Chapter 3: Underpaid For Doing More
Chapter 3: Underpaid For Doing More
In the end, I couldn’t get the information out to her. She was sweating with her mouth completely shut about that room. AGHHH! It’s now stuck in my mind that I couldn’t choose what I wanted to get. I will try to get her to say what that was later. But right now, I finally made it to Galdorcræft.
Every habitable planet has multiple invisible barriers installed. Without a visa attached to your ship, it will trigger an alarm on the planet. I got mine because of my occupation. It mostly doesn’t matter since space travel is not as popular as it used to be. There are cheaper ways to different planets, like portal airports. This honestly allows many people to travel with no time or issues. It is also a benefit to me since barely anyone travels in space. Some people do, but it's mostly people who are tasked with gathering materials in lands with no portals and pirates/invaders. This is why most planets registered to the universal nation have those barriers just in case.
A big sigh left my mouth, awaiting the immense amount of grilling I would get from my superiors. It’s even worse due to arriving in the late afternoons. But that’s not my main issue; my main issue is how can I explain how I have this woman on my ship? I flew towards Karmen, the city of the best miners and explorers in Galdor. I'm still in awe every time I see Karmen from the sky. It's a beautiful and small continent that is mostly made up of the large mountain in the middle that reaches towards the clouds. The architecture doesn't really change for a long time. It still has that old-timey feel with a lot of historical buildings intact. It's still a mining continent; this place prides itself on the quality of magic crystals the mountains produce, to the point where most of the objects are run by magic crystals. Too bad it's all a hoax to preserve our prestige.
I slowly drifted towards the company's docking bay and landed my ship. AGHHH, I’m hungry as well Hopefully, I have enough to at least get a decent meal for tonight. I can already see my superior down at the docks looking at my ship angrily. His sharp teeth are showing, ready to rip me apart with those long, sharp claws, ready to tear me. Beastmen are extremely intimidating, especially beastmen like lions, wolves, and especially honey badgers like him. Small but fast and dangerous, their brute strength rivals even the rhinoceros beastmen. I grabbed a steel trolley and started to stack boxes onto it.
「 So, uhhh Tiana, Is it possible to hide somewhere. I will try to stall as much as possible. There’s some small vent at the top…」
「 No need, I got a place to hide. 」
She walked towards my shadow and slowly entered into it, completely disappearing.
「Woah, what did you do?」
Half her head emerged out of my shadows.
「I’m just hiding in your shadows. Honestly, I’m used to it. Just don’t worry about me and keep cool.」
She is always full of surprises. Time manipulation and also some sort of shadow magic? I’m kind of envious of having her; I wish I got something cool like that, especially magic. I wish I got stuff like that.
「HURRY UP AND OPEN THE DOOR, BOY.」
I rolled my eyes, opened the back of the ship, and slowly wheeled the trolley down the ramp. Ugh, I can see those eyes glaring at me.
「WHERE WERE YOU? YOU ARE 40 HOURS LATE FOR YOUR DELIVERY. 」
「You gave me an impossible task anyway. It takes me at least 1 day to travel to Meandu. I realistically cannot get them in 2 days.」
「WELL, I DIDN’T HIRE YOU TO DO THINGS SLOW. YOU SHOULD BE THANKFUL YOU EVEN HAVE A JOB. SO THE VERY LEAST YOU COULD DO IS DO YOUR DAMN JOB PROPERLY.」
I frowned in frustration. There’s nothing I could do. He is right; at least this job is keeping me alive. No other place would hire me, and this job gave me the decency of having a roof over my head. Ugh, I just have to let him shout at me. It’s not like he will fire me anyways; he can at least tell I get great quality material, although he will never admit it. I can see the other explorers and supervisors looking at me and whispering to each other. I hate it, it makes me very uncomfortable having this many eyes on me.
