Cheche was alone. He had been until now and would be in the future. Without anyone to correct the typos in his textbook. Without anyone knowing that sometimes his ear couldn’t hear.
Why is he bound when he ran away anyway?
Evil had many complaints about Cheche. In fact, from the very beginning, from when he deliberately went back the way to pick up trash, gave alms to beggars, and quietly put his hand in the fountain—he’d been frustrated all along.
Somehow feeling like his chest was bubbling, he kicked the door open with a bang. Outside the door, the measurement room staff had already gathered.
“Hey.”
“Y-yes.”
“Change the entire measurement process starting today.”
Evil instructed the person in charge who was trembling in fear. To improve all measurement processes. The improvement details started with writing the assessment forms in simple words.
The instruction to simply improve the Aura measurement process that had only been moving in a more complex direction until now was the first in Alcity’s history.
***
The fact that Evil Endem had given instructions to the measurement room spread quickly. Until now he’d been someone who just did his work and sat around bored or picked fights for no reason then went home, but lately he came to work early in the morning and even showed interest in Center work.
Such a drastic change was something that happened when death was near, but since that devil couldn’t die, there were even people claiming that the side effects of possessing too strong an Aura were finally bursting out. Thanks to that, the stock market fluctuated, and James’s mood went up and down.
As if adding fuel to the rumors, bizarre behavior was repeated today too.
Evil, who came to work in the morning, called James and gave instructions.
“Give the refugee work.”
“Yes, what kind of work should I assign?”
“Assign the ordinary work you guys do. Can’t you understand?”
“Well, Cheche-ssi still can’t properly handle computers, so I wonder if it’s okay.”
“Assign simple things like faxing or copying for now. He wants to work. No phone calls.”
“Yes, I’ll do that.”
“Don’t scold him if he can’t do it. You guys weren’t good from the start either. If I hear you scolding him, I’ll kill you all.”
“Yes…”
James had many things he wanted to ask, but it was clear Evil would get angry if he asked more, so he answered that he understood for now.
Returning to the secretariat without understanding the deep meaning of the order at all, James conveyed exactly what he’d just heard to Julia. Julia shared her concerns with colleagues through internal messenger chat.
The Director said to give Cheche work, what do we do??????
Work? What work?
He said to have him fax or copy. Simple things. No phone calls
Wow, he must really hate him ㅜㅜㅜㅜIs he doing this because he acted nice in front of reporters?
ㅠㅠㅠNo but what work would he do, what are we supposed to do with a kid who can’t even type properlyㅜㅜㅜ
Right, has he ever used a fax machine; if Cheche causes an accident, we have to clean it up;;ㅡ0ㅡ
Exactlyㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Only the typing sounds made by everyone except Cheche filled the quiet secretariat.
Eventually Julia called Cheche, who had been looking at the monitor.
“Cheche-ssi, starting today can you handle faxing and copying? First, can you send this by fax to the User companies? The list is here. How to send a fax… you don’t know, right?”
“I’m sorry. If you teach me, I’ll work hard.”
“Okay, okay.”
Julia taught how to send a fax with a smiling face and kind attitude. One of the tasks that had to be done every morning and afternoon at Evil Endem’s secretariat was sending rejection documents to Aura User companies’ requests. Since there were so many rejections, they’d made an official document format. This morning, they had to send faxes to a total of forty-four places.
Cheche was somewhat nervous about the task given for the first time since phone duty. His heart beat a little faster, and that heartbeat was heard intact by Evil’s ears. Not knowing that the world’s one and only SSS Multi User was sitting looking at a wall from across the corridor, following his presence, Cheche focused only on the work.
First, put paper in the fax machine, press the number, add, and send. He fumbled at first, but after repeating it a few times, he quickly got used to it. Cheche thought while pressing the fax numbers on the list.
‘If I can do it, anyone can.’
The secretariat staff had clearly been considerate of him. It didn’t require stamina, and it was work even an ignorant person like himself could do.
It was work that all Tartarians could accomplish as well. If they were just taught the method, even uneducated people could do it.
‘This work is too easy.’
The moment he thought that, his indifferent expression crumbled. Cheche closed his eyes briefly to gather his emotions.
The back of his neck was cold.
Corpses were hanging on his back. Corpses endlessly spread out, crying toward him calling him a young hero. Corpses hung on Cheche’s shoulders, so whenever he became even a little comfortable, they revealed themselves and took him to the middle of the battlefield. As always, this time too, Cheche just closed his eyes and endured.
***
Three days had passed since Cheche was given fax duties. Friday morning at eleven o’clock, tension hung in the secretariat. At eleven o’clock, the secretaries suffered from nervous stomach pain. At eleven-oh-five, footsteps were heard in the corridor.
“Hey, refugee. Let’s eat.”
Evil burst in, flinging open the secretariat door.
He who called Cheche had an expression like a young child excited to play with a new toy.
“Come out quickly. I called a helicopter.”
“Yes.”
Cheche stood up from his seat as if familiar with it, and Evil cheerfully kicked open the door again and went out.
“Have a delicious lunch.”
“H-have a good meal.”
After greeting the frozen seniors, Cheche followed behind Evil. The secretaries only clutched their chests after enough time had passed for Cheche, Evil, and James to walk down the corridor, get on the elevator, and the doors to close.
“My goodness. Even knowing, my heart almost burst.”
“What do we do? He got called again…”
“I don’t know. Pretend we don’t know.”
“Cheche’s life is really hard too. He escaped the battlefield only to be picked on by some devil bastard.”
It was bizarre behavior that had continued for a full four days since the Aura measurement. At first, the secretaries’ hearts almost poured out because of Evil who burst in around lunchtime. Evil snatched up Cheche out of the blue like a hawk snatching a lamb under the pretext of eating lunch, and Cheche only returned three hours later. The secretaries poured questions on Cheche, who sat down with an indifferent face as usual.
‘What, what did you do?’
‘Why were you called?’
‘How much did you get hit?’
Cheche looked at them and answered calmly.
‘He bought me food.’
‘…….’
‘Sea bass steak and pine mushroom stir-fry.’
‘…Oh… I see….’
The secretaries’ stomachs, who couldn’t eat properly out of worry and curiosity, growled.
Since that day, the secretaries had to suffer from stress-induced stomachaches every morning. Because the time when Evil came to take him to eat was getting earlier and earlier, now their stomachs hurt even before coming to work. They’d rather put Cheche outside in advance.
Even today he burst in right at eleven o’clock. Yesterday he came after eleven though.
Julia sighed and asked.
“The Aura measurement results come out Monday, right?”
“Yeah, they said results would come out Monday morning. They said there’s a possibility he’s a Soul Aura User.”
“Then he won’t be able to do secretarial work anymore. It’s a bit regretful, but it’s fortunate.”
“Fortunate for us and fortunate for Cheche himself too. His life will change one hundred eighty degrees from now on… It’s like completely winning the lottery.”
And it wasn’t an ordinary lottery with weekly winners. An Aura awakener after adulthood. A Tar refugee was about to put his name in that field, which had only a few cases in history until now.
“I’m really jealous… Not jealous of getting the young master’s attention though. It’s a complete life reversal now.”
“Well, will it really be?”
Vera shook her head.
“Honestly, if Cheche is a Souler, I’ll request a re-measurement too. I’m much more emotional than Cheche.”
“True… People don’t know how blunt he is, but we know Cheche’s personality. Just looking at his personality, I’d believe it even if they said he’s an Adapter.”
