《Walpurgis Night: The Midnight Blood-Red Rose》 CH 1 Chapter 1: The Mageka on Duty (01) 5:40PM. With eyes fixated on the monitor, my fingers stormed through the keyboard like an on-switched motor. The annual report before me had been flooded with a sea of words, yet both my hands refused to slow down for a split second. Five minutes away from getting off. Keep your hands moving! I murmured to myself in the head while contemplating what to write for the remaining two sections. Oblivious to the surroundings, all that occupied my mind was to stay focused and finish the work at hand. If I can¡¯t leave the office on time, I¡¯ll be late for tonight¡¯s work no doubt! 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­ Great, here comes the acknowledgements! Mouse gripped firmly in my palm, I dashed to the second page of the report, and let the words spill through the taps at supersonic speed. Right when the last full-stop was entered, the system time displayed 5:43pm. Two more minutes left! In case I can¡¯t hop on the bus that¡¯s heading to Sham Shui Po in seven minutes, there¡¯s no way I¡¯m going to make it to the destination within fifteen minutes after moonrise! I¡¯d rather be stuck in a Hung Hom traffic jam than being swamped by the Admiralty MTR crowd. So, speed is key! Left and right as my eyeballs rolled, I took a quick glance through the whole document, and finished it off with a firm ¡°Save¡± after confirming that the sixty-ish pages were all in order. Counting down to one minute. Racing against the clock, I clicked on the mailbox icon at once, swept everything I needed into my handbag while waiting for the network to connect, then crawled around the pitch-dark volume to make sure a certain necklace was with me. My fingertips soon reached its box. Relieved at the thought that it wasn¡¯t left at home this morning, I quickly wore it around my neck. Soon as the mailbox popped open, I tossed the handbag aside and began drafting the email to my manager. At the same time, a WhatsApp message came in with a buzz: ¡°Off yet? I¡¯m already at the bus stop.¡± Negative, thirty seconds remaining! I glimpsed at the manager¡¯s room nearby, where the woman in her thirties was already up and on her feet in there. It seemed like she was about to walk out the door and bombard me with more tasks right before I marched out of the office, feeding me with overtime work. It was her ¡°habit¡± to assign tasks which she insisted had to be completed on-day to us, her subordinates, whenever we attempted to get off from work, and in the end made us all reluctantly grind the extra mile for her. Several of my night plans were, unfortunately, forced to postpone after being held hostage by her - but not today. No way am I letting her ruin my plans again: I¡¯m going to make my way out of here at 5:45PM sharp today no matter what! If I¡¯m missing tonight¡¯s opportunity, it¡¯s going to be another half-month wait, and I don¡¯t want to keep dragging on this anymore - the pending case ends tonight! ¡°Attached please find the revised annual report, thanks!¡± Done typing, moving on to the attachment! Fifteen seconds. Now down to the final check. See if there¡¯s anything missing. Ten seconds. All good, ready to send. Five seconds. Email sent. Check. Computer switched off. Check. Three seconds. Handbag carried. Check. USB plugged out. Check. Two seconds. Desk cleared. Check. One second. Grab the phone, time to go! The door opened the second I got up from my seat, yet, a familiar tone drew her back to her desk. Amused as I watched her eyes widened in disbelief in front of the monitor: Looks like the email made it in time. She then lifted her head and glared through the other side of the glass wall, where I wore a grin and disappeared in joy from her sight. Sprinting through the lobby, I managed to bar the closing gates and squeezed into the cramped elevator. Ah, a moment of relief. I finally pulled my phone out and texted back: ¡°Just off work, wait for me!