Vicious Darling

[26]

This means it’s not allowed.

“As expected… I…”

Despite Chris persisting stubbornly, not giving up, Yuri looked at him.

Silently, just a quiet gaze.

Chris, unable to breathe properly, finally bowed his head with a sigh.

“…I understand.”

It was more submission than agreement.

“It’s decided then.”

Peter, who had been watching this exchange, was dumbfounded.

He already knew it wasn’t a normal Esper-Guide relationship, nor were they lovers. Still, he thought it was a bit loose for a master-servant relationship.

But Yuri suppressed the rebellion of an S-class Esper without raising his voice once. Chris bowed his head to him without showing any signs of feeling humiliated.

As if once it’s decided, that’s the end of it.

It didn’t seem like resignation. It’s just that Yuri’s orders took precedence over his own will.

‘Really… strange people.’

Peter, who thoughtlessly had such prejudiced thoughts about them being from the Winter Continent, clapped his hands to draw attention.

“Then, the boss of Baekyah here will personally… do part-time work…”

Midway through speaking, Peter’s eyes widened in shock. The words were jarring when put together.

Peter looked at Yuri with trembling eyes.

“Can’t we reconsider? The risk is too high.”

Yuri clicked his tongue.

He didn’t seem inclined to change his mind.

“Chris is my dog, so I went to the trouble of persuading him. He’s my responsibility.”

Peter felt a chill as Yuri’s gaze slowly moved towards his face.

“But you… are not someone I need to persuade or seek understanding from.”

“…Yes.”

Though a bit hesitant, Peter nodded.

Yuri was right. He was a collaborator dispatched by the upper echelons of the Barrel Society at Baekyah’s request. Even in polite terms, he wasn’t on equal footing with Yuri.

“Then it seems we’ve decided.”

Yuri looked at both of them in turn and spoke deliberately.

“Tomorrow, go to Farmer’s Grill for an interview.”

“Yes.”

Chris nodded seriously.

Given how things had turned out, it was better to devise ways to protect Yuri’s safety.

“Our goal is to get arrested as quickly as possible after getting hired.”

***

Oswin stood up after tightening the last screw.

As she took off her oil-stained gloves and face shield, relatively fresh air filled her nostrils.

She felt somewhat hungry, and realized it was already lunchtime.

She spotted a colleague trudging towards her from the opposite direction, holding boots.

“Liz, remember that restaurant at the intersection?”

“Farmer’s Grill? Why there?”

Liz, who had tied her hair carelessly and taken out her device, was seen inputting the quantity for new material orders.

“Want to go there for lunch today?”

Liz tilted her head at Oswin’s suggestion.

“Why bother? It’s expensive but the taste is just so-so.”

Oswin threw an irresistible bait at her friend who was turning back to her device.

“I heard they have a new Summer Continent-style dish that’s quite good.”

“Oh… That’s a bit different then.”

Their eyes met. They chuckled for no reason and immediately got up.

It had been a while since they’d been to Farmer’s Grill.

It was an awkward distance to go and come back within the lunch hour.

Luckily, there was a seat at an outdoor table, so they sat down.

Liz and Oswin, who had forgotten why they came here in the first place, were surprised to see the server who approached to take their order.

“May I take your order?”

His tall stature was the first thing that caught their eye.

He wasn’t an extraordinarily handsome man, but his eye color was incredibly beautiful. It was such a vivid purple that it made them doubt their own eyesight.

His black hair, neatly trimmed just short of covering the nape of his neck, looked very smooth. The pale wrist and bluish veins glimpsed beneath his neatly buttoned sleeve cuffs created a subtly sensual atmosphere.

Meanwhile, his purple eyes gazing steadily at them were strangely deep and intense, making it difficult to maintain eye contact for long.

‘He has a strange charisma.’

If he were just a bit more handsome, he’d have enough presence to be immediately cast and featured on the billboards in Babel City’s central district.

Oswin had no way of knowing that the other person was using a special device to alter his appearance to conceal his identity.

“Y-Yes.”

After ordering salad, main dishes, and two cocktails, Oswin and Liz could finally breathe once he had moved away.

“He really pulls off that uniform.”

“I know, right?”

Farmer’s Grill’s uniform tended to look a bit shabby.

But even that suited the black-haired man well. Maybe it was because the clothes tightened visibly every time he moved.

‘It’s a server I haven’t seen before, maybe he’s not good at the job?’

But as the ordered food was laid out one by one, and when he replaced a fork dropped on the floor, not a single clattering sound was heard.

Liz, who had been eating silently, whispered softly.

“He’s handsome.”

“Yeah. But I wonder if he’s not from the Spring Continent? His accent seems a bit stiff.”

“Isn’t it better than the accent of men coming from the Summer Continent? That one’s greasy.”

Oswin paused at her friend’s grumbling about it feeling like eating butter with olive oil poured on top.

