7

If this had been my original world, I probably couldn’t have acted this easily. But thinking that I had soul transmigration into another world and someone else’s body let me distance myself a bit and view the situation more objectively.

‘As a result, I’ve been listening to this nonsense for thirty minutes now.’

The senior doesn’t know I understand that the overtime is an important report. So I couldn’t boast about how much suffering I went through yesterday.

‘If I tell others, it would be easy to make it public.’

I can just pretend I didn’t know and tell the people around me. And the senior can’t kick me out then.

‘She’s already gotten too comfortable.’

Reports fly to her neatly without lifting a hand. From what Pinea said, I guessed she probably received praise, not criticism.

“So, even if you’re sick, finish the tasks you’ve been given before you go. If you rest every time you’re sick, who will work? I’ll let this one slide as a special case.”

‘Yeah right, let it slide.’

She’s probably grinding her teeth inside from whatever the branch manager said yesterday. If she felt even a bit guilty, she might be angry but would have stopped assigning her own tasks to others.

But judging by how she’s nitpicking like this, she’ll clearly keep assigning more in the future.

I smiled innocently as if I knew nothing.

“Yes. Understood.”

After listening to that nonsensical lecture in the basement storage and going up to the shop, people suddenly grabbed me.

“Cornelia, did you hear?”

“Huh? What is it?”

Called out and surrounded as soon as I arrived, there was no chance to figure out what happened in the shop. Nicola, standing beside me, spoke happily as if it were his own business.

“There was an entry about Coco in ‘Praise’!”

“‘Praise’… ?”

When I tilted my head at this unfamiliar, public-service-feel content, another employee explained. Apparently, customers can send praise letters to headquarters if a staff member left a strong impression or provided kind service.

‘I think I saw an ad about that at the shop entrance.’

“Remember that problematic customer last time? Apparently someone was impressed by how you handled it. They wrote very favorably about you, saying your response preserved the shop’s dignity and considered the feelings of nearby customers!”

“Really? It’s not that big a deal…”

It was an unexpected event.

“How many customers actually send letters like that? Most are complaints. It’s apparently very rare to get praise. It looks great for the branch evaluation. The branch manager has been walking around practically dancing.”

At that moment, the assistant manager approached quickly.

“The branch manager is treating everyone to a delicious lunch today!”

“Wow!”

Everyone beamed as if they were in a great mood. Except for me, the person in question, everyone was ecstatic.

‘I wish they’d just give the dinner money as cash from now on…’

I responded to their congratulations with a polite smile.

‘Yeah, what’s good is good.’

The impact of ‘Praise’ was greater than I expected.

People’s contemptuous looks toward me vanished completely. And, as Pinea said, an assistant manager-level supervisor began assigning me small tasks and errands.

‘Though there are side effects.’

Some button must have been pressed, because the amount of overtime doubled. At this point, it felt like they were piling on any and every task. Still, I accepted the work obediently.

‘Not realizing I’m summoning catastrophe on myself.’

If your tail is long, it’ll be stepped on.

Seeing I didn’t react much, the senior seemed dissatisfied and nitpicked at every turn.

“There’s dust here. Wipe it again!”

“I don’t like the handwriting. Rewrite it!”

“Come in thirty minutes earlier from now on!”

At this point, calling it tyranny wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Seeing this, Pinea was hurriedly going up to the second floor until I had to stop her.

“Let me go! I’ll tell the branch manager right now.”

“Calm down. I’m fine.”

“What’s ‘fine’ about it! People need to know their limits, you idiot!”

Does she not like me? I calmed her down with a small smile.

“There’s not much left now.”

“What?”

Even the days like this, there aren’t many of them left.

I was lazily doing the overtime that always welcomed me today as well.

These days I leave work almost at midnight. So Marcella comes to pick me up every time. Apparently, a lady shouldn’t walk alone so late.

‘Can real siblings be like this?’

Of course, we really were unrelated people.

‘But I clearly said? I’m not Cornelia. I can’t be responsible for them not believing me.’

Besides, I even sold hair to raise some medicine money for Rio. I’m at least paying back for the meals I was given.

“Do it like this.”

I was steadily finishing the documents and clearing the table when I heard signs of someone approaching.

“Who is it? Is anyone still here?”

It was the branch manager.

He looked like a lively middle-aged man. Given his position, apart from the morning attendance check, he rarely crossed paths with a trainee like me.

I hurriedly stood and bowed politely.

“Hello, branch manager. I’m Cornelia.”