¡± 7:30PM, Shek Kip Mei Service Reservoir. The moon, up in the sky for a short while, emitted a stunning shade of yellow ochre. Daylight had faded away, yet there was no sign of any stars. But with all this light pollution going on around, it was only natural they weren¡¯t visible to the eye, not even if a meteor shower crossed the sky. Grass beneath my feet waved gently in the autumn breezes, so did my blonde ponytail in the dark night. On one knee I knelt before the silver white rod standing erect on the meadow, both palms keeping a tight grip to it. Its body was wrapped in two wide strips of silk in ivory, and slightly above my knelt height, ornamented with a ruby and a crescent-shaped silver stone at the top, followed by a pair of pure white feathered wings underneath. Its name was the ¡°Sceptre of Luna¡±, my trusted tool for performing magic. ¡°Are you sure this is alright?¡± a feminine voice questioned beside me. ¡°Shush now, I¡¯m gonna start. Stand behind me.¡± Grasping tighter to the sceptre, I closed my eyes and began to concentrate. Shortly after, a flock of floating golden yellow light orbs landed on the empty grass, illuminating the greenery, alongside a hidden spirit. An ominous spirit that should, under no circumstances, be roaming around. Ascertained where the spirit was located, my eyes snapped open. The orbs instantly gathered over to it before forming triple rings, chaining it in the middle. The spirit¡¯s true form was uncovered under the bright light - a cloud of soot. Seemingly aching from the shining, it struggled to break free from the restraint, while letting out low-pitched coarse howls. Save your struggles. There¡¯s nowhere you can escape. ¡°Filthy presence who hides in the herd, who entices mankind: I, Mageka Luminosa, now send this dark soul back to the wheel of reincarnation, never to tempt another human again! Moonlight Spears!¡± In the twinkling of an eye, the illuminating orbs stretched into thin long spikes, and impaled the soot all at once. Engulfed by the luminescence, its cry weakened as it faded to oblivion. Within moments, the creature completely vanished into the night. I put the sceptre away with a wield. A sigh came after. ¡°I feel like the exorcism requests have been growing in numbers lately,¡± the lady who has been behind me the whole time made her steps to the front. Gazing with her sapphire eyes into mine, she asked, ¡°Any clues why?¡± ¡°Must¡¯ve been the Mid-Autumn Festival a while back,¡± I answered. ¡°The full moon tends to lure the dark creatures out more easily with much brighter moonlight, making them more unbridled as they normally do, and creates all this mess.¡± Like she said, I had accepted several similar exorcism requests this month. To me, exorcising spirits was a simple task that could be done in a heartbeat. The most tedious part had always been the preparation work required. Take today as an example: I had been occupied with work all day long to make sure I could actually get off on time. And after work, I had to travel all the way from Central to Sham Shui Po, just so I could hunt and eliminate evil spirits within thirty minutes after moonrise - the most suitable timing for doing so, not mentioning that the one that was gone moments ago only appears on the Waxing Crescent. So, if I miss the chance, I¡¯d have to wait for another half-month for the hunt. Though the reward wasn¡¯t as bad, a few hours of hustling solely for these couple minutes? Didn¡¯t sound like it was worth all the trouble. What makes me decide to return to this identity again? ¡°You seem upset, what¡¯s wrong?¡± Noticing my frowny face, she asked out of concern. ¡°Oh come on, don¡¯t ask the obvious.¡± I let out another sigh, ¡°Kou, sometimes I question the decision I made in the first place: ¡®Clerk by day, mageka by night¡¯ - am I just making this hard for myself? Hustling around every day only for these little cases, I mean - is there a ¡®real deal¡¯ that could make me feel like my trips are actually worth the effort?¡± ¡°It¡¯s only been half a year since we started the business. It is what it is. Let¡¯s not rush things,¡± Kou comforted me with a smile. ¡°But¡­¡± I understood what she meant, but the doubt lingered. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say this before?¡± she tried reminding me of a speech I had made, ¡°¡®It doesn¡¯t matter how trivial the requests would be, I just want to be back in business.¡± ¡°Indeed.¡± Couldn¡¯t deny that. ¡°Since the existence of magekas isn¡¯t common-sense in this realm, we can only take requests from very niche markets for the time being,¡± she continued, ¡°To bring in bigger cases, first, you have to take baby steps to spend time earning experience here and there. With a resume that stands out, I¡¯m sure the big clients will come to you in no time!¡± ¡°Right, of course the HR Manager would know about the lore.