บท 42: Everyone May Like Him Too Much, So Hikigaya Hachiman Finds Out
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Those with talents are envied. Even if they are not so well-off, they will still be considered one of the winners of the birth lottery. The same also applies to those born rich. Even if they have smooth brains, they are still envied by many. After all, they have money to carve some patterns in their brains. However, if we are talking about the key to success, connections are the sure way to get it. Regardless of your background, as long as you have connections to the right people, your success is guaranteed.
Nepotism is something that everyone abhors but practices all the time. It is easy to hate and condemn it but not practice it. A sense of kinship and relatability makes people prioritize one group over the other. It is even an encouraged behavior and people will praise you for doing that. In an instance where you don't prioritize people who are more relatable to you, you will get praised for your fairness and those relatable people will be pressured to applaud your actions. But honestly speaking, those people who applaud you will hate you if they are in the position of those relatable people. Likewise, they have to pretend to like it.
Hikigaya Hachiman is surely not a saint. I will not be hesitant to throw someone's newborn baby off a cliff if that means I can save Komachi. I am not a selfless idiot who doesn't have a sense of priority. Family and close friends come first in whatever situation. I won't cater to those pretentious pricks who press others to be selfless so they can remain selfish. If they believe they can do it, they can't involve me in it.
Those were the thoughts I had while sitting on my chair in my office. I had just checked the balance of my bank account and I was left quite baffled. In addition to the 200,000 yen I hadn't spent, I had an extra 2.7 million yen in my bank account. I received my first salary as the CHRO of Orion Japan. I was aware of how big Orion Inc. was, but I was sure Orion Japan was not in the luxury to pay a mere CHRO 2.7 million yen a month. In conclusion, this was a show of power play. I didn't condone Kiss-Shot for pulling this but wouldn't stop her either.
Prioritizing one group over another is not wrong—only frowned upon—remember!
"Have you received your salary, Sae-chan?" I idly asked.
"Yes, I have," Sae-chan answered as level as usual.
"How much are you paid for?"
"925,000 yen."
"Might as well round it up to 1,000,000 yen. Do you want me to ask that to the Fujii-san?"
"N-No, I am fine," Sae-chan exclaimed, slightly in panic.
"You are not getting an extra workload, you know."
"More reason to refuse it. It's just… I don't want to make others feel unfair."
How righteous of her. "The world has always been unfair, though."
Judging by her silence, Sae-chan agreed with me. The office descended into silence as we busied ourselves with our tasks at hand. In my case, I was reading through the complaints that Sae-chan deemed urgent enough to need my attention. Ever since the takedown of that massive circle of perverts, everyone was more vocal. They knew their aspiration would be heard, so they didn't hesitate to voice it out.
Chief Hikigaya, if this somehow gets into your hands, please, help me. Everyone has been avoiding me because they found out I like Yaoi. Those damned fujoshi even stay away from me. What a bunch of hypocrites! Is it wrong to like Yaoi as a male? I am not even gay, but all of my male coworkers stay away from me because they are afraid of getting defiled!
One particular complaint attracted my attention. I didn't think it was urgent enough to need my special care. Maybe, the work environment was so comfortable that no one had any complaints or Sae-chan was bored enough to mess with me. Anyway, I decided to ignore that plea. Moving on, another form attracted my attention due to its poeticism.
I am but a mere plebeian before your regal presence. All I can do is hope and dream for me to be part of your essence. Hear me, Hikigaya Hachiman-sama—
I stopped reading the form and moved on to another one. It was already the third time in the week that I got a confession. While it was a good thing that the work environment was peaceful enough to let the employees joke around, they were getting out of hand. I couldn't do anything about it, though, as they only weirded me out and not the rest of the officers.
I think there is a specific rule needed to be agreed upon regarding the use of the microwave. Last day, an idiot decided it was a good day to microwave a salmon, causing the room to reek of fish the whole day. Unfortunately, that idiot was my girlfriend, so I couldn't chide her. Please, give me a hand. I don't want her to trouble me and the rest of the employees.
After a little bit of searching, I finally found a normal form. Although I hated the guy's lack of spine, I agreed with his suggestion. Even if he stopped his girlfriend, no one could guarantee another idiot wouldn't appear. I assigned the task to one of my subordinates and then continued reading through the forms. Before long, work hours ended.
As I stood up from my chair, Sae-chan said, "Chief, the other officers are inviting you to a dinner. What is your answer?"
"Why did they invite me through you instead of inviting me themselves?" I asked curiously.
"Well, as much as I keep quiet about it, the upper echelons still catch the wind of your true position in the main company. They don't think it's appropriate to invite you directly."
My assignment as a board director had been made on the spot. Kiss-Shot said that I needed a more prestigious position to keep everyone in the gala at bay, so she immediately told the greeter I was a board director. She was the owner of Orion Inc., so she could appoint me whenever she deemed fit. Despite being an official director, though, I had never attended the meeting once. No one said a thing as if it was the most normal thing ever.
Nepotism is real.
I thought about the dinner invitation and pondered my choice. Kiss-Shot was not in Japan as she had matters to attend to in America. She would be back in a week, so that meant I would spend the week having dinner without her. In other words, I thought I should give the invitation a chance. I accepted the invitation and Sae-chan immediately notified the other officers. How bad it could be, right?
It was bad. I rarely regretted my choice and it was one of the occasions where I did. Everyone treated me like I was God. They weren't sucking up to me, but that didn't make me comfortable either. All of them were older than me which was expected since I was only a high schooler, though, no one knew about it. It was as awkward as it could be being treated so much with respect by people who were as old as my father.
The saving grace was they joked like that eccentric man in the countryside. They wouldn't go completely casual with me but didn't hesitate to joke about me. I could see their look of apprehension whenever one of them did that and watched in satisfaction when it disappeared as I returned the joke. When the dinner ended, everyone forbade me from paying. I was being sincere when I offered to pay for them, but their rejection made me feel good.
No matter how much money you have, 1,000 yen is 1,000 yen.
"9 out of 10, I will not attend another dinner," I remarked while driving the car Kiss-Shot bought for me a few days ago. That was the solution she came up with when I told her I didn't want to travel by an eye-catching limousine every day. The car she bought was more eye-catching—a four-seater Koenigsegg Gemera—but, at least, I drove it by myself.
"That means you will still attend some of the dinners, doesn't it?" Sae-chan remarked beside me.
"Yes. I need to be realistic. I can't let my dislike toward social gatherings hamper the business. What about you? Do you like that type of gathering?"
"Uh…Chief?" Sae-chan's hesitant call made me look at her from the corner of my eyes. "Can you slow down a bit? I am sure we are past 140 km/hour already."
"Oh…sorry."
As a Vampire, I viewed the world differently. My reflex was faster and my senses were more sensitive, so I didn't realize we were speeding. Thankfully, Japan had no speed limit. As long as you didn't run over someone and ignore the traffic light, everything was cool. Though, people would still curse at you for your behavior.
For Sae-chan's sanity, I slowed down the car to 80 km/hour. She thanked me when I safely got her to her apartment. I didn't forget about joking if she wanted a goodbye kiss, which sent her scrambling into her apartment. It was unfortunate that I couldn't have dinner with Komachi, but the night was not bad. As I drove home, I decided to sleep with Komachi to make up for it.
No, it didn't have any lewd connotation. I was not a siscon, damn it!
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Honorary Mention:
Venerable Immortal Funéral
Venerable Immortal Keksimus Rex
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