Chapter 63: Let’s Go Have Barbecue Together

The news that Yuki had signed a contract immediately after completing the written and interview exams soon spread throughout the entire Aegis team. At first, Yuki had only told Senior Ayu, but by the time he returned to Aegis, his former colleagues were already excitedly discussing where to go for a celebratory meal.

Watching them, Yuki felt a pang in his heart.

He was about to leave this place.

He hadn’t even had time to prepare himself emotionally when Senior Ayu came over, hooked his arm around Yuki’s neck, and dragged him to the table.

“Come on, tell us—what was on the written exam?”

Faced with Senior Ayu’s expectant gaze, Yuki found himself unable to answer. The content of his written exam had nothing whatsoever to do with the study materials they’d prepared.

“…I can’t say. I signed a confidentiality agreement.”

He could only apologize, then stubbornly refused to elaborate. If he told the truth and Senior Ayu took it seriously, stopped studying, and then the written exam ended up covering everything in the materials, resulting in Ayu’s elimination, Yuki would have committed a grave mistake.

“Hmph, stingy!”

Ayu let go of Yuki, who breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed his neck, which felt a bit sore.

“You’ll have to sign a confidentiality agreement yourself when your turn comes, Senior Ayu.”

So it wasn’t just an excuse.

In the end, everyone decided to go for barbecue. Originally, Yuki wanted to suggest they wait until everyone had finished their exams before celebrating, but then he remembered that Senior Melika’s exam was a week away—and by then, he’d certainly have left Earth.

Should they wait for him to return before having the barbecue?

“Yuki” didn’t want to make his first mission unnecessarily difficult by setting up flags like “after I return” and “let’s have barbecue.” Such self-imposed challenges were best avoided.

So the four of them continued studying together at Aegis, including Yuki, who wasn’t idle either, already gathering information in preparation for his first mission.

Since he was headed to space…

Yuki opened a star map and began familiarizing himself with the vast sea of stars in this world.

As dusk fell, everyone from Aegis squeezed into a single car and drove to a large commercial plaza near their office, where they reserved a small private room in a barbecue restaurant and happily ate and drank together.

During the meal, Yuki noticed that Senior Ayu had been gone a long time. He’d said he was going to the restroom, but nearly twenty minutes had passed and he hadn’t returned. Confirming that Ayu’s bag was still at his seat, Yuki excused himself to the restroom and slipped out of the private room.

“Hey, Ayu still hasn’t come back,” Melika observed. She looked at the half-empty room and exchanged a glance with the president, whose face was flushed from the alcohol and who nodded somewhat dazedly.

So Melika turned to Yuki, who was putting on his shoes at the door.

“Could you look for Ayu while you’re out? He must have wandered off somewhere.”

“Understood.”

Yuki finished putting on his shoes, walked to the entrance, and asked the staff, learning that Senior Ayu had left with an elderly man.

An elderly man?

Yuki puzzled over his memories as he followed the direction the staff had indicated.

He reached the first floor and looked out over the bustling evening crowds in the plaza, feeling overwhelmed.

Where had Senior Ayu gone?

Yuki found a quiet corner away from the crowds, closed his eyes, and focused, then released his senses to probe the surroundings.

Around him, there were many strange presences.

It was no wonder, in the Taiga set where aliens abounded, the non-human aura seemed to permeate everything. Finding nothing, Yuki retracted his senses and resorted to the oldest method—searching manually.

He walked around the plaza, secretly looking for people standing still. If Ayu had left without saying goodbye, following someone out, he was probably hiding somewhere private, having a confidential conversation.

After all, Senior Ayu had a “past”… and indeed, connections unknown to Aegis.

Hopefully he hadn’t been ambushed.

Soon, in the shadowed side of a flowerbed, Yuki spotted two peculiar figures. They stood deliberately concealed within the shade of ornamental trees.

Yuki didn’t approach immediately; instead, he sat on a bench five hundred meters away, leaning back and closing his eyes as if resting.

“Who would’ve thought, just a couple of years ago you were a little hoodlum, and now you’ve got the application form for the Foreign Affairs Unknown Department. You’ve done well for yourself,” an aged voice spoke.

The raspy tone was affected, not the real voice of the man before him, who appeared to be in his seventies.

For a Zettonian, his actual age translated to not quite forty in human years.

He simply liked the disguise; elderly faces often garnered trust and lowered others’ guard.

Ayu frowned; that scratchy voice felt like tiny mouse claws raking his ear canal, stinging.

“You have talent. No matter where you end up, you do well. I always told you not to be stuck in that little security company. See? Now you’re finally making something of yourself.”

“I haven’t taken the exam yet. And what are you really here for?”

“What am I here for? Nothing, really. I’m just here to congratulate you in advance. I watched you grow up.”

Ayu’s eyes were full of disbelief.

“But you might pass the official background check; that girl in your security company is quite capable, cleaned up your past nicely. Still, I watched you grow up—I know exactly what you used to be.”

Ayu was startled, his pupils contracting.

He was being threatened.

He frowned, glancing at the busy plaza, calculating. If he acted here, as long as he didn’t cause a scene, then…

A sudden cry—“Ugh!”

The old man lurched forward, falling face-first onto the cold granite tiles. Before he could prop himself up, a foot pressed down on his old injury at the waist, pain radiating and keeping him motionless.

Seeing the situation shift, two men in black rushed from the shadows of a nearby wall, clearly the old fox’s henchmen.

Ayu didn’t hesitate. He had already been on guard, ready for this familiar old fox and the two lurking men. Seeing them all reveal themselves, Ayu executed the plan he’d rehearsed countless times—he teleported to intercept the two henchmen, lightning-fast, grabbing the nearest by the collar and throwing him over his shoulder onto the other. The second had already drawn his gun, but was knocked down by his own partner, ending up in a heap, unable to rise.

Ayu efficiently searched them both, pulling out a large stash of obviously illegal weapons and equipment. Then he saw Yuki crouched on the old fox’s back, whispering to him.

Zettonian, Zuo Lin.

On paper, he was a neighborhood committee chairman, amiable and popular among residents, highly respected.

But in the shadows, he was a senior member of the Villains’ Association.

“You… what are you doing? Let me go!”

“Guess whether I’ll let you up?” Yuki pressed harder on his lower back, and the aged voice slipped, becoming younger, utterly at odds with his appearance.

“Mr. Zuo Lin of the Villains’ Association, am I right?”

The lead from Fengma’s necklace was also tied to him, but now this guy was useless. The original seller, Ma Qingduo the Alien, had absconded with the goods, and it was unlikely the necklace would end up in his hands anytime soon.