Monster Company Tycoon - Chapter 40

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Monster Company Tycoon
Chapter 40
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Sabira had asked me for a special favor.
She wanted me to visit her childhood home once.
Ragnar came along with me.
It had already been five days since Sabira became a formal employee and was appointed Field Team 1 Leader.
‘Come to think of it, I’ve never even asked about her family.’
Ragnar was dressed casually today as well, his expression as unmotivated and indifferent as ever.
I watched him with interest.
Someone who looked as though life had grown tedious, as though he’d lost all meaning in living….
Yet back on the screen, he’d been someone capable of expressing a whole spectrum of emotions, hadn’t he?
“Hello, Ragnar!”
“Are you taking a day off from your part-time job?”
“Ah, the restaurant owner isn’t feeling well, so the place is closed today.”
“Oh no, is she seriously ill?”
“She said it’s just a light cold. But since she has to cook for customers, she couldn’t possibly do it while sick.”
It was an unexpected day off.
Of course, even a day off isn’t particularly special, but since Sabira had just given me a quest, I ought to see it through.
We met at the village entrance and headed toward Sabira’s house.
As it happened, her house was located near the Eastern Village, and as I wondered whether she’d ever felt the urge to return home while wandering through the forest all this time, I felt a pang of pity for her.
‘I’d go home right now if I could.’
No, hold it. Think of the ten billion won and the twenty million in the safe.
I’m on a Working Holiday… I’m on a Working Holiday….
“Oh! What was Sabira like when she was alive?”
Feeling the need to steer my thoughts elsewhere, I brought up a new topic.
“Sabira was… a spirited girl. Never got tired, always running recklessly all over the village.”
He answered in a calm, reminiscent tone.
“Sounds like she was quite energetic as a child.”
“She stayed that way even after graduating from the Training Center.”
So her personality hadn’t changed even before her death.
“She had a mischievous side too. She loved pranks.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
Ragnar let out a small laugh.
“Sounds like you’ve been on the receiving end.”
“Not a single day since Sabira joined the company that I haven’t had to raise my voice at her.”
She keeps losing her head out of habit, so whenever we’re inside the Dungeon, I’m always anxious about when I’ll run into it.
“Sabira! Why on earth is your head in my desk drawer?!”
“Stop playing ball with my head!”
“I’ve told you, if I don’t keep that blasted head tied up tight, I’m done for!”
I wonder if the Character Flaw the monsters mentioned includes this personality defect as well…?
“I feel like I’m aging by the day…. She’s just too mischievous.”
Wait, but didn’t they say Sabira was a righteous person befitting a hero?
Does this village use the word “righteous” to mean something different?
I heaved a long sigh before continuing.
“Then what are Sabira’s family members like?”
“Ah, that girl has no family to speak of.”
“…Pardon?”
Sabira, why did you have to be born with such a tragic fate?
“Both of her parents passed away when she was young, and she had no siblings. That’s why the villagers took turns caring for her.”
“So the house we’re going to now….”
“Stands empty and abandoned. I often go to dust it and clean it, but since no one lives there, it’s difficult to maintain it properly.”
We’d been walking for several minutes.
We arrived at the house where Sabira had lived before her death.
You could tell from just the exterior that it had been neglected.
The neighbors must have swept away the weeds periodically as they passed, because traces of clearing remained around the house.
“Did Sabira ask you to bring something of hers that she used to own?”
“Oh, yes. Nothing big—she said to bring just one thing.”
Ragnar opened the door with a spare key he had, and a stale, musty smell of dust rushed out.
“Since I’m here anyway, I’ll do some cleaning. Feel free to look around.”
“Yes.”
He headed with practiced ease toward where the cleaning supplies were kept.
I hesitated before stepping inside the house.
“Oh?”
The moment I entered, a photograph hanging on the wall caught my eye.
Crimson hair tied back tightly.
Between eyes curved like a bow, softened by a hint of laughter, shone a vivid violet gaze, and between lips parted in a full smile gleamed teeth white as snow.
A healthy beauty with refined features and striking presence.
It was Sabira in life—and a grown version of her at that.
Though she still had a touch of youth about her.
“Wow, she really is beautiful.”
