Charming the Crooked Manager
...The sensation felt strange. Ah, so this is what it feels like to use a skill.
What felt like mana—or in my case, yokai power—traveled up from my tailbone, surging through my body before pooling behind my eyes. The moment our gazes locked, the store manager's eyes flashed crimson for an instant.
Immediately, the piercing glare he had been directing at me melted into a hazy, vacant daze.
Within his unfocused, muddy pupils, faint and dainty pink heart shapes seemed to shimmer....
Ugh, what the hell. Should I call the cops?
Rather than any thrill that my skill had worked, the visual atrocity of witnessing floating hearts inside a sleazy middle-aged man's eyeballs hit me with sheer psychological trauma. I nearly heaved up my empty stomach.
Once the charm took hold, what came out of his mouth was even more of a spectacle.
"Aww, what a cute little lady! Isn't there anything you want, hmm~? Mister here will buy you whatever your heart desires! Heheh, you just remind me so much of my own daughter, so go ahead and pick out whatever you want to eat~"
Has he completely lost his mind?
When I activated the Charm skill, my intent was simply "Let me walk out with some convenience store food without making a fuss," but I had no clue it would trigger with such overwhelming potency.
Was it even legal for an F-Class awakened hunter's skill to be this potent? It had taken a creepy middle-aged guy and turned him into "a creepy middle-aged guy I want locked behind bars this very second."
Faced with an unbearable concentration of pure disgust, I stood frozen in place, utterly blank. Taking that as a cue, the manager fluttered out from behind the register with an agility completely unsuited to his hefty bulk.
"Aiya, my cute little miss~ Mister will pick them out for you! Now, let's see. This one, and oh, this one too...."
He grabbed a shopping basket sitting by the counter and began piling in everything in sight.
Whoa, the skill's performance is definitely top-tier....
Watching item after item tumble into the basket, a sudden thought crossed my mind.
Wait! Come to think of it, my race is a nine-tailed fox. Doesn't that mean I might only be able to eat human livers or something? Wow, that would be seriously crossing the line....
Snapping to my senses, I crept after the manager, snatched a meal kit of stir-fried sundae from the refrigerated section, and swiftly slipped it into his basket.
...I wonder if there's pig liver in there? If normal food really doesn't sit well with me, I'll have to at least eat that.... No matter what happens, human liver is strictly out of the question!
Awakening had swapped both my gender and my race. I desperately prayed it wasn't true, but what if even my palate had transformed to fit the "nine-tailed fox" theme...?
...No, no. There's no way.
The manager hadn't noticed a thing, still happily indulging in his shopping spree with that sickening grin plastered across his face.
Watching him act like that struck a petty nerve in me. After checking his blind spot, I casually slid expensive treats I could never normally afford—like premium ice cream and gourmet chocolates—into the basket, pretending innocence.
Having heaped the shopping basket like an overflowing bowl of rice, the manager returned to the register and began ringing things up at the speed of light.
Beep, beep, beep—
After a relentless barrage of barcodes, all the goods were bagged into two large plastic sacks. The manager then fished his own wallet from his pocket and inserted his credit card into the terminal.
...Jackpot.
The same miser who shorted part-timers' hourly wages is paying with his own card...? Long live my skill, seriously.
Finishing the transaction, the manager alternated his gaze between the two stuffed grocery bags and me before flashing another greasy, leering grin.
"Hmm, this looks far too heavy for a cute little princess to carry, don't you think? Mister will walk you home! Come on, let's go! Where do you liveee?"
A bolt from the blue.
Could any phrase describe this better?
Before coming to test a skill on this deranged, pot-bellied bald bastard, I should have filed for police protective custody first.
I could swear this man before me was vastly more dangerous than any S+-Class Gate boss monster. Before I even knew it, he had upgraded my title from "little miss" to "princess."
Paralyzed by primal dread, I froze once more. The manager hefted a plastic bag in each hand, stepped out from behind the counter, and began closing the distance.
No way. I can't die like this. I just awakened and got a brand-new lease on life!
Sensing a mortal threat to my life, I poured sheer desperation into activating my skill once more.
"I-I'm fine, so don't move from there! I-I can carry them myself!"
Once again, I felt magical power surge behind my eyes. I was so panicked that the command blurted straight out of my mouth, but the skill seemed to land cleanly. The approaching beast—or rather, the manager—froze dead in his tracks.
"Heheh, is that so, Princess? Here you go. Get home safe, and if you need anything else, come back anytimeee~"
Goosebumps erupted across my skin at his nauseating tone as I gingerly accepted the bags he extended. They were quite heavy.
The manager remained rooted to the exact spot where he had stopped, not moving an inch.
Unable to shake my unease, I heaved and strained with the bags as I hurried out of the convenience store.
Quickening my pace toward home, I stole a glance over my shoulder, but the manager appeared to still be standing in that exact pose. I had no idea what the skill's duration was, but he would probably stay like that until it wore off.
