Monster Company Tycoon Chapter 51

Chapter 51

 

After my part-time shift at the restaurant ended, checking the bulletin board in the village square had somehow become part of my daily routine.

It wasn’t as though there were always decent jobs available. But I needed to earn every last coin I could to support my employees, so I had to keep checking.

My next goal had become setting up a recovery room exclusively for monsters inside the dungeon.

No matter how natural it was for battles to take place in a dungeon, seeing my injured employees made it impossible for me to feel at ease.

And there were plenty of other facilities I wanted to build after the recovery room, too.

“Let’s see. What kind of work can I do…?”

I slowly scanned the bulletin board.

They were all simple errands, so none of the rewards exceeded 1,000 eon.

Among them, there was one particular errand whose unusually generous reward kept drawing my attention. It was a job helping out at the temple.

 

[Looking for someone to help sort supplies. Payment: 3,500 eon]

 

‘If it weren’t for Leta’s temple, I’d be showing up for work every single day.’

No matter how much money they offered, there were some jobs you simply shouldn’t take. I had to avoid getting involved with the temple under any circumstances.

In that regard, I was envious of Ragner, who had practically been going to work at the temple every day lately.

‘He must be making a lot of money…’

After some deliberation, I picked up a single note.

“Shall I try this one?”

It was a request to move some boxes into a storage room on behalf of a resident who had injured their arm. The payment for the errand was 1,000 eon.

There wasn’t really anything else I could do. As it happened, the location was also along the way to the Training Center. I had something to discuss with Ruadis anyway, so I figured I could visit after finishing the job.

“The storage room is over there, and these are the things you need to move.”

“…All of these?”

I stared at the mountain of boxes and was left speechless.

Wooden boxes of all sizes were packed tightly into one corner of a residential courtyard.

You expected me to move all of these for just 1,000 eon? Are you a scammer?

“But miss, are you sure you can handle this? You look awfully frail.”

“I may look like this, but I’m quite strong!”

Still, what could I do? It wasn’t as though digging up the ground would make money appear.

My employees were out there getting beaten up while doing their jobs, and all I did was sit on the other side of a screen and watch. If I could turn my excess stamina into money, then that was a pretty good deal.

Besides, this wasn’t the first time I’d moved heavy things. Back at my previous job, I’d even helped move the company president’s belongings!

I picked up one of the nearby boxes as a test.

“Ghh, wh-what on earth is inside these?”

“Oh, just books I don’t read anymore. I’ll leave it to you.”

Books!? No wonder they’re so heavy…

‘Did you loot a library or something? Why do you have so many books?’

I emptied my mind and began mechanically carrying the boxes into the storage room.

Fortunately, there were also some relatively light boxes mixed in, containing only a few books.

“Choi?”

Just as I’d managed to move about a third of them, a familiar voice came from behind me.

“What are you doing here?”

“Ah, hello.”

Beyond the wide-open front gate stood Ragner.

It seemed he’d also just returned from helping out at the temple, judging by the dust and dirt covering various parts of his clothes.

“I’m running an errand.”

“An errand?”

“Yes. I’ve got to make money.”

Despite it being someone else’s house, Ragner walked right in without hesitation and stopped beside me.

“Are you moving these?”

“Yes, but I think I’ll be done sooner than I expected. I’m pretty good at this kind of repetitive manual labor.”

But then Ragner suddenly picked up one of the boxes.

“Huh?”

“Should I take this to the storage room over there?”

“Well, yes, but why are you doing that, Mr. Ragner…?”

“Isn’t it better if we finish quickly?”

“That’s true. It is, but…”

I hurriedly made one important thing clear first.

“Even if you help me, I’m not going to split the payment with you, Mr. Ragner. It’s only 1,000 eon, so I can’t help it.”

“You can keep the money, Choi.”

“Then why are you helping me…?”

“I’ve often helped with village errands without getting paid anyway.”

Apparently, carrying a box or two was nothing to Ragner.

While I was struggling to carry them one by one, he was stacking three or four boxes on top of one another and walking back and forth to the storage room.

“Didn’t you just come back from work? Aren’t you tired?”

“Not particularly.”

With Ragner helping, the speed at which the boxes disappeared was completely different. A task that would have taken me ages on my own was finished in no time.

