"I give up."
Grace's voice of surrender echoed inside Moli Restaurant.
Bai En seemed not to hear him, his face devoid of any expression. He applied a little more force with his right hand, and the silver spoon, already stained with blood, became even brighter. The pain in his neck made Grace frown deeply.
Blood was slowly flowing out.
"You commoner, let go immediately! Do you know what you're doing? We are nobles! Harming a noble is a serious crime!"
"Let him go!"
Grace's subordinates, Cook and Kit, surrounded Bai En. Their grimoires, glowing with blue and brown light, flipped continuously in the air. Lightning and earth chunks appeared, as if they were ready to attack at any moment.
Bai En glanced at them. Using his Mana Zone, two invisible slashes suddenly appeared in the air, like a strong gust of wind, passing by Cook and Kit.
In an instant, a deep, pitch-black slash mark appeared on the pristine white wall and another on the wooden front counter.
"Crack~"
The deep slash marks fractured into a spiderweb pattern.
Amidst the sound of cracking stone and wood, Cook and Kit involuntarily gulped, and drops of cold sweat began to appear on their foreheads. 'What was that? A slash? So fast, I didn't see any magic casting movements, and the trajectory of the slash... completely invisible!'
'...If that attack had landed on me just now, I would definitely have been split in half!'
'Hey, hey, hey, weren't we here in the Common Realm to find a chef? Why did Big Brother... Grace suddenly attack this chef? And also, can someone tell me why this chef is so strong?!'
Cook and Kit exchanged glances, a hint of fear appearing in their eyes. Their hands, which had been poised to cast magic, froze in mid-air, and their magic dissipated.
After the slashes, Moli Restaurant fell into a complete silence, with only the gentle morning breeze and the sunlight filtering through the glass remaining. In the sunlight, the scattered, dismembered tables and chairs, the spilled food, and the magic-created craters were exceptionally serene.
"Two questions." In the silent environment, Bai En slowly spoke: "First, why are you here? Arrogant, high-and-mighty nobles wouldn't come to a Common Realm restaurant to eat for no reason."
The silver spoon loosened slightly, giving Grace a moment to speak, but it still remained close to his neck, like a suspended Sword of Damocles.
"Looking for someone."
Grace's answer was concise, with a hint of defiance in his tone.
"Looking for someone? Can you be more specific?" Bai En patted Grace's shoulder.
"During the last Magic Knights exam, I lost to you and was not selected for the Magic Knights. After returning home, my father reprimanded me and told me to start taking over the family's businesses."
"In the past few days, while reorganizing the restaurants under the royal capital's businesses, I happened to hear about a successful restaurant in the Common Realm. So I thought I'd come and take a look, to appreciate the culinary skills, and to get to know the chef."
As if afraid Bai En wouldn't believe him, Grace continued: "Although commoners are somewhat lowly, there are a few useful individuals among them. This is something I've learned from long-term exchanges and battles with commoners."
Even with the gradual change in perception through contact, the inherent arrogance and prejudice of nobles and royalty remained unshaken.
"So, you're here to poach someone?" Bai En murmured.
"Poach someone?" Grace was a little confused. "What's that?"
"Nothing."
"Nobles also have restaurant businesses?"
"Just some businesses under certain families."
Bai En continued to ask: "Second question, why did you attack me? I remember that besides the Magic Knights exam, we had no interactions and no conflicts."
"Could it be that you nobles harbor murderous intent just because a commoner defeated you once? That's rather petty and narrow-minded."
Bai En's words pierced Grace's heart like sharp needles.
"Huh? Petty? Don't mistake me for that guy from the Hapshas family! I'm not like him." A trace of anger appeared on Grace's face.
"Hapshas?"
Bai En vaguely remembered that Yuno had defeated a noble in the Magic Knights exam, and then this noble, to retaliate against Yuno, staged a bandit incident. So now that guy has also found this... what was his name, Gui Mu... Grace took a deep breath: "I was just a little unconvinced."
"Haha~ Young master noble, your words are truly amusing. Unconvinced?"
