Monster Company Tycoon Chapter 21

Chapter 21

 

What if Ragner asks me about this?

Should I tell him that I lived in such a remote backwater that I never even got to see a Purification Stone?

Or should I just be honest? He already knows the secrets about the dungeon and me, so would it really matter if I added one more?

No, wait. This time, he might actually think I’m crazy and have the temple take me away.

Then something suddenly occurred to me.

He had never once asked about my origins or my past.

“Um…”

Something like this could happen again in the future. So just as I was wondering whether it would be better to tell him beforehand…

“I found you!”

Suddenly, the restaurant door burst open, and Theon came rushing in with his puppy.

“Hyung! How could you leave without me!? I know how to eat delicious food, too!”

He dashed straight toward our table and plopped down in the seat beside me. Then, looking at my plate, he began chattering away.

“Oh, noona left her beans, too! Our Chacha hates beans, too!”

“…What?”

“You ate all the meat, though? Our Chacha likes meat, too!”

“Woof!”

Are you saying that my eating habits are exactly the same as that dog’s…? And in the first place, I…

“I don’t hate beans. Do you know how good they are for your health? I’m saving the food I like most for last.”

“Liar. Our Chacha leaves nothing but beans in his food bowl, too.”

“Honestly, I can’t believe this.”

To prove my point, I scooped up the beans I’d left behind and shoved them all into my mouth.

The mild flavor of the beans blended with the slightly spicy seasoning, making them delicious. Even though it was just a simple bean dish, the rich flavor was unmistakable!

The owner’s cooking skills were truly impressive. No wonder she’d managed to run a business in the same spot for so many years.

“See?”

“You’re right.”

“And comparing me to your dog out of nowhere is a little…”

‘That was the final nail in the coffin…!’

A scene suddenly flashed through my mind, and my body stiffened.

Don’t tell me the reason Ragner had been staring so intently at me throughout the entire meal was… because he thought my eating habits were exactly the same as his dog’s!?

Just how much did he love his pet…?

I picked up my empty plate and sprang to my feet.

Even though I’d resolved to put up with it, having been tormented by dog-related nicknames my entire life, I couldn’t help feeling a little offended.

“Thank you for the advice. I’ll be going back to work now.”

“I could tell you more.”

“No, this is enough.”

With that, I returned my plate to the kitchen and received permission to leave early since it was my first day. Then I headed out of the restaurant.

Normally, I would have had to wait for Ruadis at the restaurant, but since my part-time shift had ended earlier than expected, I had some time to spare.

‘Should I go buy the things Ragner mentioned? He said I could probably get a Purification Stone at the general store, and as for the compass… I could just ask if they sell those, too, right?’

I remembered that on the first day I’d visited the village, there had been a map showing the locations of various shops on the notice board in the square.

“Every now and then, residents leave notes on the board when they need help with odd jobs.”

I might as well take a look at what kind of errands were available while I was at it.

I quickened my pace and headed toward the square.

‘He said it would be good for me to spend some time among other humans and take my mind off things…’

As I walked among the crowd, I found myself understanding Ragner’s words to some extent. Though I did feel a little sorry for Brownie.

Living with ordinary people was definitely better than spending all my time with scary monsters.

I used to walk along streets like this every day on my way to and from work.

Of course, the scenery was completely different, but after spending so much time in the gloomy dungeon, walking under the bright sunlight gradually made me feel a little more at ease.

Before long, I arrived at the square.

A large notice board stood in front of the village hall. It was rather messy, with traces of papers having been torn off and put back up countless times.

“The map is here. The general store is right next to the square.”

On the right side of the board was the map I’d been looking for, while the left side was covered with several notes containing requests for errands from the villagers.

Come to think of it, the lady had said there would be odd jobs posted from time to time, but… it seemed they were suffering from a labor shortage.

“Hmm… So these are the kinds of errands people request. They’re just like quests, aren’t they?”

The requests included gathering specific herbs from the forest, catching rats that had appeared in someone’s basement, and moving luggage.

They were all small, relatively simple jobs that seemed pretty decent as a side gig.

“This really is a beginner’s village…”

In particular, the herb-gathering errands reminded me of beginner quests in which you’d pick up a few requests while heading into the forest to hunt, earning some experience or pocket money along the way.

