Convenience Store Worker From Another World Chapter 175

Episode 175. If you don’t know, just learn (5)

* * *

I have never had any experience raising a pet, let alone a cat.

It was because I had neither money nor leisure. I had thought about raising a dog, but I was discouraged by the price. Why is a can of animal food worth a box of ramen?

But I guess I have no choice but to take care of this invisible cat. I tried to take it outside, but as soon as I took a step outside the front door, it started kicking.

“Nyaaahhh! Meow, meow!!”

At the same time, the front door creaked open just before it snapped, and a shower head with a broken hose came flying in and stopped dead in front of the door. Now that I think about it, how am I going to shower today?

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

“If you don’t want to go out, just say you don’t want to go out, Inma. Don’t cry.”

As soon as I stepped back inside, the shower head fell down weakly, and the front door that had been open slowly moved and closed. The struggling also quieted down.

How can I get this guy out? Even if I force him out and lock the door, he’ll definitely come back in somehow. Whether it’s smashing my window with a trash can or simply breaking the front door…

“Hey, did you hide a honey pot here?”

“Meow… .”

It’s a cry that seems to be asking you to stop bothering him and leave him alone. If you can’t get this guy out, there’s only one way. Maintain a symbiotic relationship somehow.

If you just use it well, it’s something that can be used a lot. After thinking for a moment, I turned over the rice bowl that was lying on the floor and put it down.

After that, I sat him down in front of the food bowl and waited quietly. Since he had just woken up, he was probably hungry, and he immediately became interested in the food bowl.

This wasn’t visible, but the food bowl was moving slightly. It must be tapping it with its front paw. A little later, a cry came.

“Meow.”

At the same time as this cry, the feed pellets began to gather at once into one spot. They came in a line, making a rustling sound, and entered the food bowl.

A few seconds later, the food bowl was filled with food. The transparent cat meowed, satisfied with its results. Where did you dare.

“Meow―”

“Hey. If you want to eat, clean up what you spill first.”

I picked up the half-full bowl of food and went out onto the veranda. I saw a washbasin there. I poured the entire contents of the bowl into the washbasin and then went back inside.

“The rice bowl is empty again, you punk. So what should I do now?”

“Cat?”

This time it was a cry of bewilderment. I am not an expert in cat language, but I could tell right away that the cat was bewildered by the current situation.

The empty rice bowl moved again, and the grains gathered and filled it up again. I immediately transferred it to the washbasin.

I repeated this about 30 times. As bored as I was, this guy was equally bored.

“Meow! Meow!”

Even though this guy tore open the food bag, he emptied the food bowl cleanly. I guess he prioritizes what’s in the food bowl over what’s spilled on the floor.

He tore the bag of feed. He must have ripped it open because he doesn’t know the concept of a zipper. He must have gotten drunk while doing this because he left a nail mark on the back of my hand.

“Hey, just do it twice more. Just twice!”

“Meow!”

He said no. He was struggling so much that I put him down, and he suddenly ran towards the veranda and banged his head on the washbasin.

I figured this out after I got closer and heard it eating. I lifted it up one last time and placed it down in front of the half-full food bowl.

“I’ll do the rest, Inma. Go eat.”

“Meow. Meow.”

It’s so irrational. If you spill something, you should clean it up yourself. Why are you making me clean it up and then getting angry?

Still, the floor was so clean that I thought I could just sweep it later. I sat up, watching the amount of food in the food bowl decrease.

“Hey. I’m going to buy you something, so stay still. Got it?”

“Meow, meow. Meow…”

I took that as an acknowledgment. I put on my shoes, went outside, and opened the map app on my phone. After searching, I found a pet supplies store not far away.

I followed the directions and headed in that direction, and as I was walking, this thought suddenly occurred to me.

“Is this what it feels like when you travel abroad?”

Strictly speaking, it’s far from overseas travel. We all speak the same language.