¡± I chuckled. ¡°So, worry not! I believe the ¡®real deal¡¯ Sakura¡¯s looking for is right around the corner.¡± She smiled. ¡°Another one of your gut-feelings?¡± ¡°Mm-hmm!¡± She nodded without hesitation. Heh, knowing her for three years, there was one thing I knew for certain: Kou¡¯s instinct had always been on point. It rarely went wrong. Well, guess I could only trust her on this for now. Half a year ago, she convinced me to pick up the mageka identity with that instinct of hers. And yes, as you may have already guessed from our conversation, I am a mageka; a mageka who came into this world from a different realm. I once gave up this identity of mine, and tried blending in as a mortal for the sake of livelihood. Kou, however, thought otherwise. With her advice taken into consideration, here I was, active between the worlds of mortal and magic. It all began from that evening six months back¡­ CH 2 Chapter 2: The Mageka on Duty (Part 2) ¡°I almost got scolded again today.¡± I let out a sigh. ¡°Mm-hmm.¡± The individual next to me nodded. ¡°That exasperating hag always shoves urgent tasks at me at the very last minute. Today, she told me out of the blue that there¡¯s a client urging for a report and asked me to get it done by noon, but then she kept checking up on me every ten minutes or so - how was I supposed to stay focused! Luckily the client¡¯s file happened to be part of the batch I organised a few days back, or else there¡¯s no way I could¡¯ve made it in time with scraps of information here and there!¡± I went on with my grumbles. ¡°Mm-hmm.¡± She responded with another nod. ¡°And I only knew about that fact when I took the documentation from the finance department, that the client had already demanded a report from that woman two weeks ago. So that means the request somehow slipped her mind, and she leaves it to us all to clean up her mess again! The point is: we managed to fulfil the request by the deadline, yet she still insisted it¡¯s our problem and nagged us about it with her nonsense like ¡®Why didn¡¯t you confirm with the client in the first place?¡¯, ¡®You should at least have an idea of what the client¡¯s thinking¡¯, blah blah blah¡­ I mean seriously, such a specific request? Don¡¯t pass the buck to someone else when it¡¯s absolutely your fault for leaving the issue behind!¡± At the thought of someone who seemed to see eye to eye with me on the matter, I spilled my guts all out like a machine gun. ¡°Mm-hmm.¡± Still, without a word, she nodded once more. ¡°All this annoying and meaningless work day after day, I feel like I¡¯m going nuts! Honestly this only makes me miss my past career even more! Why can¡¯t I do that instead?¡± Throwing out the phrase ¡°past career¡° which I normally didn¡¯t even dare to mention in front of others - I supposed my tolerance had already reached the summit. ¡°Mm-hmm.¡± Yet without raising a brow or anything, she just kept nodding like she had already been all along. ¡°By the way, are you even listening?¡± Noticing her lack of verbal response, I frowned at her. ¡°Mm¡­ Hmm? Oh, have you been talking?¡± Awakening from her dormant state, it appeared she finally realised my complaints were over. ¡°Can you not play dumb?¡± I spoke out of discontent. ¡°I didn¡¯t ¡®play dumb¡¯. Oh right, what do you mean by ¡®play dumb¡¯, Sakura?¡± She ended her turn by hitting me with such a question, right when I was obviously losing my temper. She¡¯s just trying to get on my nerves even more, isn¡¯t she? ¡°It is exactly what you¡¯re doing right now, Igarashi!¡± I don¡¯t have the patience to play your little game. You should¡¯ve known best what you are doing! To my surprise, the gal tilted her head in confusion. With a puzzled face, she questioned, ¡°¡®Igarashi¡¯? Do you mean me, or my parents?¡± ¡°Of course it¡¯s you, missy! Who else here do you think goes by the name ¡®Igarashi¡¯?¡± My temper went through the roof as I pointed my finger at the passers-by. Look, does it seem to you that there are any other Japanese around? ¡°Missy¡­Me?¡± Who would have thought. Her attention landed on the word ¡°missy¡± instead. I could tell this was never going to end, given that astonishing logic of hers. ¡°Okay fine, I¡¯m not pushing this any further. It¡¯s always me who loses anyways.¡± I sighed. ¡°Is that so? What a pity.