episode_0012

012 – For the Loved One # 1

After the nymph Melinoi disappeared, Goddess Melinoye nim appeared.

Melinoye, the Goddess of Ghosts and Nightmares.

The nymph Melinoi, with black hair and red eyes, who closely resembled her.

What if there was a correlation between the two?

Of course, comparing the beautiful and chilling Goddess of Nightmares nim to that strange nymph might be considered sacrilege.

‘But!’

It was a situation where even a small piece of information could potentially open the path for my job transfer.

And, because it might be a lifeline for salvation when I was being targeted for elimination, I asked, feeling like I should scrutinize even the smallest speck.

“Melinoye nim, what were you doing here?”

A dusty, cobweb-filled supply room and a beautiful goddess simply didn’t match.

At my question, Melinoye nim twitched her red glowing eyes as if caught off guard.

“Me? I… What did I do…? Patrol. Yes, I was on patrol. It seems a lot of supplies have been disappearing lately, so I was standing guard. I’m also worried about the upcoming large-scale inspection….”

I had also heard that various supplies often went missing.

A proposal for employees to take turns standing night watch had been submitted recently.

The ongoing discussion about increasing security personnel at “Happy World” was also for that reason.

“But for security work like this, it would be enough to assign it to regular employees or security guards like us. Isn’t it too small and trivial for Melinoye nim to do?”

“Hmm, Joy, team leader, I don’t know if you’ve heard this before, but ‘It is often the small and trivial matters that are the most important.’ It’s my motto, so engrave it in your mind.”

Swish-. Raising one finger, the goddess’s appearance, speaking as if admonishing a younger sibling, was quite trustworthy.

But then, that phrase ─ ‘It is often the small and trivial matters that are the most important.’

Wasn’t it similar to something someone else had said?

As I felt a strange sense of déjà vu, Melinoye nim repeatedly cleared her throat with coughs.

“Anyway, Joy, congratulations on becoming a team leader. I have high expectations for excellent employees. In that sense, as a team leader, do you have any suggestions you’d like to make to the company? We’re listening to various opinions for the company’s development.”

Although I was a team leader, compared to Melinoye nim, a high-ranking executive, I was still practically the lowest of the low. To ask for opinions from even such a low-ranking employee.

Wasn’t that a truly excellent and humble attitude for management?

‘To be able to express demands to the goddess. It wouldn’t be strange to shed tears of gratitude and emotion, but….’

Talking alone with Melinoye nim like this was a burdensome matter, as if my lifespan was rapidly decreasing.

It felt like a hole was being drilled in my head.

“Nothing in particular.”

“Really?”

Melinoye nim narrowed her eyes.

Soon, she crossed her arms and fell deep into thought.

“Well, even if I suddenly ask if you have any suggestions, it would be difficult to answer easily. It would just be unnecessarily burdensome. My thinking was shallow. Then, shall I set a topic? How about the dormitory?”

“The dormitory?”

“The dormitory, it’s quite cramped, isn’t it? I saw it last time, and it seemed so.”

Last time?

If she meant last time, she must be referring to the events of that day.

My vision suddenly blurred.

‘…It wasn’t just a dream I had alone!’

Recently, I had secretly hoped that spending a night with Melinoye nim that day might just have been a dream I had alone.

It wasn’t a metaphor like ‘department goddess’ or ‘office goddess,’ but an actual ‘Goddess,’ so what were the chances I would wake up in the same bed as her?

So, I had secretly expected that it was all just a dream or imagination I had created.

However!

With the recent conversation, my expectations were utterly shattered.

Regardless, Melinoye nim’s gentle story continued.

“Even if it’s not a new apartment in Elysium, where head office employees and executives live, I believe the employee housing at “Happy World” needs improvement. In that sense, take this.”

Clink-.

Between her white, slender fingers and her black-stained fingernails, a small piece of metal glittered.

When I looked to see what it was, it was a key.

“I prepared this to congratulate you on successfully leading the collaboration with Kronos and becoming a team leader. It will be spacious enough for you to live alone, and there will be plenty of room for someone to visit occasionally without any trouble.”

Is it a house key?

