Chapter 36
Back when I was still in grad school—
most of my friends were already full-time working adults.
For some reason, they were all obsessed with mobile games.
I didn’t get the appeal, but even at a glance, their levels and gear were insane.
—Dude, when did you even have time to grind that much? Do you just go home and play nonstop?
—Home? Nah, most of it’s done at the office!
At the office…?
That’s allowed?
—Iseo, you’re still a grad student, so you probably don’t know yet, but real jobs have peak and off-seasons.
During crunch time, we’re so busy we can’t even pee. But when it’s slow? It’s real slow.
So being a working adult didn’t mean constant, nonstop hustle.
There were busy days—and there were dead quiet ones.
What about the Punishment Enforcement Department, supposedly the most intense team in all of Happy World?
“Manager! What do we do with this file?”
“Budget usage records? Hide it somewhere no one can find it! If the Audit Team gets hold of that, we’ll all have splitting skulls!”
“Should I shred all these? I’m still new, I don’t know the protocol!”
“Shred it all! Everything!”
Rrrrrrrrripppp—!!
The long-delayed full-scale audit by Headquarters was finally scheduled.
Everyone was at war with paperwork—desperately trying to eliminate anything remotely suspicious.
So this is what “too busy to pee” looks like.
Then, Department Chief Bones handed me a thick file.
“Joy! These documents are top priority.
If the Audit Team finds these, not only our department but all of Happy World will be humiliated!”
Why was I getting the dangerous stuff?
Simple.
I was second-in-command now—a deputy manager.
And with rank… comes responsibility.
“With you here, we’ll pull through this audit for sure, Deputy Manager Joy!”
“Deputy! What should we do next?”
“Just give the order!”
Everyone looked at me like puppies waiting for treats.
The pressure…
I could feel holes being burned in my spine.
Yeah, nope. I need to get out of here—fast.
“Chief, as I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be out doing fieldwork today. I may even clock out from there, so I’m relying on the rest of you to handle the audit prep.”
“Deputy Joy. Fieldwork?
Far as I recall, you haven’t been assigned anything external this week…”
Fieldwork?
Yeah, right.
Bones was spot-on—there was no such thing.
—AHHH! The shredded documents are getting jammed!!
—We need more hands! We’re critically understaffed!!
And in this chaos, I…
was running away.
Once everyone figured it out, they’d probably hate me.
But what choice did I have?
Under the CEO’s gaze, my life was dangling by a thread.
First—I needed to survive.
“Deputy! Where are you going?!”
“Deputy Joyyyyy!”
“Please tell me you’re not abandoning me, Joy!
Don’t leave me, not like this!!”
I ran out of the building, leaving all those voices behind.
Blazing.
The sun of Daedalus shone too brightly, making me squint.
“Ah… the scent of freedom.”
Now then, where to?
Obviously—
to the Plant Gallery Meetup.
“So the event’s at Happy Flower.”
That’s the flower shop run by Krates’s wife, Lady Kshalri.
I knew the place well—easy to find.
Happy Flower.
A place overflowing with blossoms and spiky cacti.
One of my rare healing spots.
‘This place always calms me down.’
“Oh my, Manager Joy—no, wait, Deputy Joy now, right?
My husband’s been struggling just to become Assistant Manager, and here you are already Deputy? How amazing~”
Hohohohoho—
Lady Kshalri laughed elegantly, hand covering her mouth.
Krates, who’d been trimming a cactus, grumbled back.
“Getting promoted to Assistant Manager after 50 years is impressive too, okay?
Joy just moved up abnormally fast.
The only one comparable is Prince Zagreus.”
【Targeted by the CEO’s Gaze】
【Punishment Executor: Deputy Manager Joy】
Krates must’ve seen the floating text above me.
His jaw dropped.
“Whoa… a Deputy Manager from a subsidiary, and you got a title from the CEO?
That’s nuts. Seriously impressive.
But uh… with the big audit incoming, should you really be here right now?”
“……”
Krates, are you really bringing up work in my safe space?
My guilt was already eating me alive thanks to the coworkers I abandoned.
“Krates, there’s a world only deputy managers can see.
Me being here is part of my job.”
“…Sure. To me, it looks like you’re just skipping work.
I know Punishment Enforcement doesn’t do fieldwork during audit week.”
Krates, you bastard…
That’s some serious insight—for a former top agent of Team One.
If this guy had stayed, I’m sure he would’ve caught all my mistakes and sabotaged my rep.
I’d have been fired in no time.
Happy World lost a real talent thanks to those rebel scum in Tartarus.
Now I was pissed at the rebels again.
Lady Kshalri gave Krates a sharp rebuke.
“Honey! That’s no way to talk to the busiest man in all of Happy World!
I’m sure he’s handling very important things we’re not privy to.
Stop dawdling and set the table—guests are coming!”
“R-right…”
The Plant Gallery Meetup was at noon.
It was almost time for lunch—guests would start arriving soon.
Click—
Just then, a carriage pulled up in front of Happy Flower.
Ever since I started flying the Ghost Carpet, I’d grown curious about Soul Society vehicles.
This one?
Decked out in jewels, gold, and flaming skulls—it was just as extravagant.
And the creature pulling it?
A monstrous hound with three heads,
glowing eyes, and breath that literally burned.
—Grrrrrr…
—Ffffffff…
It looked like something out of mythology—
or maybe it was.
My spine turned to ice.
“OH MY GOD—BABE! GET OUT HERE!
IT’S HERE—IT’S REALLY HERE!
WE HAVE TO RUN! NOW!!”
Krates dropped the drinks he was carrying and fell flat on his butt at the sight of the beast.
