Dark Moon
I started by surveying the kitchen.
The refrigerator was still there, and so was the fryer. The CCTV was broken.
Nothing useful to find in the kitchen. We'd already used up all the chicken, and the sauce was only the finished product. If these guys had been the type to reverse-engineer a recipe, they wouldn't have pulled a stunt like this.
They would have tried to guess the recipe from the ingredients we used. But in this kitchen, all I did was fry the chicken. The brining and the sauce-making all happened at the factory.
…They would have figured out about the factory too. So the next thing they'd target…
The factory.
I let out a sigh and started prepping the shop for opening. My factory was in T-district, an industrial zone. The district itself had security. Unless these guys were complete idiots, they wouldn't attack in broad daylight. So I had until nightfall.
For now, I need to run the shop.
I glanced outside the kitchen.
A line of customers was already waiting out front, eager to taste Korean fried chicken.
Eight o'clock at night.
Having closed early, I headed for the T-district factory instead of going home.
The factory lights were off — no one was there. The staff clocked out around five.
No need to run the factory at full capacity right now.
If the franchises kept multiplying, we might have to run it around the clock. That would mean hiring more staff, too.
I should look into other factories as well.
By then it probably wouldn't be a chicken factory anymore. Even under the Yuyu Chicken name, I had no intention of selling only chicken forever. Chicken had clear limits.
Expand the business with chicken as the core.
I planned to sell other foods.
As long as people exist, food will always sell. Nobody doesn't eat.
I went into the empty office inside the factory, sat in a chair, and waited. I deliberately left the lights off.
An hour passed.
Came too early. Thinking about it from their side, midnight would be more convenient for them to move.
Even past midnight into one in the morning, no intruders appeared.
Still not here past midnight? Cautious bastards.
Two in the morning.
I started thinking they might not come at all.
There was never solid proof they'd come in the first place. Just my assumption… How anticlimactic. I have to open the shop in the morning… Should I just go home and sleep?
The moment I stood up, the pocket-watch-style communicator in my pocket buzzed. A call from Yuria.
"Yuria. I'm heading back now."
"Yes, Master. I'll have everything ready so you can wash up the moment you arrive. And… I've captured some uninvited guests."
Yujin's empty house.
Yuria quietly continued her studies while waiting for him to return.
Her method of studying was reading and observing. This world was even more technologically advanced than Yujin's. That included the internet, so she could look up most things online.
She began absorbing this world's knowledge. A rough skim was enough. She didn't have perfect recall… but she was the type who rarely forgot something after seeing it once. First acquire the knowledge; putting it to use could come later.
What she examined carefully was magic. This world's magic system was different from her own world's. So different it felt refreshing. For someone who had reached the level of Grand Archmage, it was a stimulating novelty.
Basic magical knowledge can be viewed by paying, but… higher-level knowledge is nowhere to be found, of course.
She quickly shook off the disappointment. If high-level magic knowledge were available on the internet, that would have been stranger still. Magical knowledge itself was a treasure beyond any price.
It's a shame I can't use magic in this world.
Magic unusable. One of the penalties she carried in this world.
At first she had thought nothing of it. But it didn't take long for that to change.
It was inconvenient.
A matter of efficiency and convenience. Things she could have handled quickly with magic required her to move her body directly. It was like losing an arm — inconvenient and inefficient.
So Yuria thought.
If I can't use magic…
Then use a similar power that isn't magic. Fortunately, this world had quite a few such forces. Superpowers were a prime example.
Most superpowers were said to awaken innately, with post-birth flowering nearly impossible. But somehow, she felt it might be possible for her.
Master could use lightning without magic. And even without the martial art Noecheonryu, he would still be able to wield lightning…
She had watched Yujin for a long time. From her perspective, the way he used lightning ran on a different track from both magic and martial arts.
Power manifested through will.
It was closer to the authorities used by the demons of the Baekhwan world. Not exactly the same, of course.
Master's Complete Recovery is on an entirely different level, so imitating that is impossible, but…
With his lightning, perhaps she could at least approximate it. This was a thought only possible because she had stepped into the realm of transcendence.
"……"
She rose from her seat.
Yuria hadn't only gained penalties upon entering this world.
In exchange for being unable to use magic, she had gained razor-sharp senses. Her already exceptional senses had surpassed their limits and created a new one. People usually called it a sixth sense, but Yuria simply called it intuition.
