10
Chapter 10
"......Slurp."
"Hey! How many minutes has it been now? If you want it, just buy it already!"
In front of a bakery somewhere in Seoul.
Right there, Yuna was staring hard at the breads on display.
For thirty whole minutes.
"B-but...!"
Yuna fidgeted, wavering over whether to go inside.
Joohyun was so frustrated by the sight that he kept thumping his own chest.
"No! You’ve got money now, so what’s the problem? If you want to eat it, then eat it!"
Right after finishing their Awakener registration, they’d cashed in Mana Stones.
Turning them into cash was even easier than he’d expected.
Because it was the kind of thing Yuna used to handle all the time back when she worked in Management.
Even so, they didn’t exchange all thirty Mana Stones.
Any Mana Stone transaction was bound to leave a paper trail.
And if that happened, it would definitely catch the Hunter Association’s eye.
So for now, they’d only swapped about five into money.
Just enough to get by.
Which meant his wallet was finally fat enough that they didn’t have to worry about cash for the moment.
And then the two of them, drawn in like they were possessed by the warm, buttery smell, had wandered straight to the bakery.
"It’s not even anyone’s birthday, so I wasn’t sure it was okay to buy cake......."
That was the thing.
Yuna had been completely hypnotized by the cake since earlier.
But she couldn’t bring herself to actually buy it.
A life where she’d gotten through meals with a few slices of cheap white bread and instant food.
Cake was something she barely even considered unless there was a real occasion.
So trying to buy it on a perfectly ordinary day was bound to make her hesitate.
"How is that a problem? If you want it, you just eat it!"
Joohyun couldn’t understand her at all.
If you want to eat it, eat it—what was there to agonize over?
"Or you can treat it like a celebration for getting your Awakener Certificate and buy it for that."
"Is it really okay to buy cake just to celebrate some measly FFF-rank certificate? Cake is, you know... something you’re supposed to eat on a bigger occasion, right?"
Joohyun let out a deep sigh at the way she was acting.
If this kept up, we’ll be standing here all day!
They needed to get home, clear the second floor of the Tower, and plan what came next—there was a lot to do.
He didn’t have time to camp out here.
"Fine! I’ll just buy it for you! It’s not like I can’t afford this much!"
Joohyun told her, making sure she could hear how generous he was being.
And then.
Yuna looked at Joohyun with half-lidded eyes.
"How could I mooch off some cute, pathetic-looking little creature like you, CEO. Besides, you’ve got less money than I do right now."
Yuna stared at Joohyun and sighed.
"W-what?"
This brat—I'm trying to be nice and buy it for her!
Joohyun got so mad at Yuna’s words that he bounced in place inside the bag, but it didn’t really make a dent.
That was when it happened.
All of a sudden, a Status Window popped up in front of them.
"[12:00 PM! You still haven’t had a sweet snack and taken your tea time! If you don’t eat dessert within the time limit, a penalty will be applied! Time remaining (12:00:00)]"
"-Penalty if you fail! (Magical Girl death💀)"
"Why do I have to be the one who dies every time! All because I didn’t eat one stupid snack!"
Yuna snapped at the Status Window, but no answer came back.
"Either way, this works out. If it has to be something sweet, cake is perfect."
"Haa...... Fine. I guess we don’t have a choice."
Shaking her head like she’d been forced, Yuna finally went into the bakery.
Yeah, ‘no choice’ my ass. Honey’s practically dripping out of her eyes.
And that wasn’t all.
She was practically drooling, too.
In the end, Yuna bought the cake, pretending she’d lost the argument.
They went back home, cut the cake, and moved it onto plates.
"Here, this one’s yours, CEO!"
"This is mine?"
Joohyun stared at the slice Yuna handed over at lunch with a blank, stunned look.
It was about the size of a single finger joint.
So small it wouldn’t even hit his stomach.
"Accountant Yuna, are you mad at me or something?"
"Huh? Not really?"
"Then what’s with my cake!"
Joohyun jabbed a paw at the cake and shouted.
Yuna just shrugged at him.
"I just gave you a piece that fits your size, CEO. I'm only having one slice myself."
Yuna pointed at her own plate as she looked at Joohyun.
"Then give me the exact same size as yours!"
"Are you sure? A whole slice is about the size of your entire body, CEO. More importantly, this is human food. Is that okay?"
"Okay my ass, I am a human!"
"Phew, alright."
Yuna cut the cake again and handed it to Joohyun.
"Right. You should have given it to me like this in the first place."
"Now we can just give the rest to the kids when they get here. ......Are you going to drink tea too, CEO?"
"Yeah. Just black coffee for me."
"Okay~."
It was an unspoken rule that sweet cake tasted best when neutralized with bitter coffee.
Just like that, Yuna came back with the coffee.
"What is this?"
"What do you mean? Anyone can see it's coffee."
"No, I can tell just by looking at it. I know what it is."
"Then what's the problem now!"
"What's the problem?"
Joohyun pointed at his coffee with a soft, squishy hand.
No.
To be exact, he was pointing at the wide bowl the coffee was served in.
"Why did you serve it in a bowl instead of a cup!"
"Huh? Because you're going to lap it up with your tongue, obviously?"
"Excuse me......?"
Joohyun pictured himself lapping up coffee with his tongue.
No matter how he thought about it, it was too humiliating.
Especially in front of his subordinate at work; he couldn't show her something like that.
"My body might be like this right now, but I'm human. I can easily lift a cup."
"Hmm. I don't think you can."
Twitch.
Joohyun hopped right up onto Yuna's desk.
"You want me to show you?"
Saying that, Joohyun's hand reached for the cup Yuna had brought.
