This House Has A Delicious Restaurant - Chapter 3 - The Queen of Opera - Part 4

Anise lightly tapped the table with her finger.

I wonder if she’s in a bad mood.  If I want cooperation from Lazis, I have to take the autograph.

“I’m sorry if you’re offended, but a friend of mine is a fan of yours, and he asked me to get your autograph for him if I ever meet you.”

“If he’s my fan, he must know that I won’t sign.”

“I know… But, from what I heard, you signed without any conditions for Luke. So, I know it’s rude, but could you please?”

She laughed. She looked like she was laughing at me, so I didn’t answer, but I realized the meaning of the laughter was refusal.

Until the food Anise ordered came out, she didn’t answer. I felt Luke looking at me in between. Usually, I would have been cool and given up on this attitude, but the only condition Lazis gave me was to have an autograph on the handkerchief.

“It seems like an easy condition, but I can’t give up easily. My life depends on it.”

“I’m asking you. I need your autograph.”

“But do you really need it?”

Anise responded without glancing at me. But she didn’t eat her food and held the fork in her hand.

“To be honest, I need it more. I have a favor to ask a friend, and I promised to bring your autograph.”

“…Then I can’t do more. I don’t know what that friend’s intentions are. If it were a regular person, I wouldn’t mind signing, but…”

A regular person?

Seeing Anise hesitate, I finally guessed there was a special reason she wouldn’t sign. I didn’t know what that reason was.

Anise sighed and tried to eat her food, but she dropped the fork she was holding on the floor. Luke got up from his chair to pick up the fork.

Watching him do so absentmindedly, I suddenly sensed something odd under Anise’s chair.

The shadows around where she sat were unusually large. And Anise’s toes were gradually turning black like the shadows, yet she seemed completely unperturbed.

However, the speed at which the shadow climbed up from her toes was increasing. It reached Luke’s fingertips as he picked up the fork.

“Huh? What’s this?”

“Luke!”

I ran over to him, watching in disbelief as he was quickly covered in shadow.

My vision faded to black as I saw Anise, looking at me in surprise, covered in shadows.

* * *

I woke up to the sound of crying from beside me. Frowning at the unsettling cry, I opened my eyes.

“Sister…! You finally came to your senses?”

“…Luke?”

He heard my presence, and he called me. It seemed like Luke was the protagonist of the crying sound, and his cheeks were full of tears.

Finally, I looked around. It was a familiar place. A small room with two facing chairs and no window in the dark space. This was the place where I was first kidnapped.

Luke was tied to a chair, and I was lying on a bed. Unlike Luke, I wasn’t tied up.

I got up from the bed and approached Luke.

“Do you know what’s going on?”

“I don’t know either… I saw something black climbing up from my fingertips when I picked up the fork, but after that, I don’t remember anything. When I opened my eyes, we were here…”

Anise is gone, and sister collapsed like she was dead, and it was scary. Luke said, crying again.

I wiped Luke’s under-eye once and then went to the door. It didn’t open as if it was locked.

I didn’t know I’d be trapped here again.

“Should I start another room escape game…?”

Muttering to myself, I returned to Luke and struggled to untie the rope that bound him, thinking hard.

Could it be that Zerdan kidnapped me again knowing that I escaped? But Khan seemed deliberate in letting me be released. If so, why didn’t he capture me then? And why bring Luke along as well?

Thinking up to that point, I suddenly recalled what Luke had said earlier.

Anise is gone, and sister collapses like she is dead…

Come to think of it, where is Anise? She was in the same space as us. If she was kidnapped like us, she should be in the same space, so why isn’t she here?

“…Is Anise the target, not me?”

“You catch on fast.”

A voice came from the door. Slowly rising from the floor, a man revealed himself.

Luke yelled in surprise. Still tied to the chair, he couldn’t escape and struggled in front of Khan.

Thanks to him, I ended up facing the man standing at the door. I smiled at the face I saw again in less than half a day.

“I thought you had no ability… Surprising, Khan.”

“There’s no reason to tell you. But you’re remarkably calm, even though you’re kidnapped again.”

“I’m quite surprised myself. But if your goal isn’t me but Anise, wouldn’t there be no need to kidnap us? If it’s okay, I’d like you to send us back. I’m sorry to have been kidnapped again.”

“Hey, what’s that so……!”

I smiled, covering Luke’s mouth with my hand to block his refutation.

It’s just a means to safely escape Zerdan without taking care of others’ lives. It was a necessary means to escape from the life-threatening state again after being kidnapped.

It might have been a whimsical escape the first time, but there’s no guarantee that it will be the same the second time. I might really die this time.

I tried not to show any signs of tension and looked at Khan, but he looked uneasy.

“From the beginning, it was you who intruded into the shadows on your own. Especially you have no luck. You’re with the thing the captain is aiming for.”

“If I had known, we wouldn’t have met in the first place. If you let me go back, I’d appreciate it. I’m sure I won’t be seen again.”

“Well, I don’t know what the captain is thinking, but I’m worried about it.”

Something rose from under Khan’s feet. Khan’s ability seemed to move something through the shadows, whether it was an object or a person.

Rising through the shadows was a large axe, about the length of Khan’s leg. I could feel Luke, whose mouth was covered, shaking.

Khan casually hung the axe over his shoulder, which wasn’t heavy at all, and looked down at us.

“It bothers me that you know where we’re staying, but I’m worried about what kind of ability you have.”

“…It’s quite an insignificant ability.”

“I know you’re trying to catch me off guard with those words.”

“No, I’m serious…”

Do you feel unjustly treated?

I hurriedly moved behind Luke and grabbed the chair he was sitting on. It sincerely saddened me that the chair didn’t have wheels.

“Ahhh!! Sister! Are you trying to use me as a shield?!”

Luke screamed in terror as I moved behind him. The version of me perceived by Luke was quite trashy.

I pulled the chair backward, looking at Khan approaching with an axe. Khan swung the axe, narrowly missing Luke sitting on the chair.

“Damn it, I should have tied you together.”

Fortunately, Khan’s leg was uncomfortable. Of course, the door was locked, so there was no escape.

Quickly pulling the chair with Luke still sitting on it, I dodged Khan chasing me around the room. If someone were to watch from afar, they might think it was a contra, but the three people in the room were deadly serious.

“…What are you doing right now?”