38 The Accounting-Cheat Man

Author: Bishamon Mine
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n0664js/41/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

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A man named Eto Keiri is a twenty-eight-year-old salaryman involved in accounting at a certain company.

“Window dressing again……?”

Looking at accounts that estimated costs far too low, Eto held his hazy head.

Eto has not been sleeping lately. Under the name of cost-cutting, accounting-department people got laid off, and they are completely short on staff.
That is not all. People who fear getting involved in the many fraudulent accounts and quit on their own never stop either.
So overtime continues, and he can barely get sleep time.

“What, you got a complaint? The company’s working hard to keep hiring you people. I could fire you and actually make costs cheaper!!”

His boss slammed a fist on the desk. Eto’s back jumped with a start.

“A company that’ll hire a human like you is about us, aaahn!?”

There the boss looked at the wall clock.

“More than that, you, did you punch the time card!!”
“———N-not yet……”
“I told you to punch it before overtime!!”

Of course this is illegal. But it is done to hide evidence of overtime. Part of cost-cutting.

Eto lifted his hazy head and tried to stand. “You’re punching the time card of your own will. You’re doing it on your own,” such a reminder echoed like a voice ringing underwater.
But the act of Eto standing was not granted.

Suddenly, in front of his eyes went pitch black.

Eto understood his body was tilting.
Then, just before a complete blackout, he understood the abnormality that had happened to him.

(Aah, is it over? If I could isekai-reincarnate from this it’d be nice——accounting unmatched…… “Accounting to Rebuild a Country on the Verge of Checkmate” or something, how about it God……)

 

Talking to God in a self-mocking way, well, where would I go if I died. That was the last thing he thought.

Where Eto woke was on a bed.

“Aah. Just a normal modern hospital, this.”

There was no other world.

(But, well, being alive is lucky——it’ll be a bit of a vacation)

“Ah, you’ve opened your eyes.”

An IV, maybe. A nurse smiled while swapping the needle to a new pack.

“No, I’m sleeping.”
“You’re awake, aren’t you.”

The nurse with a leisurely impression put a hand to her mouth and smiled.

“Eto-san, how long had you not slept——you didn’t wake for a full two days, you know? Your nutrition was the worst too.”
“Pathetic.”
“No no, it was hard, wasn’t it.”
“Well.”

While answering, Eto stretched with the arm the IV was not in and cracked his neck.
After that he received an interview from the nurse, and it was confirmed there was no problem.

The nurse said “I’ll come back around when the IV finishes” and left for a while.

“Suddenly I have free time……”

Understanding there is not much problem with his health either, Eto had nothing to do and was troubled.
Now, what should I do from here.

Not knowing what to do, he lay on the bed and gazed out the window for a while.

“Yeah, I’m bored.”

For Eto who had been busy forever, this calm time was extremely uncomfortable.

The nurse came back after a while. Eto, too bored, cannot help asking.

“Nurse-san, meals?”
“There’s still time.”
“I see.”

Eto gave a bitter smile. “I’ve been in a busy environment for years, and seem to have forgotten how to kill time besides sleeping and eating.”

Meals are still ahead, he just woke so no sleepiness either.

Eto thought (what should I do) and noticed his luggage was on a nearby shelf.

A phone is peeking from a bag pocket.
With that, maybe he can kill time.

“Is it okay to use a phone here?”

The nurse pulled the IV needle and disinfected Eto’s arm with gauze while answering.

“Yes, no problem.”
“Thank you.”

Eto took out his smartphone and opened a video site.

“Shall I watch videos for the first time in a while——”

Eto scrolled the video-site screen and looked at recommendations.
Then he hit one archive.

The nurse peeked at the screen and smiled.

