Convenience Store Worker From Another World Chapter 90

Episode 90. Super-fast promotion, I’ll try it (1)

Tomorrow is Sunday. Why are you doing construction? What do you do on weekdays?

With this question in mind, I left work and arrived at work 10 minutes before my shift the next day. As soon as I entered the convenience store, the first thing I saw were furry creatures. Seven dwarves.

“Give me a change.”

“Yes, you mean Change Secret?”

“A pack of heels.”

“Yes, I will give it to you now.”

Dwarves are particularly short-spoken.

I don’t know how these dwarves do their wedding mass. Are you two in love? OK, mass is over. Something like that?

However, since the store manager seemed to have some free time, I also took my uniform with me, but when I returned to the checkout counter, I was a little concerned about the attire of these gentlemen. They were all dressed like laborers.

Given the circumstances, it seemed like these gentlemen were on the road construction team today. However, what these gentlemen were saying was a bit strange.

“Do you have makgeolli?”

“Yes. Would you like to take a look in the corner over there, near the dairy section?”

“I get it.”

Then, everyone rushed towards the makgeolli and grabbed a bottle of makgeolli in each hand. While standing in line, wouldn’t they be having conversations like this?

“Until when?”

“2 a.m.”

“What about heavy equipment?”

“The guy who lost the bet.”

“Okay. I bet.”

“speed.”

I don’t know if I can call this a conversation, but I tried to make some inferences based on the clues given. First of all… how long? This seems like a road construction subject.

2AM, this sounds like it has to be done by 2AM. What about heavy equipment? It sounds like they’re talking about deciding who won’t drink since driving heavy equipment after drinking is considered drunk driving, and they’re talking about deciding who loses the bet to make a bet, and the bet type is probably a one-shot speed test…

But, man, if the one who can’t drink faster is the one who drives the heavy equipment, then whether you win or lose, you still have to drink. Does that even make sense?

As the situation became more and more difficult to understand, the store manager’s reaction to calculating the makgeolli was calm. After selling all fourteen bottles of makgeolli to the seven dwarves, the store manager began fiddling with the POS machine.

After a few seconds, he looked at me and asked.

“Chan-ah. How many bottles of makgeolli are left?”

“wait a minute.”

I went and counted them, and there were exactly three bottles left in the inner corner. I moved them to the outside and reported it to the store manager.

“There are three bottles left.”

“Thank goodness. I thought I made a mistake in calculating because I heard the barcode being scanned twice.”

“Manager, I have something to ask you.”

“huh.”

Just looking at them, it looks like those dwarves are going to work on construction projects. Isn’t it a mistake to sell makgeolli to the nobles who have to work on construction projects? How can you work after drinking?

I thought this was a natural question, but the store manager said no.

“Dwarves are more alert when they drink alcohol.”

“Ah… There were a few people like that in my world too.”

I’ve seen a few cases where people who talk nonsense when they’re sober become more eloquent and calm after drinking. When I asked them why, they said it’s their drinking habits or something.

However, they didn’t believe it and crack open soju or anything right before the PT announcement. Blood alcohol concentration is like a kind of lying index, and the higher it is, the less trust there is in words or actions.

“If you keep doing that and cause an accident, won’t you be punished more severely?”

“That may have been the case back then, but I’ve never seen any accidents while working with dwarves.”

“Ugh… .”

“And you said you were going to drink a bottle. I don’t think you’ll even notice it if you drink that much.”

They say you have to drink twenty bottles of makgeolli to increase your blood alcohol level by 0.01% or something. The minimum drunk driving limit is 0.03%.

This weekly temperament is close to a racial trait, like that of succubi and goblins, so it is said that in workplaces where dwarves work, they are generally tolerated as long as they do not drink alcohol in buckets.

Even so, I still thought that it might be against some law, but I ended up concluding that those dwarves are probably doing it because they are used to it.

After concluding, I had nothing more to say, so I changed into the uniform I had brought and accepted the handover. There was nothing unusual in the store itself, but there was one thing to be careful of.

“Chan-ah. Do you see the general trash on the utility pole over there?”

The store manager pointed outside while talking. Looking at the electric pole outside the main gate, there was a regular garbage bag leaning against the pole. 20L size.

“I see it. But isn’t that where you throw away trash?”

“Yeah. I checked around 3 o’clock in the afternoon and it appeared at some point.”

Our convenience store is quite large, so it produces a lot of garbage. On many days, it fills up two 100L garbage bags.

That’s why I lock the door at around 2:00 AM every day, walk about 30 meters out and throw away my trash. That’s because there is a trash bin there.

As I walk to the trash can, shake my hands, and look up, there is a phrase that is clearly visible. ‘If you violate the general waste disposal location, a fine of 100,000 won will be imposed.’

“Should we clean that up? If anyone sees it, they’ll think we threw it away.”

A garbage bag leaning against a pole in front of a convenience store. It looks like nothing more or less than the garbage that the convenience store night shift worker threw away because he was too lazy to go out. However, the store manager shook his head.

“I think… I don’t think it’s right to clean it up right now.”

“Well, it’s a bit unsightly….”

“That’s true, but I think about what happens after I clean it up. If the person who threw the trash passes by, wouldn’t they think, ‘Oh, they clean up the trash even though they threw it here?’”

The manager’s opinion is that this will happen no matter when, and even if we leave it alone when it happens, it will only confuse the gentleman. Hmm…

“Aren’t you being too lenient on the illegal dumper?”

“Is that so? But there’s another reason.”

“What is your reason?”

When I asked, the store manager stuck out his mouth and answered grumblingly.

“As Chan-i knows, my convenience store is not a garbage dump.”

“I know, too.”

