Chapter 59: Totsuki! Danger!
After Dumbledore left, Ren sat at the counter, idly flipping the heavy gold coin between his fingers. The metal was dense and warm, radiating a faint magical signature.
"Gold, huh?" Ren mused, listening to the satisfying clink as it landed on the wood. "It makes me wonder about the economies of these worlds. Wizards use pure gold? That seems... inflationary. But I suppose they can't just conjure it."
He shrugged and tossed the Galleon into a small drawer behind the counter labeled 'Tips & Trinkets.' He wasn't particularly interested in wealth for its own sake; his needs were simple, and earning money was trivially easy for someone with his skills.
Dumbledore's departure also signaled that the long, eventful night was finally coming to an end. Through the front windows, the deep indigo of the pre-dawn sky was slowly lightening to a pale blue. The horizon glowed with the first hints of gold, mirroring the coin he had just put away.
Ren stretched his arms high above his head, hearing his joints pop. He walked to the door, leaned against the frame, and watched the sun slowly climb over the Tokyo skyline. The air was crisp and fresh, carrying the scent of morning dew and distant bakeries.
"Today was truly exceptionally busy..." he murmured with a satisfied smile. "Sylas, Ichika, Akame, Kanzaki, Kobayashi, and Dumbledore. A revolutionary, an actress, an assassin, a saint, a teacher, and a wizard."
Indeed, since Ren opened his shop, this night had probably been the most diverse in terms of clientele.
"Hmm? Really?! Are you serious?!"
Just as Ren was about to turn back inside to prepare breakfast for his two resident demons, a sharp, agitated voice cut through the morning quiet.
He poked his head out and looked down the alley.
A girl was walking briskly towards him. She had long, flowing black hair and sharp features that screamed 'high-maintenance.' She was holding a phone to her ear, her other hand gesticulating wildly.
"I told you, I don't care about the budget! Just get it done!" she snapped into the phone.
Upon seeing Ren standing in the doorway of the restaurant, she paused mid-stride. Her eyes swept over him dismissively, then she walked around him without missing a beat, continuing her heated conversation.
"If the lighting isn't perfect, heads will roll! Do you hear me?!"
Ren watched her disappearing back, shaking his head with a wry smile. "She's quite a hot-tempered girl... reminds me of a certain Queen."
He turned back inside. Just as he tied his apron, his own phone rang.
Buzz. Buzz.
Ren pulled it out and checked the caller ID. 'The Old Man'.
He raised an eyebrow. Senzaemon Nakiri? At this hour?
He answered. "What's up? Is something wrong? Did Erina burn down the kitchen?"
"Mm-hmm.... Huh? Why?" Ren's expression shifted from amusement to confusion.
"Eh? Really? But I'm not exactly licensed for that..."
"Alright. But just this once. And I expect premium ingredients as payment."
After hanging up, Ren sighed deeply, running a hand through his silver hair. "Looks like today will be interesting. Should I tell them? Never mind.... It's not like we're guaranteed to run into trouble anyway...."
Upstairs.
Lucifer was already awake. Or rather, she hadn't slept much after all. She was leaning against her pillow, her silver hair a glorious, tangled mess around her shoulders. She held her phone, scrolling through a cooking app with intense focus.
On the screen was a recipe for 'Devil's Chocolate Cake.'
She narrowed her crimson eyes. This looks complicated. But the name speaks to me. My instincts tell me I could learn this, and it should be delicious.
"Come in, don't peek from the doorway~," Lucifer called out lazily, sensing a presence.
The door creaked open. Cerberus poked her head in, scratching her ear. She walked in and straddled a chair backwards.
"Lucifer, Lucifer, Lucifer! You're up so early today! Did you have a nightmare about onions?"
Hearing Cerberus's teasing, Lucifer rolled her eyes and tossed her phone onto the bed. "We don't actually need sleep, you know that. I was just... meditating on my strategy for world domination."
Cerberus blinked, looking at Lucifer's bedhead and the drool mark on the pillow. "Uh-huh. Meditation."
Cerberus indicated with her expression that she hadn't read many books, but she wasn't stupid. Don't try to fool a dog's nose.
Lucifer felt a bit awkward under the scrutiny. She cleared her throat loudly. "About that, Cerberus, you don't need to ask again. Why did you come over here? To annoy me?"
Cerberus's ears twitched twice. She grinned, revealing her canines. "Master told me to call you down for breakfast. He has something to say~. It sounded important! Maybe he's making pancakes!"
Lucifer snorted, crossing her arms. "Just because he says to go down, I go down? I am the CEO of Hell! I move when I want to move!"
Despite saying that, Lucifer stood up immediately and walked towards the bathroom to freshen up.
Cerberus was stunned, scratching her head. "Ah? Is this what Master meant by 'tsundere'? Saying no but body says yes?"
"I am not tsundere!!" Lucifer shouted from behind the bathroom door. "I am just hungry!"
