A White-Haired Pretty Girl (Illustration Revised)
“Hnnnggg!!”
With not a single customer in sight, I stretched out to my heart's content. I turned my head to check the clock, and it was already pushing 8:00.
“7:31 is closer to 8 than to 7. Mm! Which means I'm officially allowed to start getting ready to go home!”
For the record, today was Friday.
For a self-employed man who barely made money to take the entire weekend off—that was basically announcing, I have no intention of earning a living!, wasn't it?
But.
“Think of it as a reward for all my hard work during the week.”
Live diligently, and you deserve a proper reward. That's just how the world should work. I put my best effort into living an honest life every single day, so being a deadbeat at the naming shop for a day or so was hardly a crime.
I did live hard this week, didn't I? Which means I've earned the right to enjoy my weekend.
Whatever else you say, rest is enormously important to the human body and mind. It works like coolant for a brain overheated by the workweek, and besides, it means I get to indulge in the luxury of eating hamburgers for all three meals!
“Nnngh.”
Thinking about hamburgers made my mouth water all on its own.
Should I pick one up today…?
No hobbies, no friends—so come every weekend, there I was at home, eating nothing but hamburgers. And honestly? For me, there was no vacation more perfect than that.
Whether you eat three hamburgers or four, it all evens out in the end. After all, the more hamburgers, the better.
“All right. I'll grab one.”
Humming a little tune, I rose from my seat with great leisure and started packing up my things. Not that there was much to pack—just my wallet and smartphone.
“Besides, nobody really carries cash or physical cards these days anyway. So really, my luggage amounts to exactly one smartphone.”
Apparently people these days don't even bother with phones much, but I found life unbearably inconvenient without mine. Who knows when or where your mana might get cut off?
Just in case that ever happened, I made a point of always bringing my phone along. Nothing of the sort had ever actually happened to me yet, but…
“Being prepared never hurts, right? Besides, if not for people like me, who else would keep buying phones? You could say I'm a wise consumer keeping the smartphone market alive and kicking.”
Click.
I gave a satisfied nod and switched off the naming shop's lights. Darkness settled over the room.
Calling it a “naming shop” was generous, honestly—it was a tiny room furnished with two small sofas and a single work table. To be precise, it was an office, waiting room, consultation room, and naming shop all rolled into one.
Hmm.
I looked around the darkened shop one last time.
“Maybe Mom was right after all.”
Mom's face flashed through my mind—the way she used to shout that leaving home meant nothing but suffering. Her words, telling me not to mess around with some small business and to get a stable job and live an ordinary life instead.
If only I'd listened to her back then…
“I wouldn't be living the fantastic life of a man who eats three hamburgers a day.”
It was a luxury, sure.
A luxury, but still…
“As long as I'm happy, what does it matter? I'm making money somehow, and things are gradually settling into place, aren't they?”
I tossed the thoughts aside carelessly and headed down the stairs. In a modern society where magic had advanced this far, I genuinely could not understand why anyone still insisted on stairs.
It's the landlord's wish, apparently… but I'm the guy who helps with incantations, not a mind-reader, so I couldn't say what goes on in that head.
Anyway.
“Which burger should I go with?”
I narrowed my eyes and deliberated carefully. Mind you, I only narrowed my eyes—I did not do anything as insane as closing them while descending a staircase. I wasn't quite ready to die yet.
“Classics are classics for a reason. Better just get a cheeseburger. You've always got to respect the fundamentals. Mm-hm. Yes, good, excellent.”
Menu decided. I was just about to head off toward the burger joint when—
My eyes met the landlord's as he passed in front of the building.
Maximum aggrieved, groveling expression, go!
Regrettably. No, tragically, not a single customer had shown up today either, leaving me unable to pay this month's rent.
All I had left to my name was enough money for a hamburger.
…
…Money for hamburgers is, quite obviously, money that must be set aside. You could take my life before you could take that.
“Yumin?”
The landlord, whose eyes had met mine, began walking toward me as if it were the most natural thing in the world. His pace seemed faster than usual. I prayed to every god that it was my imagination.
It's only been ONE month! You said yourself you'd let it slide up to three!
Pressing me now—is that your way of provoking me?
Do this, and the pufferfish known as Lee Yumin will have no choice but to inflate himself!
The landlord stopped right in front of me and stared straight into my face. He hadn't said a word yet, but having met enough people in my life, I knew.
It's the shakedown! Pufferfish Yumin, INFLATE!
That's what I told myself, but standing there with him actually in front of me, my pupils started to tremble.
Because the truth was, the fault was mine. I was the deadbeat tenant swaggering around occupying prime real estate without paying.
Given that he hadn't already incinerated me on the spot with a Fireball, I could only assume our landlord was a magnanimous soul verging on enlightenment.
The landlord, who had been silently glowering at me, loosely folded his arms and finally spoke.
“Yumin, the rent—”
“Oh my god! Not a single soul came in today either, so I didn't make a single cent!! You know how it is! Those mage types are all pride and no business—they just won't come!”
“That's exactly why—”
“I've still got two whole months left, so couldn't you, uh, just come back some other day? I know I'm shameless but… what can I say… I don't have any money!”
Having boldly declared my penniless state, I began carefully studying the landlord's expression. Because he'd been cut off twice, which somehow made it all the more terrifying.
But his face didn't crumple, nor did he show the slightest displeasure. With a cool, easy smile playing at the corner of his mouth, he spoke.
