059 – Returning to Hometown #3
I brought the squirrel home for now. Melinoë stared in admiration at the sight.
“The little guy’s being so docile in your hands. It must be because you’ve become an Honorary Nymph. Nymphs have a knack for befriending small animals like honeybees, squirrels, or bluebirds—and Honorary Nymphs are no different.”
I hadn’t realized Honorary Nymph came with perks like that. Melinoë seemed even more impressed.
“No way, Jo Iseo—you didn’t become a ridiculous thing like an Honorary Nymph just for a day like today…? Your thorough preparation never fails to astonish me, your goddess, every once in a while!”
“……”
I had no idea how to respond to that.
Anyway. The squirrel Moros had hidden away had dull, matted fur. It barely had the strength to wriggle.
This little guy doesn’t have much time left.
Maybe two weeks at best. It wasn’t like it had wanted to come to this underworld. To die here without ever leaving? No way.
For some reason, it feels like I’m seeing myself in it. We’re in the same boat.
Maybe that was why I’d stopped Melinoë from taking it. I punched a hole in the doll Hedone had given me when I got promoted to deputy manager and turned it into a cushion. The squirrel immediately crawled inside, curled up into a ball, and fell asleep. Exhausted from its long life, no doubt.
Pop!—But then the squirrel I thought was asleep burst out.
━Kyang kyang…!
It barked like a dog. I was stunned. But what happened next was even more shocking.
━Jo… Jooji…!
━Joojiieek!
The hell cockroaches. The ones that kept slinking back no matter how many cacti I planted. They bolted at the squirrel’s ferocious cry, tails between their legs.
“…For real, that’s impressive.”
My opinion of the squirrel shot up. It burrowed back into the fluffy doll and curled up again.
Snore. Snore. Its breathing was growing fainter by the second. I couldn’t shake the anxiety that it might stop altogether any moment.
The squirrel would wake up now and then, peering out the window. As if it longed to go somewhere. Or was waiting for someone.
“I saved you, so I might as well get something out of it.”
My 100% guaranteed-firing plan. Time to kick it off!
“Moros. Where did you hide it, and what is it? I’m asking as your sister. Spill it honestly.”
“……”
“Sigh, I don’t want to get nasty with my own blood kin, you know?”
Nemesis was interrogating Moros. He stayed silent. His eyes gazed into the past.
—Tch, terrifying Moros.
—The executive famous for having no blood or tears… He was the god of inevitable doom.
At headquarters, he handled discipline and layoffs.
—P-Please, just forgive me once! If I get kicked out of the company, my family will end up doing menial work and turning into memory-lost ghosts! Please, just once!
—Mr. Moros! Please!
Those getting fired always had their reasons. But Moros didn’t care.
After work, Moros was alone. His sole hobby was heading to the Elysium riverbank to stack bricks.
Clack, clunk.—Two employees fired today. Two bricks to stack.
Clack, clunk. Clack—
One by one, two by two, the bricks eventually formed a proper house. He discovered something strange when the house was nearly complete, just a few bricks short.
A squirrel?
A small animal. A living creature. Probably lost its way through some Miracle Rift and wandered into this underworld. It happened often enough.
Moros reached out casually. To uphold the rules.
But instead of snapping its neck, he felt its warmth in his palm. Soft and fuzzy. A fragile heartbeat pulsed.
Such a tiny creature couldn’t possibly bring ruin to Soul Society. Compared to me, it’s insignificant, trivial. No need to end it with these hands.
A whim. Small and trivial.
From then on, Moros lived with the little creature. For quite a long time. And yet, so short.
━Kyang…
Unlike the immortal Moros, the squirrel aged. Its tail, once wagging vigorously at his return, now drooped. It spent more time curled by the warm hearth, sleeping.
Left like this, the little thing would become a proper underworld resident. Lifeless, eventually a memory-lost ghost…
The creature often gazed out the window. Perhaps, with few days left, it longed for home—
Moros guessed as much. He wanted it to spend its final days back home, at least.
But Moros was arrested.
Sitting uncomfortably in the interrogation room, he thought of his friend. The life slowly fading in the cramped desk drawer. Burning its last candle. Waiting for Moros.
He couldn’t leave it like that. Moros decided to resist—even if it meant using force here.
“Moros, I hope you’re not thinking anything foolish. If we fight, this hard-won peace shatters.”
Nemesis sensed his intent. Tension thickened in an instant—
━Kyang kyang…!
“……!”
Moros startled. That bark was familiar.
The interrogation room door flew open—and a small furball bounded in.
“What the—rat pup?”
Nemesis panicked. She quickly realized it was a living creature.
“Moros, so that’s what you were hiding.”
“Why are you here?”
Moros was just as flustered. The little animal had followed his scent. Forgetting its exhaustion and illness, it ran with all its might.
Patter patter.—Tail wagging side to side.
━Kyang kyang…!
I brought the squirrel to the interrogation room.
