The girl\u2019s sigh echoed through the dark room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She wouldn\u2019t stop, so I faked a smile and told her, \u201cDon\u2019t worry. There\u2019s nothing to be scared of,\u201d and her crying quieted slightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was trying my best to be gentle with her, so as not to frighten her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wasn\u2019t doing it out of kindness, and I definitely hadn\u2019t suddenly started feeling pity for this kidnapped girl. I just thought that her crying would make my job more difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My job: bringing this very valuable girl to her buyer without damaging her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was only a disposable pawn. I didn\u2019t know any of the details, but I was still going to be paid handsomely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that the girl was almost done crying, I heard her stomach growl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ll go buy you something to eat,\u201d I said, then asked one of my partners to look after her as I went outside. My fake smile vanished instantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The salty breeze from the harbor hit my expressionless face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I reached the road, which was bustling with people. The people here were always calm and peaceful, possibly because of the warm southern climate. In general, the people in this country were obliviously sheltered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the kingdom of Sorci\u00e9, the largest in the region, slavery and human trafficking were forbidden, and the rights of the citizens were carefully protected. Even commoners received education, and most people were literate. It was a wealthy, peaceful country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seeing the happy faces of the people walking by made me wonder about something… If I were born here, maybe I wouldn\u2019t have needed to resort to crime to make a living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But wondering about that was useless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hadn\u2019t been born in Sorci\u00e9. I was born and raised in the slums of a poor country, and I was an orphan who couldn\u2019t even read properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I shook the thoughts out of my head, put on my usual fake smile, and went to a shop to buy something to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh, everything looks so different here!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I, Katarina Claes, looked out of the carriage\u2019s window and couldn\u2019t help but express my surprise at the change in scenery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Larna Smith, my superior and fellow passenger, explained why: \u201cThis city is located south of the capital, so the plants around us are completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I took a better look, and sure enough, the greenery looked much more tropical than what I was used to. We hadn\u2019t traveled that far, so a change this radical was surprising. I thought that, maybe, this was because this world belonged to an otome game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have a secret I\u2019ve never shared with anyone: I have memories of my previous life. When I was still eight years old, I\u2019d fallen down and hit my head and remembered that I used to be an otaku high school student from a country called Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I died because of an unfortunate accident and was reborn as the daughter of a duke. I soon realized that I was now living in the world of Fortune Lover<\/em>, the otome game that I was playing in my previous life right before dying! And if that weren\u2019t enough, I was playing the part of Katarina Claes, the villainess who was destined for doom no matter what she did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was obviously shocked when I found that out. I had seven years before I\u2019d have to enroll in the Academy of Magic, where the events of the game would take place. I spent that time preparing countermeasures for all the ways in which my doom could happen, and my efforts were repaid. I successfully avoided all of the Catastrophic Bad Ends that the game had in store for me, finally earning peace. Or so I thought…<\/p>\n\n\n\n I became friends with the game\u2019s protagonist, Maria, and after graduating, we started working together at the Magical Ministry, one of the kingdom\u2019s most important organizations. But once there, I found out that the Ministry was actually the setting for Fortune Lover II,<\/em> the game\u2019s sequel!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, according to the game\u2019s story, Katarina Claes, after being exiled during the events of the first game, was back in the kingdom for more evil antics which all resulted in her doom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After all that effort to escape doom, here was a fresh new batch of bad ends! I needed to do something! But unfortunately, I\u2019d never played FL2, the sequel, in my previous life. All the hints I had about it came from a mysterious note I found and from some dreams which I sometimes had, where a friend from my past life was playing it. Armed with nothing but that, I was currently looking for ways to avoid my impending doom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe because the game\u2019s influence was forcing me to follow its script, I happened to get my hands on Dark Magic, an evil and forbidden type of magic whose very existence was kept secret. Specifically, I found a Dark Familiar and something known as the Dark Covenant. So, between thinking of the bad ends and my work at the Ministry, I was very busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right now I was headed towards Ocean Harbor, the port in southern Sorci\u00e9 which was used to trade with Ethenell, and this was also part of my job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A young, magic-wielding noble lady disappeared not too long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the Ministry was looking for her, I (accidentally) found that she had probably been kidnapped and was going to be used for human trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We also found out that, in all likelihood, a Dark Magic user from Sorci\u00e9 was involved in the kidnapping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Larna, the head of my department at the Ministry, chose three people to accompany her on this mission based on their ability to fight Dark Magic: me and my colleague Sora, since we wielded that same type of magic, and Maria, who wielded Light Magic. The four of us were now close to Ocean