The Villain of the Convenience Store
The crying Maria was being soothed, and a day had passed.
Contrary to my worries, Saturday morning passed without any major chaos.
“Two thousand Luos, please…” Hic!
“…”
Leaving aside Maria at the counter looking gloomy while she handled the calculations.
Probably because the idea that “the Outer God is more important than work” hit her like a truck, Maria had been sniffling all night and finally fell asleep sometime before dawn.
“Three thousand four hundred Luos… hic!”
The part that shocked Maria wasn’t that the Outer God was in the background. After all, whether she believed in him or not, the Outer God already existed.
“Uuu… seven thousand Luos…”
“Maria.”
I called out to Maria, who had just finished serving the last customer at the counter.
Maria, who heard her name, looked at me with slightly swollen eyes.
“Do you… hate me?”
“I don’t hate you…”
“Then why are you so depressed?”
I couldn’t hold back and asked.
I understood. Some people’s faith can become their entire life. For Maria, it might be the entirety of the world. But that way, she couldn’t do her job properly. Especially not for someone who truly shot meteors based on their faith.
Maria raised her index finger and fidgeted for a moment before opening her mouth.
“Until now, I have based all my judgments on the Outer God. I don’t know what to use as the standard if it’s more important than the Outer God… so I couldn’t sleep…”
It was pitiful, but I had no choice. The Outer God didn’t know our convenience store work rules better than me.
“Just follow my judgment for a week.”
At that, a glint appeared in Maria’s eyes, and her sparkling ones returned.
“Jin-ho… n-i…”
Even with her nose running, Maria clasped her hands together and spoke to me.
“Jin-ho-ssi is so brilliant…”
“Is it really that much?”
After a week, Maria would be free, able to live in Sanctum City, and I wouldn’t have to take care of her anymore. The nervous breakdown would be over in one more week.
“Anyway, tomorrow is a holiday for both of us. Today, let’s just aim to finish normal work hours.”
“Yes! I will follow whatever you command!”
“Then read this first.”
I took out a thick manual from under the counter and handed it to Maria.
Revised Edition Work Manual. Kim Gichan, who couldn’t beat my nagging, had rewritten the work rules and tips into a new manual.
“I reread it yesterday, and it’s all written down. Read this and memorize it.”
“So this is a new holy scripture…!”
“Uuuu… let’s say it is.”
It seemed like she had understood differently, but it was fine. She would absorb it on her own. If she learned something wrong, I would fix it.
“By the way, after reading that, if you have any questions, ask me later. Got it?”
“Yes! I will read it, engraving every letter into my soul!”
As expected, because she was a former believer, even everyday expressions were passionate.
***
So I took care of the customers coming to the counter, and Maria sat beside me carefully reading the work manual.
Even during rush hour, thanks to Maria who had almost mastered the counter work from yesterday, we handled the customers without any major issues.
By two in the afternoon, the store logistics had arrived. Logistics that came every Wednesday and Saturday.
“Kim Gichan is probably sulking.”
Kim Gichan had taken a vacation because he had business with the Dimensional Management Bureau. Because his work had been extended by a week, he probably needed to write additional documents for retirement and dimensional return.
I went outside the convenience store with Maria. The driver’s door opened, and just like Wednesday, Rafa leaped down from the 10-ton truck.
“Store clerk~ I’m so happy to see you!”
“Hello, Rafa.”
Rafa grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously, then looked at Maria standing quietly beside her.
Rafa’s face was still smiling.
Obviously.
“… Store clerk. What is this?”
Except for the trailing tone that was gone, her smiling face was exactly the same. Only then did I realize something. Angels probably found that annoying.
“Th-that is…”
While I was trying to explain, Maria stepped forward with the work manual hugged to her chest.
“I am Maria Anquines who has been working at the convenience store for a week.”
“I-is that so?”
Rafa’s eyes widened slightly at Maria’s greeting.
The look in Rafa’s narrowed eyes was not the previous warm, cheerful one. It was the gaze of someone judging and exploring her true identity.
Even so, Maria maintained her composure. The momentum from yesterday when she had wanted to spar with Mika had vanished, and she was now unaffected by Rafa’s words.
“It’s fine, Jin-ho-ssi. Her guarding me is only natural. I am the same.”
“You’re quite calm. Doll-ssi~”
Rafa crossed her arms with interest.
Of course, half of her arms were hidden by her chest, making her volume even more noticeable, so I had to turn my head. Meanwhile, Maria didn’t back down even though Rafa responded, stared directly, and shouted with a bold air.
“However, angel-ssi! Currently, I am not following the Outer God’s judgment. Therefore, there is no reason for you to oppose me.”
“Hee~ really?”
Rafa tilted her head.
Finally, Maria shouted fiercely.
“Right now, my owner is… Jin-ho-ssi!”
……Eh?
……
Thinking about it, that’s only natural. Since the day Jin-ho-ssi decided to take over my work, all my judgments, including my body and mind, belong to Jin-ho-ssi… Ah, I was foolish and didn’t realize it, and repeated the same mistake yesterday! But the merciful Jin-ho-ssi did not abandon me and gave me punishment of interest and love! And then finally said ‘become mine’—
“I never said such things!”
—puke.
Maria’s rapid speech stopped for a moment.
“Hic… hic… What the hell are you saying…”
Even my hand that had slapped her felt sore. Had I hit too hard?
