Chapter 327: Excuse Me, Are You a "Gentleman"?
As time stepped into November, for the ghouls of Tokyo, today was undoubtedly a day worth celebrating.
It could be called a ray of light in their lives, an incredible miracle—the Culinary Sage was returning to Tokyo to run his restaurant! Their happiness had returned!
The first of the month fell on a Monday, which was both a workday and a school day.
Countless ghouls who had integrated into human society coincidentally took leave, and Kirishima Touka was one of them!
8:59 AM.
Nerima Ward, Tokyo, inside a single-person apartment—
Although she had taken the day off, Kirishima Touka had still habitually changed into her JK uniform.
She sat in a W-sitting position in front of the coffee table in the living room, her black-and-red kakugan fixed intently on the phone screen. She was completely focused, her breathing slowing significantly.
In the quiet living room, only the tick-tock, tick-tock of the alarm clock's second hand could be heard.
Finally—
The longest hand swept past the last notch, and the time hit nine o'clock!
With eyes and hands as swift as lightning, Kirishima Touka tapped open a certain shop with an ultra-fast hand speed of 0.1 seconds and rapidly reserved a seat in the "Counter Area."
When the notification "Reservation Successful" popped up, she couldn't help but be overjoyed and cheered, "I got a reservation!"
Click—!
Kirishima Touka manually took a screenshot and sent it to a certain rebellious little brother, appending a "Cartoon Rabbit Peace Sign" sticker at the end.
Kirishima Ayato replied instantly—
Black Rabbit: "Take me with you!"
The corners of Kirishima Touka's lips curled up, her scallion-white fingers tapping rapidly on the phone screen—
[White Rabbit]: "Can't do it. I booked a counter seat this time. Maybe next time."
Black Rabbit: "Cartoon Rabbit is furious and roars: 'Get lost!' .jpg!"
Chiyoda Ward, inside a hotel room—
"Ooh—! Such good luck! I got a reservation!"
Still in bed, Hairu Ihei, wrapped in her quilt and lying on her stomach, looked at the message popping up on her phone, her eyes lighting up instantly.
She was a loyal fan of the Culinary Sage's dessert shop and had always wanted to have a meal at the restaurant—unfortunately, she had been a bit busy during that time, and by the time she was free, the Culinary Sage had run off to Hokkaido.
Today, her wish could finally be fulfilled!
Hairu Ihei was very happy!
She opened the menu and looked through it item by item.
"...The menu seems to have been updated?"
She noticed quite a few dishes had a "(New)" suffix behind them.
"What a pity..."
She hadn't even tasted the dishes that had been replaced.
But immediately, curiosity and anticipation for those new items arose.
Unknowingly, Hairu Ihei added quite a few items to her shopping cart.
When she reached the "Specialty" section—
Her gaze almost instantly landed on a new item named "Golden Open-Mouth Laugh" (Golden Sesame Ball).
Meanwhile, inside the dessert kitchen at Stardew Valley Ranch—
Ryohei was busy working alongside Yusa and Pino.
Although the ranch had stopped accepting tourists, the dessert shop was still open, so the dessert kitchen here was still in use.
"We're low on 'Lemon Syrup'."
Ryohei scooped a few spoonfuls of "Lemon Syrup" into the lemon tart filling Yusa was making to enhance the flavor, commenting as he looked at the nearly empty glass container.
"I have some more over at my place."
Yusa put the filling into a pot to heat over a water bath. She picked up a spoon and stirred slowly while answering softly.
"Is it over at the apartment?"
Ryohei put the "Lemon Syrup" back in its place and asked casually.
"No, in the dorm here." Yusa tilted her head, looked at Ryohei with a gentle expression, and pointed her slender white finger toward the staff dormitory outside the window.
"Then go get it later."
"Okay."
Pino, who was kneading dough and had witnessed their entire conversation, couldn't help but narrow her eyes halfway, look over, and retort:
"This is completely shady business! If this gets exposed, it will absolutely cause a huge uproar!"
"Aha—! Indeed!"
Ryohei laughed, agreeing deeply.
"Your reputation will plummet, and your public image will collapse," she continued.
"And then the price will go up."
Ryohei retorted instantly.
"Huh?" Pino was dumbfounded upon hearing this. She blinked her pale purple eyes and asked strangely, "You still want to raise the price after that?"
"Of course."
Ryohei spouted nonsense with a straight face. "There are many 'gentlemen' in Japan. In their eyes, a girl's urine isn't urine—it's 'Golden Holy Water'!"
"What's more, the Ice Tribe's urine is literally lemon syrup. That's an advantage other girls don't have!"
Ryohei waved his hand, boasting, "As long as I publish Yusa's information, raising the price tenfold won't be a problem!"
"—!"
Pino's eyes widened in disbelief immediately. She was greatly shocked, and even her hand kneading the dough stopped.
"Don't publish it! I don't want to be famous in that way!"
Yusa patted Ryohei's shoulder reproachfully and added, "Besides... Ryohei-kun, doing that would be somewhat fraudulent!"
"Hmm..."
Ryohei thought of the other provider of "Lemon Syrup" and chuckled lightly. "True, can't argue with that!"
He walked to the double-door refrigerator, opened it, and took out a block of butter. "But if you don't say anything, and I don't say anything, who will know?"
"You always say I'm pink on the outside but black on the inside, but I see you have quite a few wicked ideas yourself, Boss."
The pink-haired angel kneaded the dough, narrowing her eyes halfway as she looked at Ryohei.
"What wicked ideas! I'm just seeking welfare for the vast number of gentlemen!"
Ryohei waved his hand with a look of righteous indignation, speaking as if it were the truth.
"A phrase suddenly came to mind—read as 'Gentleman', written as 'Pervert'!" Yusa took the semi-finished filling, heated to 83°C over water, out of the pot and spoke airily.
"As long as you understand it in your heart, you don't need to say it out loud." Ryohei waited for her to release cold air to slowly lower the filling temperature to 60°C, then put the butter block into the container.
"Is Ryohei-kun a gentleman?"
At this moment, Yusa looked sideways with a smile.
Ryohei was stumped by her question. He uttered an "Uh," looked up at the sky, and sighed, "You make it very hard for me to answer!"
"..." The corners of Yusa's mouth rose silently, rippling into a smile.
~~~
Get early access to 20+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
~~~
Every 5 new reviews = 1 extra chapters
Every 150 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter