Chapter 3
It was a restaurant surrounded by flourishing flowers.
Lynn walked Yomi to the street corner just before the restaurant. “Mimi, can you really manage on your own?”
“I can.” Yomi knew that if he did not go now, he would be late. He jumped down from the back seat and waved. “You should hurry to work… We can eat together later.”
Lynn smiled and waved his tentacle, then quickly rode away.
Yomi straightened the clothes that had been ruffled by the wind. Today he was wearing a white shirt. It had once belonged to some child-sized doll, so it was decorated with lots of lace and frills that children liked, and there was even a white bow on the back… But no matter what, it was still a white shirt—Yomi’s only piece of formal wear.
Before transmigrating, Yomi had only been eighteen. It had been summer vacation at the time, and he had found a part-time job, but before he could even start properly, the apocalypse had arrived. And now he was facing another unusual job like this. It would have been impossible not to feel nervous. Yomi took a deep breath and walked straight toward the restaurant.
Outside the restaurant was a small sunken garden. Yomi had to pass through it before entering the building.
The stone steps leading down from the street into the garden were the most comfortable height for the people of Snar Star.
But Yomi was not one of them.
He was too small.
A moment later, when several people inside the restaurant absentmindedly looked up and their eyes passed through the floor-to-ceiling windows to the figure outside, they were all stunned at first, and then every one of them held their breath.
It was a boy so small he looked like the finest sample in a doll shop. He was far shorter and tinier than an ordinary Snaran, yet that smallness did not make people feel regret at all. After all, the proportions of his body were as outstanding as a model’s—long limbs, slender shoulders and back, a light body, and an appearance so nimble it almost seemed unreal.
And he really was nimble. When he went down the steps, he looked just like a little gazelle. The tips of his feet touched the ground lightly, and he was off at once, half walking, half skipping, reaching level ground in no time.
Although no one could hear his footsteps, everyone instinctively imagined a series of crisp sounds, clear as wind chimes.
The manager was still staring blankly when the automatic sensor door in front of him slid open.
That tiny little gazelle… no! That tiny, doll-like Snaran walked up to him wearing a mask. “Excuse me… are you recruiting a music box dancer model here?”
The manager was dumbfounded.
Yomi thought maybe his voice had been too soft, so he continued, “Excuse me…”
“Yes! Yes, we are!” The manager suddenly came back to his senses. He stepped back, rubbed his eyes hard, and then looked at the little Snaran in front of him. Even though half of that face was covered by a mask, it was clearly not a child’s face. Still uneasy, he asked, “A-Are you an adult?”
“I’m already eighteen. You can check my alarm bracelet. My personal information is on it.”
Two seconds of silence passed, and then the manager hurriedly opened his optical brain.
At once, a blue beam of light covered Yomi. Yomi stood completely still and looked at him in confusion.
Then a voice came from the optical brain: “Measurement complete. Height: one meter seventy.”
“…”
In an instant, the whole restaurant erupted. Even the few customers present could not resist coming over to look.
“No way, seriously? This isn’t some prank your restaurant is pulling, is it?”
“It’s definitely a lifelike robot! Look, he’s not even moving!”
Yomi quickly raised a hand and touched his mask.
“Wow… he moved!”
“Nonsense, he’s obviously a real person. How could he not move?”
“I really want to touch him. Other than in films and dramas, I’ve never seen such a tiny Snaran…”
Afraid they would become suspicious, Yomi hurriedly repeated the lie he had used before. “I-I’m from the Black Miasma Wasteland…”
The moment he said that, everyone immediately understood.
The living conditions of Snarans outside the main city were all different, and there were all kinds of appearances. The Black Miasma Wasteland was said to be an especially harsh place, to the point where almost no Snarans lived there anymore.
“Everyone, please return to your seats. This is our applicant. Please continue enjoying your meal…” The manager smiled as he dispersed the guests, then hurried Yomi into the staff lounge without wasting a second.
The lounge was just as bright and clean. In the farthest corner stood a classical music box that looked enormous to Yomi. It had a rose-covered canopy on top, and the space in the middle was about two meters high.
“Let’s conduct the interview here.” The manager looked at him kindly. “How should I address you?”
“Hello, my name is Yomi.” He folded his hands in front of himself, trying his best to appear professional.
“Yomi? Mm, understood.” The manager smiled. “There was originally supposed to be a weighing step too, since the music box has a load limit… but looking at you, there’s absolutely no need to measure! If even it couldn’t bear your weight, then that music box would definitely be defective.” As he spoke, he could not help glancing at Yomi’s mask. “Is your flaw on your mouth?”
Yomi immediately nodded, then unconsciously touched his mask again.
This mask had been sewn from free fabric distributed by the furniture factory before. When he had nothing to do, he had made many of them so he could change them every day and keep them more breathable… Once he had horns, he would not need to wear a mask anymore.
So far, no one here had ever taken the initiative to touch his mask. On Snar Star, they regarded human standards as the ideal of beauty, so concealing one’s flaws was similar to wearing makeup. Taking off his mask without permission was basically the same as suddenly removing someone’s makeup without asking—a very rude thing to do.
Naturally, the manager would not touch his mask.
This manager had already interviewed countless Snarans who were a little over two meters tall, but after seeing tiny little Yomi, he was so excited he almost did not know what to do. Filming was starting tomorrow, and before this, they still had not found a dancer for the top of the music box. Heaven knew how anxious he had been!
Who could have imagined that now…
It felt like a dream.