When the very last box had been placed in the storage room, the employer came out to check the result. They spotted Ragner and looked slightly surprised.

“Well, that’s unusual. You even help out with these kinds of bothersome chores?”

I looked at Ragner in confusion. Didn’t he say he often helped with village errands?

“If you’ve confirmed the work is done, then let’s settle the payment.”

Judging by how casually they spoke to each other, they seemed to be quite close.

“Right. Here’s the payment for the errand. Don’t give that fellow any of it. Keep it all for yourself, miss.”

“Thank you.”

The money was far too precious and meager to split anyway.

After carefully pocketing the 1,000 eon, I left the house together with Ragner.

“Thank you for helping me.”

“Every time I see you, Choi, I’m impressed by how diligent you are. You’re always doing something.”

“I’m not really that diligent. When I return to the dungeon, I just laze around in bed and do nothing.”

Once we started walking in the direction of the Training Center, Ragner naturally fell into step beside me, as though it had been arranged beforehand.

“Are you going to the Training Center? It should be past the time Theon finishes.”

“I’m going to see my master.”

“Ah, I see.”

Well, then it made sense that we were heading in the same direction.

Though, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed he’d decided on his destination on the spur of the moment.

For a while, we walked side by side in silence.

In the end, unable to bear the awkwardness, I was the first to bring up a new topic.

“Oh, right. A beginner adventurer challenged the dungeon yesterday.”

“A beginner adventurer?”

“Yes. He didn’t seem to be from the Training Center. I think he was an outsider.”

At the mention of an outsider, Ragner’s brow furrowed slightly.

“He seemed pretty confident in his own abilities, so I think Lady Ruadis probably told him about our dungeon so he’d get a proper taste of defeat.”

“So how good was he, really?”

“He managed to get through the first checkpoint, more or less, but he was eliminated before he even reached the second one. I think he needs a little more training at the Training Center.”

But after listening to my explanation all the way through, his expression soon returned to its usual impassive state.

“Your dungeon must have taught him a valuable lesson, Choi.”

“That’s what I think, too. It would be good if he realized that now and put more effort into his training… But, well, if he keeps coming back to challenge it, that’s a benefit for me.”

He’d pay money into the offering box every time he came.

Oh, wait. Come to think of it, I’d emptied his pockets completely, so he was probably broke by now.

I guess it’ll be difficult for him to come back for a while.

The story about the beginner adventurer didn’t seem to interest Ragner very much. So I brought up another topic I thought he’d like.

“Sabira is doing well, too. Though she seems a little bored.”

I thought of her, constantly coming to find me at all hours to ask whether anything interesting was happening.

‘If she had that much free time, she should go looking for her head instead.’

The Facilities Team was starting to complain about her inability to keep track of it. They kept finding Sabira’s head in the pits they’d dug for traps.

Perhaps she’d grown attached to the place after spending so much time there. Who knew?

“Maybe it’s because the dungeon is indoors, so she feels cooped up? In the first place, our dungeon is pretty lenient about allowing employees to go outside. If she feels restless, she could always take a short walk somewhere nearby…”

After finishing, I discreetly checked Ragner’s reaction.

Even if he was her friend, she was still a monster. I was worried he might object to letting her wander around outside the dungeon.

Fortunately, he didn’t show any sign of displeasure.

“So, Mr. Ragner, could you visit from time to time and keep Sabira company? Maybe you could even spar with her.”

Then we’d be able to collect more combat data, too.

Ragner answered my suggestion rather indifferently.

“She was always restless and energetic. Even before, she hated sitting still more than anything, and sometimes she could be quite a handful.”

I let out a low groan.

So she’d been like that even before becoming a Dullahan. She must be the type who couldn’t stand having all that excess energy without immediately burning it off.

“I left her in your care on the condition that she’d behave herself, but it seems she’s causing trouble instead. I’ll visit sometime soon and give her a little discipline.”

“Yes, please do. And tell her to take better care of her head, too. She doesn’t listen when I tell her.”

It was rather fascinating to hear him talk about visiting the dungeon as casually as though he were dropping by a friend’s house.

Hadn’t he once said that any dungeon had to be destroyed without exception?

Perhaps it was only our dungeon, but at some point, he’d started taking a considerably more lenient view of dungeons.

Was it because of Sabira? Or because of me?

We’d gotten pretty close, so there was a chance it was me.