"Misses, would you like to consider it?" The smiling maid spoke softly.
Her voice carried an unusual charm, almost as if it could make one's ears 'pregnant.'
The two invited girls felt their heads grow slightly dizzy at that moment, instinctively reaching out to take the flyers.
Seeing this, Luo Shu's expression hardened, a cold laugh forming in his heart.
He glanced at the two girls and was about to step forward when, suddenly, the girl with black hair seemed to snap out of it. She grabbed her friend with the better figure and orange side bangs:
"Hana, weren't we going to find that legendary fortune-teller?"
The girl called Hana regained her senses, casting a slightly fearful glance at the maid before reacting swiftly:
"Ah, right! I heard the legendary fortune-teller closes up at 9. We should hurry."
With that, she gripped her companion's hand and briskly walked toward Luo Shu's direction without a second thought.
"Wait—"
The black-haired maid, snapping out of her daze from the girls' refusal, quickly reached out to stop them.
Just as she extended her hand, she froze abruptly, meeting Luo Shu's gaze.
In an instant.
The maid froze in place, her outstretched hand motionless.
At that moment, the long-haired girl glanced back at the maid and blinked in surprise upon seeing her petrified state.
Simultaneously, a whisper reached her ear.
"Turn right at the alley entrance – there's a police box 30 metres ahead. Just tell them there's a 'Class A incident' and they'll understand."
Miko started, turning to see Luo Shu's impassive profile.
She opened her mouth but said nothing, biting her lip as she quickly led her companion away.
"Wait, Miko, don't run so fast!!"
"Eh? Wasn't there a handsome guy just... hey, stop pulling me~"
"Shut up, Hana!!"
Luo Shu watched the two exit the alley before turning back to the frozen black-haired maid.
"Using mental charm abilities in Akihabara's ability-restricted zone..."
"A stray dog without an owner?"
The black-haired maid stood bewildered, as if she'd forgotten how to speak or move her limbs.
Luo Shu wasn't surprised – after all, he'd been the one to bestow this dementia upon her.
He strolled forward, plucking a flyer from the stack pressed against her chest and right hand. His eyes scanned the contents:
"Tokyo Cat Maid Café?"
Stripping away the garish colours and exaggerated text in his mind, what remained was a geometric pattern resembling a distorted hexagram:
"An unfamiliar technique variant? Newly developed?"
"The function is... a delayed contract? Leaving Akihabara and calling the delivery service number on this flyer activates it?"
As someone unskilled in technique analysis, Luo Shu could only consult the
Mysticism Encyclopaedia, arriving at an unexpected conclusion:
"Wholesale demon contracts?"
"Automatically signed when calling for delivery service, with souls sold to demons upon service completion?"
"Which demon faction would be this stupid?"
Luo Shu examined the flyer with a peculiar expression, muttering:
"Surely Truth Astronomy aren't this foolish?"
Among mystic organisations dealing with demons, none was more notorious than Europe's Truth Astronomy.
But even they weren't complete idiots.
Mass-distributing soul-devouring demon contracts in Akihabara's Abyss Artefact trading hub – regulated by the UN Security Council's permanent members – was like selling opium outside a police station.
If you wanted to die, there were easier ways.
"Must be a stray then."
Luo Shu's preliminary judgement was clear – only an unaffiliated, lone-wolf amateur without basic sense would attempt something even professionals found inexplicable.
Such strays held little interest for him – certainly far less than the two girls who'd just departed.
"Though the technique's effects are suppressed within Akihabara's barrier, that Hana girl resisted the charm interference rather well... unusual."
"And that Miko girl was peculiar too – only looked at my profile, never made eye contact..."
"Two potential Familia candidates?"
Having already deduced the outcome from the prompt in his mind, Luo Shu wasn't particularly surprised by the two girls' peculiarities.
Though his original intention had been to help them resolve their troubles, the fact that they'd managed to extricate themselves didn't come as a shock either.
Female protagonists having some special traits is perfectly normal.
What puzzled Luo Shu more was how he'd ended up encountering such a situation himself.
Narrowing his eyes, Luo Shu pinched the demon flyer between his fingers and began divining whether someone was manipulating events behind the scenes.
He quickly discerned the words "Tokyo Cat Maid Café" and glimpsed a grotesque figure lurking beneath the café – a bare-breasted young woman with the lower body of a spider.
—Lost Demon!
The term surfaced naturally in Luo Shu's consciousness.
It was his Mysticism Encyclopaedia that alerted his spiritual perception.
Luo Shu's brow furrowed instantly, as the description of a Lost Demon reminded him of something particular.
"I want to divine the master of this Lost Demon!"
Following this aberration, he extended his perception further, attempting to uncover the entity behind the creature.
Yet his divination yielded no response whatsoever.
"Now this is interesting."
The corners of Luo Shu's mouth gradually curled upwards.
"If I recall correctly, Lost Demons always have masters – whether living or dead, there's invariably someone behind them."
"But right now, I can't divine its master at all."
Luo Shu's expression grew contemplative:
"On one hand, we have someone distributing demon flyers in Akihabara alleyways – something no mystic side practitioner with basic common sense would do."
"On the other hand, there's Demigod Rank interference obscuring the Encyclopaedia's divination."
"Targeting me? Or perhaps the Hidden Management Department itself?"
Luo Shu couldn't be certain, but one thing was clear – this flyer was likely bait.
Though admittedly, it seemed rather clumsy bait for something orchestrated by a Demigod-level existence.
"So, eliminating accidents and impossibilities... could this be subordinates acting independently?"
At this conjecture, Luo Shu felt slightly less confident.
No way, could they really be this unlucky?
The thought of a long-hidden mystic side expert, possessing Demigod Rank divination interference abilities, confident in their flawless plan, only to be personally caught by him, the SDS Director, because of their subordinates acting on their own.
This injustice... even Luo Shu couldn't help shaking his head.
"So, the calamity scent I just smelled was because of this?"
Not because calamity was spreading, but because Luo Shu had arrived here, and someone was about to encounter calamity—that's why he smelled it?
"If that's really the case, then this could be interesting..."
As Luo Shu muttered to himself, six uniformed patrol officers appeared in two groups at both ends of the alley.
The Special Operations Team stationed at the police box had arrived.