Monster Company Tycoon Chapter 39

Chapter 39

 

I lightly shook the résumé Sabira had been holding in my hands the entire time.

“Well then, shall we officially draw up an employment contract?”

This was, after all, an essential part of my job.

Normally, the proper procedure would be to return to the office with Sabira alone, go over the working conditions one by one, and proceed with the contract.

“Would you mind if we watched that process as well?”

“The contract process?”

“The very concept of a dungeon hiring monsters as employees is unfamiliar to me. I’m curious about how such a contract is made.”

“Ah, I’m curious, too.”

It seemed both of them wanted to observe the process of signing a contract with Sabira.

‘They weren’t planning to keep an eye on me in case I tried to trick her into signing some kind of fraudulent contract, were they…?’

“Um… As a general rule, employment contracts involve matters that the parties concerned need to review together, such as working conditions and salary. So we don’t usually allow unrelated people to sit in.”

Of course, this wasn’t a modern company, but a dungeon that hired monsters.

Perhaps I was being unnecessarily strict out of habit from my previous workplace.

“Still, I suppose it’s fine for you to observe as long as the person involved agrees. What do you think, Miss Sabira?”

“I don’t mind.”

Sabira answered indifferently, as though it made no difference to her either way.

“First, regarding your salary…”

The moment I brought it up, Ruadis shot me a sharp look.

I flinched.

“Waaaah… It seems monsters and humans have somewhat different concepts of economics, you see? I couldn’t help it! I’d love to pay you plenty if I had enough operating funds…!”

I desperately defended myself while trying to avoid Ruadis’s gaze.

“I really don’t care how much I receive. Money isn’t what interests me.”

“But labor deserves compensation! Even if you don’t have anything to spend money on right now, you can save it and use it whenever you need it.”

“Unpaid! She said she doesn’t need money. Just make her an unpaid employee right now!”

Ignoring Brownie’s suggestion, I somehow managed to bring up the salary again.

“I really would like to pay you more, but… I promise I’ll raise your salary once the dungeon grows. A weekly wage of 1,000 eon…”

“You said you could go as high as 1,500 eon, didn’t you?”

Ruadis suddenly cut in. You remembered that?

But I’d only said I could match that amount. I hadn’t actually confirmed it…

“Guh… I’ll set it at 1,500 eon.”

I finalized the salary with tears in my eyes.

“Okay, that’ll do.”

Even so, hiring a Dullahan at level 40 should have cost an enormous amount. At this rate, I’d actually recruited her at a bargain price. For the cost of hiring three low-ranking monsters, I could have Sabira alone. That was a pretty good deal.

‘Now that we had a powerful boss, we could fend off most challengers!’

I could already picture the bright and promising future of our dungeon.

“Wow, but monsters really do live in poverty.”

Ragner, who had been watching, delivered a brutal truth that made my heart ache.

“Now that you know, please don’t bully them too much… Especially the low-ranking monsters. They’re so pitiful. Everyone’s working so hard.”

“Are you taking the monsters’ side right in front of me?”

“Of course I have to take their side! Every single one of my coworkers is a monster!”

In the past, I would have been terrified that he’d drag me away for heresy.

But now, I was certain he wouldn’t do that.

‘After all, his childhood friend was on my side!’

The two of them had even exchanged tearful promises just a little while ago, hadn’t they? Could he really coldly abandon the home where his friend was staying?

‘Heh heh. We have the princess in our custody. We’re never letting her go.’

Of course, that was the practical reason.

I could only act this way because today’s events had shown me that Ragner wasn’t quite as heartless as I had thought.

The sight of a man’s hot tears had melted away the wariness in my heart.

‘I want to see him cry again.’

So as long as he didn’t get too cheeky, I’d let him off the hook.

“Now, everyone. This is how we make a contract.”

I took out the rectangular plate hanging around my neck. The moment I held it in my hand, it instantly transformed into a stamp.

“This is the authority I possess as a dungeon administrator. With this, I simply…”

I slammed the stamp onto the bottom of Sabira’s résumé.

‘Hired!’

The moment the bright red stamp appeared, the paper began to glow red.

“The contract has been concluded. Dullahan is now bound to my dungeon. No matter where you are, I can summon you directly into the dungeon!”

When I gave the paper a slight shake, it dissolved into thin air.

