Chapter 22:

The human brain is designed to lose its ability to speak when faced with severe mental shock.

When under strong stress, survival instincts suppress non-essential language functions.

Or perhaps negative emotions take priority, causing the brain to delay processing language.

Psychological defense mechanisms may activate to shield us from traumatic experiences.

Whatever the theory, the conclusion was always the same:

A strong shock turns people into fools.

Thus, as the fool I had become, I blinked blankly and thought:

“The shop is closing…? Then, what about me?”

It was a fresh morning with no trace of fatigue in my body, thanks to the Tesseract.

But Greg delivered shocking news as soon as I arrived for work: the shop would be closed for a while.

I was utterly flabbergasted.

Having just bid farewell to my life as the Ghost yesterday, this was a bolt from the blue.

What about me, boss?!

I need a job to survive! Take responsibility!

I bustled around Greg like an anxious bird, demanding an explanation.

He grabbed my head gently with one hand and spoke in his usual calm voice.

“Calm down first. There was a small incident while you were away. A group of vampires suddenly showed up.”

“…!”

Vampires came to the shop?

From his words, it wasn’t just one or two—apparently, it was a whole group.

That made things a little more understandable.

A vampire group was much trickier to handle than a lone vampire.

The more vampires gathered, the stronger the magic they could wield using blood as a medium.

No matter how strong Greg was, even for a top-tier orc, defending the shop intact must have been tough.

“Well… they were mostly nobodies, so I beat them up and prevented them from wrecking the shop.”

…Or not?

From the sound of it, he just punched them all out and chased them away.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Now that I thought about it, the shop didn’t look like it had been trashed at all.

At worst, a few windows were missing, and there was a small hole in the wall.

Nothing suggested the shop needed to close for long.

Tilting my head in confusion, I asked why the shop had to close.

Greg smiled bitterly and answered my question.

“Why close the shop? Sigh… a few items got caught in the scuffle, and one of the critical appraisal artifacts broke.”

“…!”

An appraisal artifact? Could it be the magic-infused glasses?

I widened my eyes in shock as Greg nodded.

If those glasses were damaged, it made sense to shut down the shop.

The artifact was essentially the cornerstone of our shop’s ability to assess items.

It was like a restaurant losing all its kitchen knives.

Sure, we could serve meals that didn’t need knives, but that would hurt the quality.

It was better to close temporarily and get new knives.

“Of all things to break… This means I can’t even argue about wanting to work. Still… it shouldn’t take too long to fix, right?”

I looked up at Greg cautiously, clinging to a glimmer of hope.

Fine, I’d accept it.

The shop is closing—okay, that’s justified.

But when will it reopen? Three days? A week? Surely not more than two weeks, right?

Reading my expectant gaze, Greg stroked his chin thoughtfully and replied:

“It’ll probably be at least a month, even if we’re lucky.”

“…!!”

A… month?!

I trembled at the unexpected duration.

A month was far too long.

The savings I had would only last four days. This was a disaster!

Desperate, I tugged at Greg’s sleeve and protested fervently.

But Greg gently pried my hands off and explained further.

“Fixing an artifact is expensive. If I take it to a Nighthaven craftsman, it’ll cost at least tens of thousands of credits and take months to repair. That’s why I plan to visit an overseas contact while the shop is closed. Considering travel time and repair duration, a month is actually optimistic.”

“…!”

“Coming with me? Yuria, do you even have a passport?”

“….”

…Passport? Of course, I don’t have one.

I lowered my head, feeling defeated.

Sure, Greg’s explanation made sense.

Highly skilled craftsmen existed in Nighthaven, but Greg didn’t have the connections to afford their exorbitant prices or extended timelines.

Traveling abroad to a contact who could work efficiently and affordably was a rational decision.

If I were in his shoes, I would’ve done the same.

But what about me, left behind?

I’d given up being the Ghost to work here and earn a living, and now…

Feeling a small pang of betrayal, I stared dejectedly at the ground, lightly kicking it.

Greg chuckled and ruffled my hair, which only made me angrier.

“Don’t worry too much,” he said. “You’re still my employee. Of course, I’ve thought of something for you.”

“…!”

“Follow me. I’ll introduce you to someone trustworthy who’ll give you work while I’m away.”

What?!

Greg’s words filled me with gratitude. Truly, the best boss of our time!

I quickly followed him, my earlier gloom replaced by hope.

Who this trustworthy person might be didn’t matter much. If Greg vouched for them, they wouldn’t be a terrible boss.

The world suddenly felt brighter, as if sunlight had broken through the storm clouds above me.

“By the way, Yuria, you’ve been acting a bit more… playful lately.”

“…?”

Playful? Me?

Frowning, I recalled my recent behavior: circling Greg like a child, looking up at him pleadingly, tugging his sleeve, hopping in place, and shaking my head dramatically.

…No, no, no.

This wasn’t playfulness—it was just nonverbal communication since I couldn’t speak.

To emphasize my point, I jabbed Greg’s thigh lightly.

Who’s being playful now?

By the time we reached our destination, I recognized the building immediately.

“Wait, this is Crowley Problem-Solvers… where the protagonist works!”

Before I could process the shock, I heard a familiar voice:

“Oh? Greg? Yuria? What brings you here?”

“Pink-haired one. Is Raven inside?”

“Well, Jin lives here, so he’s probably inside. I just got here myself.”

It was Sakuragi Alice, arriving at the worst possible moment, confirming my fears.

Greg’s “trustworthy” job was…

“A part-time position at the Problem-Solvers Office?!”

After all my effort to avoid the protagonist’s group, fate had thrown me right into their midst.

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