Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint chapter 490

490 – Until the End

Kitchen Gluta’s head chef and a renowned entrepreneur even in Endé, Gluta, the pig-person. He takes diligence and faith as his motto, strict with himself as much as with others. Fortunately, he doesn’t act strict with customers; otherwise, he might have become a grumpy old man complaining everywhere if he had chosen a profession dealing with customers.

Still, he couldn’t treat the much older elderly pig-person lightly.

“Mrs. Mig, please watch your manners.”

“Manners? Are we eating?”

“Not that.”

“Then change your attitude! I’ve lived like this for 80 years. I’ll continue living like this until I kick the bucket!”

Even when he was young, she was already in her middle age. Gluta has been served by her a couple of times as well. It’s challenging to apply strictness to an elderly woman over 80.

The old pig-person swung the ladle violently above her head and shouted.

“I’ve done nothing but feed homeless children! If that’s a sin, shouldn’t you ask your mother for forgiveness first? Like you do to me!”

“It’s more than just feeding. Isn’t it?”

Gluta looked around Mrs. Mig’s dining table. There’s a modest table with a few seats, around 10. It may look shabby for a store, but for an elderly woman living alone, it’s surprisingly many.

“Even if it’s claimed to serve Orc’s Soul Food, it’s clear that Mrs. Mig’s house is a restaurant. In reality, it seems that pig-persons come and dine, not forgetting to pay some money in return.”

“I get food and a little money for the meal!”

“While other restaurants selling meat are struggling as targets of the Orcs, the only place that seems to be doing business is the dining table of pig-persons like you. Unintentionally… it doesn’t look good.”

“I must earn at least a penny! I’m struggling to survive day by day, and you ask me what I could leave behind?”

“Lately, groups of pig-like creatures have come in, eaten, and left.”

Clang. Mrs. Migg threw the ladle on the ground. The remaining watery stew left a long mark on the mat. Mrs. Migg grumbled and scolded Gluta.

“Then, can’t I even run a business? Where can an 80-year-old find a place to stay?”

“…Well.”

“Now, I can’t even use meat. I’m so old that all I have to chew on is bones! But even those bones have no marrow left to suck. It’s a virtue to dig somewhere inconspicuous and die! Oh well, since I’m going to die anyway, just kill me now! Make feed out of my bones!”

Knowing the situation well, Gluta couldn’t say anything more.

The commotion caused by the pig-like creatures is avoided by pig-like creatures themselves. Unlike other creatures whose communities are shaking, the community of pig-like creatures is becoming more solid. Gluta came to Mrs. Migg’s table with mixed feelings about it.

In other words, it was just awkward.

Gluta already knew that Mrs. Migg ran a food stall. He also knew that there was nothing else to do if Mrs. Migg stopped running the food stall, except dying. Gluta couldn’t bring himself to tell Mrs. Migg to die.

But… that didn’t mean Gluta could die either.

“Well, try attracting some customers to the lady’s place. I can’t endure this any longer.”

Mrs. Migg glared at Gluta fiercely and said,

“If I knew how to attract customers properly, my child wouldn’t have had such a hard time.”

Having experienced all sorts of hardships, Mrs. Migg was not easy-going. Gluta couldn’t say anything more and left the dining table. It would still be tough for a while… he had to endure a little longer.

Mrs. Migg, who sent Gluta away, spat outside and closed the door.

“Damn it. What am I supposed to do? Ugh, it’s a sin not to die.”

Gluta’s expectations were half right. Mrs. Migg was a collaborator with the Orcma, but she was lukewarm. She had always fed them, reminding herself that feeding them was something she always did, but she couldn’t shake off the feeling that she was involved in something dangerous.

“I should die gracefully. Ugh, tsk tsk.”

“Hey. Regardless of age, no one wants to die, right?”

Mrs. Migg was taken aback by the unfamiliar voice. A moment ago, at the table where she had conversed with Gluta, there was a stranger eating stew in a place where no one should be. Clearly hungry, he gulped down the stew greedily, exhaling warmth and making a fuss.

“Oops, it’s hot. Delicious, but hot.”

“What kind of rotten bastard steals someone else’s food?”

She tried to maintain composure as she shouted, but the human nonchalantly rolled the stew in his mouth, savoring the taste.

“Oh, what’s this flavor? Pork?”

“What does it matter if it’s pork or not when you’re eating recklessly?”

“Fascinating. Providing pork at a hub supporting Orcma? Does Orcma forget its beliefs when filling its own belly, or is it deceiving a kind grandmother with a lapse of memory?”

A ominous feeling became a reality.

In the first place, humans coming to such a alleyway restaurant was strange. There was only one reason why a meticulous human would take an interest in her—Mrs. Migg, the caretaker and provider for the accident-prone Orcmas.

“Ah, two pots? Different meat for non-pig beings and another for pig beings? Oh-ho, this method exists. Then… monopolizing pork blocked from trade and selling it exclusively?”

