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028 – Deputy General Manager Promotion Exam # 1

“Wow, isn’t that the Ghost Carpet? I heard most of the departed souls can’t buy it even if they collect gold coins for hundreds of years!”

Kronos, the old man I happened to meet on my way to work, admired the new ride I had just acquired.

Even for the old Titan, who was once the ruler, the Ghost Carpet seemed like an incredible luxury item.

‘If you compare it to items from the surface world, is it about the equivalent of a Rolls-Royce?’

“But Joy, aren’t those ghosts scary or unsettling to you?”

“These friends?”

Ghosts are fluffy and cute.

They’re one of the few sources of comfort in this Happy World, along with the Hell Cactus.

Soon, Kronos, the old man, began rambling on about things I hadn’t asked.

“In this Soul Society, there is no death, so oblivion is the most frightening thing. Those who stay here for a long time gradually forget who they were and thus become faint ghosts.”

It was a story I vaguely knew.

That old departed souls become these faint and round ghosts.

“That’s why the inhabitants of this world often fear ghosts. You could say they fundamentally dislike them, thinking that they too might become like that someday.”

“I see.”

I wasn’t particularly afraid of ghosts.

That might be because I’m a living person, not a departed soul yet.

# # #

Ding ding ding ding-.

“Ah, this must be that song.”

“You’re talking about the song Manager Joy is said to have gotten the audio for?”

“Wow, the song is really good. Even just listening to it, it feels like my work efficiency will increase.”

Happy World’s lunch break.

From the speakers installed throughout the office building, the beautiful songs and accompaniment of the nymph Euriol and the Sirens spread.

“Wow, Manager Joy. I didn’t know you had a talent for music producing as well. The extremely passionate song is exactly what’s needed to boost employee morale, according to reviews! Our CEO was also extremely satisfied!”

“…Ah….”

“I didn’t know that picky idol group ‘E&S’ would record so passionately, as if they were fighting a war. Kuhaha! What on earth is your secret?”

Section Chief Bones asked me for the secret.

Actually, I didn’t have any secret to tell.

I was just drinking coffee when I thought I might try singing a bit, so I went to the recording studio, but the recording work was already finished.

This is all because of the suspicious new employee, Krauser.

“Whew, my voice was completely edited out as requested, after all. That’s a relief. I unconsciously got so fired up and ended up bringing out the passion I had forgotten… Fortunately, it seems my identity wasn’t revealed…”

I remembered this man was Orpheus.

I thought he was completely obsolete and let my guard down.

It’s my fault.

However, that wasn’t the only problem to worry about.

“Marki, haven’t you seen Melinoi?”

“Melinoi, you say? What are you talking about?”

Everyone had forgotten Melinoi again, even though she had visited the entertainment agency with me just yesterday.

This is already the second time it’s happened.

“Manager Joy, I’m talking about him. Even though he’s become a manager, he still does things like cleaning supplies himself, you know.”

“No one would say anything even if he entrusted such tasks to his subordinate employees.”

“How can a person be so consistent?”

This time too, the things Melinoi had done, which everyone had forgotten, were again regarded as things I had done.

Thanks to that, my achievements were doubled.

‘If I don’t do something about this situation where Melinoi arbitrarily pops out and accumulates my achievement points…’

If my memory serves me right, Rilke ssi said that Melinoi was a nymph with an unusual constitution.

It wouldn’t be strange to see that ‘constitution’ as the cause of this situation.

At that moment, Section Chief Bones burst open my office door and came in.

“Manager Joy! This time, you’re on the list for the Deputy General Manager Promotion Exam! It’s only the second time someone has taken the promotion exam less than a year after being promoted to manager! The second time!”

Deputy General Manager already?

While my stomach was churning, I was also curious.

“Who was the first?”

“It was Prince Zagreus! He is a relative of the CEO, but he started working as a new intern. Therefore, among mortals, Joy, you are the first to be promoted to Deputy General Manager this quickly!”

