Leaving my neighborhood and heading to a Walmart, I had finally decided to use the Rias skill for my benefit, just as the system requested. I confess I was in doubt, but I have the skill, and the system wants me to do it.
But I need to do it discreetly.
I entered the market as if I were just an ordinary customer and walked up to a man near the cashier soon after. On his shirt was written that he was the manager of this store.
"Excuse me, could you help me?" I said to the man and called him away. The woman nearby didn't suspect anything since I might be a customer looking for information.
So I pretended to be after some items and continued talking to the man until we reached an empty hallway. I looked up to see if there was a security camera in this place.
I know I wouldn't use a gun and rob him, but I don't want anyone to suspect anything.
After seeing no camera, I activated Rias's skill while looking into the manager's eyes. Like the old woman, the man "slept" while I rewrote his mind.
And what I did was the following.
"I am the owner of Walmart. You know and respect me. I need money. I was hoping you could bring me a thousand dollars without anyone seeing it. Take it from the cashiers or give me your own money."
Since he was just an employee, it was the best I could do. He had to steal for me, that's all. It would not be very easy to rewrite the memories of everyone in this market, so this is the simplest way.
I feel sorry for this guy. He will probably be fired and maybe arrested. But I don't think I should blame myself for this; the system asked me to do this.
After I rewrote the man's memory, his manner changed when he saw me.
"Sir? When did you get here? What are you doing here?"
"I came here to get the money, don't you remember?"
"Oh, that's right. Don't worry; I'll get it right now." The man, who was balding and probably over 40 years old, said. He had a shy smile as if I was the most important person he had ever met.
Man, I'm starting to regret this.
####
After standing in the same place for a few minutes, the same man brought me a paper bag full of money. But when he did, I saw how naive I was in this situation.
Here could have witnesses that I received the "package." That's not smart at all.
I have to get the man to take it somewhere so I can pick it up. Yes, that's right. And that's what I did. I asked the man to keep the money and put it in a particular place when the evening came.
And I also made it clear that no one could know I was here. I made him believe that no one had seen me come in and no one would see me leave. And that when I left, he was to act generally as he always does.
This was all put into his mind, and I left the market without buying anything as if nothing had happened.
After that, I just had to wait for the evening to come. Since it would take a while, I decided to return home and stay together with Rias until the time came.
####
It was late afternoon when I told Rias I was going out and went towards the place. It was a square not far from home; I recorded the address in his mind.
When I got there, there was no one there. Usually, the square is empty this late. Even so, many cars were passing by on the nearby streets, so I had to be careful that no one saw me picking up a suspicious package.
And then, after a few minutes, I was holding the package in my hand. It was a brown package with yellow rubber bands. After I took the rubber bands off, I looked inside the package, and there was the money.
When I saw that money, I felt my heart race. I was very nervous. My adrenaline was reaching its limit.
"Okay, I need to get out of here now. Tomorrow I'll go back there and mess with his memories again." So, with my bicycle, I rode home while carrying the package.
I even thought about taking the money out and putting it in my pocket, but I wanted to avoid anyone seeing that money.
Yes, I'm being paranoid, but I need to be careful.
So, after arriving home, I opened the door with force. Rias, sitting on the couch, apparently waiting for me, stood up while staring at me. I had startled her.
"What happened? You're sweating a lot!" She said nervously.
"I think it's because of the adrenaline, and I rode here quickly."
"I see. So, what is it?"
"That?" I opened the package again, took out the money, and showed it to Rias.
"Dollars? Are these all 100 bills?"
"That's right."
"How much you got in there?"
"1000."
"I see. I'm sure you didn't work to get this, right?"
"... Let's pretend that happened." I smiled at Rias and immediately ran the stairs, heading to my room. And when I got there, the notification appeared in front of my eyes. I had completed the mission and had earned another $500.
I had accumulated $5500 since I hadn't used the money from the first main mission.
"In total, I have $6500. I think I can pay off that debt and get ready to move."
I placed the money on my bed and spread it out. I looked at those 100 bills and started thinking about the guy I had cheated. However, I slapped my face twice. "You're not supposed to feel guilty!"
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But I don't think I should blame myself for this; the system asked me to do this.
No, no, no. This is clearly his fault!
He could have just stolen a few dollars off someone in the street. Instead he stole a thousand dollars, ruined someone's life, and refuses to take responsibility. He's just like his father!
This was just stupid. He could have just used the magic to borrow $1 of from someone. Given that he is poor, he should know how important that job was for that man.
Or he would have made an appointment to rent a new place and used the magic to get 10% off the rent.
Or he could have just convinced him to hire him. Significantly less iffy, gets him a small source of income, and isn’t going to get him or the manager in serious trouble. Wouldn’t even need to be part time either, it could have easily just been for the next week or something.
This just proves that our protagonist isn’t his father. He’s probably going to feel guilty for a while but once his debt is paid and is more financially stable, I bet he’ll donate some money to a charity or something.
benefits my ass.... this got deleted twice, so here's the recap. The robber protagonist. He stole from an employee who is probably in a similar situation to him, only he lives near his work. And the other people he stole from him, he left them in a bad financial position.
The man is still going to be fired and arrested. Who gives a sh*t if he donates the money.
Look, it's Just the begginning and I will cute you some slack. But, when you have a séries about summoning people you should try and develop their personalities. Rias is here for what seems like 2 days and we had a total of like 4 short interactions between the protagonist and her, it feels like she's more of a trophy than a person.
You need to slow the pace of the quests and increase the interactions and development of their relationship, unless your goal is to make the summons only be trophies.
Now, why ask for 1000$ from someone who did nothing to him? He doesn't seems to be a bad guy, and due to his father's history should have even more resistance to doing crime.
Those are the points that are actually holding your story back. Thanks for the chapter.
Nah why would you resort to crime when the quest tell you to use power for your benefit... you could summon someone with plant power and go farming...