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Sōzoku Shita Sofu no Ie no Urayama ni Danjon ga Dekimashita - Chapter 53

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The Branch Chief Gets Angry

While I was doing my usual work, an email arrived from accounting with this month’s financial forecast.

I opened it to check the contents.

A deficit?

That can’t be right.

Why?

I checked the revenue.

It had increased significantly.

I dug deeper into the details.

It was Takaya and Misuzu.

Most of their monster cores come from slimes, fish-like monsters, and other small creatures.

But the sheer volume of them made an impact.

It was clear—they were contributing to the branch’s income.

Next, I looked at expenses.

An outrageous figure.

What the hell is this?

Where did this come from?

Huge costs I wasn’t even aware of had been logged.

I checked the breakdown.

All of the expenses for the priests sent from HQ had been dumped into our branch’s budget.

Travel costs. Per diem. Lodging.

Even the costs of rare mana potions.

I summoned the accounting officer to question them. They explained:

“The Executive Director said: ‘I agreed to send the priests, but I never said HQ would pay for it.’ So we reassigned the cost to the branch.”

Damn it! We’ve been played!

After the accounting officer left, I made sure no one was around.

I took a deep breath.

And screamed:

“That bastard!!”

If this ends in the red, I’ll be grilled by the Sales Director at the next branch managers’ meeting.

But I can’t go badmouthing the Executive Director to the Sales Director.

Damn it!

How dare he...!

It’s already been decided that the magic staff and the Lich’s magic stone will be put up for auction.

Once they’re sold, the auction fees alone will bring in a massive profit for the branch.

I’ll just explain that we’re expecting a large surplus in a few months.

That should shut the Sales Director up.

I drew a breath.

And once again, I screamed:

“That bastard!!”

Translator’s Note (Cultural and Narrative Context)

  • Branch-Level Budget vs HQ Power Politics: In Japanese corporate and bureaucratic culture, local branches are often financially responsible for operations, even when decisions are made at HQ. The Executive Director's sly maneuver—sending expensive priests but shifting the costs—is a classic case of top-down budget dumping, a frustration familiar to many Japanese managers.

  • The Silent Hierarchy: The Branch Chief can’t speak ill of the Executive Director to the Sales Director—even though he’s clearly in the wrong. This reflects the unspoken hierarchy in Japanese corporate culture: you never talk back to someone above your pay grade, even when they wrong you.

  • “That bastard!!” (あのやろー！): This phrase, repeated twice in the chapter, is a very colloquial and emotional outburst. It's restrained compared to Western profanity, but for a Japanese manager, even yelling this alone in your office is an act of catharsis. It symbolizes the internalized frustration in professional settings.

  • Deferred Hope in Financial Recovery: The optimism that future auction profits will offset the current deficit is realistic, but also slightly naïve. It reflects the perpetual balancing act of middle managers in Japan—navigating between present pressure and future promises, while being crushed in the middle.

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