A deep sigh escaped him.
"They say too many sighs will make good fortune fly away."
"...And whose fault do you suppose this is?"
Yami was racking his brain as he watched Toki, the maid, who was carefully sipping tea across the table.
Who in their right mind would believe someone who just showed up out of the blue and announced, "I got a job here!!"?
Especially without so much as a word to the actual shop owner.
Initially, he tried to turn her away. He wasn't fond of having just anyone loitering in the shop. More precisely, he disliked letting complete strangers in, at least not when they weren't customers. Customers, on the other hand, were always warmly welcomed.
"Your name was Toki, correct?"
"Yes, Master."
"I'd really prefer if you didn't call me 'Master'..."
He figured if any of his acquaintances happened to be around and heard her call him that, their gaze would definitely shift.
"If I don't call Master 'Master', what should I call you?"
Wow. That genuinely clueless expression... was this what they meant by a 'pure' look, something you only ever heard about? Shiroko-senpai sometimes wore that exact face, which didn't exactly make him feel welcoming towards it.
"....Fine. Just call me that."
"Understood, Master."
With a look like that, she likely wouldn't grasp anything he said, just like Shiroko-senpai.
A deep exhale.
"Hoo... so, you're saying you want a job here?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Honestly, it made no sense to him. She was a Millennium student. She could easily find a part-time job closer to home. Why would she travel all the way to remote Abydos just for part-time work? It was a notion utterly beyond the comprehension of any normal person, himself included.
"Just because?"
"Why are you answering my question with another question?!"
"I don't know what to say at times like this."
"....."
Yami revised his opinion of Toki. She hadn't just suddenly appeared crazy; she was crazy and severely lacking in common sense.
MomoTalk~!
"Huh?"
A MomoTalk message popped up, interrupting Yami's internal debate about what to do with the maid standing before him.
[Hoshino-senpai (1)]
"Hoshino-senpai?"
Did Hoshino-senpai need something? He tapped the chat room bearing her name. Reading the message instantly extinguished the agitation he'd felt moments ago, replaced by a chilling calm.
"...Toki. Could you...could you perhaps wait here for a moment? Something came up."
To be precise, something just came up that requires my immediate attention.
"....Understood."
"You truly won't have to wait long." Yami said, quickly gathering his things before opening the shop door and stepping outside.
The reason behind Yami's sudden, unnerving calm was the dreadful content of Hoshino's message.
[Kouhai. Serika was kidnapped by the Kata-Kata Helmet Gang.]
A low exhale, a sound of pure fury. "Ha..."
Kidnap my friend? How dare they?
"They're all dead men walking."
I'll cleave those helmets in two.
He was incandescent with rage.
***
"....."
Sip.
Left alone in the shop, Toki quietly sipped her tea.
Her Master had instructed her to wait here for a while. Having finished her tea, she mused, "Shall I depart?"
But Toki's mission was clear: surveillance.
Surveillance meant observing his every action, his every move.
Even a direct instruction from the shop owner was no exception.
Therefore, she would follow.
"I am... a perfect maid, and an agent," she affirmed mentally.
And as time passed, her Master's tea would grow cold.
Cold tea. Such a thing was a disgrace to any maid.
This, in fact, was her truer motivation.
"Call sign, Zero-Four. Commencing mission now," she stated, perhaps to herself.
The thought of simply brewing a fresh pot of tea never crossed her mind.