“Ah, Suu Channel, isn’t it.”
“Suu Channel?”
“A Fate Link: Legendia player streamer, a high-school girl who’s a super-skilled pilot trending on SNS and such right now.”
“A super-skilled pilot is a high-school girl?”
“Yes. Normally she seems timid, but when something happens she completely changes.”
“Eh, scary——like a driver whose manners get worse when they grip the wheel?”
“Nnn, if I had to say, maybe a transforming hero?”
“Hee, not a heroine?”
“The word hero might suit her.——The archive on screen now, of her saving another streamer, is recommended.”

Eto liked transforming bike riders. (A high-school girl fighter-craft rider——sounds interesting).
Thinking that, Eto plays the archive.

“Eto-san, do you like high-school girls and such too?”
“I wonder.”

The archive of the streamer called Suu started with shopping, in a place like a one-room.
The streamer was a kid who felt dark more than timid.

Eto did not get a very good impression. Watching it, even his own mood seemed like it would sink.
More than that, the tall woman beside her caught his interest. He felt “she has a proportion like Isshiki Alice,” whom he had seen a little while ago.

When Eto first saw Isshiki Alice on a train hanging ad, her too-much beauty took his breath away. Should you call her a modern Audrey Hepburn?

Well, this video’s performer is clearly a Japanese face, Isshiki Alice has a Western-looking face, so they’re completely different, another person probably.

But that the streamer kid called Suu, despite her timid expression, was in a risqué outfit, he also thought “what’s that?”

The shopping scene did not interest Eto. Feeling bored, Eto asked the nurse.

“About what timestamp is recommended?”

Asked, the nurse moved the seek bar looking for the scene where Suu starts running.

The nurse’s face came close to Eto.
A faint soft scent tickled Eto’s nostrils.

“Um, saving Otoko-san is, I’m sure——found it, here. She reacts to this comment.”

❝Run, Suu-tan! On the 18th floor a woman streamer is caught and about to be violated by goblins!!❞

The streamer called Suu starts running up the stairs without hesitation.

❝Why are you going deeper!!❞

“I’ll save her!!”

Eto felt his heart was shaken a little by the unhesitating declaration.

While saying “I’ll take a little blood, okay~,” the nurse who drew blood from Eto’s arm, Eto asked.

“Violate——is it that dangerous that this happens? Fate Link.”
“This is a rare incident. This planet Elias is actually peaceful, but somehow there was an unbelievably dangerous monster.”
“Unbelievably?”
“Enough to wipe out several US squads.”
“Hah?”

Eto’s eyes were glued to the girl flying up the stairs with something like wire, like a certain spider-man or the people who destroy.

“Does this kid know that?”
“She seems to have understood from comments.”
“And even so she can run up this unhesitatingly.”

On the girl there is none of the dark impression from before.
She has truly changed to an expression you can call a hero.

Eto learns further. The girl’s outrageous reflexes, and gun skill.
Above all, the guts to leap out a window without hesitation took his breath away.

“I-is this really a high-school girl……?”
“Amazing, right. I get scared just seeing an emergency patient.”
“No, a nurse-san who can still handle it properly is amazing too. Wait——this ogre or whatever monster, no matter what it won’t die.”
“Apparently.”
“Apparently——what do you do. Ah, she’s running!”
“It doesn’t end there, this kid Suu. She doesn’t end it and even saves the hotel people too.”

Seeing Suu on a fighter craft throw the ogre into space, Eto was convinced.

“I see…… she has wits too.”

After that, switching to the nurse-san’s recommended scenes, she wipes out too-huge octopuses with splendid sniping, overwhelms a bead-string sphere monster with tremendous piloting technique.

“No wonder she’s a topic.”
“Watching this, I want to play FateLege too. There’s a rumor that soon a gate will be made so even people besides pilots can go to the FateLege world.”
“Hee, then I’d like to go too.”

While Eto’s thoughts were flying to a distant universe, his phone shook.
Seeing the displayed name, Eto went “uh.”
The name on screen was the boss who had yelled at him just before he collapsed.

Eto thought of ignoring it, but remembering the archive he just saw, he made one resolve and started the call.

