The pitch-black buildings formed a sharp contrast with the brightly lit skyscrapers not far away.
The distance between them is not far, but they seem like two completely different worlds.
--Sudden.
Without any reason, just wanting to take another look at the nearby street scene, Kiana lowered her head while flying in mid-air.
"what?"
Her rapidly moving figure suddenly stopped at the top floor of a tall building.
"What's wrong? Kiana."
Kiana did not answer, but looked at the building that should not appear on the outskirts of the town with a somewhat surprised expression.
The coffee shop on the second floor stands out rather abruptly from the street view not far away. The English letters of "Hyperion" are engraved on the sign of the coffee shop.
"Hyperian...café?"
Kiana rubbed her eyes, and after confirming that she was not mistaken, her expression couldn't help but become a little surprised.
"Squad leader, did you see that?"
“…I see.”
The voice in her head said in an inexplicable tone.
The string of letters Hyperion was familiar to both Kiana and the will in her mind.
As Valkyrie members of Himeko's team, they had of course ridden on the Hyperion battleship that belonged directly to Captain Himeko more than once.
When she thought of Himeko, Kiana couldn't help but look a little depressed, but she quickly broke away from her sadness and became quite keenly aware of another problem.
This is the outskirts of Tianqiong City. Logically, all the nearby residents should have moved to the city center long ago.
So why is there a coffee shop opened there so out of the blue?
Moreover, it coincidentally has the same name as the flagship of their Far East branch.
If it was four months ago, she might have thought it was just a coincidence. After all, Hyperion was not originally the name of the Far East Branch, and it was not strange that something else had the same name as Hyperion.
But, at this time, at this place——
"Be careful, Kiana." The figure in Kiana's mind said in a deep voice, "I always feel something is wrong with this cafe."
"Yeah, I feel it too."
In the pitch-black night, the frosted windows of the café emitted a dim light, and all other buildings were dark.
During this special period, when everyone has left the outskirts of the city, only the lights in this cafe are still on, and the name of the cafe is exactly the same as the flagship of the Far East Branch.
trap?
After hesitating for a moment, Kiana jumped off the roof of the building.
"What are you going to do?" the voice in her head asked.
"Go in and take a look. If you see anything wrong, run away immediately." Kiana said, "This cafe is built on the outskirts of Sky City and has the same name as the Hyperion. If my aunt and the others see it, they will definitely go in and take a look."
Her voice suddenly became a little low: "I...can't just leave such an obvious bait alone."
"..." The will in her mind was silent for a moment, and sighed softly, "Be careful, you can use the power of space. No matter what, if you just want to escape, it will be no problem. I will also help you keep an eye on the situation nearby."
"Well, thank you, monitor."
Kiana took a deep breath, walked heavily to the door of the cafe, put her hand on the door handle, and then, after being prepared to face everything, she gently pushed open the door of the cafe.
——In an instant.
Seeing the scene that came into view, Kiana stopped thinking and her head was buzzing.
Under the dim yet gentle orange light, the red-haired boy in white lowered his head slightly, and there was a sticky sound of a deep kiss between him and the "someone" who was blocked by his figure. The rustling sound of fabric rubbing against each other was endless, and the air was filled with the scent of hormones of mutual affection.
It took Kiana half a second to see clearly what was happening in front of her, and another ten seconds to understand everything in front of her. She suddenly realized and nodded stupidly.
Oh, there is a couple kissing deeply.
——No no no that’s not right!!! That’s not the point!!!
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, I’m sorry—I, I, I, I didn’t mean to come in here—!!!”
Bang! After hastily apologizing, Kiana slammed the door shut, and a deep blush instantly covered her fair face.
Chapter 32: The store manager who just wants to go home, and the girl who wants the store manager to work overtime
Before opening the door of this cafe, Kiana had predicted several possible scenes she might see.
There were countless Valkyries with destiny lurking in every corner of the coffee shop, and she expected that they would surround her like a dragnet the moment she stepped in.
