Convenience Store Worker From Another World Chapter 10

Episode 10. The Peacock (1)

Just because it’s morning doesn’t mean there’s no truth.

This is not a story about drunken swindlers. Those gentlemen have a vampire-like nature, where they drink heavily and have a swearing party, but when the morning sun rises, they laugh, their skin feels like it’s burning… and slowly crawl back into their houses. That’s why they are rarely seen in the morning.

What I’m talking about is office workers. To be exact, office workers who are pressed for time and don’t know what to do.

These office workers who come after 8:30 in the morning are half-willingly and half-involuntarily treated to mild flavors.

Their appearances are obviously different since they are from different races, and their behavior patterns and genders are all different, but if there is one thing they have in common…

“Sir, how would you like to pay…?”

“Huh? Oh, it’s a card. I’m out of my mind right now… .”

These gentlemen are generally out of their minds.

“It’s 3,000 won. Should I put it in your cart?”

“yes?”

“Shall I put it in for you?”

“Oh, no. No, it’s okay. Sorry, I didn’t hear you because I was out of my mind.”

“Sir, you need to take your card.”

“Huh? Oh, oh, I’m sorry. I’m really out of my mind… .”

It’s something like this, and there are other things too… .

“Please calculate it!”

A female customer with retriever ears hurriedly placed lunch boxes, sandwiches, milk, and other items on the counter. She seemed to be a similar species to the Chihuahua that had been looking for a toothbrush, but her appearance was almost human.

I scanned the barcode and told him the price, thinking it would be around 10% pure Cobalt, and he immediately handed me ten thousand won.

“It’s 9,600 won. I’ll put it in your…”

“You don’t have to give me change. Thanks for your hard work!”

It seemed like he couldn’t even wait for the 3-5 seconds for the change, so he ran out of the convenience store with the things he had paid for in his arms. Judging by the fact that his tail was hanging down, he seemed to be late.

There was another case like this. There was a customer who ran up to the front of the convenience store, grabbed the doorknob, and banged on it several times. I wondered why he was doing that, so I looked at him, and our eyes met. He pointed to the doorknob and mouthed something like, “The door won’t open.”

I went over and opened the side door. He came in with an embarrassed expression, then quickly picked out his stuff and left. But this guy didn’t take his card?

“What the heck… .”

Most of the customers who come during this time are absent-minded, so I need to come to my senses so that this kind of situation doesn’t happen again.

But I’m starting to feel sleepy and out of my mind. It’s been a while since I last worked an all-nighter…

I took out a post-it note, wrote down the date and time the guest had come, stuck it on a card, and put it on the POS machine. I thought I wouldn’t be able to meet him since he wouldn’t come during lunch or before I left work, and I thought I should pass it on to the handover.

As soon as 9 o’clock passed, the convenience store became quiet, as if it were a lie.

The intersection has become a desolate scene, like a tumbleweed from a Western movie, with hardly any cars or pedestrians. Even if you look closely, you can see the occasional pancake left by a drunk, cigarette butts scattered around, or canned trash.

Since there were no pedestrians, the convenience store naturally became deserted. Sometime in the early morning, I stopped talking to the store manager and only received customers. When I sat down in my chair and checked my smartphone, I saw a text message. It was a text message from 8:50.

[ Aren’t you sleepy? ]

If you lay down a mat, I can lie down and fall asleep right away. But I didn’t notice.

[ are you okay ]

The reply came right away. You must be awake.

[ It’s been a while since you’ve worked all night, you must have worked hard ]

[I usually don’t sleep well at night, so I think I was able to hold out for a while.]

[ You need to sleep well. You’ll get sick later. It’s not my place to be. ]

[ I know, but I couldn’t sleep… ]

I’ve barely been able to sleep because I’ve been worrying about getting a job. Of course, I’m not confident that I’ll be able to sleep well today. I think I’ll dream about juggling blood packs and knitting needles.

[ Then, should I make you a potion that will help you sleep well? ]

[ A sleeping potion? ]

[They do sell it at our convenience store, but the effect is a bit weak. It’s all mass-produced, so.]

Around the time I received this text, the bell at the convenience store’s front door rang.

I glanced up at the front door, but there were no customers. For some reason, the convenience store bell sometimes rang on its own, so I figured it might be the same this time, and went back to focusing on the text message on my smartphone.

[ I heard it’s similar to a sleeping pill, but don’t you have to get a prescription for it? ]

[ Chani, are you guys like that? Why? ]

The world I live in is one where so many people use sleeping pills to fall asleep permanently, not just for a short while. But this is another world, right?

[Where I live, sleeping pills are used for other purposes. Like, to put you to sleep forever.]

[ Oh… I never thought of that. ]

[ We sometimes think about it, but we rarely put it into practice. I don’t know if it will work for me. ]

I knew from yesterday’s experience that my constitution was strange, and since the potion was probably magically processed, I didn’t think it would work on me. However, after telling the story, the store manager seemed to become more interested.

[ Well, I guess we’ll know if it works or not once we try it? ]

[ Are you really going to make it? ]

[Don’t worry. It won’t take long, so I’ll make one and take it with me before the shift change.]

I feel like I’ve caught a glimpse of the store manager. In fact, I wonder if he’s just a very curious person…

“Over there… .”

