Chapter 4: First employee
by 000 000
“Damn it.”
I only meant to trip her up.
I swear I didn’t intend it to pierce right through her body.
“What kind of water pressure is this?”
It didn’t just push her—it penetrated her skin?
I didn’t even feel any recoil when I used the [Pressure Washer].
What the hell just happened…
“Urgh… cough…”
No matter how freaked out I was, it couldn’t compare to the woman with a neat hole punched through her torso.
Luckily, it seemed to have missed her vital organs—she spat out a handful of blood, but her eyes were still sharp, suggesting she wasn’t in immediate danger of dying.
“…Tel…le…”
Her blood-soaked lips moved, muttering something.
Flash!
“…Huh?”
And just like that, the woman vanished.
***
“Urk!”
Barely managing to squeeze out enough mana to cast a short-range teleport spell, Arcana forced herself to stand despite the electrifying pain radiating from her abdomen.
Fear surged alongside the agony of her gruesome wound.
That mongrel… what is he?!
She hadn’t even sensed the magic activating.
By the time she realized what was happening, a jet of water had already torn through her body.
She couldn’t even feel when the spell was cast.
And just as she was about to feel relief at escaping his clutches, a shiver ran down her spine.
His ability to casually dispel her water magic.
The terrifying power and speed of the water spell he’d shown off, as if mocking her mastery of water magic.
Could a man like that really have missed her casting a teleport spell?
Did he… do it on purpose?
It was obvious.
He must have let her go intentionally.
But why?
“What’s wrong, Arcana?”
“Get a priest! Someone fetch a priest!”
“!!!!”
Teleportation is no easy spell.
Even a short-range teleport of a mere ten meters is challenging, let alone one spanning hundreds of meters.
Most mages rely on a “coordinate-saving” magical tool to assist with teleportation spells.
These tools handle the complex task of fixing coordinates, the most difficult part of the spell, allowing even less skilled mages to perform long-range teleports.
But there’s one problem…
“You went hunting, so why come back injured? And using teleportation, no less…”
The coordinates engraved in the magical tool can’t be easily changed, meaning the teleport’s destination is easily exposed.
…Was he trying to track our location?
Confirming that her comrades, resting at the temporary base in the Red Demon village after a hunt, were rushing toward her, Arcana succumbed to the pain and fear, passing out.
***
…Where’d she go?
She seemed to be using something like magic earlier…
Could it have been a teleportation spell or something?
“Cough! Cough!”
“Oh!”
While I was grappling with the uneasy feeling of her disappearance, a frail cough came from behind me.
That’s right—the injured girl from earlier!
“Are you okay?”
Pushing thoughts of the vanished woman aside, I hurriedly returned to where I’d seen the girl.
Thankfully, she was still conscious, looking up at me with half-open eyes and murmuring her thanks.
“Cough!… Th-thank you…”
Her trembling voice and fragile state were clearly dire.
Her body was covered in cuts and bruises, bleeding profusely.
Her bare feet were mangled, as if she’d been trudging through a forest, with splinters embedded in them.
Both legs were swollen from extreme exhaustion.
“Wait here. I’ll get a hospital… no, a doctor…!”
“No, you can’t!”
As I scooped her up and started to head out to find a doctor, the girl grabbed my collar with her frail arm, stopping me.
“There are still other humans out there! Evil humans hunting demons… They’ll hunt a half-breed like you too!”
“…Humans? Demons?”
Now that I thought about it, this girl… her ears were pointed, weren’t they?
“…Are you a demon?”
“Cough! Y-yes…? Yes. A Red Demon…”
“This is insane.”
First, a crazy woman wielding magic shows up, and now demons?
After feeling that brush with death earlier, I was convinced this couldn’t be a dream, but maybe I was wrong and this was just a dream?
“Cough! Sniff… Ugh…!”
“Damn it.”
As if to interrupt my thoughts, the girl’s body began trembling faintly.
Touching her, I realized her temperature was dropping.
…This is bad.
I don’t know what a demon is, but her condition looked critical.
It felt like she could die any second.
Sure, I’d just met her, but I couldn’t stand by and watch a frail little girl die in front of me. Especially since…
“Thank you for helping me… But please, run away…!”
Despite her pain, with tear-streaked cheeks, she was still worried about me.
Seeing that only strengthened my resolve.
…There’s got to be a way, right?
Among the cleaning tools that had shown such incredible effects earlier, maybe there was something that could help in this situation?
Let’s see… the [Pressure Washer], [Trash Bin], [Mop], [Shredder]…
That’s all I’ve got!
Healing—something to help with healing.
Anything, please…!
Flash!
What’s that?
A system window appeared in front of the girl…
Would you like to register the target as an “Employee”?
The first employee hire is free.
“…What?”
An employee?