“Yes, Eto speaking.”
“Eto, if you woke up then get to work already!! Because you took off the accounting department is in huge trouble!! How much trouble do you have to cause the company before you’re satisfied!!”

The yelling voice banged in his head, and Eto held the phone away.

The nurse is looking at Eto worriedly.

From the phone, a loud voice still rings.

“Haa.”

Eto could not help sighing.

This boss is as usual, quite selfish.
The other bosses are like this too, though.

But to Eto who had decided, it sounded like distant noise.
So he returned it calmly.

“I don’t know. It’s chaos you people invited by not increasing staff.”
“Haa!? What are you saying, you planning to go against me!!——I’ll fire you!!”

Firing is a hassle on paper, so I’ll say it first.

“Yes. I, Eto Keiri, will resign from Ast Corporation. I’m hospitalized, so I’ll mail a resignation letter there later. From today until I leave I’ll consume paid leave.”
“Hah!? You think such selfishness is allowed!?”
“Thankfully my paid leave is untouched, so even subtracting the hospitalization there’s plenty left.”
“Who’s going to let you consume paid leave——”
“Consuming paid leave is no problem at all, right. If you refuse, your side gets penalized. And this side collapsed. And of course, I’ll file this collapse as a work accident.”
“Who would accept a resignation letter!”
“Then I’ll send it as certified content-certified mail with delivery proof.”
“W-what’s that…… w-wait a second. Wait! Without you the accounting department, because you’re there we could fire the others——”

Eto cut the call.
To the leisurely nurse who had been watching, Eto smiled.

“I did it.”
“You did it.”

The two looked at each other and suddenly burst out laughing together.

But the phone shakes again. The caller is that boss.

“Nurse-san, is it okay to use a phone here?”
“Ah, it interferes with treatment, so it suddenly became forbidden.”
“If it’s forbidden, it can’t be helped.”

Eto turned off the phone, put it on the shelf, and gave the nurse a thumbs-up.
The nurse returned the thumbs-up.

“Do your best.”
“I feel so much better. Why did I feel like I couldn’t quit a company like that?——Maybe because I saw that streamer’s brave action, my gut decided and I woke up.”
“We have to thank Suu-chan.”
“Shall I superchat or something.”

When Eto smiled refreshingly, from the hospital-room door came a dignified woman’s voice.

“Kambara-san, how long are you going to chat?”
“H-head nurse!”

The nurse with a leisurely atmosphere who turned——Kambara caught her boss in her vision and her upper body stiffened.

“S-sorry. I’ll go back to work right now.”

Kambara trying to dash out of the room almost collided with a small girl.

“——tto, sorry.”
“No.”

A high-school girl, perhaps, wearing a uniform of a school called Souha High.

A one-length bob, quite a beauty. Moreover even just standing she is neat, and from the atmosphere, already a beauty.

The girl took one step and asked Eto.

“Are you Eto Keiri-san?”
“I am, but who are you?”

Apparently the two were meeting for the first time.

“May I come in?”
“I don’t mind.”

The high-school girl who got permission entered the room gracefully. Then with flowing manners she bowed and introduced herself.

“I am Okinokoji Furi.”
“Okinokoji?——wait, the Okinokoji zaibatsu!?”
“Yes. My father is called Okinokoji Mitsukane.”
“S-seriously.”

The girl stated herself as the daughter of a great zaibatsu.

Eto doubted the words for an instant, but from the manners in every gesture the high-school girl showed, he decided to believe them.

“——S-so a zaibatsu daughter…… what business do you have with me……?”
“I heard that at your company, which had been trading with Father’s group companies, recently a certain person disappeared and one department stopped functioning properly.”
“H-haa……?”
“A department that kept turning over enormous accounting with only three people. Moreover almost all of it was handled by just one person. Your skill at efficiency is splendid.”
“Eh, me?”
“To put it bluntly, I came to headhunt you.”
“Yes!?”
“Accordingly, we will also buy the accounting software you made ‘outside work’ that is not in overtime records. And no matter how your current company complains, I will ‘stomp’ it all.”

