Nearly 8 AM.
Sensō-ji Temple.
Clack.
A wooden breakfast tray settled gently on the table.
The modest meal consisted of grilled sanma, a small bowl of white rice adorned with umeboshi, and miso soup with tofu and vegetables - the temple's standard guest breakfast.
"Please enjoy your meal, benefactor," murmured the bespectacled, round-faced monk.
Luo Shu nodded gratefully: "My thanks, venerable one."
Before leaving, the chubby-faced mage reminded him, "The morning newspaper is by your side, and the TV remote is placed there as well. If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave now."
"Feel free to go."
After watching the mage depart, Luo Shu adjusted his sitting posture and glanced at the exquisitely plated dishes on the table.
The saury was served on a long, narrow dish, garnished with a few basil leaves. The bowl of plum-flavoured rice was no larger than his palm, while the tofu and vegetable soup was the only item served in a normal-sized bowl.
Suddenly, Luo Shu understood why the average person in Japan was so slim.
With meal portions like these, it was no wonder people stayed thin.
After all, even though he'd had a late-night snack around 3 a.m., this breakfast portion was something even an average person could easily finish, let alone Luo Shu.
"I suppose I'll have to trouble Kisara again to prepare some more breakfast."
Muttering to himself, Luo Shu glanced at Eriri sitting across the table, who was nodding off and swaying slightly, before saying:
"If you want to sleep, go sleep. Why are you forcing yourself to stay awake?"
Eriri looked up at Luo Shu and grumbled:
"Makeup starts at 9, the funeral procession at 10, followed by cremation and burial... Why do you think I'm forcing myself?"
"You pulled an all-nighter..." Luo Shu remarked dryly.
"And whose fault do you think that is?" Eriri said with clear resentment. After all the chaos last night, how could she possibly have slept?
At this point, Eriri suddenly thought of something and asked in confusion:
"Wait, where's my mum? Why isn't she up yet?"
"She doesn't need to attend the funeral. Why would she get up?"
Luo Shu had already finished his rice in three mouthfuls and was now eating the mackerel:
"Letting her sleep a bit longer won't hurt."
Hearing this, Eriri stared at Luo Shu with dead fish eyes for a long moment before saying:
"Her dead husband's funeral is today, and you're asking why I got up?"
Luo Shu calmly picked up the tofu soup and explained:
"Oh, that. Someone's standing in for her."
"Huh?" A giant question mark seemed to appear above Eriri's head: "Someone can substitute for that sort of thing?"
Luo Shu glanced at Eriri and said, "Your mother had Enigma shapeshift into her appearance as a replacement. Problem?"
"Eh?" Eriri gaped.
Having the deceased impersonate their own widow to attend their funeral?
What kind of bizarre arrangement was this?
Even horror films didn't have plots this twisted.
After her brain short-circuited momentarily, Eriri suddenly snapped back to reality and glared at Luo Shu, who'd already finished breakfast:
"Wait, so you're saying I'm the only one who got up early this morning? And I'm the only one who has to attend the entire funeral today?"
"Meaning I'm the only one suffering through this crap?"
As for Enigma, Eriri completely disregarded her - the instigator had no rights in her book.
"Technically speaking, yes..."
Luo Shu pondered for a moment before saying to Eriri with complete seriousness:
"Remember to maintain a mournful expression all day. It'd be perfect if you could cry by the end."
"I f***ing—"
As Eriri launched into a stream of complaints, Luo Shu's brain automatically filtered out her words as he picked up the morning newspaper.
[First Day on Japanese Soil: Aldegia Kingdom's Crown Princess Targeted in Terror Attack? Metropolitan Police Department Powerless - Is There Any Hope for Japan?]
Seeing the headline, Luo Shu blinked, double-checked, then smirked upon confirming he'd read correctly:
"Something that happened at 3 am and I'm reading about it by 8... Now that's efficiency... Tsk tsk tsk..."
He skimmed the article - most of it was background on the Aldegia Kingdom, with particular focus on La Folia, even including a grainy photo, reading more like a royal primer than news. The actual attack was barely mentioned at the end.
Anyone unaware might think they'd copied this straight from an encyclopedia entry.
"Japan's media industry is doomed!"
Luo Shu sighed, then remembered that even in this new century, Japan still clung to print newspapers, with households and companies needing subscriptions just to get yesterday's news.
With that thought, he reckoned the industry could probably limp along for another thirty years.
Finding the newspaper report lacking context, Luo Shu grabbed the remote and turned on the wall-mounted TV, tuning to a news channel.
It was exactly 8 am - the news anchor had just finished the weather segment and was transitioning to the current events.
[The First Princess of the Aldegia Kingdom, who had just arrived in Japan to attend a diplomat's funeral, was targeted in a terror attack by unknown assailants at 3 am this morning.]
[We now cross to our field reporter for live updates...]
The screen cut to a correspondent holding a microphone at the scene.
[Currently, we are at the hotel where Her Highness Princess La Folia Rihavein of the Aldegia Kingdom was staying yesterday. We can see many cleaning staff on site, and what they're currently cleaning are the bloodstains left behind by the sudden shooting attack at the entrance last night.]
[It's reported that the terrorist group even opened fire on journalists present at the scene.]
Luo Shu watched for a while before noticing the reporter was just blathering nonsense at the entrance, persistently filming the cleaners and the blood on the ground. Losing interest, he changed the channel.
He switched to NHK, which was also covering the news of the princess's attack. Changing to Fuji TV yielded the same. Finally, Luo Shu switched to Tokyo Metropolitan Television and chuckled upon seeing an episode of Chibi Maruko-chan playing:
"So nothing major really happened, or perhaps the major incidents have been suppressed."
Shaking his head, Luo Shu heard familiar footsteps. Turning, he saw Yukino Yukinoshita in her Toyogasaki High School uniform holding a blue folder at the doorway.
Noticing Luo Shu's gaze, Yukino tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and calmly asked:
"It seems the Director had quite an eventful nightlife last night?"
Faced with this teasing, Luo Shu retorted with a smile:
"Compared to you, Yukino, I suppose it was eventful?"
Yukino fell silent for a moment before speaking with faint resentment:
"...So this is the attitude one should have towards a subordinate who had to be woken at 3 am for emergency overtime?"
Luo Shu tilted his head in thought before replying:
"Well... double this month's salary?"
"You might make an excellent heartless capitalist."
Yukino sighed and walked over, sitting beside Luo Shu with the files:
"Since I still have classes, let's make this brief."
Opening the folder, she continued:
"According to the field reports and information from the Aldegia Kingdom knights:"
"The perpetrators of last night's attack on the princess have been identified as several small groups under the yakuza organisation Nisakai. Besides the attackers who were killed, the Aldegia Kingdom captured five individuals."
"Among them, three committed suicide shortly after being handed over to Metropolitan Police Department personnel. Additionally, the officials handling the transfer were targeted by a suicide bombing. The individuals involved are currently undergoing emergency surgery."
"The detailed reports are all here..."
Yukino spread the documents across the table, then added after some thought:
"Miss Honjo at the safehouse asked me to relay her advice before I came."
"Nia's advice?" Luo Shu looked slightly surprised. "What did she say?"
Yukino glanced at him and stated calmly:
"She said don't get involved."