Ryu Astre (Point Of View)

Spring Day 45, Year 728

After a whole month of vigorous training, the middle of spring has finally come and the Royal Academy's team recruitment day will be held next week, but before that, the Spring Festival will be celebrated first in the Central Town City for an entire week. And today was the first day.

Chatter... Chatter... Chatter...

"Wow! Ryu, this's amazing!" Blake said. A timid person that's now showing a lively personality. He grabbed the sill of the window while his head was looking out. "There are so many people attending the festival."

"Careful, Blake," I advised, "you don't want to drop your head from this height."

"What's amazing about watching people?" Gavin argued, gobbling up a large piece of ribs in both hands. "Nomnomnom... Gulp! I rather eat good food like these."

"This place is nice," Roy said, taking a sip on a teacup. "Having a one full week vacation after training to death really paid its worth."

"But really, how did you reserve this place, Ryu?" they asked.

YFC Restaurant. The most popular restaurant in Central Town City. Owned by none other than my company, managed using the fake noble title. This building has five floors, and the only one that's more than three floors in the whole city.

First, the restaurant was equipped with high-quality magic devices that copied the concept of my previous world. It was like a fast-food restaurant in terms of serving speed, but much faster with the help of magic.

Second, the taste of food was unmatched, because of the unique spices that are not currently available in the market. Combining different cuisine from all over the world. Making this an all-in-one restaurant.

Third, it catered to both commoners and nobles. Where the second, third, and fourth floors are only available for those who have the YFC membership pass. Making the fourth floor the most costly. This made the restaurant popular with rich people who liked to flaunt their riches.

Fourth, the fifth floor was privately used by the Shadow Intelligence Guild. Since this was in the center of the Zen Kingdom. It's the best place for rendezvous. It helped us greatly in doing undercovered activities.

Lastly, I made precautions so that the trade secrets won't be stolen. The building was secured with magic, and I made sure to only employ our staff that was bought from slavery, sealed with a loyalty magic agreement.

"I knew the owner of this restaurant," I replied. It's not a lie, but I only gave a vague explanation, because knowing less might be for the better. "You guys should stop thinking about it, and just enjoy the festival."

"Ryu is right," Roy said, "how about we go around the streets?"

"Let's go!" Blake jumped around and went to the elevator, waving nonstop. "Hurry guys! Hurry!"

"What? But I'm still eating—"

"Then let's just meet at the central fountain in an hour." Roy stood up and walked towards Blake. He entered the elevator and turned around, looking at me. "Ryu?"

"You traitors!" Gavin yelled.

"—I'll stay here for a while and accompany Gavin."

Gavin's eyes gleamed as he looked at me with puppy eyes. "Ryu, you are my only real friend." He said, "Here, have some ribs and eat with me."

The two were flabbergasted as they made a slow laugh. "Then, see you guys later."

"Alright," I said, nodding back before looking at Gavin. "Thank you, but I'll eat later."

"Uh-huh, you've been staring at nothing for a while, Ryu."

"You noticed?"

"Well, you'd been like that since you talked with the lady—or the maid."

"Mm..."

"If you have any problem, don't forget that you still have friends."

"You guys almost killed me that time though."

"Pfffp!" — Gavin choke on the food he was eating — "Kuek! Ehem! Who told you... Ehem! To have ladies looking for you? The last time it was Lady Yume, now her maid. Damn lucky."

"It's not luck, I'm just handsome." He looked at me directly in the eyes, somewhat petrified. So I added, "And strong."

"Can't argue about the second one, but the first..."

We both stayed looking at each other and laughed, I said, "Thanks... And don't worry, everything's still under my control. I'll ask for help if needed."

"Alright." He resumed eating.

Another nonsensical confidence from me. The truth was, I'm still waiting for my subordinates to report about the whistle since the maid hasn't used it yet. I thought it wouldn't matter for me, since following the original storyline was what I wanted to happen from the start. But for some reason, I can't take it off my mind and still waited.

