Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Chapter 31 Newcomer (1)

It had been a stormy weekend.

The guild gathering had been trouble I had willingly brought upon myself, but everything afterward had been a continuous string of incidents that were difficult to handle.

Thanks to that, I had even slept so soundly that I couldn't watch MeTube.

When I came down to the coffeehouse in the refreshing morning sunlight for the first time in a while, the Elder Nine-Tailed Fox and Lia were already sitting there.

"You're here early."

"Early, you say? The sun is already high in the sky."

"Good morning!"

"Yeah, Lia, you're up early too."

It was seven o'clock, far too early for the sun to be high in the sky.

"Would you like some coffee? I need a cup myself."

"Make mine strong."

I went into the kitchen, put water in the kettle, and took out two coffee cups.

-Tap. Tap, tap.

The coffee powder, creamer, and sugar all went precisely into the cups without a single grain spilling beside them.

Funny how even something like this improves with practice.

I was no longer the person I used to be, fumbling with the recipe notebook and counting carefully as I measured out the exact amounts.

One shot, one hit.

Once the teaspoon scooped something up, it rarely deviated from the proper amount anymore.

And so two cups of strongly fragrant coffee were placed on the table.

"Did you see the news? Fortunately, it looks like everything was handled well."

"Do not even mention it. Mahyeon pestered me so much that I nearly went directly to the person above him."

I played the news video I had bookmarked.

(Yesterday evening at approximately 8:30 p.m., a waterspout was observed in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province. The phenomenon is named for the way the rising vortex of wind resembles a dragon ascending to the heavens. The waterspout swept through a deserted plaza in Siheung for approximately five minutes before disappearing. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but one vehicle was severely damaged, causing temporary confusion in the area...)

"So to ordinary people, it just looks like a natural phenomenon."

"Heh heh. Otherwise, how could any dragon successfully ascend? They would all have been caught by tiger-hunting soldiers before they ever made it up and gone extinct long ago."

Natural selection among monsters, perhaps?

Any monster that caught the eyes of humans probably met a bad end.

After all, even we had tracked down Yongman, who had been hiding thoroughly, and beaten him to a pulp.

"Still, I'm really glad he made it safely to the Celestial Realm. And Lia is fine too."

"What happened to the car?"

"Fortunately, I found a repair shop that can fix it."

"You're going to repair that piece of junk and keep driving it?"

"The owner of the repair shop said that considering it fell from the sky, it's in miraculously good condition. If it can be fixed, I should fix it."

Fortunately, the car Yongman had ridden into the sky was found in an empty rice paddy.

I had assumed it would be absorbed into Yongman and go with him to the Celestial Realm, but unfortunately, it ended up crashing into a paddy embankment without a driver.

By an incredible stroke of luck, aside from the broken windows and a few dents here and there, the interior was intact.

"Tsk. Frugality is a disease too, a disease. I thought this might finally be your chance to drive a sedan."

"But doesn't it have good energy attached to it now? It's the Ascension Edition. A rare car you couldn't buy even with money."

That was technically true. It was over twenty years old, so the insurance company couldn't even give it a used-car value.

"Fine, repair your expensive car and drive it for another thousand years. And bring me another cup of coffee before you go back to work."

"You already finished it? Too much coffee first thing in the morning isn't good for your health."

"Your face plainly says you're annoyed. You charge such an expensive price and nag me every time, tsk."

That was true. The Elder paid four thousand won a month for coffee, while coffee at our shop cost three thousand won a cup.

Things had gone wrong from the very first button.

From the moment I accepted five million won for a single cup of coffee.

Next came the Divine Tree leaf, then the ring made from divine stone, and finally even a Dragon Pearl.

If this kept going, I couldn't even guess what might come next.

The time had come for drastic measures.

After serving the Elder another cup of coffee, I came back holding a printed sheet of A4 paper.

"What is that?"

"From now on, it's the motto of our coffeehouse."

『Pay for coffee with money』

"You intend to hang that up and run a business? This is a joke, surely?"

"I'm serious. Look. I even found a frame in the storage room and put it in."

I printed the phrase in the largest font possible so it would be immediately noticeable, and hung it beside the business registration certificate.

They say a company motto should embody an enterprising spirit, but not in my coffeehouse.

Even the only written instructions besides the menu, "PULL" and "PUSH," were routinely ignored. If I didn't put something like this up, there was no telling what disaster might happen next.

Compared to things I had once seen happen at independently owned cafés,

"A customer paid for his meal with a shoe store gift certificate."

"A foreign customer says he only has money from his own country. What should I do?"

situations like those now seemed practically angelic.

This couldn't continue.

I would rather not have anything nonhuman coming here anymore.

_____________

-Jingle.

Not long after Jinseong put up the notice and went into his study, the coffeehouse door swung open energetically.

"I have arrived!"

"Huh? It's Sani!"

"It's been a while."

"It really has been a long while! Hmm, about this long!"

Sani tried to calculate the number of days in his own way, but in the end, he merely spread both arms wide.

"Since the raccoon dog is here, I should be going now. Now that I have this phone, Mahyeon contacts me almost every hour. Honestly, if he is so curious, he should simply ask me himself."

"Huh? That's a phone!"

"Ah, right. You were hibernating, so you wouldn't know. Lia and I have phones now. What do you think? Impressive, isn't it?"

"Mine is pink!"

