Monster Company Tycoon Chapter 40

Chapter 40

 

I received a special request from Sabira.

She asked me to visit her childhood home.

Ragner would be accompanying me on this trip.

It had already been five days since Sabira had officially become an employee and been appointed as the Team Leader of Field Operations Team 1.

‘Come to think of it, Sabira must have had a family, too. I haven’t paid any attention to that at all.’

Today, as usual, Ragner was dressed casually. His unmotivated, impassive expression was still the same as ever.

I looked at him with interest.

‘Hadn’t Sabira said he seemed like someone who found life dull and had lost his reason to live…?’

So he was actually someone capable of showing all sorts of expressions, just like the person I’d seen through the screens?

“Hello, Mr. Ragner!”

“Are you taking the day off from your part-time job?”

“Ah, the lady who owns the restaurant is sick, so the restaurant is closed for the day.”

“Oh, dear. Is she very unwell?”

“She said it’s just a mild case of body aches and a cold. Still, she has to prepare food for the customers, and she said she couldn’t cook while she was sick.”

It was a rare day off.

Of course, even on a day off, there wasn’t anything particularly special for me to do. But since Sabira had given me a quest at just the right time, I ought to fulfill it.

We met at the village entrance and headed toward the house where Sabira had lived.

As it happened, her house was located near the eastern part of the village. Thinking about how she might never have felt the desire to return home while wandering around the forest made me feel a little sorry for her.

‘I still want to go home even now.’

No, hold it in. Just think about the 10 billion and the 20 million won in the safe!

‘I’m on a working holiday… I’m on a working holiday…’

“Ah! What kind of person was Sabira when she was alive?”

Feeling that I needed to think about something else quickly, I brought up a new topic.

“Sabira was… a very energetic girl. She would run all over the village like a little hooligan without ever getting tired.”

He answered in a calm voice, reminiscing about the past.

“She must have been very lively as a child.”

“She was still the same even by the time she graduated from the training grounds.”

So her personality really hadn’t changed even before she died.

“She also had a mischievous side. She absolutely loved playing pranks.”

“I can’t help but agree with that.”

Ragner gave a faint chuckle.

“I take it you’ve already experienced that firsthand.”

“Ever since Sabira joined the company, there hasn’t been a single day when I haven’t screamed at least once.”

Because she kept losing her head out of habit, I was always on edge whenever I was inside the dungeon, never knowing when I might run into it.

“Miss Sabira! Why on earth is your head inside my desk drawer?!”

“Stop playing ball with your head!”

“I told you I’d tie that damned head up with a rope if you didn’t stop carrying it around properly!”

Did the defects the monsters had mentioned include personality defects, too…?

“I feel like I’m getting older by the day… She’s just too mischievous.”

Wait a minute… Come to think of it, hadn’t they said Sabira was a righteous person worthy of being called a Hero?

Did the people around here use the word righteous differently from everyone else?

I let out a deep sigh before continuing.

“Then what about Sabira’s family? What were they like?”

“Ah, that fellow doesn’t have any family of her own.”

“…Pardon?”

Sabira, what kind of tragic fate were you born into?

“Both of her parents passed away when she was young, and she didn’t have any siblings, either. So the villagers took turns looking after her.”

“Then the house we’re going to now…”

“It’s currently empty, without an owner. I occasionally visit to dust and clean it, but since no one lives there, it’s difficult to maintain it properly.”

How many minutes had passed?

We arrived in front of the house where Sabira had lived when she was alive.

Just from its exterior, it was immediately obvious that the place had been neglected.

At least, it seemed the neighbors occasionally came by to take care of it, as there were traces of weeds having been cut around the house.

“Did Sabira ask you to bring back some of the belongings she used when she was alive?”

“Ah, yes. It’s nothing big. She said there was just one thing she wanted me to bring back.”

Ragner used a spare key he had to unlock the door and let us inside. A musty smell of dust immediately hit us.

“I’ll do some cleaning while we’re here. Take your time looking around.”

“Okay!”

He headed toward the place where the cleaning tools were kept, as though he were familiar with it.

I hesitantly stepped inside the house.

“Huh?”

The moment I entered, a photograph hanging on the wall caught my eye.

Red hair tied tightly back.

Her eyes were curved into crescent moons as she smiled, revealing vivid violet irises. Her wide-open lips showed a row of pearly white teeth.

A healthy beauty with striking features and a bold, refreshing appearance.

It was Sabira when she was alive. And not just that… this was a picture of her after she’d grown up.

Although she still looked a little youthful.