At times like this, it really felt as though I’d entered a game and was playing it myself.

However, I’d already heard that being an adventurer was an extremely dangerous profession, so there was no room for romanticizing it.

‘Safety first, life is precious!’

I couldn’t even look monsters in the eye, so what business did I have becoming an adventurer?

“But this note is a little unusual.”

The other notes looked as though they’d been hastily torn out of notebooks, but there was one that stood out even in the quality of its paper.

It was stiff, pristine white paper, with a pretty pattern engraved along the edges. At the bottom was a seal depicting a branch bearing a large fruit.

“Looks like stationery specially made for a company.”

The request on the note was for a cleaning job.

“There don’t seem to be any particular qualifications required, so I think I could do this much, too. Though I suppose it depends on the size of the place…”

The pay was a whopping 3,000 eon. That was equivalent to two hours of work at the restaurant!

The location was an open lot north of the village.

“What am I supposed to clean in an open lot?”

I checked the map for the location of the lot. It was in the opposite direction from the road leading to the dungeon, just a little farther from the square.

“Hmmmm…”

If possible, I wanted to earn as much money as I could.

With 3,000 eon, I could ask the wind fairy to put up an advertisement three times. It was also enough to cover six weeks of employee wages.

“But I don’t have enough time to visit both the general store and the open lot. If I take too long, Ruadis will end up waiting for me.”

In the end, I decided to visit the location of the cleaning job, partly as an excuse to explore more of the village.

Following the road leading north, I walked past increasingly sparse houses until I came across a cemetery.

Just as I was thinking how unusual it was to have a cemetery inside the village, I spotted what appeared to be an empty lot.

Why did I say it only appeared to be empty…? Because it was no longer empty.

“What? They’re building something here? So that’s why they were looking for someone to clean the place.”

The building wasn’t finished yet, but its framework had already been erected, and the workers were stacking white stone blocks to build the walls. It looked like it would be quite an impressive building once completed.

Come to think of it, a new building in a rural village where every other structure was old and worn down?

Seeing how a wall was being built to enclose the entire cemetery, I began to suspect that the new building might be some sort of facility for maintaining the cemetery.

But would they normally build such a facility so elaborately? Or was it not a cemetery keeper’s building after all?

I was looking around the area when…

I happened to make eye contact with one of the workers carrying supplies inside.

‘Wow, why is he wearing such pristine white clothes while working? And at a construction site, of all places. They’ll get dirty in no time.’

We were quite far apart, so his pure white clothes were the only thing that particularly caught my eye.

I was so distracted by his oddly mismatched outfit that it took me a while to notice he was smiling at me with his eyes.

For some reason, I was so startled that I instinctively bowed my head, even though I hadn’t done anything wrong.

‘Huh…? Is he coming this way…?’

Perhaps he’d taken my greeting as a signal that I wanted to talk. I could see him putting down the supplies and turning toward me.

I’d come after seeing the errand notice, but I hadn’t actually planned on working right away, so I was in a bit of a predicament.

What if he’d been expecting someone looking for work, only to find out I was just a curious onlooker? Wouldn’t that be disappointing for him? Besides, I wasn’t even a resident of this village, so I didn’t exactly have anything to make small talk about.

I frantically waved my hand to indicate that I wasn’t interested, then hurriedly turned around.

All I could think about was getting away before he could stop me.

“Excuse me…”

I definitely heard him calling out from behind me, but I pretended not to hear.

‘I’ll come back when I have more time to take on some errands!’

I shouted those words silently in my heart.

In any case, I hoped there would continue to be work available until the construction was finished.

With that thought in mind, I headed back to the restaurant.

As luck would have it, Ruadis had also just finished her work at the training grounds and was walking toward the restaurant, so I managed to avoid being late.

‘If that person had stopped me and we’d exchanged a few words, I might have been late.’

On our way back to the dungeon together, I asked Ruadis about the building I’d seen under construction earlier.

“Oh, now that you mention it, I’d completely forgotten about that. You’d best be careful around there. Judging by the looks of it, Ragner hasn’t warned you, either.”

“Pardon?”

“The building they’re constructing is the Temple of Reta.”