Although Lancer sometimes liked to be reckless, he wasn't an idiot.
Since he took out the thing in his hand, he knew how important it was. But what he didn't expect was to meet Yoshimura.
His original plan was to slowly lure the people of the Anteiku cafe with the Fueguchi mother and daughter as bait and evidence, but now... he had skipped the middle and gone directly to the last step, so it was no wonder he was nervous.
But it was clear that Yoshimura didn't care about Lancer. Although Lancer had hunted down several S-rank ghouls and had recently been promoted to 'First Class Investigator,' with his strength, weren't First Class Investigators just minnows?
He was more concerned about the thing in Ryōko Fueguchi's hand.
"Fueguchi, is what you said true? After you ate that thing just now... you're not hungry anymore?"
To hide his identity, Yoshimura's voice was a bit low, which made Ryōko Fueguchi not recognize Yoshimura at all (everyone in the Anteiku district knew that the manager was a ghoul, but not many knew he was the Owl). But after glancing at Touka Kirishima and seeing her nod, she also nodded at Yoshimura.
Immediately, an astonishing aura erupted from the other person.
As a ghoul who was rated as an SSS-rank, Yoshimura's lifelong pursuit was for the ghoul race to be able to continue normally, but unfortunately, he was strong enough but still unable to change the 'rules.' But with this thing in front of him, it was different!
Although the 'Corpse Collector' like them was not the majority, a large portion of the ghouls who hunted humans were also just 'trying to survive.' If they were given a new possibility to survive, who would want to live under the threat of the CCG all day?
"Investigator! You... where did that thing come from?"
Even though Yoshimura tried his best to control his tone, his voice still trembled.
The other person's reaction also made Lancer a little relieved. It was probably a downgrade from a red-level alert to an orange-level one, but the quinque in his hand was still pointing straight at Yoshimura.
"As for the source... it's some 'test products' I got through my personal connections."
Source? Of course, it was from the system. But the problem was, how could he say that? So Lancer simply fabricated a story about it coming from across the sea, but what he didn't expect was that his made-up story seemed to be surprisingly useful.
"Over there? Hmm... that's indeed possible."
Yoshimura wasn't an idiot who would believe whatever Lancer said, but Lancer personal connections? Then it wasn't a CCG thing, right? Connecting that to the other person's identity... Yoshimura suddenly understood. It was indeed possible, after all, the country across the sea was famous for being a country of foodies.
Although they were also ghouls, they were completely suppressed in that country and couldn't cause any trouble. And with that country's pursuit of 'food,' it wasn't impossible for them to develop food that ghouls could eat.
But just as Yoshimura was about to let out a sigh of relief, his heart was lifted by a single sentence from Lancer.
"Let me just say this first, this thing is not a mass-produced product. It's still a laboratory product. To 'create' one right now would probably require the sacrifice of a ghoul's life." Lancer was very curious about what the other person knew, but it was better to let the other person's imagination run wild at a time like this.
Lancer words made Yoshimura's excited mood sink, but he didn't think Lancer was lying to him. After all, if this thing had really been mass-produced, it was impossible that he wouldn't have heard anything. But in any case, the fact that a lab product existed was a good thing. But before he could sigh in relief, there was one more thing he had to confirm.
"I want to try it."
Yoshimura's behavior was undoubtedly very arrogant, but unfortunately, the situation was against him. Could Lancer refuse?
"Aren't you afraid that I'll poison this thing? You are 'Owl,' a wanted SSS-rank ghoul of our CCG~"
Lancer, who pretended to take something out of his briefcase, did not forget to 'act arrogant.' After all, this was in line with his character. It would be abnormal for an investigator to not say a word after being threatened by a ghoul.
But Yoshimura raised his head defiantly in the face of Lancer words.
"If you have the ability to poison me!"
He took the silver sealed package from Lancer hand, tore it open without hesitation, pushed his mask aside, and poured all of it in.
"Crunch~ crunch~"
The chewing sound made everyone present a little nervous, and the mysterious silence after the chewing sound disappeared made everyone's hearts sink, until ————————
"It's actually real?"
Yoshimura's words made Lancer let out a sigh of relief, but he didn't put away his quinque. He knew that the other person would probably not hurt him anymore, but there was one thing he wanted to 'discuss' with the other person.
——————
The next day · CCG 20th Ward Branch · Kureo Mado Office
"Bang~!"
"What did you say?! Owl?!"
Kureo Mado, whose pen was bent and slammed onto his desk, widened his eyes and looked at Lancer. At this moment, his expression was extremely distorted.
"I'm sorry, Lancer, I was a bit emotional. Please continue. I think you must have gone through something when you met Owl, right?"
But maybe he also noticed his own abnormality. After pulling out the pen, he ruffled his hair with one hand, and his expression gradually calmed down, but the trembling of his hand showed that he was not calm at the moment.
And Lancer was not surprised by the other person's reaction. After all, the other person's wife was killed while covering others in the previous 'Owl Extermination Operation,' and even her body was incompletely eaten. Although Lancer knew that that 'Owl' was not the one he knew, the other person's reaction was already much smaller than Lancer had expected.
"The other party wants to cooperate with us."
"Cooperate? Ha?! Owl?! Don't tell me the other party wants us to be his executioners! And you agreed!"
"Mr. Mado."
Even Koutarou Amon, who was on the side, couldn't bear to listen to Kureo Mado words. Although he also knew what the other person had been through, saying such things was a bit hurtful.
"No, it's because of this."
Saying that, Lancer took out the 'emergency food' that he had given to Yoshimura and Ryōko Fueguchi before.
"What is this?"
"Food, food that both ghouls and humans can eat!"
"!!!"
If Kureo Mado was just emotionally out of control before, then now he was truly speechless out of shock.
Food? Food that both humans and ghouls could eat?
"Are you saying that 'Owl' has already mastered the way to produce this food?"
"Not at all. The origin of this thing also seems to be unofficial. The other party doesn't know how to produce it, so he wants to cooperate with our CCG to decipher it."
"Hmm..."
Kureo Mado expression immediately became extremely serious, and Lancer, upon seeing the other person's reaction, let out a sigh of relief.
No matter what the final outcome was, it had nothing to do with him. One of the steps in his 'deal' with Yoshimura before was to have the other person pretend to have obtained this thing by accident. The other person naturally felt strange about this, and Lancer explanation was that the 'origin wasn't quite right.' Although this was undoubtedly making Yoshimura take the blame, he didn't mind taking the blame for the future of ghouls.
So now, even if the CCG were to investigate, it wouldn't be able to connect it to Lancer. As for whether they would be able to successfully research it?
To be honest, Lancer wasn't optimistic about the CCG. Although he still didn't know what the 'system' was, there was no doubt that a 'system' that could stop time was definitely not an ordinary existence. What's more, it could even let him travel between worlds. He suspected that the materials inside this thing probably came from countless worlds.
But what did that have to do with him? His goal was simply to change the relationship between the 'Anteiku cafe' and the CCG.
One was an organization that protected humans, and the other was a rare peaceful coexistence faction among ghouls. What was the benefit of having the two sides fight each other and give opportunities to those crazy killing ghouls? At least, before those extremist ghouls were completely gone, cooperating with the moderate faction was still more beneficial than harmful.
And this 'food' that he didn't know if it would be successful was the link!
Although everything was just a whim, after careful thought, Lancer felt that his move was simply perfect!