The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 296 Cat Pago (9) - Diary, Third Entry. It was her first convenience store job, but to be honest, the work itself was fairly easy. Even with empty words, Popuri couldn't be called sociable, but convenience store customer service was mostly following a set manual anyway. Scan the barcode. Call out the amount. Take the card. Check the direction of the IC chip and insert it into the terminal. Shall I throw away the receipt for you? No. Thank you, have a good day. No need to actively lead conversations, no need to pretend to be interested in boring topics the other person talks about. How convenient this is! "Pago, maybe I was originally suited for work life. Until now I didn't know my aptitude because I was trapped in the framework of school." At Popuri speaking with sparkling eyes, the cat with heterochromatic eyes looked at her with an indescribable expression. Specifically, it was like looking at a beginner who ate one tteokbokki and boasted they were a master of spicy food. "Blackie. You haven't even experienced the depths of the service industry, or even just the midpoint. Stop talking nonsense and enjoy your current happiness." "What?" Popuri tilted her head, then soon raised her voice saying, "Ah." "Is it because of that strange woman story the manager told me about earlier? If it's that, it's fine. He said I could just run away the moment I first meet her." "Well. Anyway, if a cat stays inside the convenience store for too long, people will talk, so I'll step away for a bit." Meow. With a light meow, Pago pushed open the convenience store glass door and left. Popuri felt uncomfortable not getting a proper answer, but fortunately her question was soon resolved. No, actually it wasn't that fortunate. It would have been better if she never knew for the rest of her life. "Excuse me, student. Not this blue one, you know what I mean. The one I smoked last time. Kind of sky blue with holes in the filter or something." "...Sir, even if you say 'last time,' I have no way of knowing. If you don't give me the exact product name, I can't look it up. Or you could choose from what's displayed here..." "Geez, no flexibility. You know, the one with a bird drawn on it! The previous part-timer knew exactly what to give me!" "Student, this is 2+1, right? But why is the price like this? Isn't one free?" "...Sir, 2+1 means if you buy two of the same thing, we give you one more of the same. What you brought is a completely different brand." "No, it's all the same coffee, what's different! When I came last time it was fine!" "Excuse me, student. About this lunch box. I bought and ate this yesterday but my stomach hurt a bit. Give me a refund. Receipt? Where would that be, I already threw it away. You can tell just by looking that I bought it, right?" "...Sir, I don't know about card payments, but for cash purchases we can't give refunds without a receipt. That's the policy." "What, a person is sick and you're going on about paperwork! Young people these days really have no heart. I've lived in this neighborhood for 30 years, and you can't trust me?" "Excuse me, why are you staring at me like that?" "What?" "You just looked at me mockingly. I'm really dumbfounded. If I report this—" After enduring countless villains' parade. Just checking what product they brought, yet watching someone who claimed she was ignoring or mocking them, some impulse welled up in Popuri's heart. Should I kill them, Po? Endure it, Puri. (E/N: Personality disorder! As expected from service work!) Hold back? Can't you see what that woman is doing right now? And you, can't you see the future of your social life and bank account balance? The woman who had been screaming for a while eventually left after spitting out threats about reporting to some center or posting on a cafe, when Popuri kept chanting like a mantra with no thoughts: "No, I'm sorry, excuse me, no..." "Ha." A deep sigh escaped from Popuri's mouth. Right, if the world only ran according to manuals, why would there be talk about how hard it is to earn money. Among customers, there were far too many humans who had thrown away the world's common sense, dignity, morals, and so forth, but Popuri who had to serve them couldn't do the same. She couldn't hit someone's head with a baseball bat just because a customer said something strange. She hadn't brought such a thing to her part-time job place in the first place. (E/N: You can hit them with a baseball bat) While she was struggling to suppress the bubbling feelings inside. Ding—. What entered through the opened door was a woman in a beige trench coat. With neat bob hair and ordinary office worker attire. The woman didn't pick any items. She approached the register at a bizarrely constant speed and stopped. "...Excuse me, do you happen to have a pig's head?" In a very calm voice, the woman asked a strange question. Something that might be sold somewhere, but absolutely never in a convenience store. Popuri realized. Ah, this woman is that one. Just as the part-timers testified that her appearance was extremely ordinary on her first visit, there was nothing particularly strange about the woman's looks. Normal expression, normal clothing, normal way of speaking. However, it looked different to Popuri's eyes. Because over the appearance of an ordinary office worker, she could see the overlapping figure of a strangely twisted monster. It had always been like that. Many supernatural beings mimic humans, but Popuri's eyes often saw through such things. Unlike the neat human form, the monster's true appearance was quite bizarre and might shock ordinary people, but it had no particular impact on Popuri who had become accustomed to seeing such things from before. She just thought about what to do after this. 