episode_0036

036 – My Wife Doesn’t Visit Her Parents’ Home #2

When I was still attending graduate school—.

Most of my friends were respectable working professionals.

For some reason, those guys were deeply absorbed in mobile games.

I didn’t know much about it, but at a glance, their levels were high and their items were amazing.

─Hey, when on earth did you develop them so much? Do you just play games when you go home?

─I don’t really do it at home. Mostly, I do it at work!

Games at work?

Is that possible?

─Lee Seo, you might not know, being a graduate student. Work also has peak seasons and off-peak seasons. When it’s busy, it’s so busy you can’t even go to the restroom. But when there’s downtime, there’s a lot of downtime.

Work life wasn’t about being busy every single day.

If there are busy times, there are also leisurely times.

Even in this ‘Happy World’, rumored for its excessive workload, what about the most intense Punishment Enforcement Department?

“Department Head-nim! What should we do with these documents!”

“Isn’t that a budget expenditure statement? Put it somewhere out of sight! If the audit team finds fault with that, your skull will ache!”

“A-Am I supposed to shred these papers? I, Krauser, am a new employee, so I don’t know well!”

“Shred them all! Shred them all!”

Grrrrind—.

The date for the head office audit team’s massive audit, which had been postponed due to various circumstances, was now confirmed.

To avoid being caught fault with as much as possible, everyone was fighting a desperate battle with document boxes.

Being so busy you can’t even go to the restroom must refer to this kind of situation.

Soon, the skeleton Department Head Bones handed me a large document.

“Joy! These are documents containing top-secret information that must be hidden as a top priority! If these are discovered by the audit team, not only our Punishment Enforcement Department but also ‘Happy World’ will be disgraced!”

Why give such important documents to me?

The reason was simple.

It was because I was the Deputy Department Head, directly below the Department Head.

High positions naturally come with corresponding responsibilities.

“This massive audit will somehow work out well if Deputy Department Head Joy is here!”

“Deputy Department Head Joy-nim! What should we do?”

“Just give us orders!”

Everyone was looking at me, their eyes sparkling like puppies seeing treats in their owner’s hand.

Because of this extremely high expectation, it felt as if a hole would be drilled through my stomach.

As expected, this won’t do.

Unless I escape from here quickly!

“Department Head-nim, as I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be going out for some external work. I’ll probably finish work from there too. I think the rest of you will have to handle the audit preparations well.”

“Deputy Department Head Joy, external work the week before an audit? As far as I know, I don’t recall any external assignments allocated to you….”

External work?

As Department Head Bones said, there was no such thing in fact.

“Aargh! The shredded documents are flowing backward!”

“We’re short-staffed! People! We’re short-staffed!”

In a situation so busy that every single person was crucial, I was making an excuse of external work to run away by myself.

If everyone found out about this, they would be incredibly disappointed and furious.

But I can’t help it, can I?

As long as I was being watched by the ‘CEO’, my life was more precarious than a lamp in the wind.

First, I need to save myself, don’t I?

“Deputy Department Head-nim! Where are you going?”

“Deputy Department Head Joyyyyy-nim!”

“Deputy Department Head Joy! I hope you’re not running away leaving this Krauser behind!”

Leaving behind the desperate calls for me, I left the company building.

Blazing—.

Daedalus’s sun was so unusually bright that it made me frown.

“Mmm, the scent of freedom.”

So, where should I go now?

That’s naturally already decided.

It’s the regular meeting of the ‘Plant Gallery’!

“Is the meeting place ‘Happy Flower’?”

It’s the flower shop run by Mrs. Kshali, Krates’s wife.

It was a familiar place to me, so finding it was easy.

‘Happy Flower’.

A place full of all sorts of flowers and abundant thorny cacti.

It’s one of my few healing spots.

‘Whenever I come here, my mind feels peaceful.’

“Oh my, Deputy Head Joy, no, no. You’re a Deputy Department Head now, aren’t you? My husband worked incredibly hard to get promoted to Assistant Manager. For you, Deputy Department Head, to become a Deputy Department Head just a few years after joining the company, that’s truly amazing.”

Hohohoho—.

Mrs. Kshali elegantly laughed, covering her mouth with her hand.

Then Krates, who was trimming the cactus with pruning shears, retorted gruffly.

“Getting promoted to Assistant Manager in 50 years is also quite remarkable in its own way. It’s just that Deputy Department Head Joy is unprecedentedly fast. The only person comparable on the same level would be Prince Zagreus-nim.”

【The One Watched by the CEO】 【Punishment Enforcement Department Deputy Department Head Joy】

Krates seemed to have seen the words floating before me.

