CH 12

This is kinda hard to TL

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I don’t want to live in another world anymore! Please let me go home! Aion is dangerous!”

When I woke up in the morning, I saw a skeleton on the other side of the shutters, which were grid-like and I could see the other side.

I screamed, but the scream seemed to clear my head and calm me down a bit.

“If skeletons and ghosts are real, then the monsters are real too. If they were real, wouldn’t that mean……. this world is scary?”

I tilt my head.

The skeleton tilts their head as well. What is this?

“Indeed. Skeletons, ghosts. This is another world, and there are monsters, and there are elves, in other words, skeletons and ghosts are not strange at all.”

After regaining my composure, I calmly observe the skeleton in front of the shutters.

A body of only bones. How is it moving? Is it witchcraft, or is this magic too?

An apron hanging from around the collarbone and shoulder blades. An apron?

Bone-only hands push a cleaning polisher that whines and growls. …… wait? By pushing the polisher?

“Uhhm…….?　Well, I may be wrong, but are you cleaning the …… carpet?”

The skeleton nodded in response to my squeezed-out question.

“Come to think of it, I thought the Aion Mall Otherworld Store was cleaned down to the unused areas! Thank you for cleaning up! I didn’t know you could understand me!”

A skeleton that bows its head in thanks to me. The skeleton turns his skull down.

He thinks the conversation is over, and with a whirring sound, he pushes the cleaning polisher.

It’s all about cleaning up before the Aion Mall opens. 

“That’s a hard-working skeleton! It’ …… is out of human beings! I mean, it’s a skeleton! Wait a minute. How can one of those skeletons be the only one to clean up this spacious Aion Mall Otherworldly Store? I don’t know whether to call it one person or a whole group.”

Once I’ve stood up, I sit down on the bed.

I slumped down and looked up at the ceiling, which I already familiarized myself with.

As the manager of the Aion Mall Otherworldly Store.

It appears that there are some non-humans working there.

“Aaaaah! What’s going on with the personnel plan between the former manager and Aion HQ! Why aren’t they in the documents! Ioriiiiiiiiiii!”

I rolled around on the bed for a while, shouting.

I quickly got dressed and left the live-in space.

I washed my face, brushed my teeth, did my hair, got ready, and went to question Chloe.

“What, Naoya didn’t know? Skeletons do cleaning and security, and ghosts do night watch, you know?”

” I questioned the former manager, and she simply said, as if it were a natural thing! What’s going on here!”

“What’s going on you say ……? Don’t tell me, you wanted to know the difference by stripping me naked and groping my body, saying things like, [There’s no difference between the skeleton and the skeleton inside here]!”

“Hell no! What kind of twisted shit is running in your head? I don’t want to know what an elf’s skeleton looks like. …… I wonder if those sharp pointed ears are cartilage?” (as if to say her ears is only to support her brain to not fall off her head)

“No, no, no, no, please don’t, Naoya! Elven ears are only to be touched by those who love them dearly! Well, Naoya and I have only known each other for three days, and we are manager and employee, so to speak, so if you want to touch me, I can’t refuse you.”

“Hey Chloe, do we have any other employees besides the skeletons and ghosts? As the manager, I need to know.”

I asked her not caring about the wriggling Chloe.

It’s been three days since I’ve been a manager and I’m embarrassed that there are some employees that I don’t know.

I mean, I don’t know if you call skeletons and ghosts employees or not.

” Ah, I haven’t introduced them. Good timing, then let’s introduce everyone!”

“…… everyone?”

Leaving me puzzled, Chloe rushes toward the store.

I wait alone in front of the store entrance in the early morning, thinking how fast she is even though she is wearing metal armor.

The high-pitched sound must be Chloe’s finger whistle. Skeletons can’t make that sound.

After waiting for a while, I heard a clattering sound.

I thought it was the sound of armor and wondered if Chloe had returned, so I turned my attention to the trail between the store and the parking lot.

There were a bunch of skeletons.

There were skeletons in aprons, skeletons in armor, and skeletons on skeleton horses.

“There are too many of them! Aion Mall’s Otherworldly Store is a dungeon full of undead!”

“Sorry, Naoya, the ghosts can’t go outside because the sunlight is too much for them.”

