Chapter 8: Chapter 8

Jin’s POV
   Kajiwara is none too happy that two of his part-time workers are quitting at the same time. Even if the store he’s managing will be facing worker shortage in less than two week’s time, he rather spent more effort on making their remaining days on this job as unpleasant as possible than finding new people to join the team.

   Just yesterday, there were fifty cans of melon soda that need to be price-tagged on the exact same spot. When it’s inspection time, Kajiwara pulled out a measuring tape and measured to location of each price tags down to the millimeters. If any were found to be placed wrongly, Jin would have to take the old price tag out and stick a new one. Needless to say, all of the price tags were at the wrong places.

   “What’s with this sloppy work, Minase-kun? Redo everything again!” Kajiwara scolded Jin after he was done with the inspection.

   “Right away, manager.”

   “Seriously, the young people these days have no sense of responsibility. Wanting to quit without having the resolve to see things through the end. After all the trouble I got to get you hired, too. Just how ungrateful can you be…”

   Once again, Jin just shuts away any unpleasant noises and concentrated on his pointless work. In the end, Jin spent a good three hours to supposedly get things. The truth is, Kajiwara got bored halfway through and wanted to leave early again. Once again, Jin was left all alone until Akayashi arrived to relieve him.

   Jin finally received his first paycheck from his new job this morning. He checked his bank account with his phone and sure enough, it has lots of money in it. Even though it was being paid on a weekly basis, it’s still a lot more than what he would have made after working for one whole month. He’s so happy about it that he could endure the increased harassment from Kajiwara until the day he can finally get out.

   “I wonder what I should get with my first decent pay…” he mumbles as he’s getting ready to go to school.

   First of all, he needs to leave some money for the rent. The last thing he want is being kicked out for not paying his rent. After that, food. Definitely food. Finally, his days of eating pitiful meals are over. As he’s eating the so-called breakfast which consists of two slices of white bread, he sighs in relief as this will be the last day that his meal will look this sad.

   …Strike that. He still needs to pack a poor man’s lunch since it will definitely arouse suspicion if he started eating normal food in front of his classmates. He would have to continue with his diet for lunch, at the very least. No matter. His living condition is already being improved. Time to head to school.

   While sitting all alone on his seat, Jin thinks about eating at a ramen shop for his dinner. He had been wanting to eat at that place since forever. The smell of the soup from the ramen shop had been luring him as he passes by the shop every time he went to school. It was simply irresistible. And yet resist he must since he had no money. Now? Now’s an entirely different story altogether. The best part is that he’s having an off day from his part-time job today, so he doesn’t have wait agonizingly for his meal. Once there, he plans to get-

   “Let’s walk around the school tonight, Minase-kun!” Watanabe announces to him all of a sudden.

   “…I beg your pardon?”

   “Like I told Chifuyu and Esty-chan just now, we’ll be investigating about the Seven Mysteries of this school tonight.”

   “We, as in…”

   “You, me, and the two of them.”

   “Hold on, why are you including me in this? I never asked to join your little expedition.”

   “Well, I was thinking of having a boy would make things safer. That’s when Esty-chan suggested you.”

   Jin turns around and glares at the she-demon. The moment she notices him glaring at her, she averts her eyes innocently while trying frantically to whistle.

   “I would have to refuse. I have better things to do.” he tells Watanabe.

   “You’re actually leaving three weak and frail girls to wander around the school at night all by themselves? How could you, Minase-kun?”

   Jin couldn’t help but scoff. That may be true for Watanabe and Wakaba, but Estyshana is definitely far from being weak and frail. If anything, all the spirits that came out at night in this school will wish that they are on the other side of the planet while she’s around.

   He shrugs since he couldn’t care less.

   “How about you just cancel the whole thing? Or find another guy. I’m sure there are lots of volunteers around.” he suggests.

   “Oh come on. It’ll be fun!”

   He sighs in defeat. Watanabe is one of the rare person whom he cannot refuse should she ever asks for a favor. The harassment he faces at school has stopped entirely ever since Watanabe found out about it. She wrote on the school’s newspaper that she will find out those who took part in it and make sure the news media knows about it. Her threat actually has some weight to it since her mother is a well-known newscaster. Secretly, he’s very grateful to her.