In other words, Happy World had given me a new company residence.

‘If I just greedily accepted such a large gift, I might face consequences.’

The more I received from “Happy World,” the harder it might become to transfer jobs or be fired.

So, I was about to refuse.

“As expected, this is─huh?”

Princess Melinoye’s figure was nowhere to be seen.

Like a footless ghost, she had vanished soundlessly, leaving only me standing dumbfounded in that spot.

# # #

When I returned to the office, the nymph employee Melinoi had not yet returned.

Even more surprising was that Markius had said something like this.

“Melinoi? Who’s that?”

The new employee, Melinoi.

About that strange and presence-filled nymph, Markius questioned back as if he had never heard of her before.

Other employees were the same.

“You guys, you don’t know Melinoi? Have you forgotten Melinoi?”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“Team Leader nim, aren’t you perhaps dreaming while you were briefly asleep?”

“Go home and get a good night’s sleep today!”

What?

What on earth was this situation?

It felt like my brain was being played with.

Was it some kind of hidden camera prank?

“Marki, you don’t know Melinoi? The nymph who knocked down mercenary king Magnus earlier. Krates, you don’t know the new employee who found a three-gold-coin error in the budget report earlier…!?”

“Joy, it was you who knocked down Magnus. Wow, even I thought it was a really great punch.”

“…Hmph, just because you found an error in a document, you’re boasting strangely. What nymph are you talking about?”

This can’t be.

All the things the nymph Melinoi had done somehow seemed to be remembered by others as things I had done.

How was this possible?

Had I been dreaming alone?

“Then Marki, who was hired as a new employee?”

“Joy, you didn’t hire anyone. You said there was no one you liked.”

That’s completely different from my memory.

It felt like Melinoi had been completely extracted from everyone’s memories, and her actions had been clumsily covered up as my own.

The problem was that all of Melinoi’s great performances had become my achievements, Joy’s achievements, inadvertently boosting my internal company evaluation significantly.

To think that a rumor spread that I was the one who defeated Magnus.

“Indeed, an excellent employee. It seems he’s not just good with his head, but also with his fists.”

“It means he’s skilled in both literary and martial arts.”

“They say that to become section chief level or higher, martial arts skills are also important…”

What kind of ridiculous situation was this?

There’s no unfairness quite like this unfairness.

But Melinoi was definitely real.

Because I distinctly remembered her hiding in the corner and gobbling down candy all by herself.

Clack, clack-clack-.

Bones, the department head, clacked his bony jaw and approached me, handing over documents.

“Joy, team leader, you seem tired from working too hard recently. Then, just handle one external task and you can leave directly from the field. This is what you need to do! It’s just in time, a task related to a nymph!”

A task related to a nymph?

When I looked at the report, documents about a certain special inmate were written there.

“Inmate 「A-09C」…”

Indeed, recalling this man’s history, it was a matter related to a nymph.

A glance-.

Before leaving the office, I looked around the office once more.

She was such a noisy kid, you know.

Although I had only known her for about a day, thinking that no one remembered her, I felt a bit lonely.

‘…Perhaps I really did just dream it.’

In “Happy World,” strange and unusual things happening was common.

Every time such things occurred, if I were to be surprised and bewildered by each one, my still-living heart and mind wouldn’t be able to endure it.

So, leaving my unresolved feelings behind, I headed towards an old multi-family dwelling.

I was meeting a special inmate, so why was it a multi-family dwelling and not a punishment execution ground or a practical work site? Someone might ask that.

The reason was that this inmate was a truly special person.

Jjang-jjang-jjang-jjang-jjang-jjang-.

As soon as I approached the multi-family dwelling, a loud noise began to be heard.

The sound of violently plucking a string instrument with fingers was clamorous.

─Murder! Murder! I am Happy World’s terrorist!

The song, like a dead man’s scream, continued until I stood in front of room 404.

Bang, bang, bang-!

“Orpheus ssi, this is Joy, team leader of the Punishment Execution Department. Please open the door! There are constant complaints from nearby residents because of the noise! Orpheus ssi!”

Bang, bang, bang-.

Bang, bang, bang, bang-!