"Uh-uh. Don't push yourself."
Yuna looked at Joohyun with a gaze mixed with worry.
'There's a limit to how much you can look down on me!'
Even if he was in this pathetic form right now, he was still the CEO of a Management.
There was a time when Awakeners were practically begging him, saying they wanted to join his Management.
On top of that, he was quite popular with women.
'And I'm supposed to lap coffee from a bowl! That's absolute nonsense.'
Joohyun grabbed the cup with his thick jelly paws.
And then.
"Hmph!"
He lifted the cup with all his might.
The result.
"Look at this! I told you I could lift it!"
His hands were shaking a little, but he was lifting it.
'Was a cup always this heavy?'
It felt like he was going to drop it any second, but Joohyun gripped it tight.
However.
Swish-
There was no way to catch the slipping cup.
In the end, Joohyun lost his grip on the cup.
Clatter-!
Yuna, who had been watching anxiously, caught the falling cup just in time, narrowly avoiding a disaster.
"I knew this would happen!"
Yuna let out a sigh and placed the cup back onto the desk.
Joohyun couldn't even process Yuna's words right now.
'I can't even hold a single cup properly?'
He looked down at his palms.
Soft, squishy jellies tinged with pink.
Extremely pathetic and tiny palms.
They were in a shape that made it rather impossible to grab things.
Trembling slightly, Joohyun swiftly climbed down under the desk.
Huffing and puffing, Joohyun started munching on the cake.
As expected, sweet things were the best when you were angry.
'He's literally burying his face in the cake to eat it anyway, why is he being like that.'
Yuna shook her head as she looked at Joohyun.
Since Joohyun was eating with his nose practically shoved into the plate, he had whipped cream all over his face.
It was hard to distinguish what was fur and what was whipped cream because of his pure white hair.
"Well, he's cute, so I guess it's fine."
"Huh? What was that?"
"Nothing~."
Yuna finally picked up her fork and brought the cake to her mouth.
It had been a long time since she had cake.
Usually, after getting off work, she would just eat dry, stale bread.
Even on the kids' birthdays, she was busy buying small cakes to save money and giving it all to her younger siblings.
Munch-!
The cake entered Yuna's mouth.
As soon as the cake touched her tongue, it felt as if electricity was thrilling through her entire body.
'This is what bread is supposed to be!'
The soft sponge melted away in her mouth. On top of that, the sweet whipped cream wrapped around her tongue, bringing her to absolute heaven.
The movement of Yuna's hand holding the fork sped up.
Eventually, thick teardrops even started falling from her eyes.
'This is the taste of capitalism!'
Just as expected, the taste of capitalism was incredibly, overwhelmingly sweet.
Joohyun chuckled as he watched Yuna.
"Eat it slowly. You'll be able to eat over a hundred of these cakes in the future."
"Okay!"
Right after finishing the cake.
Ding-!
A window popped up again in front of Yuna and Joohyun.
[Sweet snack consumption complete! Ending Girl's Tea Time!]
-Reward: Increased Magical Girl Power (Level Up!!)
The moment that message appeared.
"Ooh."
They hadn't even entered the Tower, but her Level had gone up.
Although she didn't learn any new Skills, the Levels of her existing Skills all increased by 1.
It was obvious that her power had increased compared to before.
'Isn't this an absolute steal?'
He'd thought it was a completely useless contract clause, but at this rate, he wanted to eat snacks every day.
Yuna looked like she was in a good mood, perhaps sharing Joohyun's thoughts.
"Since we've had our snack, shall we slowly head into the Tower."
Yuna nodded at Joohyun's words.
"Yes! Because we need to earn money."
She definitely looked like someone who had received financial therapy by eating cake.
Yuna's expression, which was usually a bit gloomy, had brightened up.
'Money is important, but we need to get stronger quickly.'
He had been quite shocked when he saw Choi Seoyeon in front of the Awakener Association earlier.
Even if there had been notifications about the Magical Girl, to think that Hailt was already in South Korea.
'It's definitely not just Hailt either.'
Large Managements from other countries must be making their moves too.
It was fine for now since the fact that Yuna was the Magical Girl hadn't been revealed yet.
But it was only a matter of time.
An identity was something that could be exposed at any moment.
'And Choi Seoyeon looked somewhat suspicious.'
She was a woman with excellent intuition.
She hadn't climbed to her position purely based on her Awakener Abilities alone.
Still, fortunately, Hailt belonged to the more docile Managements.
That was why everything ended without incident today.
Among the Managements other than Hailt, there were some that committed various crimes, like the Cartel.
They were the type of bastards who would do anything to bring in strong Awakeners.
'That's why kidnappings and murders happen so frequently.'
Because of that, there were people who hid the fact that they were an Awakener entirely.
The world of Awakeners was just that dangerous.
'And the most dangerous place among them is China.'
China's infamy had already spread across the entire world.
Because of their large population, they had a massive number of Awakeners, and based on those numbers, they hoarded vast amounts of Mana Stones to accumulate enormous capital, making them a powerful nation.
It was a problem for later, but for now, they needed to have enough power to at least protect themselves.
'Right, I need to build up our strength if I don't want us to get taken down.'
Making up his mind, Joohyun looked at Yuna.
Yuna was simply staring at Joohyun with bright, wide eyes.
Looking at her, a faint smile escaped Joohyun's lips.
'Since she's my Contractor, I have to take responsibility for her!'
"Alright! We're entering the Tower! Get ready!"
"Yes!"
The moment Joohyun willed them to enter the Tower.
The silhouettes of Joohyun and Yuna glowed and scattered into particles.
When the two opened their eyes, they were on the 2nd floor of the Tower.