“Yomi, you’ve passed the interview.” The manager announced it with tremendous restraint. “Come to work tomorrow. You probably know the variety show already—it’s the very popular Exchange Lives. The production team is only filming at our restaurant for three days. Headquarters wanted to restore the music box element from when our restaurant was first established while the show is still hot, so they came up with this idea… You only need to stay inside the music box while working. We’ve already recorded your body measurements just now, and we’ll have someone rush out a suitable uniform and a prettier mask for you overnight!”
“Daily pay…” Yomi said.
The manager hurried to reply, “Would two thousand star coins a day be acceptable?” Yet even as he spoke, he felt a bit guilty. A body this rare and a humanoid form this beautiful must surely have been achieved only after enduring a great deal of hardship and spending a great deal of effort in private, right?
…Two thousand star coins?
Yomi stared at him in shock.
The manager grew even more uneasy under that stare, and anxiously began adding more. “That’s already the highest budget headquarters approved. During your work period, we’ll provide the best meals to ensure your energy and mood stay good. There will be a special car to pick you up and drop you off every day. If you don’t want to reveal your home address, we can reimburse your fare instead. Once you complete the three days of work, we’ll also give you a two-hundred-star-coin shopping card and a one-month unlimited bathhouse pass. Since you’re only a short-term employee, this is all the treatment we can offer…”
Yomi’s eyes widened. “A bathhouse pass?”
“Yes,” the manager said, assuming Yomi was dissatisfied. Smiling, he opened the map on his optical brain and explained, “It’s definitely not an ordinary bathhouse. It’s right here—this is the biggest and most luxurious bathhouse in the capital, and it has some cooperation with our headquarters. Besides basic bathing and massage, that pass also includes beauty treatments, hair styling, and all kinds of humanoid body care.”
Yomi had wanted to change his hairstyle for a long time, but the hair salons here were all so expensive…
He accepted the work information booklet the manager handed him and nodded seriously. “I’ll definitely work hard.”
In the Holy Palace of the main city of Snar Star, inside a private chamber.
The air was damp, and from a dim corner came a tearing sound that made one deeply uncomfortable.
If someone had entered at that moment, they would have discovered a gigantic monster sitting there. Two horrifying demonic horns grew from its head. The enormous wings on its back and the black scales covering its body radiated a dark aura as if they could corrode everything. Its claws were as sharp as blades, and it was currently shredding a handsome human skin-suit into pieces.
“Khh… khh…”
The monster let out a hoarse, low sound. Intense killing intent flowed through its golden eyes as it stared grimly at the light screen in front of it.
A variety show called Exchange Lives was replaying there.
The guests were divided into nobles and commoners.
And in this episode, the empire’s youngest prince, Joseph, had exchanged lives with a furniture factory worker.
The worker went off to enjoy the prince’s lifestyle, while Prince Joseph awkwardly and laboriously handled work on the production line.
At that moment, Joseph was smiling at the camera. “Although these tasks look simple, once you actually do them, you realize they’re really troublesome. They require a lot of patience and dexterity… Looking at it that way, a humanoid form really is important. Only with flexible five fingers can one do work like this, right?”
The monster again let out that hoarse “khh-khh” sound, almost as though it were sneering.
The next moment, its sharp claw lifted. Just as it was about to smash the light screen, suddenly, a tiny figure carrying a cardboard box darted across the frame on the screen!
“…”
The monster froze abruptly.
At the same time, the scrolling comments on the screen, which had all been praising Joseph, changed in an instant:
[???]
[Ahhh what was that just now? A doll?]
[Would a doll carry a cardboard box? That was obviously a person. Is this factory employing child labor?]
[Not even children are that small, okay?]
[Why did the camera move away? Let me see what that thing was!]
[It somehow feels so cute…]
At that moment, a servant entered carrying a bowl of medicinal soup.
The moment he stepped into the room, the servant was startled by the sound of the variety show—and then the hair all over his body stood on end.
Ever since Crown Prince Ansius had been gravely wounded in an interstellar battle a year ago, something seemed to have gone wrong with his mind. In the past he had merely been cold and inhuman, but now he had become strange and dangerous, at times even more unbearable than an evil ghost…
At first, the emperor and empress had come often to show their concern, but after witnessing Ansius’s increasingly mad behavior again and again, even they gradually became too frightened to come anymore.
After being gravely wounded, His Highness Ansius also stopped going out. Only on major occasions where the empire’s crown prince had to appear would he put on a human skin-suit and go out. Once he left the crowd, he would quickly turn back into that violent, terrifying monster…
But the key point now was this—after his grave injury, His Highness Ansius did not watch television at all! He even hated looking at it!
Just as the servant feared, there really was something very wrong with His Highness at this moment. Those golden eyes had narrowed sharply and were fixed on the image on the screen.
The servant immediately thought of Prince Joseph, who had come to visit not long ago and then left… Clearly, that prince was trying to provoke his elder brother in this stupid way!
The servant was so frightened his soul nearly left his body. Terrified that in the blink of an eye the enraged monster might reduce the whole chamber to pieces, he did not have time to think and threw himself forward to turn off the light screen—
When he was only one centimeter away from it, he heard the crown prince’s long-absent calm voice.
“That is… what?”
The servant froze.
He turned around stiffly. Once he confirmed that it was indeed the crown prince speaking, he slowly looked over.
The image on the screen had already been rewound and paused by His Highness Ansius.
At the center of the paused frame was the back view of a tiny little person holding a cardboard box.
The servant said dazedly, “Th-That… isn’t it a doll?”
From the corner came a harsh, strange, rasping sound. The servant knew the prince was about to get angry. Frightened nearly to collapse, he hurriedly added, “O-Or is it actually a person? Your Highness, please don’t be upset. I’ll have people go to that factory and ask right away!”