“And that’s not Chan-i’s job. It’s right for the person who threw the trash to take it back.”

“That’s true too.”

The tone was strangely sharp. Even though it wasn’t shown on his face, the store manager seemed quite angry about that trash bag.

“So, don’t clean up Chan-i and just leave it alone. What if the person who threw the trash away comes back and finds it again?”

“Are you going to pick up the trash you threw away?”

“That too, and you might come throw away other trash too.”

I thought it was a bit of an emotional response considering the store manager… .

It wasn’t an entirely impossible story. The guy who illegally dumped trash could have accidentally made eye contact with the trash can on his way home.

Then I might come back even if it’s because my conscience is pricked. Even if not, I didn’t want to make a fuss by picking at my angry boss. I don’t know, but I’m going to do it lol.

“What should I do when I come back? Should I open a package of salt?”

“I don’t mind sprinkling salt, just be careful.”

The handover ended here, and the store manager left work with his mouth stuck out. I counted cigarettes and cash, and after finishing my work, I sat quietly and waited for customers to come.

But, I had nothing to do.

This is how Sunday night work is supposed to be. This is a place where most of the customers are bound to be office workers, and it’s not like there are many office workers who plan on having drinks or going out to play on Sunday nights…

Today, there was a special reason. After sitting for another 20 minutes or so, I got bored and went outside to get some air and look at the street.

Over there in the distance, you can see the dwarves who bought makgeolli earlier. There are seven of them.

All seven of them are wearing hard hats and doing their own jobs. They are laying lava cones, putting up safety tape, blowing bubbles with makgeolli, driving trucks and rollers…

The truck-driving dwarf has a shit-eating expression on his face. Looks like the guy lost the bet.

Anyway, the road is blocked due to road construction, and since there are no cars on the road, there are bound to be fewer customers. Pedestrians probably don’t want to walk on the road where the construction is taking place either.

They said they’d be working until 2am, so it looks like it’ll be quiet today.

As I continued to look at the construction site with this thought in mind, I realized that there was one more dwarf besides the seven. He was wearing a police uniform, had a whistle in his mouth, and had his hat off.

It looks like a police officer came out to direct traffic. Since there aren’t any cars, that guy must be having a good time too…

Why does this sound like a cop I know?

Half-gold and half-black hair, pointy ears, and eyes that look tired when viewed from the side. So, the name is….

“Officer Iruel?”

This was it. Elf police. I muttered it almost as if I was mumbling, but as soon as I muttered it, the elf policeman in the distance suddenly turned his head in my direction.

Then he started to look at me quietly. I met his eyes, and after a while he picked up the light stick on his waist and started tapping his head.

Soon, as if he had remembered something, he strode toward me. He walked up to the main gate where I was standing, tilted his head slightly, and asked me.

“Did you call?”

“Uh… that’s not it.”

I just muttered it reflexively because it seemed like a familiar face.

When I said that, he nodded his head, saying he understood. After that, he stared at me blankly, took out a pack of cigarettes from his uniform breast pocket, and opened it. Only the mast remained.

“… A pack of red, please.”

“yes.”

I opened the front door and came in with him, paid for a pack of cigarettes, and handed it to him. As soon as I received it, he ripped open the plastic and paper packaging with his familiar hands and stuffed it into his pocket.

“Give it to me. I’ll throw it away.”

“It’s okay. How have you been, sir?”

The voice portion is 10% dry and 90% tired. Instead of asking how I’m doing, shouldn’t you be worrying about yourself first?

“I’ve been doing pretty well. The officer—”

“Aren’t there any people here to hack? Like the Chinese people?”

The last time I saw this elven officer was because of those Zhongguo Jinsang guys. They were sitting at the table, talking with their tops off, and I thought that wasn’t right, so I went to stop them.

An elf officer visited along the way and attempted to mediate, but it didn’t go well. This was because a variable occurred along the way and the route ended up in a forced explosion ending.

The Chinese people were illegal immigrants who had forged passports with magic, and I ate those passports. Right after that, this elven police officer made a mad movie about subduing the Chinese people… .

“I don’t think there have been any yet. But what happened to those middle class people?”

“Forced eviction, 10-year entry restrictions.”

“uh….”

It’s like a counter-dagger. After finishing his short speech, he nodded at me.

“I’m sorry. I should have come by at least once to tell you.”

“No, I guess you’re busy.”

“I had to thank the store manager for the potion….”

“You wouldn’t care, would you? Rather, you would be grateful that I ate it for you.”

“Yes, please. When you see me later, tell him I said thank you.”

I answered that I understood. After that, there was silence again.

When I awkwardly looked up at my head, I saw that my hair had now discolored to about 20% blonde and 80% black.

The shopkeeper had said that elves’ hair color can change to black depending on their level of stress or fatigue. Considering this, this elf is currently about 80% on the verge of collapse.

It’s not that I didn’t have anything to say, but I thought that if the elf was in that state, I should bring up a more positive topic to lighten the mood.

Is it okay if you don’t work outside right now? No, that’s not it. Um…

“Oh, officer. If you catch an illegal immigrant, don’t they give you a reward or something? Maybe a vacation?”

“Vacation? I’ve never heard that word before. What is it?”

“Uh… You haven’t given it to me until now? Nothing?”

“If you ask me if I received anything… .”

He seemed to think for a moment, then answered in a self-deprecating tone.

“I got promoted. My workload also increased.”

“Oh my. You got promoted? That’s great news―”

“Traffic Safety Division, Information Management Division, Children and Youth Division, Criminal Investigation Division, Cyber Crime Investigation Division, Security Division, Criminal Investigation Division, Safety Planning Division…”

What? What course?

“…and the equipment manager.”

“… … .”

“I was given this job. Thanks to you.”