet here… I might regret it if I miss them.”
“Ah, yes.”
“I hope you seriously consider my proposal. If you work under me, I won’t even make dirty jokes! How about it? Aren’t those good conditions? Hahaha.”
As if she really had urgent business, Ms. Kim left just like that.
No, that’s actually a pretty tempting condition.
It would be easier on my mind to just dismiss it as a joke, but seeing as she even sent an electronic business card, it doesn’t seem to be one. It really seems like a proper offer.
I smacked my lips with a strange sense of regret.
Dragon’s Lair, where I’m working now, is good too. I’ve grown attached to the people, and I’m getting paid quite well… Of course, it’s all good, but ultimately, a single change of heart from the Isiho Chairman could mean I’d be doing completely different work at a completely different workplace again, due to my affiliation.
Rather than a life of just being dragged around like this, working under Ms. Kim might definitely be better.
It’s funny to evaluate a customer I haven’t even known for long, but aside from her sexual identity and the obvious advances she throws at me, she seems like a decent person herself.
As you can tell just by looking at her neat attire and hairstyle, that type of person, separate from their everyday appearance, is usually sharp at work handling, making them perfectly suited to be a superior.
In the end, the problem was that I was in a position where I couldn’t choose any other options.
A soliloquy slipped out like a complaint.
“Damn it, how did I end up joining such a Black Company? Fing Isiho.”
Of course, it was a situation where I had no other choice back then. If not for Isiho, what other corporation would have hidden me from the military, made me a fake ID, and even given me a job?
I know very well that resenting my past choices is meaningless. Still, a regret is a regret.
It was when I was shaking my head and about to get up from my seat.
For some reason, the atmosphere had frozen cold. It was to the point where I could hear the people around me swallowing their saliva with tension.
What is it?
An ice-cold voice was heard from behind my back.
“Fing Isiho?”
My brain stopped for a moment.