WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Convenience Store Clerk the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 15: Want to See?
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Once again, she wore a skintight black leather jacket and stretchy leather pants, along with a crop top that showed not only her cleavage but her belly button too.
Her exposed pale skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat.
Seriously, I didn't know where to look.
“Looks like you've had a rough time. Exhaustion's written all over your face.”
A bright laugh came from inside her full-face helmet.
“It's nothing like that.”
“Really? Then why the long face?”
“I'm not tired, but something a little unusual happened.”
“Hmm, really? Well, if that's all.”
Her voice echoed slightly inside the helmet.
Lumina still hadn't taken it off, even after entering the store.
Somehow, that made her exposed pale skin stand out even more.
“Oh, the manager said something special was coming in today. What is it?”
“Huh? The manager didn't tell you?”
“Only that a shipment would arrive this afternoon.”
“Hmm. Maybe the manager figured it'd be fine since I'd be here. I'll go get it. Come with me for a second?”
Lumina gestured toward the black motorcycle parked by the entrance.
She opened the delivery box mounted on the back.
Just like before, she deftly pulled out the cargo.
Among the delivery boxes she set down one after another, I spotted both ordinary convenience store goods and things I'd never seen before.
One box was plastered with strange talismans, magic circles, and even a warning.
-Warning! Do not open.
“What is this?”
When I pointed at the box with the ominous warning, she chuckled.
“That's a special order. Apparently, a customer asked the manager to get one.”
“...”
“Make sure you inspect it properly. If you're careless, it could cause an accident.”
“It certainly looks that way.”
Something like dark red smoke was creeping out of the box.
I thought I could hear screaming too.
I was imagining that... right?
“Make sure you check that one inside the store. I'll give you the packing list, so open the packaging with a box cutter and check that it matches the item on the list.”
“Is it really okay to do that?”
“The manager's power fills the store, so you won't get cursed unless you touch it directly.”
Sorry?
Cursed?
Did she just say it was a cursed item?
“That's right. A cursed item. It's a necklace with a really nasty curse on it.”
“Why are we selling cursed items at a convenience store?”
She turned toward me at my question.
“Didn't you know? The convenience store sells anything.”
“I heard we sell pretty much everything, including alchemy reagents, minerals, and items made at smithies.”
“Exactly. There's no reason we can't sell cursed items. Not in a world where undead walk around.”
“Oh.”
Right.
Taepyeong City was a place where my common sense didn't apply.
This was a world where undead and monsters lived together in the first place.
With beastfolk, elves, dwarves, and spirits walking around like it was perfectly normal, there was no rule saying we couldn't sell cursed items.
“Ahem. I'll open it, then.”
“Go ahead. I'll move the other goods, so check its condition carefully.”
I sliced through the tape with my box cutter and opened the box. The dark red smoke that had been seeping out suddenly spread.
Inside lay an unpleasant-looking necklace with a skull-shaped pendant.
Just looking at it sent a chill down the back of my neck. It clearly wasn't an ordinary item.
“It looks like something you'd only find on the black market.”
“Heh, right? I meet them pretty often, but I just can't understand the taste of those liches at the curse research lab. What's so great about skulls?”
“I never imagined I'd be accepting delivery of a cursed item while working part-time at a convenience store.”
Lumina chuckled from behind her helmet.
“It might be a bad curse for you, Mincheol, but it's essential for climbing the Tower. It's a debuff-type survival item. Carrying it drastically cuts your movement speed and defense, but in exchange, it forcibly cancels one instant-kill attack pattern. It's been popular lately with hunters from undead races working on the upper floors.”
“A survival item that cuts your movement speed and defense. And a curse that's trendy...”
I tilted my head as I watched the dark red energy creep upward.
“Is this a good curse?”
Muttering to myself, I carefully picked up the necklace with my bare hand. Lumina flinched and reached out.
“Hey! You can't just touch that...!”
“Huh? Why?”
Lumina looked back and forth between my hand and the necklace, her words trailing off.
“Nothing's happening? That thing usually leaves hunters sick for days if they touch it bare-handed. The curse can be pretty lethal to living creatures. Even with the manager's protection over the store, you shouldn't have touched it with your bare hand...”
It was that dangerous?
I hurriedly put the necklace back in its box.
“But I feel fine.”
“...That's strange. You said you were human, right, Mincheol?”
“Yes, that's right.”
“Does it not target humans? No, maybe it's because there's something special about your body.”
Having finished sorting the goods, Lumina looked me up and down.
“Special?”
“I can't sense any mana in your body. You don't have any at all, so the curse doesn't affect you.”
After checking the item in the box, I put it in the special safe.
Lumina stared at me with her helmet still on.
Her gaze lingered strangely, so I spoke first.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?”
Lumina dropped onto the chair in front of the counter.
“It's just that I've never seen a human before. It's fascinating. Why are you immune to curses?”
Every time she spoke, the blue light inside her helmet flickered.
“Mind if I hang around here for a bit?”
“Sorry? Oh, of course not. You've worked hard. Have a cold drink and rest for a while.”
I took a sports drink from the fridge and handed it to her. She nodded and accepted it.
But even with the drink in her hand, she kept her thick helmet on.
“Aren't you going to take off your helmet?”
“My helmet?”
“Yes. I understand wearing it on your motorcycle, but I didn't expect you to keep it on indoors. You'll need to take it off to drink that.”