Oh, right, the game had a system like that, didn’t it?
No, I need a way to heal her!
I don’t need this—!
…Wait a second.
If this is that “Employee” function from the cleaning game… there might be a chance!
“Register! Register her!”
Checking target’s consent…
Complete.
Registering target “Rio (★★☆☆☆)” as an employee!
Points will be deducted periodically as the employee’s salary.
I don’t care about that, just hurry!
“[Employee Management]!”
Flash!
Rio… That must be her name.
Recalling the game’s commands, I shouted “[Employee Management],” and a unique system window appeared before me.
[Rio]
– Race: Red Demon
– Rank: ★☆☆☆☆
– Traits: Effort, Trust, Patience
– Talent: (Locked)
– Status: Injured
Yes! There it is!
In the cleaning game, there was an “Employee” system.
As the game progressed and cleaning areas became absurdly large, this system unlocked in the mid-game, allowing you to hire NPCs as “employees” to assign cleaning tasks.
You could equip employees with cleaning tools, upgrade their ranks, or gain bonuses based on their traits—a pretty robust system.
I didn’t use it much, though, since the NPCs’ AI was so dumb…
Anyway, that’s not the point.
– Status: Injured
The exact thing I was looking for.
In the game, when you assigned employees to clean dangerous areas or their dumb AI caused them to fall from high places, their status would sometimes change to “Injured.”
Injured employees wouldn’t clean until you spent points to heal them.
The important part: you could spend points to heal an employee with the “Injured” status.
“Heal!”
Would you like to spend 127p to heal the employee’s status?
Current points: 131p
Thank goodness.
Thanks to the points I’d earned little by little while cleaning the hallway earlier, I had just enough to heal Rio.
“Do it!”
Spending 127p to heal the employee’s status.
Remaining points: 4p
Flash!
“…Huh?”
The moment I activated the system to heal Rio, something miraculous happened.
The swelling in her legs subsided, her cuts and bruises healed with new skin forming, the splinters in her feet popped out, and her skin returned to a soft, healthy state.
“Wh-what is this…?”
“Phew. Thank goodness.”
It worked…
But why did it work?
“Did you do this, mister…?”
“Mis—”
…Right, I probably look like a “mister” to a kid.
“Yeah. Does it still hurt?”
“Wow…!”
Amazed that her pain had vanished, Rio hopped out of my arms and bounced around, checking her body.
It was a heartwarming sight, but…
“Uh, Rio?”
“Yes! …Wait, did I tell you my name…?”
“That’s not important right now. I have a few questions. Can you answer them?”
“Yes!”
First… let’s figure out what’s going on.
***
Long ago, there existed a great “Demon God” and a deity now known as the sole god of the continent, “Eukrasia.”
The Demon God created the “Demons,” a race that wielded “demonic energy,” while Eukrasia created “Humans,” who wielded the blue light of “mana.”
Both races served their respective gods, advancing magic, science, and other disciplines to build brilliant civilizations.
But a thousand years ago, an event brought those glorious civilizations to an end.
The Divine-Demonic War.
The cause is unknown.
The two gods clashed, revealing their divine powers in a massive battle, and the conflict spread to a war between the races serving each god’s will.
As the long war raged on, destroying most of the brilliant civilizations, it finally ended with the Demon God’s defeat.
The defeated Demon God was sealed at the deepest depths of the continent, while Eukrasia claimed the title of “Sole God” and renamed the continent “Eukrasia” to commemorate her victory.
Humans, who served the Sole God, rebuilt their shattered civilization and founded the “Holy Empire,” the only empire on the continent.
The Demons, who served the defeated Demon God, were scattered across the continent.
Victorious humans began hunting the remaining Demons, driving them to the brink of extinction.
And then, it appeared.
Dungeons.
“Dungeon Cores,” also called “Fragments of the Demon God,” appeared across the continent.
These cores selected nearby Demons, granting them the title of “Dungeon Master” and immense power.
It was as if the sealed Demon God had bestowed power to prevent the Demons’ annihilation.
Empowered by the dungeons, the Demons launched a counterattack.
As the Demons’ counteroffensive pushed humans back, Eukrasia, as if responding to the dungeons, bestowed “Holy Relics” imbued with her power upon humans.
Humans rallied around “Heroes” chosen by the Holy Relics, and for a thousand years, humans and Demons have continued their conflict.
Even if a dungeon is destroyed, a new one spawns somewhere on the continent.
Even if Demons kill a Hero, a new Hero is chosen by the ownerless Holy Relic.
For a thousand years, Demons and Humans have clashed in this endless war…
***
“And that’s the state of this continent?”
“Yep!”
Listening to Rio’s explanation, I couldn’t help but make a dumbfounded face.
…What is this?
An isekai story?
[Next Chapter]
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