Living with a Magical Girl, but I'm an Executive of the Villain Organization Chapter 31

Listening to his BOSS's question, Cong Yu swallowed the fried chicken cutlet in his mouth. "Prison? How long could he be locked up for?"

"Under the current laws here, a father who gets out of prison won't turn over a new leaf... A gambling-addict father is a negative influence during a child's upbringing."

That made it clear enough. In other words, that "negative influence" was to disappear from the world entirely.

"Of course... that's just an excuse. I'm simply carrying out a tiny, selfish act of revenge. There's no need to trouble the group over it."

As he quietly added that, Cong Yu heard something and began thanking the other party for their help. "Thanks. I'll bring you McDonald's next time."

[You're thanking me with fast food?]

Amid his BOSS's jab, Cong Yu hung up the phone, then shifted slightly to the right, making room for someone.

"Cong Yu! Didn't you say you'd wait for me so we could have lunch together?!"

Holding a lunchbox, Yaochuan Guang violently flung open the metal door... Over the first few days of the new semester, this metal door had really suffered quite a lot.

It had been kicked before, and now this too... Sooner or later, it was going to break.

"What a miserable fate, Mr. Metal Door—"

As he said that, Cong Yu ignored the puffed-up Yaochuan Guang and muttered to himself in a normal speaking voice, "Another weird idiot has come to disturb my alone time."

Yaochuan Guang pouted.

Holding her lunchbox, she sat down beside him. "I'm not weird, okay?"

As always, Yaochuan Guang didn't deny being an idiot.

"I went to pick up textbooks, and it would've been one thing if Cong Yu didn't help me. But you wouldn't even wait so we could eat together... Hmph!"

Yaochuan Guang snorted and opened her lunchbox. As a breeze blew past, the expression on her face gradually softened. "Wow, the wind feels so nice."

Cong Yu had no objection to that. "Yeah. That's why I wanted to enjoy it alone."

Yaochuan Guang said, "But Cong Yu, don't you have the rooftop key? If you locked the door, I wouldn't be able to get in, right?"

"..." Cong Yu didn't want to explain. He merely slipped his phone back into his pocket and prepared to devote himself fully to eating.

"Mm—so you really are a tsundere..."

Saying that, Yaochuan Guang ignored Cong Yu's sidelong glance and began shoveling rice into her mouth with repeated "nom nom" sounds.

She had nearly eaten half of her plain rice before she began picking at the other dishes, then looked at Cong Yu with curious eyes—

"By the way, Cong Yu, when I came up, I heard you on the phone saying something about bringing McDonald's... Is it a relative's kid?"

"..."

"It was a former supervisor from work. She sounds young, but she's actually not that young. I also asked her side for help with your video editing."

Cong Yu was telling the truth.

Yaochuan Guang understood immediately and nodded with a smile. "Got it. Then later, shall I go thank her with you, Cong Yu?"

"..."

"..." Yaochuan Guang said, "?"

Cong Yu said, "..."

Silently finishing his lunch, Cong Yu slowly spoke. "My advice is... you'd better not go."

Yaochuan Guang asked, "Why?"

"You'll die."

As Cong Yu said that, he looked at Yaochuan Guang's stunned expression and simply added, "It's hard for me to explain."

"You can take it as the work itself being difficult to understand, or the strange workload, or the oppressive atmosphere..."

"If an idiot like you went there, you'd really die."

"..." Immediately, Cong Yu's former workplace became incredibly lofty and impressive in Yaochuan Guang's eyes. "Could it be... math?"

"Is the workplace full of mathematical formulas that'd make me go into shock the moment I looked at them?"

Faced with Yaochuan Guang's question, Cong Yu silently shook his head. "It's a workplace for 'adults.' You're still young... It's not suitable for you to visit."

That wasn't what it was at all, but Cong Yu hoped Yaochuan Guang would understand it that way.

"Ooh! But if you put it like that... Aren't you young too, Cong Yu?"

Watching Yaochuan Guang finish her meal right after him and hearing her squint-eyed jab, Cong Yu simply placed his lunchbox on top of hers.

Then, while Yaochuan Guang wordlessly wrapped up both of their lunchboxes, he replied, "But my heart is already old. Rotten, decayed, withered, putrid, and fallen."

Yaochuan Guang immediately smiled. "That sounds like you've gone dark! Such chuuni nonsense! Hahaha!"

Saying that, Yaochuan Guang carried the bag holding both lunchboxes toward the stairs. Then she turned back and met his eyes. "Cong Yu, after class this afternoon, come check out clubs with me!"

"..." After a brief silence, Cong Yu looked away. "I'll wait for you in the classroom... I definitely won't leave first. I promise."

Yaochuan Guang said, "..."

Yaochuan Guang said, "Wasn't there someone who said, [I'll wait for you on the rooftop. I definitely won't eat before you get here, I promise]?!"

Cong Yu raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Who? That's awful."

"It was you, Cong Yu! It was Cong Yu!"

Cong Yu said, "Ah, I have absolutely no memory of that name. It sounds like the name of a sword."

