Monster Company Tycoon - Chapter 51

—————
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 51
***
Checking the bulletin board in the Plaza after my restaurant shift had become part of my daily routine.
Though decent jobs didn’t show up every time.
If I wanted to feed my staff, I had to earn every penny I could, so I had to keep watching.
Building a recovery room for monsters inside the Dungeon had become my next goal.
No matter how much combat was a given in a Dungeon, seeing my injured employees left me with no peace of mind.
After the recovery room, there were plenty of other facilities I wanted to build.
“Let me see. What can I actually do….”
I scanned the board slowly.
There was nothing but simple errands, and none of them paid more than a thousand yen.
Among them, there was one errand that stood out for its generous pay, one that kept catching my eye—it was helping with work at the Temple.
[Seeking assistance with item sorting. Payment: 3500 yen]
‘If it weren’t for Reta’s Temple, I’d show up every day.’
No matter how much money they offered, there were jobs that simply couldn’t be done. I couldn’t get involved with the Temple, no matter what.
From that perspective, I envied Ragner, who seemed to be commuting to the Temple every day lately.
‘He must be earning a lot….’
After deliberating, I grabbed a memo slip.
“Should I try this one?”
It was a request to move cargo to the Warehouse on behalf of a resident with an injured arm.
The errand paid one thousand yen.
There wasn’t really anything else I could do.
The errand location happened to be on the way to the Training Grounds.
Since I had something to discuss with Luadis anyway, I could visit after finishing the job.
“The Warehouse is over there, and these are the things that need to be moved.”
“…All of these?”
I stared at the mountainous stack of Boxes and clicked my tongue.
Large and small wooden Boxes filled one corner of the residential yard completely.
You wanted to settle this for a mere thousand yen? Were you out of your mind?
“But miss, are you sure? You look a bit… frail.”
“Looks can be deceiving—I’m quite strong!”
What could I do about it anyway? Money doesn’t fall from the sky.
My employees are out there getting beaten up doing their jobs, and here I am watching from behind a screen.
If I could convert my excess stamina into money, I’d be thanking them instead.
Besides, moving heavy cargo wasn’t something I’d done just once or twice before.
When I worked at my previous job, I even helped the boss move apartments.
I tried lifting one of the nearby Boxes as a test.
“Ugh… what on earth is packed inside this?”
“Oh, books I don’t read anymore. Well, I’m counting on you.”
Books?! Now I understand why they’re so heavy….
‘Did they strip an entire library? Why so many books?’
I emptied my mind and began mechanically carrying the Boxes into the Warehouse.
At least there was a silver lining—some Boxes containing fewer books were mixed in, making them relatively lighter.
“Choi?”
When I’d only moved about a third of them, I heard a familiar voice from behind.
“What are you doing here?”
“Oh, hello.”
Beyond the wide-open gate stood Ragner.
He too had just returned from helping at the Temple, dust and dirt smudged across his clothes in places.
“I’m running an errand.”
“An errand?”
“Yes, I need to earn money.”
Ragner walked right in without hesitation, despite it being someone else’s home, and stood beside me.
“This moving job?”
“Yes, but it seems like it’ll be done faster than I thought. Manual Labor is kind of my specialty.”
But then Ragner suddenly picked up one of the Boxes.
“Huh?”
“Should I move these to that Warehouse?”
“Well, yes… but why would you do that?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to finish quickly?”
“True enough. Though….”
I decided to settle the important matter first.
“Even with your help, I won’t be splitting the pay with Ragner. It’s only a thousand coins, so there’s no way around it.”
“You should take the full amount, Choi.”
“But then why are you helping me….”
“I’ve always helped with village work without payment anyway.”
For Ragner, a single box was nothing much at all.
While I grunted and strained over moving them one by one, he stacked three or four boxes at a time and carried them back and forth to the Warehouse with ease.
“Didn’t you already work today? Aren’t you exhausted?”
“Not particularly.”
With Ragner helping, the boxes disappeared at a completely different pace. Work that would have taken me far longer alone was finished in no time.