¡± She sighed along, as if a game which she was about to beat suddenly got cut short. ¡°¡®A pity¡¯ you say¡­ ¡° I was left speechless. The girl who sluggishly sat through all my complaints as of just now was named ¡°Kou Igarashi¡±. As the first human I had encountered after my arrival in this world, she was kind of a friend of mine, one of not many I had. This was not the world I belonged to. In fact, I came from a distant realm which barely anyone from this world knew about - a place named ¡°Glace¡± which existed in a separate dimension on planet Earth. To put it this way, an ¡°alternate world¡±, where I was addressed as a ¡°mageka¡± who harnessed her magical powers. As for Kou, according to her, her clan as one of the renowned ¡°Shake¡± (Japanese priesthood clans) in Japan gave rise to her Japanese surname. Her parents, however, for some reason chose to relocate from Japan to this city named Hong Kong prior to her birth, and continued to live their lives here as ordinary civilians after. It lasted until two years ago, when they both retired and made the decision to move back to their hometown. ¡°Sakura, could you help holding this cup of coffee for me? I¡¯d like to find something,¡± Kou asked. I didn¡¯t take her cup, but instead, murmured a word as I glared at the translucent substance, ¡°Fixatio.¡± The cup froze in the air as I cast the spell, only to be nullified when Kou grasped it back after taking a tissue from her handbag. ¡°Must you really use magic just for holding a cup?¡± She looked annoyed. ¡°Come on, let me do the tricks from time to time.¡± I pouted. ¡°It¡¯s not like I always get a chance other than trivial matters like this.¡± She then took a sneaky peek at the surroundings and lowered her voice, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid of being caught in the act?¡± ¡°Of course I pulled this trick knowing no one would have seen it.¡± Despite the fact that the promenade was crowded with people, most of them were busy chatting with one another, down on their phones or sped through the avenue. Not a single soul would have noticed anything out of the ordinary on an inconspicuous bench. ¡°Such cautiousness even for a minor trick¡­ What a distress¡­¡± I exhaled a heavy sigh. ¡°It can¡¯t be helped. It just so happens that magic is something that can only be done in the shadows in this world.¡± Kou expressed her kind understanding of my concerns. Indeed, the two realms had completely distinct perspectives when it came to magic. In Glace, magic was practically a part of the ordinary rooted into everyone¡¯s daily lives. Possessing magical powers was a normal thing. Although not everyone had full access to such powers, each would have at least a certain degree of possession. As for mages and magekas, people who made a living out of magic, they were just as common as service occupations in the mortal world, which certainly did not require any form of concealment. Not until I arrived in the mortal world had I always naively thought people here would treat magic the same way as they did back in Glace, and the bubble finally burst when I learnt the fact that magic was actually a sign of abnormality here. If my ability to perform magic was exposed, I would most definitely be treated as an outcast. And so, I was forced to seal my identity as a mageka and turned into an average ¡°wage slave¡±, working myself to the bone in the office every day like a machine for a living. There went another sigh of frustration. CH 3 Chapter 3: The Mageka on Duty (Part 3) ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Sakura? Still a rough day at work?¡± Catching my frustrated sigh, Kou gave me a concerned look. ¡°Is there really a day that¡¯s not rough?¡± I replied after yet another sigh. ¡°How about you? Everything¡¯s still the same at work?¡± ¡°It¡¯s alright, just another minor issue to deal with today.¡± Nevertheless, Miss Optimistic uttered a sigh as well. ¡°I don¡¯t get it. Why does she keep making these careless mistakes even though I¡¯ve already walked her through a million times?¡± Seems to me that¡¯s more than just a ¡°minor issue¡±. ¡°That ¡®newbie¡¯ again? But it¡¯s already been half a year since she¡¯s hired. How come she hasn¡¯t been improving?