A Working Life That Begins Among the Undead

[Short and lighthearted]

When Olet woke up, he dragged his creaking, clattering skeleton out of the graveyard and knocked on the door of a nearby tavern.

Having no memory of anything, he was told that he was the lowest-ranking monster in Hell: an undead.

And if he wanted to survive as an undead, the only labor he could sell was the cheap bones covering his body...

The tavern owner grinned as he handed over a contract. "Work hard, kid! Starting today, I'll hire you for the princely sum of one copper coin!"

But just a week later, the man sent Olet out the door in tears, making sure to recommend him a new place to work.

"Trust me, my best friend needs you more than I do."

Olet took the kind tavern owner's advice to heart and made working hard his new goal in his afterlife.

But for some reason, even though Olet did everything perfectly that his job required, the expressions on his bosses' faces grew stranger and stranger.

"Please, Olet, someone else needs you more than I do!" they all said in unison.

And so the undead changed jobs again and again.

Though he switched jobs rather often, his pay kept going up, and Olet was quite satisfied.

Until his last boss leaped up as if he'd seen a ghost and tossed the crown symbolizing the Demon King at Olet's feet.

"Just take it already, you greedy, ambitious schemer! Isn't this what you wanted?"

The undead, who had only come to collect his wages: "?"

Where was Hell's labor bureau? He wanted to file for labor arbitration!

[This is probably a short or medium-length story? A lighthearted, comedic case of people reading too much into things. It's our old friend, Western fantasy, but this time with a setting in Hell.]

Theme: No matter what difficulties you face, never give up