“ow~”
Chocolate craned its head again, eyeing Jenkins’s steak, but once more, it was a futile attempt.
“A secretary?”
Jenkins answered nonchalantly, cutting into the food on his plate. He wasn't fond of at with any hint of red, but Miss Stuart had repeatedly stressed during their etiquette lessons that ordering a well-done steak at a fine dining establishnt was an insult. So, this ti, his steak was dium-well.
“I don’t care for secretaries. Interacting with a strange man for long periods would make sick, and if I were to spend all my ti with a strange woman... who knows what might happen. I trust myself more. Yes, that's how it is.”
The two young won exchanged a glance at his words, but it was Briny who voiced the question on both their minds:
“I know n all like young, pretty secretaries...”
“Yes, yes, a young, pretty secretary, working closely together for a long ti. Sharing a pen to handle paperwork, a small accident leading to a closer relationship, the occasional brush of bodies in a closed room, a sudden burst of passion one night... Oh~”
The man let out a dramatic sigh.
“Why must you young ladies always think of n in such a way?”
“It’s quite normal. After all, most of the n we et are like that.”
Hathaway chuckled, as if trying to ease the awkwardness, and added,
“Besides, young n are always so... lecherous.”
God only knows why she chose that particular adjective.
“I find it hard to imagine a man who, when faced with a beautiful woman’s naked body, would dress her instead. That’s why I say our view of n is perfectly normal.”
Hearing the red-haired girl’s words, Jenkins felt his heart stop for a second. For a fleeting mont, he was certain Hathaway knew exactly what had happened on the train that night, and that this was her way of testing him.
Miss Mikhail also went pale, her eyes widening as she looked at Jenkins, as if pleading for help.
“What’s... wrong with you two?”
The red-haired girl held her elegant glass, looking strangely at her friends as they stared at each other in panic. A second later, she felt a dawning realization...
“Oh, in a public place like this, I think it’s best we don’t discuss such topics. Oh, waiter, another steak, please. dium-well again...”
Without waiting for Hathaway’s reaction, he imdiately reached out to pat Chocolate.
“The next steak is for you, so could you be quiet for a little while?”
The cat looked up at Jenkins with an annoyed expression; it hated being used as an excuse to change the subject. But since there was food in its near future, it could forgive him for the next half hour.
Jenkins was now busy dealing with Chocolate, giving him a legitimate reason to avoid Hathaway’s gaze, but Briny had no such excuse.
She looked up in a panic and t the red-haired girl’s gaze, which felt as sharp as a dagger—an illusion, of course.
“I’m going to touch up my makeup. Care to join ?”
Hathaway asked, and without waiting for a refusal, she forcefully pulled Briny to her feet.
Jenkins didn’t react at all. When he finally looked up, the two young won had vanished.
“I knew mortal emotions would lead to trouble. Sage preserve ~”
He closed his eyes and piously traced the sacred emblem on his chest, praying the Sage would grant him safe passage through this ordeal. But the Sage’s divine portfolio did not include matters of ‘love’ or ‘protecting the unfaithful,’ so Jenkins’s hopes were likely to be in vain.
“Speaking of which, which pseudo-god holds the domain of ‘love’?”
There were countless pseudo-gods, and Jenkins couldn’t recall the right one off the top of his head. He only rembered that the domains of ‘love’ and ‘procreation’ belonged to the sa deity, but he couldn’t rember which one.
“I wonder if there are any divine arts related to love. That would certainly be interesting.”
In an instant, his thoughts had drifted off in a bizarre direction.
Sitting alone at a table in a restaurant like this was bound to get awkward after a while. Even with a cat for company, Jenkins still felt a bit uncomfortable.
Perhaps sensing his discomfort, trouble soon found its way to Jenkins’s side.
There weren’t many other patrons in the restaurant at the mont; the nearest table to Jenkins was over thirty feet away (about nine ters). As he was idly watching Chocolate, he suddenly heard a commotion. Turning his head, he saw two middle-aged gentlen arguing loudly.
They looked furious; otherwise, they never would have made such a racket in a place like this. The cause of their anger seed to be related to their business. Jenkins could only catch snippets of their conversation and couldn’t quite make sense of it.
A waiter hurried over to intervene, but his actions only seed to infuriate the two gentlen further.
“Bliss, I warned you! If you hadn’t signed that contract, how could we have ended up in this ss?”
“Shahar, you can’t bla it all on ! You didn’t object at the ti... Oh, God, calm down!”
The tall, thin man had actually drawn a pistol from his waist, its dark muzzle aid at his companion.
A second of eerie silence fell over the restaurant, followed by screams erupting from all around. The shrieks were answered by the deafening crack of a gunshot. The gunman had shot his companion in the chest, where a blossom of blood erupted, before raising the pistol to his own head.
“Oh~”
Jenkins shook his head and turned away, covering Chocolate’s eyes at the sa ti.
He paid no mind to what happened next, quickly rising from his seat with the cat and letting the other patrons either crowd together or flee in chaos.
The restaurant’s washroom was in a nearby corner. Just as he reached the door, Hathaway and Briny happened to co out.
“What’s going on out here?”
The washroom must have been well soundproofed.
“Nothing, nothing. Let’s get out of here, quickly.”
He said, about to lead his friends out of the restaurant. Though Hathaway and Briny were still confused, they could tell from the other custors’ behavior that this was no place to linger. They followed Jenkins and hurried out the main entrance.
People on the street had also noticed the unusual disturbance. So quickened their pace, afraid of getting drawn into trouble, while others stood curiously on the opposite side of the street, trying to see what had happened.
Combined with the custors trying to flee the restaurant and two carriages that happened to be approaching from opposite directions, the entrance was suddenly blocked.
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