LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 84 - A Man Being Tempted (5)
EP.84 A Man Being Tempted (5)
Rebecca was busy with school classes and her personal growth, Sasha was occupied with running a private training center, and the youngsters and Shine were busy attending classes.
And as everyone expects, Fran is a person busy with missionary activities and managing the religious order.
‘Ariane must be doing volunteer work…’
While everyone was busy doing their own things, I wanted to leisurely run the general store… but the situation wasn’t quite that comfortable.
I had quite a few things to do as well.
Namely, selling beads.
“Where am I going to spend all this money?”
I had expected to make quite a bit of money from selling beads.
But this was a bit beyond what I had anticipated.
Of course, I didn’t really need to worry about where to spend the money.
“I thought that just the other day, but I’ve almost spent it all.”
Come to think of it, earning money has always been the problem, not spending it.
When I tried to realize the plans I had for the future, the money I had saved up until now vanished in a flash.
‘I guess I needed a lot of money.’
With the money I had saved up, I could have demolished the building itself and even remodeled it.
Is this why they call it a ’empty-count’ instead of an account?
‘Even if I lived twice, my bank account would still just be a passing bus stop.’
Of course, it’s not like I wasted the money.
It was a necessary plan for the future, and I invested in it.
The money I invested now will come back several times over later.
‘Then my now empty wallet will become fat again.’
Now is the time to sow the seeds.
It was right to patiently and steadily carry out what I had aimed for.
Usually, I can spend time leisurely when I open the general store.
The store’s operating hours are from 10 AM to 7 PM.
However, when urgent matters arise, I ignore the operating hours and close the door at any time.
After all, I wasn’t running the general store seriously in the first place.
‘Today, since there are no scheduled customers, I can take it easy…’
Just as I opened the store, brewed a cup of coffee, and sat down in my designated seat to spend a leisurely morning.
Bang!
“Oppa!!!!!”
My relaxed morning was shattered.
“We got a request!”
“….”
The woman who went to investigate the client hadn’t produced any clear results, despite saying she could find out in a few days.
It wasn’t that surprising.
‘I had expected this anyway.’
But it seems that woman hadn’t expected it herself.
She cried her eyes out, saying the request agent was like a block of wood and asking if I really lacked that much charm.
‘I wondered how she planned to find out about the client, but in the end, it was the beauty strategy.’
The idea that digging into the agent would reveal the client’s identity is one-dimensional, but it’s correct.
After all, the agent is the only line connecting to the client.
“I’m really going to seduce him. I’m not the kind of woman who gets ignored by men, you know?”
The woman who had stormed off fuming finally brought some interesting news this morning, after several days had passed.
The client had finally assigned the next request.
“So, did you seduce him?”
“No!!!! Is that important? I’m telling you I got another request!”
“So you couldn’t seduce him.”
“That’s not true!!! We kissed!!”
Cough ―
She really did that?
“Well, it’s annoying that I couldn’t get him right away, but it’s not like there were no results at all. And do you think we just kissed? We agreed to meet separately. Hehe! He looked completely smitten after my kiss. See, a man is still a man, even if he pretends to ignore you.”
The woman who had her pride severely hurt because seducing the agent wasn’t as easy as she thought, finally regained her confidence.
“What’s the content of the request?”
I wasn’t interested in whatever that woman and the agent were doing, and even if she succeeded in seducing the agent, it wasn’t certain if we could find out about the client, right?
Rather than uncertain matters, I wanted to know the content of the request.
“They said to find out about your true identity, oppa.”
“My true identity?”
What identity is there for me to uncover that they want to find out about my identity?
“They said I should seduce you to the point where you can’t live without me. And here’s the important part. After seducing you like that, they want me to show it in front of a woman!”
“You mean show us being close in front of a woman?”
As the woman continued speaking, my head filled with question marks.
“They said they’d let me know the specific date. They told me to just manage you well for now. I have pretty good intuition, and when requests like this come in, there’s bound to be some romantic entanglement involved.”
“…Romantic entanglement?”
“Don’t you have any woman you’re interested in? The more noble the family of the woman, the higher the possibility.”
Hand on my chest, no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t remember cultivating anything like that.
“I don’t.”
“Oh come on~ Think about it carefully! Is there really nothing that comes to mind???”
Something that comes to mind?
Something unsettling?
A woman from a noble family?
‘…No way?’
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
“Ariane!”
“Hmm?”
“Can you help me over here?”
“Yeees~! Coming, I’m coming~”
50 hours of volunteer work.
She went to volunteer whenever she had free time.
The orphanage said they would give her a 50-hour volunteer certificate even if she just pretended to work, but since she had started, she wanted to do it diligently.
In fact, nobles often did their volunteer work with ‘money’.
After all, being nobles, they weren’t asked to do the hard work at the orphanage.
But playing with the children turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable.