Harbor, the town where human trafficking was likely taking place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few days had already passed since that young lady was kidnapped, and we therefore had no time to lose. As soon as the International Assembly was over, we had to rush here for our new mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the tight schedule, however, my friends had found the time to come to see me off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKatarina, remember to keep away from things which do not concern you. Stay clear of danger,\u201d Jeord said, furrowing his brow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keith, with a similar expression, said, \u201cBig sister, don\u2019t follow strangers, even if they promise to give you snacks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c…I\u2019m an adult, you know? I\u2019m eighteen years old,\u201d I replied, slightly offended at being treated like a child, but then my friend Mary joined in, staring deep into my eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s what makes it all the more dangerous! Take these, they could come in handy. This will turn any assailant temporarily blind, and this one will paralyze\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat? Where\u2019d you even find those things? Quit it, anyway. Giving someone as clumsy as her things like those would make it all even more dangerous,\u201d Alan said, stopping Mary as she was getting a series of little bottles out of her bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be honest, I agreed with him. Hearing the way she spoke about their contents, I was scared to think of what would happen if I accidentally broke one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLady Katarina, should you be bored during the ride…\u201d Sophia said with a smile as she handed me a series of books which were probably romance novels. I appreciated the thought, but those were probably too many for me to ever finish reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSophia, Katarina isn\u2019t going there to play. She\u2019ll be working and will have no time to read those things. Bring them back home,\u201d her brother Nicol said. I actually wanted to borrow a couple…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn\u2019t bring myself to contradict someone as strict and serious about work as Nicol, so I gave up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I eventually left the capital with some snacks to eat along the way and a lot of warnings not to do anything dangerous and to be very careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to leave soon,\u201d Sora announced through the carriage\u2019s window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPlease take care of Katarina,\u201d Jeord addressed him with a dark smile, \u201cand make sure that nothing weird happens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sora was slightly taken aback, but he silently nodded. Everyone was seeing me off as if I were going to a far away country, but I wasn\u2019t even leaving Sorci\u00e9 at all…<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was now excited at the southern scenery around me. The greenery was different, with palm trees and luscious flowers I\u2019d never seen before, and the people were different as well. They were tan, unlike the pale people that lived in the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was just like one of the islands in southern Japan from my previous life… or at least I assumed it was, since I\u2019d never visited them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re almost there,\u201d Larna said while I was still busy excitedly taking in the scenery around me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou all know about your identities, right?\u201d she then asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes,\u201d all the three of us replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was talking about the fake identities that we were supposed to take on during the mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike the time when that village had asked the Ministry to help them with their tanuki infestation, this was an undercover operation, just like Sora and Maria\u2019s mission at the Castle during the Assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If people found out about our ranks or about the fact that we worked for the Ministry, they would probably feel wary of us, and looking for information would become much more difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, as long as I was here, I was no longer a Ministry employee or the daughter of a duke. I was supposed to be just a normal girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a restaurant in the area which had secret connections with the Magical Ministry. We would pretend to be relatives of the owners who had come there from the countryside to help with work. We would then use that cover story to snoop around without raising suspicion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, when Larna prepared our cover stories, mine was a bit different. The higher-ups at the Ministry insisted that, as the daughter of a duke, I couldn\u2019t be asked to do the lowly job of a commoner, and so I could pretend to be a slightly higher-ranking tourist, just lazily goofing around while my friends worked. I refused, and asked to help Sora and Maria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was doing my fair share of manual labor back at the Ministry, and, in my previous life, I worked part time at a restaurant to finance my otaku hobbies, so I was positive that I\u2019d have no problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First and foremost, though, I couldn\u2019t stand doing nothing while my colleagues were working and collecting information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, it was decided that Maria and I would work at the restaurant while Sora would help load ships during the day and act as a sort of bouncer during the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Larna, who was a master of disguise, who would change her looks to investigate here and there, but she didn\u2019t tell us any of the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHere we are,\u201d Larna said, and we hopped off of the carriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a slight breeze coming towards us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt smells salty!\u201d I said, happy to experience that smell for the first time in this life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s because we\u2019re so close to the sea,\u201d Larna explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe sea?!\u201d I said, overjoyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLady Katarina, have you never been to the sea?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, never.