But, if you leave that aside, it has a lot in common with traveling abroad. The foreign people walking down the street are considered locals, and the different layouts and structures of the buildings are considered the architectural style of this country…

The park I’m passing by now is the same. It looks similar to the city park where I went to pick up my dog before, but there were a couple of structures that made me wonder if they were made for people to use?

For example, a pole stuck in the middle of some large trees. I stopped for a moment to look at it, and there was a woman sitting on one of the poles, reading a book.

To be exact, I was dozing off with a book in my hand. The weather today was perfect for taking a nap. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky.

The book slowly slipped out of the sleeping woman’s hands and eventually fell to the floor. The woman woke up with a start at the sound of the book hitting the ground and looked around.

Then, he found a book that had fallen down, and jumped down from the 4m high platform. At the same time, both his arms transformed into brown wings and flapped them.

He flapped his wings and landed lightly on the floor, picked up the book, and flew back up onto the countertop as if nothing had happened. Then, as he was about to open the book, he checked his ankle.

There was a watch on his ankle. His arms were like wings, so he probably didn’t wear a watch. He looked at his watch, grabbed his bag that was hanging on the hook, and flew off somewhere.

As I watched, the feeling of traveling abroad changed slightly. I don’t think I’d be able to see such a sight in any country I’ve ever lived in.

After that, we walked a little further through a small park and arrived at our destination. I thought that pet supply stores in this world would have a certain concept, but this was not the case.

“hmm….”

Actually, when I first started working at the store I worked at, I had no idea that it was a convenience store from another world. I went in thinking that I could choose my items easily, but as soon as I met the employee who greeted me, I flinched slightly.

“Welcome, sir.”

“…Uh. Yes.”

The staff member appeared to be a human female, with butterfly wings on her back.

There were two strands of hair that looked like tentacles near the border between the bangs and the forehead. Perhaps to prevent the tentacles from obstructing the view, they were held back with something like a hairpin.

It seems to be one of the species of the butterfly family, but does it make sense for an insect and a species of the other to run a pet supplies store? Is this because I can’t shake off my racist tendencies?

“Is there anything you are looking for?”

“… Oh, yes. I’m thinking of raising a cat.”

I just drew it. This can happen.

The buying process went smoothly except for one blockage. He’s about 3 months old now and I don’t know what to buy right now.

As soon as I said this, the staff member spread his wings halfway and excitedly recommended various things. Starting with a cat litter box, he started recommending nail clippers, scratching posts, cat toys, etc.

“It would be good to buy a cat litter box that is about 1.5 times the size of the cat, sir. How big is your cat?”

“…that.”

This is where it got stuck. How can I explain how big the transparent thing is… I don’t know.

“Can I see and choose the bathroom myself?”

“Of course, sir. But you should avoid making the step too high. Children often fall down when they climb up and down.”

In addition, cat nail clippers. At 3 months old, the nails will be sharp, so it is better to buy them now and cut them right away. Scratchers are for trimming the clipped nails yourself.

“Your cat will get lonely a lot while you are out, so it would be a good idea to provide him with various toys.”

“Uh… do cats get lonely?”

I asked about the idea that cats are independent and rarely feel lonely, because I remembered seeing something like that somewhere. But the employee refuted my words with his wings drooping.

“Many people know that. But cats are social animals too. If they weren’t pets, they would spend time outside, meet other cats, and play with them….”

“I understand. You can’t do that if you just stay at home.”

“Yes. Some people come here to try to solve that problem with pet supplies. For example, ‘My pet is feeling low on energy. Are there any toys that he can play with on his own?’”

It’s not a toy that you can play with alone, it’s a toy that needs an owner to play with. There are certainly things in this world that money can’t buy.

“But since I can’t help it, I try to appease him a little with toys.”

“Wow. You explain it well. Thank you for your explanation.”

If you don’t know, it’s right to learn first. As payment for my learning, I bought everything I thought I needed, including the nail clippers I showed you earlier. Starting with the cheap ones.

