Chapter 5:
That One Cliché Scene
PAULA HAD APPARENTLY been twiddling her thumbs at the tool shop, and she once again visited the drugstore to kill time. She pulled out a chair and sat at the counter like she owned the place. She clearly planned to spend a while here.
“Hey, Rei Rei! Rub my shoulders for me, will ya?”
“Not happening. You might have nothing to look after, but I certainly do.”
“Boo.” Paula frowned at me.
Just then, Ejil came out of the lab, check sheet in hand. “I finished looking at the stock, Doctor.”
“Thanks.”
“Oh—I also assessed the last few months’ sales records and crunched the data for you. Feel free to check it next time you make a new product.”
“Whoa. Really? You’re a lifesaver.”
“It was nothing.”
He’s so thoughtful for a demon king. And he’s seriously as capable as Mina. I really trust him as an employee. But…
“Fine, fine,” Paula said impatiently. “Rub my shoulders, Ejil!”
“Psssh! Don’t make me laugh, woman! I serve only the doctor and Noela. Don’t get too big for your britches!”
As you can tell, Ejil tended to be rude to everyone but me and Noela (who was out shopping with Mina). Since he was the demon king, he was extremely proud and often got on a high horse with other people. He wasn’t haughty with normal customers, but Paula wasn’t normal.
“Oh my.” Paula grinned. “You’re really refusing, huh?”
Uh-oh. What’s she thinking?
“And it’s not that you won’t rub my shoulders,” she continued. “You just can’t, can you?”
“Hrmph! You really think I can’t rub shoulders well? You underestimate me!”
Ah. I get it. She’s using Ejil’s attitude against him. When it came to thinking up a cunning plan or get-rich-quick scheme, Paula was quick on the uptake.
“Then give it a try. Or… What, are you afraid of massaging a woman? Are you too awkward? Embarrassed?” She was also good at picking a fight.
“Silence, fool! I shall one day have the world in my hands! Touching a female body is nothing to me!” The demon king totally took the bait.
As Ejil began rubbing Paula’s shoulders, I looked through his report. Okay. So, according to Ejil, those sell way more than I thought, but these over here aren’t a priority…
“What’s the matter?” Paula asked. “Nervous because you’re touching a girl?”
She’s great at this. I practically heard her cackle with each word.
“Hmph! Like your body makes me nervous!”
Hook, line, and sinker, I mused.
“Ah,” Paula sighed. “You aren’t so good at that, pal.”
“Argh! Where’re your pressure points?!”
“A little lower. Ah… Yeah, that’s not bad.”
“Curses! How dare you insult me!” Ejil didn’t like being rated simply “not bad,” apparently. “How about this?!” The poor guy pushed with all his might on the pressure points in Paula’s shoulders, completely focused.
“Hey, Rei Rei, how’re your shoulders?”
“Mine? Totally fine.”
“Does the drugstore have any shoulder pain treatments?”
Women seemed to complain about shoulder pain often, I noted. Even Mina did, if I remembered correctly. “Actually, if I tweak a product I made recently, I might come up with something close enough.”
“Wait, for real?” Paula stood straight up.
“Hey, what’re you doing?! Don’t move!” Ejil complained.
“You’ll have to strip, though,” I added.
“Er… Wh-what?”
“Yup.”
Paula blushed.
“Don’t tell me you’re embarrassed after demanding the doctor make you a new treatment, woman. He’s trying to help you out!” Ejil yelled.
“Sh-shut up! Just keep rubbing my shoulders!”
“Gah ha ha ha!” Ejil laughed victoriously.
“It shouldn’t take long to make,” I told Paula. “Hold on a bit.”
I entered the lab. Adjusting the process for making sparkling grape juice, I created a new product.
Fizzy Bath Time Fun: Produces carbonic acid when dissolved in warm water, promoting circulation in the body.
I brought the bottle back into the drugstore. Ejil was still rubbing Paula’s shoulders. How long will she make him do that? Ejil, you realize you can just stop, right?
“All done!” I cried.
“Whoa, for real? That was fast!”
“C-can I stop now? My strength is fading…” The poor demon king had massaged Paula so long, it’d worn him out.