Ill-fitting clothes, oversized slippers, and heavy luggage—a hellish triple combo. I honestly couldn't remember how I managed to drag myself home.
"Haaah... haaah..."
Barely making it across the threshold, I kicked off the slippers and collapsed right onto the entryway floor.
"Haaah... so tired...."
Panting for breath, I dragged my leaden, diminutive arms forward, fished a drink from one of the bags, and chugged it down in massive gulps.
"Phew... I feel alive again."
Pushing myself up, I stared at the two bulging plastic bags flanking me.
Total success. I had actually walked away with a haul completely free of charge.
"B-But wait... isn't this basically theft?"
A sudden wave of panic washed over me. What if the manager snapped out of it and called the police? The receipt must have been pretty steep.... Sure, he paid for it with his own hands, but I manipulated him with a skill, didn't I?
I had been so obsessed with testing my skill that I completely overlooked one critical fact: Awakened crimes carried brutally severe penalties.
"Ugh, I'm such an idiot...!"
Flopping flat on my back again, I clutched my head. Was I going to get hauled off by the police and rot in a prison cell instead of raiding Gates?
I felt an urge to sprint straight back to the convenience store to check on him. But just as I forced my exhausted body to rise—
Grummmmbllle—!
"...Urk."
A thunderous roar echoed through the cramped entryway. The last shred of my strength drained away, dropping me back to the floor. I was starving. My feet throbbed in agony.
Right at the edge of my vision, peeking out from between the plastic bags, sat a "Premium 12-Side Hanwoo Beef Bento" and a tub of chocolate Häagendazs.
Luxuries I could usually only dream of tasting when their expiration dates passed and they got marked for disposal.
"...Haah."
Resigned, I picked myself up and dragged the plastic bags into the room.
"Yeah. Even if I end up in the slammer, I should eat first. Even death row inmates get their last meal, right?"
With that solemn justification, I peeled open the packaging of the premium bento with utmost reverence.
"Nom nom nom."
Despite my gloomy mood, the expensive bento tasted divine. Maybe it was because this was my very first meal of the day, well past two in the afternoon.
After polishing off the entire bento and a triangular gimbap, I popped the lid off the Häagendazs ice cream.
The rich sweetness of chocolate spreading across my tongue swept away all my lingering melancholy.
Full and satisfied, my spirits rebounded in seconds, and my brain instantly kicked into rationalization mode.
That's right! All the CCTV footage will show is the store manager looking blissfully happy as he paid with his own credit card! Where's the proof?
Considering how much unpaid back wages he owed me over the last six months, this was practically fair compensation!
"Hmph, whatever! If they come to arrest me, I'll deal with it then!"
Riding that shameless logic, I scraped the premium ice cream tub spotless.
"Haaah, I'm so full. Heehee."
Even if this turned out to be my final meal as a free citizen, I was satisfied. I had zero regrets.
"Status window."
[Succession Rate: 12 / 100]
[Evolution Requirements: ???]
...Oh! My Succession Rate went up! While the evolution requirements were still question marks, using my skill had actually increased it.
Now that I thought about it, I had cast the skill twice: first for the convenience store free-pass, and second when the manager tried to pounce on(?) me.
"So you can overwrite commands on someone who's already charmed?"
I had gained quite a lot from this convenience store heist: confirmation of the Charm effect, proof that double-charming was viable, and a mountain of spoils to show for it.
As long as the cops didn't cuff me, today could easily go down as the single best day I'd had in years.
"Fufufu."
Tucking the rest of the supplies away, I patted my swollen tummy in pure contentment, perched on the bed, and leaned back against the wall.
My fingers naturally navigated to the Hunter Gallery on my smartphone, which felt strangely larger in my hands.
"They said an S+-Class raid went in last night, right? Wonder how it turned out... Gasp!"
The instant I hit refresh, the forum was on the verge of detonating.
"Whoa... that's insane."
S-Class hunters truly were in a league of their own. To completely obliterate a terrifying S+-Class Gate in just a matter of hours...
I felt a little pathetic having just celebrated manipulating a creepy middle-aged guy... but hey, what did it matter? I was still a low-level newbie hunter.
"Hmm, anyway."
Setting my phone down, I looked over my current outfit.
An oversized black hoodie concealing the fox ears on my head, cropped pants cinched up as best as they could be, and the size 270 triple-striped slippers strewn across the entryway.
"...Changing into this was such a pain."
It felt like a waste of all that effort to just take it off and go to sleep.... Should I give a Gate a shot?
To rank up, I needed to raise my Succession Rate, which increased each time I used a skill, not to mention earn money for next month's groceries. Even if my F-Class body was pathetic, I was still an awakened hunter by title.
Above all, now that I knew my skill was far more effective than I'd anticipated, I felt confident. It would definitely work well enough against low-tier monsters.
"Alright, now that my mind's made up, let's go! Leaving the house twice in a single day—look at me go!"
Striding back to the front door with determined little steps, I ambitiously shoved my feet into those aircraft-carrier-sized slippers.