For now, I leaned on the window's sill just like what Blake did earlier. Remembering the time when I vowed to myself not to do things that would make Princess Yume unhappy, so I've been thinking about this matter since the talk with her maid. I even thought of few things like diving into the scene and stopping the assassination, or switching Yiyi's body with a fake one. The latter might gave conflict or hint to the abomination while the former will make Princess Yume miserable. Or... I can just be honest with her, which was something I'm afraid to do for some reason.

Sigh...

"This is tough..." While in deep thoughts, I incidentally glanced at one corner of the street. There, I saw two heads with specific hair color, one was orange and the other one has black, they were walking away from my location while being followed by several bodyguards. "Hmm?"

***

Yume Valenz (Point Of View)

"It's the festival!" Yiyi said, jumping out of the carriage. She spun around and graciously bowed to me as she stretched out her hands to assist me. "Let me help you out, Milady."

"Yiyi, assisting me should be Sir Billy's job," I replied. My maid was eccentric. I noticed a few weeks ago when she started overdoing things to the point that her frequent nagging stopped. Became nicer and started smiling more often. "Well, I'll take your whims for now and wait for you to talk about it after the festival."

"I might lose my job because of Yiyi," Billy said.

"Don't worry, Sir Billy." She even started talking more to other servants. "Just for this festival's duration, please?"

"Fine."

"Yay! Thank you... Let's go Milady." She carefully pulled my arm as we go to the main streets. "I reserved a good restaurant for lunch. It might not be the best since that one was already fully booked, I'm sorry that I forgot about it, Milady."

"It's fine, as long as we can relax and eat without a problem." It's a known fact that one should reserve a good restaurant months before the festival. So I can't really blame her for not reserving the best one. Even if she forgot because something's bothering her. It didn't matter. Even though I'm the daughter of the Valenz household, I still refrained from using my family reputation for these kinds of things. "We can roam around the stalls for now since we arrived early."

"Yes, Milady. Oh! How about that one?"

"Which one?"

"There," Yiyi said, pointing to a small stall where many people fall in line. "YFC Cotton Candy."

"Wow, Yiyi, you can easily read things now."

"That's thanks to Milady of course, for personally teaching me."

"It's my pleasure. Anyway, what's the stall selling?"

"It seems a new product. Let's go there Milady and see."

We went to the side of the stall and saw a bunch of cloud-like things that were in different colors. We got curious. One child opened her mouth as she chomped into it, smiling. "Yummy!" she said, "Mommy! Yummy!"

"I-It looked good, Milady," Yiyi said, drooling.

"S-Should we buy one?" I replied, staring.

Yiyi nodded. She asked me to go sit down somewhere as she waits in the line, but I refused. What's the point of going to a festival if not to enjoy it myself. I'm not even physically weak so I don't like when they think I'm some kind of a noblewoman that can't stand for herself. But my maid already knew that so she just asked for courtesy and didn't insist afterward.

While waiting, the two of us talked and peeked at different food stalls. We checked how the customers react after eating their food so we will know which ones are good and which ones we should avoid wasting time on. Even though some of it was already familiar. But this will still save us time and money...

Chatter... Chatter... Chatter...

We had so much fun that the time passed in an instant and it was almost time for lunch. One thing we always noticed for years, was that those stalls that have 'YFC' on their name are the ones selling the most food that we liked. So it intrigued me to know the owner of such good stalls. Maybe someday in the future.

"Milady, it's almost time for lunch," Yiyi reminded, "do you want to go to the restaurant now?"

"We already ate too much, you're still hungry?"

"Not really, I was just tired, Milady. I'm sorry."

"Alright, why don't we go there and rest first?"

"Yay! Thank you, Milady. I love you!"

"W-What are you saying? How about the boy you got attracted to last year?"

"That was just a crush on first sight, and it ended pretty quickly. But you're different, Milady, you're the best person I've ever known." She suddenly hugged me. Even though it was forbidden for servants to touch their masters without permission, I know she didn't mean any harm. So I just let things go as usual. I became dependent on her that I hoped she'll be there with me at all times. "Milady, I love you!"