episode_0003

I accepted Sylvia’s offer.

On the outside, he may seem like a bad person who uses children to serve customers at entertainment establishments.

It was a pretty good deal with nothing bad for me.

Above all, the issue of accommodation and food was also resolved.

Because… Sylvia was the owner of the building!

The first floor of the building she owned was a bar, and the second floor was a house.

I wondered what it would be like to have my home right above my workplace.

“I happen to have a spare room. How about it?”

“…Are there any other options?”

I asked Sylvia, tilting my head as she pointed to another room.

“In addition to the room I live in, there is a room that I am renting out.”

“Ah, there is no need for that…”

It might be more convenient, but… I can’t kick the opportunity to live with a beautiful woman!

“Then let’s sleep for today.”

“Already?”

“There were a lot of customers today. And I usually sleep around this time.”

At her words, I quickly checked the time.

Oh, it’s already 11 o’clock. But did the bar normally close at this time?

When I asked Sylvia about it, she asked as if it were strange.

“Of course, there are other bartenders besides me, so it’s okay.”

“Oh, how many people are there?”

“One male bartender and one female bartender.”

“…Then maybe I should become a bartender too?”

“Hmm.”

Sylvia suddenly started looking at my body at my words.

“Well, I guess Chris could just deliver drinks to guest tables or act as a mascot.”

“Isn’t that too simple?”

Sylvia heard me and suddenly came closer.

I reflexively closed my eyes.

I didn’t do anything strange… She just stroked my head.

“You can only know that after working for yourself. I guess I have a lot to do tomorrow morning, so let’s sleep.”

“…Yes.”

Fortunately, the room I would be staying in had a bed.

This is only natural since it is a game made in the West.

According to what Sylvia said, it seemed like the female bartender who worked at the bar sometimes slept over.

…So now you can’t sleep because of me?

Wow, this is my first night in the Dream City universe.

My heart was so heavy that I was worried whether I would be able to sleep.

“…?”

What, when did it become morning?

Before I knew it, morning sunlight was coming through the window.

…My body, like a good child, sleeps so well.

In reality, as I get older, it becomes more difficult to sleep.

Surely this might be a good thing?

-Chiiik.

But it seemed like the window in this room was the same as mosquitoes trying to come in and dying.

Even though there is a force field and you head first, you didn’t go extinct.

I got off the bed first.

As I became a little kid, it felt like it became difficult to get up into bed, but I was glad that getting down wasn’t.

I left the room, but I didn’t feel like I was popular. Did Sylvia leave before I even woke up?

‘Now that I think about it, I thought you said there was a lot of work to do in the morning.’

Now that I have become a complete guest of this house, my eyes also turn to the TV and computer.

Even if you don’t know much about computers, it’s okay to watch TV, right?

While playing Dream City, it was difficult to understand these aspects of daily life.

Usually, I tend to be active outside while carrying out missions or requests.

‘How do I grow this?’

The shape of the remote control was almost square, so it was a bit confusing.

Aren’t remote controls in Western countries also tend to be long? Dream City is just something unique, right?

– Beep.

“Ah, it’s on.”

Sylvia seemed to often watch news channels.

As soon as I turned on the TV, the symbol of the Sage Society that rules Maguspol, the sign of the golden pot, appeared and disappeared.

‘I’m glad we can still communicate.’

In Maguspol, many races live together, but harmony between races is not a reality.

Some might think of this city as a melting pot of various races.

In fact, it is just something that has been forcibly sealed by being pressed down by the powerful power of the Sage Society.

Reality can be said to be a mosaic state with strong individuality where people laugh at and hate each other.

No, it’s not just a mosaic. It’s just a mosaic-shaped bomb.

Therefore, the language used in each area is different.

It would be difficult to do without a common language translator that operates on magical power.

It would be nice if I could get that from Sylvia, too.

“…?”

With that thought in mind, I turned my gaze back to the news screen.

No, that has a similar color to my status window?!

As I watched the fluorescent gargoyles appearing on the video screen, I felt bad again.

I wondered if that bastard had eaten my status window.

There is one more thing to do when you become a problem solver. I will definitely catch that bastard!

While I was making that promise, the front door suddenly opened.

“Chris, can you help me out?”

“Oh, wait a minute.”

– Beep.

I immediately turned off the TV with the remote control and headed to the entrance.

“What is all this?”

“I bought some clothes for you to wear while working and some vampire blood.”

“Oh.”

