Chapter 32: 31

Episode 4-13. I’m the manager and in charge of the Aion Mall Otherworldly Store, where I make 100 million yen worth of monthly sales, or more, to satisfy the people of the other world.

“I lost my parents in a car accident when I was little and my grandma and grandpa took me in.”

Me, Chloe, Anna, and Barbera.

We are sitting around a bonfire in a circle of wooden log chairs.

I start to tell them an old story, but they all listen to me in silence. Barbera looks a little sleepy. Eh, I’m just getting ready to go.

I ignored them for the moment and continued.

“I think that at that time, in Kasugano I was in the countryside and grandparents didn’t know what to do with their ‘grandchildren they suddenly had to raise’. Of course, they were much older than I was at the time.”

“You were far apart in age,…… and with your grandparents being of the Dupois(Dupowa) clan, that would make them over 300 years old. Or more?”

“That’s too far apart! I’m a normal human being and I’m not that old! Chloe may be 18 years old as she looks, but elves have longer life spans after all!”

“If Naoya is a human, and his grandparents had a child at …… 18 when he was still small, and that child had another child at 18, his grandparents would be about 40 years old?”

“Now they’re not too far apart! As expected of a different world, children are born much earlier!　Grandma and grandpa are still considered young here!”

“……2000 years old?”

“Okay, they’re off by a few digits! Barbera is 140 years old but looks 10 years old. I wondered at what age do dragons grow up to be adults? Or rather, do phantasm species like dragons have a ‘family’ concept?”

The common sense is too different.

Apparently, you can’t even casually talk about the old days in another world.

“Anyway! Grandma and Grandpa were over sixty back then! They took me in when I was only five years old, but they didn’t know how to treat me! And I was still in a state of shock at that time!”

I vaguely remember those days.

I remember holding hands with Grandma and Grandpa patting me on the head.

Whenever we ate, Grandpa would ask, “Is it good?” every time we had a meal.

But I don’t remember the taste of the food, even though it was all very extravagant.

I also remember that I didn’t answer and Grandpa made a confused face.

“It was like that for a few months, and then one day, they took me out. She told me there was a new restaurant in Kasugano.”

We got into Grandpa’s old car and drove to the place that had just opened.

“Naoya, is that by any chance?”

“‘Ah, Chloe. It’s the A-I-O-N M-A-L-L SuperMarket. It was at the local Kasugano store that I was assigned after joining AION.”

I heard that Iori-san from the HRD had something to do with that, but that’s okay now.

I still remember it.

It was a huge building that could be seen in the distance at the end of a country road between rice paddies.

Kasugano is in the suburbs, and there were several large stores along the country road, but the building was so big and the site so spacious that it seemed small even to us.

Grandma and Grandpa used to say, “Naoya had his mouth wide open,” which still amuses me today, even after all these years.

“The first time I went to the Aion Mall Kasugano was amazing. There were more cars parked in the parking lot than I’ve ever seen, and there were so many people there that I thought it was a festival.”

” The festival …… at the Aion Mall ……, how many people were there, Naoya? A hundred people? I don’t think there were 200 people there, right?”

“Haha. Chloe, you are way off. Aion Mall has many stores that receive more than 10 million visitors a year. Aion Shopping Mall, one of the largest malls in Japan, receives more than 50 million visitors a year, you know?”

“5-50, milion……? N-Naoya, are you kidding me? How can there be that many people! You are not very good at jokes, Naoya!”

“Probably the population is different. The transportation systems are different, so the number of people who can easily come would be different too.”

“Ten million, no, fifty million …… if you count the number of lives around here, no matter how big or small.”

“Anna-san, can you please stop this because it’s kind of disturbing? When Lich starts talking about ‘the number of lives,’ it scares me a little too much.”

For the four days since I became manager, the total number of visitors to the Aion Mall Otherworld Store is 156.

That’s too many digits and Chloe and Anna-san probably can’t believe it. Barbera was out.

“Even when I was a kid, I couldn’t believe there were that many people. But once I got inside, I realized that the Aion Mall was even more incredible.”

I looked up at the building, stunned by its sheer size, and then my grandma and grandpa took me by the hand and led me inside the Aion Mall Kasugano.

I was overwhelmed by the brightness, spaciousness, and beauty of the building.

“There was a movie theater, toy store, bookstore, game center, clothing store, furniture, electronics, groceries, restaurants, food court, you name it. Really, from ‘A’ to ‘Z,’ the Aion Mall had it all.”

The Aion Mall’s Otherworldly Store is still only part of the supermarket. Not just part of the supermarket, but some of the fresh products, just vegetables.

Chloe and Anna-san seem to be imagining what I’m describing. Barbera wakes up.

“Everything seems to be sparkling, and I’m like, ‘What’s this? What is that?’ I remember I was so excited, I kept asking, ‘What’s that? And I also remember my grandma and grandpa looking kind of relieved and happy.”