   “...Fine, I’ll go.” he agrees reluctantly.

   “Really? Nice! Let’s meet up in front of the school gate at eight tonight!”

   “Sure sure.”

   “By the way, us three girls are going to the karaoke to kill some time before we come back to the school again. Do you want to join us?”

   Jin flinches at the mere mention of singing.

   “No thank you. Please, anything but that.”

   “Um, why do you look so scared? We’re just going to sing.”

   “Let’s just say that I was deeply traumatized.”

   And he indeed was. The princess of the Ustadel Kingdom was, or maybe still is, a horrible, horrible singer despite her usual sweet voice. He made the mistake of accepting her invite to listen to her sing. He barely got out alive, and that’s really saying something.

   “Well, I won’t force you if you put it that way. Just remember our promise, okay?”

   “Don’t worry. I won’t forget.” he assures her.

   Once school is over, Jin heads to the nearest bank. He plans to do some groceries with the money he received. Not long after he left the ATM machine, he got confronted by three men. All of them are dressed up in quite outlandish way, like they’re about to head to a hip-hop competition.

   “Hello there. Can you lend us some money?” the one at the front asks politely while smiling.

   “I hate to break it to you, but I’m out of cash right now.” Jin tells him.

   “Now why do you have to lie? We just saw you getting some out from the ATM.”

   “You must have been seeing things.”

   The man’s smile starts to drop. He’s probably losing his patience.

   “Look pal, just hand over all the money you got!”

   That was fast. Now he’s straight up threatening Jin. His buddies are also all ready to hurt him in order to get what they want. All those pedestrians who pass by them are just lowering their head and walk away as quickly as possible.

   What to do, what to do? Jin could easily beat all three of them to next year if he wants, but he might get into all sorts of trouble for that.

   “Is something the matter, Minase-kun?”

   Jin looks toward the direction of the voice. The person who spoke is Sergeant Wakaba. The pest Date is standing right next to her.

   “Oh, hello there Sergeant Wakaba and Officer Date.” he greets them nonchalantly.

   The expressions of the three thugs change from trying to be intimidating to scared in an instant.

   “Hold on, did you say sergeant and officer?” the one who was threatening Jin asks.

   “Yes, these two here are police detectives. Isn’t that right, you two?”

   Sergeant Wakaba and Date responded by taking out their police ID. The thugs become even more horrified.

   “May I know what the three of you were doing with this boy here?” Sergeant Wakaba asks the thugs.

   “Um, nothing! Really! We were just, well, asking for directions! We’ll be leaving right now!”

   With that, all of them left like their lives depend on it.

   “The two of you arrived at the perfect timing.” Jin tells Sergeant Wakaba and Date.

   “What exactly was going on before we were here?”

   “They were trying to extort money from me.”

   “Ruffians. To think they would do that to a boy.” Sergeant Wakaba grunts.

   “I think they chose me precisely because I’m much younger than they are.”

   “Well, I’m just glad that nothing happened. To them, that is.”

   “You wound me, sergeant. As if I will go on a rampage for no apparent reason.”

   “In which case, we’ll be seeing you.”

   “Yes. See you.”

   Jin and Date didn’t say a single word to each other. From Date’s sour expression, Jin guesses that he was still offended about Jin not willing to help the general public for free. Not that Jin cares about that officer’s opinion. More importantly, his still needs to do his shopping.

   Jin spent a good amount of time inside the supermarket he frequents, primarily because he doesn’t know what to get at first. He had been poor for so long he has the desire to buy every single type of food sold here. He then shakes his head to rid himself of the ridiculous thought. There’s no way his small refrigerator would fit all these items, and his Vault has no preservative function. He has to settle with buying just a few of them.

   Let’s see. Some beef, chicken thighs, cabbages, and eggs would do for now. He also bought some sauces. After Jin got back to his apartment, he stores all the food he bought inside his refrigerator. Speaking of which, this one is getting old and faulty. He’s thinking of getting a new one after he got his second paycheck. He then lies down on his bed and wait until it’s dinnertime. He didn’t bother to get changed since he needs to wear his uniforms when he goes inside the school anyway.