So this woman, who looks perfectly normal in a photo, casually loses her head left and right, bothers me with tiresome persistence, and writes love letters instead of introducing herself?
“Um… Ragnar?”
“Yes?”
“Have you and Sabira ever dated?”
Crash!
The sound of cleaning supplies clattering to the floor echoed loudly.
“Ah….”
Ragnar turned his head slowly.
His expression was one of utter revulsion, as though the very thought was horrifying.
He said nothing, but that alone was answer enough.
“Sorry, that was presumptuous of me. I was just suddenly curious. Sabira’s such a beauty, after all.”
“No.”
“Yes, I can tell just from your face. My apologies.”
Sabira had been so brazenly forward with me that I’d grown curious. I thought if she’d always been that way, it would be strange if some man hadn’t fallen for her at least once.
Ever since I realized I had no resistance to his husky voice, the moment I let my attention slip, he’d tease me by leaning in close to my ear.
As for Ragnar, having grown up like brothers in the same neighborhood since childhood, it seemed he’d never once considered her in that light.
Enough of this. I need to focus on the Quest.
‘Let’s see… what did Sabira ask for again….’
First, visit the house. Then go to the kitchen where the wooden floorboards are fitted together….
“Around here, I think.”
She’d said there was one plank there noticeably darker than the rest.
“Is it this one?”
When you tap it, only that spot should sound different, she’d said.
I raised my fist and gently tapped the floor here and there.
Tap-tap, tap-tap, thump.
“Here it is.”
She’d said to bring that restless brute along and have him pry it open.
That’s right. The real reason Ragnar came along was to open the house door and do the heavy lifting.
I’d planned to ask him first and refuse if necessary, falling back on asking Luadis instead, but to my surprise Ragnar agreed to come without fuss.
“Ragnar, could you help with this?”
He set down the broom he’d been sweeping with and strode over to me.
“Could you possibly pry up these floorboards?”
“Hmm….”
Ragnar drew the sword at his waist and wedged its tip into the narrow gap between the planks.
“Do you always carry a sword with you?”
“Without it I feel uneasy. It’s an occupational hazard of adventurers.”
He pried the plank up lightly, without any apparent strain.
“Wow, you’re really strong.”
I envied him. If I had strength like that, I’d fear nothing in the world.
“I used to make my living by strength back then.”
It wasn’t just my imagination.
Since the whole incident with Sabira, the distance between Ragnar and me seemed to have narrowed considerably.
“Oh, there really is a hollow space?”
She’d said a box would be buried under the floorboards. Once I brought it to her, the Quest would be complete.
“Is this it?”
“Yes, she asked me to bring her just this.”
I restored the pried-up floorboards and gave the floor a light sweep before leaving the house.
Ragnar stayed behind, saying the place needed a thorough cleaning.
I cradled the box and returned to the Dungeon.
“Sabira, I brought what you asked for!”
As the boss of the first floor and the newly appointed Field Team 1 Leader, Sabira had been given a private Boss Room where she could wait and rest between encounters.
With Brownie’s help, we’d secured a spacious area right in front of the Reward Room, designed so that anyone seeking Sabira would have to pass through multiple checkpoints before reaching her.
I opened the Boss Room door to hand over the box.
“Oh, you got it? Just give that straight to Boksil.”
“Huh? Me?”
“I had you bring it out to give to Boksil. It’s been kept remarkably well all this time.”
“What is it?”
“Open it.”
I gave her a suspicious look.
“There’s nothing strange in there, is there?”
“Something that will make Boksil’s love for me grow magnificently large.”
It felt ominous, but curiosity won out. I undid the box’s latch and opened it.
“Huh….”
The moment the lid came off and the contents became visible, I clamped my mouth shut.
“Well? Are you charmed?”
“…Yes.”
Inside was nothing but—
Money. Filled to the brim.
“You like money, don’t you, Boksil? Put it toward running the Dungeon. I won’t have any use for it where I’m going anyway. If I’d known this was coming, I wouldn’t have held back—I’d have spent it all freely.”
“This… really… I can take it?”
“Really take it. Thank you for helping me. You found my friend, you searched for my head—consider this my repayment.”
I’d have to remember to lower my voice a few decibels the next time I shouted at Sabira.

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