Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Chapter 37 Newcomer (7)

“Whew! It was thiiiiis delicious! Pork cutlet really is the best!”

Sani patted his bulging belly, which had grown so round that I wondered whether he could actually roll around on it.

“Tsk. Just how many plates did you eat by yourself? I would believe you were a pig rather than a raccoon dog.”

“Fox is stupid. You have to eat a lot at once so you won't feel like eating again later.”

“No matter how much you eat, all you ever think about is eating more, is it not?”

“Fox drinks coffee every day too. I only eat one meal, but Fox bothers Jinseong this... hmm... this much!”

“Sani has a point there, Elder.”

“Indeed, it is all my own doing. Since we have brought it up, let us have another cup of coffee.”

“I want milk!”

I shouldn't have taken Sani's side. Just when I thought I could finally rest after finishing the dishes.

I had no choice but to return to the kitchen.

-Whirrrrr.

The dishwasher I had bought a few days earlier was running vigorously in the kitchen.

Yes, you're the only one in this coffeehouse who helps me.

Apart from the food ingredients and the commercial refrigerator, which appeared to have been replaced relatively recently, most things in this kitchen were over twenty years old. The dishwasher was the only modern kitchen appliance I had personally introduced.

As one of the three miraculous household appliances, the dishwasher truly lived up to its reputation.

All I had to do was give the dishes a quick rinse and put them inside, and they came out much cleaner than when I washed them myself.

It had been worth breaking my rule against adding unnecessary equipment.

Then again, after suffering through the cleanup following the Hero's Path gathering, I had chosen the most expensive model without even looking at the price, so it had better be worth the money.

With no need to worry about washing up, I took out plenty of cups and arranged them on a tray.

“I came to help!”

“It's okay. It's dangerous, so go play.”

“Then can I watch from a distance?”

“Wouldn't playing with Sani be more fun?”

“If I learn, I can help you later when you're busy, Mister.”

Lia never said that playing was more fun.

Come to think of it, whenever I entered the kitchen, she always followed me inside to watch.

In the past, such offers of help had been nothing more than the pure goodwill of a kind child. But now, her circumstances were involved as well.

She was trying to make herself useful.

Ever since Lia gained a soul, she had become much more conscious of such things.

Strictly speaking, we weren't parent and child, were we?

Having realized that everything she wore, drank, and enjoyed in her daily life did not come from a parent's love, Lia had left me at a loss for words.

Partly because I wasn't the sort of person to make pleasant but empty promises when I couldn't guarantee anything, but also because I knew such words could hurt her later.

Even if there were reasons beyond simple pity behind my decision to care for Lia myself rather than entrust her to the National Intelligence Service, explaining them to Lia would be difficult.

There were no clear-cut answers when it came to people's hearts and emotions.

Instead, perhaps we could find those answers together. Through the time we spent with each other.

“Lia, how about we stay up all night playing games for the first time in a while? Whoever falls asleep first has to clean by themselves tomorrow. What do you think?”

“Sounds good!”

“I'll bring the coffee, so tell Sani and the Elder not to go home tonight either. Okay?”

“Yes!”

However, I made a terrible mistake that day.

I had completely forgotten that Sani couldn't play games on the phone—or rather, the electronic dictionary—I had given him.

Surely I could somehow get through this? Maybe Sani wasn't particularly interested in games after all...

“Waaaaaah!”

Sani's anguished wail came from outside.

Had he figured it out already?

-Patter, patter, patter.

Footsteps came rushing toward me with tremendous force.

“My phone can't play games like Fox's! Waaaaaah!”

____________

There is a saying that if you live a life of wrongdoing, your sins will eventually catch up with you.

The people closest to this saying are none other than the shamans who regularly visit our coffeehouse.

Because unless they wash away the sins of peeking into heavenly secrets and disturbing the world through good deeds, they will end up sitting in the very front seat of the bus to hell.

And the second closest person is probably me.

Perhaps I am already in that hell. The hell known as guilt.

“Ah, I pressed the wrong button! Again, again.”

-Tap. Tap.

Sani pressed the directional keys on his electronic dictionary in the same directions that I moved my character.

And that wasn't all.

He was sitting on my lap, playing along with the game while holding his electronic dictionary so close to my phone that the two devices were almost touching.

He looked just like a little child at an arcade who had run out of money and was imitating the person in front of him moving the joystick, except he was moving his hands through the air.

“Are those round things coins?”

“Well, yes.”

“You have to hurry and pick them up before someone else takes them.”

“They come to me automatically.”

“Ooooooh! It's like mystical arts!”

“...”

Whenever I stopped answering, he seemed to quiet down for a moment.

“You have to defeat that monster! If you defeat that monster, lots of coins will drop!”

“Do you just want to play yourself?”

“No. I want to play on my own phone. If I watch Jinseong's screen and press the buttons like this, it feels like I'm really playing...”

I would have to go buy a phone as soon as morning came.

At this rate, even my dreams would be haunted by guilt.

______________

Early the next morning.

Even on weekends, there were diligent people everywhere.

Daechun Department Store, where weekend business accounted for a major portion of its sales, was also busy preparing to open.

But this was far too early.

Although the sun had not even risen yet, the building was brightly illuminated as though it were about to welcome customers, and employees were lined up at the entrance.

Before long, a luxury SUV stopped in front of the lobby.

A middle-aged man who appeared to hold a fairly senior position hurried toward the driver's seat of the stopped vehicle.