   Now then, to the ramen shop.

   “Welcome~!”

   Jin takes a quick look around the shop Ramen Bakugeki. Both the exterior and interior of this place are somewhat old. It’s either the place has quite a bit of history, or the owner has never bothered to renovate the place ever since he or she took over.

   Jin was worried that the ramen shop might be crowded, which is why he head out a bit early just in case. Turns out his worry was unfounded. The shop is only half-full with mostly office workers in ones and twos. One of the seat is being occupied by a trio of school girls.

   Jin immediately turns around, his hand already at the handle of the entrance.

   “Hey, isn’t that Minase-kun?”

   “Oh, you’re right.”

   Drat. He was too slow.

   “Hey Jin! Over here!”

   Jin sighs and turns around. He then walks over to the trio reluctantly.

   “Fancy seeing you here, Minase-kun.”

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Esty’s POV
   Esty had heard Chifuyu mention about this karaoke box place once or twice, so she was kind of curious about it.

   “Would you like to be granted an access to the drink bar?” a human female that stands behind a counter is asking the three of them.

   “Yes, please.” Watanabe answers in their stead.

   Drink bar. This term is foreign to Esty. Then again, for someone who has barely been outside, a lot of terms are foreign to her. She find out about the facility soon enough.

   The human female, whose job is commonly known as a cashier, requests for payment once she has done asking questions. All three of them took out their wallet and contributed to the bill. Esty has been receiving some money better known as allowance from Mama Kana, which is why she could take part in the payment.

   “You can buy whatever you want with this, but be careful not to spend it all at one go, okay?” she had cautioned Esty.

   Not for the first time, Esty do not understand Mama Kana’s kindness, or the Wakaba family’s for that matter. When she used her Bloodline Magic to hypnotize them, all she said was “I am your very distant relative”. She didn’t ask for the good food and warm clothes, she has never asked for the family-like treatment, and she definitely did not request to be paid. And yet, she had been receiving all those things and some more. Humans can be really weird.

   “Here we are, Room 19.” Watanabe announces once they reach the room that supposedly has been used for singing.

   Esty looks around curiously. The size of this room is roughly the same as the kitchen inside the Wakaba household. There is a flat-screen television at one side of the room, some devices unknown to Esty, two sofas, one transparent table, and a device they call a landline phone.

   “Where is the aforementioned drink bar?” Esty asks curiously.

   “Oh, are you thirsty? Let me bring you there.” Watanabe offers.

   That made Esty hesitate. She would rather be showed by Chifuyu, but it would be rude to decline.

   “I shall be in your care.” she tells Watanabe politely.

   Esty was expecting this facility to be something similar to a tavern back at Ifezan, what with the name bar and all. However, this drink bar is not something that Esty had expected. There is a curious machine and lots of tall cups and those are about it.

   “How do one operate this?” she couldn’t help but ask.

   “Oh, they don’t have one of these back at Romania?”

   Esty was tilting her head in bewilderment until she remembered that that was the country she claimed she was from.

   “Um, no. I was from a really secluded village. My apologies for my ignorance.”

   “No worries. As someone said, it’s okay to be ignorant as long as you’re willing to learn. Now here’s how you do it…”

   After following Watanabe’s instruction, Esty managed to operate the machine without blundering.

   “How magical.” she mumbles as the machine fills her cup with some kind of dark liquid.

   “Welcome to the marvel of mankind.”

   Tentatively, Esty takes a sip of the drink. She gasps in surprise as the drink is much different from the water that she had been drinking ever since she has arrived at Japan.

   “That’s what you call a soft drink. I don’t really know how it works, but the water is filled with some kind of gas to make it all fizzy.” Watanabe explains.

   “I see. This is most interesting.”

   “Are you getting used to the life here so far, Esty-chan?” Watanabe asks all of a sudden.

   That question caught Esty by surprise.

   “Well, there are a lot of things that I have yet to understand. As such, there are times when I struggle.” Esty confesses.

   “I thought so. I mean, here you are speaking all formally. You act completely different when you’re alone with Chifuyu, right?”

   Esty flinches at that.

