Getaway Paradise

Ichijō Mirai returns to the kitchen.

With no other staff at the dessert store at the moment, except for Ishida Eiko as cook and waiter, and another Mr. Ishida who had gone to stock up on groceries, he changed into an unopened waiter's outfit and went in and out to deliver food to customers.

He casually asked Ishida Eiko, "Don't you have any employees?"

Ishida Eiko pushed the skillet into the oven, looked at him for a moment, and replied in a low voice, "There were, but after they found out about your situation, they..."

Ichijō Mirai realized, translation: there were employees, but after he came with a huge debt, there weren't any.

Is that the beauty of being 30 million dollars in debt? It's got the power to clear a room. Love it. Love it.

After turning off the oven, Ishida Eiko looked outside for a few moments and sighed in relief, "Your aunt is back."

Ichijō Mirai looked back.

The dessert store was open for business, the glass door of the front entrance was closed to prevent car dust from pouring in, and there was a small white car parked near the front door of the store.

An ordinary middle-aged man got out of the driver's seat, opened the trunk, and carried out a bag of flour, instead of going through the front door, he took a few steps to the side and entered through the side door.

The side door led straight into the kitchen.

At the sight of Ichijō Mirai, Mr. Ishida stared, and then subconsciously looked at Ishida Eiko before greeting her with the same hasty greeting as his wife, "You're down, Mirai, aren't you working?"

"The game's being updated," Ichijō Mirai explained briefly, his eyes sweeping over the bag of flour to the car outside with the trunk still open, "Is there any more out there? Let's move it together."

"Let him do it, your uncle has thick skin," Ishida Eiko also said, "You've worked for an American company, you've counted dollars in your hands, how can you carry this kind of stuff."

"And it's not much, it's just two bags of good flour that I ordered for your visit, so that I can make you a nice dessert."

She gave Mr. Ishida a wink and told him to go out and carry the second bag, then as if remembering something, she went to the side door, "By the way, the dessert store usually closes by pulling down the roller shutter, and that kind of shutter opens with a lot of noise, so if you want to make it quieter, you should use the side door."

"The side door is in the kitchen, it's convenient and unobtrusive during business hours and breaks, it's always open during business hours and locked during breaks, but you leave keys inside and outside."

Ishida Eiko went to the cabinet on the side of the oven, counted down to the third drawer from the top, and took out a brand new key from it, indicating, "The key for the inside of the door is in the third drawer."

And leading Ichijō Mirai to the door, he counted up the potted greenery by the door, again counting to the third, and moved it, "Here, the key to the door is in the third potted plant."

"The key will not move, you want to eat a late-night snack or anything can go directly to the side door."

This side door is not so much for 'late night snacks' as it is for 'going out at night, killing someone without a word, being satisfied, and coming back without a word, without anyone noticing.

Ichijō Mirai took the key from under the potted plant, flipped it over, and raised an eyebrow, "New key?"

He scanned the side door and found a small, equally new mark in the gap between the door and the wall, "The door has just been refurbished?"

More like it had been made especially for him.

"It's all-new, for security," Ishida Eiko explained, "It's the thirty million dollars, and even though you'll be able to pay it back, Auntie was afraid something would happen, so she had the door made stronger."

She paused and then added, "The dessert shop on the first floor only has a main entrance and a side entrance. The guest rooms on the second floor are directly above the main entrance. You should be able to flip it down by lightly stepping on the spider plant hanging on it. The third floor is full of groceries, including flour, sugar, etc., and there is not much decoration. If you want to flip it over, you can only climb it down by stepping on the wall of the house next door."

Ichijō Mirai put the key back, looked at Ishida Eiko, and was about to say something, and then stopped.

He wanted to say: 'You know, Aunt, you seem to be patiently telling a criminal who goes out to kill people at night. You are afraid that it will be inconvenient for him to go out to kill people, let alone return home satisfied, so you prepare diligently and worry about it, and give repeated warnings.'

This is really not the attitude of young people going out for late-night snacks at night. Young people and late-night snacks are not responsible for this.

"There's no back door," Ishida Eiko emphasized, "there's no back door to the dessert store."

"Well, a back door would be normal, but the back is next to some other building," she said, carefully gauging Ichijō Mirai's expression, "a detective agency."

A detective agency?

Ichijō Mirai paused for a moment, and responded, "Oh, it's a specialty of Neon."

One of the specialties of Neon is the presence of detectives in the open.

For a long time, detectives were even more powerful than the police, solving murders with aplomb, catching cats with agility, taking pictures of their targets from under beds, behind walls, and in cabinets, and even occupying the rightful position of 'police superiority' in all major works of deduction.

He glanced at Ishida Eiko, noticing the cautious gawking and uneasiness, and couldn't help but speak out in a soothing voice: "There's no need to be scared at the mention of a detective agency, I'm not a criminal, the detectives won't be on my case."

Well, for now.

Ichijō Mirai changed the subject, "Are the detectives in that office very good?"

That's probably a difficult question.

"Pretty good," Ishida Eiko added hesitantly, "pretty good at catching cats, and I've heard that they seem to be pretty good at stalking and taking pictures."

Ichijō Mirai:"?"

Why does it sound like this detective is a bit...

After hesitating to give out a few pieces of information, Ishida Eiko finally stopped hesitating and said the only thing she was sure of in a certain tone, "He's a good drinker."

Well, not seemingly.

This detective sounds very unreliable.

"Oh yeah, the detective's office is on the second floor," Ishida Eiko added, "and on the first floor is a cafe, which is also quite good and famous in the neighborhood."

"Luckily it's only less than a meter away in a straight line, but it's not so close that you'd have to walk around the block, otherwise the dessert store wouldn't be able to compete with the customers."

She looked over to Ichijō Mirai, "I remember when you first came here, you smiled and complimented it as a really nice place."

Ichijō Mirai adds: the original owner of this body.

"It's a nice place indeed," he said, not memorizing it and brushing off the subject, "Thank you, Aunt, I remembered where the key is."

He glanced at his wristwatch, "I'll stay downstairs for a while to help serve the food, I'll go back up when the game is updated."