I put on a smile packed with sales instinct and changed the protective barrier’s settings. When the barrier turned opaque and made its presence known, the customer hesitated and stepped back.
Just then the door opened and the bell jingled.
The person who came in was a young man with an extremely solid build.
Ahem. The customer, plainly flustered, cleared his throat; his eyes flicked fast, raking over the newcomer’s well-dressed outfit.
"If I’d known this place was so vulgar, I never would’ve set foot in it!"
Barking late like a dog that only yaps after the fact, the customer strode straight out of the shop.
It was bland as an ending, but also the one I’d expected. It just took a bit longer than I thought.
"Try keeping that temper in check, Manager."
The newcomer—Nathan—spoke as soon as the customer was fully outside and the door shut, sounding sorry for me. With a frame so sturdy you could mistake him for an alpha hiding his pheromones, Nathan worked here as a clerk; he looked fully grown, but he was only seventeen. Those sharp-looking clothes were a work uniform we issued.
There were so many customers who swung between “can’t control anger” and “great at controlling anger,” depending on their build. People are people anywhere. I felt a small pang of gloom. He was the clerk, and I was the manager.
"No matter how well our shop is doing, we’re betas and commoners. If you live doing whatever you want in front of nobles, you won’t live long."
He said it like he was genuinely worried about me, but I found it hard to accept.
There isn’t a person alive who does whatever they want. Even the highest power in this country doesn’t get everything their way. It’s a whole country, after all.
It felt like some ridiculous misunderstanding, but Nathan looked down at me with pity.
All I felt was wronged. I’d kept my sales smile on and stayed polite to the end, even worrying about the customer’s physical safety.
"…How much did you see?"
"I only saw him walk out with a big gemstone."
"So you saw nothing."
"Come on, I can put two and two together. He came to sell a stone and turned around because of you. If a guy who looks that desperate for money does that…"
"What was the stone?"
"Uh, a yellow diamond, around fifteen carats?"
He did have a decent eye.
"Did it look sound?"
"Probably… no, right? If it were, you wouldn’t have let him just walk out."
He still needed to sharpen his sense a bit.
"He’ll be back anyway."
"…Maybe."
Nathan’s face stayed sour. He clearly wasn’t convinced. Explaining now would be pointless—he wouldn’t accept it. He’d learn soon enough. Probably within an hour.
"Why were you late?"
I skipped staff training and jumped straight to attendance. Yes, I was changing the subject. Honestly, explaining something that obvious was a pain. Nathan would find out soon anyway.
Told to explain his tardiness, Nathan straightened up. Like he’d prepared in advance, he rattled it off as if reciting from memory. He was definitely scared of the late fee.
"On my way in, Sammy was waiting. Said a gambler who got cleaned out was headed toward the jewelry district at dawn. He’d started showing up at the gambling den the day before yesterday, and they say he got stripped bare in just two days. They said he’s a baron from Shehun province, and since he’s an alpha I needed to let you know, so I looked into it…"
Nathan trailed off because I nodded. He’d finally realized who the customer who’d just walked out was.
"So he was an alpha after all."
"Ah…"
"Tell Sammy to keep an eye on the gambling-den side. And tell him again—absolutely no overdoing it. I’ll acknowledge today’s tardiness as work-related."
Sammy was the leader of the shoeshine boys, chimney sweeps, newsboys, and coal-delivery boys on Pisto-ga Street, where this shop is located. Like how a nineteenth-century London detective on Earth used street kids as informants, I was collecting information about alphas and omegas through Sammy.
Of course, I know perfectly well that detective is fictional. I’m not following his example to gather intel on crime.
Why would I do something that dangerous for nothing. I just want to know about alphas and omegas as potential customers. I told Sammy, too—no pointless heroics; just collect new rumors.
"You should only stretch your legs as far as the place you can lie down."
It must have sounded random to Nathan. While I wrote “Purchased contaminated fifteen-carat yellow diamond” in the cash ledger, he tilted his head with a strange frown.
"What do you mean?"
