You Can't Live off a Rich Woman

Amuro Tooru had actually met Jiang Xia before and knew he was with the Organization.

—As a busy full member, he occasionally had need of Peripheral Members.

About a year ago, the two had briefly crossed paths during a mission.

Amuro Tooru felt that if he could remember Jiang Xia among a crowd of Peripheral Members, there was no reason Jiang Xia would not remember a distinctive full member—a Blonde and Dark-Skinned man.

That was why Amuro Tooru found Jiang Xia highly suspicious.

Most Peripheral Members feared the higher-ups. How could one possibly come to him looking for part-time work, then refuse to leave even after he had made it clear he was being shown out?

...Suspicious. Far too suspicious.

No matter what, he could not let him leave before getting answers.

Thinking Like This, Amuro Tooru revealed the grim, sinister sneer unique to a Villain. Gun in hand, he advanced with an intimidating air. "Who sent you? Are you one of those cops' lapdogs?"

Jiang Xia: "..." There were rather a lot of things wrong with that sentence, but he could not exactly point them out.

Still, Jiang Xia understood. What Amuro Tooru said was effectively a warning.

—A Peripheral Member had trespassed into Bourbon's territory without permission. That alone was suspicious enough.

If Jiang Xia could not provide a reasonable explanation, Amuro Tooru could treat him as "an enemy lapdog sent to gather intelligence" and kill him on the spot, and no one would hold him accountable.

Peripheral Members without Codenames died easily. They were cannon fodder among cannon fodder.

But luckily.

The man before him was a bottle of Fake Alcohol.

The chances of him firing were low.

Besides, with Ghosts at his disposal, Jiang Xia was not particularly afraid of death.

Or, strictly speaking, as a proper Spirit Medium who had passed TEM-8, he was not afraid of "being killed by someone exceptional."

Vengeful Spirits were born with a layer of resentment, and that resentment was highly targeted—it would point directly at the person who had killed them.

Combined with the inherent traits of a Spirit Medium, after death, they could maximize the advantages of a spirit body.

In other words, if someone dared kill a Spirit Medium face-to-face, the Spirit Medium's chances of taking over the killer's body would become absurdly high.

However, changing bodies caused severe damage to the soul. And during the process, some Ghosts would slip away because they were excessively exploited and the Contract became incomplete.

So Spirit Mediums did everything they could to avoid death.

But right now, Jiang Xia had only one Ghost. Even if he were killed, he would not lose much.

Besides, every time he met Gin, Gin would point a Gun at him for a while... Honestly, he was used to it by now.

Facing a loaded Gun, Jiang Xia remained calm.

"No one sent me. I came on my own. I wanted to find a more stable source of income.

"Because of Organization missions in the past, I offended some local Hooligans. They did not dare confront me directly, so they kept playing dirty tricks—no matter where I worked, the place would get smashed up before long. After it happened enough times, no boss dared hire me anymore."

Jiang Xia sighed as he spoke. "Now I can only work somewhere far away. After deducting travel expenses, there's barely any pay left. It isn't enough."

Amuro Tooru was also someone who worked a lot of part-time jobs.

Of course, his purpose was different from Jiang Xia's. Amuro Tooru had no need for a salary; he mainly did it to gather intelligence.

But the difficulties involved in finding work were actually much the same.

For some reason, Jiang Xia's words were strangely immersive.

As Amuro Tooru listened, his grip on the Gun unconsciously loosened a little... This Peripheral Member was far too miserable.

But the moment Jiang Xia fell silent, something suddenly felt wrong again. "The Organization..."

"The Organization gives me very few missions too." Jiang Xia gently shook his head and lowered his gaze. "One member with a Codename thinks I have psychological problems and can't handle stress, so she rarely assigns me work. If I can't find a stable part-time job, I'll have no choice but to sell my parents' house. But it's the last thing they left behind..."

Amuro Tooru: "..." Was it really that difficult?

But psychological problems, and not being given work...

Amuro Tooru suddenly wondered if this "member" was referring to Sherry.

Because of certain things from his childhood, Amuro Tooru had always felt favorably toward Sherry's mother.

As a result, he could not help paying extra attention to Sherry's situation.

Amuro Tooru had indeed heard that over the past year, Sherry had taken especially good care of a certain Peripheral Member.

If that person happened to be Jiang Xia...

Then Jiang Xia probably was not lying.

Sherry was a Researcher and had no authority over operational matters.

But her status was important, after all. If she was willing to speak up, she really could prevent Jiang Xia from receiving missions.

