The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 297: Cat Pago (10) - The New Part-timer's Suffering It had already been a week since Popuri started working part-time at the convenience store. Contrary to Popuri's hope that the strange customer would visit again to serve as a shield against troublesome customers, the bizarre visitor never came back. Because of this, Popuri had to continue tasting the bitter reality of customer service work without being able to slack off legally, but she didn't quit her job. For one thing, she could secure discarded lunch boxes and rice balls, improving her food situation, and although the salary hadn't come in yet, the conditions were very generous. The manager, initially suffering from sleep deprivation, had posted a job listing at 1.5 times the rate of other convenience stores to quickly find someone. From there, Popuri had negotiated an additional deal for double the rate. In other words, Popuri was effectively receiving about three times the salary of part-timers at other convenience stores. It would be hard to find such conditions with any ordinary part-time job. The manager, having recovered his normal thinking ability after escaping sleep deprivation, did show some signs of regret, but he didn't try to go back on his word or attempt to renegotiate the salary. After all, if Popuri left, that bizarre customer might come back. While triple salary for a regular part-timer would be unreasonable, if it came with a special exorcism option attached, it wasn't such a losing deal. "Um, Hanamori-san? Where should I put this?" "You can put that in the storage room, right on the right side as you enter." "Okay." The work environment had also changed. When Popuri had just started working, it was a three-shift system per day. The manager alone covered for two people working 16 hours, but after enduring just two more days in that state, the manager's nephew, whom he had urgently called, arrived. Little Sato-san, who was the child of Manager Sato-san's older brother, was a very gentle and sincere type of young man. He didn't talk much, didn't make a fuss about this and that, and was the type to just quietly do his own work. Age-wise, he was eight years older, and Popuri had (two days) more convenience store experience, but both Popuri and little Sato-san were able to find an excellent compromise of mutual respect and mutual courtesy. Anyone who has never been a loner shouldn't ask if that's worth emphasizing. Anyway, the workplace was peaceful, her wallet was still light but was scheduled to get heavy soon, and her new relationships were harmonious. It was a very ideal development for Popuri. So that was how it was for about a week. "Um, Manager-san. Is something wrong with Sato-san lately?" "Sato-san? I'm also a Sato, so what's wrong?" "...... I'm talking about your nephew. We agreed to organize the titles that way last time since you're the manager anyway." "Come on, you don't need to be so serious about a light joke. Ahem." The manager, who had briefly played around with surnames, repeatedly cleared his throat at Popuri's glare, trying to soothe his embarrassment, and soon sighed. "Even from your perspective, his complexion hasn't been good lately, has it?" "Yes. We only work together briefly before shift changes, but even in that short time, his condition was noticeably terrible." At first, it was just like, has he gotten a bit thinner lately? But day by day, his eye sockets became sunken, his skin grew pale, and someone who had been quiet but quite quick in movement was now walking around half-dazed. Manager-san let out a deep sigh. "He's been living with me lately, you know?" "Was the manager's snoring the cause of his insomnia? Or was it the smell of a bachelor...?" "Hanamori-san is basically well-behaved, but sometimes she becomes rude as naturally as breathing...?" "If I hadn't asked first, there's a manager in this world who was about to offer a new part-timer to a strange customer without proper explanation of the situation. A bit of rudeness can be called self-defense." "Ahem, it's ghosts, ghosts. He's been making a fuss lately about seeing ghosts every night." The manager's behavior of subtly pretending not to hear and trying to change the subject when things became unfavorable to him was quite annoying, but Popuri didn't bother to correct it. After all, having a lot of money tends to make people generous and magnanimous, and the manager's salary was generous enough. Of course, if he tried to give excuses instead of the promised salary on payday, then instead of magnanimous Popuri, little Popuri would come with a baseball bat. "Some female ghost apparently stares at him every night while shedding bloody tears, and he wakes up several times during the night gasping for breath. According to him, he has no problems anywhere else, but it only happens when he sleeps at our house." "Manager-san, have you never seen a ghost?" If the ghost that torments him really exists as little Sato-san confessed, and if it's bound to the land, then the manager should have suffered more damage than little Sato-san, who hasn't been at the house for long. It was a question asked with that meaning, but the manager shook his head from side to side. "I've never seen anything like a ghost?" "Hmm. Well, there are often cases where only specific members suffer damage even when living in the same house." Stories where a young daughter is tormented by ghosts daily in a new house while her parents can't see them at all, or where one person in a dormitory is