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my previous life I\u2019d go to the beach to swim every summer, but since being reborn as Katarina Claes, I\u2019d never even seen the ocean. The word itself was enough to get me excited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf that\u2019s the case, you should go and take a look at it if you find some free time,\u201d Larna kindly said. I definitely wanted to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have also never seen it, so, if you go, I would like to come along,\u201d Maria said, so we promised to go together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was looking forward to discovering what the sea looked like in this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaving the carriage, we walked through a street smelling like salt and full of people, until we finally reached a building with a red roof and a simple sign on it that read \u201cHarbor Restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While it didn\u2019t look particularly old, it obviously wasn\u2019t very new either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A sign on the door showed that it wasn\u2019t open yet, but Larna casually walked inside, making the shopkeeper bell ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside we found a few dozen tables, each with two or three seats, and, just to the right of the entrance, what looked like a counter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like the building itself, its contents were neither ancient nor brand new, but the whole place was very clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re here!\u201d Larna said as soon as she entered, addressing someone inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, already?\u201d a voice from behind the counter replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It belonged to a woman probably in her late twenties, who was crouching behind the counter, doing something, and stood up when she heard Larna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s been so long, Larna. I haven\u2019t had much time since you contacted me, so I\u2019m not done with the preparations yet. Sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman, whose words indicated that she obviously knew Larna, had brown eyes and hair of the same color, long enough to reach her waist and tied in a messy ponytail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She wasn\u2019t extraordinarily beautiful or anything, but she had an attractive something about her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDon\u2019t worry, it\u2019s my bad for calling you all of a sudden. We\u2019ll take up the preparations from here,\u201d Larna said before introducing us to the woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom right to left, these are Katarina Claes, Maria Campbell, and Sora Smith,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Introducing people with nothing but their names \u2014 no titles \u2014 was weird, but this woman must have been used to how weird Larna usually was, since she didn\u2019t bat an eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI see,\u201d she said. \u201cI already read about all of you in the files that were sent to me. However, as long as you are here, we\u2019ll all be on a first-name basis. I\u2019m Regina, by the way. I know this is very sudden, but time is of the essence, so I\u2019ll show you your rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We followed her to a hallway opposite to the entrance. It was darker than the hall, but just as clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regina opened one of several doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis, the next room, and the one at the end of the hallway are the employees\u2019 rooms. They all look the same, and, since they haven\u2019t been used in a while, they could be a bit dusty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She showed us a simple room with a bed, a wardrobe, a desk, and a chair. It only had the bare essentials, but the sunlight coming in from the window made it look like a pleasant, comfortable place to stay in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLady Katarina, Maria, Sora. Clean these rooms and then move into them, one for each,\u201d Larna ordered after checking inside the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat about you, Miss Larna?\u201d I asked, wondering where she was going to stay if we used up all three of the rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDon\u2019t worry, I won\u2019t be staying in this building. And don\u2019t call me Miss<\/em> while we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cY-Yes…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was going to investigate in disguise, so she wasn\u2019t going to stay with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRegina, I won\u2019t be able to stop by so often, so please take care of these three.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven after going up in rank, you\u2019re still as freewheeling as always,\u201d Regina said, putting a hand to her cheek and sighing. She looked toward the rest of us. \u201cIt can\u2019t be easy working with her as your boss, huh? Anyway, as long as you stay here, I\u2019ll take care of all of you, so just tell me if anything happens,\u201d she then added, showing us a voluptuous smile. I nodded, but I found myself blushing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Larna, however, had raised an eyebrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI want you to take care of them, but don\u2019t teach them anything weird, all right?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat do you mean weird<\/em>!?\u201d Regina replied, pouting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI mean things like how to charm men, which I know is one of your fortes. These two girls, in particular, are young and naive, so try not to tease them too much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would never! And I don\u2019t try to charm men. They just come to me of their own accord.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDon\u2019t think I\u2019d forget how many men you were keeping around yourself and how much trouble that caused at your last workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf we\u2019re talking about that, shouldn\u2019t we also mention how much trouble you caused me by thinking of nothing but your research on magic, without ever stopping to consider the consequences of what you were doing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the quick remarks that they were exchanging, one could see that Larna and Regina were very close to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExcuse me, how do you two know each other?