The interior of the coffee shop was empty, but when she stepped in, several mechanisms were triggered.
There is also the expectation that the people behind this cafe are not enemies, but the companions of St. Freya's College who are eagerly awaiting her return.
There is even the expectation that this cafe is really just an ordinary cafe, with the staff inside working hard.
Kiana, who has been wandering around for four months and has seen all kinds of ups and downs in life, believes that no matter what she sees, she will never lose her calm and rationality.
In order to be able to react perfectly in the first place, she gathered all her strength, her adrenaline soared to the extreme, and her muscles were so tense that she could complete all the actions she imagined at the fastest speed at any time.
She was even mentally prepared that if she saw Otto's dog face in this room, she would do her best to hit him in the face in the crowd.
But when she tensed her muscles and opened the door of the shop, the scene that came into her eyes made her breathe a sigh of relief.
The scene that could be seen was a non-hostile atmosphere, a warm indoor environment, the air filled with the aroma of coffee... and a boy and a girl kissing each other deeply in the middle of the hall.
Although she could only see the back of the red-haired boy standing at the door and couldn't see the girl holding up the white cloth shoes, after catching a young couple being intimate, the panic and shyness that surged in her chest made Kiana flee from the coffee shop filled with a pink atmosphere.
She leaned against the closed door of the cafe, breathing slightly, her heart pounding.
After a lot of effort, I finally calmed down, but then a feeling of complete powerlessness came over me.
"Ah...are my nerves too sensitive?"
If you think about it carefully, even if Tianming wanted to set up bait, there was no need for him to go to the trouble of building a cafe here.
...It's impossible that at the moment she fell into the Pacific Ocean, someone could have guessed that she would drift all the way from Europe to southern China with the ocean currents, and even locked on her specific location?
"Let's go back……"
However, just before Kiana was about to leave this place of trouble, the will in her mind suddenly stopped her.
"Wait, Kiana."
That calm voice, for the first time ever, carried a hint of suspicion.
"You'd better go in again."
"Huh?" Kiana blinked, confusion written all over her blue pupils. "Why?"
"...There is one thing that you may have not noticed because you were too surprised..." The voice said in an uncertain tone, "If I am not mistaken, in addition to... uh, the couple who are kissing, there are three other people in the lobby of my cafe."
Kiana stopped walking, frowned, and asked tentatively: "Is it someone I knew before?"
"There are two of them," the voice said, "Rita Rossweisse, who once gave you a combat test at St. Freya's Academy, and... Bronya?"
"Why do you use a questioning tone here?" Kiana keenly noticed that something was wrong.
"Because, that child only looks exactly like Bronya, but her temperament and the atmosphere around her make me feel that there is a subtle difference between that child and Bronya..."
The voice said in a somewhat strange tone.
"I'm sorry, the door of this cafe seems to completely separate the inside and the outside in a way that I can't understand. I just tried to use the spirit extended by Yu Duchen to explore the situation inside the store, but all the mental power inexplicably dissipated when it touched the wall of this building."
Kiana's expression suddenly turned serious.
During these four months of traffic life, she has exchanged a lot of information with the will in her brain. Among them, Kiana has also gained a fairly comprehensive understanding of the ability of that will - Yu Duchen.
A building that can block the Eighth God's Key cannot be an ordinary building. According to that will, the moment she entered the cafe, she saw the S-class Valkyrie Rita and a girl who looked like Bronya.
Damn, this cafe was opened by destiny!
Do you want to go in again? Just as Kiana was hesitating, a push suddenly came from the door panel behind her.
She subconsciously jumped forward, quickly turned around, and reached for the two guns on her waist with both hands. A hint of vigilance flashed across her golden and blue pupils.
Click, the door opened, it was the door of a strange boy's coffee shop, and the young face was full of dissatisfaction.
