The morning started suspiciously well.
Which, of course, meant it was destined to go horribly wrong.
No flaming bread. No goblins trying to break into the cash register. No Sister standing in the doorway smirking at my suffering. Even Spicy, miracle of miracles, was curled up in a basket snoring softly instead of torching the toaster.
Naturally, this worried me more than if chaos had already started.
By lunchtime, the restaurant was buzzing.
Adventurers had started treating my place as a pre-dungeon pit stop. Slimes, goblins and even the occasional armored knight were seated alongside average townsfolk. Mirae worked the grill like an artist. The Goblin Coupon Gang was running around in stolen waiter uniforms, handing out menus like their lives depended on it.
It was chaos.
But the kind of manageable chaos I'd almost gotten used to.
And then they walked in.
Three adventurers.
Too clean.
Too polished.
Too quiet.
One with sharp gray eyes and black hair tied neatly back.
One with twin daggers strapped to his thighs, moving like he thought the entire world was out to stab him.
And one with a huge, fake-looking smile plastered across his face.
They sat down together in a corner booth, backs straight, scanning the restaurant like they weren't here to eat at all.
"Welcome to Convenience Plus Burgers!" Coupon the goblin said cheerfully, bowing at ninety degrees.
"Today special: fries that may or may not explode!"
The gray-eyed man didn't blink.
"Just water."
I frowned behind the counter. Who comes into a restaurant and only orders water?
The dagger-guy muttered something under his breath. The smiling one chuckled way too loudly.
Yeah. These guys screamed trouble.
I walked over, tray in hand, trying to keep it casual. "Water for you three?"
"Yes" Gray Eyes said smoothly.
"And... we'd like to ask a few questions."
Ah. There it was. The not-eating, but interrogating anyway part.
"This is a restaurant" I said flatly.
"We serve fries, not answers."
The smiling guy leaned forward, still grinning. "Oh, but we heard this place is... special. That it gets shipments from places ordinary merchants can't reach."
My stomach dropped.
Not customers.
Not adventurers.
Spies.
Before I could answer, chaos decided to intervene.
Spicy waddled out of the kitchen, holding a basket of fries almost as big as his body. "Daddy! Fries done! Spicy help!"
I paled. "No,Spicy, put them..."
WHOOSH.
The fries ignited into a tiny fireball in the basket. The goblins screamed. Adventurers laughed. Mirae buried her face in her hands.
And the three suspicious men? They leaned forward like hawks spotting prey.
The one with daggers hissed under his breath. "That's it. The familiar. He really..."
"Shut up" Gray Eyes snapped, cutting him off. But his gaze stayed locked on Spicy.
Spicy, completely oblivious, proudly set the burning fries down in front of them.
"Eat! Spicy made them!"
The smiling one clapped his hands together. "Ohhh, delightful."
I grabbed Spicy by the scruff of his neck and yanked him back before he could set the whole booth on fire.
My eyes narrowed at the trio.
"Water only, right? Then finish it and leave."
Gray Eyes tilted his head at me, lips curling into the faintest smirk. "Of course. But we'll be back."
And with that, the three left, not touching their water, not touching the fries.
That night, when the restaurant finally closed and Spicy had been tucked into his basket, the Dungeon appeared again.
Its voice was heavier than before. "They came."
I stiffened. "You mean those three clowns with water?"
"They are not... clowns" the Dungeon said slowly. "They are agents. They do not belong to me. They belong to another."
"...Another what?"
The Dungeon's form flickered, almost like it was shivering.
"Another Dungeon."
I sat at the counter in the dim light, staring at Spicy, then at the sleeping goblins, then at Mirae closing up shop in the restaurant side.
"Great" I muttered. "As if running a store wasn't enough, now I've got corporate espionage... from another dungeon."