\u201d I finally asked, unable to contain my curiosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe worked together at the Ministry,\u201d both of them replied in perfect unison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRegina is a bit older than me, but we started working at the same time and were assigned to the same department,\u201d Larna explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo you used to work at the Ministry?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I knew that our organization had some connection to this restaurant, but we didn\u2019t know that a Ministry employee was working here, and finding this out surprised all three of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seeing our reaction, Regina put her hand to her cheek and sighed once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy are you always so half-hearted, Larna? You haven\u2019t even explained the details to your subordinates? Be more diligent!\u201d she said, and then looked back at us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost Ministry employees are open about their work, but there are some, like me, who hide their position and pretend to be common citizens. We do that to collect information and report it to the higher ups, or even solve small problems on our own. In other words, we do all of this undercover,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I knew that Larna had been on some undercover missions, and that Maria and Sora had recently done the same at the Castle, but I didn\u2019t know that there were people who were always undercover!<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRegina looks… like that, but she\u2019s actually strong both with her arms and with magic. You can rely on her,\u201d Larna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat do you mean like that?<\/em> I really don\u2019t want to hear that coming from the Ministry\u2019s problem child…\u201d Regina replied, pouting again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cProblem child? That\u2019d be you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo way. You were the problem child.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most likely, both of them were the problem child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In any case, the Ministry was hiding more secrets than I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I used to think that Ministry employees were like government officials in Japan, but now they looked more like an intelligence agency. I really didn\u2019t understand the scope of this organization, despite being an employee myself. There was so much I didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we reached Ocean Harbor, we went from answering one Ministry problem child to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t know how glad I should feel about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We started by deciding who would stay in which room, but, since we were two women and one man, Sora would stay in the room at the end of the hallway, and Maria and I only had to choose which one of the two adjacent rooms to use, and then we all cleaned them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as Regina had told us, the rooms were a bit dusty, and looked like they hadn\u2019t been used in a while. We opened the windows and swept the floors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since there was only the bare minimum furniture, cleaning took very little time, and soon we were ready to put our belongings into our wardrobes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anne, my maid, used to do everything for me, but while working at the Ministry, I had experienced doing a variety of menial tasks, and now I could easily take care of this kind of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, according to Anne, I was \u201ctoo careless about personal appearance<\/em>,\u201d and she even asked Maria to look after me in that regard. She obviously didn\u2019t trust my skills yet, but I personally thought that I\u2019d improved a little bit since my past life. Now, for example, I fixed my hair before<\/em> leaving the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought of that while taking things out of my luggage and stuffing them inside the wardrobe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I put in my clothes and other daily necessities, and my bag had remained almost empty, except for a book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t take Sophia\u2019s romance novels with me, did I?<\/em> I thought but, taking a better look, I realized that it was actually the Dark Covenant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, that\u2019s right.<\/em> I\u2019d been told to always keep it with me, so I\u2019d put it in my bag before going to the Castle for the Assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I often forgot about the covenant, mainly because reading it was so difficult that I wanted to think about it as little as I could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I looked at this book, by far the most villainesque thing I owned, I remembered about the Catastrophic Bad Ends that were waiting for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I avoided doom throughout my time at the Academy, but, after I started working at the Ministry, I realized that I wasn\u2019t quite done yet. However, even after a while, I hadn\u2019t noticed any particular event that looked like it could lead me to a bad end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was also possible that I just hadn\u2019t noticed\u2014after all, I hadn\u2019t played FL2, so I wasn\u2019t very familiar with its script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite everything, I had accidentally found a lot of Dark Magic-related items that were probably used by the villainess in the game. Furthermore, because of my job, I spent a lot of time with Maria, meaning that maybe I was inadvertently interfering with her romantic events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had to be really careful about that, since, from what I knew, doom for Katarina in FL2 was related to interfering with the love between Maria and the three new love interests: Cyrus, Dewey, and Sora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for Cyrus, Maria\u2019s gynophobic superior, I\u2019d actually helped him get closer to her, and I was always rooting for Dewey, the child prodigy, so I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d have any problems with those two…<\/p>\n\n\n\n But then there was Sora, who worked in the same department as me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We spent a lot of time together, but I could never tell what he was really thinking under that aloof expression of his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I decided that, if I found some free time during this mission, I\u2019d ask him again what he thought of Maria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I put the Dark Covenant in the wardrobe with my other belongings and, since I was finished, I went to see how Maria was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m done!