I was so happy that tears were flowing profusely.

As I was weeping, Section Chief Bones placed all the piles of items he was holding in his hands onto my desk.

Kwooong-!

“These are the problem books I used when I was preparing for the Deputy General Manager exam for a long time. Of course, they might not be necessary for a competent employee like you, but you never know, do you!”

Piles of books.

Next to them, axes or swords, etc., gleamed ominously.

“What about these weapons?”

“The Deputy General Manager exam is different from an entrance exam where you simply sit and write answers on paper. If you become a Deputy General Manager-level, you can take on more diverse tasks, and therefore, personal combat power is also very important.”

But I didn’t even take an entrance exam.

Of course, I didn’t even have a chance to say such words.

Section Chief Bones patted my back vigorously.

“Of course, if it’s you who defeated that Mercenary King… no, is he the Pirate King now? Anyway, if it’s you who defeated Magnus in one blow, you will pass the Deputy General Manager exam without any problems!”

It was not I who defeated Magnus in one blow during the new employee recruitment.

What Melinoi had done was just being remembered as if I had done it.

If so, what about my own fighting skills?

In this underworld filled with superhumans, like Sisyphus, who effortlessly pushed the boulder to the top of the mountain, my physical abilities were just those of an ordinary person.

‘That’s the problem!’

As Kronos, the old man, said earlier, there was no concept of ‘death’ in this underworld.

The inhabitants here are already dead departed souls.

The executives, from the start, are immortal gods for whom the concept of death doesn’t even exist.

Therefore, various violent things happening is also an everyday occurrence.

Shall I give an example?

“Section Chief, could you tell me about the subjects of the last Deputy General Manager exam? I remember you were dispatched as an event staff member at that time.”

“That’s right! You really have a good memory! The first test was a treasure hunt on a field where eagles that pecked out hearts flew around. Secondly, it was traversing a labyrinth filled with Daedalus’s blade traps!”

See!

In this Soul Society, because there is no death, various activities tended to become this violent.

The departed souls quickly regenerate even if they sustain fatal injuries.

Just look at Section Chief Bones right now; he’s just bones, but he moves around perfectly fine.

The problem is me.

Can I, an ordinary human, endure such violent activities?

‘I’ll definitely die!’

If that happens, as long as I’m tied to the employment contract, I would be resurrected as a departed soul in Happy World, and it meant I would be tied here forever.

That is a more terrible thing than the death of the body.

The upcoming Deputy General Manager Promotion Exam.

I just need to play it safe.

Or, can I not participate at all─.

As I was thinking that, the office stirred.

“Why is that person here!”

“An impressive person has arrived!”

“What is it? Why is everyone like this? Did the auditing team’s horned devil come again?”

Lately, it feels like employees from other teams keep coming to the punitive enforcement department and my office.

So, wondering what it was, I turned my head and saw a boy as short as Carnoy or Melinoi looking around.

If you only looked at his appearance, would he be just about a middle school student?

I wondered if he was a lost child, but these words appeared.

[The one who bears the curse of war and death]

[Manager Admetus of Charon Transport]

“Those words… He’s someone cursed by the executives.”

“It’s the Perennial Manager Admetus ssi, isn’t it?”

“Why is he here…?”

Admetus.

At that name, a part of my brain’s synapses that had been neglected for a long time seemed to light up.

Who he was─.

“If it’s Admetus, he’s an acquaintance of this Krauser! He’s someone who even boarded the Argo expedition with me! Hey, Admetus! Did you perhaps come to meet this Krauser? Glad to see you! So glad!”

The former Orpheus, now Krauser, waved his hand towards the boy.

At that, the boy frowned and got angry.

“Huh? A mere general employee, how dare you pretend to know this Manager Admetus. Who are you? This is the first I’m hearing that someone like you boarded the Argo.”

“Uh, uhhh, I’m…”

Indeed, he’s a prickly boy.