They were not exactly phones worth boasting about.

The one the nine-tailed fox had received in particular was so battered on the outside that it was amazing it still turned on.

But to Sani, whose only electronic device was the headlamp Jinseong had given him, it looked no different from a brand-new smartphone worth millions of won.

"That's unfair! You said buying one was too annoying when I asked!"

"I did not buy it. Jinseong gave it to me. Well then, raccoon dog without a phone, stay well. Heh heh."

"Have a safe trip!"

"Yes, I will come tomorrow. Contact me if anything happens."

The nine-tailed fox waved his phone obnoxiously until the very end as he left the coffeehouse.

"Where is Jinseong? I need to receive a phone too."

His attitude was incredibly confident.

Like the rightful crown prince returning to reclaim his throne.

"He's working right now, so you can't. Mister said not to come in while he's working."

"Then I won't go in. I'll ask him from outside!"

"Huh?"

"Jinseo—Mmph!"

"No!"

Lia hurriedly covered Sani's mouth as he tried to shout in front of Jinseong's study.

'This is bad. Sani keeps trying to cause trouble. What should I do?'

Normally, it was not something she worried about.

She wasn't the one who got scolded, after all.

But now that a soul dwelled within her body, Lia had begun to think a little more deeply.

"There are too many things I'm not allowed to do."

"It's only two things. Don't go into Mister's room. Don't make loud noises. Easy, right? Right? Let's play house. Then he'll come out soon."

"Play house?"

"Yeah!"

'Now he won't try to go inside, right?'

A lecture tailored to his level of understanding, accompanied by subtle persuasion.

Playing house was Sani's favorite game, since he couldn't fit inside Lia's house.

He would surely become absorbed in it right away and completely forget about wanting to enter Jinseong's room.

But that was a complacent plan born from underestimating Sani.

The determination of a divine beast who had lived for thousands of years was far greater than Lia, who had not even been born a year ago, could imagine.

"I've thought of a way!"

"No! Don't think of one!"

-Patterpatterpatter.

It was already too late to stop him.

Lia tried to catch him, but Sani had already run upstairs.

"Ugh, what are you trying to do now?"

"I need paper and a brush! And I need a rope too!"

"T-These?"

"That's right!"

The items Sani wanted were easy to find.

A4 paper left over from when Jinseong printed the motto, along with a ballpoint pen and a clothesline, substituted for the brush and straw rope.

"Now I'm going to climb down the rope from above. Then I can meet Jinseong directly."

"Ah."

It was obviously something he should not do.

Lia couldn't explain exactly why, but instinctively knew this was wrong.

But she had no grounds to stop him.

She herself had already stated the two restrictions, and Sani's plan exploited a loophole in them perfectly.

"I'll tie this rope here."

"Wait, that's too dangerous!"

"I'm a divine beast, so it's fine. Now give me the paper."

Reluctantly, Lia handed over the paper she had been holding.

『Buy me a phone too』

"Then I'm off!"

-Zip.

As Sani climbed down, the clothesline pulled taut.

Afraid it might come loose, Lia desperately clung to the rope with her tiny hands and held on.

How much time passed like that?

Just as her hands were beginning to go numb from gripping the rope, Sani climbed back up.

"The rope is too short!"

Then he actually cut the clothesline hanging on the rooftop and tied more of it onto the railing.

But after climbing down again, Sani once more had to come back up.

"Now it's too long!"

'Don't tell me he's trying to make it exactly the right length?'

For the first time since gaining a soul, Lia encountered an immense fear she could barely handle.

The fear of realizing that all this time, she had been laughing and playing with a being to whom common sense and logic simply did not apply.

_______________

(Manager Kim, a few documents are missing here.)

(You're right.)

"The project from Samjeong Construction last time is missing the profitability section of the feasibility assessment. The Sales Department still hasn't sent over all the materials. And..."

(Manager Kim! Behind you! Behind you!)

"Behind me?"

I turned around, but there was nothing there.

I wasn't the type to decorate my house in the first place, so there was truly nothing behind me except the window.

(I swear there was something black at the window behind you just now! Manager Lee, didn't you see it?)

(Department Head, you're teasing Manager Kim again because he's working alone in the countryside. Don't you ever get tired of it?)

(No, I'm telling you, it was really there! Good grief, this is frustrating!)

"Should I continue?"

(Huh? Oh, sure.)

"Because the order was issued in such a hurry, the Planning Team has started work for now, and the submission documents are still..."

(Aaaagh! There! There!)

But once again, there was nothing there.

Was he really just teasing me?

(You should've turned around faster!)

"If you're really that worried, I'll step outside and take a look."

(No! That's exactly what the guy who dies first in a horror movie says! Keep your eyes fixed on the window from there! Don't open it either! No, call the police first!)

(Department Head Cha, are you slacking off again instead of working?)

(No, there was something strange at Manager Kim's house! Something black, or maybe brown? Anyway, something fluffy... Aaaaaagh! It's back!)

Fortunately, on the third attempt, I managed not to miss whatever mysterious thing the Department Head had been seeing.

The cause of the commotion was Sani.

Struggling pitifully while hanging from a rope.

They say you don't notice someone's presence until they're gone.

I had missed Sani.

Even amid all the chaos, there had been moments when I suddenly longed to hear his innocent voice again.

But I had never wanted to meet him again like this.

Never.