The contract itself would be stored directly by the dungeon. Even though it had disappeared for now, I could retrieve it whenever I needed to.

“Even if you didn’t do that, I’d come running whenever Fluffy called me.”

“P-please don’t say that in such a beautiful voice.”

My shoulders shuddered. No matter how many times I heard it, I just couldn’t get used to that incredible voice.

“Well then, now that you’re officially one of our employees, we should provide you with your benefits, shouldn’t we?”

I gestured to Brownie.

“I’m the director, yet you keep making me do these menial tasks!”

Brownie approached, carrying a bundle several times larger than her own body.

That was when it happened.

Instinctively recognizing what it was, Sabira abruptly turned around.

“We’ve found your lost belongings.”

I did feel a little like I was scamming her by giving her something we’d found a long time ago…

“Finally…”

Sabira murmured in a voice filled with joy.

I was incredibly curious. What would happen if Dullahan finally recovered her lost head?

Sabira stretched out both hands and accepted the head wrapped in cloth. She then began to unwrap it, so I hurriedly shouted.

“W-wait a moment!”

I quickly took off my glasses and tucked them into my collar.

“Now it’s fine…”

The cloth slipped off and fell softly to the ground, revealing a round object that appeared to be a pitch-black helmet.

‘That’s Sabira’s head…’

Unlike me, who was rather fainthearted, Ragner and Ruadis seemed to watch in silence without showing the slightest sign of agitation. I really envied their courage.

Sabira gripped her head with both hands and slowly raised it toward her shoulders.

Thump, thump.

What would happen…?

At last, the head settled into the place where it belonged.

Fwoooosh!

At that very moment, her head was engulfed in blue flames.

“W-what? What’s going on? What happened?”

Brownie fluttered over beside me and explained.

“She’s a Death Knight. It’s the evolved form of a Dullahan who has recovered her head.”

“Evolved?”

Sabira turned around.

“Eeeek!”

A skull surrounded by rippling blue flames instead of hair was staring at me.

Even though I’d taken off my glasses, the flames were burning so vividly that I could see them all too clearly.

Beneath the black helmet, a pair of crimson eyes flashed.

“Ahhh, this is it! This overwhelmingly intoxicating sense of fulfillment! This is exactly what I’ve been looking for! Kehahaha!”

Sabira couldn’t contain her excitement and burst into a crazed laugh. Every time she did, the blue flames surged, and her glowing eyes burned ominously, sending chills down my spine.

“So does that mean she’ll stay a Death Knight from now on?”

I whispered my question, and Brownie shook her head.

“No? Once a Dullahan, always a Dullahan.”

“Huh? Why? She found her head.”

“Dullahans are cursed to lose their heads forever. Their desire for their heads is the very essence of their power. She’ll only be able to maintain her Death Knight state for about an hour at most.”

What a ridiculous setting.

Not long after Brownie told me that, I came to properly understand what that curse meant.

And I mean really understand it. Right down to my bones.

“Administrator. Apparently, Dullahan has lost her head again.”

“Again!? All she has to do is keep it on her shoulders, so why does she keep losing it?”

Sabira lost her head at all hours of the day, even though it wasn’t as if her head had legs.

At this point, I was beginning to suspect that the owner herself had absolutely no intention of taking proper care of it.

‘No, perhaps losing her head was her hobby.’

“There’s a head rolling around abandoned in the third-floor hallway. Please come claim your head!”

“How does a head even roll all the way up to the third floor? That’s going in the opposite direction!”

“Chihuahua, wouldn’t it be funny if several Dullahans appeared in the dungeon? They wouldn’t know which head belonged to whom, right?”

Brownie snickered in an irritating tone.

[Take good care of your own head.]

Slogans were posted throughout the dungeon.

[Lost Head Collection Box]

I was so afraid of suddenly coming across a severed head that I even set up a special collection box for heads in a corner of the first floor, somewhere I rarely went.

“KYAAAA! Miss Sabira! You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you!? Why on earth is your head on top of my bed? You’re the one who put it there, aren’t you?”

…Sadly, it wasn’t particularly effective.

In the end, I had no choice but to remain extremely vigilant to keep Sabira’s head from invading my private space.

“What? Did that just move? Miss Sabira! Why does your head turn at the exact moment I start changing my clothes!? What on earth did you do to your head?”

At this point, I was starting to wonder whether I should attach a string to her severed head or something.