Night had draped itself over the lower districts of Little Garden's Eastern Block.
Compared to No Name's crumbling old manor — so stingy with lamp oil that the place was swallowed whole in darkness — Suke's newly completed ivory-white courtyard blazed like a luxury villa sitting across the street from an Indian shantytown.
"Ahhh~"
Suke sank contentedly into a wool sofa. On the low table before him sat a plate of freshly sliced Stardew Valley melon.
Little Garden was a region with its own peculiar rules, and until he was properly prepared, he wasn't about to go opening doors at random — though he privately suspected that "The Land of Return," given its divine standing, was probably not subordinate to whatever "Land of Return" Little Garden could claim as its own.
Still, better safe than sorry. What if that gateway connecting the two worlds happened to resonate with the divine nature shared by Yuki and the gods and buddhas already present in Little Garden?
So he planned to first bring over some of the others — those without any divine or sacred essence — and run a few tests. Boss Mabel was obviously excluded. He genuinely feared she would go berserk and tear the whole place apart.
Abigail had already gone upstairs to sleep. The little imp had come back downstairs after her bath deliberately wearing a gauzy, see-through nightgown, clearly angling for something — but Suke had spent the entire time absorbed in arranging furniture, every bit as obsessively single-minded as one of those dedicated builders in a certain sandbox game.
So Little Abi had sulked her way back to her room to sleep. There wasn't much else to do anyway, and having been briefly possessed by Boss Mabel today had genuinely drained her.
Of course, even so, she'd left her door wide open — perhaps hoping Suke might sneak in during the night and do something to her.
From outside the window, in the direction of the No Name grounds not far away, there came periodic crashing sounds, as though a demolition crew had gotten loose. Every now and then, Black Rabbit's voice rang out, tinged with worry — the three newly arrived "Problem Children" were probably up to something.
Suke had no intention of going over to join in.
Neighborly relations, after all, were best preserved with a certain comfortable distance.
Then heavy dragging sounds echoed from the corridor just outside his door, accompanied by the dull thud of something bumping against the steps.
"Hey there, neighbor. Still up?"
The headphone girl's grinning face appeared pressed against the floor-length glass window, a half-finished can of Joja Cola dangling from one hand.
Suke glanced sideways and immediately spotted the two "dead dogs" she was dragging behind her — a pair of beefy, beast-man-adjacent muscle heads, currently rolling their eyes back in their skulls, faces swollen so badly their own mothers wouldn't have recognized them.
They were, if he recalled correctly, the cannon-fodder thugs from Little Garden's original storyline — the ones who'd shown up at the start to pick a fight with No Name and gotten casually kicked to death like roadside garbage by the three Problem Children. Suke vaguely remembered them, but not by much.
"Still up. What are you doing?"
"Just passing by. Taking out some trash while I'm at it."
Izayoi jerked a thumb toward the two behind her, her tone as breezy as if she were describing having tossed a crumpled piece of paper into a bin.
"These guys claimed to be from some community called 'Galdo' or whatever — came around to collect on some ancient debt, trying to force us into a Gift Game."
"I figured they must have crossed through the plot of land your community assigned to you on their way over, so I thought I'd at least give you a heads-up. Helped them square things away while I was at it."
Kudou Asuka and Kasukabe You trailed in behind her, not a speck of dust on either of them — which made it abundantly clear that when Izayoi actually applied herself, these kinds of small-fry were never going to pose any real threat to No Name.
This had been a completely one-sided slaughter. Even in the early chapters of the story, Izayoi casually operated near the four-digit tier — and that was when she was coasting. When she wasn't slacking off, the numbers got considerably worse for her opponents.
"Throw them somewhere far away. I hate furries."
Suke waved a lazy hand and tossed over two gold-quality star melons. Under Little Garden's mechanics, fruit that could directly restore both Health and MP had already been classified as a kind of "Gift":
"Nothing else going on, don't come disturbing my rest. I'm the only adult male in this entire group, after all — don't want you accidentally seeing something not suitable for minors."
"Heh, I don't really mind. I've been raised like a boy my whole life~"
"If you ever decide to make a move on Black Rabbit one day, give me a shout — I'll at least come watch and cheer from the sidelines~"
Izayoi shrugged. Behind her, Kudou Asuka's eye twitched at the corner, while Kasukabe You clearly had no idea what either of them was talking about.
Still, the three Problem Children were surprisingly cooperative about it. Catching the melons now classified as "Gifts," Izayoi flashed Suke a wide grin, then dragged her unrepentant cargo off into the night.
Watching this lively group of girls disappear into the distance, Suke sank back onto the sofa and thought, with some feeling: *youth really is something else.*
Those three had adapted fast.
Though...
Shiroyasha — that ancient loli — had taken over the job of finding the Junimos. An intelligence network wasn't the kind of thing you could rush.
But No Name really was embarrassingly destitute.
He was just a neighbor right now, sure — but if the neighbor across the way was perpetually broke, with bare walls and not even clean water to drink, they'd inevitably end up mooching off him sooner or later.