Krates was admiringly gaping.

“Wow, to be a Deputy Department Head of a subsidiary and receive a title from the ‘CEO’! That’s truly amazing. Amazing. But. I heard a large-scale audit by the audit team is coming soon. Is it okay for you, a Deputy Department Head, to be here?”

“……”

Because of this fellow Krates, do I have to hear about work even in my healing spot?

As it is, the employees I left behind are flickering before my eyes, making my conscience sting.

“Krates, there’s a world unique to Deputy Department Heads that isn’t visible to you, who only reached Assistant Manager. Even me being out here like this is all because of work.”

“…Really? To me, it just looks like you came out using external work as an excuse to goof off. There’s no way there would be external work in the Punishment Enforcement Department just before an audit.”

This fellow Krates…!?

Indeed, fitting for the former Ace of Team 1, his insight was remarkable.

If a guy like this had stayed at the company and kept pointing out my mistakes and keeping me in check, my reputation would have been severely damaged, and the chances of me being fired would have increased.

‘Happy World’ truly lost a regrettable talent because of those rebel bastards.

Suddenly, my hatred for the rebel ‘Tartarus’ boiled up.

Of course, Mrs. Kshali severely rebuked Krates.

“Darling, what kind of talk is that to Deputy Department Head Joy, the busiest person in the world? Surely, he must be doing something great that we don’t know about. Don’t play around, set the table! Guests are coming today!”

“I-Is that so…?”

The regular meeting time for ‘Plant Gallery’ was 12 PM.

Since they had decided to have lunch together, it was about time everyone gathered.

Creakkkk—.

At that moment, a carriage stopped in front of ‘Happy Flower’.

After I started driving the ‘Ghost Carpet’, I also became somewhat interested in the vehicles of this ‘Soul Society’.

The carriage, adorned with all sorts of jewels, gold, and eerie skulls, was so magnificent that it could truly be compared to my ‘Ghost Carpet’.

Even more amazing was the beast pulling the carriage.

It was a fierce dog with three heads.

It emitted a fiery gaze and breathed out fiery breaths.

─Growl…. ─Snarl….

Its enormous size reminded one of monsters from myths.

Perhaps it really was a monster from mythology, and at that moment, a shiver ran down my spine—.

“Ugh, that, that’s—ugh! Darling! Big trouble! Big trouble! Come out quickly! No, we, we have to run away! Run away! We have to get out of here!”

Krates, who was carrying drinks to display on the table, saw the fierce dog’s appearance and fell over in surprise.

Creak—.

At that moment, the carriage door opened, and a foot wearing flower shoes extended out. Soon, a woman wearing a black dress decorated with eerie skulls and flames fully revealed herself.

【Plant Gallery Manager – Chicoreta】 【Meticulous Goddess of Verdure – Persephone】

My heart felt like it stopped, and I could only prostrate myself on the floor.

In such a situation, all an ordinary person like me could do was to prostrate themselves and figure out a way to survive.

It was for the same reason pheasants bury their heads in the ground when they hear gunshots.

“It seems I’ve arrived on time.”

# # #

Krates felt his stomach twist.

If he weren’t already a dead spirit, he would have been so surprised and nervous in that moment that his heart would have burst and he would have died.

‘That terrifying Persephone-nim has come to our flower shop!’

The ‘CEO’s’ wife.

The mistress of the head office—the former ‘Palace of the Underworld King’.

Krates, who was a mere Assistant Manager, saw a being he could barely dream of visiting the flower shop and carrying boxes full of side dishes.

“You there, don’t just stand and watch, help me move this box. I made a lot of kimchi today. I still have to carry 100 more boxes, so don’t rest, keep moving.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Carrying heavy boxes, Krates observed Deputy Department Head Joy.

He wondered why such an important figure like Deputy Department Head Joy had come to this flower shop at a time when a large-scale audit from the head office was imminent.

Perhaps Deputy Department Head Joy had a high probability of already having anticipated all of this.

‘No, he must have anticipated it, of course! Because he’s a person who surpassed an ace like me and rapidly climbed to the position of Deputy Department Head! There’s no way that devilish maniac obsessed with achievements wouldn’t have known about this!’

Perhaps, Deputy Department Head Joy had abandoned all his work and come to this place to entertain the Queen of the Underworld.

In fact, Deputy Department Head Joy’s face was rigid and cold like a corpse.

It was clear that this was because he knew better than anyone how important the work he was entrusted with was.