   “Did Chifuyu told you that?”

   “Nope, I guessed it. Besides, you were all chummy with Minase-kun.”

   “Well, he’s a bit of a different story.”

   Watanabe nods a few times like she understood everything.

   “Ah, to be young. Well, just tell me if you ever need help. I may not be a relationship expert, but the least I could do is listen to you.”

   “Yes. Thank you for your offer.”

   “Also, try to be less formal around me or any of our classmates for that matter, okay? No need to be in a hurry, though. Just take it slow.”

   “I-I’ll try.”

   It’s not that Esty wants to act all prim and proper. She has no reasons to in front of a group of humans. The thing is, her days as the daughter of the Demon Lord has made her unable to show her real side when she was being surrounded by those who basically worship her.

   Before they head back to their room, they also got Chifuyu a drink.

   “What took you two so long?” Chifuyu asks them the moment they came back.

   “Sorry sorry. We were just having a little girl’s talk.” Watanabe answers.

   Chifuyu raises her eyebrows.

   “What kind of girl’s talk are we talking about?” she asks.

   “It’s a secret. Right, Esty-chan?”

   Esty could only nod at that.

   “Well, whatever. Now let’s sing already.”

   And so they did. To be more precise, Watanabe and Chifuyu are doing all the singing. Esty is fine with just listening. After all, she’s not really familiar with the songs of this world.

   “Come on, Esty-chan. You should sing too.” Watanabe encourages.

   “But I barely knows any song.”

   “There must be something that you can sing. Here, take a look.”

   Esty took the thin screen thing they call a tablet and glances through the song. Oh. She has heard of this one before. She chooses it and takes the tiny club called a microphone from Chifuyu. The song starts to play, and Watanaba and Chifuyu looks at the screen.

   “Oh, you actually know this one? That’s a surprise.” Watanabe says.

   “I heard it being played on the television, you see.” Esty explains.

   Esty sings along the melody. Prior to this, the only times she sang was whenever she was alone in the bath. It kind of makes her nervous when she’s singing in front of others. Even so, she managed to sing the entire song without any issue. In the end, she received a score of 95 out of 100. The highest scores that Watanabe and Chifuyu received were 85 and 82 respectively.

   “Wow, this is totally unexpected! You’re really good at singing, Esty-chan!” Watanabe praises Esty while couldn’t stop clapping her hands.

   “You could totally be a singer or something. You’ll definitely be famous.” Chifuyu adds.

   Suddenly, Esty is very embarrassed. The fact that there were no ulterior motives behind these praises makes her even more embarrassed.

   She hands the microphone back to Chifuyu. “Here.”

   “Are you sure you don’t want to sing some more?”

   “I’m sure. Like I said, this is the only song I know. Maybe next time.”

   They sang for well over four hours. By the time they were done and left the building, the sky has already gone dark.

   “Let’s go somewhere to eat.” Watanabe suggests.

   “Sure. Any suggestions?” Chifuyu asks.

   “I know a good ramen place.”

   “Is ramen okay for you, Esty?”

   “Um, sure.”

   Esty has never heard of this ramen, so she just follows the other two quietly.

   Back at Ifezan, Esty has seen humans gather around at a place called tavern to fill their stomach and get drunk. This ramen place, from the looks of it, is somewhat similar to a tavern. The only difference is that there are no drunkards in it. Or at least, not yet. Esty could never tell.

   After all of them sat down in front of one of the available tables, Watanabe and Chifuyu both grab a piece of thin rectangle filled with pictures of food fomr one corner of the table. Esty recognizes it. It’s what they call a menu. Esty grabs one as well.

   “Do you have anything that you want to eat?” Chifuyu asks.

   “There’s too many choices to choose from. I don’t know what to order.”

   “You could get the tonkotsu soup. It’s this place’s signature soup.” Watanabe suggests.

   “I’ll have that one then.”

   “Me too.” Chifuyu adds.

   Watanabe got the attention of a human who works here and placed the orders. Not long after, the Hero came inside the shop. He took one look at them and proceeds to turn around. Unfortunately for him, Watanabe saw him.

   “Hey, isn’t that Minase-kun?” she asks.

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