Monster Company Tycoon Chapter 20

Chapter 20

 

“Miss Choi, table two.”

“Yes!”

Working part-time at the restaurant was easier than I’d expected.

Since it wasn’t a particularly large establishment, the number of customers who came in was fairly predictable.

Most people ate at home, while travelers visiting the village for special reasons and short-term residents who had come to enroll at the training ground were the ones who frequented the restaurant.

In that regard, I found it curious that Ragner had visited the restaurant again today, just as he had yesterday.

It wasn’t as if we’d arranged to meet here, either.

Didn’t he say this was his hometown? Shouldn’t he have a house of his own? Why bother eating here?

Well, anyway, I’d wanted to ask him for advice about the rewards, so I was glad he’d come here on his own instead of making me go looking for him.

“Here’s the food you ordered.”

I placed the dishes on Ragner’s table and discreetly observed him.

Neither Theon nor the puppy was with him today.

“It’s your first day on the job, but you’re already quite skilled.”

“Ah, I’m only serving the food. That’s all.”

The owners had also praised me for doing a good job.

There were twelve tables in the restaurant in total.

Interestingly, rather than reserving an entire table for their own group, customers had a custom of naturally sharing tables whenever there were empty seats.

As someone unfamiliar with the village, I’d been a little flustered by that at first.

The previous employee had been a local who knew all the customers’ faces and regular orders by heart, but I wasn’t.

So I assigned numbers to each table and introduced an order-slip system.

Now, all I had to do was write the table number on an order slip and put it in the kitchen.

The woman would call out the number as soon as the food was ready, and all I had to do was pick up the plates and carry them to the corresponding table.

Finding a fast and efficient way to do any job. Isn’t that one of the strengths of Koreans?

Honestly, this is practically the perfect part-time job.

As lunchtime drew to a close and more customers left, the restaurant grew quiet.

Meanwhile, Ragner continued sitting at his table, drinking tea.

After finishing my last serving task, I discreetly took a seat across from him.

“Are you busy?”

“No, it’s quiet. I’m unemployed now, after all.”

A former hero was unemployed?

“Oh, then could you spare me a little time?”

Ragner smiled languidly.

“Of course. As much as you need.”

Perhaps he was being nice because I resembled his pet dog, but I was beginning to think he was simply a kind and considerate person by nature.

He could easily have refused because it was a bother.

“Miss Choi, all the orders are finished now, so why don’t you take a break until your shift ends?”

Since my work was finished for the moment, I immediately took off my apron and sat down properly.

“You’ve heard from Lady Ruadis, haven’t you? She’s planning to add clearing our dungeon as a graduation requirement for the training ground.”

“Yes. That’s good news. But I also heard that the dungeon is still woefully inadequate for helping the students develop practical combat skills.”

“Urgh…”

I’d done the right thing by desperately preventing Ragner from challenging the dungeon that day.

At least Ruadis had held back…

“That’s why I wanted to talk to you. Lady Ruadis has given me another assignment. I need to prepare appropriate rewards for anyone who successfully conquers the dungeon.”

“With the dungeon in its current state… I imagine the reward room is empty, too.”

His powers of observation were unnecessarily sharp.

“But does that mean you have to fill it using your own money, Miss Choi? Is that how dungeon reward rooms are normally managed?”

“Well, something like that. A dungeon isn’t all that different from a place where people live… And Lady Ruadis has agreed to help with the rewards, too.”

Just then, a plate of warm bread and meat was placed in front of me.

“Oh…!”

“Miss Choi, let’s talk while you eat.”

My heart practically trembled with emotion. They gave me such a relaxed job, and now they were even providing lunch!

What if I hadn’t landed in a dungeon when I first arrived in this world? What if I’d landed in a restaurant instead?

Or perhaps it would’ve been fun to work at a café run by a Demon King.

“Please, eat.”

“Ah, I was going to eat after we finished talking…”

“Eat while we talk.”

I glanced at Ragner, then cautiously picked up my utensils.

Actually, I’d started getting a little hungry shortly after arriving in the village, and by now, I felt like my stomach was practically stuck to my back. He hadn’t heard it growling, had he?

I put a piece of meat seasoned with a salty sauce into my mouth and began chewing, but then I suddenly felt embarrassed.