"!!!" Yaochuan Guang fell into shock. She gained an entirely new understanding of Cong Yu's ability to play dumb with a straight face.

Seeing the Madam Again

"Mom..."

The little girl asked this as she hesitantly entered the living room after finishing her homework. "Dad... isn't coming back today either?"

At her words, the woman who was vacuuming the floor immediately revealed an expression of hesitation.

After wavering again and again, this strong career woman in everyone else's eyes once more showed her weakness before her child.

"Mm, probably not..."

It had happened countless times already.

As a member of the family, as someone crucial to a child's upbringing... he still never came home at night.

No, actually, it was better when he didn't come home at night.

That man had a respectable job, but in private, he was a hopeless gambler.

The love and expectations she had once held had completely vanished from her heart.

In their place were fear and retreat.

"Mm... okay."

The little girl spoke obediently. She wasn't disappointed to hear that her father wasn't coming home. On the contrary, she even seemed relieved.

Seeing it through her mother's eyes made her purse her lips.

Even a child—even their daughter—felt this way about her husband. That was already enough to prove something.

Yet she didn't have the courage to divorce him.

Even though she had opened a fairly successful coffee shop and pastry shop, she didn't have the courage to change anything more.

The only thing she could do was have dinner earlier.

When that man came home and saw there was no food for him, he would definitely fly into a rage... At least by then, she and her daughter would have finished eating.

At least her daughter could stay in her room and wouldn't have to be struck head-on by the overturned dinner and dishes.

"Have you finished your homework?"

"Mm, I'm done."

The mother smiled at her obedient daughter and was just about to praise her when the doorbell rang.

"Ding-dong—"

"..." Honestly, that wasn't a good sign at all.

The young mother could only set down the vacuum cleaner in her hands and stroke her daughter's head. "Be good... Go back to your room first."

But the little girl, who had always listened to her mother, stubbornly shook her head this time. Sitting on the sofa, she showed no intention of moving.

"No, I'm going to protect Mom."

"..." Her eyes reddened at her daughter's words. She could only hold back the urge to cry as she opened the door. "Coming. Who is it?"

Though she said that, who else could it be? It could only be...

"???" Yet the moment she opened the door, she showed a hesitant expression... because she truly didn't know the person outside.

Logically speaking, it should have been her husband, Nagashima Koji.

But the one standing outside was someone wearing a white mask... a pure white mask without any design on it.

They had extremely long hair that nearly reached their waist, and their build made them look like a high school student.

It was difficult to tell whether they were a boy or a flat-chested girl.

The masked youth stood outside with his arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe. "Nagashima Koji, I have a few questions for you."

Judging by the voice, he was probably a male high school student.

"..." Was he here looking for her husband? What a strange child.

Thinking that, she was just about to say that her husband wasn't home when the masked youth, who had maintained his leaning pose the entire time, continued—

"Nagashima Koji, you've immersed yourself in the world of gambling. Gaining and losing money holds a fatal attraction for you."

As he said this, the youth never once glanced into the entryway behind the door. "I don't know where you place your family and gambling on the two ends of the scale, so... I want to play a game."

After delivering his opening line in a deep voice, the masked youth turned his head toward the blinking mother.

The familiar figure made his entire body freeze for a moment.

"..."

"..." In the silence, the young madam spoke first. "Sorry, Koji isn't home right now."

The masked youth, Cong Yu, had actually noticed that already. But compared to that, he was now more concerned about something else.

Because the woman standing before him right now—

Was undoubtedly Nagashima Koji's wife, and her other identity was the owner of the "Echo Maid COF" café, where he had freeloaded food and drinks all day before.

The woman he had rescued from a monster's hands.

How should he put it...

Wind City really wasn't a large city.

However, Cong Yu wasn't worried about her recognizing him, because that was simply how this world worked... Once someone put on a mask, they were treated as a completely different person.

Even magical girls couldn't be recognized after transforming. Even though, in Cong Yu's eyes, transforming was really just changing clothes.

That was one of the world's underlying rules.

"..." After a moment of silence, Cong Yu met the curious gaze of the café owner. "May I ask how I should address you, Mrs. Nagashima?"

Though puzzled by Cong Yu's polite question, the owner still introduced herself. "Nagashima Riko."

At that moment, the little girl peeking around noticed that the visitor wasn't her father and relaxed enough to come into the entryway.

Standing beside her mother, she looked up at the unfamiliar masked man and, for some reason, found him a little familiar.

It was the kind of familiarity that felt like someone had stuffed a handful of landscaping plants into her mouth.

"This is my daughter, Nagashima Koki."

As the café owner—Nagashima Riko—introduced her, Cong Yu nodded. "Hello, nice to meet you, please take care of..."

No, wait! This wasn't how things were supposed to develop at all!

"May I ask when Nagashima Koji will return?"

Faced with Cong Yu's calm question, Nagashima Riko also realized the visitor might mean trouble. "He probably won't be coming back today..."

As she spoke, she had already guessed his purpose. "Koji owes you money, doesn't he? How much is it? Let me see... whether I can help repay it."