“Well duh! But skeletons are fine!  Wait, wait, wait! Ghosts can’t go outside either! Aion is in trouble. Aion that makes you work even if you die is dangerous.”

No wonder I felt eyes and presence in the store at night when no one was supposed to be there.

I’m ashamed to admit that I was a bit scared last night.

“No, we are the ones asking them to let us work for them.”

“…… The hell? You talked? The skeleton?”

Among the crowd of skeletons among the skeletons, there is one – one? Only one, a skeleton on an armored skeleton horse.

A voice came from a great-looking skeleton with a Mohawk-like decorated helmet, gaudy armor, and a cloak.

“Fufufu…you silly. I am not a skeleton. Heave-ho.”

A woman came down from the skeleton horse.

She was hidden behind the figure of a great-looking skeleton and could not be seen.

She was wearing a black robe with blue ornaments.

She looked like a magician with the wooden staff in her hand.

The necklace around her neck was probably a letter or symbol of some kind.

Also, her’s are big. They are not as big as Iori’s, but they are big.

When I forcibly looked away, my eyes met with blue eyes.

The way the light hits her long black hair, it seems to have a bluish tint to it.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Anna-Maria. Please call me Anna.”

“Ah, yes. Nice to meet you, Anna. I’m Naoya, the new manager of the Aion Mall Otherworld Store. I apologize for the delay in greeting you.”

“No, no, I apologize for that too. I’ve been holed up in the basement for a while now and haven’t noticed.”

Anna smiles gently and softly.

You can feel the reserve and gentleness of an adult woman.

The basement. Come to think of it, there are several rooms beyond the boiler room in the basement whose purpose is not indicated on the floor plan.

“Ah, I see! But still, thank goodness, I thought the employees were all skeletons and ghosts and me and Chloe were the only human beings! Well, Chloe is an elf though!”

“Um… Naoya-san, I…”

Anna stares at me, scratching her head in embarrassment, and mumbles something difficult to say.

I have a bad feeling about this.

Anna appeared with a group of skeletons, or rather, she rode behind a guy who looked like the leader of the skeletons.

The skeletons are still waiting behind her.

I don’t want to hear it.

I don’t want to hear it, but Anna and the skeletons are employees of my company, and I am the manager.

I made up my mind to ask them.

“Can I help you? Well, since you look like that, Anna, you’re human, aren’t you?”

“Uh, …… something like ……, ex-human, I guess?”

“Aaahhh! Former! A former human being! That means you quit being human, didn’t you?”

“I used to be human, and now I’m a Lich. Ghost and these kids are under my command.”

“OOOOO! I thought I had finally found someone decent! A non-human! A high-ranking undead is there!”

Anna-san doesn’t lose her smile even when she sees me screaming.

“Fufu. Naoya-san, this shop is guarded and cleaned by the ghosts and these kids. They’re undead, so they don’t get tired and don’t need sleep. In addition…”

“……in addition?”

“I’m the only one who gets paid.”

“I get it. I get it. Aion will be very happy to hire a team of 24-hour-a-day workers for the equivalent of one person’s salary!”

Anna giggles at my reaction.

She seems more reasonable than Chloe. She’s undead, though. She’s a Lich and seems to be the head of the Undead.

“Sigh ……Well, the matter is settled over here, I have no say in the matter. In fact, I’m the manager and in charge, so it’s nice for me too.”

Yes, there are a lot of advantages if you don’t mind working with the undead.

So we need a large number of people for both security and cleaning, but I heard that Anna will take care of everything for one person’s labor cost.

Somehow I convinced myself. I’ll go where the wind is blowing.

“All right. It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay, me. I’m rather OK with all the benefits. Anna, I look forward to working with you in the future.”

“Yes, my pleasure.”

“I just have one thing I’d like to humbly ask you to do for me: ……”

“What is it?”

“…… to keep ghosts and skeletons away from me at night?”

I bowed deeply.

I-it’s not like I’m scared or anything! I’m glad it was after I went to the restroom, I didn’t think I would have chickened out before or anything!

“Fufu, I understand, Naoya-san. I’ll tell everyone.”

Then Anna laughed.

She’s aLich, but she seems kind and more sane than Chloe. ……

‘Naoya, are you done with the greetings? There’s one more person.”

“Oh, so she hasn’t greeted him yet, either?”

“Wut? Err, Chloe? Anna-san?”