The moment the last box was inside the Warehouse, the employer came out to check on things and spotted Ragner, looking mildly surprised.
“Well, that’s something. You’re helping with this tedious work too.”
I looked at Ragner in bewilderment. Hadn’t he said he often helped with village work?
“Now that the work’s confirmed done, shall we settle up?”
The casual ease of their conversation suggested they were quite close.
“There you go—the errand money. Give it all to the girl, not him.”
“Thank you.”
The sum was too small and precious to split anyway.
After carefully pocketing the thousand coins, I left with Ragner.
“Thanks for helping me out.”
“You strike me as remarkably diligent, Choi. You always seem to be working on something.”
“Not really. Once I return to the Dungeon, I just laze about in bed all day.”
As we started walking toward the Training Grounds, Ragner naturally fell into step beside me, as though we’d already arranged it.
“You’re heading to the Training Grounds? Teon should be done by now.”
“I’m going to see my master.”
“I see.”
Well, then, our paths had to go the same way.
Though the truth was, it seemed I’d decided on my destination rather impulsively.
We walked side by side in silence for a while.
Unable to bear the awkwardness any longer, I broached a new topic.
“Oh, right. A rookie adventurer challenged the Dungeon yesterday.”
“A rookie?”
“Yes. He didn’t seem to be from the Training Grounds—more like an outsider.”
At the word “outsider,” Ragner’s expression tightened slightly.
“He looked pretty confident in his own abilities, so I imagine that’s why Luadis suggested he come to our Dungeon—to get a proper lesson.”
“So what was his actual skill like?”
“He managed the first stage all right, but he never even reached the second stage before retiring. He’ll probably need more training at the Training Grounds first.”
But once I finished my explanation, his expression settled back into its usual composed mask.
“Then your Dungeon provided him with a valuable lesson.”
“I suppose. If he learns from it and trains harder now, that’s a good thing. But honestly, if he keeps coming back, that’s profit for me.”
He’ll leave money in the Donation Box each time.
Wait—I’d emptied my pockets earlier, so I was probably broke by now.
That meant it’d be a while before he visited again.
My talk of the rookie adventurer didn’t seem to capture Ragner’s interest much, so I offered a different topic I thought he’d like.
“Sabira’s doing well too. Though she seems a bit bored lately.”
I pictured her popping by at odd hours, pestering me about whether anything interesting was happening.
If she had that much energy, she should be out hunting for her own head instead.
Her poor upkeep of her own head had even started drawing complaints from the Facilities Team.
They kept finding it in the trap pits they’d dug.
Perhaps she found comfort in a place she’d occupied for so long.
“Since the Dungeon is indoors, maybe she feels cooped up? Actually, we’re fairly lenient about letting staff go outside. If she’s restless, she could take short walks around the area….”
I finished speaking and gently tested Ragner’s mood.
Even if they were friends, she was a monster—I wasn’t sure how he’d take me letting her roam outside the Dungeon.
Fortunately, he showed no sign of displeasure.
“Then wouldn’t it work if you visited often and kept her company? You could even spar with her.”
That way I could gather more combat data.
To my suggestion, Ragner replied flatly.
“She was always scatterbrained and energetic. She hated sitting still more than anything, and honestly, that could get pretty irritating.”
I let out a sigh.
Even before becoming Durahan, he was like this. The type who couldn’t resist if he didn’t burn off that excess energy right away.
“I left him in your care to keep the peace, yet it seems he’s been causing trouble. I’ll pay a visit soon and give him some proper education.”
“Yes, please do. And could you remind him to take care of himself too? He won’t listen when I tell him.”
The way he spoke of visiting the Dungeon as casually as dropping by a friend’s house struck me as somehow amusing.
There was a time when he insisted all Dungeons must be destroyed without exception.
Perhaps it was only true of our Dungeon, but at some point he’d begun to regard it with a certain tolerance.
Was it because of Sabira? Or was it me?
Since we’d grown quite close, there was at least some possibility it could be me.

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