Episode 46. The Advancing Pyeondol
The call ended there.
After I fixed the main gate, customers started coming in one after another. I thought I should accept customers, but the manager and my older sister said that we should meet in the morning and talk.
It seemed like it would take hours just to clean up the store, so I said I would do it. So I cleaned up the items all night long, and even fixed the broken chocolate display case… .
In the morning, I blocked the rush of office workers. My older sister came in through the main gate right after 9 o’clock.
“Hey, Lee Chan. Sister is here.”
“It’s been two days since I’ve seen you. Did you come straight from the store manager’s house?”
“You said you’d put on makeup and come 10 minutes before work?”
His hair was still a bit uncombed, as if he had just slept over at the store manager’s house, but since the original was excellent, the picture turned out pretty well. He went straight to the beverage warehouse and brought out two bottles of fatigue recovery drinks and placed them on the counter.
Then he smiled and said.
“Lee Chan. The workshop you introduced me to does a great job.”
“Oh. Really?”
“Oh. I gave one horse to him on a preliminary contract, and he finished it in two hours. No problems. I gave him a couple more jobs and then signed a full contract. For three years.”
I handed out business cards saying, “If it goes well, great,” and “If it doesn’t, great,” but it seems like it went in the electronic direction. After I finished paying, he handed me one of the two bottles he had bought.
“So, as promised, I’d like to buy you one, so when can you make time?”
“Okay, can I just accept this and eat it?”
“Why? I know a place that makes it delicious.”
If I want to go to that delicious restaurant and eat there, I have to go there. And I don’t feel like eating crab in this area. It seems like I’d have to fight with the crab legs.
“Thanks to you, I was able to take some time off yesterday instead of working overtime.”
“That’s fine, what is it?”
All she gave me was a business card, so I didn’t have any desire to receive anything in return. As I was drinking the fatigue recovery drink my older sister gave me, my older sister shrugged her shoulders and said,
“Okay, let’s talk about this later. You look really sleepy.”
“Are you actually sleepy?”
I wasn’t just sleepy, I was really sleepy. I was exhausted from cleaning up the store, and I was thinking a lot about what we talked about last night. What’s with the certification?
When I asked, my sister pointed to a table by the window. I sat down next to her and only then did she speak.
“I had a long talk with my sister yesterday….”
The story was this: My constitution will continue to grow, whether it develops through use or over time, so how on earth can I hide that?
The store manager said he suggested a plan to hide my identity as much as possible. One of them was to obtain a magical tool that suppresses my constitution.
“How much is that?”
“If you apply for health insurance, it won’t cost much, but the time frame is the problem. You need to have a record of several months of outpatient treatment while going to the hospital.”
It was rejected because it was like burning down the house while trying to catch a rat. After that, the two talked about this and that while drinking beer, and eventually came to this conclusion.
“I don’t think you can hide that.”
“Ugh… .”
“It’s not that I haven’t met anti-magic experts while working as a hunter. To be honest, those experts wouldn’t even be able to hand you their business cards? In terms of fuel efficiency or time.”
Even if you give me a lift, I don’t know because I’ve never seen another anti-magic user.
Anyway, because I was so overspecced, it was so hard to hide it, that the store manager even thought about whether it was right for me to continue working here… .
“How much alcohol did you have to drink to even think like that?”
“I’m asking just in case, Lee Chan, if I tell you to quit here, will you quit?”
“No. Not at all.”
I don’t want to work anywhere else but here.
Even though I’ve been on a lot of other-worldly trips that you’d only see in comics, I’m still sane and not going crazy. As long as I’m here, I’m confident that I can go back to my world whenever I want.
I think that the reason my origins haven’t been discovered until now is because I don’t have to wander around the world. That’s why I won’t quit, and I can’t quit.
When my sister heard my answer, she looked like she had a lot to say, but soon shrugged her shoulders as if she understood.
“I bet your sister will like hearing your answer.”
“Finish the story, sis. Does getting a license have anything to do with this?”
I asked, as if it was telling me to write on my forehead that I have anti-magic abilities. When I gave my opinion, my older sister nodded obediently.
“That’s true, but to put it simply… it doesn’t give me a reason.”
“What excuse?”
“I heard from my sister that you’re a regular employee now. A regular employee.”
“uh.”
“Don’t do that. I’m telling you to get a national license and renew your contract as a professional. Then, since you already belong to a place, no matter how good your abilities are, no other place will be able to touch you, right?”
I didn’t understand for a moment, and then I suddenly felt like I was half-awake.
In short, you’re saying that you can’t have a double job. Then, wouldn’t all your problems be solved?
“Isn’t that a great idea?”
“But when I told my sister about this, she said that it would be a problem in its own right.”
“Is there any other problem?”
“I don’t think there’s a problem. You have to go to the academy and take a test, but you’ll easily pass both the written and practical tests… It’s something that anyone in this world can do, so what’s the problem?”
There is a problem, especially the part where anyone in this world can do it.
I’ve only just dipped my toes into this world. I don’t need to immerse my body.
Even if I look outside right now, there are buses full of different races waiting at the traffic lights, but I haven’t even gotten on one of those buses yet.