Oh, our eyes met!

“Ha! You’re that noisy Manager Joy these days, aren’t you? I am Admetus! We’ll clash in the upcoming promotion exam. But I will win! Please, don’t resent me! Hahahahahahat!”

Saying that, the boy left.

At the same time, the office began to stir.

“Th-this upcoming promotion exam…”

“Manager Joy… has been targeted by Admetus ssi…”

“If it’s like this…”

What?

Why is everyone like this?

As I felt bewildered, Krauser approached me and spoke.

“My companion in heroic tales, Admetus, is a famous figure for intensely loving his wife. To the extent of being prepared to die for each other… Keuheuk… Dike and I also had such times…”

Krauser, weeping profusely.

I turned my gaze away from the strange clown and expressed my bewilderment at the people’s whispers.

“But. Why did he target me?”

“That, I wouldn’t know.”

I see.

I was foolish to ask Krauser.

Suddenly, I remembered that my colleague Markius was the guy who had worked for the Charon Transport team for a long time.

As I approached him, Marki, who loves to chatter about various things, spoke as if he had been waiting.

“Admetus ssi is a promising talent predicted to be the winning candidate every time during the Deputy General Manager Promotion Exam. And every time, he comes to find the person chosen as his rival, just like this. This time, it seems to be you.”

“Wait a minute…. He does that every time?”

He’s a strong winning candidate, but…

The fact that he does that every time means he hasn’t won even once so far, doesn’t it?

“So that’s why he’s the ‘Perennial Manager’.”

“The important thing is that the opponents Admetus ssi always marked as rivals and went to find won the Deputy General Manager Promotion Exam. Joy, it looks like you’re going to win this exam!”

I understood why people were stirring.

Soon, Krauser shouted.

“Deputy General Manager Joy! Congratulations on your promotion!”

This rascal, just hearing it makes my head hurt!

# # #

Admetus.

He returned home.

Then, his lovely wife Alcestis greeted him.

“Adme, look at this. It’s your proxy promotion gift. I painstakingly picked this Hell Clover! Oh, of course, I think they said lately they decided to use ‘Happy’ instead of ‘Hell’… Puhuhu!”

“Wooaah! Alke! What a wonderful gift!”

“Admetus, even you, who have adventured everywhere, this Happy Clover is something you’re seeing for the first time, right?”

The Perennial Manager Admetus hugged his wife, then received the Happy Clover.

And then he went to his room and carefully put it away and stored it in a glass bottle on his bookshelf, among the piles of Happy Clovers.

Even though it had been decades since he was promoted to manager.

His wife Alcestis couldn’t remember that.

‘She’s forgetting her memories more and more. If she continues like this, my wife… will become a faint ghost.’

Admetus.

Although he was called the Perennial Manager, this time, he was determined to be promoted to Deputy General Manager.

“The Executives’ Gift,” given to employees upon promotion to Deputy General Manager.

To make his wife Alcestis’s memories clear again with that.

‘…The problem is that Manager Joy, who has a reputation as a devil, is my opponent… Besides him, there are many formidable opponents… What on earth should I do…?’

After a long period of contemplation, he took out a ‘Summoning Device’.

This was an item that could directly call ‘a certain being’.

“I’m sorry to everyone, but this isn’t the time to be picky about the means and methods…!”

Ddidik-.

The activated Summoning Device.

[Friend, what’s going on?]

“The last subject of this Deputy General Manager exam was ‘Mass Mutual Killing’, wasn’t it? Can you perhaps change that with your authority? For the event… I’d prefer a vehicle race, which I’m good at.”

Admetus, as the Deputy General Manager of the Transport Team, was more confident than anyone else when it came to work related to driving.

Unless someone prepares an out-of-spec vehicle like the Ghost Carpet, victory was guaranteed.

‘Something like the Ghost Carpet, you couldn’t buy it with a manager’s salary even if you saved diligently for hundreds of years. That means my victory is confirmed.’