Time would fly by while playing without even realizing it.
Today too, time passed while she was busy playing with the kids.
“Phew~ I’m tired. The children’s stamina is amazing.”
“Hehehe. They become energetic again after a nap. And here’s your certificate.”
After visiting the orphanage 5 times, she received a certificate for 50 hours of volunteer work.
Now she had no reason to come to this orphanage anymore.
Somehow, she felt a bit sad.
“Can I come again next week?”
“Of course. You’re always welcome.”
“Hehe.”
She left the orphanage in a good mood and was about to go straight to the academy, but decided to stop by the mercenary boss’s shop for a moment.
She hadn’t been able to visit for a while because of volunteering at the orphanage.
She was curious about how things had progressed after delivering the letter to the family.
“Huh? Did he close already?”
Ariane knew that even when the boss closed the shop, he was usually hanging out in his house on the second floor.
“Boss~ Are you there~?”
She kept knocking on the door.
The boss was such a lazy person that he wouldn’t open the door after just one or two knocks.
She kept knocking on the door, but there was no sound from inside at all.
“I guess he’s really not here.”
Although it was quite late due to the volunteer work, it wasn’t late enough to close the shop, so she felt a bit gloomy.
“Tch, meanie.”
“Who’s being mean? Don’t tell me you mean me?”
“Ah! It’s the boss!”
Surprisingly, the boss didn’t come out from inside the shop, but appeared from behind.
It was nice to see him, but what was surprising was that the boss was wearing really nice clothes.
“Where did you go all dressed up like that? You usually wear that shabby green T-shirt.”
“I had to wear this for work.”
The mercenary boss opened the general store door with his characteristic indifferent attitude.
She followed him inside and looked around the still neatly organized general store.
She hadn’t been here for a while, but it seemed nothing had changed.
“Why are you inspecting everything like a territorial animal? Are you a cat?”
“Oh! A cat would suit you well, why don’t you get one? It would go well with you, boss.”
“I’m not good at taking care of animals.”
She felt gloomy again at the boss’s firm refusal.
Still, she was in a good mood because the boss she met after a long time was still as fun as ever.
“Actually, I had something to tell you, so this is good timing. Come up to the second floor.”
Her eyes sparkled because when the boss called her to the second floor, he often made delicious food.
“What are you going to make today?”
“Did I promise you food? I called you because I have something to say. Go buy your own food.”
“But the food you make is delicious!”
She liked it because there were many unique dishes that she didn’t usually eat.
“I want to eat what you made last time! Gukpop!”
“It’s not gukpop, it’s gukbap.”
According to the boss’s expression, it was a gukbap that gave a feeling of soothing the stomach.
It was the first time she learned that hot soup could actually make your stomach feel refreshed.
“The one with a color similar to tomato soup was interesting too.”
That one had a name too difficult to remember.
It was something like deokpugi? Or similar…
“That’s not possible without rice cakes.”
“Don’t you have anything I can eat right now? I’m hungry~”
“I keep telling you, this isn’t a restaurant.”
The boss sighed as if he couldn’t handle it anymore.
He was grumpy by nature, but when she insisted, he would make food as if he had no choice.
That’s why she wanted to come to the general store whenever she had time.
He was surprisingly easy and fun to hang out with.
‘I should definitely come with Fran next time.’
After all, it was Fran who introduced her to the boss, wasn’t it?
She was getting along well with Fran, who had safely returned from the battlefield, at the academy.
There were still some kids who were wary of Fran because of her background in a cult.
But she was so skilled that no student openly insulted her.
The boss who came up to the second floor ended up preparing food.
After eating it all, she felt like the fatigue from volunteering had completely disappeared.
“Ahh~ So good~ Can I rest here a bit longer?”
“Do as you like. Let’s talk for a moment.”
“Ah! You said you had something to tell me earlier, right?”
She wondered what he was going to talk about, thinking it might be about the beads, so she listened carefully.
“By any chance, doesn’t it seem like your family might be misunderstanding our relationship?”
“Misunderstanding? What kind of relationship do we have, boss?”
“Why are you asking me? You’re just a customer who follows me up to the second floor and eats for free, you should know better.”
Is that so?
“Do I really need to know that? Um… hmm…”
Her relationship with the mercenary boss?
They’re too far apart in age to be friends, and it feels too sad to just be a customer and shopkeeper.
‘Would it be most appropriate to call him my lifesaver?’
Come to think of it, she realized she hadn’t really tried to repay her lifesaver.
If the boss hadn’t come into the contaminated area and fired a signal flare, she might have unfortunately encountered a monster she couldn’t handle while going west.
‘Why did I forget about this?’
It seemed that since she couldn’t talk about that day at home, it had faded away.
The problem was that she had nothing to repay the boss with even if she wanted to.
Simply paying with money wasn’t enough to repay the debt she owed to the boss.