*Give a man a fish, or teach a man to fish.*
He was mulling it over — whether he should try to till a few plots of farmland in this area for No Name to cultivate. He'd already tested it back in Salem: Stardew Valley crops had an absurdly fast growth cycle, nothing in the natural world came close. And here in Little Garden, they had already been classified as a variety of "Gift" as well.
Best case scenario, he might even be able to establish a branch farm here, let No Name's members do the planting, and take a cut from the harvest.
A true win-win.
"But before all that..."
Suke smiled faintly, his gaze drifting toward a patch of shadow in the corner of the living room.
"You've been watching for quite a while now. Aren't you tired?"
The shadow gave a slight tremor — and then went utterly, deathly still.
Suke didn't rush. He'd taken to carrying the Shepherd's Crook on him at all times, and now he gave a light flick of his fingertip. An invisible weight descended and blanketed that corner of the room in an instant.
"Since we're neighbors, the proper and polite thing to do is walk through the front door and sit down for a visit — not skulk around in the shadows like this."
*Thump!*
A soft impact — and a petite figure was launched clean out of the darkness by some irresistible force, dropping to one knee on the floor in a rather undignified heap.
It was a small girl with long hair, dressed in a Gothic black dress. Had Shiroyasha been present, she would have declared with absolute certainty that this was exactly Suke's type.
Golden hair spilled across the floorboards. Those eyes — red as rubies — were written over entirely with shock and incomprehension.
Suke of course recognized her. This was Leticia.
Once the "Vampire King," a former Little Garden Knight, and a onetime member of Arcadia — after the Demon Lord alliance's assault, she had fallen far, reduced to being bought and sold in the lower districts of Little Garden as someone else's "property."
But tonight was a special night. This was her farewell — using every last scrap of freedom remaining to her as payment, she had slipped back one final time to the manor where No Name made their home.
Her original plan had been to go directly to Black Rabbit.
But upon reaching the No Name grounds, she had been drawn to the conspicuous courtyard Suke had just finished building. She had quietly made inquiries, and learned it belonged to No Name's future "neighbor."
She'd wanted to take a look — to see what manner of person this neighbor who had appeared so suddenly at No Name's doorstep actually was. Whether they harbored any ill intentions.
If they meant those children harm, she would make sure to leave Suke a lesson he wouldn't forget before she was gone — even if it cost her everything she had left.
But she hadn't anticipated this at all.
Her operation had ended before it even began.
"I... have no hostile intent."
Leticia bit down on her lower lip, fighting to maintain the dignity of vampire royalty under the weight pressing down on her.
She was small in stature, yes — but the four-digit aura of power and Gift she carried, even diminished as it was, was not something the vast majority of those in the Seven-Digit Outer Gate could simply casually challenge.
And yet the man before her simply regarded her with mild curiosity, the way one might look at a stray tabby that had wandered in through an open door.
"I know you have no hostile intent. If you did, the moment you stepped through that door, you would probably already be dead."
Suke withdrew the gravity and stepped forward with genuine interest, crouching down before the golden-haired girl — fortunately Abi had gone upstairs to rest, otherwise she'd definitely be jealous.
"Let me guess. Your name is Leticia. Former Demon Lord known as the 'Vampire King,' bearer of your clan's legacy, ex-Little Garden Knight, and onetime member of Arcadia?"
"You're about to be sold out of Little Garden, so you're using this last sliver of freedom to come back and see what used to be your home one final time?"
"And to check whether this outsider poses any threat to them?"
*No way. What the—!*
Leticia swallowed hard at his words.
The man looked for all the world like an ordinary person — and yet the invisible pressure radiating off him gave her the constant, unsettling sensation of a mayfly gazing up at the sky. In a certain sense, this man understood her better than she understood herself.
"Yes..."
She stopped pretending. Her gaze met Suke's directly.
"Since you've caught me, kill me or do as you will — but this has nothing to do with No Name. I'm no longer one of their members."
"Kill you? Do I look like some terribly bloodthirsty person to you?"
Suke reached out and, without quite thinking about it, gave that silky golden hair a couple of casual rubs.
*Not bad,* he noted privately. *Soft. Second only to Abigail's.*
"Since we've happened to cross paths, that's fate. And judging by your bearing — you've had some practice with domestic work, haven't you?"
"I happen to be in need of a maid. And you're going back to work as someone's servant anyway — either way, you're working for someone. Why not work for me instead? I'll take care of that community called 'Perseus' that currently holds your ownership."
Leticia went blank.
"...Huh?"
She could hardly believe what she was hearing. Perseus — the community that wielded the Gift known as "Gorgon" — was technically only a six-digit community, but due to a tangle of complicated affiliations, its actual combat power rivaled a five-digit operation.
A single five-digit fighter would already be something — but that was an *entire community.* And in this man's mouth, it had just become... what, exactly?
"Anyway, consider this a job offer. Take your time thinking it over. Because even if you don't come work for me now, sooner or later you'll end up working for me alongside No Name."
Suke rose to his feet — every inch the composed landlord — and delivered his pitch with the easy confidence of a man who already knew the answer:
"So what do you say, little vampire?"
____
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