WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
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◈ I Became the Convenience Store Clerk the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 19: Please Take Good Care of It.
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Honestly, I couldn't bring myself to pick anything expensive.
From what I'd seen of her finances, she didn't seem all that well off.
Well, how much money could an elf have if she brought in a World Tree branch to barter with?
Being a queen and having money were two separate things.
“Then I'll have this...”
I picked up a cheap triangle rice ball, but Friella frowned and grabbed my wrist.
“I told you, you can pick something expensive! I'm treating you properly today! It's payday, so that won't do. Mm-hmm. Forget that little thing and take this! A man needs to keep his strength up!”
She grabbed the eel lunchbox beside her and pushed it into my hands.
The labyrinth eel lunchbox, supposedly so good for virility.
At a regular price of 15,000 won, it was the most expensive lunchbox in our convenience store.
I looked at Friella's hand as she gave it to me.
Tremble, tremble.
Her hand was shaking.
More precisely, the wallet she was holding to pay was trembling slightly.
She'd made her move, but now that she'd seen the price tag, regret was written all over her face.
Despite her confident words, her body was rejecting the lunchbox.
‘...I don't think her finances have improved that much.’
There was no need to put her under pressure.
“I prefer meat to eel, actually.”
I quietly put the eel lunchbox back on the shelf and switched it for the 5,000-won spicy stir-fried pork lunchbox below it.
I had no intention of squeezing an expensive meal out of her.
Besides, she'd helped me before.
Thanks to her, I'd driven off a problem customer, and the World Tree branch had left me feeling better than ever.
“Huh? Wouldn't the eel be better?”
“I'm in the mood for spicy pork. A spicy pork lunchbox is a man's dream, you know.”
“I-I see.”
Friella cleared her throat and held out her card, trying to hide her relief.
What mattered was that she wanted to repay a kindness.
How much she spent wasn't important.
After ringing it up, I put the lunchbox in the microwave and asked something I'd been wondering about.
“Don't elves get paid a high hourly wage? I've heard the site allowances are pretty generous too, since you do such hard work.”
“W-well, yes. We're strong and can use spirit arts, so we certainly get better treatment than other species.”
“Then why couldn't you afford a meal last time? Surely your pay isn't so low that you have to barter with a branch.”
Her face turned bright red at my question.
“A-adults have their reasons. I just had more expenses than I'd expected back then. Normally, I have plenty to spare.”
Hmm.
She didn't seem like the type to blow her money on strange things like the store manager did.
Almost every time I saw her, she was in work clothes. Aside from her commute, she seemed to spend all her time working inside the Tower.
This elf didn't even have time to get up to anything else.
‘Did she get scammed?’
Or perhaps she was paying off a debt.
She probably had her reasons.
I nodded without asking any more questions.
Perhaps she felt cornered, because Friella hurriedly changed the subject.
“M-more importantly! Are you taking good care of that branch? It can't be easy to grow. It hasn't dried up and died, has it? If the leaves start wilting, you'd be better off brewing them into tea.”
“Oh, the World Tree branch?”
I remembered how the World Tree had grown like crazy after consuming the S-rank Spirit Stone of Life last night.
“It's growing well. It's even put out a thick new branch.”
“Yes, it would certainly be a little difficult for a human to grow... Wait, what did you just say?”
“I said it's grown well enough to put out a branch.”
Friella's eyes flew wide open.
“What?! It grew a new branch?!”
What was with this elf's reaction?
She looked as though she'd heard something impossible.
“Is there a problem?”
“N-no, but... H-how?”
Hmm.
How was I supposed to explain this?
Still, she'd given me the branch. I thought I should tell her how it had grown, so I answered honestly.
“I happened to get a spirit stone. I put it in the pot I'd planted the branch in, and it absorbed it right away.”
“...A spirit stone? Wait, the branch absorbed a spirit stone?”
“Yes. Was I not supposed to do that?”
The store manager had said it was fine.
“It's not that you shouldn't have... But how is that possible? A branch that size could barely maintain its form. It shouldn't have had the strength to absorb a spirit stone.”
Friella muttered in confusion.
Her voice was so quiet that I barely caught the latter part.
“Could I take a quick look?”
“I don't mind... But not right now. I'll show you after work.”
“After work?”
She looked at me as if asking why.
“The World Tree is at my place.”
“Oh.”
Looking rather blank as she finally realized, she nodded.
“All right. Then I'll wait here until you finish.”
Friella sat down at a table by the window.
She waited quietly, if somewhat anxiously, for my shift to end.
Time passed, and seven in the evening came around.
Ding.
“A fine evening! The True Progenitor has arrived in her domain!”
The store manager entered with her shoulders proudly squared, wearing her convenience store uniform as usual.
When she spotted Friella, she looked back and forth between us.
“My loyal servant, why is that freeloader of an elf camping out in the True Progenitor's domain? Don't tell me, lunchboxes behind my back...?”
“I-I paid for my own food!”
“The sun will rise in the west tomorrow. That miser bought a lunchbox with her own money.”
