This House Has A Delicious Restaurant - Chapter 6 - The Hunters (3) - Part 1

06. The Hunters (3)

Seeing my relatively unharmed appearance and the man lying unnaturally on the floor, his expression changes as he looks at me and the axe in my hand.

“…Did you cut off his limbs?”

“No way. I’m too weak even to swing this axe properly.”

Look at these slender wrists.

Terisier frowned at my extended wrist, seeming even more confused.

“I told you, my ability is the perfect counter to that hairy man. I was lucky.”

“…What kind of ability is it?”

“It’s a secret. I told you, we shouldn’t reveal too much information to the enemy.”

I put the axe down, and Terisier stepped on it with his big foot, breaking the handle and cracking the blade.

…The opponent hit with that strength might already be dead.

Terisier, who had transformed into a tiger, returned to his original form. As I massaged the back of my neck from looking up, I looked at Terisier, now at eye level.

“Terisier’s ability isn’t just about changing form, is it?”

“Right. My ability isn’t that simple.”

“Can you only transform into living creatures?”

“Why should I tell you when you didn’t tell me?”

“That’s true.”

In apparent retaliation, Terisier snorted at my response. I watched his back as he continued to look around, seemingly still separated from the external space.

His silver hair fluttered. When he was in bird form, his feathers were white and gray, and as a tiger, they had a silvery sheen.

So…

“You saw me naked, didn’t you?”

The small silver-haired cat that had come through the window this morning. I thought it was a slightly unusual cat, but who would’ve guessed it was Terisier? And when he called me naked during our first encounter, I wondered what he meant.

Terisier’s face turned red as if to confirm my suspicion, and he couldn’t answer as he looked at me.

It was refreshing to see his flustered reaction, and I barely held back my laughter. Unlike the proactive Zerdan and the aloof Obella, this was a fresh reaction.

“At the time, I thought you were just an ordinary cat, so I didn’t even think to cover myself. Come to think of it, I was crouching at your eye level. I wonder what you saw from your perspective.”

I lightly twirled the hem of my dress. Terisier’s face turned so red it looked like it might explode.

His embarrassed reaction amused me, so I walked towards him. He started backing away with a stiff face. Following his retreating steps, I slowly approached him until he was cornered against the wall, looking at me standing in front of him.

“Terisier, why can’t you answer? I’m just curious.”

“I didn’t see anything…”

“You seemed quite flustered at the time to say that.”

“What are you talking about? I wasn’t flustered at all! And it’s you who slept naked in the first place! I’m not the pervert, you are!”

“That’s strange. I never called you a pervert, Terisier. It was me who slept naked, and you just saw it by chance. So, I was just curious about what you saw of me.”

Terisier looked almost on the verge of tears. With an irritated tone, he asked why I was curious, and I rubbed my chin.

Honestly, it’s because it’s fun to tease him, but if I say that now, he’ll get angry, and that would ruin the fun.

I reached out and stroked Terisier’s cheek. I thought his skin looked good, and it was indeed very smooth, perhaps because he was young.

“What, what are you doing? Get your hand off.”

“If you ask why I’m curious… When I see your pretty face, I want to touch it once. Your pretty eyes, nose, and lips. It’s just curiosity about something beautiful. So I wondered if there was a part of my body that Terisier thought was beautiful. Maybe I’ll let you touch it if you tell me.”

Terisier pushed me back. As I retreated with a smile, I saw his face turn bright red.

“You are a shameless woman! I’m not interested in that at all!”

“I’m just joking. Your reaction was so amusing that I went a bit too far.”

I finally told the shouting Terisier that it was a joke.

I guess I went too far teasing a minor. If he were a bit older, I could’ve had more fun with this joke.

Feeling a bit disappointed, I looked around at the sound of voices. It seemed the separated space was returning to normal. I could hear the bustling voices of the merchants.

“We can go back now. It seems like we need to deal with this here… Should we report back to Bella?”

I pointed to the fallen men, and Terisier, after a moment of thought, nodded.

Since they weren’t dead, they could probably find their way back on their own, but there was no need to return the enemy’s strength. I decided to follow Terisier to report the situation to Obella.

* * *

Obella, who had just finished dealing with the bodies inside the building and followed us, sighed tiredly but seemed relieved to see that we were both unharmed.

Even though he didn’t ask, he probably thought Terisier had protected me.

I didn’t feel the need to correct him, so I remained silent, and so did Terisier.

“I’ve contacted the nearby team, and they should arrive in about three days. With this group, it’s hard to gather information or rescue Diswen.”

“But if we take too long, who knows what Zerdan might do? Won’t it be too late in three days?”

Back at the mansion, Terisier expressed his opinion to Obella, who was discussing the situation.

Terisier’s concern wasn’t unreasonable. Being with Zerdan, of all people, was naturally worrying.

However, as Obella said, it was unrealistic to attack with our current manpower. We didn’t know their numbers or if Zerdan was the only one with special abilities.

Listening to their conversation, I decided to support Obella’s opinion.

“I understand Terisier’s concern, but I think it’s better to be cautious. In the meantime, we should gather as much information as possible.”

“But…”

“We don’t even know where Zerdan is, so we can’t just go looking for him. Let’s figure out his location first and then make a decision.”

I cut off Terisier’s attempt to argue further. Finally, he fell silent.

Obella also agreed with my suggestion. He advised Terisier to transform into a flying animal and scout the area. Terisier, still looking displeased, transformed into a small bird like he had in the morning and flew out the window.

* * *

“…She’s more impressive than I thought.”

A man hiding in a nearby alley whispered in awe. The other man, leaning against the wall, laughed.

Dressed in black from head to toe, he had dark hair and piercing golden eyes that added to his mysterious aura. With arms crossed, he responded.

“I told you, she’s a woman I’d like to have under me.”

“I thought you meant in bed. According to Mr. Khan, she’s supposed to be good in bed with you, Zerdan.”

“I won’t deny that.”

The man looked incredulous at Zerdan’s confirmation.

What a shameless guy.

At first, they thought the plan was to separate Obella and attack him alone, but the ones attacking were nobodies.

They had already gathered some information about the young boy’s abilities. He wasn’t considered a significant threat, and the woman beside him didn’t seem to have any combat abilities at first glance, making the effort seem pointless.

Zerdan had informed them of the woman’s ability: making the opponent’s body hair stand on end.

How utterly useless and trivial!

He had laughed so hard upon hearing it that Zerdan had frowned. Knowing her ability, he had low expectations and thought the boy might be okay, but the woman would likely be cut in half.

But the reality was far from their expectations. The woman skillfully used her seemingly insignificant ability to fluster her opponent.

Despite himself, he had to admit that her ability usage was impressive, even if she was the enemy.

“Honestly, with that level of ability usage, isn’t she a genius? If she had a proper ability, we’d be at her mercy.”

“She’s a smart girl. Her response and situational judgment are quite good.”

“If you talk about her like that, she must have a similar style to yours. Sneaky.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I hate that about you, you crazy bastard.”

The man cursed in response to Zerdan’s answer. But Zerdan, either used to such curses or simply unfazed, showed no particular reaction.

It made him even more annoying, but what could he do when he had no power? The man sighed.

“Yeah, I get it, she’s a decent woman. But what’s your point? Are you suggesting we scout her? You never care about my opinion anyway.”

“Not yet. Even when threatened with her life or her acquaintances, she didn’t react much. If we bring her to our side in that state, she might betray us for a better offer.”

“That’s human nature. Unless they share the same goal, no one wants to join a criminal organization.”