To catch a rat, a cat was the best solution.

But all I had was an untrained puppy that could not even stand on its two feet properly. Its tiny shoulders were going to have to carry the weight and health of my shop for now.

Arfff

As if understanding what I asked of him, Fenrir huffed before he began to smell around for something.

I allowed the puppy entry into the main shop because he decided to paw at the door, and the puppy darted out of the room in a flash.

It was my turn to try and keep up with the hyper puppy.

"Fenrir, did you find anything? Huh-! You want to go outside?"

I asked Fenrir as he growled while looking at the door. I opened the door to allow him outside, and he immediately darted toward the sewer pipe and barked at it.

A lot of yellow eyes looked back at me from the darkness of the small hole, but they never came closer.

A few that did dare to venture out from the other side went near the house before they recoiled back from the door, not daring to enter.

'So the rodent repellent is working. That's good… huh-! What the hell—'

From inside the sewer, a hand tried to reach itself toward Fenrir to grab him. But Fenrir bit that hand hard, causing that hand to retract back.

The puppy continued to growl, but I felt panicked and picked up Fenrir before he could be grabbed again.

Within seconds, the rodents and the hand disappeared, and all that was left as evidence was the red blood that Fenrir had managed to drag out of the person who tried to reach toward him.

"Fucking hell-! A hand came out of the sewer hole on the roadside? What is it-? A horror clown movie? Fucking hell-!"

I could only curse as I tried to calm myself down. Fenrir was safe, but it had been a close call.

But this small incident made me sure of two things—first, there seemed to be a mastermind behind the sudden rodent danger. And second, danger was everywhere.

"Fenrir, I think it might be better if I keep you inside for now. It is too dangerous for you to be out here all on your own."

I told the puppy, and he gave me a whine before I dragged him inside. It was not safe for us out here.

The customers that came to the shop today looked annoyed, and most of them looked around the shop with a worried look on their faces.

I was not someone who offered to help people often, but even I felt concerned about the mood in here.

"Excuse me, shopkeeper. But may I ask how you managed to keep your shop so clean? I don't see any rat marks in here, and your books also look just fine…"

A customer asked, not being able to take it anymore, and I decided to answer her.

"Hmm, that's because of these small tablets. They help repel rodents. Would you like to buy some?"

I asked the lady, and she looked relieved but worried at the same time.

"Y-You are selling—? But I don't have enough money on me… oh-! What should I do? How much is it?"

The lady asked, and I thought about the price.

From the way the lady was reacting, I knew that the rodent repellent must cost a lot here. Either that, or it did not exist.

So, in other words, it was an opportunity for me.

But it felt scummy to want to profit when an epidemic was about to come, so I changed my mind about my prices a lot.

In the end, I decided on a cheap enough rate where the person buying it wouldn't go broke, but it wouldn't sound like I was getting taken advantage of either.

"It's a few coins for a pack. It should last you a month at least."

I told the lady, and she looked relieved and bought the bag.

She was not the only one, as others began to line up. I had to buy a few more packs of this thing, and that cost me 10 coins in total.

It did hurt a little to part with the faith points like this, but sometimes, you had to make sacrifices for the greater good.

Once the shop approached the closing hours, I went to the train station and checked up on the claw machine.

The profit was not great today, likely because of the epidemic, but I still got almost 50 faith points from it.

After throwing a few more rodent-repelling balls around my claw machine, I decided it was time to return back home.

And in the morning, I was bombarded with tons of messages on my system.

[Ding! One faith point received]

[Ding! One faith point received]

.

.

.

[Ding! One faith point received]

I lost count after a while as the notifications piled up. But I did look at the final total that was around 350 right now.

"Can it be… because of the rodent repellent? Looks like the investment paid off even sooner than I expected."

I felt incredibly fulfilled because of all the notifications, and I quickly prepared the food. But even before I could open my shop, I heard loud knocking at my door.

As I went to open the door, I saw a long line forming outside my door.

"Hey shopkeeper-! I know you are in there, so open the door. I want to talk to you about buying the rodent repellent."

"Me too—"

"No, me first—!"

People fought to come to the front, and I suddenly felt scared of all the crowd. They could cause me so much trouble if they decided to storm inside and do as they pleased.

'I need to stop them before that happens.'

As I took in a deep breath and decided to speak up.

"Everyone, please calm down. I understand that you are in a hurry, but I don't have any more of the rodent repellent right now. I got some from my benefactor, and they assured me that they would be handing some to the police soon to distribute."

I was not going to take the burden on my shoulder to provide these people with the rodent repellent on my own.

After all, I was a fragile person who had no way to fight a crowd. On the other hand, if the police was the middleman, the chances of me getting hurt were way less.

The police would also be much more efficient in distributing the goods compared to me.

So it was a win-win for everyone. Except those who had been waiting in line for me to open the shop.

"Tsk, how dare you—! Do you have any idea how desperate we are? If you won't give us what we came here for, then I don't have a choice but to take care of you—"

One of the bulky shopkeepers rushed toward me, and I panicked before I took out my staff and smacked the man with it.

A small shock went through the shopkeeper before he collapsed.

"Y-You—! Ugh…"

The collapsed man spoke in anger as he tried to get up.

_______

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