It was such an unfamiliar sensation that even she couldn't handle it well yet. That intuition was speaking now. Enemies were close.
How dare they come here…
The surging rage was reined in by cold reason. Her genius mind instantly calculated the situation and deduced the enemies' purpose.
The enemies were probably after the chicken recipe. Yujin had expected them to hit the factory, but they had targeted his house instead. Thinking the recipe would be at home? No. They intended to kidnap Yujin and extract the recipe. That was more certain and faster. An idea only possible because they didn't know he was a 5-Class mage.
Unforgivable.
She wouldn't kill them.
There was much to learn. And death was far too merciful a treatment.
She checked the daggers equipped on her thighs and went outside. She didn't want to let them into the house where she and Yujin lived.
Outside, three men approached. Masked, armed with guns and knives. They tensed at the sight of Yuria. For one reason.
"A maid…?"
"Damn. Didn't expect him to have a maid."
"I heard he made a fortune off chicken… Guess it's true."
In Neo London, the status of butlers and maids was enormous. Combat or household duties — butlers and maids excelled at everything.
"What do we do?"
"Rush her? There's three of us, so we've got a shot, right? This isn't an upper-class district. A maid hired in S-district can't be that good."
"No. We retreat. Even if she's employed by an S-district resident, a maid is a maid. Besides, I can't sense anything from her. I can barely tell if she's even a living human."
She was right in front of them, yet there was no presence.
If she hadn't been standing openly at the front of the house, they wouldn't have noticed her existence at all.
They slowly backed away from the silver-haired maid.
"How absurd. You barge in at this late hour, and now you just decide to leave? Uninvited guests are still guests. As a maid, allow me to receive you properly."
"Miss, we have urgent business, so…!!"
The man pulled a smoke grenade from his waist and threw it to the ground. Smoke billowed up instantly, blanketing everything.
"Scatter!"
The men fled in different directions.
Yuria closed her eyes. She didn't listen for sound. She ignored the minute vibrations through her skin. Relying on the new sense she'd gained in this world — her intuition — she threw the daggers from her thighs.
Thud! Thunk! Thud!
"Argh!"
"Guh!"
"Ugh…"
The daggers flew and embedded in their bodies. Precisely in the targeted spots on their spines. With the nerves damaged, they wouldn't be moving for a while. But Yuria frowned at the dagger she'd thrown to the right. There had been a mistake. The right-hand dagger hadn't hit the intended spot. Thanks to that, he didn't collapse and counterattacked.
Bang bang bang!
Bullets flew through the smoke. Aimed precisely at Yuria's head and heart. The opponent also had no ordinary skill.
I can sense the trajectory of the bullets.
She lightly took a single step to the side. She had felt it before he even pulled the trigger. Even with heightened senses, was this possible? Even Yuria herself found it absurd.
…It might be related to the power of time I came to understand while facing the chairman of Panteum last time.
She opened her eyes. The thick smoke made it impossible to see anything. She walked forward.
Bang bang bang bang bang!
Bullets poured out. But not a single one so much as grazed Yuria's clothes. She moved at a leisurely pace, always one step ahead of the bullets.
Click click.
The enemy threw the empty pistol at Yuria. Of course, even that didn't touch her. The smoke cleared. Yuria could see her opponent, cold sweat pouring down his face. He drew a knife from his waist.
"Dodging bullets in a smoke screen? What a ridiculous monster. Even warriors of 4-Class and above can't dodge bullets they can't see… Why is someone of your caliber in S-district…!"
"Because I'm a maid. Wherever Master is, I am."
"Quite the professional dedication!"
The man charged with his knife. His movement was reasonably fast. But to Yuria's eyes, everything was visible.
Yuria raised a dagger and blocked the attack just before the blade reached her neck. She narrowed her brow as if something displeased her.
My intuition isn't activating. Troublesome.
Of course, that didn't mean she couldn't handle the enemy in front of her. She kicked his calf with her booted foot. The moment he lost balance, she circled behind him and drove a dagger into his spine. He collapsed to the floor, unable to move.
"You've been crippled, but modern medicine is excellent, so treatment shouldn't be a major issue. Or you could just replace it with a mechanical spinal cord."
"…You crazy bitch. You deliberately aimed for the spinal cord with a dagger to sever the nerves… What the hell are you?"
"It's late. Please keep quiet so as not to disturb the neighbors."
Yuria grabbed their arms and dragged them into the basement.