WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Convenience Store Clerk the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 11: Don't You Know Me?
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9 p.m.
The store was much quieter than usual after the storm of hunters getting off work had swept through.
‘Just one more hour, and I can go home.’
Normally, I would have been off work long ago.
But I’d gone to the police station today over the doppelganger incident, and the manager had covered for me while I was there.
So I’d offered to stay late and watch the store.
Times like this were my chance to earn some points.
I didn’t want to lose such a sweet part-time job.
“Uuugh... Still, that morning rush was pure hell.”
I hadn’t noticed when I was working alongside the manager, but dealing with it alone made me realize just how many customers there were.
It had been so hectic that I’d nearly made several mistakes, but somehow, I’d gotten through it.
“Hey, clerk! This mana potion is zero sugar, right? I’m on a diet, so I’m watching my calories!”
There was the beastfolk customer who’d piled a basket high with snacks, then grabbed several zero-sugar drinks while claiming to be on a diet.
“Excuse me, do you have fire-resistance masks? Could you hurry, please? Ugh, what’s taking so long?”
Then a woman who looked like a fire mage had rushed off with an armful of fire masks.
“What do you mean, you don’t take mithril coins? Just work out the exchange rate and give me my change in bills!”
There had even been a shameless goblin trying to turn mithril coins into cash.
Whenever a difficult customer appeared among the crowds pouring in, I’d swallowed a sigh.
After that rush hour, I felt completely drained.
“Still, you can’t beat this place for the hourly pay.”
The day’s work was nearly over, and I’d be going home soon. Everything in front of me looked wonderful.
Humming to myself, I began sweeping in front of the counter.
Ding!
Someone entered the store with the clear ring of the bell.
“Welcome.”
I greeted the customer out of habit, then looked at the woman who’d come through the door.
She wore a black cap pulled low, a black mask covering more than half her face, and a loose gray zip-up hoodie.
The black tail sticking out of the back of her pants suggested she was beastfolk.
The way she kept glancing around looked suspicious, but...
‘Well, it’s not like she’s here to rob the place...’
I soon dismissed it and went back to sweeping.
This was Taepyeong City.
We had orcs smashing counters, doppelgangers copying memories, and even an old elf man getting drunk in broad daylight and causing trouble. A customer in a cap and mask?
She was practically a model citizen. Absolutely.
If she were a thief, she surely would have made a scene in some way I’d never heard of.
Suddenly using magic, for example.
Or tying me up with something like spiderwebs and taking me down in an instant.
Something like that.
‘Since she’s being quiet, she’s probably just a customer, not a thief.’
The suspiciously dressed woman was sneaking glances at me.
Judging by her tail, she seemed to be wolfkin.
‘Do wolfkin usually come out at night? I don’t think I’ve seen any in the morning.’
I continued tidying the store as I wondered about that.
“...”
When our eyes met, she flinched and quickly looked away.
What? Was she really a thief?
‘Should I call the manager for help?’
Crap.
The woman flinched after avoiding my gaze, then began wandering between the shelves like a ghost.
All right.
There weren’t any other customers anyway. Let’s see who wins this.
It looked like she was waiting for me to look away so she could steal something.
Not a chance.
I stared straight at her.
After creeping around the store, she took a soda from the refrigerator and a tuna mayo triangle rice ball, then approached the counter.
She hadn’t stolen anything.
“I’ll ring those up for you. That’ll be 2,700 won.”
I scanned the barcodes and told her the price, but she made no move to take out her wallet. She simply stared at me.
The golden eyes visible between her cap and mask flickered strangely.
“Ma’am? Are you going to pay? Or do you need a bag?”
“Excuse me.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t you know me?”
“Sorry?”
What was this about now?
Was there someone in this city who knew me?
Or was this some hidden-camera prank?
No way.
Confused, I peered at her face.
There were usually only two reasons someone asked that question in a convenience store.
Either they were a regular who felt wronged after being asked for ID, or they were a truly difficult customer.
“Are you a regular here? If you are and I didn’t recognize you, I’m sorry. I’m new here, and I only moved to this neighborhood recently.”
“You really don’t feel anything at all? You really don’t know who I am?”
“Well... You haven’t picked out anything that requires an ID check. Did you want cigarettes?”
The woman’s golden eyes widened for a moment.
Then, a moment later...
“Even like this?”
She took off her cap and pulled her mask down beneath her chin.
Pitch-black wolf ears and strikingly beautiful, exotic features came into view.
Her golden eyes, visible through her messy, uncombed hair, curved gently beneath the lights.
She was really pretty.
That was my entire impression.
As for anything else...
I had no idea.
“I’m sorry. I’ve never seen you before.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. Am I supposed to know you?”
“N-no, it’s not that...”
She blinked at me.
She looked flustered that I hadn’t recognized her.
Hmm. Was she someone I shouldn’t mess with?
You know the type.
Someone so high up that offending them could land you in serious trouble.
I wondered if I’d accidentally offended someone like that.
This world was full of other races, and there was even an elf queen. I couldn’t just assume there was no social hierarchy.
Just as that thought began to make me nervous...
“Ha, haha...”
A weak laugh escaped her.
“I’m sorry. You look like someone I know... Oh, and I don’t smoke.”
“??”
“It’s been a really long time since I met someone who didn’t know me.”
Was she some kind of celebrity in Taepyeong City?
Honestly, I had no idea.
I still needed a lot more time before I could call myself a local.