Lastly, the most expensive one was a cat food feeder. It cost a whopping 80,000 won. The moment I checked it, I had a vision of four boxes of ramen flying behind the feeder… .

“…I would also like to ask for this as well.”

It’s better than wrestling with a torn bag of feed every day. After gathering up everything I thought I needed and calculating the total cost, it came to 180,000 won.

Three envelopes came out. I haven’t bought a set of clothes or a pair of shoes yet, but 180,000 won is missing. After paying by bank transfer, the employee handed me the envelopes and asked brightly.

“I guess you take good care of your child, sir.”

“Yes. The cat is like a stray cat, and somehow it came into my house without me knowing and started living there.”

“Oh my god.”

Actually, it’s the reverse, but if I were to state the truth, I would be labeled as someone who invaded cat territory and occupied it illegally. I don’t like that, so I slightly distorted it.

“Then shouldn’t you get vaccinated as well?”

“Uh… yes. I should take it. Thank you for telling me that too. I’ll be going now.”

“Oh, yes. Please take a look, sir.”

He nodded to me as he spoke, and I nodded back and left the building.

As I was going back home, I thought to myself, how much do I have to pay for the vaccinations? And after that, will I have money left over to buy a blanket?

* * *

As soon as I got home, I looked into the cost of vaccinations. The trend is to get three shots, and each shot costs 40,000 won. A total of 120,000 won.

As soon as I decided to raise a cat, 300,000 won was deducted from my account. I can’t say anything about why they spend so much money on taking care of one animal. But.

That guy is a super strong transparent cat. He’s a spirit. The puppy dog has regenerative abilities, so wouldn’t that guy be similar? The parasites wouldn’t be able to see that guy either.

But come to think of it, I think the puppy must have gotten his vaccinations too. He was raised at home until he was two years old. I don’t know if he knew what I was thinking, but he was constantly barking near the veranda.

“Grrrr… .”

I guess it’s because the warm sunlight feels good. As the employee mentioned in passing earlier, kittens sleep a lot.

“…Hey. I brought you a toy, so play with it.”

This is a toy that the staff especially strongly recommended: a stick with animal hair.

He said that since it is from a stray cat, it will probably still have some wildness left, so something with animal fur on it would be more appealing than something made of pure rubber.

I opened the package and threw it in the direction of the rustling sound, and it landed on top of something I couldn’t see and rolled on the floor. I made a jaw clench at the same time.

“Haaaak!”

“Oh, sorry.”

After apologizing verbally, I watched his reaction. He seemed to be upset that something had come over him, so he picked up the furry toy and threw it on the floor.

It’s as tall as 2m. It’s using magic to play with its toys. After beating it a couple of times, it realized it wasn’t a threat and became a little more docile in playing with it.

A cat was swinging a furry stick from side to side like a tail. Then, as if he had grabbed it with his hand, the stick began to tilt, and after a while, the fur on the end of the stick began to clump together.

It must have been biting it with its mouth. I felt like all the hair would be ripped out if I left it alone, so I went closer and picked up the stick with my hand.

“Hey. Here it is.”

“Urung.”

The sound of crying with the mouth closed. The staff also told me about this sound. When they want to play, they close their mouths and make a sound that sounds dissatisfied or something.

When I swung the stick sideways, there was a cracking sound and a slight claw mark was left on the floor. When I swung it the other way, a claw mark appeared on the other side.

“You must have been really bored. Huh?”

“Urung… .”

And I was really sleepy. I wanted to play with him more, but maybe because the sun was shining, my eyes kept nodding off.

With a feeling of not knowing, I tore apart all the toys and threw them away, then lay down in the middle of the toys. There must be pellets of food in every corner of the room, but when will I clean them up?

“… You clean up after yourself later. Why should I clean up your mess?”

“Grrrr.”

“If you clean that up, I’ll pay for the stuff today, so behave yourself now. Got it?”

I’m going to sleep. Since I gave this much in bribes, I guess I’ll be allowed to sleep for a day…