I guess I should take that bus.
I’ll have to go to the test center, on my own. I’ll have to get a number and stand among the other races, and when my number is called, I’ll have to take the test…
Even if you get lucky and get a license and renew your contract, don’t expect everything to go smoothly. That means you’ll probably get involved with a lot of other people…
I don’t know what that will be, but maybe it’s because I’m always the type of person who worries a lot.
Living like that may be natural for the other races in this world, but it wasn’t for me. Ironically, I’ve never really lived in this world before. Even though I’m standing here right now.
Can you do that? That’s what my sister’s suggestion sounded like to me. Can you live as a member of a group, not as a haphazard person like you are now?
“I thought you were having trouble talking to me, so I came here to ask you instead. Is there a personal problem that’s preventing you from getting your license?”
Instead of answering, he asked back.
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“Sister. Was the store manager worried about me a lot last night?”
“Oh my. Last night, he didn’t say a word about anything other than you.”
I decided not to think about it anymore.
“No problem. Not at all.”
The store manager is worried about me, what should I do?
The only person in this world who knows and understands my circumstances is the store manager, and I don’t want to make him suffer any more because of my personal circumstances. Let it be.
When I answered, my older sister asked again, tapping the bottle of fatigue recovery drink with her hand as if she was puzzled.
“really?”
“uh.”
“Me too. Then what on earth were you worried about, Sister?”
“You were worried that you wouldn’t pass the exam, right? Getting a license isn’t going to be easy.”
When I tried to change the subject, my sister immediately poked me in the side with her finger. It hurt like hell.
“Oh, what is it!”
“This guy came all the way from the countryside to the capital. He doesn’t believe me right away.”
“It’s a national qualification! Isn’t it natural to think it’s difficult?”
“Okay, just try this.”
Then he took a plastic bag out of his bosom and handed it to me. When I looked inside, there was something that looked like a white molar, about 10 cm in size.
“What is this?”
“Dia Wolf Tooth. I got it from the workshop.”
After reptile scales and horse saddles, now it’s teeth?
Looking at it closely, it doesn’t seem to have a single scratch, so I guess that workshop is amazing at extracting teeth. Yunha muttering as she takes the molar out of the plastic bag.
“The work has been done neatly, and all that remains is to finish the purification work….”
It sounds like you’re saying you’re going to leave it to me. My sister handed me the tooth, so I picked it up, but other than the rough feeling, I couldn’t feel anything particularly strange. Even if I stared at it intently, it didn’t look particularly distorted or anything.
“Sister, this doesn’t seem like a problem?”
“Oh, really? Really?”
“At least in my eyes.”
When I answered, my older sister smiled and asked back.
“Do you know what one of the practical questions on last year’s certification exam was?”
“I don’t know.”
“They said they threw an object with no magical powers and told you to purify it. If you tried to purify it, you failed. If you noticed it, you passed.”
By the way, the correct answer rate was only about 5 out of 100 people. After thinking about it for a moment, I realized that my older sister had thrown this out there as a past exam question.
“If you can guess right away, I think you’ll at least pass the practical test without any problems.”
I wanted to scold him for teasing me, but his smiling face was so bright that I couldn’t say anything else.
My sister turned her body slightly to look at the clock with her smiling face still on, stretched in her seat, and got up.
“… Uh. Now that I’m done talking, I should probably start getting ready for work.”
“What, are you working as a hunter again today?”
“Then why don’t you do it? It’s a weekday. When your sister comes, tell her that I got to work safely… and try to talk to her so she doesn’t worry.”
I think so. When I waved my hand, my sister smiled brightly again and walked out of the convenience store.
There were no more customers after that, and after about 30 minutes, the store manager came. As soon as he looked at me, he tried to say something, so I struck him first.
“Manager, I understand what you are worried about.”
“…huh.”
“What… I guess it’s nothing, I’ll just take the test once. What’s the point of something like that?”
Something will happen. But what happens next is what happens next. I don’t even want to see the manager’s worried face anymore.
“So, store manager, don’t worry about me. I think you’re a bit excited even though you haven’t even taken the test yet.”
“… Chan-i will do well. He is the most special kid in this world.”
“What does a 29-year-old guy have to say about a child?”
“He’s a kid to me, so what.”
The store manager’s face brightened a little as he spoke. A smiling face is the best to look at.
“Manager, when can I take that test? It’s not like it’s only given twice a year or something like that, right?”
“Well, I don’t know the schedule either… Just a moment.”
The store manager, who had been moving his smartphone around the screen, suddenly stopped and looked at the screen as he recited the contents.
“This year’s anti-magic certification exams are in May, July, and September. Since there are few applicants, they are accepting applications up until the day before the exam. When is a good time for you, Chan?”
“The faster the better.”
Since this is a test that I am taking to ease my mental stress, I want to finish it quickly and feel at ease quickly.
“Then let me look up the schedule for May. I heard you have to take the written exam first, so May… uh… that. Chan-ah, what day is it today?”
“Three days. Why? Could it be next week?”
“that is….”
The store manager blinked a couple of times and looked up at me. His expression was clearly one of bewilderment.
“It’s been 4 days?”
What, tomorrow?