I took some of her luggage and headed to the living room together.

After unloading my luggage on the table, I first checked the work clothes I was going to wear.

“…Silvia? I think it’s a bit long for me?”

“Originally, that level is just right for others to see.”

“…?”

What do you mean? He’s clearly a good person since he even gave me blood to drink… but it’s a little strange, right?

Meanwhile, in her hand was a black envelope with a jar symbol stamped on it.

Don’t the envelopes containing official documents usually look like this at Maguspol?

“What about that envelope?”

“Oh, would you like to take a look?”

When Sylvia said so, I did not refuse.

I think I’ll see a lot of them when I work as a troubleshooter in the future.

“What is it? Confirmation of conversion to solver activity?”

“If you want to become a problem solver, you need the guarantee of three active solvers. Am I one of them?”

He was a good person after all!

I was so thankful that I hugged Sylvia.

“…!”

“Silvia?”

I don’t know why, but Sylvia was shocked.

“Chris, you seem stronger than I thought.”

“Ah, I guess my right hand looks like this…”

“No, that’s not what I’m talking about. Your left hand has considerable strength, right?”

“Of course….”

“Was there anything you could point out?”

“I cut the gargoyle into pieces with these arms.”

“….”

Sylvia was silent for a moment in response to my answer.

That feeling got worse when she, who seemed somewhat cold, didn’t speak.

“Why? Surely there won’t be any problem?”

“No. However, stone statues are not usually created for solvers to catch. But if you can do something to a stone statue, you’re not a normal problem solver.”

Yes, I guess so. I may look like a kid, but I’m a blood lord who drank dragon’s blood.

As far as I know, there is a famous vampire solver among the senior solvers, and at least he was Jinjo.

It was clear that if he grew up properly, he would become a great problem solver.

Afterwards, I ate breakfast while drinking the vampire blood that Sylvia brought.

In fact, the blood felt sweet, so it felt like I was eating sweet tomato juice rather than real blood.

It tastes like this, it makes vampires bleed.

Sometimes there is a rumor among vampires that the blood of a more important person is tastier…

So some crazy vampires would do crazy things like create precious beings and then drink their blood.

There were companions and quests that were related to such actions.

“Now, Chris, this is yours.”

“Uh, mine too?”

“I understand that vampires need to eat not only blood but also regular food… am I wrong?”

What Sylvia said was not wrong.

However, I didn’t feel like I could eat much because I felt full from just drinking the blood.

Toast and a glass of blood on my first night in Maguspol.

‘After all, coming to this world might not be such a bad thing, right?’

-Chiiik.

In the meantime, several more mosquitoes flew in and collided with the station field.

I don’t really care anymore, though.

After finishing my meal, I finally had to pay for my meal.

“So, thank you for your support!”

Sylvia dressed as a bartender and me dressed similarly.

I formally introduced myself in front of the two bartenders working at this bar.

A black-haired male bartender wearing a metal mask over his mouth, but with a small gap showing part of his torn mouth and chin.

A red-haired female bartender who is missing one ear and wears an eyepatch over her left eye.

For some reason, the bartenders also gave off the scent of being former fixers or criminals.

“This is Chris. This is my restaurant partner who will be working at this bar starting today.”

“And Chris? This is Martin, this is Helga. They are both indebted to me, so for now they are working as bartenders.”

For now? It felt a bit suspicious, but fortunately the two people were kind to me.

“Please take care of me. Little girl.”

“Oh my, you’re so cute. How did you get caught by your sister?”

The two people pulled my hair and cheeks while saying those words to me.

“Ugh.”

Meanwhile, Sylvia came up to me and whispered.

“Now that I think about it, Chris. How old are you?”

“Are you asking that now?”

Martin and Helga seemed to be curious about my age in response to Sylvia’s question.

In the first place, vampires were one of the races whose age was difficult to determine based on their appearance.

Other races than vampires included mollets. No matter if they are young or old, their skin is wrinkled, right?

“…To be honest, I don’t know either.”

“You don’t know your age?”

“Martin and Chris have their own reasons.”

“…So there could be more than us?”

Hearing Helga’s words, Sylvia suddenly smiled creepyly.

“If you are a vampire, you could say that the probability of that happening is high. I will tell the guests.”

“Huh?”

“This is a place where older customers often come.”

That was the nominal reason she gave, but somehow she seemed happy.

“Actually, isn’t that kind of uncertainty somehow exciting?”

“Eh?”

