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After leaving Komao Town, Akio returned to Tokyo that very same day.
The moment he arrived, a prayer-like voice whispered in his ear:
"Lord Akio, this is the money I earned today. Please accept it."
Akio immediately recognized the voice—it belonged to none other than his newest follower, the part-time warrior Aoyama Nanami.
An instant later, several thick bundles of ten-thousand-yen notes materialized in his hand.
Roughly three hundred thousand yen.
Not a small sum. Converted, that was about fifteen thousand yuan.
And since Akio's deal with Nanami was a fifty-fifty split, this meant she still had another three hundred thousand yen in her own pocket.
The girl had only been his follower for a few days. And already she'd made this much?
That was impressive.
Akio had originally thought she'd need at least a few more days before really finding her stride. Clearly, he had underestimated her. A true part-time warrior indeed—her ability to hustle was nothing to scoff at.
But then, another thought struck him.
Had Nanami really split it evenly with him?
What if she'd actually offered up eighty percent of her earnings instead? With her personality, that wasn't exactly impossible.
Akio's eyes narrowed, and he decided to check in on her. He turned to Medea and Hohenheim."You two head back to the Umbrella branch first. I'll catch up later."
They nodded and went their separate way.
Finding Nanami wasn't difficult—she was his follower, after all. It took no time at all before Akio located her at… a massage shop?
"Huh?"
Akio blinked. Of all places, he hadn't expected her to quit the convenience store only to end up working at a massage parlor.
For a moment, he didn't even know how to react.
Seriously, how much could you possibly earn doing that? If you really wanted to make money, you had to run the place yourself, not work for someone else.
Nanami, Nanami… do you even get that much?
Shaking his head with a half-smile, Akio pushed open the door and stepped inside—only to find the shop completely empty, save for Nanami herself.
"Lord Akio?"
Nanami froze when she saw him, clearly shocked he'd show up here.
Akio glanced around. His first impression? The place was… bare-bones. Extremely bare-bones.
Compared to the high-end parlors, this one looked downright shabby. If one was a legit, polished spa, this was more like a hole-in-the-wall knockoff.
And since Nanami seemed to be the only person working here, Akio was starting to piece things together.
"Nanami, don't tell me… this shop is yours?"
She gave an embarrassed little laugh."Forgive me, Lord Akio. It's nothing fancy."
In other words, yes—it was hers.
Akio was genuinely surprised. Sure, the place was simple, but this was still Tokyo. Even if it wasn't Ginza or Shinjuku, foot traffic here wasn't bad at all.
How had she even managed to set this up? Did she really have that kind of money?
But in the original storyline, Nanami had been chasing her dream of becoming a voice actress, running herself ragged with part-time jobs. She definitely hadn't seemed rich.
So maybe things had already shifted from how they were "supposed" to go.
Akio pulled up a chair and asked how exactly she'd managed to open the place.
Nanami, eager to unburden herself, began to explain her entrepreneurial journey.
After becoming Akio's follower and gaining extraordinary powers, she had decided to earn money following the path he'd hinted at. Without hesitation, she quit all her part-time jobs and resolved to open a massage shop of her own.
But when she counted up her savings, reality hit: it wasn't nearly enough to cover startup costs.
So how was she supposed to raise the rest?
After some thought, she decided to take out a loan. With her powers as a guarantee, Nanami was certain her massage business would boom. If the shop succeeded, she could easily pay back the debt.
So she went to the bank.
The problem was, as just an ordinary high school student with no property and no collateral, there was zero chance a bank would give her a loan.
Just as her plan seemed about to fall apart, one of the bank staff offered her an alternative.
She could borrow from a private lender.
In other words: a loan shark.
Nanami's first instinct was outright rejection. Even as a teenager, she knew loan sharks were basically bottomless pits—it was easy to fall in, but nearly impossible to climb back out.
But then, that same staff member gave her yet another option.
The reason he was so "helpful" was because he had personally experienced one of Nanami's massages. It had been amazing—so much so that he was convinced she would succeed.
Unfortunately, he was just a low-level bank employee, not a manager. He had no authority to bend the rules for her. And with Nanami having no assets whatsoever, there was simply no way she'd qualify for a legitimate loan.
That was why he had first suggested the loan shark route: it was the fastest way to get capital. And honestly, with her skills, she could probably pay it back in under six months.
But since she refused, he pointed her toward a completely different path.
Haunted house test-sleeper.
In Tokyo's Beika district, murders happened with unsettling frequency. Whenever someone died inside a property, its value plummeted overnight. Sometimes, even putting it up for rent wouldn't attract tenants.
That was when the profession of "test-sleeper" came into existence.
A test-sleeper would stay in the place for a few days. Afterwards, the real estate agent would casually mention to the next client that the previous tenant was a cheerful high school girl.
As for the fact that the tenant before her had died tragically there—well, they'd conveniently leave that part out.
This little trick was enough to get the place rented out at normal prices.
The moment Nanami heard about this job, her eyes lit up.
She was Akio's follower now, empowered with supernatural strength. She wasn't afraid of evil spirits—why would she be scared of a haunted house?
What a joke.
This was the perfect job for her.
Nanami had declared on the spot: she wanted to take on the scariest haunted houses they had.
"..."
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