“That squirrel is mine. The one I hid. I saw it come from the surface and didn’t report it—I kept it. As a living person, I missed the warmth of the surface.”
And I falsely confessed to his crime.
If they accepted my claim, I’d be in deep trouble for sure. If they didn’t, I’d get disciplined for false testimony. Either way, a sure win.
My foolproof strategy. Checkmate.
100% firing odds, pure and simple!
So, their reaction?
“You raised that squirrel? Don’t lie. Anyone can see it follows Moros and likes him. Jo Iseo, I don’t know why you’re suddenly taking his side, but lying to an executive’s face?”
Nemesis clenched her fist with a crack—and shoved it in my face.
One hit from that, and my skull would be donut-holed. I wanted firing, not death, so I bowed my head frantically.
“Then why not pretend it never happened? It’d be ridiculous for executives to go to war over one dying rat.”
“Jo Iseo, you idiot. Don’t you know what principles and rules are? Pretend we didn’t notice hiding an intruder?”
“Not impossible. With a safety manager’s guarantee, one animal could stay—with official residency papers.”
Moros’s purple eyes blazed.
He spoke like quiet doom approaching. “But we’d need Prince Zagreus’s permission. He handles safety and access. Get that, and one squirrel slides by.”
“…Hmph.”
Nemesis narrowed her eyes. Seemed displeased. I fired my killer line.
“I hear Prince Zagreus has three wives. Two from the surface, still alive. He granted them stay rights, right?”
If intruders were the issue? Make it not one.
Though I’d owe Zagreus. Exposing Moros’s squirrel pet was probably his ploy to pull him into his faction this way.
Smart guy.
Nemesis shut up. She tapped her foot irritably, then snapped.
“Ugh, too complicated. Wait! I’ll call the prince. He can handle this crap!”
Soon after, Prince Zagreus arrived personally. He unlocked Moros’s cuffs with a grin.
“Safety team making a fuss over one rat? Bad look. Moros, why not just tell me? Residency stamp for a squirrel’s no big deal.”
And so Moros and the little squirrel were free.
Free. Really free?
As I mulled that, Moros patted my shoulder.
“Jo Iseo, I owe you. Thanks to you freeing my friend, it went smoothly.”
“It would’ve happened without me. Fate, right?”
“Fate makes dumb mistakes sometimes.”
“For real?”
“I lack finesse. I just do my job diligently. This was my first rebellion. But now… time to let it go. To the passage to the surface.”
Moros planned to release it near his house. A rift to the surface.
He set it down, and the squirrel sniffed around. It wagged its tail, sensing home ahead.
That’s me. A creature longing to return topside, like me.
“Creatures with little life left crave home. Unable to stop doom, they choose their best option.”
Stroke.—Moros petted its back.
“Planned a surface ‘business trip’ to release it secretly. No need now. Go. To where you belong.”
Whoosh!—As if waiting, the squirrel leaped into the rift.
I was a bit surprised watching. I figured it’d hesitate. It must’ve bonded with Moros.
But no.
Of course.
If I could leave Soul Society, I’d bolt without looking back.
In other words, that squirrel was me. Jealous.
But Moros’s eyes flickered dimly, like wet firewood.
“It never looked back, not once. Guess the bond was one-sided—mine alone.”
Now he opened his palm.
“…I’ll reclaim the Divine Share in the rift.”
Closing it, probably. Right then—
━Kyang kyang…!
Scamper.—Tail wagging, the squirrel emerged again. A wildflower stem in its mouth. It tucked it into the eye socket of Moros’s skull helmet. Like decorating a vase.
━Kyang…!
“…You.”
I was stunned. It hadn’t gone out to die—it fetched a flower to show Moros.
“Looks like Moros was its real home.”
To ditch a chance at home itself. What an idiot.
“Deputy Manager Jo Iseo! Congrats on the promotion!”
“Whoa, beating out Narcissus for deputy manager first? Amazing! I, Narcissus, acknowledge you!”
The day after the squirrel fiasco. I suppressed the urge to bolt like a wild animal.
“When I heard Moros got nabbed by safety, I thought war’d break out. But you mediated perfectly—no casualties. Well done, Deputy Manager Jo Iseo!”
Skeleton Manager Hector thumped my shoulder. Ow.
Alecto thumped my other side.
“If Moros rampaged, damages would’ve been huge. Safety team wouldn’t escape unscathed. Minimizing that? Promotion’s only natural!”
I was starting to doubt myself. Doubting I could escape this hell…
“Whoa, a squirrel.”
“Real squirrel.”
“Cute… Moros looks less scary!”
People buzzed. I looked up—Moros approached, squirrel on his head, hands behind back, spine straight.
“Jo Iseo, Princess Melinoë’s looking for you. Wants to discuss a reward for handling this smoothly. She benefited big too.”
What benefit did Melinoë get from this?
Moros read my mind and dropped doom.
“Saw the reward. Even an executive like me was impressed. First deputy manager with something like that since Soul Society began.”
━Kyang…!