He’d already finished his meal and was enjoying a leisurely tea break. Wasn’t it rude of me to make such a fuss eating and fill the air with the smell of food?

I slowly raised my head and found Ragner staring intently at me as I ate.

Had I been eating too frantically?

“Ahem. Anyway, here’s what I had in mind. The trainees have to cross Garga Forest after graduating, right? So I’m thinking of giving them items as rewards that might be useful during that journey.”

“Normally… people would expect to find gold coins, jewels, equipment, or special items in a reward room.”

That would be the usual expectation. Those rewards would make adventurers see dollar signs, encouraging them to grab everything quickly and leave without paying any attention to the holy relic room.

But if our dungeon fell within that ordinary category in the first place, would I have needed to look for a business partner?

The Demon King was bankrupt, and I was running the place by dipping into the emergency savings of a fist-sized fairy. Sob.

“That may be true, but our budget is tight… Rather than filling the room with mediocre rewards, I thought it would be better to give them something that could improve the graduates’ survival rate, even if only a little. Efficiency first!”

“That’s a good idea.”

Taking advantage of the pause in our conversation, I speared a piece of meat with my fork. Ragner picked up the seasoning container sitting at one end of the table and slid it toward me.

“It tastes better if you sprinkle some of this on it.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Come to think of it, everyone else had been sprinkling this on their food, too. I wondered what it tasted like…

“In other words, you’re wondering what items they’ll need?”

“Yes! If you were going to cross Garga Forest, what items would you consider essential?”

I asked the question while diligently working my fork.

The seasoning tasted somewhat like pepper. It enhanced the savory flavor of the meat, making it an excellent choice.

Ragner had been pondering the matter while rubbing his chin. Then he spoke casually.

“If it were me, I’d start by bringing a compass. Not an ordinary compass, but a special one designed for use in demon realms.”

“What makes it different?”

“Ordinary compasses stop working in demon realms because of the monsters’ abilities and the unusual environment. The forest changes its appearance from time to time, and the sky is obscured by fog, so you can’t even use the stars to determine your position. That’s why you need a guide to get out safely.”

So quite a few people probably got lost in the forest, wandered around until they were exhausted, and eventually starved to death.

I took an already-used order slip and used the back as scrap paper to jot down a note.

Compass.

“Next, I’d bring water-purifying stones. They’re essential for obtaining drinking water. No matter how clean the water sources in a demon realm appear, you must never drink from them carelessly. You never know what harmful substances might be mixed in.”

“Water-purifying stones?”

At my question, Ragner rummaged through his pocket and took out several stones about the size of fingernails, placing them on the table.

They were transparent like glass and glimmered with a faint blue light.

“Put one in a cup, and it’ll turn the water into clean drinking water. You can reuse it up to three times. It’s transparent now, but it becomes more opaque with use, so you can determine whether it’s still reusable by checking its transparency.”

“Oooh…”

“Would you like to touch one?”

“Is it okay if I do?”

Ragner nodded, and I reached out without hesitation and picked up a stone.

There was nothing particularly special about its texture. It was cold and slippery.

“Is this some kind of magic? That’s amazing.”

If items like this existed in my original world, wouldn’t environmental pollution be greatly reduced? Water shortages might even disappear.

Ragner, who had been watching my hand intently as I fiddled with the stone, spoke up.

“Monsters and those who wield evil powers cannot touch purification stones. They would probably feel pain the moment they did.”

“Pardon?”

“They’re made by solidifying holy water from the temple.”

“Uh…”

A vague sense of unease crept over me, and I placed the purification stone back where it had been.

No way… Was he testing whether I could touch it?

“I only have a simple contract with the Demon King, so… um…”

“I wasn’t suspecting you, Miss Choi. If I thought there was a real risk, I wouldn’t have offered it to you. You just seemed so fascinated by it, as though you’d never seen one before.”

“Uh… Are purification stones common items?”

“They’re not particularly common, but you can get them without much difficulty at a general store. People even use them in their daily lives.”

Suddenly, I realized I might be in serious trouble.

I’d revealed the secret that I’d made a contract with the Demon King, but I was still keeping the fact that I came from another world a secret.

In other words… this was like seeing an everyday smartphone and reacting with, ‘Oh, what on earth is this thing for?’ Right now, that was exactly how I’d acted.