“Yumin. I'm not that kind of villain. Sure, the missed rent nags at me a little, but I'm hardly strapped for cash myself. It's fine. Truly.”
“Ah… I'm so sorry, I should have known better. I swear I'll pay you by whatever deadline—even if I have to sell my organs in three months….”
“Good. Take that passion and earn that money with everything you've got. We all do what we do to make a living, don't we? I don't dislike passionate people.”
“Th-thank you, sir….”
“Have a good weekend. See you Monday.”
The landlord gave a light, eye-crinkling smile, waved, and vanished like smoke.
It was presumably his unique magic.
I had no idea exactly what spell it was, but every now and then he'd disappear right before my eyes like that. Unique magic was, as the name suggested, magic unique to each individual, so unless the caster told you, there was no way to pin down what it was.
Even so.
“Is he really Upper Realm…? Magic like that—I don't think it's quite on my level, but still…?”
Asking someone else's rank outright was considered rude, so I didn't know the landlord's exact grade. I'd only ever made educated guesses, but seeing displays like that every so often made me wonder if he really might be Upper Realm.
“Not that the landlord being Upper Realm has anything to do with me.”
After all, it was an absurd situation for a bottom-rung, ayudattari-grade mage like me to be fretting over the Upper Realm at all. There's an old saying: don't even look at the fruit you can't reach. It was exactly that kind of situation.
To touch the Upper Realm, you'd have to climb past Nayuta and Binbara—and honestly, I didn't know if I'd get there in this lifetime. Living an ordinary life eating hamburgers honestly sounded like the happier one sometimes.
“Ugh… who knows. Eh, I'll feel better after a burger…. Ah, but you know, I would like to try casting a spell without an incantation at least once before I die….”
A guy who couldn't even reach Upper Realm and scraped by with a tiny shop—what chance did I have of reaching the Heavenly Realm? There wasn't a single registered Heavenly Realm mage in the entire Mage Association. No way someone like me could manage it.
“Nngh… guess I'll just go eat my hamburger.”
“Uuurgh. I'm stuffed….”
I'd planned on just a plain cheeseburger, but I caved and ordered the full set instead. Thanks to this unexpected expense, my plan of three hamburgers a day for tomorrow might lie in ruins…
“UWAAAAH!! My hamburgerrrr!! Why do french fries have to be so seductiveee!!”
Lying on my bed wailing wouldn't bring back the cheeseburger, the large fries, or the regular zero cola that had already vanished into my stomach.
I know. I know full well. The moment you eat it, it's over.
The only comfort I had left was this:
“I did eat a cheeseburger. It's not like it had two or three patties, or five or six slices of cheese, right?”
Where in the world is the justification for the price climbing that viciously just to add ONE patty?! You can conjure meat by the ton with magic, so why is the pricing so downright evil?
It's not even real slaughtered-animal meat to begin with.
They sell magic-grown meat but charge genuine animal-meat prices for it.
“If someone offered me magic-grown meat… hey, I wouldn't turn it down. Burger patties are magic meat anyway, what's the difference.”
And when someone offers you free meat, there's no reason to refuse. But what if that meat happened to be raised by a human with their own two hands?
Well then. That's not a meal offer. That's a marriage proposal.
“Ahh, sleepy.”
Full and lying in bed, the drowsiness came rolling in. They say lying down right after eating turns you into a cow—well, I've never actually been a cow, so if this is my chance, maybe becoming one would be a valuable experience?
“Wash… I need to wash up….”
My eyelids refused to obey me. No matter how hard I strained to keep them open, they kept sinking shut, and I finally gave up and closed my eyes.
Tomorrow was the weekend anyway. I'd just wash up in the morning.
Morning came again today, as mornings do.
Warm sunlight slipped through the gap in the curtains I'd lazily shoved together the night before, stabbing at my eyes. Still half asleep, I reached out blindly, relying purely on touch, and pulled at what I thought was the edge of the curtain.
“?”
No satisfying whish of fabric. Not a single ray of sunlight lessened as it pierced my paper-thin eyelids.
I took a step closer, got a proper grip on the curtain's edge, and yanked with all my strength.
Whish!
With a crisp, cheerful sound, I succeeded at last in blocking out the sunlight that had been stabbing at my corneas.
That's the stuff.
I shuffled back on unsteady legs and flung myself onto the bed once more.
Creeeak.
True to its age as a secondhand bed, the mattress erupted with the sound of springs compressing. But something about the sound was off—too shallow, too thin.
It should have been a deep, drawn-out creeeeaaak! Something worth looking into, sure—but a man's man like me doesn't sweat the small stuff.
That was the excuse, anyway. Truthfully, I was just tired.
Face-down with my head buried in the pillow, the hair brushing against my neck was starting to irritate me.
Hold on. My hair was never this long, was it?
For the sake of whatever customers did trickle in, I always kept my hair neatly trimmed. It had absolutely never been long enough to tickle my neck.
Still cradling my muddled head, I walked slowly toward the bathroom. Stumbling along with one hand braced against the wall, I made it to the bathroom and looked up at the mirror—
“…?”
A white-haired girl was staring back out of the mirror with a dazed, vacant expression.
My heart slammed against my ribs like it had gone mad.
Transference.
The phenomenon where the appearance of one's past life is projected onto one's present life. The present body's appearance vanishes entirely, replaced by the past life's form—in effect, you become a completely different person.
They say you usually end up looking fairly similar to your past self, though…
“⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼…?” (Why am I a girl?!)
“Huh?”
“⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼⎼!!” (And why can't I talk?!!)