“Wow, she really is beautiful.”

So this perfectly normal-looking person was the one who kept losing her head, clung to me so much that it was becoming a nuisance, and wrote me a love letter instead of a personal statement?

“Hmm… Mr. Ragner.”

“Yes?”

“Have you ever dated Sabira?”

Crash!

The sound of cleaning tools tumbling onto the floor rang out noisily.

“Ah…”

Ragner slowly turned his head.

His expression was one of utter revulsion, as though the very thought was horrifying.

He didn’t say a single word, but that alone was answer enough.

“I’m sorry. That was presumptuous of me. I just suddenly got curious. Sabira is so beautiful, after all.”

“No.”

“Yes, I can tell just from your expression. Sorry.”

I was curious because Sabira had been so blatantly forward with me. If she’d always been that way, surely there must have been someone of the opposite sex who’d fallen for her at least once.

Ever since she’d realized that I had no resistance to her husky voice, she’d been teasing me by whispering into my ear whenever I let my guard down for even a moment.

In Ragner’s case, it seemed he’d grown up in the same neighborhood with her like siblings since they were very young, so he’d apparently never even considered her in that way.

All right. I’d better hurry up and complete the quest.

‘Let’s see… What was it Sabira asked me to do…?’

First, she told me to visit the house. Then, if I went to the kitchen, there would be a floor made of wooden planks fitted together…

“Ah, around here.”

She’d said there was one plank whose color was particularly dark.

“Is this it?”

She’d also said that if I knocked on it, it would sound different from the others.

I raised my fist and lightly tapped various parts of the floor.

Tap, tap. Tap, tap. Thunk, thunk.

“Here it is.”

She’d told me to bring along someone with too much energy and nothing to do, and have them pull it up.

That’s right. The real reason Ragner had accompanied me was so he could unlock the house and do the heavy lifting for me.

I’d planned to ask him first and, if he refused, ask Ruadis instead. But surprisingly, Ragner had agreed to come along without any fuss.

“Mr. Ragner. Could you help me with something?”

He had been sweeping the floor with a broom, but now he strode over to me.

“Could you pull up this plank for me?”

“Hmm…”

Ragner drew the sword at his waist and slid its tip into the narrow gap between the planks.

“By the way, do you always carry your sword around?”

“I feel uneasy without it. It’s something of a professional habit among adventurers.”

He effortlessly pried the plank loose without showing any particular signs of exertion.

“Wow. You’re really strong.”

I was jealous. If I were that strong, I felt like there’d be nothing in the world I needed to fear.

“I used to make a living with my strength, after all.”

It wasn’t just my imagination.

Ever since the incident with Sabira, I felt like the distance between Ragner and me had grown considerably smaller.

“Oh, there’s really an empty space here!”

Sabira had said there would be a box hidden beneath the plank. If I brought it to her, the quest would be complete.

“Is that it?”

“Yes, she only asked me to bring this.”

We put the removed plank back in place, lightly cleaned the floor, and then left the house.

Ragner said he needed to do a thorough cleaning, so he stayed behind at the house.

I returned to the dungeon with the box in my arms.

“Miss Sabira! I’ve brought what you asked for!”

For Sabira, who had become both the first-floor boss and the Team Leader of Field Operations Team 1, we’d prepared a dedicated boss room where she could wait and spend her time.

With Brownie’s help, we’d secured a spacious area right in front of the reward room. We’d designed it so that adventurers would have to clear several gates in succession before they could come face-to-face with Sabira.

I opened the boss room door to deliver the box.

“Oh, you brought it? Fluffy can just keep that.”

“Excuse me? Me?”

“I had you bring it back so I could give it to Fluffy. It’s a wonder it was kept so well.”

“What is it?”

“Open it.”

I gave her a suspicious look.

“There’s nothing weird inside, is there?”

“There’s something inside that will make Fluffy’s love for me grow enormously.”

I felt rather uneasy, but my curiosity got the better of me, so I unlocked the box and opened it.

“Gasp…”

The moment the lid came off and the contents were revealed, I covered my mouth.

“Well? Are you smitten?”

“…Yes.”

Inside was none other than…

A box full of money…

“Fluffy likes money, right? Use it to help run the dungeon. There’s no point in me keeping it when I’m dead and can’t spend it. If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve spent it lavishly instead of saving it.”

“This… Are you really… letting me have it?”

“Of course. It’s yours. Thank you for helping me. You found my friend and my head, too. Think of it as a reward.”

From now on, I’d better lower the decibel level a little whenever I yelled at Sabira.