A Luo stood helplessly before Chrollo, covering her face in despair as a powerful premonition rose in her heart.
At this rate, it wouldn't be long before the man in front of me dug out every last secret I had!
"Why? Could it be that you know Feitan specializes in interrogation? Given Pak's ability and its activation conditions, that isn't impossible. In that case... Shalnark, do you know where Feitan is right now? Tell him to come back immediately."
Chrollo rubbed his temples, as though he had finally found a lead on a difficult problem.
Then, keeping his deep black eyes on Lola, he raised his voice to give Shalnark his instructions.
The blond, green-eyed, baby-faced Shalnark leaned over the second-floor railing and answered with a cheerful smile.
"Feitan contacted me yesterday. Apparently, he's already sold all the Scarlet Eyes. He'll be back at the base the day after tomorrow at the latest."
After saying that, the sunny young man turned to Machi beside him and remarked,
"Well, well! The boss really is getting more impressive by the day!"
Machi leaned against the wall, her eyes half-lowered.
"I had that feeling when we first caught this girl. She's special."
Shalnark raised an eyebrow.
"Your intuition again?"
"Yes. Intuition."
In the first-floor hall, Chrollo buried himself in his thick tome once more.
A Luo turned and dashed back to the room where she had woken up earlier. Thinking of Feitan, whom Shalnark had mentioned, she couldn't help burying her head in her arms like an ostrich, refusing to face reality.
And then there were the Scarlet Eyes Shalnark had mentioned.
They inevitably reminded A Luo of that blond boy who also bore the burden of hatred.
Were all powerful people like this?
Like children playing with an anthill, pouring boiling water over it for a moment's amusement... none of them ever realized what a devastating catastrophe their actions brought upon those ants.
Empathy was nothing but a fantasy to them!
The more A Luo thought about it, the worse she felt, and a fierce defiance toward the Spiders outside welled up inside her.
The inclination to confess and hope for leniency, born from being utterly outclassed by Chrollo's intelligence, instantly turned into a stubborn determination to resist to the bitter end!
As long as I keep my mouth shut, there's no way those Spiders can deduce that this is a manga world!
Hmph!
At that moment, A Luo's inner teenage rebel blazed to life.
The next morning, A Luo woke to her stomach growling with hunger.
She stumbled groggily out of her room, just in time to see the Spiders holding a vote with a Spider coin in the first-floor hall.
The purpose of the vote was to decide who would cook that day.
Having lost, Machi turned away indignantly, but her eyes lit up when she spotted Lola in the corridor.
"Can you cook?"
"A little!"
After that brief exchange, A Luo and Machi both appeared in the kitchen.
Then, just like in the anime, all kinds of ingredients began flying through the air. Before long, under Machi's miraculous handling, plates of fruit, vegetables, and meat were neatly arranged once more.
A Luo hurried over to inspect them one by one, discovering that everything had been perfectly sliced, diced, or julienned.
Every cut was beautiful!
After indicating that the remaining work was up to A Luo, Machi coolly flicked her spotless hem.
With a wave, she breezed out of the kitchen without leaving a trace.
Next, A Luo grabbed a spatula and, amid a clatter of pots and pans, began her miserable life as the Phantom Troupe's little cook.
Nearly an hour later, an enticing aroma slowly drifted out of the kitchen.
Soon, Phinks, the least patient of the Spiders, couldn't sit still any longer and sneaked into the kitchen.
Without thinking much of it, A Luo casually handed him the freshly cooked red-braised pork and savory braised ribs.
A few minutes later, the hulking Uvogin appeared in the kitchen doorway.
Once again, without the slightest suspicion, A Luo let him carry away the pork slices in spicy broth and a tall stack of fried flatbreads.
As she handed them over, the girl added a warning for the big man.
"Careful, they're a little hot."
The dishes that followed-shredded pork with green peppers, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, sweet-and-sour pork, spicy chicken, cola chicken wings, homestyle stir-fried pork, and beef stewed with potatoes-were likewise carried out of the kitchen by the other Spiders who eagerly arrived.
Only at the end did A Luo, humming to herself, turn off the heat under the shredded chicken and chestnut congee that had simmered all morning, pour it into a serving bowl, and carry it out.
