“Thank you.”
Jaewook saw off the customer and sat down in the chair, sighing.
“Haah.”
It’s already been three months since Jaewook, a college student, started his part-time job at this convenience store.
Even in this era of abundant unmanned stores, discussions of singularity, and whatnot, there were still properly manned convenience stores.
A prime example is this place called a ‘moon village,’ which still exists in the developed South Korea.
“At least the pay is decent.”
Convenience stores near these moon villages still adhered to the classic manned method for reasons such as theft prevention.
They even properly paid night shift allowances despite not having many customers.
They must be making a profit to keep operating, though.
While guarding the quiet night convenience store and fiddling with his smartphone, Jaewook had to greet the next customer just a few minutes later.
Ding-a-ling.
“Welcome.”
The bell above the convenience store door rang, signaling someone entering.
Jaewook returned to his diligent service industry worker mindset.
However, when Jaewook stood up and looked around the store interior, he couldn’t see any customers.
Ah, is it that customer?
Whirr.
A faint mechanical sound.
Jaewook stared intently at the customer’s side profile, briefly appearing as they turned around the display shelf corner.
Snow-white skin with snow-white hair.
Could it be the albinism he had only heard about? But they didn’t look particularly sickly.
Silver-tinged white hair is rare even in today’s South Korea, where races have mixed due to the acceptance of many immigrants as countermeasures to low birth rates.
A small frame.
Beautiful, but closer to cute than pretty in appearance.
There was a ray of light even in Jaewook’s monotonous part-time schedule.
“But you know…”
Although Jaewook was quick to approach and talk to pretty women on campus, for some reason, he didn’t feel like getting contact information from such a beautiful girl.
First of all, she looked too young.
Jaewook’s strike zone was older women, not such young children.
A fourteen or fifteen-year-old middle schooler? At best, a high schooler?
It would be a crime for a college student like Jaewook to be interested.
Her height seemed to be less than 150cm.
The reason Jaewook couldn’t be certain was because of the electric wheelchair the girl was riding.
Even on a global scale, South Korea’s welfare is quite decent.
Government-level support for an electric wheelchair would probably be available even for someone living in this moon village.
“Tsk.”
Jaewook clicked his tongue.
How did that girl end up like that?
It was easy to guess that she was living alone since he had never seen her with a caregiver despite her mobility impairment.
Her petite frame that stimulated protective instincts aside, looking at that girl evoked pity first and foremost.
The wheelchair-bound girl who had been consistently seen during Jaewook’s three months of work, Jaewook had tried talking to her too.
But he had never properly heard the girl’s voice.
She only expressed her intentions by slightly nodding or shaking her head.
Jaewook was also a college student busy taking care of himself, and without knowing the circumstances of the girl living alone in this moon village or being able to take responsibility, interfering further would just be meddling.
Clack.
It seems the girl’s shopping was done.
What she put on the table was, as usual, one triangle kimbap and one cup ramen each. And a welfare card.
And, there was one more item she usually didn’t buy.
It was a can of beer.
“…?”
Jaewook looked at the girl with questioning eyes.
The girl avoided Jaewook’s gaze.
Jaewook was just going to ring it up, but he couldn’t help asking.
“Um, excuse me, customer. Minors can’t buy alcohol…”
Zap.
Through the silver hair slightly covering one eye, obsidian-like eyes shone brightly.
Jaewook flinched upon receiving that gaze.
Even for Jaewook, who had been seeing her for three months, it was the first time he saw the girl show emotion.
Unlike her cute appearance, the gaze of a warrior who had gone through battlefields was quite fierce.
Clack.
The girl silently took out another card.
“Oh…!”
What the girl put on the counter was her resident registration card with her photo on it.
[Lee Seulbi]
24xxxx-4xxxxxx
“Born in 24…!”
The girl’s age, revealed by her birth year, was clearly nineteen years old.
The girl was an adult who could proudly buy alcohol.
“I’m, I’m sorry! You just look so young.”
Startled by the fact that the young-looking girl was the same age as him, Jaewook hurriedly helped with the calculation.