\u201d I said, and I noticed that she was still putting her clothes away. Unlike me, who just threw them in haphazardly, she was neatly folding each one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat was fast, Lady Katarina,\u201d she said, before quickly realizing what she\u2019d done and covering her mouth with her hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou can\u2019t call me Lady<\/em> while we\u2019re here, remember?\u201d I answered with a grin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c…Miss Katarina,\u201d she said while blushing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wouldn\u2019t have minded being called just Katarina, without even the Miss<\/em>. Actually, I would have preferred that, considering that Larna had also told me not to use it with her. However Maria refused to do that, saying that she could never disrespect me like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought that in this world, where rank was so important, that gap was too large to bridge, but I still hoped that one day we could just call each other by name like two friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAh, I ended up bringing Alexander\u2019s towel…\u201d Maria muttered to herself as she continued putting her things away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou mean that teddy bear?\u201d I asked, and her expression got slightly darker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes. He was supposed to come with us, so I had also packed his things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA shame, really,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alexander was a magical tool, an uncool teddy bear with a cool name that Larna had created, and it was supposed to come with us on this mission. It was very attached to Maria and followed her everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its main function was finding people, and it had helped us find Keith in the past, which is why we thought it could be helpful this time too. We tried to borrow something from the kidnapped young lady to activate it, but we then found out about a major problem… Alexander was actually looking for people by detecting traces of their magic, so it didn\u2019t work properly with people who only had weak magic powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keith, Maria, and the other test subjects we had used when experimenting with Alexander all had very strong magic powers, so we only recently found out that it couldn\u2019t help us in finding the not-so-powerful young lady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This also meant that it probably couldn\u2019t find not-so-powerful me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We were obviously all disappointed, but the most disappointed person (bear?) was Alexander, who thought it could save the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be honest, I didn\u2019t really like Alexander (because it teased me all the time), but seeing how depressed it looked back then made me feel for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After all, Alexander had to stay in the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it\u2019d want us to do our best,\u201d I told Maria, in an attempt to cheer her up, since she was Alexander\u2019s… owner, in a sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After Maria was done with her luggage as well, we walked out into the hallway, where we found Sora. He\u2019d already finished with his room and was waiting for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow that we\u2019re all done, we should go back to the restaurant. Regina said she\u2019ll tell us what we\u2019re supposed to do next,\u201d he said, and so we all went back to the hall that we\u2019d seen earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We found Regina behind the counter, and Larna sitting in front of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re done? Sit here, then. I\u2019ll make you something to drink,\u201d Regina said, inviting us to the seats near Larna\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we sat down, I thought that the atmosphere was too relaxing to think that we were going to actually work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere you go,\u201d Larna said after pointing at the glasses on the counter in front of us. They were full of an orange liquid and decorated with a slice of some kind of citrus on the rim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a tropical drink!<\/em> I thought, a bit excited, as I took a sip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c…Hmfg!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did my best not to spit it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wh-What is this?! <\/em>It looked like orange juice, but it tasted sour, bitter, and spicy… In a word, it tasted disgusting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I considered that maybe it just didn\u2019t match my palate, but I looked at Maria and Sora and, sure enough, their faces had turned blue with disgust too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The person behind the drinks, however, didn\u2019t seem to notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo, how does it taste? Did you like it?\u201d Regina asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having no idea how to reply, the three of us silently looked at each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHave you seen their faces?\u201d Larna asked coolly. \u201cDo you think that\u2019s a face that people make when they drink something they like? You still couldn\u2019t throw together something half palatable to save your life, it seems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that I looked at it, I noticed that the glass in front of Larna only contained water. She probably knew that Regina\u2019s drinks were terrible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stared at my superior as if to blame her for not telling me before I drank that, and my thoughts reached her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI just thought that making you taste it for yourself was the easiest way to do it. And these drinks are no exception. Everything that Regina makes is awful. Food, beverages, you name it. Her sense of taste is awful too, so she doesn\u2019t even understand just how bad the things she makes are,\u201d Larna explained with a shrug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regina then took a sip of the drink she had made for us before asking, \u201cIs it really that<\/em> bad?