The soft sound of Evelyn's breathless laughter was still echoing beneath the purple wisteria canopy when a distinct shift in the restaurant's ambient mana caused my processing core to click into high alert. The playful tension on our side of the table evaporated instantly. My mismatched jade-green and crimson eyes darted away from my short sister's laughing face, cutting straight through the dim, dappled shade of the terrace toward the polished oak counter.
A group of four distinct figures had just stepped up to the cashier, their presence immediately drawing the weary, suspicious glances of the remaining Carian patrons.
My heart gave a sudden, powerful thud beneath my white dress, a profound wave of recognition freezing me in my seat. I knew them. I didn't just know them from the chaotic, high-stakes military ledgers of Caria… I knew their souls. They were the secret vanguard of my hidden reality. The small, tightly knit circle of reincarnated beings who had stood with me under the towering stone crucifix of the 7th District Catholic church, sharing the tragic, heroic, and bizarre stories of the lives we had left behind on the modern streets of Earth.
Father Columbia hadn't joined them tonight; the thirty-year-old Vatican preacher was likely still tending to the sanctuary's hidden altars. But the four individuals currently ordering food at the counter were the exact displaced wanderers who knew the truth behind my calcified bone masks and empty sleeves.
Standing at the front of the group was the familiar, cocky brunette young man clad in sturdy, iron-leather vanguard armor. In the official registry of the kingdom, he was legally recognized as Valentine Katt, the youngest son of the prestigious, napalm-wielding Katt bloodline. But within the absolute secrecy of our shared past lives, we called him by his true Earth name: Na Tae-man, the brilliant, hyper-mechanical Seoul MOBA champion who treated the dangerous lower sectors like a tactical mini-map and who had earnestly confessed his love to me over a two-straw milkshake in this very booth.
Right beside him stood the other three souls Tae-man had successfully dragged out of their routine lives to join our sanctuary:
Miss Karrie: The professional, exceptionally strict former combat coordinator from the Sisiphon Magic Academy, who back on Earth had been an ordinary corporate office worker before a sudden, terrifying bolt of lightning violently claimed her life during a rainstorm.
Joy: The petite, golden-furred beastkin maid with vibrant amber eyes and a plush tail, whose current adorable appearance hilariously contradicted her past Earth identity as Muhammad, a rugged, hardworking guy from Delhi, India, who had been tragically run over by a speeding truck.
Garret Pink: The aloof, intensely dignified top student of Room 1-B who manipulated liquid mercury-like metal, known back on Earth as Kang Chul-yeong… a Pyongyang citizen who had suffered through the brutal scarcity of North Korea before stepping onto a hidden military landmine during a desperate border escape.
Evelyn, noticing the sudden, absolute silence radiating from my folded crimson wings, paused her squirming. Her sharp jade-green eyes followed my intense gaze toward the counter, her mouth opening slightly as she recognized the iron-leather armor of the teenage vanguard.
"Wait… Big sister... isn't that...?"
"Yes, Evelyn," I murmured, my voice dropping back into a soft, focused whisper. My mismatched jade-green and crimson eyes remained absolutely locked on the counter, my silver hair shifting slightly as my folded crimson wings went perfectly still against my spine.
Elias, who had been lazily leaning back on his bench, immediately picked up on the sudden tactical shift on our side of the table. His sharp eyes darted from me to Evelyn, his brow furrowing as he noticed my intense stare.
"Weird Eyes, Slime Girl... where the hell are you two staring at now?" Elias grumbled, his overprotective brother instincts instantly flaring up again as his hand instinctively twitched near his duster.
I didn't answer him. Instead, my high-tier sensing arrays and sharp, evolved hearing focused entirely on the four figures standing by the polished oak counter. The bustling noise of the 7th District seemed to fade into a dull hum as their voices carried across the terrace.
They weren't speaking Alatist, the native tongue of Caria. They were speaking fluent, effortless English… the foreign, forbidden language of a world away. To Elias and Elicia, it would sound like a bizarre, clicking dialect of backwater nomads. But to me, the words were crystal clear, striking my processing core with the familiar cadence of home.
Na Tae-man was the first to speak, leaning casually against the counter as he grabbed a freshly fried golden potato wedge from a basket, tossing it into his mouth with a satisfied grin.
"Hey, these fries are no joke, they're high quality, Tastes like actual fast food from back home."
Joy twitched her golden, plush ears, her vibrant amber eyes scanning the wisteria canopy and the cozy, shaded terrace before looking back at Tae-man with a knowing, teasing smirk.
"So this is where Roxanne and you went on a date, How magnificent. Quite a romantic choice for a couple of displaced souls." Joy remarked, her plush golden tail swishing lightly behind her maid uniform.
Tae-man's face instantly flushed a vivid, bright crimson color, his gamer bravado completely shattering under the beastkin's teasing.
"Shut up, Muhammad! What a grown man's name to have in a cute cat-girl body! Don't ruin the immersion, man!" he snapped back in a frantic, embarrassed English whisper, crossing his arms over his iron-leather armor.
Miss Karrie let out a soft, elegant sigh, adjusting her posture with the grace of a former academy professor as she took her chilled milkshake glass from the cashier.
"And I haven't heard from Roxanne in a while, The last time we met her at the sanctuary was two months ago. I think she's just been incredibly busy with her high-stakes bounty hunting operations."
Beside her, Kang Chul-yeong… or Garret Pink, as the academy knew him… kept his expression characteristically cold and composed. He adjusted his gloves, his sharp eyes narrowing as he lowered his voice to a whisper that vibrated with intense, tactical urgency.