Nod.
As if she had never glared, the girl returned to her usual empty gaze and slightly bowed her head to Jaewook while sitting in her wheelchair.
Whirr.
Ding-a-ling.
“Phew!”
As the convenience store door closed, Jaewook exhaled the breath he had been holding and slumped down in his chair.
“Haha, an adult?”
They say there are many unbelievable things in the world, but Jaewook was truly surprised today.
Of course, Jaewook had seen adult women under 150cm tall before, but this was the first time he had seen an adult woman who looked that young.
Yet, he felt pity again.
The girl not growing to that age was probably due to being unable to eat properly since childhood.
“How terrible.”
Although he didn’t know the details of the girl’s circumstances, Jaewook couldn’t help but blame South Korea.
If you’re going to support the vulnerable, take proper care of them.
Alone again, Jaewook was lost in thought for a while before opening his smartphone to watch a video.
[Full-dive virtual reality, ‘Astria Online’ official service launch imminent.]
A masterpiece that has been evaluated as the most excellent application of virtual reality systems, which have already deeply penetrated the lives of people worldwide in this era of the singularity, to RPG games.
‘Astria Online’
The final PV video of that game has been uploaded.
The interest of gamers worldwide in this game was so great that even during the beta service, they had to divide and operate servers by country due to user overload.
Jaewook, the thought of the girl completely gone from his mind, grinned while watching the PV.
“I’ll be a capsule owner soon too.”
That was the driving force behind Jaewook’s continuing his part-time job at the convenience store near the moon village for three months.
Of course, it’s an era in which almost every household has a capsule, but for Jaewook, who had become independent early and was covering his own living expenses and tuition, purchasing a personal capsule required a big decision.
Jaewook spent the boring work hours imagining himself enjoying adventures in the continent of Astria.
* * *
“Puhah! Ueeh! Ptui, ptui!”
Ugh, what is this?
I’m sure the beer I drank with my previous body didn’t taste like this.
Have I become unable to drink properly after becoming this body?
Well, even when I was active in the continent of Astria, I didn’t get along well with Ain, the dwarf warrior who was a heavy drinker.
I smiled, remembering the dwarf holding a beer mug and chatting happily in the tavern.
Ain wouldn’t let me drink, saying my body was too young.
The new body I received when I was summoned as a hero by the god of the other world wasn’t an adult from the beginning.
Seven years old.
When I fell into the other world, the age of the new body I received instead of my body that had died on Earth was about seven years old.
Moreover, it was the frail body of a girl who couldn’t even properly hold a spoon.
The fact that even my gender had changed is not important at all now, but.
The frail body becoming functional was mainly due to the holy sword forcibly given to me and the environment.
Dropped in front of a church with just a holy sword, I was raised being revered by the priests as a hero sent by the main god.
And in the year my body turned twelve, the demon race burned down the church.
I shook my head vigorously.
Even when I’m just sitting still, I suddenly start thinking about the past.
This is Earth.
Not the continent of Astria.
I finished my mission as a hero and returned to Earth.
But is it really true?
Were all the adventures I experienced in the continent of Astria real?
Isn’t it just a poor girl who had an accident, suffering from delusions and misunderstanding?
That I was a man in my previous life, died on Earth, received a new body in another world, adventured for over a decade to defeat the Demon Lord, and finally returned to Earth.
Really, if they were going to send me back, they should have provided proper after-service.
How am I supposed to make a living if they send me back with the body damaged from the fight with the Demon Lord?
I poured the barely drunk beer down the drain.
It was a waste, but I couldn’t help it.
Gurgle.
What entered my sight as I poured the beer was a thin wrist and snow-white forearm.
“Heh.”
For some reason, I laughed.
A thin falsetto, now familiar.
It wasn’t realistic.
But this is my voice.
Whirr.
I operated the electric wheelchair, heading towards my shelter with today’s rations bought from the convenience store.
Legs that don’t move as I want.
This wasn’t realistic, either.
But these are my legs.
That’s right.
The current me lacked a sense of reality.
To a terrible degree.