Monster Company Tycoon Chapter 58

Chapter 58

 

The succubus looked at her younger brother with an utterly exasperated expression.

“An incubus should be able to take life force from any woman. But this one… Haah.”

It was rather pitiful how he flinched even at her sigh.

“He has a phobia of older women. That’s why he’s a defective product.”

“Pardon?”

“He’s afraid of any woman older than himself, so even when he enters their dreams, he can’t properly seduce them. He’s only been alive for fifteen years, but if a woman is older than him, doesn’t that mean almost every woman in the world!?”

Apparently overcome by her emotions, the succubus slammed her fist against the desk with a loud bang.

‘……And so did I.’

“What? He’s only fifteen!? Then was I toyed with by a little brat who hasn’t even been alive that long!?”

“Chihuahua, dream demons mature at a different rate from humans. They’re considered fully grown adults after about ten years. In exchange, they also have much longer lifespans. You can’t measure their age the same way you measure a human’s.”

Brownie explained this to me when she saw how shocked I was. I was so stunned by the mention of fifteen that it took me a moment to accept it.

“Even so, he can’t take life force from younger women, either. There are conditions that must be met for a dream demon to enter someone’s dream.”

“Conditions?”

“Yes. We can only enter the dreams of living beings whose minds and souls have matured enough to withstand a dream demon’s interference. For humans, that generally means they must be at least twenty years old. Before then, the boundary between their dreams and souls is still unstable, so even if we try to force our way in, we are instinctively repelled.”

“Ah…”

Only then did everything finally make sense.

Because of his race’s characteristics, he couldn’t approach anyone younger than himself, while everyone old enough for him to approach was older than him.

“…Wait a minute. Then what about him?”

“Yes.”

The succubus once again looked at her younger brother as though he were utterly pathetic.

“Despite being an incubus, there isn’t a single woman from whom he can actually take life force. That’s why he can’t use any of a dream demon’s abilities.”

Then what was all that stuff he did in my dream?

Besides, he hadn’t seemed particularly frightened, either.

Of course, his actual attempt had been thwarted by Sabira’s intervention.

“How could such a defective product have been born into the great dream demon clan…?”

I think I understood why the incubus had developed that phobia of older women…

Being afraid of women older than him basically meant he was afraid of his older sister, right?

“So, this is what I wanted to ask of you. Would you be willing to take him in as a contract employee for just five years?”

“Separate from the matter of hiring him, why specifically five years?”

“After five years, he will have reached twenty years of age. At that point, he’ll at least have the possibility of being able to extract some life force.”

“Do you think this is a daycare center? You’re using punishment as an excuse, but really, you’re just asking us to take your useless little brother and socialize him on your behalf! Do you think our Chihuahua wouldn’t see through that!?”

“A-as expected of Your Excellency, the Representative. To see through another person’s true intentions so quickly…”

“Dream demons sure do have long tongues. Don’t try any funny business.”

Having realized that we were firmly in the superior position, Brownie was clearly trying to squeeze every possible concession out of them.

“Of course, there are plenty of Instance Dungeons that would accept him on the condition that he only work for five years. But this is a dungeon directly under His Majesty the Demon King, isn’t it? If he builds up proper experience here over those five years, he should be able to make up for at least some of the time he’s spent being treated as a defective product.”

Her words about her younger brother were harsh, but I could tell that even this eccentric older sister was concerned about his future in her own way.

“Wouldn’t this be better than staying unemployed?”

“……”

“Just look at your friends. Some have gotten jobs at famous dungeons and settled down, while others are even going on large-scale raids and pulling their weight. How long are you going to keep living like this? How long are you going to keep worrying Mother and relying on your older sister for money?”

“I-I wanted to do well, too!”

Looking over the incubus’s resume again, I noticed that the work experience section was completely blank.

A long-term unemployed individual who’d come knocking on the door of my dream, knowing I had the authority to hire him.

“…For now, he is indeed the kind of talent our dungeon needs.”

I continued, pointing to two of his certifications.

“However, our dungeon has recently hired a lot of new monsters, so we’re short on positions.”

The income from the offering box still wasn’t enough to cover the weekly wages we were paying out.

So even if he was someone we needed, I had to be a little cautious about hiring him.