Amuro Tooru knew that Sherry's intentions were probably good. But judging from Jiang Xia's current situation... her good intentions had clearly backfired.

Perhaps Sherry had never lacked money growing up and had forgotten to take that into account.

Thinking of the daughter of the woman he had Secretly Loved for the first time, Amuro Tooru felt a little helpless.

He looked at Jiang Xia and followed up on what he had just said. "That higher-up only told you to take fewer missions? She didn't give you any financial support?"

He was subtly reminding Jiang Xia to bring it up with Sherry—once Sherry knew the truth, she definitely would not remain indifferent.

Yet after hearing him, Jiang Xia gave him a strange look. "She gave me money, but I'm a man. How could I let a woman support me?"

After saying that, he looked at Amuro Tooru gloomily, seeming to want to say something but stopping himself. "Don't tell me you..."

Amuro Tooru: "..."

He felt an imaginary pot labeled "Gigolo" gradually materializing above his head.

The veins at Amuro Tooru's temples throbbed a few times. "I was just asking."

Of course, he was not encouraging anyone to live off a woman.

He simply felt that it was only natural for an adult to give some living expenses to a child she was looking after. There was nothing wrong with that.

But now that he thought about it carefully...

Sherry herself seemed to still be a minor.

Being supported by a girl his own age, it was no wonder Jiang Xia had firmly refused.

Minors really were troublesome... And he had run into two of them at once.

With Sherry suddenly inserted into the matter, Amuro Tooru's attitude softened somewhat.

But before agreeing, there was still one thing he found strange. "But what does any of that have to do with you coming here to look for part-time work?"

Jiang Xia caught the softening in Amuro Tooru's tone and explained.

"Before, I accidentally saved a little girl who had been kidnapped, and her father gave me a reward. Through that incident, I realized that being a Private Detective seemed like a profession that suited me.

"But I can't open a Detective Agency myself. I can only work under someone else as an apprentice.

"Then, I happened to see your advertisement in the Detective Handbook..."

At that, Jiang Xia pointed at the Detective Handbook on the Coffee Table.

"Out of all the Detective Agencies, yours is the closest to the Metropolitan Police Department.

"That makes it less likely to get smashed up. Even if someone really did come to wreck the place because of me, the police could arrive quickly. So I wanted to try my luck."

As he spoke, Jiang Xia looked up at Amuro Tooru again. "After coming in, I realized I'd seen you before. Your skin and hair color are very distinctive... A higher-up in the Organization probably wouldn't be afraid of those Hooligans either."

Jiang Xia looked at him with an expectant expression that said, You can do it. You can handle this.

Amuro Tooru: "..."

After a brief pause, he put away his Gun and picked up the Detective Handbook from the table, flipping through it.

There really was an advertisement for the Detective Agency.

He himself had forgotten when he had placed it.

Amuro Tooru did not actually need to attract clients, nor did he need to worry about the Detective Agency's revenue—if it ran at a loss, he could simply apply to the Organization for funding.

He placed advertisements from time to time only to give the Amuro Detective Agency a certain degree of name recognition.

After all, as an Undercover Agent concealing his identity, Amuro Tooru could not turn himself into a Great Detective. He could only use the Detective Agency's name to get involved in useful cases.

But Amuro Tooru had not expected that this measure would attract an apprentice looking for part-time work.

Under normal circumstances, Amuro Tooru would not concern himself with such matters.

But now... Jiang Xia sounded truly miserable.

Especially since a considerable part of that misery seemed to have been caused by Sherry.

Amuro Tooru had been cared for by Sherry's mother when he was young.

Now that Sherry's parents were both dead, he rationally knew he should not interfere. But this matter had landed right in his hands, and it was only a small effort...

He would feel too guilty not helping.

And despite being an Organization member living such a difficult life, Jiang Xia was still thinking of honestly finding work rather than entertaining crooked ideas like robbery or theft. He had even saved a little girl, from what he had heard.

This kid... perhaps he was surprisingly salvageable.

After struggling for a long time, Amuro Tooru ultimately lost to the Conscience of someone from the Red Side.

He sighed and looked at Jiang Xia.

"You can come intern here first. I'll pay you the standard hourly wage for this line of work. But if any mistakes occur that cause losses to the Organization... you understand the consequences, right?"

Jiang Xia froze.

He actually had several more sets of arguments prepared to persuade him.

Yet he had not expected things to go so smoothly.

Could the Red Side in this world have more Conscience than he had thought?

In any case, as long as he achieved his goal...

Jiang Xia nodded, indicating that he understood.