Almost all I’d experienced of this city was working at the convenience store.
She seemed to relax and leaned comfortably against the counter.
“Please ring these up. I won’t be collecting points.”
She handed me a black card and paid, then sat at a table in the corner of the store and took a bite of her triangle rice ball.
Her eyes never left me as she ate the rice ball and finished her drink.
“Thank you. I’ll come again.”
What was that all about?
Was this just Taepyeong City?
* * *
Ding!
The convenience store door closed, and the cool night air brushed her cheeks.
“Phew...”
Sonya pulled her cap low again and took a deep breath.
The city’s night air felt especially refreshing today.
The city usually felt stifling, but tonight, it felt pleasantly cool.
She stepped into the darkness of the streets.
Her body felt lighter than it ever did when she left the studio after breaking a Tower record.
‘No one’s ever treated me so normally before.’
She was one of the Seven Heroes, as well as the biggest celebrity in Taepyeong City.
People’s eyes followed her wherever she went.
Admiration, cheers, and sometimes even jealousy and awe.
She had always lived a life where she could never escape other people’s attention.
Even covering her face completely with a cap and mask could only do so much.
Sonya was wolfkin, a race famous for being rough even among beastfolk.
The wolfkin’s distinctive, wild mana was so unique that everyone in Taepyeong City knew it.
And the presence of a hunter as powerful as her wasn’t something that could be hidden under clothes.
Sonya was the only wolfkin with a presence that strong.
Anyone who could sense even a little mana, no, even those who were insensitive to it, would immediately realize she was Kuroaki.
But that clerk had been different.
‘Did he really not know? Or was he pretending not to?’
At first, she’d been suspicious.
Plenty of crafty people deliberately pretended not to recognize her to try to get close to her.
But that stare that had followed her around the convenience store...
The suspicion and wariness, as though she might steal something, weren’t things anyone could fake.
Even after she’d shown her face, hadn’t the clerk treated her like some underage kid who’d come to buy cigarettes?
‘He really didn’t know me.’
It was strange.
Someone in this city didn’t know me.
Does he never watch TV?
Could he be an elf who just came down from the mountains?
No, that can’t be.
Those weren’t elf ears...
If he were an elf, he would have recognized me from my aura alone.
He really doesn’t know me.
He doesn’t even think I’m special.
Along with her surprise, she felt relief.
Sonya felt as though a tight grip around her throat had suddenly loosened.
Being a superstar, being unable to escape other people’s eyes...
It meant always having to show a proper, carefully polished version of herself.
If she let her guard down even a little...
As someone everyone watched, she would come under fire.
But she didn’t need to do that here.
Because the clerk didn’t know her.
Because this was someone who wouldn’t measure her against their standards.
Normally, she would have quickly paid for her triangle rice ball and taken it home as though fleeing.
Instead, for the first time in her life, she had sat at a table in the corner of a convenience store and peeled off the wrapper.
The whole time she drank her soda and chewed and swallowed her rice ball, her eyes had stayed on the clerk sweeping the floor.
Would there be some sign that he’d finally recognized her?
Would his eyes suddenly light up as he approached her and said he knew who she was?
But the clerk had remained uninterested in her to the very end.
He'd simply stood at the counter with a face that said he wanted to go home already.
It had been so comfortable.
The fact that things could be quiet even with someone else nearby.
So even after finishing her rice ball and drink, she had stayed at the table for a while, watching the clerk.
She’d felt a little annoyed.
She had even pulled down her mask on purpose so he could see her, but he hadn’t so much as glanced her way.
‘Before I bought anything, he was staring holes through me.’
Had she been reeled in and forgotten now that she’d paid?
She was surprised to find herself even thinking that. That was how deeply she’d fallen under the spell of this place’s comfort.
A faint smile spread across Sonya’s lips as she walked beneath the streetlights.
The black wolf’s tail sticking out above her pants swayed happily.
Hidden in the darkness, Sonya looked back at the convenience store and thought:
‘I’ll come here again.’
She couldn’t help humming.
* * *
“Good luck with the rest of your shift, Manager!”
“Yeah, good work today. See you tomorrow.”
After my shift, I said goodbye to the manager and went home.
When I returned to my lodgings, the fancy display stand sat proudly in the most visible spot in the room.
The manager had insisted on taking care of it and set it up with an acrylic case and all kinds of lights.
My limited-edition figurine was waiting for me on top.
“Wow. Looking good.”
I thought it every time I saw it, but this was far fancier than when it had been in my studio apartment.
Back then, all I’d done was carefully place it inside a display cabinet.
Beside it, the World Tree Friella had given me stood propped against the wall.
Seeing it reminded me of what Friella had told me today.
-If you have yet to brew the World Tree branch I gave you, I recommend buying a pot and trying to grow it.
-It is a branch of a real World Tree, so something good will happen if you can make it grow.
Something good would happen if I raised it well.
Had she said brewing it was good for sexual stamina?
“This little branch is worth four million won?”
Normally, I wouldn’t have believed that, but...
“She really does seem to be the elf queen... She wouldn’t have lied, right?”
Surely an elf queen wouldn’t lie about something like this.
I took out a pot that had once held a succulent. The succulent had since died, leaving the pot empty.
A pot a little bigger than my fist should do, right?
“Well, I’m not exactly confident about growing things...”
But it would be better than doing nothing.
I pushed the branch firmly into the pot and watered it.
“Will that do?”
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