Monster Company Tycoon - Chapter 21

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Monster Company Tycoon
Chapter 21
What if Ragnar asks about this?
Should I say I lived in such a backwater place that I’d never even seen a Purification Stone?
Or should I just come clean? He already knows my secrets about the Dungeon and who I am, so what’s one more?
No, he might really think I’m insane and have the Temple drag me away this time.
Then something occurred to me.
He’d never once asked about my origins or my past.
“Um….”
Situations like this could happen again. Maybe it would be better to come clean about it beforehand.
“Found you!”
Suddenly the Restaurant door burst open and Teon came rushing in with the puppy at his heels.
“Brother! What if you go without me!? I know good food too!”
He charged straight to our table and plopped down beside me. Then he started chattering away while eyeing my plate.
“Oh, the lady also left her beans! Our Chacha hates beans too!”
“What…?”
“You ate all your meat? Our Chacha loves meat!”
“Woof!”
Were you really just saying my eating habits are identical to that mutt’s…? And besides, I….
“I don’t hate beans. Do you know how good they are for you? I save what I like for last.”
“That’s a lie. Our Chacha always leaves his bowl piled with nothing but beans.”
“I’m speechless.”
I deliberately scooped up the beans I’d left behind with my spoon and tossed them into my mouth.
The mild beans blended with the slightly spicy seasoning—it was delicious. Such flavor from what should be a simple bean side dish!
Ajumma’s cooking skills were truly impressive. That’s why she’d been able to run the Restaurant in this same spot for so long.
“See?”
“For real?”
“And don’t just compare me to your dog like that….”
This was overkill…!
My body went rigid as a scene suddenly flashed through my mind.
Could it be that Ragnar had been staring intently at me throughout the meal because my eating habits looked identical to the puppy’s!?
How much does he love that pet anyway…?
I grabbed my empty plate and stood up abruptly from the table.
Even though I’d resolved to endure it, having been plagued my whole life with dog-related nicknames, I couldn’t help but feel a little hurt.
“Thank you for the advice. I should get back to work.”
“There’s more I could tell you.”
“No, that’s enough.”
I returned my plate to the kitchen, received permission to leave early on my first day, and stepped out of the Restaurant.
Normally I would have waited for Ruadis at the Restaurant, but my shift ended sooner than expected, leaving me with some free time.
‘Should I go buy the items Ragnar mentioned? He said I could find Purification Stones at the General Store, and the Compass… maybe I should just ask if they carry it?’
I remembered that on my first visit to the Village, there’d been a map on the Town Square bulletin board marking the locations of various shops.
“Residents often leave notes on the bulletin board asking for various errands to be done.”
It would be good to check what errands might be available while I’m there.
I quickened my pace toward the Town Square.
‘He said it’d be good for me to spend some time blending in with regular people and getting a change of pace….’
As I walked among the crowds, I understood what Ragnar meant to some extent. Though I feel bad for the Brownies.
Being around ordinary people really is better than spending time with scary monsters.
I used to walk these streets every day commuting to and from work.
The scenery is completely different, of course, but after staying only in dark Dungeons, walking now under the bright sunlight felt like my mind was gradually filling with a sense of ease.
I arrived at the Town Square before long.
A large bulletin board stood in front of the Town Hall building came into view. The board looked quite cluttered from having been repeatedly plastered and peeled off with papers.
“The map’s here. The General Store is right next to the Town Square.”
On the right side of the bulletin board was the map I was looking for, while the left side was covered with several notes left by Village residents requesting errands.
Still, Ajumma said there would be ‘plenty’ of them… It seems the Village is short on manpower.
“Hmm… So this is what they mean by requesting errands. It’s just like a Quest?”
Some asked to gather specific herbs from the forest, others to catch rats infesting the Basement, or to help move cargo.
They were small tasks, but decent side work for earning extra experience points or coin.
“It really is like a beginner’s Village….”