It was because she was just spreading butter on bread and drizzling oil on it.

“…It might be greasy, but it could be a preference!”

Oswin rolled her eyes at Liz’s belated realization and chewed her food.

“Somehow, it doesn’t seem like it, but his serving is skillful.”

As Oswin was chatting casually, she turned her head when Liz urgently tugged at her clothes.

“What?”

But the moment she asked, she could see the answer. Because she spotted a blonde man in the direction Liz had led her to look.

The black-haired server was setting down a coffee cup in front of him.

The way they exchanged a few words casually made them seem like acquaintances.

That one was quite attractive too.

Above all, his broad shoulders and long legs that stretched out due to the restaurant’s short chairs were remarkable.

‘Well, they make a good picture.’

Oswin smiled, feeling somehow pleased.

Regardless of the truth, it’s enough if it’s pleasing to the eye.

Everyone seemed to be thinking similarly, as Liz was also smiling when their eyes met.

That’s when it happened. There was a commotion near the entrance.

“What’s going on?”

Oswin saw two officers getting out of a black car parked in front of the door.

One officer entered without hesitation and approached the black-haired server who was setting a plate in front of a customer.

He was saying something to the server.

From here, they could only see the stiff expression and the server shaking his head. They couldn’t tell exactly what was happening, but they could feel the atmosphere becoming tense.

As the officer roughly grabbed the server’s shoulder, the plate he was holding fell to the floor and shattered.

The crashing sound drew the attention of even those who were still unaware of the situation.

“What’s going on…?”

Oswin inwardly agreed with Liz’s murmur.

“Let go of me!”

The black-haired server who pushed the officer away nimbly jumped over a table, using it as support. His skill in escaping while knocking over a few chairs was unusual.

The chairs and table that had been precariously balanced above the pursuing officer came crashing down.

“Gasp!”

It seemed like the escape would be successful.

But another officer was blocking Farmer’s Grill’s entrance, and eventually, the server couldn’t get away.

The officer who had pushed away the chair that had fallen towards him, panting, roughly pressed the caught server to the floor as he tried to escape.

People around gasped in surprise or let out small screams.

“Come quietly!”

Oswin, who had been watching with a frown and was about to stand up and say something, hesitated.

‘Just now… I thought I saw him smiling?’

Before being forced to kneel, the server’s lips seemed to be slightly turned up as he lowered his head.

But why would someone caught while trying to escape be smiling?

“What are you doing! Can’t you talk it out!”

One of the customers stood up and protested. Liz chimed in.

“How can you treat a person like that! How can an officer behave this way?”

The officer waved his baton threateningly and said,

“Step back! This person is a criminal!”

The manager of Farmer’s Grill, who had belatedly noticed the commotion outside, came running out.

“Do you have business with our employee? Please let him go and let’s talk.”

“If you intend to keep protecting a criminal, we’ll have no choice but to arrest you too for obstructing official duties.”

The officer’s attitude remained rigid.

He took advantage of the manager’s hesitation to push the black-haired server towards his fellow officer.

Soon after nodding, the officer put the man into the police car.

It was so forceful it almost looked like a kidnapping.

“What is this…”

Oswin clicked her tongue and leaned back in her chair.

Until just a moment ago, it had been a peaceful lunch hour, so what on earth was this all about?

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience, everyone.”

The manager, sweating profusely, went around offering free beer to each table.

Oswin, who was politely declining, spotted the blonde man from earlier.

He was glaring fiercely in the direction where the car had disappeared.

‘Is he really an ordinary person?’

Something seemed odd.

“That server from earlier, they say he was an illegal immigrant from the Winter Continent.”

Liz, who had finished paying as they weren’t in the mood to finish their meal, whispered.

Oswin frowned.

The arrest of people from other continents across the entire Spring Continent wasn’t a recent development.

“I don’t know why they’re doing this.”

Ever since the new mayor took office, an uneasy atmosphere had been swirling around the Spring Continent.

Colleagues they had been working with normally, owners of shops they frequently visited, old ladies who had lived in the neighborhood for a long time… Even people they knew were being arrested one by one.

The reason was that they were illegal immigrants.

It was a big shock to Oswin, who had vaguely thought that illegal immigrants must be criminals. They were vastly different from the image portrayed in the media, which described illegal immigrants as parasites sucking the lifeblood of the Spring Continent.

Some people would say they were well caught, calling them tax thieves.

But Oswin thought differently.

‘They say once you’re caught, you don’t come back.’

They don’t even tell you what happened. An acquaintance of an acquaintance asked her to write a petition, saying her husband was taken because he was from the Winter Continent.

Oswin willingly picked up her pen, but she hasn’t heard any hopeful news yet.

And now, after witnessing such an arrest scene right before her eyes, she felt uncomfortable.

‘Where did I submit that petition? I should ask again.’

Oswin sighed deeply and stood up.

“Let’s go.”