You're My Goddess of Fortune

"What is the Demon Incantation?"

While Natsuki Minamiya and Tachibana Kirika exchanged looks, Luo Shu lowered his voice and asked Takina Inoue.

Takina Inoue glanced at Luo Shu, thought for a moment, then explained:

"The Demon Incantation refers to special characters that appear in written form on various objects. It is a text-based power used by Demons and Demon Warlocks, and it is highly dangerous."

"Under normal circumstances, objects bearing demonic inscriptions are often danger level two or higher."

After saying that, Takina Inoue suddenly remembered something and asked Luo Shu:

"Do you know about danger levels?"

"Natsuki Minamiya mentioned them on the way here."

Luo Shu answered, finally understanding why Natsuki Minamiya had explained the danger levels of Abyssal Artifacts to him earlier.

But come to think of it, these danger levels seem a little different from the system's tiers, don't they?

The level-two Abyssal Artifact, the Demon Heart, is elite-tier in the system. Does that mean level-one Abyssal Artifacts cover both ordinary and excellent ratings?

While Luo Shu was considering how the ratings corresponded, Tachibana Kirika came out carrying coffee and called to Mika behind the counter:

"Mika, bring them out."

"Got it." Mika, the burly, dark-skinned man behind the counter, took several envelopes out of a cabinet and handed them to Tachibana Kirika.

"Shall we sit over there?" Tachibana Kirika waved the envelopes at Natsuki Minamiya with a smile.

Natsuki Minamiya frowned at her, then headed toward a long table nearby. "You're as much trouble as ever."

"Can I take that as a compliment?" Tachibana Kirika followed with a smile, then called to Luo Shu, Chisato Nishikigi, and Takina Inoue. "You three, come over too."

Luo Shu and Takina Inoue exchanged a glance, then immediately joined them.

Meanwhile, Chisato Nishikigi laced her hands behind her head, looking as though she had seen this coming:

"Looks like we've got more work!"

"To be precise, it's a continuation of our previous work."

Tachibana Kirika explained, then set the envelopes on the table. After sitting down, she looked at Luo Shu, who had also taken a seat.

"Speaking of which, you deserve most of the credit for this, Luo Shu."

"Me?" Luo Shu raised an eyebrow. Just as he was wondering what Tachibana Kirika meant, she reminded him:

"Because you killed that Hound from the Demon Hunters, I was able to extract some information from his brain and track down the jewelry store clerk the Demon Warlock had hypnotized."

Understanding immediately dawned on Luo Shu's face.

He remembered now. Or rather, since it had only happened yesterday, the memory was naturally still fresh.

As he understood it, this was what had happened.

It all began when a Demon Warlock from the Secret Organization Astronomy of Truth entered the country illegally and was ambushed by a Seven-Star Demon Hunter from another Secret Organization, the Demon Hunters.

After their clash, the Demon Warlock was gravely wounded. Before dying, he used the Demon Heart, now in Luo Shu's possession, to hypnotize a female jewelry store clerk and transfer all his belongings to her.

That clerk then sold the Demon Heart to the jewelry store's owner, Mira Tsubakihara, causing her to be tailed by a Hound sent by the Seven-Star Demon Hunter.

Afterward, when Mira Tsubakihara returned home, she asked her neighbor Luo Shu for help, and an unexpected turn of events led to Luo Shu killing the Hound.

With that in mind, Luo Shu immediately understood. "So the things the jewelry store clerk moved included a document bearing a Demon Incantation?"

"That's right. Except it wasn't just one. There was a whole pile."

As Tachibana Kirika spoke, she arranged the envelopes Mika had just handed her in a row, ten in total. Then she propped her chin on one hand and smiled at Natsuki Minamiya.

"Each of these ten letters records the location of a 'transferred' document. Any one of those documents could contain a Demon Incantation."

"So, Natsuki, which one would you like?"

"Quite resourceful, aren't you, Kirika?"