Cerberus completely ignored Lucifer's protest and ran straight outside to the hallway. "Okay! Pancakes!"
Lucifer leaned against the bathroom tiles, looking defeated. This place... it really reminds me of the chaotic days in Hell...
Half an hour later.
Lucifer came downstairs wearing a stylish trench coat over her usual suit, her hair neatly brushed. She sighed as she saw Cerberus sitting at the table, practically vibrating with hunger. The dog girl's mouth was watering so much at the sight of the food that it was a miracle the table wasn't flooded.
Ren looked up from plating the dishes. "You're up? Good timing."
Lucifer sat next to Ren with practiced elegance and snorted. "I've been up for ages! I was working."
Ren nodded, looking at Lucifer with a smile. He noticed she had tied her hair up in a high ponytail today. "I didn't expect you to look surprisingly demure with your hair tied up~. It suits you."
Lucifer was stunned. Her cheeks flushed pink. She slammed her hand on the table. "Ren! You're just like those other perverted humans! Stop hitting on me!"
"Those people? I thought I was unique."
"Speaking of perverts... never mind!"
Ren rolled his eyes playfully. "That was a compliment. Take it. Hurry and eat. Cerberus has been waiting for you for a long time~. If you wait any longer, she might eat the plate."
Lucifer looked at the bowl in front of her. It wasn't pancakes. It was a bowl of steaming, white broth with noodles.
"What is this?"
"Rice Noodles~. Specifically, Yunnan Cross-Bridge Rice Noodles. The broth is chicken stock."
"Rice noodles? What are they? They look a bit like pasta... but slippery."
Ren smiled. "In a sense, there are similarities, but they're not entirely the same. It's made from rice flour. Oh, and this is for you~."
He handed her a round, toasted flatbread filled with chopped meat.
"What's this? A pie?" Lucifer asked, poking it.
Ren looked at Lucifer's confident 'you can't stump me' expression, smiled, and said nothing.
Cerberus grabbed the flatbread in front of her, took a massive bite that decimated half of it, and then showed a blissful expression, mumbling with her mouth full, "Lucifer, Lucifer, Lucifer.... Master said this is called Rou Jia Mo... Chinese Hamburger!"
Lucifer's face stiffened. Rou Jia Mo? Not a pie?
She immediately lowered her head and said nothing, eating silently to hide her embarrassment. However, the tips of her ears were red.
Ren chuckled. "In a sense, calling it a pie isn't wrong—it's a meat pie basically—but it's still better to call it Rou Jia Mo~. After all, names have power."
Lucifer cleared her throat, regaining her composure. "Exactly. I knew that. I just got the translation mixed up. Oh, and these rice noodles are delicious, but they feel a bit too bland for my taste."
Ren pointed to a tray of condiments. "There are seasoning bottles on the side. Chili oil, vinegar, pickled vegetables. Just eat it however you like~. It's customizable."
Lucifer nodded, adding a generous amount of chili oil.
Halfway through her meal, the spice warming her up, Lucifer finally remembered the reason she came down. She asked Ren, "Cerberus said you had something to say? What is it? Is the shop closing?"
Ren put down his chopsticks. "Oh! Right! I almost forgot. Lucifer and Cerberus, do you want to come out with me today?"
Cerberus, with a long strand of rice noodle still hanging from her mouth like a white shoelace, shouted, "Mm-hmm-hmm! Yes, yes! Going out! Walkies!"
Lucifer dabbed her mouth with a napkin. "Where are you going?"
"Totsuki~."
Hearing that word, Lucifer was stunned. She tilted her head. "Totsuki? Is that Rindou and Erina's school? The cooking academy?"
Ren nodded.
Lucifer thought very seriously for a moment. Rindou is fun. Erina is cute. The food there is probably good.
She nodded firmly. "Mm! I can go. It beats staying here watching Cerberus chase her tail. Maybe I'll even see Rindou. But what are you going to do there? Are you enrolling?"
Ren sighed, a look of mild suffering on his face. "Nothing that simple. It's just that the Old Man—Director Nakiri—called. He said one of their lecturers went to a family wedding and got food poisoning or something. The substitutes are all busy. So he asked me to teach a day's class as a special guest instructor."
"You? Teaching?" Lucifer raised an eyebrow, looking him up and down. "Can you handle children? You barely handle Cerberus."
Ren looked at Lucifer's skeptical expression and sighed again. "Yes. It's quite helpless, isn't it? I owe him a favor. I wonder what will happen. But the old man said I don't need to teach many classes, just a practical seminar. Which is why I took on this job."
At this moment, kilometers away at the prestigious Totsuki Culinary Academy.
In the dormitories, hundreds of students were just waking up. Suddenly, a collective chill ran down their spines. They shivered in unison under their blankets, as if a great predator had just turned its gaze toward their campus.
"Why do I feel... like I'm going to die today?" one student whispered to his roommate.
"Don't jinx it!"
Little did they know, the "Demon Chef" was coming to school.
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