Chapter 733: Good luck

"...Oh, it’s you!! Well, what do you know, you again... it seems fate really wants to put you in my path, doesn’t it? After all, you’re alive." The Goddess Pandora, who was walking down the street, stops and speaks to me while I immediately bow to her, not expecting to see her.

"G-Goddess Pandora... do you need something?" I ask nervously as she approaches with a smile.

"Isn’t it just funny how we always run into each other! You were the fried tentacle vendor I met in the human kingdom in the past, you were also a soldier I found talking to another soldier and I tried to figure out who you were, but I couldn’t quite remember where I’d seen you before."

"Then I found you again selling fried tentacles in my kingdom, and now I’m finding you once more, and look at you, you’re alive after meeting me four times, two of which were situations where I could have killed you. You’re blessed by luck, and I don’t even know your name." She speaks in a very light tone, grabbing a fried tentacle from my stall.

"H-Hahaha... lucky me, I guess? W-Well, I’m very grateful to have met you, my name is—"

"Okay, okay, get up off the ground. Here. I don’t need your name. I was just commenting on how it’s a curious fact that you’re alive and I keep running into you again." She hands over a coin for the fried tentacle in her hands.

"How’s life?" Her casual question leaves me confused. I look around where people pass by in silence, avoiding her so she doesn’t feel bothered.

’I-I won’t get in trouble, right?’ Her stopping to talk to me is strange, and I’m a bit wary of her doing something to me if she gets irritated.

"I-It’s going well. I have a wife and a daughter, and fried tentacle sales are doing fine... s-sorry I don’t know what to say..." I have no idea what to talk about. I don’t want to irritate her.

"It’s fine. I understand it must be difficult to talk to a goddess, but I’m speaking with you purely by chance. Like, really, a lot of luck on your part, considering you’re nobody important and you’ve met me directly four times already. So I think fate wants you to succeed."

"I’m wandering through the city looking for negotiators. Shogo, who supplies tentacles as food for the city, wants to expand her business. I’m looking for interesting people to take part in that."

"These people will have good financial gain and will become part of the delivery system, managing different areas in a controlled manner." She speaks of this as if she were testing me.

Her eyes never blink or stray from mine, which is uncomfortable, but I listen to everything she has to say.

"Considering you were already in the tentacle business even before Shogo started making tentacles for everyone, I think I’ll make you an offer... honestly, your skills are mediocre if you’re still stuck at the basics after years."

"It’s just logic. Years of this without ever growing makes that fact clear, but nothing stops you from surprising in the future, right? I don’t know your life. Maybe you never grew because you didn’t have opportunities, since before me, demons’ lives were shit, with little food and no security."

"But maybe there’s some future for you in this field. I like to see what the future holds. Here, the card." She hands over a checkered card with a pattern of three tentacles and a star, with several stars on the bottom part.

"It’s the logo of the new brand Shogo is developing. If you go to the tentacle farm and show this, they’ll let you in. By the way, see these stars that glow in rainbow colors when you tilt the card under the light? That’s my personal mark. Only 10 out of the 100 cards have it." She speaks with a little smile on her face.

"It means you’ll receive slightly better treatment than the others who also get cards. Of course, don’t be arrogant. You’re not better than any of the other 99 people, and Shogo will eliminate you if she doesn’t like your work and attitude."

"And by eliminate, I mean she’ll turn you into a girl, destroy your brain, and turn you into a dairy cow. So you won’t die. Good news, right?" She says something terrifying, yet I still feel grateful.

"T-Thank you very much, goddess!! I-I don’t know what to say..."

"Thank your immense luck for having met me several times and me still remembering you. Just that. I don’t even know who you are. I just find it almost comical that we’re meeting this much. Most people only see me once in their lives. You’ve seen me four times."

"That’s even shocking to me, considering I’m not one to wander around or repeat places I’ve already been to, and you’ve found me always in very different places." She tosses the skewer into the trash beside the cart after finishing eating.

"W-Why me? Y-You yourself said I’m not very good... wouldn’t it be better to give this card to someone else?"

"I’m just doing something for Shogo. Besides, it’s not bad if people like you rise to the top. My kingdom is quite free. If someone who started from the gutter rises to the top and becomes very rich, good for that person."

"I won’t stop anyone from rising. After all, if people rise in life, I’m the one who profits. Food is always important. Let’s say you manage to become famous, develop something useful, and that helps the people — that’s my people getting better and generating more for me."

"Oh, of course, if someone thinks about rising higher than they should, maybe I’ll have to clip their wings and legs, metaphorically and literally, hahaha. But you wouldn’t do that, right?" The question sounds almost like a threat.

"N-No!! I-I would never!!" I know my place well. I would never try to do something I shouldn’t, especially after receiving an opportunity like this.

"Perfect, then. May your future be good or something like that."

"Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m leaving. This was a lucky event for you, but luck has its limits, so be more careful with how you spend your luck from now on. After all, I just opened a nice door for you." She leaves while I remain very grateful for this incredible luck.

I look at the card in my hands — a true door to the top. I even feel a bit anxious about losing it. I start closing up the tentacle stall to take the cart home and do this right now.