Natsuki Minamiya folded her arms and addressed Tachibana Kirika without the slightest trace of warmth:

"You found the hypnotized clerk before the Metropolitan Police Department and the Onmyoryo, then took all the surveillance footage from the jewelry store and everywhere she went, leaving my people empty-handed. And now you're planning to use this to bargain with me?"

"You're as greedy as ever!"

Well, damn. So that's what happened... Luo Shu finally understood why Tachibana Kirika's smile looked so sly.

As far as he could tell, the Metropolitan Police Department had clearly known about the Demon Warlock's arrival and the Seven-Star Demon Hunter's pursuit from the start.

Through some scheme Luo Shu still knew nothing about, the Metropolitan Police Department had probably used the Seven-Star Demon Hunter to successfully engineer the Demon Warlock's death, then tried to swoop in and take them both out.

The Seven-Star Demon Hunter had clearly noticed the Metropolitan Police Department's ill intentions, however, and deliberately left the Demon Warlock gravely wounded rather than dead, allowing him to send away his Abyssal Artifacts and catch the department off guard.

At that point, the Metropolitan Police Department had its hands full keeping an eye on the Seven-Star Demon Hunter while searching for the Abyssal Artifacts the Demon Warlock had sent out in separate batches, trying to keep the situation from escalating.

Then Tachibana Kirika had unexpectedly entered the picture, taking advantage of Luo Shu's accidental windfall while the Metropolitan Police Department and the Seven-Star Demon Hunter were mutually

keeping each other in check and running themselves ragged. She had seized the opportunity to raid their spoils, securing the locations of everything the Demon Warlock had left behind-a perfect case of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it.

And now that Natsuki Minamiya had come calling after expending considerable effort, even personally taking on that Demon Hunter, Tachibana Kirika had divided everything except the Demon Heart into ten shares to bargain with her. She was clearly looking to take a hefty bite out of the profits.

That was one hell of a play.

Wait, Tachibana Kirika dropped the Lucky Wallet once while taking me home last night. She didn't recover it, but thanks to me, she did confirm its location.

So was this another stroke of enhanced luck?

At that thought, Luo Shu immediately understood how Tachibana Kirika kept stumbling into opportunities like this. She had a luck cheat running!

"The clerk split the documents bearing Demon Incantations into ten batches and sent them to different addresses, then killed herself."

"Fortunately, we still managed to track down all the documents she sent out. And for the sake of our friendship as colleagues!"

"Natsuki, I can offer you a seventy-thirty split."

Tachibana Kirika smiled at the expressionless Natsuki Minamiya. From her tone, she sounded like someone who didn't want to push an old friend too far.

"Seventy for you, thirty for me?" Natsuki Minamiya asked mockingly.

"If that's what you want, I wouldn't object." Tachibana Kirika's smile grew even brighter.

Natsuki Minamiya narrowed her eyes and said calmly, "Fifty-fifty."

"Sixty-forty at most, with forty for me. But I get first pick of the addresses." Tachibana Kirika's expression turned meaningful as she continued:

"We don't know which of these ten contains the suspected level-three threat, but you should know, Natsuki, that we're better equipped to seal Abyssal Artifacts than the Metropolitan Police Department."

Natsuki Minamiya watched Tachibana Kirika through narrowed eyes for a moment, then warned her:

"Fine. But you can only draw randomly from these ten addresses."

"Deal!"

Tachibana Kirika readily agreed, gathered the ten envelopes, and quickly shuffled them.

Then she turned to Luo Shu and said:

"Luo Shu, you draw."

Luo Shu's expression turned odd.

Seeing Luo Shu's awkward expression, Tachibana Kirika looked at him with complete confidence:

"Don't be nervous. Just pick whichever you like. After all, you're my Goddess of Fortune!"

I'm not nervous. I just think you're one devious old lady. You know perfectly well I'll pick the right ones... Luo Shu grumbled inwardly. After a brief pause, he still reached for the envelopes.