Bai En's smile held a hint of coldness, "What if I couldn't dodge your attack and died? What then? Just like now, I can easily hold a knife to your neck, ready to take your life at any moment, and you are powerless. What then?"
The silver spoon was entwined with 'Release,' its sharp edge radiating coldness.
"Power has made us exchange places, which is why you are here now, telling me you're unconvinced and unwilling, instead of being like that guy, pinned to the wall by your magic, watching you flaunt your self-righteous arrogance!"
"Bullying those weaker than you, yet acting cowardly in front of those stronger than you. Think hard, young master noble~"
Bai En took away the spoon from Grace's neck. It wasn't yet time to kill this guy; the death of a noble would bring a lot of trouble, and he had no intention of defecting.
He surveyed the messy, magic-damaged interior of the restaurant and said, "Young master noble, look around. Have you thought about how to resolve today's matter?"
"I've already compensated the owner." Grace replied calmly after some thought.
Bai En shook his head: "The owner and the restaurant are separate. I'm talking about my compensation: emotional distress, lost wages, labor fees, service fees..."
A string of strange words that Grace didn't understand, until "600,000 Yul" was uttered, and Cook and Kit indignantly interrupted, "600,000 Yul? Are you robbing us?!"
"Yes, what's wrong?" Bai En nodded.
Cook and Kit were dumbfounded, looking at the guy leisurely toying with the spoon, holding back words they wanted to say but dared not. 'I've never seen such a shameless person! This is truly...'
"I don't have that much Yul with me now. I'll give it to you next time I come." Grace understood the current situation; paying money was much better than suffering.
"No problem~ No problem~"
Bai En squinted, smiling, as the spoon in his hand flew past Grace's eyes like a silver thread, embedding itself into a stone pillar in the restaurant. "Don't forget, or else I'll come looking for you."
The chilling words sent shivers down the trio's spines.
Grace suddenly asked Shelly, who was standing by watching the commotion, "Madam, it's been a long time, shouldn't the dishes be served now?"
Cook and Kit cast him bewildered glances. 'No, Big Brother, it's clearly a robbery, and we're still eating? We should leave immediately!'
Grace, however, sat properly in his seat, waiting for the food. Seeing this, his two subordinates, who had been standing, put away their grimoires and sat down as well.
Bai En, having just earned a large sum of money, was clearly in a good mood. "What, you guys made this place a mess and still want to eat before you leave?"
"I've already paid."
Bai En glanced at the proprietress, who nodded in response, and said no more. He handed them the plate of food he had been holding: "The dish the previous customer ordered hasn't been served yet. Try this, grilled meat over rice with a rainbow pepper sauce."
Black sauce coated the sliced grilled meat, adorned with rainbow-colored chopped peppers. From the plating, appearance, and aroma, it was quite excellent.
Grace scooped a spoonful of the sauced rice. A subtle spiciness bloomed in his mouth, followed by rich layers that spread, giving him the sensation of lying comfortably in a volcanic hot spring, constantly sinking and exploring.
He couldn't help but ask, "This... who made this?"
His two subordinates, seeing their Big Brother's strange expression, suspected something was wrong with the food. They also took a small taste, and their expressions transformed from solemn to shocked, and finally to utterly captivated.
Bai En looked at him with disdain, "Of course it was me? Didn't you see my chef's uniform? That's odd."
"You're not a helper here?"
"No."
"Wait." Grace paused, "You're a member of the Magic Knights?"
"Yes."
"...And also the chef of this Moli Restaurant?"
"Yes." Bai En nodded again.
"Why?"
"Huh? Why what?" Bai En said, puzzled: "Can't I be both a Magic Knight and a chef? What kind of logic is that..."
"Besides, I'm a commoner, unlike you wealthy nobles. I need to earn money to support my family; I'm very short on cash."
Grace looked at the food in front of him and solemnly invited Bai En, "Hey, come to my restaurant in the royal capital. The price will definitely be much higher than here."
Shelly, who had emerged from the kitchen carrying the dishes Bai En had prepared earlier, had a smiling face that was nonetheless filled with coldness: "What, young master noble, are you poaching people right under my nose? Isn't that a bit much?"