“That’s good, Ejil,” I assured him. “Nice work.”
I sat Ejil down in the chair Paula had occupied. It didn’t look like customers would drop by anytime soon, so it’d be okay to let him rest in the store.
“Well, how’s this product work?!” Paula demanded.
“You can use it here at the drugstore,” I replied. “Let’s go to the bathroom.”
“Rei Rei, you big perv!” She covered her face with her hands dramatically.
“You’ve been waiting to do that, haven’t you?”
“Aw, you’re no fun.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Brushing off Paula’s comment, I led her to the house bathroom. “Here’s a towel.”
“Oh…okay. I’ve actually got to undress, huh?”
“Yup.”
Paula looked a bit like a deer in headlights. On the other hand, I basically didn’t think of her as female, so I wasn’t really nervous about her stripping. I had prepared warm bathwater so she could use the treatment right away.
I handed her the Fizzy Bath Time Fun. “Put this in the water.”
“That’s all?”
“Mm-hmm. Just tell me how well it works afterward, okay? If you enjoy it, I’ll make more.”
“Hunh.” She stared at the bottle. “Rei Rei, when you peep at girls bathing, who turns you on most? Mina?”
“I’ve never peeped at anyone, okay? Why do you even assume I have?”
“I mean, you’re gonna peep at me, right?”
“No, I’m not. Seriously. See you later,” I replied, leaving Paula alone in the bathroom and heading back to the storefront. Honestly, I think the reason I’m not really attracted to her is because she’s so quick to imply something dirty.
As I got back to the drugstore, I heard a yowl from the house. “Nyaaaaah?!”
Ejil turned to me. “Doctor, was that…?”
“It was a ghost cat.”
“No… I’m fairly certain it was Paula! Stop playing around.”
“The carbonic acid must’ve surprised her.”
“Shouldn’t you go check on her? That product was a prototype, after all. What if something happened?”
“E-er, well, uh…”
The new products I created using my medicine-making skill had never caused any serious incidents…but Ejil was right. Nervous, I immediately rushed to the bathroom.
“Paula? Are you okay? Hey!” I called to her from outside the bathroom. However, there was no response.
Mina wasn’t around right now, and depending on what was happening in the bathroom, I figured time might be of the essence. “I-I’ve got no choice.”
I bit the bullet and entered, only to find Paula in the bath. We made eye contact. The Fizzy Bath Time Fun had worked properly; the tub was full of bubbling suds.
“E-er…” I gasped.
“Y-you actually came to peek at me?!”
“Gah!!! No, I swear!” I spun around immediately and fled the bathroom, yelling to her behind me, “Y-you should’ve said something while I was outside the door!”
“I did!”
Seriously? Damn it! Now she’s got something on me. Going forward, I’d have to do as Paula said since she could threaten to tell Mina or Noela about this. It’s over. I’ve been defeated.
“This bath’s super warm and cozy, Rei Rei!” Paula called.
“Huh? Oh. Yeah. Good.”
“My shoulders and neck were really tense before, but now they feel great.”
My new product seemed to work as expected. However, I’d thought Paula would double down on messing with me, and her response was quite the opposite. What the heck just happened?
Some time after I headed back to the drugstore, Paula emerged from the bathroom. “If you make more of that, I promise I’ll buy some. See ya!” She waved her hand and left.
I did end up bottling more Fizzy Bath Time Fun for Paula—or rather, for any customers with aches and pains. The product soon sat on the drugstore’s shelves right beside the tangerine bubble bath, and Mina grew fond of it as well.
A few days later, I heard on the grapevine that I apparently walked right into Paula’s trap. Supposedly, she’d laughed as she told the story. “I mean, he had the nerve to be like ‘Your naked body’s no big deal’ or whatever, you know? So, I thought I’d mess with him a little.”
No wonder she hadn’t answered me from inside the bathroom. Fortunately for me, Paula had decided not to treat me like some peeping Tom, since I’d obviously felt so guilty. She knew I’d come in because I was legitimately worried about her.
At least, that was the excuse I told myself whenever I remembered what happened that day.