After talking with Kita Ikuyo, Jhin decided to team up with her and Seika Ijichi to push Hitori Gotoh onto the cultural festival stage.
After all, Seika Ijichi was well aware of Hitori Gotoh's talent and potential and wouldn't possibly refuse something like this. Especially since Jhin was taking the blame, she readily agreed.
After receiving Seika Ijichi's text, Jhin put down his phone. He now had to deal with the problem child in front of him.
"So, you spent all of this month's living expenses on a virtual item?" Jhin pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling his head buzz as if he had just listened to Nymph sing.
Gabriel looked left and right, her index fingers tapping together, looking extremely guilty.
"I-I had no choice! To save the kingdom in the game, I had to do it. As an angel, I can't just abandon the suffering people of the kingdom."
"Sigh, it's not like I can't understand your gacha behavior."
Jhin had played online games before and knew just how predatory the microtransaction systems were.
He could only say it was a good thing this world hadn't produced any gacha mobile games yet, or at least Gabriel hadn't encountered them. Otherwise, any amount of living expenses wouldn't be enough for her.
"Really? Jhin, you'll definitely go to heaven after you die!" Gabriel tried her best to muster a gentle smile she had almost forgotten, then held out her right hand, palm up.
I, Gabriel, am borrowing money.
"I'm not dead yet, don't curse me!" Jhin smacked Gabriel's fair little hand away, circled around her, and sized her up with a strange gaze.
Gabriel got goosebumps from his stare. She rubbed her arms, took a few steps back, and looked at him warily.
"What are you doing? Ogling an angel's body will incur divine punishment!"
"Oh?"
Jhin hadn't planned on doing anything, but seeing her like this, his playful side took over.
He cornered Gabriel, slammed his right hand against the wall next to her ear with a thud, and used his index finger to lift her delicate little face.
Her messy golden bangs covered her violet eyes. Even though Gabriel stayed up all night, binged, and ate junk food, not a single pimple appeared on her snow-white skin, with only faint dark circles remaining as evidence of her late nights. Her thin, cherry-pink lips exhaled a fragrant breath.
At this moment, Gabriel, who always had dead-fish eyes, was a little flustered. Even though she tried to keep her expression from changing too much, her heart began to quietly accelerate.
Wh-what is Jhin doing? He isn't going to forcibly kiss me, is he? If he really does kiss me, should I push him away, or charge him a million in cash afterward?
Is a million too cheap for an angel's first kiss?
Jhin was a little disappointed to see Gabriel still looking like a listless, dead-eyed, shut-in angel. He had been expecting her to show a flustered expression.
"How about you become my maid, Gabriel?"
Jhin withdrew the finger that was lifting her chin, his disappointed expression like that of someone who had bought an interesting Transformer toy, only to find it couldn't even do the most basic transformation.
Wasn't that false advertising?
"Huh? A maid? I thought you were going to…" Gabriel stopped halfway and quickly covered her small mouth.
"Going to what?"
"Nothing, ahem…" Gabriel gave a deliberately serious cough.
That was close! This guy, Jhin, actually used such a method to tease me.
"So, do you agree?"
"Your house is short on maids?"
Gabriel didn't think that a person who could clean her garbage dump of a room until it was spotless and shining in half a day would need to hire a maid to clean his own room.
"I want to be lazy too, and Nymph isn't very good at housework."
"What's the salary?"
"Hmm… I haven't really decided on that yet." Jhin pinched his chin in thought, then glanced at Gabriel. "What was your initial monthly living allowance?"
"Over ten thousand, I think?" Gabriel's eyes lit up, and her gaze toward Jhin softened considerably.
Is he planning to give me a monthly salary of ten thousand?
"Then let's make it five thousand."
Gabriel, who had just been trying to use a gentle gaze to get Jhin to raise the salary, instantly switched to a menacing stare and said in a hostile tone,
"What do you mean by that? This angel's salary for being a maid is getting cut in half?"
"If you can handle all the laundry, cooking, and cleaning, I wouldn't mind giving you a monthly salary of ten thousand."
Gabriel thought about it for a moment and chose to give up. It wasn't that she couldn't handle a ten-thousand-yen salary, but that five thousand was more cost-effective.
If I have to do all the housework, how much game time would I lose?! I can only painfully choose the five-thousand-yen salary with more free time.
"Forget it, I still have to play games."
Since she had already agreed to Jhin's offer, Gabriel first needed to clarify what she had to do.
"What housework am I responsible for, specifically?"
"Cooking, I'll handle that. You'll be responsible for cleaning, laundry, and serving tea and water."
"Wait…" Gabriel interrupted Jhin, using her pinky to clean her ear. "Say that again?"
"Cleaning, laundry, serving tea and water."
"Say the last one again."
"Serving tea and water."
Jhin dodged sideways to avoid a white slipper that came flying at him like lightning.
Gabriel's fair, jade-like foot was exposed to the air, its cute, pearl-like round toes neatly arranged. As if sensing Jhin's fiery gaze, she shyly curled her toes.
Gabriel retracted her raised right leg, placed her hands on her hips, and glared at Jhin.
"You dare make me serve tea and water to people?"
"I'm not asking you to serve tea and water to others, just to me."
"Then…" Gabriel was about to say that wasn't okay either, but on second thought, Jhin wasn't home much anyway, so this duty was practically nonexistent.
She might as well agree to it, lest he add another job for her.
"Alright then, I'll reluctantly serve you tea and water."
"Good, then you can sign this contract." Jhin casually pulled a contract out of his desk drawer and handed it to Gabriel.
"You even prepared a contract beforehand?"
Gabriel took the contract suspiciously, glanced at the contents, and became even more convinced that Jhin had been plotting against her for a long time.
"It wasn't intentionally prepared. When the company was established, Kazuki just happened to stuff a few contracts in my hand, and one of them was for hiring a maid."
"You started a company? What for?"
"It's not under my management. I've left it to Nymph and Kazuki."
Gabriel took a ballpoint pen, signed her name on the contract, and handed it back to Jhin. "It's signed."
Jhin checked it to confirm there were no mistakes, then carefully placed the contract into his personal terminal's storage space.
Gabriel wasn't surprised; she had seen Nymph's strange technological abilities before.
Creating such a storage space would be easy.
It was just a shame that they angels didn't have such convenient divine arts.
___
🔥 New stories are available now! 🔥
✅ Access up to 40 advanced chapters of ALL stories!
✅ Receive exclusive content and updates!
Help us hit our community goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone
🚀 180 MEMBERS = +5 extra chapters of ALL STORIES!
👻 P - Walnutchan