'First, I'll say we don't have it, then escape outside the convenience store while she leaves angrily. If I contact the manager... hmm?' Wait, some idea came to Popuri's mind. There are far too many villains in the world. But it's impossible to fight back the same way when villains act unreasonably. Because they're protected by law. And because it's between customer and employee. However. '...Is there a need to do that with supernatural beings?' Are supernatural beings protected by law? Can they go to the police station and stubbornly claim they were hit by someone after they did strange things first? Would there be complaints that an employee fought with a customer and superiors scolding that they should have endured instead of fighting? For a moment she unconsciously swallowed her saliva, but Popuri still held back once. The other party hadn't really done any major harm yet, so it would be a bit much to attack right away just because of one question, wouldn't it? "We don't sell pig's heads here. Customer." "You don't sell them?" The woman frowned. On the surface, it looked like she was very annoyed and disappointed at not getting what she wanted. But in Popuri's vision, the monster face overlapping with the woman's human face was giggling helplessly as if delighted by that answer. The woman left muttering something incomprehensible. It was a voice that would only sound like mumbling to ordinary people. However, Popuri's ears clearly heard it. "Three more times, three more times, three more times..." Popuri stared intently at the grotesquely torn corners of the mouth reaching the ears and the seemingly delighted back figure until the moment the woman left. And she made a decision. Hmm, it seems I can do whatever I want. *** The woman came again exactly 10 minutes later. Her appearance was the same, but a terrible stench wafted from her entire body. The previous part-timers must have had to continue serving customers while smelling this. It would have been difficult to deal with the aftermath if they told a customer they smelled. The woman seemed to know this too, as she approached the convenience store counter with gestures as if deliberately trying to spread more stench and said. "Please give me an urn." The woman's human face had an expression as if demanding something very natural, but the monster's face was different. A face that seemed to expect they couldn't sell such a thing, as if it couldn't possibly be here. Popuri's gaze briefly turned toward the woman. And then she turned her gaze back to where it was before, that is, to her phone. "It's somewhere in the convenience store. Look for it yourself." "...What?" Both of the woman's faces simultaneously showed bewilderment. Regardless, Popuri spoke without even turning her gaze. "I'm busy right now so find it yourself. Don't you have hands? Don't you have feet? Or don't you have a head? If you have all of them, you can find it yourself." It was rudeness as natural as breathing. A customer service attitude that would make even a priest with refined character consider for a moment whether it would be okay to hit her head with the corner of a Bible. Both of the woman's faces hardened simultaneously. The human face became dazed as if her thought processes stopped at this type of insult she'd never experienced before, and the monster face overlapping it stopped giggling and just blinked. The woman who had been rolling her eyes around soon opened her mouth again. "Oh, you're saying that because you don't have any? You don't sell urns?" "......" "Excuse me, can't you hear me? I'm asking if you don't sell urns? Don't you sell urns?!" No matter what the woman chattered about beside her, Popuri just focused on her phone game and didn't respond at all. Then, only after finishing one round, she turned her head sideways at an angle. Soon she frowned. And she picked up a deodorizer nearby and sprayed it all around with obvious motions, pssh, pssh. "Phew, where did you come from after bathing in food waste..." It was clearly muttered with her head down, but her voice was strangely loud for that. Both of the woman's faces glared regardless of human or monster. "What did you say?" "I said give me an urn! Give me an urn!!" "No, I told you to find it and bring it yourself?" "It's not there! I said it's not there! It's not there!!" "No, it's there. It's probably there. Why are you saying that without even looking?" "You should find it!! You're the clerk!!" "What? Who works in such an old-fashioned way these days? The trend nowadays is for everyone to do things themselves. Oh, I guess you didn't know. Well, you do look a bit old, hmm, excuse me. I won't say any more than this." "Aaaaaaahhh!!" The woman now started jumping around while clutching her head. A snicker appeared on Popuri's lips. "If it bothers you, go ahead and report it." "Guk, grrrrr, grrrrr!!" The human face turned bright red. The monster's face had every facial blood vessel writhing. However, Popuri remained calm. What will getting angry accomplish? Did I say we don't have it? I said we do, didn't I? I said to find it? Why are you making a fuss when you won't look for it yourself? "Blood! Give me blood!! Give me a cup of blood drawn from a beating human heart!!" "Ah, you're looking for some kind of blood thing. It might be over there in the freezer section? Or maybe not? I don't know but I think I might know?" "Give me a skewer good for gouging out eyeballs!!" "I think I saw something like that come in before. But that's expensive, hmm... Excuse me, but you do have money, right? Could I perhaps check your card? Oh, you don't have any. I see. How cute, looking for expensive items without money..." The woman foamed at the mouth. The monster and human faces overlapped identically, then she flung open the convenience store door and shouted. "—See if I ever come to this kind of store again!! You!! That's not how you do business!!" Bang! Ding— After the woman left. Popuri was silent for a moment. "...I wonder if she won't come again." Contrary to Popuri's expectations, the woman never came again. *** --- --- --- "Strange Convenience Store Customer" A supernatural being that visits convenience stores and demands strange items that convenience stores wouldn't sell. At first it appears as a relatively normal human, and the items it demands, while not available in convenience stores, are not particularly strange in terms of the act of purchasing itself. However, if sent away for not having the items, it reappears after a certain time, and with each return visit, its appearance and atmosphere become more bizarre, and the items it demands become increasingly unreasonable. Based on analysis of several testimonies, it seems likely to demand items related to ancestral rites or human death, but this is not certain. It doesn't seem to be the type of supernatural being that physically harms people or leads them to death, but given the characteristic that its bizarreness increases each time it's refused purchases, there's a possibility that damage was prevented only because part-timers ran away before it could complete the necessary number of visits. The countermeasure is to not definitively say "we don't have" the items the woman demands. As long as you don't deny the transaction itself, the woman cannot proceed to the next stage. Continuing to endure and engage in a battle of patience is one method, but since other customers never came when the woman visited, the convenience store itself might be forced to close during the standoff with her. If you're a part-timer, keep her detained for a long time; if you're a manager, get her out quickly. --- --- ---