He glanced at Kiana, who was alert, and the corner of his mouth twitched: "Sorry, customer, our store is closed today. If you need anything, please come back during our business hours."
After saying that, the store manager changed the sign on the door handle from "Open" to "Closed", then turned around without hesitation and wanted to close the store door.
This combination of moves to expel the customers made Kiana, who had never considered herself a customer in the first place and therefore had no time to react, a little confused.
But in the next moment, she couldn't help but shudder.
The reason was simple—through the crack in the door of the cafe, Kiana saw the scene in the hall.
Just as the will in her mind said, the S-rank Valkyrie Rita Rossweisse and the hooded Bronya were also in the cafe. In addition, there was a woman with silver hair and red eyes who looked like an adult, and another person with a red face and black clothes.
——Big sir, aunt? ! ! ! !
The feet moved before the brain.
Kiana rushed forward and grabbed the door handle.
"Wait wait! Don't close the door yet!"
"..."
The store manager who failed to close the store door stood there, his shoulders trembling slightly, as if he was enduring something.
After a moment, a heavy sigh was heard.
The sigh sounded so tired and impatient that it gave Kiana an extremely strong feeling of being rejected.
Then, the person who sighed turned around, his eyebrows twitching slightly, and a polite stiff smile on his young face.
"My dear customer, I have already told you that it is time for our store to close. There should be other stores open in your city. Why are you staring at my poor little store?"
Chapter 33: A Battle of Wisdom and Courage with the Air
His left eye rolled with the words "Go away!", his right eye rolled with the words "I want to rest!", and there was a bubble floating above his head that said "I want to have some lovey-dovey time with my wife!", and his whole body was surrounded by an extremely strong aura of repulsion.
Feeling the rejection emanating from the store manager, Kiana quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Since the store manager chose to drive him away, it at least shows that the purpose of this special coffee shop is not him.
As I breathed a sigh of relief, an inexplicable sense of frustration arose.
During these four months, she had been desperately trying to avoid the searches from Destiny and Anti-Entropy.
Although this kind of life on the run is far from being beautiful, it can even be said to be quite miserable.
But no matter what, after four months of life on the run, the fact that "she has become an important target in the eyes of others" is still deeply engraved in her mind.
Kiana knew that no matter if her trace was captured by the people of Anti-Entropy or Destiny, they would definitely come to her as quickly as possible. Regardless of their purpose and method, the only thing they wanted was "to bring her back as quickly as possible", which was the same for both Destiny and Anti-Entropy.
This was the first time in these four months that she had met someone who said so bluntly, "You are not important to me at all!" and who was trying hard to drive her away.
Of course, she didn't know the manager of this store, so there was also a possibility that the manager of this store had no idea how dangerous she was.
But when she thought about the S-rank Valkyrie who was destined to be in this store, she was unsure about the attitude of this cafe towards her.
No matter what, let’s find a way to get in first.
She had been trying to avoid people from St. Freya's College for fear of hurting her former companions, but if those companions were in danger, that would be a different matter.
If Auntie and Bronya were caught by Rita, she would not leave them alone no matter what.
"Oh, don't be so cold and heartless. This store manager... is the store manager, right?"
As soon as she thought of this, a flattering smile suddenly appeared on her face, and her tone of voice sounded aggrieved:
"As you know, people around here have recently moved to the city center, and nearby shops have closed one after another. I finally found a shop that was still open. In the middle of the night, can you bear to let a weak woman like me walk around hungry?"
“Please! Please!” She clasped her hands together, her blue eyes filled with sincere pleading. “It’s okay even if it’s just leftover food. At least let me fill my stomach, okay?”
"..." The manager opened his mouth and seemed to want to say something, but at this moment, a gentle voice full of charm floated out from the store.
"Mr. Manager, please don't forget the rules of this cafe."
"..." Hearing this voice, Kiana's eyes slightly stern, and the young store manager showed a trace of obvious helplessness.
"Okay, okay, you're the customer, you have the final say."