Not even “crush in a grip”——declaring “stomp,” a high-school girl——no, a “something” with intensity you cannot think is a high-school girl.

“Wait———”
“So please come to us with peace of mind.”

“An angel-like devil’s smile”——is that not referring to this girl’s smile.
Eto felt something cold down his spine.

“No, but——I”

A girl who arrived far too conveniently, a story far too convenient.
Eto, overly wary, was about to ask to hold, and that thought was all blown away by the girl’s next words.

“Incidentally, do you know a streamer called Suu? Her support, to you——” “Please hire me!!”

Support that girl called Suu!? Leave that to me, I’ll solve every monetary problem that stands in that kid’s way.

Honestly, even in the modern world I pride myself I can unmatched-management, I have knowledge about money, Eto thought, breathing hard, confidence surging.

The Okinokoji daughter held out a handshake.

“Then it’s decided. Please treat me well from now on.”
“Yeah, please!”

A firm handshake was exchanged, and the negotiation was established.
With this contract established, Ast Corporation lost the software Eto had made that had been making accounting efficient.
And the accounting department fell into complete functional stop.

Panicked Ast tried to get Eto back.

The boss who had been yelling at Eto this time got yelled at by his own boss, and appeared many times begging “please come back,” but Eto, who had decided to become Suu’s strength, did not nod even once.
But the boss still could not understand why just Eto being gone made the accounting department stop functioning.

That the cause was the software Eto had been making when he himself had yelled “don’t use wasted time,” he did not think even a speck.
So right after Eto left, the boss said, when billed for unpaid service overtime.

Thinking it was for a company whose management was tilting and that wanted to suppress even a little expenditure, the boss ended up saying it.

“You were just making software on your own outside work hours!”

Eto had spent quite a lot of time on development and maintenance of the subject software. So the boss thought “got him” that he could reduce payment for service overtime considerably.
But the answer that came back from Eto was unexpected.

“I have your word on record.”

Later the boss would be yelled at by the president with a force like being strangled, “that software was our accounting’s lifeline,” and go paper-white.

That Eto’s time the boss thought was wasted time was the lifeline keeping the company alive, the boss never imagined, and could only mock it.

Furthermore, when more employees quit accounting they spat, “if at least we had that software we might have lasted until a newbie came in, but it’s already impossible. It’s all your fault.”

The boss who finally noticed the software’s value begged the Eto who showed absolutely no sign of coming back, “at least please let us use the accounting software Eto-san made!”, but Eto had already sold the software rights to Okinokoji.

Ast does not have the stamina to fight Okinokoji.

The boss who had been yelling at Eto even ended up groveling to Eto, but it was already too late.

The last accounting staff left the accounting department.
But there was already no senior to teach the newly hired accounting the work, and by the time the new accounting got used to the company’s work, the company would tilt——and meet the fate of bankruptcy.
That is a little later.

The leisurely nurse who had been watching Eto and Furi’s handshake——Kambara, called to Eto in a lively voice from behind the head nurse.

“Eto-san, do your best!”

Then the head nurse cautioned the nurse.

“Be quiet in the hospital! And you, get back to work quickly!”
“Sorrrry.”

Kambara ran off.

“Don’t run in the hospital!”

From the hallway came the sound of falling flat, and a “it huuurts” voice echoed too.

The head nurse sighed.

“Honestly, still in student mode.”

Eto looked out the window.
There, a light-shaft leaking from clouds, prettier than he had ever seen, was floating.

There was no isekai reincarnation.
But——apparently I am going to be reborn today.

[What’s this, God. You do pretty stylish arrangements, don’t you.]

Muttering that way, Eto tried making a self-proclaimed nihilistic smile with an unkempt beard that was not well groomed.