"People always strive for better opportunities. Following me will undoubtedly offer much better prospects." At this moment, Grace once again flaunted his noble status.
Just as the two were about to argue fiercely over the personnel issue, Bai En turned and slowly walked towards the kitchen, refusing their offer: "What? Do you think you haven't given me enough?"
"I won't go to your place. It would lead to a lot of trouble, and... I dislike self-righteous people."
"Especially nobles and royalty; they're always endless."
"..."
Afterward, Moli Restaurant had no new customers for the rest of the day. After serving the three "troublesome nobles," it closed early for repairs and reorganization.
The young man who had the chance to be the fourth customer—the one Grace had pinned to the wall with magic—dragged his injured body into the shadows beneath the eaves and disappeared while Bai En was in the kitchen making a healing Earth Vein Root Soup.
————————————————
Time can be long, or it can be short. To be more precise, two months can be a period of unchanging normalcy, or it can be a crucial moment that changes one's life.
In the blink of an eye, two months had passed since Grace caused trouble at Moli Restaurant.
After that incident, Moli Restaurant closed for two days. When it reopened, the number of diners did not decrease; instead, it became even livelier due to the nobles' humiliation.
Bai En, who was immersed in "work" all day, also made significant progress. His internal magic had broken through the stream-like state and now flowed like a river. His vast magic power was already comparable to that of elite royalty and nobles.
Thanks to his "salary" and the 600,000 Yul compensation he received from Grace, his chef's tool, 'Yan Slash,' was about seventy to eighty percent refined and was moving towards completion. It seemed it would be finished in a short while.
This also made him start preparing to refine other chef's tools.
However, the work of the Magic Knights couldn't always be idle.
Following the Soshy Village incident reported to the Wizard King by the Black Bulls two days prior, a powerful, unknown reactionary organization appeared in the Magic Knights' sights. All nine Magic Knights began to get busy, even the idlest Aqua Deer Squad.
On the mountaintop, at the Aqua Deer Squad's base, the morning sun was just right.
Walter, the butler, announced the mission on behalf of Captain Rill: "In a remote town in the Common Realm called Mohat, there have been frequent disappearances recently, both children and adults. The Wizard King personally assigned the Aqua Deer Squad to investigate and provide the cause and conclusion."
There weren't many people gathered around the dining table: Uncle Jie Kai, Nancy Quidoranna, and Bai En. Even Jie Kai, who had gone home to celebrate his daughter's birthday, was temporarily called back. Everyone else was busy carrying out their respective missions.
Interestingly, Bai En had yet to meet the Vice-Captain of the Aqua Deer Squad. The first time going out on a mission required the participation of a Magic Knight instructor, a strict requirement by the Wizard King to ensure the growth of new recruits.
Sometimes very idle, sometimes very busy; there was no way around it, this was a normal state of life.
"Although I apologize, Jie Kai, I still have to trouble you to take Nancy and Bai En on this trip." Walter bowed in apology, expressing his condolences as Young Master Rill's butler.
Jie Kai scratched his head; he wasn't as discouraged as one might imagine: "There's nothing to be done about it. The work of the Magic Knights comes first."
"Besides, if we can finish early, my hometown of Saar isn't far from Mohat, so we might even make it back for dinner."
"Is that so? Then I'll trouble you all to go."
After breakfast, Jie Kai and the two others mounted their flying brooms and flew north, three condensed long lines swiftly gliding through the air. Bai En, standing on his flying broom, pondered in the wind, 'I heard two days ago that the Wizard King had rewarded the Black Bulls with a star, and it was largely related to a new recruit. Plus, it happened in the Hui Wai Realm, so I guess it was the first encounter with a Eye of the Midnight Sun member.'
'A classic plot where they try to revive elves to get revenge on humans, but the real culprit turns out to be a devil...'
'The missing persons case in Mohat Town in the Common Realm, could it also be related to Eye of the Midnight Sun? The town's name is Mohart; I feel like I've heard it somewhere before.'
...