How long had I been knocking on the door like that?

Creak-.

“Ah, you who have come like fate. Your sense of rhythm in knocking on the door is excellent!”

The door opened, and a man with his face painted white greeted me.

With hair long like a ghost’s and black eyeliner that made him look like a terrifying demon, this person’s true identity was Orpheus, a famous singer from “Happy World.”

“Haha! Come in!”

Orpheus invited me into his home.

I hesitated for a moment, but taking a deep breath and entering the house, the garbage strewn everywhere, carelessly discarded clothes, and the cockroaches scurrying among them were terrible.

“George!”

“George.”

“Well, if you can, please clean your house and live! Anyway, Orpheus ssi, I don’t even know how many complaints I’ve processed already. It’s fine to sing, but can’t you be a little quieter?”

“I’m sorry, but just a little, a very little more! If I just have a little more time, it feels like a masterpiece that will surpass my magnum opus, ‘The Nymph’s Song,’ will emerge! So, I ask for a little understanding!”

“I’ve heard that story several times already. Orpheus ssi, please be honest with me. Aren’t you in a slump these days? All the new songs you’re releasing are said to be inferior to your old ones, aren’t they?”

“Huh, sl-slump, you say? Me? Hmm, hmm-hmm-hmm…. Absolutely not. Never.”

At my question, Orpheus seemed greatly taken aback.

His face, painted white, became even paler as if he had seen a ghost, to the point that even I felt pity for him.

Orpheus.

He was the greatest bard in mythology, but ever since he became an inmate of “Happy World” like this, he acted exactly like a third-rate clown.

His face was also strangely made up.

“It’s because the instrument isn’t good. If only I had a lyre made from nymph’s hair, I could surely complete a killer song! If only I had a lyre made from nymph’s hair!”

No, listening to the song lyrics earlier, it didn’t seem like the instrument was the problem.

Orpheus was obsessed with “an instrument made from nymph’s hair” like this.

I vaguely guessed the reason, though.

However, I pretended not to know anything and asked.

“What’s the reason for your obsession with an instrument made from nymph’s hair? Is there a special reason?”

“When I was alive, I used an instrument made from nymph’s hair. Its beautiful tone was superb. Do you know this? Everyone covets nymph’s hair, but it’s rarely obtainable.”

“Why is that?”

“Nymphs only give their hair to those they cherish. I was lucky enough to obtain it…. Huh? How did I obtain such a precious thing?”

Orpheus tilted his head in confusion.

I pretended not to know anything and asked one more question.

“Do you remember anything about Eurydice?”

“Eury… what? Who’s that?”

Orpheus and Eurydice.

Even in Greek mythology, they were the protagonists of one of the most tragic and beautiful love stories.

Orpheus tilted his head as if he had never heard of her before.

The reason was simple.

Inmate 「A-09C Orpheus」’s punishment was A.

Because A stood for Amnesia.

He had completely forgotten what he had sought and what he had loved, living as a resident of “Happy World.”

Originally, bringing up Eurydice’s story to Orpheus was close to a taboo, but-.

“Orpheus ssi, I’ll let you meet Eurydice ssi.”

“Who are you telling me to meet? And I, I’m someone who cannot leave this place. You, Team Leader nim, would know better than anyone that I am receiving such a punishment…”

“Then, you just need to no longer be a prisoner.”

“Excuse me?”

Orpheus’s management grade was C.

Punishments of C-grade or lower can be suspended under the judgment of a team leader-level or higher.

“I am Joy, team leader of Happy World.”

「Name : Orpheus」

「Reason for Death : Multiple fractures due to beating and decapitation」

「Crime : Taboo」

「Punishment : House arrest and Amnesia」

“By my own independent will and judgment, I suspend the punishment of 「A-09C Orpheus」.”

“Wha… what did you say?”

“Let’s go. The detailed procedures will require returning to the office to complete various paperwork, but you are now temporarily free.”

Whoosh-!

I used a nearby burning candle to burn Orpheus’s punishment regulation contract.

Of course, there was no justifiable reason.

This would become a perfect example of abuse of power, and would be talked about by employees for a long time to come!