“For now, I think it would be best to have him work as an unpaid intern for three months as originally intended, partly as punishment. We’ll evaluate his work performance and how well he adapts to the organization during that time, and then decide whether to hire him officially. If we do hire him, we’ll pay him a salary, even if it’s a small one.”

Wouldn’t the dungeon’s revenue have improved considerably by the time those three months were up?

So this was essentially a way of postponing the hiring decision.

“I… I never expected you to go that far…!”

This time, even the incubus looked surprised.

I couldn’t bring myself to be completely harsh toward him, because he reminded me of my younger brother back in my home world.

‘No, not my younger brother. The son of the head of the household.’

That said, I didn’t want to be too nice to him, either. He’d still done something pretty outrageous, hadn’t he?

“So, does the applicant himself intend to join us? Once you enter our dungeon, you’ll be expected to faithfully carry out your assigned duties as an employee. We won’t give you any special treatment just because you’re young.”

When no answer came immediately, the succubus glared at him with a terrifying expression.

The incubus turned deathly pale and nodded frantically.

“…Y-yes!”

The three-month internship was also an opportunity for the incubus.

He hadn’t officially signed a contract with the dungeon yet, so if he really couldn’t stand it, he could leave at any time. I was even prepared to shrug it off if he ran away in the middle of the night.

But if he managed to endure those three months with the determination to work hard as a genuine dungeon monster, then perhaps I could start looking at him a little differently.

To begin with, I hadn’t even known that dream demons were supposed to be excellent combatants. So even if he couldn’t use a single one of his race’s abilities, I wouldn’t particularly feel that we were missing out.

“Then we’ll provisionally hire the incubus at our dungeon.”

“What are you planning to do with him? Which team are you going to put him in? He doesn’t really fit anywhere, does he?”

Despite her concerns, the thought of being able to work the incubus for free over the next three months seemed to have softened Brownie’s sharp gaze toward him a little.

“Where else? Obviously, the Operations Support Team.”

“Huh?”

“I’m not sending him to any of the teams. I’ll keep him directly under me and assign him whatever tasks I need done.”

I pushed the desk in my office farther toward the wall.

“Brownie, expand the office in that direction a little. And set up another desk over there.”

Brownie tilted her round head.

“You’re really going to keep him right beside you?”

“He can provide medical support, he knows how to loot, he can appraise the items he obtains, and he has one more certification that I don’t even know what to do with. That’s more than enough to make him suitable for the Operations Support Team.”

If I were the only one there, it would be the Management Support Team. But with the incubus joining us, it could become the Operations Support Team.

“Oh, I can give him one more job.”

“What?”

“Dullahan head retrieval duty. I’ll tell him to go looking for heads whenever he has some free time.”

Knock, knock.

Just as Brownie was creating the new workspace, I heard someone knocking on the door.

A little while later, the incubus returned after finishing his greetings with the employees on the first floor.

He stood there awkwardly, looking at me.

Although we’d become involved through an unpleasant incident, monsters immediately felt a sense of camaraderie simply by belonging to the same dungeon.

Perhaps he’d received a warm enough welcome from the employees, who had softened up toward him a little, because he seemed to be in much better shape than when he’d been with his older sister.

“So you’ve only been alive for fifteen years…”

“I told you, dream demons are adults at that age.”

“I know, but looking at him, how could anyone possibly think he’s only been alive for fifteen years?”

Judging by his appearance alone, he looked older than Serio.

I shook my head and spoke to the incubus, who was standing there stiffly and awkwardly.

“Since I was born before you, I’ll speak casually to you. Also, if you’re going to work at our dungeon, you need to cover yourself up a little.”

‘Isn’t he cold? How can he walk around wearing such an indecent outfit?’

I wasn’t even sure whether those clothes were serving their intended purpose.

After that, Brownie brought over an old, faded coat she’d found somewhere and draped it over the incubus’s shoulders.

“First, have a seat. We have a lot to talk about, don’t we? Your older sister has been with you all this time, so we haven’t really had a chance to hear your side of the story.”

“Yes…”

The incubus pouted, apparently unhappy with how ugly the clothes were, and headed toward his desk.

You’re only a three-month intern, so you’ll have to make do with a dirt desk for now.

Once you become a full-time employee, I’ll slowly get you a wooden desk, okay?