And that was where the little cook's good mood for the morning ended... because the moment she entered the first-floor dining room, she realized she'd been a damned idiot!
The dining table was a complete mess.
Aside from one or two strips of green pepper lying forlornly on a plate, stripped of their accompanying pork, every dish had vanished.
Those damned bastards hadn't even left her half a flatbread.
Shalnark lounged on the living-room sofa, idly picking his teeth. Seeing A Luo's dark expression, he greeted her with a beaming smile.
"Hey! Our little cook's really good! Everyone enjoyed the food. Oh, right, after breakfast, before he went upstairs, the boss asked me to remind you that Feitan's already on his way back~"
After saying that, he paused, pointed at what Lola was holding, and asked,
"What's that?"
A Luo replied irritably,
"Shredded chicken and chestnut congee!"
Barely had she finished speaking when the congee in her hands ended up in the hands of Phinks, who had followed its scent over.
In the end, Phinks and Shalnark split the entire large bowl of congee between them.
A Luo could only watch as those two shameless men happily polished off the very last of the food she had made.
Then Phinks and Shalnark teamed up to run dungeons in a newly released game.
They acted as though she didn't exist the entire time.
So I spent the whole morning working on an empty stomach, fed an entire bunch of Spiders, and ended up being the only one with nothing to eat?
Those robbers, those bastards, those sons of bitches!
A Luo was so furious that anger rushed to her head and made her skull ache!
But after briefly comparing their respective fighting abilities, she could only cowardly swallow her anger and humiliation.
There was nothing she could do!
She couldn't beat them and didn't dare curse them out. What choice did she have but to know her place and suffer in silence?
In the end, her hunger became unbearable, and A Luo could only return to the kitchen in frustration, using the remaining oil and flour to throw together a flatbread and make do.
With her stomach barely filled, A Luo returned to the living room. The more she thought about it, the more wronged she felt, so she curled up on the sofa where Chrollo often read and sobbed through the rest of the morning.
Soon, it was lunchtime.
Machi hauled A Luo, whose eyes were swollen from crying, into the kitchen again.
Then came a flurry of swishes!
After another dazzling performance of ingredients scattering through the air, Machi pushed the door open and left with an icy expression.
Remembering that morning's treatment and humiliation, A Luo crouched on the floor with red eyes and her arms wrapped around her knees, expressing her displeasure through a work slowdown!
Two hours passed, then another two.
Not a sound came from the kitchen.
The four Spiders waiting for their meal finally grew restless.
Soon, Phinks announced that he was returning to his room to change clothes, Shalnark indicated that he needed the bathroom, and Machi said she was going upstairs to check whether the boss had woken up.
Only Uvogin remained seated in the hall.
The big man scratched the back of his head, stood, and headed toward the kitchen.
"I'm Uvogin. What's your name, boss's collectible?"
Still sunk in misery, Lola heard Uvogin's voice from the doorway but ignored him, only burying her head deeper!
After waiting a while and finding that the little cook wouldn't acknowledge him,
the broad, burly man walked away sheepishly.
A short while later, a phone was tossed through the window into A Luo's lap.
A Luo picked it up and saw that its screen was lit, displaying an unread text message.
"The phone's payment for the food!"
A Luo thought for a moment, vaguely recalling that she had seen a similar phone in Shalnark's hands before.
She had only just put the phone away when two more things were thrown through the window in quick succession.
A Luo picked them up to take a look.
What had landed in the kitchen was a dazzling ruby and a lovely outfit in a style similar to Machi's.
And outside the window?
She could faintly hear Shalnark and Phinks arguing.
Was all of this the Spiders' payment for their meals?
The little cook happily put away what the Spiders grandly called their meal payments, then grabbed her spatula and got to work.
She couldn't help it. She had eaten so little that morning that, if she hadn't been trying to save face, she would already have started making lunch long ago.
Being hungry really was miserable!
Now that the Spiders had given her a way to back down gracefully, A Luo naturally chose to quit while she was ahead!
This time, however, she had learned her lesson from the morning. Instead of sending the dishes out one at a time, she set all the finished food on the stovetop, waiting until the end to carry everything out together.
And so, everyone-mainly A Luo-thoroughly enjoyed lunch this time!
Before you continue