I Run a Convenience Store in the Martial Arts World

[Remaining Debt: 2 Gold Ingots.]

Damn it.

The debt had doubled.

The convenience store was restored when I pressed the repair button on the POS terminal, but the debt increased accordingly.

“Haah.”

Not only could I not repay it, but it had actually doubled.

It’s all because of that woman.

“I-I’m sorry, innkeeper…”

Although she couldn’t enter the convenience store because I had banned her, Yu Hwa-yeon stood outside, repeatedly bowing her head.

Just seeing her face made me feel like I was watching a real-time video of my convenience store being destroyed, so I didn’t want to look at her.
But it wasn’t entirely her fault either.

After all, it was the three Black Path thugs who came to kill Yu Hwa-yeon who were to blame.

The three who didn’t even die ran away, clutching their wounds.

If someone had died, I wouldn’t have been in my right mind.

After watching Yu Hwa-yeon bow her head for a while, I opened the convenience store door and stepped outside.

“I-Innkeeper! Are you forgiving me…?”
“Tsk! As if!”
“I-I’m sorry.”

Thinking that I had come out to forgive her, Yu Hwa-yeon looked at me with a childlike bright smile, but soon became dejected.

“Let me hear the reason at least. Why were they trying to kill you?”

Yu Hwa-yeon hesitated and trailed off.

Ah. You can’t even tell me the reason?

As I turned my back, Yu Hwa-yeon quickly grabbed the lapel of my clothes.

“Well, I do have a suspicion…”
“What is it?”
“I was born with a special constitution called Innate True Taste.”
Innate True Taste?
“It’s a constitution that makes me extremely sensitive to the taste of food. It would be a blessed talent if I were a chef, but I’m a martial artist. For an ordinary person, a sensitive tongue is nothing but a curse.”
Listening to her words, I thought she must have had a difficult time.
“But what does Innate True Taste have to do with the Black Path thugs coming?”
“I searched all over the country to find food that suited my taste. Everything was unsatisfactory, but among them, there were some things that were bearable to eat. However, what I couldn’t stand the most were the inns that lied and sold garbage as food. People ate it saying it was delicious, but in my mouth, I could feel the freshness of the ingredients, the storage condition, and the subtle differences in taste. So I went around giving some taste evaluations, and before I knew it…”
“Before you knew it?”
“I became famous as a gastronome. With one word from me, an inn’s survival was at stake… Ah! But from then on, I was also scared and didn’t go around evaluating recklessly. This is really true! But I couldn’t take back the words I had already spoken…”
So,
after criticizing one by one the inns that deceived people by using unfresh ingredients, people began to follow Yu Hwa-yeon’s taste evaluations,
and naturally, the inns whose fraud was exposed harbored resentment and hired the Black Path to launch retaliatory attacks on Yu Hwa-yeon.
That’s the summary of what she said.
“I’m fully aware of and repentant for the mistakes I made in my hot-blooded youth. And I’m truly sorry for causing trouble for the master chef because of my mistake…”
After hearing her story, it wasn’t entirely Yu Hwa-yeon’s fault.
“This Ghost Bamboo Forest is the territory of the Evil Sect. By walking in here on my own, I saved the Black Path thugs the trouble of having to find me.”

Ghost Bamboo Forest?

Is she talking about the haunted bamboo forest?
This place was Evil Sect territory?

So that’s why people didn’t pass through here.
They didn’t want to die.

“Hmm. I heard your story.”
Yu Hwa-yeon smiled faintly.
“Indeed, no matter how I think about it, my presence here will only be a hindrance to the master chef. The Black Path thugs will come again, and the inn might be destroyed again. I think it’s right for me to leave. The lamian… was really delicious. It’s hard to find food that perfectly matches my taste like this anywhere.”
Deep sadness dripped from Yu Hwa-yeon’s downcast gaze.
Is she that sad about not being able to eat ramen?
From a modern person’s perspective, it was incomprehensible, but from Yu Hwa-yeon’s perspective, with her Innate True Taste, it seemed understandable.
Yu Hwa-yeon turned her drooping shoulders and trudged through the forest.
Watching her back as she got further away, I opened my mouth,
but I couldn’t hastily stop her.
I had my reasons.
Although I felt pity, I didn’t want my convenience store to be destroyed either.
My heart began to break, like when I knew I couldn’t keep a cat that had chosen me because of family issues.
In the end, I couldn’t call her back.
Our first meeting ended with her showing me her back.

I picked up the broom and began sweeping the scattered leaves.

Two gold ingots.

When will I ever be able to repay this, really.
Should I go around selling convenience store items door to door?

While I was thinking about that, suddenly a black shadow fell over the leaves.

With a chill down my spine, I turned around to see,

“Excuse me, innkeeper.”

Five men in black martial clothes stood in front of me.
What surprised me wasn’t the number.
It was the large scar on the face of the man who spoke to me.
That scar made the man’s appearance even more fearsome.

“Eek!”

When I was startled, the man frowned.

“Ah, s-sorry.”
“No. I’m used to it.”

The man unfolded a yellowed paper with his sword hand and held it out in front of me.

“We’re looking for this person.”

The paper had a drawing of a very beautiful woman.
Someone I seemed to have seen before…

“Her name is Yu Hwa-yeon. We’re urgently looking for her. Have you seen her?”

What should I do?

Should I tell the truth?

I recalled the fight between the Black Path thugs and Yu Hwa-yeon earlier.
A powerful fight that I couldn’t even follow with my eyes given my level of inner energy.
If I tell these guys about Yu Hwa-yeon, won’t they fight again?
Besides, after hearing her story, I didn’t really want to tell these guys about her.
Even if they were paid to do it.
Just because she gave bad reviews to inns that cheated people, they’re trying to kill her.
Humanity is really dead.