Especially the herb-gathering errand—it was just like a basic Quest where Adventurers go hunting in the forest and pick up some experience points or spending money on the side.
Times like this really make me feel like I’ve stepped directly into a game and started playing it myself.
But I’d already heard that adventuring was an incredibly dangerous profession, so there was no room for romance in the equation.
Safety first, life is precious!
I can’t even see monsters with my bare eyes—how could I possibly be an adventurer?
“Though this memo is a bit unusual.”
The other memos looked like they’d been torn hastily from a notebook, but this one was different from the start—the paper itself felt different.
It was crisp and snow-white, with delicate patterns etched across the surface, and a seal at the bottom depicting a branch laden with heavy fruit.
“Looks like custom-made stationery from some organization.”
The memo was a request for a cleaning errand.
“No special qualifications needed, and honestly, I think I could handle something like this? Depends on the scale, but….”
The pay was a full three thousand yen. Two hours of restaurant work!
The location was the Northern Town Clearing.
“What am I supposed to be cleaning in an empty lot?”
According to the rough map, the clearing was in the opposite direction from the Dungeon, just a bit further from the Town Square.
“Hmm….”
I wanted to earn as much money as possible.
Three thousand yen was enough to request an Announcement from the Wind Sprite three times over, or six weeks’ worth of staff wages.
“But if I visit the General Store and the clearing both, time might get tight. If it takes too long, Ruadis will be waiting.”
In the end, I decided to explore the village a bit more while I was at it, and head to the site of this cleaning errand to take a look.
Following the path that led north, houses grew sparse, and then I came upon the Cemetery.
I thought it odd that the village kept a cemetery within its bounds, but then I spotted what looked to be the vacant lot.
I say “looked to be” because it was no longer vacant.
“What? They’re building something here? That’s why they needed cleaning help.”
Though still unfinished, the framework was already up, and workers were stacking white stone blocks to raise the walls. Once completed, it promised to be quite an impressive structure.
A new building, in a countryside village where everything else was old and weathered?
Seeing how a wall was being erected to enclose the entire Cemetery, it seemed likely the new structure was meant to be a facility for maintaining the burial grounds.
But would they normally build a caretaker’s building so grandly? Or is it something else entirely?
I was peering around the periphery when it happened.
Our eyes seemed to meet—mine and those of a laborer hauling materials from deeper within the site.
‘Good grief, he’s working in pure white clothes? At a construction site, no less. They’ll be filthy in minutes.’
The distance was considerable, but that pristine white outfit stood out vividly against everything else.
Captivated by that incongruous sight, I only realized much later that he was smiling and giving me a nod.
For reasons I couldn’t explain, panic seized me—though I’d done nothing wrong—and I found myself bowing in response.
‘Wait…? Is he trying to come over here…?’
Taking my bow as an invitation to converse, he began setting down his load and turning his body toward me.
I’d come to see the memo, but I had no intention of starting work right now, which made the situation awkward.
If he’d been hoping for a laborer and I turned out to be just a curious onlooker, wouldn’t he feel let down? Besides, I wasn’t even a local—there was nothing natural we could chat about.
I shook my hands frantically in refusal and quickly turned my back.
All I could think was that I needed to escape before he reached me.
“Wait—”
I heard him call from behind, but I pretended not to hear.
I’d come back another time when I had the time for an errand!
I silently screamed these words as I hurried away.
At least, I left with the hopeful thought that a construction site like this would likely have steady work until completion.
By coincidence, Ruadis was just walking up to the Restaurant after finishing his work at the Training Facility, so I managed to avoid being late.
‘If I’d been cornered by that man and ended up chatting, I really would have been late.’
On the way back to the Dungeon with Ruadis, I asked him about the building under construction.
“Oh, now that you mention it—I’d forgotten to warn you. Best to be careful around there. It seems Ragnar didn’t give you a heads-up either.”
“Excuse me?”
“The building they’re putting up is Reta’s Temple.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————