In the end, Lycaon didn't manage to slip away under the pretense of a commission. Rina, smiling sweetly, pulled him back.
Fortunately, the lunch Phaga had prepared was delicious.
Ellen lived up to every bit of Phaga's impression of her—like a shark back in its natural habitat. She tore through the entire table of food as if it were nothing more than snacks.
But Lycaon and Corin's behavior genuinely surprised Phaga.
He had always thought of Lycaon as the composed gentleman, and Corin as the sweet, delicate little sister—both the type to eat slowly and with refinement. Yet here they were, not elegant at all—eating nearly as fast as Ellen!
Before long, Corin was the first to leave the table. She waved to everyone, then picked up her small cake to take back to her room.
But halfway there, Phaga stopped her. Corin froze, trembling slightly, thinking she'd done something wrong.
Instead, Phaga simply pulled out a napkin and gently wiped the corner of her mouth, speaking softly.
"Why the rush? You've still got food on your lips."
"Th-that..."
Corin's face instantly flushed crimson. She nervously lifted her gaze to check the others' expressions.
But Lycaon wasn't even looking. Rina was busy scolding Ellen, saying her sloppy manners had rubbed off on Corin. Ellen nodded obediently, admitting fault—then immediately grabbed several more pieces of meat with her chopsticks and stuffed them into her mouth.
"Ellen, keep eating like that and you'll get fat."
"It's fine, I've been working out a lot lately."
Lycaon joined in. "Ellen, we don't have any commissions for the next few days."
"Got it, got it... Hey, didn't you just say you had a commission that would take a whole day?"
"Ahem... cough, cough!"
Sure enough, no one was paying attention to Corin.
She quickly gestured for Phaga to bend down. Confused, he still leaned closer.
Moving shyly, Corin wrapped her arms around his neck, her breath warm as she whispered softly in his ear.
"Mr. Phaga, you should eat more too. If you eat your fill at noon, you won't go hungry at night."
After whispering, she darted a glance at Rina. Seeing she still hadn't noticed, Corin scooped up her cake and scampered upstairs.
After she left, Phaga raised an eyebrow slightly. His gaze drifted toward Rina's flawless face as he wondered to himself, Is she really that terrifying?
Rina seemed to sense his eyes on her. She turned and gave him a faint smile.
"What is it?"
"Nothing..."
Phaga quickly looked away. But then something came to mind.
"Oh, Rina. Did you find anything when you broke into Vision Industry?"
"Yes, we found some things. We gathered a fair amount of firsthand data, though none of it seems directly related to us at first glance."
Rina sighed.
"We infiltrated Vision Industry before Ellen called the police. At that time, their defenses weren't fully in place. We used some tricks and got inside.
"But Vision Industry's headquarters is a skyscraper. The higher the floor, the higher the clearance needed. The hacking also became much harder. In the rush, I slipped up—the alarms went off, and security swarmed in. To protect our identities, Lord Lycaon and I had to retreat with whatever we'd already gathered."
She took out a USB drive and a stack of papers, sighing again.
"Neither Lord Lycaon nor I have had time to check the contents on this drive. I don't know if any of it is useful."
"And these paper documents are...?"
Phaga reached out to tap them. Rina tilted her head, signaling that he could look for himself.
So Phaga took them. Ellen dragged her chair closer, leaning in with interest.
"Outer Ring Development Contract?"
Phaga raised a brow, scanning it from top to bottom. He murmured:
"The Inner Ring enterprises, with the goal of benefiting the Outer Ring people, pledge to provide [Ether Technology], free for Party A to allocate. They will fully support Party A's efforts to unite the Outer Ring organizations and their people, working together for cooperative development... New Eridu companies, being this generous? Hard to believe."
On the surface, the contract looked fine.
But the moment Phaga saw that Vision Industry was included among those "enterprises," the whole thing reeked of fraud. He just couldn't pinpoint exactly where the lie was yet.
Growing impatient, Ellen leaned against his shoulder.
"Next page."
Phaga flipped it casually. The moment the page turned, a clause marked in bold red jumped out at him.
His eyes widened as he read aloud:
"To facilitate Party B's construction projects and accelerate the Outer Ring's Ether technology development, Party A is obligated to help Party B completely shut down the original fuel industry, so that decaying legacy industries will not obstruct the birth of emerging ones."
"What a noble-sounding excuse!"
What did this really mean?
It was like God telling humanity: Want to fly? First, cut off your legs.
And once the legs were gone, whether God kept His promise depended entirely on his conscience.
Did New Eridu's companies even have a shred of conscience?
Phaga flipped back to the cover page. Four bold characters glared back at him: [Vision Industry].
This... was a heartless company.
"This contract is outrageous!"
Even Ellen could see how unreasonable it was. Since Rina was busy clearing the table, she turned instead to Lycaon.
"Would anyone really sign such an unequal treaty?"
Lycaon calmly lifted his bowl of soup, blew away the steam, took a sip, and replied,
"Turn to the last page. By the time we found it, it was already signed."
Hearing this, Ellen leaned closer to Phaga, just as he flipped to the end. His pale finger tapped firmly on the "Party A" signature.
Lucius.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk."
Phaga clicked his tongue in amazement, then shut the contract and tossed it onto the table.
"The world's big enough—there's nothing it won't swallow."
He really dared to sign it!
"Never mind. This isn't our problem."
Phaga shook his head, picked up the USB drive, and tilted it toward Ellen. Under her puzzled gaze, he said slowly:
"I'll copy half the contents for you later. Let's both look through them and see if there's anything useful."
"No way. Too much hassle..."
Ellen turned her head away, clearly uninterested.
But before she could finish rejecting him, Phaga leaned close and whispered in her ear:
"We have a physics exam this afternoon."
Those seven words carried more weight than any heartfelt plea.
Ellen's head snapped back toward him. Phaga wore a half-smile, his left hand flicking the USB drive lightly up and down—making her heart bounce along with it.
Suddenly, Ellen remembered. Her face went pale.
"If you won't help..." Phaga's voice was deliberately slow, teasing. He tapped the USB against his palm. "...then I'll waste the whole morning digging through this myself. Which means no time left to study physics with you before the exam."
Phaga pushed back his chair and started up the stairs.
Panicking, Ellen rushed after him, even activating her [Roaming Hunt] to catch up.
Meanwhile, at the dining table, Lycaon's ears twitched as he savored his soup. From the hallway drifted a faint, echoing voice:
"Phaga, wait—just a little longer, please!"