“I haven’t seen her.”

I quickly averted my eyes and started sweeping the leaves again.

I thought they would just leave, but for some reason, the newly arrived Black Path thug didn’t move from his spot.
He moved his feet here and there as if thinking about something, then spoke to me.

“It’s the first time I’ve heard about an inn like this on land managed by our Black Shadow Faction.”

I flinched and stopped sweeping.

Isn’t this that thing?

When you set up a street stall, and suddenly gangsters come and say, ‘Who told you to do business here!’ and interfere.

“When did the innkeeper open such an inn? Without a word to our Black Shadow Faction.”

Ah.
It seems that’s the case.

Damn it.

“I, I haven’t been running this inn for very long…”
“Ah. You didn’t know because you haven’t been here long?”

The fierce-looking man fingered the large sword on his back,
then drew it with lightning speed.

CRASH!!

And the plastic table outside was split in two.

“Eeek!!”
“Not knowing is not an excuse. The fact that this area is Black Shadow Faction territory is something even a newborn baby knows.”

I’m worse than that newborn baby, being from another world?

“Innkeeper.”
“Y-yes?”
“Do I look like a fool to you?”

I shook my head, terrified.

“The Black Shadow Faction members who returned wounded clearly said there was a fight with Yu Hwa-yeon at this inn. As the innkeeper, you must have seen it. Yet you say you haven’t seen her. Do you expect me to believe that?”

The man’s gaze turned vicious.
He could break a plastic table, so couldn’t he destroy the convenience store too?
Moreover, sword-carrying people kill others as easily as they eat meals.
My life was in danger too.

I am an ordinary person without any inner energy.
Even though I was transported to another world, I didn’t receive powerful martial arts or an extraordinary body like the protagonists in web novels.
To survive, I had no choice but to bow my head.

“I-I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you! Where that woman is, she went into the forest over there…”

I knelt down immediately and lied.
I thought she would have gone far by now, so they wouldn’t be able to find her anyway.
In a situation where my life was hanging in the balance, I didn’t have time to think.

That’s when,

“Hey.”

An angry voice came from behind me.

The fierce-looking man looked over my shoulder.

“Oh, Yu Hwa-yeon?”
“What are you doing?”
“Finally found you. Nothing personal, but this is just business. You’ll have to die.”

A confrontation between two sword-carrying people.

I remained kneeling and slowly moved to the side.
If another poisoned flying dagger came flying, my life would end right there.
Even with a convenience store, there’s no antidote for that.

“Running like a dog with diarrhea for just a few coins. The Black Shadow Faction is pathetically laughable.”
“What did you say?”
“How much were you paid? How much money does it take to use martial arts you’ve trained all your life for such a cowardly act?”

Wrinkles formed on the fierce-looking man’s forehead.
Dragging his large sword, he approached Yu Hwa-yeon.

“Seeing as you’re wagging your viper-like tongue, it seems you’re not confident in your skills.”
“Hmph! And you, who’s chattering away while biding time, are confident?”
“This woman…”

Yu Hwa-yeon was definitely a troublemaker.
She was really scraping the opponent’s pride.
To put it negatively, she lacks manners; to put it positively, she knows how to use the opponent’s anger.

Sure enough, deep wrinkles formed between the fierce-looking man’s eyebrows this time.

He seemed quite pissed off.

“Fine. That mouth of yours ends today. Men!”
“Yes!”
“Cut off this shit-stained mouth and bring it to the faction leader.”
“Yes, sir!”

The three Black Shadow Faction members who came with the fierce-looking man all leaped forward simultaneously.

They were all holding short daggers, with thin poison dripping from the tips.

Yu Hwa-yeon grabbed the sword handle at her waist and took a few steps back.

“Your pettiness would amaze even the heavens. Fine. All of you, come.”

It was swift movement that was hard to follow even with my eyes.
The fierce-looking man looked strong, but the three warriors he brought also looked powerful.

Even more so than the three who came earlier and threw the poisoned flying dagger.

Could she defeat three of them alone and then the fierce-looking man too?
Isn’t she going to lose?

As soon as I had that thought, the three warriors jumped in from the right, left, and center.

A coordinated attack.

However, the composure on Yu Hwa-yeon’s face showed no signs of fading.

“Flowing Water Divine Sword, First Form. Water Strike.”

Yu Hwa-yeon’s sword was drawn from its scabbard.
Like the continuous flow of a river, an elegant sword line was drawn in the air.

“Gahk!”

The three warriors who had rushed in simultaneously all fell to the ground at once.

It was truly a clean movement.
If I hadn’t opened my eyes wide, I surely would have missed this beauty.

The wind that blew along her sword path gently pushed away the dense bamboo leaves.

Her skill was as beautiful as her appearance.
Yes, with that skill.
She might be able to protect this convenience store from future sword-carrying people.
That’s what I thought.
So combining what I couldn’t say earlier, this time I shouted loudly.
“Yu Hwa-yeon!!!”
“Yes?”
“You must win!! If you deal with those guys, I’ll let you eat two bowls, even three bowls of lamian!”
“…Are you forgiving me?”
“The bad ones are those bastards who not only deceived customers but also sent assassins! Win! Please, you must win!!”
A gentle smile flowed across Yu Hwa-yeon’s face.

“Did you hear that? From now on, I’ll protect this convenience store.”

The fierce-looking man twisted the corner of his mouth.

“I’ll kill you along with the inn.”
With these vicious words, our second meeting began.