¡± I knew just exactly who she was referring to judging by the tone of her voice. Oh, I almost forgot to say: we were both working in the same district, Central - different companies though. The two of us were aged twenty-four too. Yet unlike me, an average clerk, she was an assistant manager who was in charge of supervising a small team. It was our routine to meet up at the Central Waterfront Promenade every day after work - well of course, only when we were able to escape from the claws of overtime working. ¡°Who knows¡­ but deep down, I think she has the potential. She probably just needs a little more time to get used to her job.¡± Holding a coffee cup in her hand, Kou smiled gently. Her soft raven black hair waved like smooth silk in the breeze under the sunset, looking as gorgeous as a portrait hanging right before my eyes. ¡°It¡¯d be an honour to have superiors like you¡­ is your team currently hiring? Look, I really, really wanna join.¡± I remembered telling her this over a dozen times. And I wasn¡¯t kidding. To me, this opportunity was to die for - I would quit my job and head straight to her company if her team had a single vacancy. ¡°Haha, however I¡¯m afraid my team¡¯s duties would be a huge bore to you. They¡¯re all simple document processing anyways.¡± Kou giggled. ¡°Just hang in there. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll earn yourself a promotion soon.¡± I couldn¡¯t pull myself together in spite of her warm encouragement. ¡°I¡¯ve been listening to the same speech of yours for almost a year and a half, yet my career is getting nowhere¡­¡± Ever since I started working, my monthly salary had been stuck in a salary rut at about $12K (~USD 1,500), and I had only been lucky enough to receive a few hundred dollars (~USD 50) of increment six months ago. Nonetheless, it was much too trivial compared to the current inflation rate, plus there was no urge for new hires so far, nor was anyone planning to retire within the company in the near future - the so-called ¡°promotion¡± seemed nothing but wishful thinking to me. ¡°You see, it wasn¡¯t easy finding this job for you,¡± Kou added, given the defeated expression on my face. ¡°Please don¡¯t let my effort go to waste.¡± ¡°Yeah I know about that¡­¡± The level of academic qualifications I attained was purely a result of my hard work since I arrived in this world, but it was all Kou¡¯s effort for opening this door for me. ¡°Referral from a friend of yours as I recall? And they went through all the trouble to let me in.¡± ¡°Right, you still remember.¡± The sincere smile emitted through her lips was as soothing as a warm pond of water, but¡­ ¡°Ugh, you¡¯ve been brainwashing me for over a hundred times already! It¡¯s like you genuinely look forward to the day I finally repay you for this.¡± I protested. This is indeed the fact! I wasn¡¯t planning to keep this in mind, yet it somehow wormed its way into my brain after her countless ¡°reminders¡±. What a failure of me! Still, she did help me out a lot so it was only natural for me to repay her in some way. ¡°Oh? Has it been that many?¡± Her head tilted to one side as she gazed into the sky, looking all innocent. ¡°Don¡¯t pretend like you don¡¯t know!¡± I couldn¡¯t hold my temper whenever she acted like this. ¡°But I really don¡¯t¡­¡± And she was still faking it. Moments of silence sipped in as our routine quarrels faded. Sensation of the evening wind brushing against us was ever so cosy. Not only did it give us a peace of mind, but it also brought back some memories from the past, stored in the depth of our hearts. It reminded me of the time when I was a mageka in Glace, my time in general was well spent on stuff I was genuinely fond of despite the occasional irregular time-offs. On the contrary, my life at the moment was somehow more organised, however, I wasn¡¯t enjoying the slightest bit of anything I was doing. The initial intention for my arrival here was to lay low for a bit - from a couple veterans which I offended, and carry on with my life as a mageka. Who knew things were going to be this different from what I had expected in the first place. I honestly didn¡¯t want to lead a meaningless life, nor did I desire to head back yet. Then¡­ ¡°Sakura,¡± Kou suddenly whispered my name. She took a thorough scan through my face and continued, ¡°You look troubled.¡± ¡°N-no, not at all!¡± The way she stared made me so uneasy that I immediately turned my head around to avoid further eye contact with her. ¡°Mm, I count that as a ¡®yes¡¯.¡± I could see her smirking from the corner of my eyes. ¡°It¡¯s the way you act that gives you away every time.¡± 41Please respect copyright. ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong. It¡¯s only because of the way you sounded.¡± I tried to talk my way out of her accusation. ¡°That line came out of your mouth too, so there must be something.¡± It was like she could see through my heart, she always knew what was on my mind. ¡°Okay, okay, fine! There is a little something on my mind, so what?¡± Knowing I couldn¡¯t pretend any longer at that rate, I finally gave in. ¡°Mm-hmm, honesty is the best policy. Here¡¯s your reward.¡± She grinned and proceeded to stuff her coffee cup into my hands. You just want me to hold it for you huh. ¡°So, tell me, what is it that bothers you?¡± She sounded just like those dispute resolution advisors. ¡°Can¡¯t you read my mind?¡± Instead of giving a straightforward answer as she wished, I deflected the question back to her. A challenge for her it is! Well, a small payback based off of my resentment to be exact. ¡°Hmm¡­ is it ¡®here¡¯ or ¡®there¡¯...¡± She closed her eyes and spread her arms in the air before my chest as if she was about to cast a spell. Moments later, she finally narrowed down to her final answer, ¡°I¡¯m guessing¡­ it¡¯s ¡®there¡¯!¡± ¡°Here¡± and ¡°there¡± was a little secret between us, where the former referred to events happening in the mortal world, and the latter meant things surrounding magekas and magic in the other world, aka Glace. ¡°Half-half.¡± Her overly accurate instinct had always left me resigned. It isn¡¯t some kind of top secret anyways, wouldn¡¯t hurt to tell her right? And so I came clean to her about what had been bugging me down to the core. ¡°Mm-hmm, I knew you¡¯d be worrying your pretty little head about this.¡± ¡°How did you know?¡± I asked out of surprise. ¡°Mind-reading.¡± She responded without a doubt. ¡°Mind-reading? You know magic?¡± Half my surprise dropped fake. ¡°Of course!¡± She nodded approvingly, as if what she said was factual. ¡°Quit the lies! You know nothing about magic!¡± I¡¯m not one to be fooled! ¡°You never know, right?¡± Her lips curved into a seemingly profound smile. ¡°I called your bluff! I knew you can¡¯t perform magic since day one.¡± From the day we first met, the fact that she possessed nearly zero magical powers had been already engraved in my mind. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because I sealed my powers?¡± She fought back. ¡°You can¡¯t use magic with your powers sealed¡­¡± ¡°Or maybe I¡¯m special?¡± Kou still refused to cease. ¡°Ab-so-lute-ly impossible! Stop joking around! Can we please get back on track!¡± I really can¡¯t stand this anymore. What were we on about before this absurdity? Soon as my wrath bursted, she put up a poor look while twiddling her fingers. ¡°But I¡¯m not joking around¡­¡± ¡°Whatever! Just get back on track! Now you know I¡¯m troubled, then what?¡± Debating with her always exhausted me, for I wasn¡¯t the best at dealing with people like her. And I still couldn¡¯t fully get the hang of it, albeit knowing her for three years. Seemingly needed time to sink in, she silenced herself. ¡°I was just wondering when I can actually do things that I enjoy. Now I¡¯m basically forcing myself through a life I don¡¯t wish to lead. To be honest, this feels no different from being a walking dead.¡± I voiced out ahead of her as she was still on mute. Guess I did wish to have a listener by my side all along. If this went on, I feared the last thread of enthusiasm in me would rot away, turning me into an actual ¡°zombie¡±. I once tried to convince myself to fall for the job, yet my heart conflicted. What should I do then? Sighs scattered through my whining. ¡°Simple. Can¡¯t you just do as you wish?¡± Kou abruptly spoke when I was drowned in frustration. ¡°...which means?¡± What she said sounded easy, however, was harder to achieve than you could imagine. Regardless, her thoughts sparked my curiosity, given the array of bold extraordinary ideas residing in her funny little head. ¡°Starting a business!¡± I swore I could hear her saying ¡°isn¡¯t it obvious?¡±. St-starting a business? What came into my mind at that instance was the old times back in Glace, when I used to run a business and take requests directed to magekas. But this is unfeasible here, isn¡¯t it? I must have misinterpreted what she meant. ¡°Wait a minute. Do you mean¡­ going back to being a mageka?¡± I presented my guess out loud, yet assumed Kou would assure me that my imagination ran wild. ¡°Are there any options other than this?