Your Judge (2)
Nami-jeong. That was the name written on the wooden signboard.
Whether they had been aiming for a Korean air—a roof of traditional curved tiles, wooden windows skinned with paper in the old style—the building itself was an ordinary modern structure. That did not mean the effect was discordant. Hitomi was hardly possessed of any exceptional eye, and yet if she dared to judge, she wanted to say they had laid a traditional atmosphere over the place while still letting a modern feeling come through quite well.
"The atmosphere's pretty nice."
"It certainly is."
Bansei nodded as she answered Guroyuki. On first impression, at least, the place seemed to have passed muster with the whole party.
"...Yes. Do you have a reservation?"
"Yes. It should be under Han Seoyeon."
The moment they stepped inside, their eyes met the employee at the counter. The woman flinched for an instant, then immediately put her service smile back on and welcomed them with warm courtesy. The moment Seoyeon gave her name—she had reserved ahead just in case, having heard from Yu Hyena that it was quite a popular restaurant—the woman led the four of them to a private room toward the back.
A wooden table and chairs in an old-fashioned air, and on the wall a painting that sat somewhere between dated taste and antique elegance.
The papered sliding door rattled shut, and only the four of them remained.
"That employee just now, though."
Bansei took a sip of the tea set before each of their seats, wet her throat, and spoke.
"Judging by her reaction when her eyes met Shion-san's, she really is from the hidden world, isn't she?"
"No. I don't think so."
It was not Seoyeon who answered, but Hitomi. Han Seoyeon happened to have her teacup at her lips at the very moment Bansei asked.
"Shion just looks incredibly scary in a perfectly ordinary way. Add the aura from all the curse-like things she's picked up doing Holy Knight work, and her first impression rivals the boss's."
"Isn't that backwards? Our boss being on the level of an Apostle who's crossed the brink of death more than once—that's the weird part, isn't it...?"
"And that's a civilian?"
Guroyuki tossed the jab in, but for the sake of the boss's honor, it was simply let pass.
"Anyway, even people from the surface world usually get scared when they see Shion, so..."
"So whether it's the surface or the hidden side, you can't tell them apart by this."
"You can tell them apart, actually."
"You can?"
Hitomi answered again, wearing a wry smile.
"What most people from the hidden world feel isn't fear. It's confusion."
In other words, an Eek?! meant a resident of the surface, and an Eh...? meant a resident of the hidden world. At Hitomi's passionate performance(?), expressions and all, even Han Seoyeon let a small laugh slip before she knew it.
"...Was that weird?"
"No. You were just too cute."
"...Heh."
She had asked cautiously, wondering if it had really been that funny a thing to do, and Han Seoyeon answered with a faint smile. She watched Hitomi grin bashfully at the words, and then she rose from her seat.
"Where are you going?"
"The restroom. Just for a moment."
The move seemed to strike Guroyuki as rather odd. They had finished even the order when they reserved; all that remained was to sit quietly until the meal came out, and yet she had suddenly stood. But Guroyuki soon accepted it and nodded, adding that if it was that, then it couldn't be helped.
"Yes. Excuse me for a mom—"
Seoyeon, on her way out. Except—
"—Pardon the intrusion."
The door opened before Seoyeon could even reach it. It was not automatic; someone had simply come in from outside.
Skin that pale suited better than fair. Red hair in a rather natural shade. A woman who gave off a strongly foreign impression, down to the sculpting of her features—and yet no one was surprised by that. They had already heard that it was unusual for the head chef of a traditional Korean restaurant to be a foreigner, and she was dressed, unmistakably, as a cook. That did not mean they weren't surprised at all. That it was not a floor server but the chef herself who had walked in out of nowhere was bound to be bewildering.
"Please spare me...!"
"...?"
The action that followed was, of course, even more startling. The chef looked at Han Seoyeon, dropped straight to her knees, and began to beg in earnest. Watching her plead and plead for a long while, Han Seoyeon murmured quietly.
"I was going to come find you myself, you see."
"How could I let you go to such trouble?! There's no need for that!"
It was groveling of a considerable caliber—a more perfect plea for her life than even the dev-team employee they had seen earlier that day.
"So the restroom was..."
"Yes. A lie. A scent I remembered was hanging thick in the air, so I meant to put a face to it."
Han Seoyeon let out a small sigh as she said it, then moved her gaze to the chef.
"This is unpleasant to watch, so stand up for now. I have no intention of doing you harm."
"Y-you really mean that?"
"What would lying get me in this situation? If you truly haven't committed any sin since then, I'll swear to Christ that I won't lay a hand on you."
"Then... if you would, please swear not to Jesus of Nazareth, but to Ninomae Hitomi..."
"...Me?"
Hitomi did tilt her head, but the one who had spoken wore an exceedingly desperate face.
"She certainly seems to know Shion-san well. She's got her internal priorities down perfectly."
"Mmm... well, all right. I'll swear."
"Done! I'm alive!"