I was notoriously incompetent, but because of the recent ‘Praise’ mention, the branch manager remembered me. I sensed the opportunity I’d been waiting for had arrived.

“Oh, Cornelia. But why are you still here at this hour?”

“Ah, I have some overtime left.”

I gave an embarrassed smile.

“Overtime?”

One of the branch manager’s eyebrows raised.

“Did the senior assign it?”

“It’s work I couldn’t finish when I was sick and absent last time. You don’t have to worry!”

“Really? I’ve seen seniors bully trainees into overtime a few times, but I thought it wasn’t a matter to interfere with—yet you’re still here at this hour.”

Then he strode over to the table.

“You’ve been through a lot.”

“No, not at all.”

I bowed my head deeply, not knowing what to do.

“That’s a lot to do alone… Hand it over.”

“Ah, it’s fine!”

But the documents spread across the table had already caught the branch manager’s eye. He picked one up.

“Trainee tasks aren’t usually this difficult. This kind of thing…”

His expression changed moment by moment as he looked at the paperwork. His eyebrows rose higher, his brow furrowed deeply, and his mouth pressed shut. I smiled inwardly with satisfaction.

After a moment, he spoke.

“Since when… did you start doing this?”

“About two months. I’m still very lacking, right? I’m sorry.”

I hurriedly pretended to gather the papers to tidy the table. Instead, I pushed them closer to the branch manager so he’d see them better.

“Are you sure you wrote these yourself?”

I nodded a couple of times and gave a wry smile.

“I’m still very inexperienced, so it’s hard for me to finish quickly. They asked for it by tomorrow morning, but the best I could do was before midnight.”

The branch manager’s eyes seemed to pop wide.

“You did this alone… in one day?”

“It does take a while. I’m sorry.”

When I reached for the documents to continue working, he took the papers away.

“You don’t have to do this anymore.”

“But tomorrow the senior will…”

When I made a terrified face, the branch manager’s expression grew even sterner.

“I’ll handle that. It’s late. Don’t worry and head home now.”

“Thank you.”

He looked at me sympathetically and patted my head.

“You’ve worked hard all this time.”

The branch manager said he had something to think about and told me to go ahead. I hurriedly packed my things, bowed, and left the shop. Marcella was waiting outside.

“It’s overtime, but you look happy?”

There was no reason not to be.

“Tonight is my last overtime.”

After that day, the overtime vanished completely.

I didn’t know what the branch manager said, but the senior didn’t speak to me. An internal rule was set: anyone assigning overtime without reporting to higher-ups would be disciplined.

“Phew, that’s really a relief.”

“She was totally broken. Should be quiet for a while.”

“Who would’ve guessed the branch manager would visit that day. You were lucky, hey!”

‘Lucky my foot.’

I expected he’d at least see me if I was working late. As branch manager, he visits the shop freely. That’s why a long tail gets stepped on.

“You expected it, right?”

Pinea crept up and pressed me.

“What?”

“That the branch manager would visit.”

“I don’t know that.”

“You didn’t make the branch manager visit, did you?”

“How would I do that? He saw me because I’m always staying late.”

“With your skills, you’d stay that late on purpose to get overtime?”

Pinea covered her mouth and stared as if in shock. I just gave a gentle smile.

‘This kind of strategy works best when it feels natural.’

I excluded anything artificial as much as possible. It took time, but it worked.

“Alright, assembly begins.”

Employees and trainees gathered in the center of the shop. The branch manager wore his usual expression, but the senior standing beside him was quite a sight.

‘Looks like she’s been thoroughly stepped on.’

She was thoroughly terrified.

The branch manager stepped forward as usual and began the morning assembly.

“I have some special news to share today.”

Since we usually went straight into work after the assembly, this additional news sparked considerable curiosity.

“As of today, I’ve been transferred to headquarters.”

There was a brief silence, then an impressed “oh” and applause. Going to headquarters is, unsurprisingly, always a good thing in the world I lived in.

“So the assistant manager will become the new branch manager and lead this shop. A new assistant manager will be dispatched from headquarters.”

This meant the senior staff had missed the promotion she was so close to. Looking over, her face was so red it looked like it might explode.

‘I didn’t think it would be such a one-two punch.’

Maybe the world is still worth living in.

“So I’m going to bring a few people to headquarters with me. Since the branch will change, it’d be good to keep some experienced staff here… I’ll take three trainees to headquarters: Cornelia, Pinea, and Nicola.”

For a moment, my understanding couldn’t keep up and I froze.

So that means….

‘Am I going to the capital?’