¡± To my surprise, she didn¡¯t debunk it as I expected. What¡¯s with her tone¡­ it sounds like I¡¯m the odd one here. ¡°Q-quit that! Are you being serious? Enough with the jokes girl, I can¡¯t put up with this.¡± I even faked a laugh or two after. Is it April Fools today? Nonetheless, she simply gave me a firm nod and said ¡°I¡¯ve got this¡±. Can it be that she knew all along this has been bothering me lately? ¡°Then, let¡¯s continue our discussion at home.¡± All of a sudden, Kou got up from her seat and signalled her desire to leave, right when I was about to dig deeper. ¡°Why the hassle? You can just say it here. There¡¯s no need to change venues! It¡¯s not like someone¡¯s eavesdropping on us.¡± I halted her. ¡°It¡¯s because¡­¡± She kept me in suspense for a while, and said, ¡°I¡¯m hungry. I wanna go home for dinner.¡± Her words left me in shock. ¡°You just wanna eat, don¡¯t you?!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but to question her true intent. ¡°I¡¯ll leave tonight¡¯s dinner to your hands. And I wanna have baked pork chop rice.¡± Not only did she ignore my question, but she also shamelessly raised her own request. ¡°Hey, answer my question! And I¡¯m not your waitress, don¡¯t expect me to take your orders!¡± I absolutely hate it when people knowingly ignore me like this! ¡°I can¡¯t wait, let¡¯s head back now!¡± She went on with her act and hummed as she hopped away like a kid, ¡°Going home¡­ for dinner¡­ baked pork¡­ chop rice¡­¡±41Please respect copyright CH 4 Chapter 4: The Mageka on Duty (Part 4) ¡°Excuse me, Missy Kou. Care to begin explaining the ¡®start a business¡¯ thing yet?¡± I asked snappishly. The same question had repeated a total of six times from our way back, to dinner preparations, and all the way down to the feast, but she only would stay evasive and give vague responses every single time. And this time¡­ ¡°I¡¯ll tell you after you do the dishes.¡± As expected, same as the last few trials, she only replied with her signature smile. At the sight of her lying on the couch lazily flipping through a magazine, I felt like the rage within me was knocking down the wall of repression. ¡°You lazy bones! Do you have any idea how much time and effort I¡¯ve poured into this baked pork chop rice? After realising that we ran out of pork chops by the time we got back, I had to rush to the market to get some before it closed, pick tomatoes of matching quality by comparing among ten different stalls, then head home straight with the meal preparations, which cost a deal of more than two hours, while you¡¯re just there waiting and eating throughout the entire span, and now expect me to take up the dishwashing as well!? How in the world would you understand my struggles without the intent to even help out?¡± Thanks to someone¡¯s spontaneous order, my original plan for cooking white sauce pasta, sadly, had to be called off. Given there was no sign of pork chop in our fridge, I once asked her to accept the unfortunate truth, and wait patiently for the pasta to be ready. However, opposite to what I demanded, she only kept bugging me and using the ¡°starting a business¡± thing as a threat for me to stick to her plan in order to learn what it meant, and hence all the tedious work aforementioned. And just to add here, the reasons I chose to purchase pork chops at the wet market instead of the supermarket were because the former¡¯s usually seemed fresher to me, and that it¡¯d be great to shop at and help out some small local businesses under the shadow of giant corporations. Plus the two were only located one street away from one another - it didn¡¯t quite matter which side I visited anyways. ¡°Mm? Well thanks, I appreciate it.¡± With a soft smile hanging on her face, Kou¡¯s eyes were still locked in on the magazine. ¡°You¡­¡± I attempted to swallow down the anger. ¡°How about you try playing my role next time? I mean it¡¯d be nice for us to share the workload for cooking and doing dishes, don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine by me. But the reason why my hands are free is because you forbid me from touching any of the kitchenware, isn¡¯t it?¡± Putting down the magazine, she raised her head and passed the question back to me. ¡°Er¡­ about this¡­¡± The question triggered some horrifying flashbacks which immediately zipped my mouth shut and convinced me to give up forcing her on the dishes. ¡°Nevermind, you didn¡¯t hear anything.