“Hey, vampire! I pay for all my own food!”
“Then I suppose I should stop setting aside any food marked for disposal for that freeloading elf.”
“...Or I would say that, but I have had quite a lot of help from you, v-vampire.”
“Still so insolent.”
Friella gave an awkward laugh and corrected herself.
“I-I've had a great deal of h-help from you, True Progenitor. Hahaha.”
The muscles at the corners of her mouth were going to cramp.
“I told her the branch I'm growing had gotten bigger, and she wanted to see it.”
“Ah, so that's why.”
The store manager's red eyes sparkled with interest.
“Hmm. You shall see something amusing. The True Progenitor's loyal servant has done something truly special with that branch.”
“I just heard it had grown a new branch.”
“It should be standing quite proudly. It was so lush it was almost irritating.”
After handing things over to the store manager, I changed out of my uniform in the stockroom and left the store with Friella.
“I'll be heading home, then.”
On the way to my place, Friella followed close behind me, her footsteps oddly uneven.
I glanced back. She'd pulled her baseball cap down low, and both her cheeks were bright red.
‘What's wrong? Is she sick?’
Had something she'd eaten earlier upset her stomach?
Kim Mincheol had no way of knowing, but Friella's mind was on the verge of exploding with wild fantasies.
‘I-is this really all right? Even if it's for the World Tree, going to a grown man's home in the middle of the night...!’
It was unthinkable back in the elves' homeland.
Before coming to Taepyeong City, she'd secretly read all sorts of romance web novels and watched dramas under the excuse of learning about human culture. Now, all their familiar plotlines were coming back to her.
‘Usually, when a woman goes into a man's place like this, something always happens that brings them into physical contact.’
‘Isn't there usually only one reason a man invites a woman over first?’
‘Is this a green light? Oh, I don't know. I wish I could ask someone with experience... I want advice from an expert in romance.’
‘He won't suddenly change once we're inside, will he? The room will be small, our shoulders will brush, and the mood will turn strange... Ugh, I'm not ready yet... No, that's not why I came! Get a grip, Friella!’
While she shook her head furiously, caught up in her own inner struggle, we arrived at my place.
“We're here. This way, please.”
I unlocked the door and stepped inside.
But Friella stayed at the doorway, staring blankly into the room.
“Friella?”
“Wow...”
After gazing into the room, she closed her eyes.
She didn't even need to look.
That rich scent of greenery.
The fragrance of nature.
Ssshhp.
Friella drew a deep breath, and a smile spread across her face.
“It's so refreshing. Really... so refreshing.”
How long had it been since she'd smelled nature like this?
During her life in the city, she'd forgotten.
Forgotten how lovely the World Tree's fragrance was.
There were no forests in the city.
And without a forest, there was nowhere for a World Tree to grow.
In a place without greenery, her World Tree branch, nothing more than a branch, had been losing its strength with each passing day.
Returning home was the only way to save it, but she couldn't go back.
All she could do was watch it wither.
So she'd half given up when she sold the branch.
No, it would be more accurate to say she'd thrown it away.
Using a World Tree branch to barter was as good as declaring that she would never return to the Elven Forest.
Of course, even that resolve would have faltered if Kim Mincheol, the part-time clerk, hadn't accepted it.
That was why she'd thought it would have dried up.
She'd thought it would have died.
Away from an elf's care, the World Tree branch surely couldn't have endured the bleakness of the city.
Yet the fragrance of nature she'd thought lost was so vivid.
And in this little room, which had nothing at all to do with the Elven Forest.
“Haaah.”
Friella let out a deep breath and took a step inside.
A fresh, clear energy filled the room.
At its center stood a single sapling, softly giving off luminous, pale green Mana.
“Ah...”
A dazed gasp escaped her lips.
As if in a trance, she took off her shoes and approached the World Tree.
It had been nothing more than a tiny branch, no bigger than a chopstick.
That branch had lost almost all its strength and had been waiting only to dry up.
Even she, the elf queen, had given up on it and handed it over in a barter.
Now it was thicker than before, sprouting fresh green leaves.
“You really have grown.”
Her voice trembled faintly with wonder.
She carefully reached out with a shaking hand and stroked a leaf. As though greeting her, the tree gently wrapped green Mana around her fingertips.
Despite being only a small sapling, it held the power of the World Tree.
That power was faint, of course, but as the elf queen, she could tell.
This little sapling had the strength to grow even outside the care of elves.
She didn't know how a World Tree sapling could have grown in this small room.
But one thing was certain: Kim Mincheol had accomplished something that even she, the queen, couldn't do.
She turned to look at him.
“This little one...”
Friella took both my hands in hers.
I could feel the calluses on her palms.
She asked me in an earnest voice.
“Please. Could you keep taking good care of this little one?”
My conscience stung.
I'd originally planned to sell it for a high price.
How was I supposed to sell it after she said that?
With her asking me like this, there was only one answer I could give.
“Of course.”
This little guy had already eaten some very expensive medicine.
I'd take good care of it.
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