CH 2

That day, Hiroki was troubled by the unreasonable demands of his business partner.

[Hey, come on now, Gomi-chan, please take our dismantled products for recycling.]

[Eh? But Director, these aren’t recyclables, these are construction wastes.]

[Can’t you somehow do something about it?]

On that day, Director Tsuchiya was very forceful.

He was short, blond, muscular, which earned him the nickname “Bean Tank”. He’s the kind of person that Hiroki isn’t good at interacting with.

Recently, the regulatory authorities have become stricter, and it seems that the business model of bribing bidders to pay off the construction costs isn’t working anymore. To impose the losses onto his business partners, Director Tsuchiya wanted Hiroki to collect the construction waste, calling it recyclables.

When you do business in a rural area, you would have an inseparable relationship with corrupt vendors like him. Or rather, you don’t have any other choice but to resign yourself from doing business with people like these.

In the end, Hiroki was forced to collect a whole truckload of construction waste.

[Well, I suppose things depend on how you look at them. I guess I’ll just dump them all in that hole.]

That was Hiroki’s best attempt at bravado.

But after he returned home and dumped the garbage in the hole in his yard, his bravado turned to surprise.

The hole, which used to be filled just by throwing away the office waste bag, showed no sign of being filled even after dumping a mini-truck full of construction waste.

[Could it be that this hole is expanding underground……?]

Thinking about such a situation, Hiroki felt the trouble he would be in. There was no telling when the hole would reach underneath his house and sink it underground.

[I need to throw in even more garbage……]

Not questioning how he possesses physical ability to withstand throwing a whole truckload of trash into the hole, thinking about how he still needed to throw in a lot more earth tomorrow, he started revising his work schedule within his mind for tomorrow.

★　★　★　★　★

In the end, Hiroki took in a lot of construction waste from the corrupt construction company.

As expected though, Hiroki didn’t collect them for free.

However, the price was much lower than the market price.

Some of the garbage was even from the demolition of houses.

[Aren’t these considered industrial waste already……]

Dumping industrial waste is an illegal act.

However, Hiraki felt that he had to keep throwing garbage into the hole to prevent his house from collapsing.

He was just driven by a strong sense of urgency “to do such a thing”.

However, he doesn’t know where this conviction comes from.

Hiroki continued to throw a huge amount of garbage into the hole, enough to fill two mini-trucks.

However, the hole was still there the next morning, showing its inner darkness.

It’s as if the hole is mocking him, telling Hiroki that all his actions are in vain.

★　★　★　★　★

Construction Contractor Tsuchiya was concerned about a young recycler he had been seeing more and more lately.

That recycler is a dangerous person.

Having been working as the local construction contractor for many years, Tsuchiya’s gut feeling was telling him that that recycler is dangerous, or at least, connected to someone dangerous.

The illegal disposal of industrial waste is good cost-wise.

But if one doesn’t do it right, you would find their hands right behind you.

This is why there are no idiots dumping garbage in the local area.

Tsuchiya thinks that that recycler is dumping their garbage in the mountains of some other prefecture.

Whether it’s because he’s in need of money or because he felt threatened, the reason is none of Tsuchiya’s business.

However, he thinks that he might need to prepare in case the recycler does the unthinkable.

Until then though, he would make as much money as he could.

That was what Local Construction Contractor Tsuchiya’s common sense was telling him.