“You understand. My sister has a strange personality.”

Helga whispered to me. Yeah, it kind of seems like that.

It seems like the good Sylvia and the strange Sylvia coexist.

But isn’t it natural for each person to have two sides?

Anyway, as time passed, it was time for the bar to open. There were three bartenders besides me, so I didn’t have much to do.

To be honest, I don’t know much about bars. At least it’s a modern bar? Western bar? I’ve heard that there are various types of this and that.

However, I felt like I had a good idea of what kind of place Sylvia’s bar was.

Although the age groups were quite diverse, they all had something in common.

Either he had a prosthetic hand or leg, or he was missing one of his limbs altogether.

Even the sane people seemed to have one or two unique scars, all of which were retired fixers.

“Chris, can you bring this champagne to the table over there?”

“Yes.”

Plus, there’s one more peculiar thing.

A long table where the bartenders stay. I thought that was called a claim.

Aside from the claim, there were quite a few tables where guests sat and drank.

Is it because you think of older customers?

“Here it is. Guest.”

“What is it, a kid I haven’t seen before?”

As I delivered the drinks to the table pointed to by Sylvia, an old fixer took an interest in me.

“This friend is also true. Sylvia said it earlier.”

“Ah, ah! I didn’t say you were a kid, I said you were older than us. I’m sorry about this, sister. I made a mistake.”

Then the fixer handed me a green Maguspol bill with a pot of gold on it.

No, it’s nice to get a tip. I think the rumor has spread strangely?!

“…Thank you.”

“Child, you can just talk between us.”

No, no matter how you look at it, isn’t it a bit dangerous to say something like that between you and me?

I first approached the captain where there were rows of chairs for guests to sit on.

“Silvia, I got a tip.”

“Already? As expected, you seem to be resourceful.”

I said it because I thought it was polite to share it with the other bartenders, but they didn’t seem particularly interested in my tip.

No, rather, he was busy combining the drinks he ordered in a flashy way.

I did my job again.

However, starting with those two customers earlier, I felt like my age was fixed as the oldest person in the bar, in Schrödinger’s cat state.

“Kid, take my order here for a moment.”

“Yes, what would you like to order?”

Meanwhile, there were customers who treated me like a kid.

He was a black orc wearing a black jacket and had white-rimmed sunglasses on his eyes.

Uh, is that an outfit I’ve seen a lot of times somewhere? A Black Orc colleague who used a machine gun used to stick to exactly this fashion.

Naturally, there were no machine guns anywhere around him.

“Hey, Johnny. That sister is older than you?”

“…What?”

Meanwhile, the two guests from earlier began to meddle presumptuously. On the subject of guests?

And the customer named Johnny suddenly took a look at me and said,

“This kid is older than me?”

“Yes, that’s right!”

I clenched my teeth without realizing it. It’s already hard to control the strength of my right hand, but it keeps doing that next to me.

“Hahahaha!!! …Then, sister. Have a drink with this drink.”

“….”

no. Even customers who were fine were infected!

I took the order for now and returned to the captain.

When I looked back in the direction where Johnny was, he suddenly started blushing as he looked at me and the two customers from earlier.

What, were those bastards perverts instead of problem solvers?

“What do you think, Johnny? At our age, when will you ever call me sister again?”

“…Not bad.”

I had no way of knowing their conversation.

I just hoped those perverts wouldn’t order more drinks.

When there was no work to be done, he sat in the captain’s chair and rested, and when a customer placed an order, he brought them a drink, which was repeated.

But suddenly someone appeared, supporting the injured man covered in blood.

“Silvia! Please help me!”

A kid with youthful-looking blonde hair and red eyes that were even more vampire-like than mine came in, dragging a goblin-orc mix.

‘What, what’s going on?’

“Martin, help Youngmin and take Deoksu to the second floor.”

“Yes, boss!”

what? who? Youngmin? Deoksu? No such familiar names appear in this game…

I didn’t know how things were going.

But unlike me, who was confused, the guests were calm.

And a moment later, the bar door opened, but the bar suddenly turned red before any customers came in.

Martin had already disappeared for a long time with two people with familiar names.

– Beep.

When Sylvia pressed a button on the remote control toward the station field, the field field returned to blue.

Then beastmen with hyena heads appeared. Why do these guys stick out in Cabrini Green?

“Owner, I knew everything. Where are the guys who ran away?!”

While I was thinking about this and that, one guy shouted at Sylvia.