Clunk—
The carriage door opened, and a foot in delicate floral heels stepped out.
Then came the figure of a woman, clad in a black gown embroidered with skulls and fire.
【Plant Gallery Admin – Chicoretta】
【Meticulous Goddess of Verdure – Persephone】
My heart nearly stopped.
And just like that, I dropped flat to the ground.
In moments like this, there’s only one thing a normal person like me can do—
play dead and hope for mercy.
Same reason pheasants bury their heads at the sound of gunshots.
“Looks like I arrived on time after all.”
***
Krates felt a twisting in his gut.
Had he not already been dead, he might’ve died all over again—from sheer shock and tension.
“Lady Persephone… came to our flower shop…!”
The wife of the CEO, the mistress of the former Palace of Hades—now Headquarters.
She was someone even lowly assistants like Krates couldn’t dare dream of seeing…
Yet there she was, arms full of side dish boxes, standing inside his humble shop.
“Hey, don’t just stand there. Help carry these boxes.
I made a ton of kimchi. We’ve got at least 100 more to go, so move it.”
“Y-yes, ma’am!”
While lugging the heavy boxes, Krates glanced nervously at Deputy Manager Joy.
Why had someone as important as him come to this flower shop—especially with a massive audit looming over HQ?
The only explanation Krates could come up with…
“Of course! He must’ve predicted all of this!
He’s the monster who outpaced even me, the former ace, and shot straight up to deputy manager!
He’s obsessed with performance—there’s no way he didn’t plan for this!”
Maybe Joy came here not to escape the audit—but to personally attend to the Queen of the Underworld herself.
His face was locked in a corpse-like expression.
He knew the weight of the role he was playing today.
“Joy, you terrifying bastard… If I’d known this would happen, you could’ve at least warned me!
Just seeing Cerberus’s face makes me feel like dying all over again…”
Cerberus—the monstrous hound who pulled Persephone’s carriage—could probably swallow even mighty heroes whole.
Yet the goddess stroked its head tenderly, like a beloved pet.
“Spotty, you can go home now.
But come back tonight to pick me up, okay?”
—Grrowrr…!
—Huffff…
—Arf!
Cerberus vanished in a flash.
And just like that, the Plant Gallery Meetup had begun.
Persephone, however, looked over the nearly empty table with a slight click of her tongue.
“I made all this kimchi for today’s attendees, but it looks like it’s just me, the two gentlemen here, and Miss Kshalri.
I really thought this plant-cultivation trend was catching on…”
She was smiling…
But something about her face cast a shadow, as if she were hiding quiet rage.
Krates may have been dead already, but he suddenly felt breathless—dizzy from the pressure.
“Should I start calling every person I know to fill these seats!?”
And just then, Deputy Joy—who had been silent all this time—pulled out his pager.
Was he about to summon backup?
“Huh? You need me back at HQ? I knew it!
Things fall apart without me. I’ll head back right away.
Ugh, I hate to leave in the middle of the meetup, but…”
Shuffle—
Joy stood up solemnly.
“Our Punishment Enforcement Department is preparing for a major audit, and things are just too busy.
I feel terrible leaving, but I can’t ignore the suffering of my colleagues…”
Krates couldn’t comprehend it.
Now, of all times, he was going to shrink the group even further?
“Do you have a death wish, Joy?!”
Still… Krates respected the sheer courage it must’ve taken.
“That’s you, Deputy Joy, isn’t it?”
Persephone’s voice halted him in his tracks.
“This whole meetup is to discuss the benefits of the ‘Hell Cactus’ you discovered.
The guest of honor can’t just leave. Hold on a second.”
Swipe—
The fearsome goddess pulled a pager from her pocket and made a call..
In moments, someone picked up.
“Hi, sweetie. It’s Mom. Can you get in touch with Miss Nyx from HQ for me?
You know, from the Audit Team. Happy World’s getting audited this week—
Could we exempt the Punishment Enforcement Department?”
It was…
Prince Zagreus—the most powerful man in the Soul Society—being spoken to like a regular son by his mother.
“Well, she is his mother…”
And Nyx?
The primordial nightmare goddess even Zeus fears?!
Krates wanted to plug his ears.
“Oh, you can’t fully exempt them?
But you can halve the number of auditors being sent?
That’s more than enough. Thanks, sweetie.
I’ll send over some kimchi for your house soon.”
Halving the audit team?
So they’d still conduct the audit—technically—but it’d be little more than a formality.
“Deputy Joy, looks like you don’t need to worry about the audit anymore.
Now you can fully enjoy today’s meetup.”
Krates looked at Joy with a mix of awe and fear.
“He… he knew this would happen?!
A guy who got promoted at record speed like him—
Of course he knew.
This was all part of his plan…”
Joy’s entire strategy was on another level.
He must’ve accounted for even the Queen’s temperament—something not even the CEO dared trifle with.
But still, even someone like Joy would find it difficult to survive today.
Because appeasing the Queen…
was no easy task.
Still—Krates owed Joy a lot.
“Joy, I’ll back you up today, no matter what.
Let’s call our debts even after this!”
Meanwhile, back at the office of the Punishment Enforcement Department—
“We just got word from HQ—
the number of auditors has been cut in half!”
“Only one person could pull off something like that…”
“Deputy Joy!! Long live Deputy Joy!!”
As Krauser raised his arms high in celebration, the entire department followed.
“Long live!”
“From this moment on, I—Hedone—am no longer just a supporter of Deputy Joy!
I pledge my body and soul to him!”
“Hey, Hedone, who said you could hog Deputy Joy for yourself?!”
“Kyaaaah!”
It was…
absolute mayhem.
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