Chapter 57
Seeing that Sister Tristina sent someone so quickly, I felt relieved. The royal palace isn’t far from here, after all.
But the person she sent was actually her direct guard, “Valkyrie” Sylviel. It seems she takes this very seriously, huh?
I picked up my teacup and took an elegant sip. Eh? I wonder if Ivan has a toothache from “internal heat,”1 why is his face so swollen?
I actually understand his feelings quite well. After all, in the face of the Queen’s supreme, unsurpassed authority, his money is meaningless.
The final result was really just as Lian Qi said. She quietly watched Ivan’s performance the entire time. And then, the counter-kill.
Ivan’s expression became increasingly ugly. This was the first time I had ever seen his eyes, usually narrowed to slits, go wide with astonishment.
“You… you… you actually used the current Queen to crush me? Who on earth are you?”
Faced with Ivan’s questioning, Lian Qi just gave a faint smile and casually tossed the signed pen onto the table.
“Sorry. As for me, I can indeed do whatever I want.”
Sitting behind Lian Qi, I couldn’t help but make a facepalm expression. For her to say something like that is just too wicked. I can hardly bear to look at her.
The way I see it, she just wanted to use Ivan’s own words to slap his face.
Sylviel picked up the edict signed by Lian Qi and showed it to Ivan. Without a doubt, the land Ivan was standing on, including the restaurant, already belonged to Lian Qi.
“Don’t tell me you’re a member of the royal family? Impossible! The descendants of Mereril are all supposed to be blond!”
It’s useless. It’s impossible for him to guess Lian Qi’s identity, I thought to myself.
“Take your time guessing. If you guess right, I lose. Since you’ve finished your performance, you can now take your lackeys and your gold and get the hell out of my restaurant.”
“You… you… you…” Ivan glared at Lian Qi, then glanced at the imposing “Valkyrie” Sylviel, the Queen’s direct guard. He could only “swallow his broken teeth,”2 having no choice but to admit defeat.
“Fine. We’ll meet in the ranking tournament. When that time comes, we’ll rely on personal strength, not family background.”
“Anytime. But hearing those words come from your mouth is pretty hilarious,” Lian Qi said coldly.
Ivan left. His departing back, in my eyes, was filled with a loser’s unwillingness to accept defeat.
“They looked like the mafia when they arrived, and now they look like a funeral procession leaving,” Lian Qi said, watching Ivan’s servants, all in black suits and sunglasses, depart. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
Alright, the disturbance is finally over. I quietly put down my teacup. Sylviel walked over, standing ramrod straight as she looked at us, exuding the heroic bearing of the Queen’s personal guard at all times.
“The Queen ordered me to come as soon as she received the letter,” she said.
“You arrived right on time,” I said with a smile. If she had come any earlier, Lian Qi wouldn’t have been able to see the other party’s splendid performance.
Sylviel had a confused expression on her face. She lowered her voice and said, “The letter said that buying this restaurant is part of the plan to defeat the Demon King.”
“Yes… that’s what it said.”
I scratched my cheek with one finger, blushing embarrassedly.
“Actually… erk… um…”
“The Queen said that although the Demon King used to eat at this restaurant often, she doesn’t believe that poisoning the food is a viable method to eliminate the Demon King…”
“Erk… Tristina’s imagination is a little too rich, isn’t it,” I said with a weak laugh. So that’s a possible method?
“However, the Queen also said that this is a bit easier to understand than the request for a unicorn last time. She is very happy that the Transmigrator is taking action.”
You’re kidding, right…? This is called “taking action”? I feel ashamed to say it. I feel like I’ve become Lian Qi’s accomplice, although slapping the face of the “Little Tyrant of the Silver Spear” was very satisfying.
“In any case, whether or not you can defeat the Demon King and make the prophecy come true rests on you.”
“Mhm, thank you for making the trip today.”
“I am merely carrying out Her Majesty the Queen’s orders,” Sylviel replied with a dead serious expression. As expected of the Queen’s direct guard, “Valkyrie.” Serious, earnest, meticulous. In all the years I’ve known her, I’ve never once seen her smile.
After seeing off Sylviel and the Royal Knights, the restaurant finally returned to normal. The black-haired waitress in the maid outfit let out a sigh of relief, holding her tray, and weakly asked Lian Qi, “Um… excuse me, what should we do?”
“What should you do? Business as usual, of course. The Queen gave me this land, but I don’t want to do anything with the restaurant on it. You might as well just keep it.”
I felt a bit helpless. Lian Qi really is willful. But who can blame her, she’s the transmigrator from another dimension. We can only let her be.
However.
There’s something Sylviel just said that I’m very concerned about.
The Demon King, That person… could it be that she might occasionally disguise herself and come back to this restaurant to order the food she loves?
Could it be… that after falling into the abyss of magic, one no longer needs to eat the food of mortals?
I looked at the colorful sticky notes on the message wall. Alright, perhaps my idea is too naive. That person has lost her mind. It’s just a measly restaurant; she’s probably long forgotten it.
After the meal, I left the restaurant with Lian Qi. I looked back at the glass door of the restaurant. Several years have passed, but nothing here has changed.
Footnotes
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上火 (Shànghuǒ): “Internal heat,” a concept from Traditional Chinese Medicine used to describe symptoms like mouth sores, sore throat, or a swollen face from a toothache. ↩
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打碎了牙齿往肚里咽 (Dǎsuìle yáchǐ wǎng dùlǐ yàn): “To swallow one’s broken teeth.” An idiom for suffering a loss or humiliation but being unable to do anything but endure it silently. ↩