“Can you help Anna find a seat near the window? Thank you, Miss~” A puerile loli voice rang out.
Even though the inside of the maid cafe was crowded and bustling, Bai Ji felt that time had suddenly stopped, as the surrounding air had grown so thick it was suffocating her.
‘Nooooooooooo! T-The witch has arrived!’
Whoosh. The ahoge on her head shot up. With her hands speedily covering her head, Bai Ji tremblingly adopted a fetal position, seemingly at a loss on what to do.
“Oh?” Anna seemed to have noticed something, as she looked towards a certain spot near the back of the store.
‘…Well, guess it was just my imagination.’
“Is something the matter, Miss Anna?” A menu in her arms, Blue stared at the direction where Anna had directed her gaze towards, but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Blue-chan, I’ll have to bother you to lead the way.”
“Mhm! I shall trouble Master to follow Blue closely then~”
*Gulp*
The sound of someone swallowing their saliva resounded.
“Uhm, White-chan? What’s the matter? Are you hurt somewhere?” The sight of the trembling silver-haired figure hiding under the table cloth greatly bewildered the fat teenager, causing him to ask that question in what he believed to be a very considerate manner.
‘S-Shut up, you fat otaku! Give me a bit of silence…’
Bai Ji buried her head in her chest and carefully listened to the chaotic footsteps for the light ‘dud, dud’ sounds that were gradually fading into the distance.
Once she was certain that the footsteps had completely faded away, she raised her head out of the table cloth and looked around before her gaze finally caught sight of the petite silver figure situated near one of the glass windows.
The silver lining was that there was some distance away between her and that spot.
Bai Ji heaved a sigh of relief and tried her best to calm down her frantically pounding heart.
‘Why… am I so unlucky? All I want to do is to do my job right, so why did that loathsome Anna-bitch who deserves to die by a thousand cuts (A million cuts are reserved for Lilias) appear in this place?’
‘On the bright side, at least that black-hearted, ugly, short, flat-chested, masochistic lolicon (a thousand derogatory words have been censored) devil hasn’t noticed me.’
‘If I were to be captured by that demon, I’d inevitably be tormented and toyed with in public! She might even use her identity as a ‘customer’ to toy with me by giving me instructions. I must definitely not be caught by such an evil person or give her any leverage over my dark history.’
Bai Ji looked around, ignoring the fat otaku whose face was filled with confusion. Fixing her gaze at the root of all evils, she was looking for a weakness and an opportunity to exploit her defense.
‘Excellent! Blue is obstructing this demon’s line of sight by coming to her table and taking her orders. If I don’t take this chance to slip away now, when will another one arise?’
Making use of the time that Anna’s attention was completely focused on the menu, Bai Ji scuttled out from under the tablecloth with lightning speed. Like a white flash of light, she speedily covered her head with the menu and fled into the kitchen.
“Huff, huff…” Bai Ji incessantly panted heavily as she pressed her body against the door.
“Mhm? Has White-chan returned after receiving an order slip? You must have been exhausted, right?” Green walked towards her with a slight smile and handed her a cup of hot tea.
“Huff, huff… Thank you, Miss Green.” Bai Ji received the hot tea and took a sip. Even though its taste wasn’t great, the tea leaves were hardly poor in quality – probably a commoner’s tea of above-average quality. Even so, the upbringing she was given ensured that the emotions she felt were not overtly put on display.
She reckoned the problem lay in the fact that vampire royalty were very picky eaters. Normally she dared to eat anything and everything that was edible to her, with the worst moment being that time she was surviving on grass roots and river water.
“Thank you Miss Green. I’m not really that thirsty. If I may be so bold as to ask, could you tell me when lunchtime will begin?” Asked Bai Ji as she soundlessly placed the teacup to the side.
“Eeeh? Are you hungry, White?”
“Mhm.”
‘I’m not hungry at all. I just want to use the excuse of lunchtime to legitimately slack off in the kitchen and evade the demon currently eating her meal, that’s all. Besides, I don’t eat anything other than fresh blood.’
“I see. It’s still too early for lunchtime. After all, the store has just opened. If White-chan is hungry, I have some pastries over here. You can have some if you’re running on an empty stomach.”
A feeling of despair instantly overcame Bai Ji as she heard that.
“…On second thought, forget it. I’m not that hungry.” The sight of buttery pastries placed on the table made her feel extremely apprehensive.
Experiencing food that humans and other living beings consume through vampire tastebuds was a completely different feeling, with food that tasted sweet being bitter in taste.
Even though they could still be categorized as ‘edible’, it was impossible to vouch for their taste…
Her body went through a series of uncontrollable trembling once more as she reached that conclusion.
Bai Ji wasn’t fond of buttery cakes. To be precise, neither was Ji Bai— The ultimate reason being that she had been incessantly force-fed all sorts of buttery cakes while tied to a chair by a certain short, maldeveloped and ugly demon under the guise of ‘punishment for misbehaving’.
What had originally been sweet butter had taken on a completely different taste in Bai Ji’s mouth.
If one were to ask her to put it into words, she’d question if they had eaten something that tasted both salty and tart, combined with being bitter, thick and sticky and if they had the sensation of having those tastes fill their mouth.
The utterly unsightly devil even had an evil smile on her face as she mercilessly shoved white, thick and sticky cream into the crammed mouth of a miserable loli who could only moan pitifully in response.
‘Let’s move on, I can’t bear to recall them again…’
“White-chan?”
“…Ah? Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts.”
“Are you okay? Your complexion looked really bad just now…” Asked Green with concern.
Bai Ji shook her head like a rattle drum.
“I see… If everything is fine, the Master on Table 9 wants to order. Blue, Ke’er and Black are still busy, so…” Spoke Green in an euphemistic tone.
“A-Ah. Alright, I got it.”
‘As I thought, slacking off isn’t allowed here…’
Bai Ji slowly walked out of the kitchen in small steps while covering her face with a large menu.
‘She can’t see me, she can’t see me…’
She secretly shot a glance at the area near the window from behind the menu.
‘Great~, that little devil is currently playing on her IPad, she’s even put her earphones on!’
With quick steps, she ran towards Table 9.
“Sorry for the long wait, Master. What do you need?” Bai Ji tried her utmost to conceal her emotions and passed the menu to the customer.
Her heart was in turmoil as the customer flipped through the menu, with every minute feeling like a day to her. Her fingers were coiled together in silent chant, as she desperately wished to be as inconspicuous as a blade of grass.
“Alright, is that it? Thank you~” Taking back the menu, Bai Ji scurried toward the kitchen as if she was fleeing from something.
”Bang!” After which, she magnificently collided with a figure which was in a similar hurry.
“Ugh… W-Who-?”
“Uuu? ~Benefactor-chan?~” With a head that was seemingly made out of iron, Blue didn’t seem to be hurt as she simply tilted it to the side and directed her puzzled gaze at Bai Ji, who had been knocked into a corner. The latter was currently covering her forehead with her hands.
‘Darn it! It’s this dumb dog again! If I’m discovered, what-…’
Her gaze suddenly turned towards the glass window.
“Eehh?” Only to find that the spot had been deserted.
‘Could she have possibly gone to the toilet?…’
“Little doggy, where did the customer sitting at the glass window go? That ugly monstrosity that is short, old and maldeveloped.”
“Eeeh?” Blue raised her eyes upwards in shock.
“? Hello, I’m asking you a question?” Bai Ji slightly knitted her brows.
“Pah.” Out of nowhere, someone patted her shoulders from behind.
“Oh dear~ I’m really sorry for being short, old and maldeveloped…”