“Welcome, sir. We'll take care of the parking.”

“Is anyone else coming besides me?”

“No, sir.”

“Then just leave it here.”

“Ah! Yes, sir!”

The man getting out of the car was none other than Joo Dohyeok.

“As you instructed, the employees from the relevant brands are ready to ensure that you experience no inconvenience whatsoever while shopping...”

“Children's clothes and toys first.”

Dohyeok interrupted the middle-aged man's lengthy explanation and stated his business concisely.

“I'll escort you to the fourth floor.”

Perhaps the branch manager had reached his position without any major difficulties thanks to his ability to read people.

Quickly recognizing Dohyeok's dislike of long explanations, the branch manager stopped talking and guided him with the utmost courtesy.

'I, Joo Dohyeok, can't show up empty-handed and embarrass myself. But why is there so much stuff here?'

The children's department they reached was far larger than Dohyeok had expected, with an enormous variety of merchandise on display.

There were dozens of clothing brands alone.

He had intended to simply point at a few things to make up a decent selection, but with so many choices, he couldn't bring himself to pick anything.

“Got anything popular for a little girl about this tall?”

In the end, Dohyeok pointed at his hip and shared what little information he knew about Lia with the employee.

“How old is she?”

“Age? I don't know. She's a white girl. No, wait, maybe she's mixed-race?”

“Pardon?”

“I said about this tall. No, was she shorter? Anyway, bring me everything popular. Don't worry about the price. Actually, the more expensive, the better!”

At Dohyeok's vague demands, the employees scattered throughout the children's department.

The children's department was notorious for having more than its fair share of difficult customers.

Its veteran employees had experienced all kinds of trouble dealing with such customers, but the demands of a member of the owner's family were exceptionally difficult to understand.

'What on earth does he want to buy?'

The only information they had was the child's gender and a height that changed every time he gestured somewhere around his thighs.

After much deliberation, the employees returned with tense expressions, their arms full of carefully selected products.

'What if he throws a tantrum because he doesn't like them?'

But their worries proved unfounded.

“Good! Load everything into my car. And this is for your trouble coming in so early. Buy yourselves some coffee.”

“Thank you!”

The thick bundle of fifty-thousand-won bills Dohyeok took from his wallet was enough for each employee to receive at least five or six bills.

It was an excessive bonus for coming to work early just once. The employees who had been whispering about his abuse of power now wore genuine smiles.

And so, less than an hour after Dohyeok arrived at the department store, his car was filled with gifts.

'Good. This should be enough, right?'

His plan was as follows.

At first, he had intended to bring a bundle of money and ask Jinseong to make him pork cutlet, just as he had done at Ginza Yume.

But that strategy had a clear limitation.

No matter how he dressed it up, he couldn't hide the truth that he had come to a shabby coffeehouse just to buy pork cutlet.

Because of that, he had to change his approach.

He would argue that, since Jinseong had given him a place to sleep for the night and even fed him breakfast, it was only right that he repay the favor.

And in case Jinseong refused, he had even taken the precaution of preparing gifts for the child instead of offering money.

Without realizing it, Joo Dohyeok's obsession with pork cutlet was gradually approaching madness.

____________

Around sunrise, at Jinseong's coffeehouse.

“Mmmyaaawn.”

“Wake up.”

-Smack, smack.

Still half asleep, Sani pushed away the arm shaking him, practically striking it with his hind legs.

“Oh, really?”

With practiced movements, Jinseong grabbed Sani's cheeks and stretched them far apart.

“Owowow! Why are you waking me up?!”

“Why do you think? We made a bet that whoever fell asleep first would have to clean. Here.”

“I wasn't the first one to fall asleep! Uh, um... We all fell asleep together!”

“I was wondering when you'd say that.”

Making ridiculous excuses was Sani's specialty.

Even this argument was entirely within Jinseong's expectations.

Jinseong opened his phone and enlarged a photograph taken the previous night.

In the picture, everyone was smiling brightly, with Sani lying in the middle, fast asleep with his belly exposed.

“It's unfair! I really wasn't sleeping! I just had my eyes closed!”

“Quiet. Dust everything first, then sweep the floor. The mop is outside, so don't try to clean the whole floor at once. Wash it after doing half, then clean the other half. You've done it before, so you know how, right?”

“Heh heh. You're working hard so early in the morning. I would like to help, but what can I do? A promise is a promise. I shall enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee.”

“That's unfair!”

“You could have finished already in the time you've spent complaining, you little rascal.”

And so began Sani's cleaning, which he considered the greatest injustice in the world.

-Swish. Swish.

The broom held in his forepaws swept the floor with surprising skill.

Although Jinseong had clearly told him to dust first, Sani boldly skipped the initial step of the cleaning process.

This drastically shortened the cleaning time, but Sani's face remained full of dissatisfaction.

Then, before long, a welcome sound arrived, giving him an opportunity to stop cleaning.

-Vroooom. Screech.

“A customer has arrived!”

“A customer? It'll be Mahyeon's subordinates or the shamans.”

“Neither of them has a car that sounds like that! We have to hurry and hide upstairs!”

“Hey, I can simply transform with my shapeshifting arts, so why are you pushing me too!”

The visitor who arrived shortly afterward was indeed not an employee of the National Intelligence Service, just as Sani had predicted.

Nor was he a shaman.

He was a broad-featured man of enormous build, nearly 190 centimeters tall, wearing a leather jacket.