\u201d thus proving Larna\u2019s point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf so… who is cooking at the restaurant?\u201d asked Maria, who had finally recovered from the attack on her taste buds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was actually wondering the same thing, since I\u2019d seen no one else but Regina in the restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I seriously hoped that she wasn\u2019t serving customers things that tasted like that drink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s people who help me with that. I mostly manage the restaurant by myself, but they come around to give me a hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo you have employees,\u201d said Maria. \u201cDo they also work at the Ministry?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, but they know what\u2019s going on. I\u2019ve performed background checks on them, and they\u2019re trustworthy. They\u2019re an old couple living near here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIs it only that old couple?\u201d I asked Regina, surprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes. So what?\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We were all surprised by this reaction. The restaurant was quite big and it had a lot of seats. How could three people, two of them elderly at that, be enough to manage it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I explained my doubts to Regina, who then casually replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, that\u2019s not a problem. This place is never full. Even during lunch time, the most we ever get is maybe ten people at once.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd is that enough to keep the restaurant going?\u201d Maria questioned, her eyes wide with curiosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo way,\u201d Regina simply replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Huh?<\/em> We all looked at her in confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis place exists to gather useful information for the Ministry, so they give me enough money to keep the place running. Getting a few customers is more than enough!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo this restaurant does not make enough of a profit to cover expenses?\u201d responded an even more confused Maria. Her eyes looked grimmer than usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExactly. We just buy food and beverages and resell them as is, after all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou are not cooking the food you serve?\u201d Maria attempted to clarify. She was surprisingly forward with her questions today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes. That couple told me that cooking would be too taxing for them, and that they couldn\u2019t cook anything worth selling anyway. I\u2019d cook the food myself, but my dishes aren\u2019t very popular,\u201d Regina explained as she cocked her head to one side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the drink she had served us was anything to go by, I could see why that was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo, long story short, this restaurant just sells the same food and drinks you could buy everywhere and isn\u2019t even popular at all, right?\u201d Larna mercilessly summarized the conversation so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHm, yes, I guess that\u2019s about it,\u201d Regina replied without looking very concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut wouldn\u2019t it be weird to get two new employees, Katarina and Maria, if the restaurant is doing so badly?\u201d Larna asked, raising an eyebrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, that did sound a bit unnatural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo need to worry about that. This restaurant still hasn\u2019t closed despite drawing in so few customers, right? So everyone around here thinks that I have a rich lover who gives me money to keep the place afloat and that I only do this as a pastime. People will simply assume that the two new girls are just other lovers of the same guy,\u201d Regina said with a smile as she slightly moved her head to one side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That elegant, womanly smile definitely made her look like a rich guy\u2019s lover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c…I see. Fine then,\u201d Larna said, still looking somewhat unconvinced. Personally, being thought of as someone\u2019s new lover was anything but fine…<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s not much to do around here, so you just need to stand there and kill time!\u201d Regina said while looking at Maria and me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was ready to give my best as a waitress, so I was actually disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf we have the time… may we try to cook something?\u201d Maria asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As always, she was such a diligent girl that she couldn\u2019t forgive the idea of just standing there doing nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou can cook?\u201d Regina asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMaria\u2019s a wonderful cook! Especially when it comes to baking, she\u2019s even better than your average patissier!\u201d I replied before Maria had a chance to respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cN-No, that is not true…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is<\/em> true! The things you cook are delicious!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maria was being humble, but, as the daughter of a duke, I\u2019d eaten my fair share of delicious cuisine. I knew a good cook when I saw one. Every time she made something for me, it was always delicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was beautiful, cute, kind, and even good at cooking… I wished I could marry her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cReally?\u201d Regina answered with a grin. \u201cIn that case, come to the kitchen with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fearing for Maria\u2019s life, Sora and I followed her and Regina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The girl\u2019s sigh echoed through the dark room. She wouldn\u2019t stop, so I faked a smile and told her, \u201cDon\u2019t worry. There\u2019s nothing to be scared of,\u201d and her crying quieted slightly. I was trying my best to be gentle with her, so as not to frighten her. I wasn\u2019t doing it out of kindness, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tak-berkategori"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3567,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions\/3567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/p>\n\n\n\n