“N-no… um… I… I didn’t do it on purpose.”
The girl flinched under Nana Toki’s winter-cold gaze, stared like a deer in a crosswind, then bowed her head and apologized.
Ding~ Hidden Quest [A Commoner’s Fairy Tale].
Objective: Help the fairy-tale princess Yuzuki find her [Prince].
Nana Toki: “…”
What is this supposed to be?
What even is a hidden quest?
System: You can treat it as a big boost to your luck score.
It’s only chapter two and this pops up? Am I just stupid lucky?
Nana Toki asked with a smirk sharp as a paper cut.
And what’s with this “prince” crap?
I’m here to study. Helping someone hunt for a husband just wastes my time.
Does your conscience not ache when you say that?
No one knows Nana Toki’s temperament better than the System, a mirror with no dust.
Every insult under the sun feels tailor-made for Nana Toki, a thorn crown worn with a grin.
“Study well,” huh. Heh.
The System’s heart stayed flat as a lake at dusk, with a ripple of dark humor.
You don’t trust me?
Nana Toki raised a brow, a blade lifting from its sheath.
Does your drama have to match your negative karma point for point?
The System stared back, face blank, cool as stone.
Nana Toki: “…”
Damn it.
“Oh? Isn’t this our big sis Suo Sen? What brings you strolling here in such fine spirits?”
Three or four men swaggered over, dressed rough like Nana Toki, reeking of cheap booze and smoke like a damp ashtray.
The stench beat moldy trash by a few streets, a sour fog crawling over asphalt.
Nana Toki stepped back, disgust curling like a cat’s arched spine, opening space between them.
“What’s this? See your own boys and won’t even say hi?”
The leader, a young man with a cigarette stuck to his lip, pressed in with a hyena grin. He spread his arms for a hug. “How about a friendly, cozy squeeze, big sis Suo Sen?”
“Heh.”
Nana Toki’s smile was paint on cracked wood. “Pass. Your armpit stench’s too rich. I’m afraid it’s contagious.”
“…”
Silence fell like dust. They hadn’t expected the old, timid Suo Sen to bite back.
From the original host’s memories, Nana Toki knew this youth—Duan Hong, a flag that shifts with the wind.
The original treated him as a brother; he treated her as a ladder to power by the male lead’s side.
Before the heroine came to Tinglan High School, he followed her like a shadow.
When her popularity dipped, he tossed her aside, split paths, and became the heroine’s dog.
Nana Toki remembered he even mocked her when the original died in a hotel’s garbage yard, laughing like crows on a wire.
It had nothing to do with Nana Toki. Those chains belonged to the original.
This was her first time meeting him. Her heart stayed clear, a sky after rain.
As long as he didn’t seek death at her feet, she’d treat him like a brain-dead frog that loved to hop.
“Ah…”
Heat surged up Nana Toki’s brow like a sudden flame. Her limbs drained, balance slipping like sand.
She blinked, and her vision smeared, a watercolor bleeding. Weakness gnawed inward like ants.
Her body burned. Nausea rolled up, a tide against stone.
The jeering faces doubled and swam. Her head grew heavy, iron sinking into mud.
Relax for a second, and she’d fold to the ground.
Gotta… leave. Now.
“Hm? You mouth off and think you can walk? Who said that’s okay?”
Duan Hong lunged in, shrieking, and his skeletal arm clamped Nana Toki’s wrist. The air tightened, a string pulled to snap.
“Um… p-please don’t fight in front of the café…”
Ignored for too long, Yuzuki crept forward, voice small as a sparrow in rain.
“Ha?”
The warning barely grazed them.
Duan Hong eyed the pale Nana Toki clutching her head, then slid to Yuzuki, his tone sour and mocking. “Glasses girl, you gonna stand up for her? We don’t go easy on women like you.”
“Hahahahaha, yeah, one punch and a kid like that cries for ages.”
His buddies barked laughter like dogs at a fence, drawing sideways looks from passersby.
Yuzuki stood ringed by the jackals, face flushing then blanching. She felt like a rabbit in a wolf den, hands lost, head down, tears pooling.
Bang!
“Ah!”
A dull thud cracked the air, a scream ripped it open, and all laughter cut clean.
“Mother— you got guts. Bullying my new hire at my door? You tired of living?”
The café door slammed open. A stylish, bearded uncle strode out, skull necklace glinting like a warning.
His face was taut, veins rising like ropes. Everyone felt the storm under his skin.
“You trying to ruin my business on purpose?”
He walked up to Duan Hong, grabbed his collar, and hauled him high, gaze like fire through dry grass.
“Ts… ngh… ugh…”
Lifted by the scruff, Duan Hong felt his throat locked in a steel clamp, breath pinched, words crushed.
Air turned scarce. His face purpled like bruised fruit.
“You little punks, don’t study, got nothing better to do, and come to my door to mess with my staff? You grow a death wish or what?”
Spittle speckled Duan Hong’s face like dirty rain. The “staff” was clearly Yuzuki.
Duan Hong’s crew shrank under the bearded man’s ferocity, knees knocking, teeth chattering like hail on tin.
“I’m in a good mood today. I won’t bother with you brats. Next time, if I don’t paralyze you from the neck down, count yourselves lucky! Get lost!”
He flung Duan Hong aside like tossing trash. The boy skidded, rolling across pavement.
“Cough… cough— cough— you… you…”
Air rushed back, sweet as spring after winter. Duan Hong gulped it, thinking he’d almost died under that grip.
“Get the hell out!”
The bearded uncle stomped forward. Duan Hong jolted, bolted in a scramble, leaving his friends like shoes abandoned in rain.
“Mm…”
He shot Yuzuki a venomous glare as he fled. She shrank back, head tucked like a turtle.
“Peh! What rotten luck.”
The bearded uncle spat toward their backs, like banishing bad spirits into the gutter.
“Th-thank you, boss…”
Seeing her tormentors chased off, Yuzuki offered a timid thanks, voice soft as a thread.
“No problem. Small stuff.”
He waved it off, then sighed, helplessness hanging like a gray cloud. “Girl, you saw it. This street’s full of people like that. You sure about this part-time job?”
He couldn’t figure why a clean-hearted girl would choose a street packed with shady shops, lamb stepping into a tiger’s jaws.
“It’s okay, boss. I can do it…”
Yuzuki gripped her hem, bit down her fear, a reed bending yet standing. “I’ve decided to work here.”
“Ah, girl, you…”
He trailed off, then shook his head and sighed. “Fine. I’ll have Old Two walk you home. During work, avoid folks on this street.”
“Mm! Thank you, boss!”
“By the way, wasn’t there a girl in a black jacket? Where’d she go?”
“Eh?”
Only then did Yuzuki realize—the cool punk girl who had shielded her had vanished.
At the café door, the air held a strange, rotten-garbage stench, like a shadow that wouldn’t leave.
Yuzuki and the bearded boss looked at each other, puzzled, two lanterns in a fog.