The fact he could soften “don’t talk nonsense” that much meant my clerk training hadn’t been a total waste. The part about keeping a calm smile no matter what kind of crap you hear clearly hadn’t stuck.
Not that I was talking crap.
"I’m safety-first to the core. I take care of my body. You take care of it, you live well."
I impressed my creed—thorough self-preservation—on Nathan, but—
"What document are you filling out?"
Nathan changed the subject with a face that said, why even talk. They say you can’t even sip scorched-rice water carelessly in front of kids—seeing him pick that up so fast almost made me snort.
"The cash ledger. I have to report to my employer."
At that, he looked worried again.
"I mean, if you write it up in advance and it doesn’t work out…"
"As if. That customer is coming back."
"Well, confidence is good, sure."
His sour look didn’t budge. I thought about making a bet, then dropped it. I’m not about to squeeze a flea’s liver. Even I’d feel guilty shaking down Nathan when he’s got so many mouths to feed.
Cheeky for a clerk talking to a manager, but I knew he was saying it because he worried about me.
Nathan used to be a pickpocket. He dodged capture long enough to give the police office a headache, and when he was about to get caught, instead of turning himself in, he told me what he really did and asked me to hire him. Before Sammy, the kid who passed me information on potential customers was Nathan, and like Sammy now, he’d been the kids’ leader. He said the only way he could think of to earn money legitimately was by getting hired here.
He acted confident, but the worry in his eyes shook me.
I’d wandered the streets too. I got lucky and my current employer hired me, but with a little less luck I could’ve ended up with a traveling troupe, roaming the country. Another job they took was prostitution and pickpocketing. I’d actually had to practice pickpocketing, and I knew exactly how badly an orphan with no connections gets exploited.
Just like my employer hired me, I hired Nathan.
Nathan, who used to feed the street kids, was still looking after them. Captain Nathan, who brought me information on alphas and omegas, had never once passed me a false tip. Maybe my eyes weren’t that bad—Nathan, clerk of Palmer Jewelry Shop, had never stolen from the shop or a customer.
"But confidence can’t turn into arrogance. That’s how I almost got caught, remember?"
He said it in the most serious tone.
"Wanna bet?"
My expression probably looked just like the one he’d made ten seconds earlier. Thoroughly displeased.
I’d heard there were a few more kids lately. Prices had already gone through the roof, and a tight household had gotten tighter.
Maybe he met Sammy first thing this morning for money. If there’s something to report, money follows.
"Fine."
"So you’re not confident?"
My kind resolve not to squeeze a flea’s liver came back as snark. Time to drop the pointless consideration.
"Let’s bet. One heni?"
The instant I put a gold coin on the line, Nathan’s eyes gleamed.
"One heni!"
With his agreement, the bet was made. And of course, I won.
As expected, our noble, drug-addled alpha came back before an hour was up.
"I can buy it for two hundred sixty heni, sir."
As the price of teaching an ignorant customer reality, I shaved forty more heni off my initial offer.
Even so, it was probably ten more than other shops would pay. It’s not like jewelers elsewhere see with different eyes. After I turned him down, he must’ve stormed in there fuming—so they would’ve shaved it harder, not softer.
That big rock wasn’t particularly desirable. At best, it was something you could maybe make use of if you had it. Using it would take a lot of work. No one’s paying a sweet price for that. Naturally, I’m not giving full value to a customer who crawls back. If you can’t cut the price here, you’ve got no professional pride.
Having learned firsthand that ten heni is precious, the customer had no choice but to sell to me.
"This is fraud."
When I pushed away my annoyance and explained it to him step by step, Nathan protested. Of course, it didn’t carry any weight.
I took one heni off the kid and passed Sammy two, adding the fee for information. Our customer, back within an hour with his hands shaking from withdrawal, would probably be happier by about ten heni’s worth of opium.
And I know how to return this gemstone I bought for two hundred sixty to its pre-contamination state. Back to its original condition—worth fifty thousand or more.
A happy ending for everyone. My employer, who’ll become the gem’s new owner. And me, who’ll receive forty-nine thousand, seven hundred forty heni in incentives from my employer.