“Do recent folks have nothing better to do than blabber on? I’ve been eating pork for 80 years! I don’t care about such things!”

“No need to care. How much pork has Piggie, who has lived 80 years in this old house, tasted? Probably not much, considering the recent times.”

The human who tossed the spoon raised his foot onto the table. Feeling the pressure in his leisurely movement, Mrs. Migg shouted.

“I only have the sin of feeding those without homes! If that’s a sin, fine! I might as well die!”

“Do you really wish for death?”

As he casually waved his arm, a card stuck into the wooden table. The edges of the trembling card were sharp like a blade.

Smiling towards Mrs. Migg, who was catching her breath, the human said, “Don’t worry. Whether you’re an elderly grandmother, a pig being who has faced adversity, or someone with a pitiful past, shameless enough to snatch the obvious truth in front of you, it doesn’t matter to me at all.”

Maybe even Orcma’s head won’t be enough… If I continue to search from the fingertips, I will eventually arrive.

“You are just a human in front of me.”

“Don’t speak gibberish and get lost! Before I report you…”

“hahahaha. Maybe someone who asked your Orcma children to keep a secret from you.”

To protect what they hold dear, that’s what it means to be vigilant. Lady Mig only wanted that. She stubbornly stuck to her denial.

But I already knew what she was thinking.

She can’t hide anything from me. For a regressor like her, forgetting is the only way to hide something. Although she will probably forget why she wanted to hide something in the first place.

“How can you do that…!”

I didn’t answer, but clapped my hands. The iron cards sparked as they rubbed against each other. When Lady Mig, who was scared and tightly closed her eyes, opened them again, I had already hidden myself in the confusion of Endé.

Similar to that moment.

The pig vault. The most secretive place among the community of pig shifters.

Those who have no money and are persecuted gradually become more closed off. They don’t even trust the money they have in their possession. It’s not strange for someone at the bottom to hit them from behind and steal their money.

Naturally, clans that share the same blood gather together, and they hide their easily lost fortunes in their own hiding places. They entrust the vault to the most trustworthy clan member.

This was the pig shifters’ small bank, the pig vault.

“Hm. The ‘Dining Table’ is under attack?”

“The leaders are anxious. Just the thought of that unfamiliar human is enough to stir them up.”

Now that society has developed, and knowledge of finance has spread, the pig vault is not as closed off as it used to be. Moreover, they have learned how to make money roll, so they were making profits in their own way.

Just that their methods were a bit dirty.

The vault keeper, Sherlock, wrinkled his nose in displeasure.

“One? Just one measly human?”

“It seems so, from what I’ve heard.”

“What about the first impression?”

“Um, I’m not really sure about that…”

“Is he an outsider? Could he be someone new in that mansion?”

Rumors of a human who bought the mansion with an enormous amount of cash had already spread far and wide, even if the mansion was vast. If something strange happened, there was no choice but to suspect an outsider who stood out.

However, the boss shook his head and answered.

“No, he’s not. His first impression is different. Besides, he was in Ovelie at that time.”

“Hmm. Didn’t he go outside? Even though you know his first impression, you couldn’t find him?”

From Noble mtl dot com

One unfamiliar human was causing chaos in the community. No one knew where he got his information, what abilities he had, or even his personal information. It felt suffocating, as if trapped in a dark alley.

Above all, it was too swift and lethal for just one human to achieve. It seemed impossible even with the help of an insider.

The vault keeper with a bad feeling wrinkled his nose.

“Release the ‘hounds’. Choose those with a keen sense of smell and capture that guy.”

“Yes, Your Highness. And what about the funds…”

The vault keeper decided to open the vault to get rid of him. Sherlock took out the key and firmly inserted it into the vault lock.

“I can’t give you much. I’ll consider giving you more depending on the progress of the task. That’s the message…”

Clang. As he turned the key and pulled it, he felt something caught.

The vault collapsed with a rumble.

He was so shocked that his body froze. The vault door slid weakly in front of him. The steel vault that had always given him peace of mind, protecting the money of the wealthy, revealed a feeble interior.

Along with the vault door, hundreds of cards spilled onto the floor. It was as if the entire vault had collapsed, leaving only one leather card. As the support disappeared, the entire vault crumbled down.

The vault keeper’s despairing eyes turned towards the inside of the vault. Instead of the expected fortune, the vault was piled high with pork instead of gold.

And at the top of the hill of pork, a smiling card… Mockingly, it was waving at the pig-like creature.

Little by little, a voice could be heard in the vicinity of Endé. The mutterings of the frightened creature overlapped, gradually creating a horror reminiscent of a ghost story.

Where it appeared from, how it knew, how powerful it was—no one could tell. Not wielding a powerful force, but using the unknown as a weapon, no one could find him as he disrupted Endé. They just stood there, dumbfounded.

However, those who had experienced ‘it’ even once, murmured as if making a solemn promise.

A magician had appeared.