“Hmph! You’re so young and yet already learning to dine and dash! Tonight, you’ll sleep on the kitchen floor. Tomorrow morning, I’ll check your task progress.”
“Oh right, take your broken sword.”
Late at night, after saying this, the tall Boss turned and left.
The heavy iron door of the kitchen slammed shut with a loud ‘bang’, followed by the sound of a key turning in the lock.
“Kajiake, it’s getting late. Finish cleaning up inside and then close up for the night. I’m heading out.”
The Chef tossed the shop key to the blond-haired server, Kajiake.
“Chef, be careful on your way.”
“……”
Outside the iron door, the voices of the Chef and server gradually faded away.
Inside, Hualí hung her head, her back sliding slowly down the hard wall until she sat on the cold kitchen tile.
Her heart felt icy.
Unable to pay the steep meal fee, she was locked up by the Restaurant Boss and forced to wash the three towering piles of dishes in the kitchen sink to work off the debt.
“Gu… Why did things turn out like this?!”
“Guuu… I’ll never be greedy again. Penina, hurry and save me…”
Her money, more than ten Gold Coins!
When did it all disappear?!
There was nothing she could do.
With things having gone this far, all Hualí could do was obey.
After all, even Penina didn’t know she had arrived at the Capital, and Lilith was out of contact—there was no one she could rely on to save her.
“It’s just washing dishes, right? Who says I can’t do it?!”
She had to finish quickly, or she wouldn’t be able to leave before the shop opened at dawn.
And so.
Under the blinding white lamp overhead, the pink-haired girl leaned the Saint Sword against the wall, dragged a chair in front of the stove, stood on it, and rolled up her sleeves.
Her cute little face was full of determination.
“Hmph! Washing dishes? Did you think something like that could trouble the brilliant Hualí-sama?”
She had passed the Demon King Castle Palace’s high-difficulty maid exam, after all. Washing dishes was a simple task for her.
Well… maybe it wasn’t something to be especially proud of.
The faucet gushed with a steady ‘shhhh’ of water, and her small hands turned red from the cold as she scrubbed.
Hualí’s tense face had lost all trace of a smile.
Because someone who truly wants to sleep has no smile on their face.
***
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
The lights in the Restaurant went out one by one.
The ‘Open’ sign on the glass door was flipped to ‘Closed’.
The last to leave, Kajiake, locked the front door and walked away.
But tonight, unlike usual, he didn’t head home immediately after work.
He rounded a corner, avoiding the few eyes on the street, and entered a Tavern hidden deep in an alley.
“Boss, one Rose Cocktail, on the rocks,” he said.
At his words, the Bar Owner behind the counter—a bearded man wiping a wineglass—raised an eyebrow.
“What’s this? After lying low so long, you’ve finally found a worthy prey to hunt?”
“Heh heh…”
A strange, inhuman laugh rattled from Kajiake’s throat, low and hoarse.
Scarlet light flickered in his eyes, hidden by shadow, and his voice was thick with barely-contained excitement as he impatiently shared with the Bar Owner about the girl he’d met today.
“She was so beautiful, so cute!”
Kajiake could feel his body trembling.
It was the kind of tremor that came only when every cell in his body was filled with excitement.
The girl holding the sword—he was certain he’d never seen anyone so perfectly beautiful before.
“So cute that at the first sight, my mind instantly pictured her lying with her belly slit open, entrails spilled, her body found the next day beside a garbage cart in a dark alley!”
Perhaps the Restaurant Boss would never have imagined that the polite young server in his shop was, by night, the perpetrator behind dozens of grisly crimes.
The brutal murderer who had slaughtered countless young girls and still walked free—the infamous Girl Ripper.
He didn’t have to wait long before the Rose Cocktail was placed on the bar and slid to him.
At the same time, the Bar Owner handed over the Assault Tools stored in the Tavern and a Cloak that could hide a figure in the night.
“Here, your stuff,”
Desire and greed filled the Bar Owner’s eyes as he licked his cracked lips.
“Don’t forget to bring me the good stuff afterward, so I can taste for myself what kind of girl could tempt you back into the game.”
It was no wonder the two trusted each other—they were the same kind of people.
Kajiake gulped down a mouthful of Rose Cocktail, then frowned, smacking his lips thoughtfully.
He hesitated, noticing the taste was slightly different from the usual.
“This drink…”
“Heh, how is it?”
The Bar Owner’s lips curled up.
“Feel any mysterious power swelling inside you? I spent a fortune on the Black Market for that stuff~”
At this, Kajiake’s brows furrowed tightly, his eyes narrowing to slits.
His face was full of displeasure.
“What’s that supposed to mean? When have I ever slipped up before? You think I need that kind of thing?”
“Of course not!”
The Bar Owner waved his hands, hurrying to explain.
“I just wanted to contribute, to feel involved. Besides, the faster things go, the less risk of getting caught by the city’s Prosecutors, right~?”
His words were reasonable and hit all the right points, almost convincing Kajiake.
He snorted coldly.
“Hmph! You worry too much. With everything happening in the city these days, those Prosecutors have their hands full—there’s no way they’d be watching me too closely.”
There was one more thing he didn’t say aloud.
From his brief contact with Hualí earlier, he felt he’d figured her out.
She didn’t seem to know anything about recent events in the Capital, and her manners showed no trace of noble elegance.
Most likely, she was just an ordinary outsider who’d arrived with a merchant caravan.
For people with no background and no connection to the Capital, it wouldn’t even matter if they died right at the Inspectorate’s door.
At most, there’d be a half-day investigation, and then they’d rule it ‘suicide’, claiming ‘the girl cut herself open and crawled to the Inspectorate’s door before dying’, and close the case.
He drained the last of the orange-red drink, stood up from the barstool, and checked the bag containing his tools.
Inside, dozens of knives of various types gleamed coldly under the light.
Their edges were so sharp that even a hair falling on them would be sliced in two.
“Let’s go. Making a beautiful girl wait is hardly gentlemanly~”
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