I Level Up With In-app Purchases

EP.82 A Man Being Tempted (3)

The youngsters had eaten their fill and returned to the academy long ago.

After closing the general store and going up to the second floor to relax, I let out a deep sigh at the sound coming from downstairs.

In fact, in this world without TV or entertainment, the best way to spend a late night was to sleep, so I was in a state where my mind was half-immersed in dreams.

But being disturbed by the sound of knocking on the door, I couldn’t help but feel irritated.

Knock knock knock-

“Hah…”

The sun had completely set and night had fallen.

Since the alleyway was so dark, it was very rare for people to come this way after sunset.

Yet, the fact that someone was knocking on the general store door on the first floor meant there was a high probability it wasn’t a random visit.

Even if I ignored that sound, I didn’t think anything good would come of it.

Knock knock knock! Knock knock knock knock!

“Right, there’s absolutely no way they’re just going to leave.”

If I had known this would happen, I should have separated the store and the house.

Who would have thought that putting the general store on the first floor and my home on the second floor would turn out to be the worst decision?

“Let me sleep!! What kind of bastard is knocking on someone else’s door at this hour?!”

I flung the door open and yelled, not knowing who was knocking from outside.

Someone small, wearing a robe pressed tightly around them.

Judging by the body shape, it seemed to be a woman.

“Ah, thank goodness. You were here. I thought you might not be.”

A woman’s voice.

With the appearance of this unfamiliar woman, I naturally remembered that there was someone targeting me these days.

There’s no reason for a woman to suddenly appear late at night, is there?

Although being near the academy meant that security wasn’t a big issue despite the eerie atmosphere, I lightly gripped the dagger I had brought just in case.

Hiding the blade behind my back, I acted nonchalant as I looked down at the woman.

“What is it?”

“Let’s go inside first. It’s dangerous out here.”

The woman, her face hidden, said this while scanning the surroundings.

She looked worried that someone might discover her visit.

“Why should I let you in? We’re not even acquainted.”

“Oppa, don’t you remember me? Ah right, I came with my face covered. It’s me, me.”

The woman slightly lifted her hood to show her face.

Who would have thought, it’s that woman who ruined the mood when I reunited with Fran.

While I didn’t know the exact identity of who was targeting me, this person was definitely connected, so I decided to open the door and let her in.

“Hehe, I knew you’d let me in.”

The woman slipped in through the gap I made.

Once inside the general store, the woman threw off the stuffy-looking robe.

“I thought I was going to suffocate.”

Surprisingly, the woman’s attire underneath was quite modest(?).

Sensing my gaze, the woman winked and asked.

“Were you expecting something?”

“Well, at least you’re not here for business. I might have had to turn you away at the door.”

“A man being too cold loses his charm.”

The woman pouts at my chilly attitude.

It was quite a cute gesture, but having been disturbed from my sleep, I was just annoyed.

If she had come because of a request, it wouldn’t be strange to get angry, after all.

I’m not the type of safety-ignorant patient who would get close to a suspicious woman who suddenly barged into my house, am I?

“If I had come for business, it might have been good for me too, but that’s not the case. My situation is really urgent. No matter how much I think about it, only you can solve this problem, oppa.”

“Only I can solve it? I’m already losing interest in what this situation might be.”

This is the woman who received a request to seduce me.

If Fran hadn’t targeted this woman for preaching, and thus hadn’t discovered her scheme, I might have fallen for this woman’s tricks.

I couldn’t understand what purpose the client had in trying to attach a woman to me, but being unilaterally played in someone else’s hands wasn’t to my taste.

“This happened because of you, oppa. How can you be like this? You should take responsibility.”

“What happened because of me?”

“I got marked by that crazy bitch when I came to meet you!! Are you going to keep pretending you don’t know?”

…Crazy bitch?

The woman’s words instantly brought one face to mind.

Honestly, there’s only one person who fits that startling description.

“She has a perfectly good name, Fran, and you call her a crazy bitch.”

“See, you do know! And why not call a crazy bitch a crazy bitch? What else should I call her? Do you know how crazy her eyes are? When she first came to our establishment, I thought she came to curse at me because of you.”

Did Fran follow this woman all the way to where she works?

Well, if not for that, how else would Fran have met her?

Even for an Awakened One, that kid’s got some nerve.

“I didn’t know she was so thoroughly crazy from the start.”

The woman was filled with intense excitement, seemingly fed up with just mentioning Fran.