「Ok, next time I will try to get the delivery on time.」
「I hope you're not lying to me, BOY. I don’t trust you fully. Now let’s see if you got all the items I requested.」
He starts checking every single box and inspecting every single one. He starts to tick off every single item on his tablet. I can see the anger and frustration in his eyes when he sees that I have done my job properly. I know he hates me and wants to shout at me, but one thing that I know is that he never lies. He started typing on his tablet and extended it towards me.
「At least you did your damn job; here’s your money. Since you delivered it late, I have taken 200,000 UD off for being late, so you are only getting 500,000 UD.」
I grabbed my phone, and he tapped his tablet onto mine. My phone and his tablet light up. Ugh, he’s underpaying me again. At least it’s more than enough money to live.
「Your next job will be in 2 weeks. I hope you do your job properly next time.」
He walked away towards his office, and I went straight to work on my ship. It is annoying sometimes because it takes so long, but it’s necessary to have a working ship. Luckily, this dock has robots that do everything for you, or it would take me hours to hook up. I did also learn how to do it manually, but I’m hungry, and I want to eat something hot.
「He doesn’t treat you well, huh, Leo.」
「WOAH!!」
「Hey, keep your damn mouth shut. Just talk to me telepathically. I linked your mind to mine so we can talk freely.」
「Ok, I will; this feels like an invasion of privacy.」
「Yeah, but also, I don’t want them to listen to us.」
「Fair, anyway, they never treat me right, but at least they do pay me. Even though they are underpaying me about 4 times the amount the other guys are getting. Even worse, they get more time and deliver less than me. But I can’t complain. If I do, they will deduct more money from me. At least it’s more than enough for me to live.」
「Why work for them anyway? Those damn pricks don’t treat you well.」
「Can’t. It’s the only work I can grab. Even if I leave and work somewhere else, I would get blacklisted by the UN.」
「Damn, that suck, I wish I can help you but the only thing I can do is eliminate…」
「Please don’t do that. I need this job. Also, if they die, the first person they blame is me.」
「I’m joking. I don’t kill people randomly.」
130,000 UNIVERSAL DOLLARS JUST ON FUEL? WHEN DID IT GO UP BY 30%? Fuel prices are getting higher and higher. It’s so unpredictable sometimes.
「Damn, I thought UD would be inflated more after 300 years. I guess not.」
「Oh right, you can hear my thoughts. So you said you have some business to do here. What kind of business do you have here?」
I paid my fee, which was half my paycheck, and walked back to my ship to grab my bag for grocery shopping. She popped out of my shadow and sat on the secondary pilot seat. We switched back to talking verbally.
「It’s more like I want to check some things out. I had a feeling I should be here. Also, is it okay if I stay with you for a while? I don’t have a place to stay.」
「Yeah, if you're fine sleeping on the ship? 」
「Wait, this is your home?」
「It’s not bad, right? I don’t have to pay for rent, and everything that I need is on this ship. Anyway, what do you want for dinner?」
A complete silence has emerged. I can tell she thought about it but feels a bit guilty. Her mouth slightly drooled while curling into a ball.
「Don’t worry about paying me back. It’s on me. 」
「 nah, nah, nah, I promise I’ll somehow pay you back someday. I just... 」
I gave her a big smile just for reassurance. I feel like if I don’t, it will be back and forth of the same thing. All I’m thinking about is what food I want to make.
「No need to, having company is good enough for me. So what do you want? 」
「Gyoza, I … want gyoza.」
「Affirmative, I’ll get you lots of gyoza. Oh, you coming or not?」
「No, I still feel a bit hazy and tired. I probs haven't recovered fully. 」
「Alright, I’ll be back in around an hour. 」
I can tell she has looked exhausted since she reversed the weather. But how she curls into a ball when tired and how she speaks—I feel like she reminds me of something, but I can’t put my head around it. Anyway, I will make this shopping trip quick for her. I left the ship to go to the nearby grocery store. That energy ball she gave me works like a charm; I’m still bursting with energy even when running. It felt great to never feel tired. Maybe I should ask if she has the formula for that energy ball for the reward she wants to give me. It will make my job so much easier.