"Roxanne... or should I say, Eirene Rynd? Just earlier today, high-level administrative intelligence leaked from the inner districts. She was officially revealed to be a vampire… a literal demon race anomaly. The rumors say she's actively roaming the capital lands right now under some kind of extreme military lock."
Tae-man froze mid-bite, his golden-crimson eyes widening like dinner plates as his South Korean gamer brain processed the ultimate fantasy trope. A massive, ecstatic grin broke across his face.
"Roxanne is a demon?! A high-tier, blood-winged vampire queen?! Bro, that is another absolute jackpot! My romance light-novel quest line just leveled up to a whole new tier!"
I pulled my gaze away from the counter and looked directly back at Elias, my face instantly locking into its familiar, chillingly calm deadpan. My massive crimson blood wings gave one quiet, rhythmic fold against my spine, settling into complete immobility.
"Nothing," I whispered to him, my voice completely smooth and devoid of any tactical urgency.
Elias narrowed his sharp jade-green eyes, looking between me and the counter with a deeply suspicious, heavily unconvinced grunt.
"Right. 'Nothing.' You and Slime Girl look like you're tracking a high-tier assassination target, and you expect me to believe it's nothing? I'm watching you, Weird Eyes."
While he grumbled, the restaurant terrace behind us had undergone a massive logistical shift. The 7th District entertainment hub was in its absolute prime now that the sun had fully set. Within the last minute, a massive wave of off-duty knights, wealthy merchants, and local Carian patrons had completely swarmed the establishment, filling every single wooden table and shaded wisteria booth to maximum capacity. The ambient noise of clinking tankards and loud laughter filled the air.
As Na Tae-man, Miss Karrie, Joy, and Chul-yeong finished picking up their large baskets of golden-fried potato wedges and frosty, chilled milkshakes from the cashier, they turned around to find a completely packed restaurant. They scanned the crowded terrace, desperately searching for any available space to sit, until their eyes inevitably landed on the very edge of the terrace.
The only open space left in the entire establishment was the massive, extra-large rustic wooden booth where the four Rynd siblings were currently sitting.
Holding their food platters, the small group of Earthly souls began walking directly toward our table, planning to ask if they could share the vacant benches. Na Tae-man led the way, his iron-leather vanguard armor clanking softly as his golden-crimson eyes scanned the table.
But as they drew closer, stepping right beneath the dappled purple canopy of the wisteria vines, the ambient light shifted. The heavy, tattered cloak I usually used to hide my identity was completely unbuttoned, draped loosely over the bench. My pale, scarred face, my silver hair, and my unmistakable, striking mismatched jade-green and crimson eyes were fully exposed to the warm lantern light.
Na Tae-man stopped dead in his tracks. His jaw dropped instantly, his gamer reflexes freezing as his eyes locked directly onto my unmasked silhouette. The heavy basket of golden fries in his hands tilted slightly as his brain completely short-circuited, recognizing the exact, enigmatic bounty hunter he had been frantically discussing just a second ago.
"Roxanne?" Tae-man blurted out in a stunned, breathless English whisper, his face instantly flushing that familiar, bright crimson color as his light-novel delusions collided violently with reality.
Because Tae-man blurted out my Earth name in fluent, modern English, Elias and Elicia just blinked, his dramatic exclamation sailing right over their heads like standard foreign gibberish. Elias narrowed his eyes at the teenage vanguard, his overprotective brother sensors violently pinging, but before he could bark an interrogation, Elicia's eyes went wide.
Her gaze shifted past Tae-man's frozen, crimson-faced form and locked onto the elegant woman standing right behind him.
"Miss Karrie?!" Elicia gasped, her strict principal persona instantly melting into genuine academic surprise.
Karrie's professional referee composure fractured for a fraction of a second before she offered a polite, respectful bow, her eyes darting subtly to me before addressing her former boss.
"Principal Elicia! What an unexpected honor to run into you here in the 7th District. It is very nice to meet you. The restaurant is entirely packed, and... well, my friends and I were hoping we could share this large table with you, if it isn't an administrative intrusion?"
"Oh, of course! Sure, please join us! Since we are all off-duty, there's no need for academy protocols tonight."
The group moved in to occupy the table, and the seating arrangement immediately triggered a hilarious logistical deadlock. Na Tae-man, completely driven by his textbook light-novel protagonist instincts, swiftly slid into the booth on our side, planting his iron-leather armored self right next to me. He sat so close I could feel the heat radiating off his blushing face, his golden-crimson eyes staring at my fanged, unmasked profile in absolute, starstruck awe. Meanwhile, Miss Karrie slid into the opposite bench directly next to Elicia, immediately engaging the silver-haired principal in a quiet, dignified conversation about her sudden resignation.
With the benches now fully occupied by the older siblings, the academy scholars, and the chaotic younger sisters, the table reached its maximum parameter limits.
There was absolutely no room left. Kang Chul-yeong and Joy were left standing awkwardly in the aisle, holding their baskets of golden-fried potato wedges under the curious glances of the Carian patrons.
Tae-man's gamer brain ran a quick tactical calculation. Looking to his left, he saw his legendary, blood-winged vampire crush sitting right beside him; looking to his right, he saw a North Korean landmine survivor and a grown Indian man in a cute cat-girl body threatening to completely obliterate the romantic aesthetic of his "main-quest date."
He cleared his throat roughly, leaning across the table and shooting the two standing souls a frantic, highly aggressive glare as he hissed at them in fluent, hurried English.
"Hey, guys, do NOT ruin the reputation right now, I am officially handing a takeout order to both of you. Take your fries, take your milkshakes, and return to the sanctuary immediately! I don't want to see either of you interrupting our literal night date with your weird background commentary. Go on, shoo!"