At my words, Lumina fiddled with the helmet's chin strap and gave a low chuckle.
“Want to see?”
“...”
Her question made me hesitate.
What if she had severe burn scars? Or some feature of her species that she felt too self-conscious to show other people?
Feeling as though I'd asked a terribly insensitive question, I hurried to take it back.
“No, it's fine. If you have a reason for keeping it on, you don't need to take it off. It's not my place to pry.”
Lumina shrugged and grabbed the helmet with both hands.
“Hmm. I'd never show anyone else, but since my cute little clerk is curious, I'll make an exception.”
Psssh.
With a faint hiss of escaping air, she lifted her helmet straight up.
“...Huh?”
I nearly dropped the item I'd been putting away.
Nothing.
I couldn't see a face.
No, there wasn't even a head where her head should have been.
The space was empty, as though her head had been cut off.
Above her motorcycle jacket, there was only blue fire.
Blue flames rose from the stump of her neck.
So that was why I'd seen that flickering blue light inside her helmet.
“Y-your head...?”
Of all the words racing through my mind, those were the first to escape.
“I'm a dullahan.”
Despite her lack of a head, her voice sounded perfectly normal.
“I can't remember where my actual face is, you see. So I've been traveling all over the country delivering cargo while I look for my head. Well? Surprised?”
“Ah...”
I looked back and forth between the empty helmet and the stump of her neck, unable to close my mouth.
“Very.”
“I don't usually show people, but you're so cute, Mincheol, that I made an exception.”
This was a city with a doppelganger who copied memories.
A minotaur who streamed.
Even elves who worked construction.
What was the big deal about a dullahan working as a delivery driver to find her head?
“That's pretty hip.”
“Right? Maybe it's because I don't have a head, but people stare here a lot.”
Lumina casually squeezed her breasts together a little, accentuating the pale cleavage above her crop top.
I didn't think her missing head was why people stared.
They'd have looked even if she had a head.
How could anyone not look at those breasts?
“You're surprisingly shy about this sort of thing. You were calmer than I expected when you saw my head.”
“W-well, this sort of thing is a little embarrassing.”
“You're so innocent. It's fun teasing you. Is that why the manager's so fond of you?”
A bright laugh rang out.
Watching my gaze wander helplessly through the air, Lumina seemed amused as the corners of her mouth... Right, she didn't have a mouth.
The flames rising from her neck flickered a little more wildly.
She lifted her crop top slightly and fanned herself with her hand, letting out a deep sigh.
“Whew. Why is it so hot today?”
She tugged lightly at the neckline of her cleavage-baring crop top with one hand and fanned herself.
Beads of sweat inside her leather jacket slid down her pale skin in a dangerously distracting way.
At her openly seductive display, I cleared my throat and quickly looked away.
“The store's air conditioner is on full blast.”
“Really? Then why is your face burning up, Mincheol?”
Lumina leaned far over the counter, bringing herself right up close to me.
Her smooth waist, exposed below her crop top, hovered before my eyes. The blue flames rising from her neck were close enough to touch the tip of my nose.
They weren't hot. If anything, they gave off a cool chill.
“I don't have eyes, but I can see everything through these flames.”
Her voice tickled my ear.
“I can tell exactly which parts of me you're looking at before you turn away, and how fast your heart is beating.”
Was this the charm of an older woman?
Her dizzying teasing really did take my breath away.
Just as I swallowed hard at how dangerously close she was...
“So cute.”
Lumina leaned back lightly and burst into a cheerful laugh.
The tension eased in an instant.
Tap.
She carefully set the helmet she'd been holding in one hand on the counter.
Then she took a wet wipe from her pocket and began lovingly cleaning its scratched surface.
“Whew. I've been making deliveries all day, so the inside of my helmet is soaked with sweat. Still, it's practically a part of me.”
“...I guess it's not just an ordinary helmet from a motorcycle shop.”
“In a way, it's a substitute for my head, isn't it? I don't want other people seeing me like this.”
Lumina slid the clean helmet toward me.
Then she propped her chin in both hands, or at least took that pose despite having no face, and gave the impression that she was staring straight at me.
“Mincheol. I've worked so hard hauling deliveries today. Will you pat my head?”
“Sorry? Your head?”
“Yeah. Right here.”
She pointed insistently at the black full-face helmet sitting all alone on the counter.
“But you don't have a... I mean, you want me to pat the helmet?”
“Since I don't have my real head, I'm asking you to pat this instead. Come on. I really need some praise today.”
“Uh... Oh, all right.”
Was she serious?
Still a little confused, I gently stroked her helmet.
As I softly stroked the crown...
Pop, po-pop.
The blue flames rising from Lumina's neck swelled into round shapes and bounced upward.
“Huh?”
“Th-that's enough. I-I feel much better now.”
She hurriedly took the helmet back.
“M-men really do have big hands. That felt a little different from when I clean it myself.”
“...”
What was that reaction just now?
“Are you okay?”
“Of course. I'm fine. I was just startled by the sudden rush of energy.”
With that, she stood up.
“I've rested too long. At this rate, I won't finish my work today. I'd better go. Keep up the good work, Mincheol. I'll be back soon.”
“Take care.”
She put her helmet back on and left the store as though she were running away.
That reaction just now... Could it be?
Was she embarrassed?
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