They probably didn’t know how to deal with their grandchildren, whom they had suddenly decided to raise.

But when they took me to the nearby Aion Mall, they were delighted.

I think I understand their relief now.

“……I guess the Aion Mall is great….”

“Ah, it’s great, Chloe. It depends on the size and the stores, but there are stores with annual sales of more than 30 billion yen per store. The problem is how to count ‘sales’ since there are so many different kinds of stores and tenants.”

“S-stores and tenants ……? Aion Mall is a monstrosity!””

“If anything, the one-horned rabbit is the monster. The dragon, the Lich, the Skeleton and the Ghost are also monsters. There are a lot of monsters in our staff!”

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“A little over 80 million yen per business day? You’re going to reach your monthly sales goal of 100 million yen in a little more than a day.”

“Not only that. Including tenants, the number of employees at Aion Mall exceeds 1,000 per store, and most stores have around 2,000 employees.”

“2 thousand? You’re kidding me, Naoya? That’s more than the elves in the village!”

“Oh, the elves are small in number. It seems to be just as I imagined.”

“About 2,000 employees? In the Aion Mall Otherworld Store, there are four of us, plus my skeleton squad, ghosts and others.”

Wait, Anna-san. Are there more than just the skeletons and the ghosts? Hey, can you tell me about that? I’d freak out if I bumped into them in the middle of the night. No, I’m not scared. I’m just freaked out.”

Both Chloe and Anna-san are amazed at the scale of the Aion Mall in Japan.

I guess they couldn’t have imagined it from the Aion Mall’s otherworldly store, where only the building was magnificent. Oh, Barbera’s eyes are about to close.

“There are many employees, which means there are many places to work. The sense of anticipation of what they might sell, the feeling of security that you can find anything you need if you come here, the sense of satisfaction when you find it, and the satisfaction of wanting to go back again. I think that’s what drives sales and customer traffic at Aion Mall in Japan.”

Chloe, the former manager, shrugs at my words.

I’m sure she thought that the Aion Mall Otherworldly Store wasn’t like that.

“For me as a child, Aion Mall was amazing, fun, and sparkling, and I was thrilled when my grandpa and grandma asked me if I wanted to go.”

This happened in my elementary school years, and even in junior high and high school.

When I was in junior high and high school, I would go with my friends, and it was still fun. Going on dates? I’m not quite sure.

Though when I got to college, I often went to the city to have fun.

“That’s why I got a job at Aion Co. I want to do business. I want to tell people who don’t know about Aion Mall, which I admired so much, about its charm. I thought it would be nice to go to the countryside, to a remote island, or even overseas.”

That’s right.

That’s why I wanted to work for AION Co.

Therefore, in my final interview for the job, I said, “I’m going to go to another world and do business in order to convey the charm of the Aion Mall to people who don’t know about it yet. Yes, that sounds interesting!” I answered.

And that’s why……

“I want to make the people of …… another world excited by the dreams and hopes of the Aion Mall and its visitors.”

The cloudiness I’ve been holding on to since I saw the city has cleared up.

No.

It was probably the cloudiness I had been feeling ever since I came to this world.

It was Aion who suddenly sent me to another world.

I thought, ” I’m the manager, I’m in charge,” but I couldn’t get rid of the feeling of being deceived somehow.

Thanks to that, I thought I was feeling a bit fuzzy, but I wasn’t.

“I’m the manager and in charge of the Aiwon Mall Otherworldly Store, where I make 100 million yen worth of monthly sales, or more, to satisfy the people of the other world.”

The sales are proof that the customers are satisfied.

It sounds pretty, but it is not pretty for a retailer.

Otherwise, first-time customers would not spend money and would not come back.

It’s not a negative reason that I can’t go home unless I make 100 million yen in monthly sales.

“If we can satisfy customers worth 100 million yen, the town will surely change. Just like the Aion Mall Kasugano and the surrounding area did.”

I clenched my fists.

I look up.

“I want the people of this world to be excited, just as I was. I want the people of this world to be excited too.”

Chloe stares at me with sparkling eyes.

Anna-san smiles, and Barbera looks at me with a blank stare.

“Okay. I’m motivated! I finally feel like a manager!”

The three of them don’t give me a second thought.

I have only been a manager for four days!

I was suddenly in a different world, and there were too many surprising things to do!

Moreover, I’ve only done a little tour of the city.

“Oh! Naoya, I’m up for it! I won’t be called a clumsy knight anymore! So, Naoya, what are you going to sell tomorrow? What am I supposed to do!?”

“…… you know, …… that’s something I’ll think about later on.”

On the roof of the Aion Mall’s Otherworld Store, after four days of business since I became the store manager.

The night passes around the bonfire.

……… For the meantime, I have to think of a product to sell.

A/N:

This story is a work of fiction.

It has nothing to do with any actual company or shopping mall.

Naturally, the characters and names in this story are also fictitious.

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