Chapter 1 The Evening of Iketerte

In the evening in Iketerte City, twilight shrouded the city, painting every inch of the royal capital with a pearl-like sheen.

Walking out of the Iketerte Academy and heading east for less than a kilometer, you could see "Boss Cat Restaurant" already bustling with business during dinner time, with wisps of smoke and the aroma of dinner wafting from the roof.

Through the streetlights illuminating the street, the quaint wooden house looked even more mysterious in the night, while the lights shining from the windows of the wooden house made people feel warm and cheerful.

Whenever a guest entered or left, the wind chimes on the door would chime sweetly, as if welcoming and sending off each customer.

Stepping through the door of the restaurant, a lively scene came into view.

The tables and chairs on the first floor of the restaurant were now almost full, with people raising their glasses and smiling, whispering and laughing, all within earshot.

The waitress was as busy as a gyro-rat, doing her best to serve steaming meals. Seeing Lanchi and Hyperion entering, she quickly called out to them:

"Guests, please take a look at the menu first! I'll be with you in a moment."

Hyperion smiled and waved her hand, signaling the waitress not to worry about them.

They had already eaten dinner and were here to find someone.

Lanchi was already familiar with the place and went straight to the stairs, preparing to go to the second floor.

But then, he seemed to catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye.

Turning his head, he saw Talia, acting as the poster girl behind the counter.

She had her hair in girlish braids and wore a pure white dress with an apron, looking virtuous, rational, and moving, and no one would ever think she was a demon.

Lanchi was stunned; he had never drawn Talia like this.

A demon lord, needing to work?

Also, how did she seem to have perfectly integrated into the life of the royal capital, as naturally as he had integrated into the Purgatory Corridor Academy, without causing any sense of disharmony among the surrounding alien races?

And so, Lanchi looked at Talia.

Talia also looked at Lanchi.

Not a word was spoken.

The air was frighteningly quiet.

Talia's face, which had seemed to have a hint of warmth, instantly frosted over.

Clearly, she hadn't expected Lanchi to come at this time.

Lanchi usually came in the morning or afternoon to learn card-making from her, and he would go back before evening.

Hyperion, who had entered the store and was looking around, preparing to wait for Lanchi to lead the way, noticed that Lanchi was looking at the counter and followed his gaze.

As a result, she saw a Great Poet standing behind the counter.

"Lanfu is out?"

Hyperion unconsciously murmured in surprise.

"Lanfu?"

Talia frowned slightly upon hearing this, and her gaze shifted from Lanchi to Hyperion's face.

A trace of surprise and emotion flashed in her golden eyes in an instant.

Then, Talia seemed to understand something.

Clearly, her niece had mistaken her for the Great Poet at first glance.

All of this was the fault of that damned guy, who had given the Great Poet her image!

Then, Talia stared intently at Lanchi again.

She would settle this historical issue with Lanchi sooner or later.

Lanchi didn't dare to keep staring at Talia and shifted his gaze.

Hyperion looked around, sensing that the atmosphere was not right, and immediately realized that she might have said the wrong thing.

She realized the problem.

The Great Poet had blue pupils.

But the lady in front of her had golden pupils.

Her temperament was also completely different; the Great Poet wouldn't be so distant to Lanchi.

"Ahem, this is my teacher, Miss Tata."

Lanchi introduced Hyperion, avoiding Talia's death stare.

It seemed like today was off to a bad start.

"Miss Tata, hello."

Hyperion greeted Talia as respectfully as possible.

She tried her best to hide the stormy waves in her heart. She had originally thought that Tata and the Great Poet only looked alike, but she didn't expect them to be exactly the same!

"..."

Talia was silent.

As if thinking about something.

Lanchi was slightly nervous.

From Talia's first response, he could guess her mood.

If she was indifferent to Hyperion, then there would probably be nothing to talk about later.

However.

Talia nodded slightly to Hyperion, looked around the shop. It was dinner time, and it wasn't good to chat in the aisle.

She took out a key from her apron pocket and handed it to Lanchi.

"Take her upstairs first. After I help Boss Cat watch the shop for a while, I'll go up and find you."

Talia said in a gentle voice.

"Oh... okay!"

Lanchi took the key somewhat blankly.

The sun had risen in the west. Why was this old woman so gentle today?

Could it be that she was really being impersonated by the Great Poet?!

……

It was past seven o'clock.

There were slightly fewer customers in the store, and the waitresses delivering food were no longer as busy as before.

Talia was still behind the counter with a straight face.

For her, an hour was just the blink of an eye; a few months, a few years, were actually very short.

Just as Talia was still working diligently.

"Tata, thank you, meow."

A cute little black cat jumped out of the kitchen, onto the counter, and said to Talia in its childish voice.

The surrounding customers didn't seem to find it strange at all that the cat could talk.

"It's okay."

Talia untied her apron and put it back in the cabinet.

The customers all thought that this black cat was a magician who was good at transformation techniques, but only Talia could see that its true form was a cat of the spirit race.

Although it was naturally very weak, even a seventh-level couldn't necessarily beat a fierce third or fourth-level magical beast, its lifespan would be very long.

She couldn't tell how long this spirit cat had lived, but it had managed to survive to the seventh level.

Because Boss Cat always made her midnight snacks, she would help out when Boss Cat was short-handed.

"Did that young man come to see you again?"

The little black cat asked.

Although it always stayed in the kitchen, it knew that a black-haired, green-eyed young man would always come to see Tata.

And since last month, it had become particularly frequent, and each time he would stay in Tata's room for a long time.

It was very, very curious about what the relationship was between the seemingly cold-as-ice Tata and the gentle young man.

It had originally planned to observe for a while longer.

But it didn't expect that this time the young man would actually bring a beautiful girl with him.

It really couldn't resist its curiosity.

"He and I just know each other, that's all."

Talia said without any emotion in her voice.

The relationship between her and Lanchi was just a simple employment relationship.

And until he paid off his debt, she had to protect him and urge him to repay the money.

In addition, he would bring her some pleasing things from time to time.

For example, Hyperion, who she had always wanted to see. Before she could find a suitable excuse and opportunity to hint to Lanchi, Lanchi had suddenly brought Hyperion to her.

"Don't you think he's a special person?"

The little black cat asked tentatively.

It had always felt that Tata and this young man had a close relationship.

Tata, who never socialized with other people, was the only one who could spend a long time with this young man.

"What's special?"

Even after traveling in the human kingdom for so many years, Talia still didn't understand many human emotions.

She knew that the "special" that Boss Cat said was not literally "special," but special in terms of the human concept of "partner" or "love."

She had always wanted to get the answer, so she asked Boss Cat for advice.

It had lived for so long and got along well with humans, so it must know humans very well.

"It's that he always makes you happy, you gradually become unconsciously inseparable from him, you start to care about and be curious about his thoughts, and your originally calm self becomes easily emotionally volatile because of him."

The little black cat shook its paw. Hearing a call from the kitchen, it quickly jumped off the counter, turned its head, and said to Tata.

It had to go back to the kitchen to work.

"..."

Talia frowned and pondered.

It seemed that every point that Boss Cat said was right, accurate to the extreme.

But she still couldn't understand it.

Where exactly was the problem?

(End of this chapter)