I heard someone calling me. It was a faint, raspy voice.

I looked up from my seat and looked at the front door again, but there was still no one there. I didn’t think I heard wrong, so I looked around, and then I saw two horns sprouting up in front of the cash register. What are these?

I looked down as I stood up, and there was a little girl looking up at me with a nervous expression.

But this kid… is so pale.

His hair was white, his skin was white, his eyebrows were a light white, but his eyelashes were definitely white. He had small wings on his back that were also white, and his large tail that hung down in a way that didn’t match his body was also white.

Her outfit wasn’t like that, but she was wearing red shoes, had a pink pouch bag tied to her side, and her socks were black. If all of these were white, you’d think she was covered in flour.

“uh….”

The little boy who had been stuttering greeted me first by bowing. His eyes were amber.

“Hello.”

“Uh… hi.”

I greeted him, but he still looked nervous and seemed to have a hard time talking to me. He seemed to be shy.

“Uh… that’s… .”

“What are you looking for?”

I spoke casually because I thought it would be more difficult for the child if I used formal speech. After hesitating for a moment, the child seemed to have gained courage and asked me.

“Do you have any colored paper…?”

Wouldn’t that be something you’d look for at a stationery store?

But strangely enough, I remember seeing the colored paper. I pointed to the third corner and said, searching my memory.

“Would you like to take a look at the third corner up there?”

“my.”

After answering and walking into the third corner, he didn’t come out for over 30 seconds. When I went to check, there was some colored paper, but it was located at the top of the display case, so I couldn’t reach the spot where it was placed.

He groans and reaches out his hand while on tiptoe, then looks at me and speaks in a slightly tearful voice.

“I’m sending you a message, I can’t reach you… .”

“I see….”

After picking up the colored paper, I walked over to the counter and scanned the barcode. It said 1,500 won. The little girl fumbled around in her pink pouch for a while before pulling out a crumpled 5,000 won note and handing it to me.

And then I start to hesitate again. I was looking down at the kid, and then I realized something as if it was passing me by.

This kid looks like a dragon.

Salamanders and dragons may be classified as the same reptiles, but they felt a little different from salamanders. If salamanders were similar to snakes, it was a little difficult to define what this little guy was similar to.

He was the kind of kid who would be easier to find commonalities in a drawing than in a real-life photo. The little boy, who had been fidgeting with a troubled expression, swallowed hard and asked me again.

“By any chance, do you have scissors?”

“Will you be here? Stay here for a moment.”

I definitely saw a cutter knife, but I’m not sure if there were scissors. I went to the corner where the cutter knife was to look for it, but the kid didn’t seem to hear me telling him to stay there and followed me around.

So we looked for them together. There were scissors displayed next to the cutter knife. They were 3,600 won.

“Here it is.”

“Me. But… within 3,600 won…”

I remembered the kid who had just handed me a 5,000 won bill. The paper and scissors totaled 5,100 won. If what he had brought was exactly 5,000 won, he couldn’t buy it because he was 100 won short.

“I don’t have enough money….”

“Sorry, kid. I’m not the one setting the prices.”

My guess was right, and the little boy looked very embarrassed. After thinking about it for a moment, I suddenly thought that maybe I could give him 100 won. Since there was quite a bit of change left over from customers.

“If it were 100 won, I could just give it to you.”

“No, you don’t have to give it to me, I’ll lend it to you.”

“I thought I had to give it to you so I did.”

“Mom told me not to accept other people’s money carelessly. You’ll be in big trouble.”

“What does your mother do?”

“I’m going to work.”

“I see.”

When I put my arm in at night and heard that the scales on the dragons were those of farming dragons, I thought that all dragons in this world wore straw hats and went around digging.

But I guess there are dragons who go to work normally. It would certainly be convenient to commute to work since you can fly without a car.

After that, I don’t know if it was because I was sleepy or because I felt sorry for the child who was embarrassed, but questions kept coming out of my mouth without me meaning to.

“But what are you going to do with colored paper and scissors?”

“Hey, what I learned in kindergarten yesterday.”

“Oh. What did I learn?”

“Aside from Children’s Day, there is also something called Parents’ Day.”

Come to think of it, next week is May. I’m neither a child nor a parent, so I haven’t really cared for a while.

“I knew about Children’s Day, but this is the first time I found out about Parents’ Day. It was surprising.”

“It’s amazing.”

“But, my mom always gave me presents on Children’s Day, but I… have never given my mom a present on Parents’ Day… So, I…”

This seemed to be the reason why the little boy wanted to buy colored paper and scissors. He wanted to make a carnation to give to his mother.

I asked the little boy casually if he could just do origami without scissors, but he answered by holding out his hand.

“I’m going crazy… I’m not good at origami… .”

On his tiny hands, his claws were white, and it seemed like he would be lucky if he didn’t just tear the paper apart with his claws instead of folding it. Damn, in this world, just when I think my common sense is starting to work, such ridiculous situations pop up.

“I’m sorry… .”

“No, I can’t do it….”

Then there was silence for a moment.

The boy seemed troubled. He wanted to buy a present for his mother, but he didn’t have enough money to buy scissors. However, even though the store didn’t sell scissors, he had some that he could use… .

“Hey kid.”

“my.”

“Is it okay if I lend you some scissors?”