But if I just left it, before I knew it, I would become some fanatic cult leader, with an angel right in front of me. I had no choice but to stop it.
“Store clerk.”
Rafa, blinking at the bizarre scene before her eyes, poked her own cheek with her index finger and asked. The action was extremely cute, but her eyes were cold.
“Do you perhaps want to be worshipped by yourself—?”
“It’s not like that at all! Let’s go inside and talk, Rafa.”
***
Correcting all the misunderstandings Maria would cause, explaining the hiring of Maria without error, took exactly twenty minutes.
Please. That warning window thing wasn’t supposed to pop up.
Even for me, this was a sufficient crisis.
“Ah~ I completely understand~”
Rafa returned to her cheerful expression after listening to my explanation. She even held Maria’s hand tightly.
“You must have had a hard time in the Abyss~”
“It’s fine! I’ll work hard~”
Just looking at it like this, it seemed like a cute angel and saint, but the reality was completely different. How ironic.
“By the way, so you ordered new shelves?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“I’ll bring them out for you!”
“Thank you. Please do.”
If it had been normal, I would have asked her to just take them out of the truck, but anyone who had experienced Rafa’s logistics would know now.
How many times faster Rafa moved things.
“Hic~ Should I line them up in the middle of the store?”
It was the second time I had seen Rafa walking briskly while holding a display rack in each hand. But if I had seen the same sight a hundred times, I would still be in a state of confusion.
“Yes, yes. A little to the side, that’s right.”
Kung. Kugung.
Looking beside me, Maria’s eyes had also widened and were sparkling brightly.
“Amazing…”
This Outer God follower girl didn’t understand points that contradicted something.
Anyway, the logistics had to be sorted first.
“Now I’ll tell you the basic rules for the Backroom. You have to move those blue boxes.”
“Yes, Jin-ho-ssi!”
I led Maria, who was following closely, to the truck where Rafa had set the cart down.
***
After explaining the basic rules of logistics and the Backroom, an hour had passed.
“Waa~ Thank you, store clerk, and doll-ssi~”
“Angel-ssi too!”
At Rafa’s words, Maria replied with a bright smile. The eyes that had looked like they were about to break something had disappeared, and it seemed Rafa had decided to like Maria.
“Mika~ You know, angels all know each other~”
I talked about Mika, the facility manager I met yesterday.
“You don’t meet often, huh?”
“Because our jobs are different~ Besides meeting for work outside our shift time… I haven’t seen her privately in forty years!”
“Eh? Then how old is the angel—?”
“Th-th-that’s right! Originally, even workplace colleagues don’t see each other often privately, and if their jobs are different, they might not see each other that much!”
“That’s right~ I think it’s about time to gather again~”
I covered Maria’s mouth and gave an unconditional affirmative answer.
If I let her talk more, I wouldn’t be able to turn the mood back…
Work, warning window.
Please work!
“B-but. Since last time, I’ve been curious about something.”
I shifted the topic, as I had been wondering about this from earlier.
“Yes~ What is it, store clerk?”
Rafa tilted her head, and I glanced at Maria.
Last time with the Demon King, and this time too, Rafa had called Maria a doll.
When I showed a slight hesitation while looking at Maria, Maria smiled brightly.
“If it’s about me, you can ask anything, Jin-ho-ssi!”
“If you say that, I feel bad…”
After taking a deep breath, I asked Rafa.
“Why do you call Maria-ssi a ‘doll’?”
Rafa called me and Kim Gichan ‘store clerk’, but she had called Maria ‘doll’ from the first time I saw her. And that title had been used the same way just now.
The Demon King and an angel both calling Maria a doll was a completely normal reaction, even in this world.
“Umm~ Because it’s just too natural for me.”
Rafa scratched her cheek with the same smiling expression. From that action and answer, I got a feeling. To be precise, it was like confirming what I had only thought in my conversation with the Demon King.
“… That is, so.”
I asked Rafa. It was basically just reconfirming my certainty, but still.
“Maria-ssi is not human—
Quaang!
Before my words ended, a loud noise covered my eardrums.
Kwa kwa kwa! Puk! Kong!
It wasn’t the act Maria had done, nor the punch Rafa had swung down in a sudden acceleration.
After coughing a few times as dust filled the store, I finally understood the situation. And I knew what had happened.
……Cough, heh.
The source of the noise was from the convenience store’s window. Through the empty window frame that hadn’t been replaced yet, something flew in and hit the floor, bounced, and slammed into the wall several times. And the sound of someone coughing in the dust.
Finally, as the dust settled, a human figure got up laboriously from the right area that had become a mess and approached while limping.
“Cough, haa… haa-choo!”
__
__
The revealed figure was… a human woman.
A girl with brown hair and armor, around Maria’s age.
Other than being covered in dust and having a scar on her left eye, and holding what looked like a green-glowing ray gun in her right hand.
It was really unfortunate that the situation of ‘breaking the convenience store’ had been shared with Maria.
“Th-that, cough. Over there…”
The armored woman limped to the counter and stood there.
Then, with a resigned feeling, she asked me, who was watching this disaster-like situation.
“Healing potions… do you have any good ones?”
I conveyed the sad fact calmly.
“……We had some, but you broke them just now.”
Ah…
After the armored woman’s sigh, Rafa exclaimed cheerfully.
“Waa, we need four more new shelves~”
“Haha. That’s right.”
With no spirit, I answered to Rafa’s words and finally passed out in my chair.