Looking closely at the woman’s face, which I had only glanced at before, I could see that her eyes were sunken and there were dark circles not hidden by her heavy makeup.

It seems certain that Fran did something terrible to this woman.

“What did she do?”

First, I needed to know what she had done.

For a while, a voice filled with resentment echoed through the general store.

After hearing the woman’s full story, I spoke, unable to hide my irritation.

“I don’t understand why you’re blaming me for this at all.”

The woman’s situation was roughly this:

Fran had come to the establishment, suddenly saying she was there to deliver good news.

Naturally, the woman had refused to listen to such talk and kicked Fran out.

But after that, Fran kept visiting the area where she worked, and by the time she realized something was going wrong, it was already after a major incident had occurred.

Fran had been secretly preaching to other employees, not to her.

“So, let me say this again, it doesn’t make sense to hold me responsible for her going around preaching. Why should I be responsible for your personal problems? If it’s an issue between the two of you, you should resolve it yourselves. You shouldn’t come barging in here in the middle of the night.”

Surely Fran hadn’t threatened anyone during her preaching activities?

I could be certain of this because I had personally witnessed Fran’s preaching before.

It must be purely Fran’s own ability to persuade without any coercion.

“She’s targeting me for revenge because she doesn’t like that I approached you, oppa. Can’t you see the situation?”

“She’s always been going around preaching to this person and that person.”

The root of this issue was that woman entering Fran’s field of vision.

That alone was the problem.

But the woman refused to believe my words.

“Ah, I don’t know~! Only you can solve this, oppa. She’s ruined our establishment! We can’t work because there’s no one left!!”

Proselytized to the point they can’t work?

I suppose since they work in a shady business, Fran’s preaching must have been quite effective.

I hadn’t realized she’d been luring people away to the point where they couldn’t work.

“How can you stop people from leaving if they don’t want to work? You should have treated them better when you had the chance.”

It’s obvious how they must have treated the women working in such an establishment.

I could roughly guess how Fran had proselytized too.

She probably healed their bodies that had been irreparably damaged from their work.

“If things were normal, there’s no way people would leave like this. That crazy bitch must have done something. How can people suddenly quit their jobs after being bewitched by some cult??”

If it’s Fran, it’s completely understandable.

And even if Fran had really done something forceful, I had no intention of taking this woman’s side over Fran’s.

Seeing my indifferent attitude, the woman, seemingly getting more desperate, started to reveal things I hadn’t even asked about.

“They’re trying to pin the blame on me for what that woman who came in with my business card did. I feel like I’m going crazy from the injustice. Can’t you say something nice, oppa? Please? Tell her to stop. It’s obvious that woman likes you, so won’t she listen if you tell her?”

The woman firmly believed that Fran was doing this out of resentment because of me.

But that couldn’t be!

Fran had simply saved those pitiful souls.

It’s only natural that those whose lives she saved would fall head over heels for her.

‘Now that they’re healthy, they probably want to live a new life, and Fran must have gladly offered to help them live that new life, so it’s normal for them to quit everything and run away.’

I was getting annoyed with the woman pestering me.

It was absurd that I was wasting my time listening to these complaints.

“I don’t understand why you’re holding me responsible for people leaving because they wanted to, and I have nothing more to hear, so leave.”

“Do you have something against me too, oppa? What on earth did I do so wrong!! I did everything I could tell you! I gave up on the request, and I really don’t know who the client is!!”

It seems this woman thinks I have some great resentment towards her.

Sadly, there are no emotions entangled between us.

How could there be any bad feelings from such a brief encounter?

I might have felt a slight regret that meeting this woman was intentional, but since it didn’t come to fruition and fizzled out, I didn’t want to dwell on it any longer.

“I don’t have any particular resentment towards you. Her preaching is just what she does normally. It has nothing to do with me. If you feel so wronged, you shouldn’t have shown her pitiful people.”

What am I supposed to do about someone who wants to make the world beautiful?

It’s not like I’m someone special to her.

And from the perspective of those who were proselytized, it’s no different from having their lives saved, so trying to stop that would be ridiculous too.

“Let me say this one more time: coming to me with your complaints is pointless, so go back. Don’t come again.”

I’d prefer if she didn’t come anywhere near this area.

“…Don’t you want to know who put in the request about you, oppa?”

Realizing that I had no intention of granting her request, the woman tried to make a deal.

“Didn’t you say you didn’t know? Were you lying?”

“I don’t know right now. But if I try hard to find out, I might be able to know.”

This was the most enticing thing I’d heard from this woman so far.