¡± Kou and I were living under the same roof¡­ Well, ¡°she offered me a shelter¡± by her version. Three years ago when I had just arrived in this world, it was her who brought me to this house, and told me I could stay as long as I liked. I remember that day when I was pacing on the street, contemplating where to settle for a brief rest, and that was when she came into the picture. Unfazed by the speech of me being a mageka from a distant realm, she placed total trust in my words. After understanding my ¡°difficulties¡±¡ªthe way she described the situation¡ª she took me back to her place without further ado and invited me to stay, albeit half-forcefully. Only after residing for about a month here did I learn the fact that she was a legacy of a renowned ¡°Shake¡±. And it seemed that she was into the paranormal like aliens, monsters and ghost stories. Perhaps that¡¯s what draws her into believing that I¡¯m a true mageka! This duplex apartment in Happy Valley had been all to herself until my addition. As the other tenant living here, I was responsible for the monthly rent payment and daily cooking, while she handled the remaining chores. Cooking wasn¡¯t a duty of mine as agreed in the first place, until one day when an extremely dreadful scene took place before my eyes¡­ and that was when I volunteered to take up the part. ¡°I¡¯ve had my fill. Let¡¯s pick up what we¡¯ve started.¡± Passing the dishwashing chore to our dear dishwasher purchased recently, I walked up to the lady half-lying on the sofa who didn¡¯t seem to be bothered by the consequence of weight gain. ¡°Don¡¯t leave me hanging any further, okay?¡± As if something from my question rang a bell with her, Kou¡¯s slothful act was cut short. She hung a ¡°wait a second¡± in the air, before dumping the magazine in hand on the couch, dashing to her bedroom and slamming the door locked. Did she really have to be so discreet? My attention landed on the magazine on the couch, and I decided to pick it up for a glance before she returned. However, the content, stuffed with introductions to the paranormal and ghost stories worldwide, left me speechless. So there really was someone who liked this sort of stuff that operated on a completely different concept from the ordinary, and was willing to pay to read about it? It must be weird for me, a mageka, to say something like this, right? But that was my honest thought. I wasn¡¯t too sure whether these ghost stories were in fact related to the rumoured mysterious beings since I hadn¡¯t done an inspection on one before, but I did know that some people were terrified by these kinds of stories. Some would even scream at the top of their lungs at the instance of others trying to tell a ghost story, whereas on the contrary, there were some people like ¡°missy¡± who were highly attached to these topics, to the point they would spend time and effort to investigate further. What piqued my interest wasn¡¯t the idea that ¡°someone was scared to learn the truth behind the story¡±, rather, it was ¡°someone was determined to uncover the truth¡±. For example, an article in this magazine was about a river monster in Nam Sang Wai who would drag pedestrians into the water and swallow them alive. There were quite a number of ghost stories fanatics who took time to investigate on-site, and even tried to communicate with it. To date, no one knew the truth behind the story, but what would they do if the truth surfaced? Kill the monster? Spare it? Or turn a blind eye to it and let its existence remain a fictional story? If they found out that there was no river monster, to begin with in Nam Sang Wai, would they still be willing to accept the truth? Or would they stand their ground on its existence, deny the truth by all means, and replace it with their own beliefs? ¡°Sakura? Are you interested in the magazine?¡± Kou¡¯s voice slipped into my right ear. ¡°I could lend it to you if you want.¡± ¡°Not really, I was only flipping through ¡®cause I was bored.¡± Noticing her coming out, I closed the magazine and sat up straight. ¡°Could you start explaining? And just so you know, don¡¯t think you can get away easily if this is just an awful joke.¡± Kou didn¡¯t say a word, but sat next to me and handed her laptop over, signalling me to pay attention to the lines on the screen¡ªand they left me as dumbstruck as a wooden chicken.