“Joy, this terrifying fellow. If you knew something like this was going to happen, you should have given me a heads-up beforehand. Just looking at that Cerberus’s face makes me feel like I’m going to die again.”

The giant fierce dog pulling the carriage.

Towards that great monster capable of swallowing even formidable heroes in one bite, the woman extended a gentle hand and stroked its forehead.

“Spot, you can go home now. But you have to come back and pick me up for dinner later.”

─Growl…! ─Snarl…! ─Woof woof…!

Whoosh—.

The fierce dog Cerberus quickly disappeared.

Thus, the regular meeting of the ‘Plant Gallery’ began.

However, the mistress of this ‘Soul Society’ clicked her tongue in regret, looking at the empty table.

“I made a lot of kimchi today to give to the participants. But in the end, only I, the two gentlemen here, and Miss Kshali participated. I certainly thought there was a plant-growing boom—.”

She was smiling, but.

For some reason, shadows fell across her face, making her look as if she were angry.

Although Krates was already a dead body, he felt suffocated, and his mind suddenly went blank.

‘Should I mobilize everyone I know to fill the seats…!?’

It was then.

Deputy Department Head Joy, who had been silent for a long time, took out his pager.

Was he trying to mobilize people?

“What? I have to go back to the company right now? Alright! So it really can’t be done without me, huh! Alright! I’ll be right there! Haa, well, it’s regrettable to say this at a regular meeting after so long, but.”

Swish—.

Deputy Department Head Joy, who stood up from his seat.

“Our Punishment Enforcement Department is currently too busy with the head office’s massive audit coming up, so I think I really need to go back. I’m truly sorry. I can’t pretend not to see my colleagues’ hardship…”

Krates absolutely could not understand his intention to abruptly leave this place.

To further reduce the already small number of meeting participants!

‘Do you want to die, Joy!’

However, he thought that his courage, at least, was remarkable.

“You’re Deputy Department Head Joy, aren’t you? The reason we gathered today is to discuss the efficacy of the ‘Hell Cactus’ that Deputy Department Head Joy discovered. The protagonist shouldn’t leave. Just wait a moment.”

Swish—.

The terrifying goddess took out a pager from her pocket and contacted someone.

The call was connected shortly after.

“Oh, son. It’s Mom. Could you contact Nyx-nim at the head office? Yes. Of the audit team. The audit is going into ‘Happy World’ this time, isn’t it? Can you exclude the ‘Punishment Enforcement Department’ from that?”

What an absurd phone call to Prince Zagreus, the most powerful figure in this Soul Society!

Just like a mother calling her son!

‘Although they are actually mother and son!’

Moreover, if it’s ‘Nyx’ from the head office, isn’t she the primordial nightmare-like goddess whom even Zeus, the King of the Gods, fears?

Krates wanted to cover his ears.

“Ah, completely excluding them is impossible, but they can reduce the number of personnel to be dispatched by the audit team by half? That should be enough. Yes, thank you. I’ll send some kimchi to your house soon.”

To reduce the audit team by half!

It meant that they would conduct the audit because it was required by regulations, but they would only go through the motions.

“Deputy Department Head Joy, it seems you don’t have to worry about the audit anymore. Then, today’s regular meeting can be held comfortably without anything weighing on your mind, right?”

Krates looked up at Deputy Department Head Joy in this astonishing situation.

‘This man, he knew this would happen and came here today…? There’s no way a man who was promoted to Deputy Department Head at lightning speed couldn’t have anticipated even this much. This situation was clearly orchestrated by this man…!’

Deputy Department Head Joy’s method was different.

Who would have thought he would put even the actions of the mistress, whom everyone feared, under his calculations for his own advancement.

However—.

Even for Deputy Department Head Joy, the meeting today wouldn’t be easy.

Appeasing the unpredictable ‘mistress’ was something even the ‘CEO’ found difficult.

However, Krates was indebted to Joy.

‘Joy, I’ll assist you aggressively today by playing along! With that, let’s consider the debt between us null and void!’

And at this time, in the Punishment Enforcement Department office—.

“Just now, we received a notification from a head office employee that the number of audit personnel will be reduced by half! Only one person in the world could do something like this….”

“Isn’t it Deputy Department Head Joy! Long live Deputy Department Head Joy!”

As Krauser raised his hand high, all the employees also raised their hands high, following him.

“Hurray!”

“From now on, I, Hedone, will go beyond a simple supportive relationship with Deputy Department Head Joy-nim and become one with him!”

“Hedone, you girl, why are you and Deputy Department Head Joy-nim becoming one!”

“Kyaaak!”

It was absolute chaos.