The instant Seoyeon swore, the woman shot a fist upward as if throwing an uppercut. Then she scrambled to her feet and dusted off her knees.
"The speed of that about-face is something."
"Well... that was acting from the start, wasn't it? That's how it looked to me."
She then set her expression neatly back in place—an impression haughty enough that one might have mistaken everything a moment ago for a hallucination.
"Was that acting, just now?"
"Yes. What of it?"
Having heard Hitomi, Han Seoyeon put the question back to the chef. This was someone who had seen through even that shameless Anri's acting at a glance; when it came to catching a performance, her eye was considerably trustworthy.
The woman gave a small nod.
"I figured if I knelt and begged ugly in front of people you know, you'd be embarrassed enough to swear in the end anyway."
"Did you commit some sin that would actually get you killed? I did just say that case would be an exception."
"No, how could I have?! I'm innocent, I really am!"
"Then if nothing's gnawing at you, why on earth?"
"Wouldn't you be the same?! Wouldn't you worry that maybe, since you'd come sightseeing in Korea, you'd dropped by for revenge while you were at it?!"
Now that she knew she was safe, she even jabbed a finger and raised her voice. Hearing it, Han Seoyeon scratched her cheek.
"Well... your reputation before you went to ground was severe enough. I only came to check your condition, since we'd met by chance."
"Um, so, Shion...? Who is this person, exactly?"
Hitomi had asked. The talk of revenge seemed to be bothering her—which, put another way, was also a story of Han Seoyeon having suffered some harm at this woman's hands in the past.
"Ah, this is..."
"Allow me to say it myself."
With a flourish, the chef laid a hand theatrically over her chest.
"Former head chef of Beelzebuth. Selty Nisroc. These days I serve as owner and head chef of this Nami-jeong."
"Beelzebuth... you mean Beelzebub?"
"He does have the most names of any demon, I'll give you that. Of course, what I just said was an organization's name... but it's an organization demons made among themselves, so what does it matter?"
"Then is Nisroc-san a demon as well?"
"Yeees, that's right. I've washed my hands of it now, of course, but back then I was a tremendous demon who made quite a name, you know?"
Nisroc nodded at Hitomi's question, shrugged, and launched straight into praising herself.
"A name, yes—but an infamous one. Her strength was one thing, but the viciousness and the grotesqueness were what she was truly known for."
Demons who committed bizarre acts at any hour and cared nothing for the harm others took along the way, and who had enough power that they were a headache you could barely hold down unless you committed people in earnest. The one called a member of the Three Little Terrors alongside Belphegor and Philotanuss was precisely her: Nisroc of Appetite.
"And a demon who tried to kill me, at that."
"...What?"
"...Ah. Come to think of it, have I never told you this?"
"Ugh, why would you say that?! This is exactly why I said I'd introduce myself!"
In an instant Hitomi's face flooded with shock. A glance around showed the rest of the party just as plainly flustered. Only then did Seoyeon grasp how careless her remark had been, and she offered an awkward smile. Smiling, of course, did not call the words back.
"We're leaving. Right now. I don't want to eat a thing made by a person like that—no. A demon."
The bewilderment gone from her face, Hitomi said it in a cold voice. Where the fluster had been, only anger and disgust gone cold remained.
"It's all right. Even granting she meant to have me killed, strictly speaking she never actually attempted the killing. She was only attached as a chef to the group that was trying to kill me—the Beelzebuth I just mentioned."
"No, that's plenty of a problem on its own—"
"Thank you for worrying, Hitomi."
Everyone had been looking forward to the meal, for once; she could not spoil the table with a careless remark. Han Seoyeon laid a hand gently against Hitomi's cheek, cupped her face, and kissed her forehead.
"...If Shion says so. If she herself says it's fine, it isn't my place to argue."
"I did hear that the cooking, at least, is extraordinary. Expecting only that, for now, should be enough."
Only then, as if her heart had eased a little, did Hitomi say it—prickly in tone though she was. Seoyeon gave a bitter smile and shot Nisroc a look, as if to say she had only just been won over, so she had better go and cook.
"...?"
Then she found Nisroc holding a peculiar pose, and her brow furrowed.
Both fists clenched, gathered before her chest, head bowed. What on earth was she doing? Just as Seoyeon, unable to bear it any longer, was about to ask—
"FUUUUCK! I TOLD you SisMary is the real OTP, you ignorant bastaaaaards!"
"..."
"Ah, right. I have to go cook. —Then, I pray this will be a pleasant hour for your mouths."
Rattle. Thud.
Nisroc left, sliding the door shut behind her, and nothing remained where she had stood.
"...?"
"..."
"..."
Yet for a long while after she was gone, the party only stared blankly at the place she had occupied. A presence far too thick still hung in a spot she had already left. She seemed to have offered some farewell at the end, in a very polite posture and tone, but it had entered no one's ears.
"I really hate this company now."
Only Guroyuki Sui muttered it, in her usual emotionless voice.