being driven to death by a ghost while the roommate is perfectly fine, are surprisingly very common patterns in ghost stories. "This kind of thing can happen when a person doesn't match well with the building or land, so how about moving to another place?" "Come on, aren't land prices and rent around here a bit expensive? Originally it's a house for a four-person household that we two are using now, but if we had to pay money elsewhere for a place worse than this, the reverse satisfaction would be no joke?" "Is the manager's house that big? Being a convenience store manager must be quite a well-paying job?" "No, in my case, I got the house cheaply, which actually gave me more leeway in my work life. I got it at a bargain price because it was some kind of accident property or cursed house. It was probably less than 1/20th of market value? They just pushed it onto me saying that just owning it would bring bad luck to life. The building was perfectly fine though." Then that's the cause, you human. Popuri almost blurted out bitter words without thinking, but seeing the manager's appearance as if he genuinely didn't understand this situation, she soon swallowed her words. Hearing that even the bizarre customer consistently avoided the times when the manager was there, he might just be someone whose natural constitution is far removed from things like ghosts. Very envious... Hmm. "...Why are you suddenly staring so intently, Hanamori-san?" "No, I was just thinking that the world takes something away when it gives something." Looking at the manager's head, where the hair color itself was deep black but the top was already sparse, Popuri was able to suppress the emotion of envying him. If that bright top was a side effect of intense yang energy that even ghosts would avoid, wouldn't that be more than enough as compensation? "Anyway, if it's the type that only appears in a specific person's dreams to torment them, there's nothing I can do either." This wasn't Popuri being heartless, but just the general characteristic of this type of ghost story. The person involved suffers from nightmares daily, becomes skin and bones, and is basically just going crazy and dying, but other people can't see or feel the ghost, so outwardly it just looks like the victim is making a fuss alone. Some kind of interaction has to be possible to even attempt exorcism or banishment, but how could Popuri banish a ghost that only appears in someone else's dreams and that she can neither see nor touch? "Hmm. I've tried going to temples and other religious facilities, but they all just gave me talismans and such. They said the answer was to just leave that house quickly. If even Hanamori-san says so, then there's nothing to be done. I'll just have to spend some money." "You're going to look for a new place to live with your money? You're incredibly kind to a part-timer." "What else can I do? He's the nephew I called because I needed someone urgently. If I leave him like that and something happens, my brother will beat me to death." Along with the manager's light banter, that day's conversation ended like that. Little Sato-san found a new shelter with the manager's help, and whether it was effective or not, his complexion also brightened. The incident related to Popuri's workplace colleague seemed to be coming to an end like that. "Ugh......" "......" "......" About two days after moving to the new house. Along with Sato-san's appearance, who had become an even worse zombie than before, making the short recovery period meaningless, such dreams were lightly shattered. *** Meow. "Well, this is also a common pattern. The story where you move to another house to escape a ghost, and it seems like you've escaped for a few days, but then the ghost stubbornly follows you to the new place and the terror continues." At Pago's simple assessment, Popuri sighed. "Don't talk about it like it's someone else's story, come up with a solution. Actually, can't Pago just go to Sato-san's place and chase away that ghost or whatever? You know, there are many stories about dogs chasing away ghosts but none about cats, so let's build up a heartwarming story this time!" "Not happening." "Tch." At Popuri's indifferent reaction, Pago also felt it was a bit much to just ignore it, so he added a few words. "Rather than just relying on other people's power, try to do something yourself. That activity and effort itself might become a great strength later, you know?" "The problem is that I can't do anything myself. Even when I observe with my 'eyes', I can only feel supernatural energy around Sato-san, but I can't see the supernatural being itself." If it came to visit Popuri herself and attempted sleep paralysis, she would somehow regain control of her body and grab it by the hair, but such a thing would be impossible for that gentle and weak-spirited Sato-san. "That's not certain." At timing as if he had read Popuri's thoughts, Pago advised like that. "Gentle and diligent. You can't define a person with just two words. A new path is always open." "A new path, what exactly do you mean?" "Well, something like that?" Popuri frowned as she looked at the cover of the book Pago pointed to with his front paw. A typical light novel cover with a semi-transparent beautiful ghost girl in a sailor uniform clinging to the protagonist's back with a blushing face. "About How My Room's Earthbound Spirit Girl is Too Cute to Help Pass On" Popuri blinked for a moment. And asked. "Did you perhaps eat rat poison?" ---------------------------------------------