A young girl and an older girl stood in front of a takoyaki stand.
Gulp—
The sound of swallowing came from the smaller girl's tiny lips, and even a trickle of drool was running down her mouth.
The other girl, who had a more mature figure, glanced at the shop owner, who was already packing up the order. She sighed slightly, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her noticeably thinner wallet compared to a few days ago.
Gabriel had said she would treat her to takoyaki, but nine times out of ten, it meant she would end up paying instead.
At this moment, the one sighing was Vignette, a demon from the underworld.
Since she ranked second to last in the demon world's grading system, her weekly allowance for living in the human world was 20% lower than that of an average demon. On top of that, Gabriel frequently borrowed money from her, leaving her to live a rather frugal life.
Fortunately, she had recently ambushed a hero by accident and received a handsome reward. This week had been relatively comfortable.
"Thank you for your patronage~"
Huh?
Vigne snapped back to reality. What—what had she just witnessed?
She saw Gabriel actually paying for the food! Two servings, no less! And she was even handing one to her?
She was actually treating her for real?!
At that moment, Vigne's eyes widened in disbelief, trembling as if she had just witnessed something even more unimaginable than the world ending.
"Oi, what's with that face? What's with that look? You really want to get punched, huh?"
Gabriel's eye twitched as she spoke in a disgruntled tone. She knew exactly why Vigne was reacting like that, but wasn't it a bit too exaggerated?
"Gabriel… Did you steal Satania's wallet?"
"Hah?! Who stole her wallet? Besides, that idiot's wallet has been empty for ages!"
Gabriel's irritated response made Vigne's lips twitch.
Wasn't that basically a confession?!
Otherwise, how would she know Satania's wallet was empty?
Wait, if it wasn't Satania's money, then where did Gabriel get the cash? Did she ask the angel café owner for an advance on her wages?
Hold on a second—if she recalled correctly, Gabriel's wallet looked a little stuffed earlier. It seemed to be filled with large-denomination bills. Judging by the amount, it was around 200,000 to 300,000 yen…
That was a huge sum for them!
Just then, a few girls passed by, chatting about something rather concerning. They were talking about a classmate who had recently started spending money lavishly. The reason?
Because she had been making indescribable deals with older men.
No way—no way—NO WAY!!!
"G-G-G-G-Gabriel… Y-you-you didn't… You wouldn't have done that… that… THAT—"
At that moment, Vigne's face turned deathly pale, and her hands trembled uncontrollably. The words that escaped her slightly quivering lips were filled with sheer terror and unease.
"Hah? That what?"
Gabriel was baffled by Vigne's reaction. Why was she suddenly so panicked? And why was she looking at her with those concerned and regretful eyes, as if she had walked down a… questionable path?
The next second, something clicked in her brain, and her face turned bright red.
"Stop spouting nonsense! I'm an angel, for crying out loud! There's no way I'd stoop to such levels for money! I'd never—I'd never do something that shameless!"
Gabriel's voice was sharp, and her puffed-up cheeks made her look quite indignant.
However, Vigne's gaze remained dubious, as if saying, "You've already done plenty of shameless things, so something even worse isn't entirely out of the question."
That look made Gabriel so furious that even her cute little mouth twisted in anger. She was about to snatch back Vigne's takoyaki, but before she could, the food had already disappeared from her hand.
Vigne had taken it in an instant.
"Alright, alright. I was just joking. Don't be mad, Gabriel. It was my fault~"
Vigne let out an apologetic giggle.
Gabriel, on the other hand, gave her a deadpan stare.
"Joking? Vigne, you totally thought it was real, didn't you?"
As she spoke, Gabriel's glare intensified. Vigne's gaze flickered evasively, a bead of cold sweat forming on her forehead. She even rubbed her cheek awkwardly.
"Seriously… Do I really leave that bad of an impression on you?"
Gabriel sighed in exhaustion.
"Fine, let me explain it clearly. You know I've been playing online games, right? A few days ago, I ran into a dumb—cough, I mean, a boss monster. It dropped some top-tier loot, so I sold it and made a fortune~"
Though Gabriel's explanation sounded reasonable, Vigne remained skeptical. Making money from selling game items was likely true, but…
The way she acquired the items probably wasn't as innocent as she claimed.
She most likely scammed them off other players.
Hmm?
A gentle breeze passed by, and both Gabriel and Vignette's expressions subtly changed as they looked toward the distant sky. What should have been clear and bright was now rapidly transforming into a thunderstorm before their very eyes.
An unimaginable anomaly had occurred in another world, and its effects were reaching this one.
"Gabriel, this… this isn't one of those situations, is it?"
Vignette's voice carried a heavy tone, tinged with unease.
"Ah—looks like it. The only question is, which otherworld is spilling over into ours? Seriously, what are the gods of that world even doing?!"
Shrugging her shoulders, Gabriel didn't seem nearly as tense as Vignette. She even had the leisure to start eating takoyaki while casually cursing the gods of the otherworld.
"So annoying~"
As she said this, Gabriel's pure and holy angel wings spread out behind her, and she lazily took flight toward the disturbance.
Why not just go to the other world directly? Well, that involved agreements between the gods.
Even if she could cross over, Gabriel wouldn't bother. Her job was simply to clean up whatever crossed into this world. As for the other side, who cares if it was drowning in chaos? Not her problem. She'd have to be insane to go help clean up a mess that wasn't her responsibility.
Besides, this was happening in her jurisdiction. So annoying. Why couldn't it have popped up in Raphael's sector?
Damn it, this was going to interfere with the major event in the online game she was playing later.
Hmm… Should she trick that idiot into helping out?
The "idiot" she was thinking of was none other than Satania.
However, before that thought even lasted a second, she immediately discarded it. Asking that brain-dead fool for help would just make things worse. If she messed up, Gabriel might get summoned back to heaven for a lecture, or worse—forced to undergo retraining. That would mean she'd be stuck up there for who knows how long.
And that would be a disaster—no gaming, no manga, no fun.
More importantly, Gabriel didn't want Satania to get hurt—or worse, killed. That idiot had no way of handling something on this level.
Situations like this had only happened once in the past ten years. Back then, her sister had taken care of it.
This is the worst!!!