Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 902: Listening In

Bastet watched Pebble do joyful laps around the dungeon entrance, his mouth hanging open in what could only be called pure, delighted idiocy while workers flattened themselves against scaffolding to survive the happiness.

”Jealous of that?” The queen scoffed.

Then she reached over, pressed the button, and bent close. ”Pebble. Walk like humans.”

Pebble froze mid-lap.

His front legs lifted off the ground, and the armored body rose. And rose. And kept rising until the building-sized guardian stood on his hind legs, towering over the compound like a skyscraper with six bewildered eyes and no idea what to do with his front paws.

A worker screamed. Three others ran.

Bastet giggled. ”Okay.” She watched Pebble take one enormous wobbling step forward, front paws dangling while his tail counterbalanced desperately. ”It’s pretty fun.”

At the chef’s station, the young woman behind the counter had gotten over her initial shudder and was now studying Calypso with open professional curiosity.

”What kind of flavors do you prefer?” she asked, already pulling jars from the rack. The station was stocked with dungeon-sourced ingredients, mana-infused oils, monster cuts from Association-contracted hunters, and spice blends harvested from mid-tier abyssal floors. ”We’ve got hellvein salt, scorched marrow powder, Cinderstag flank...”

Calypso’s eyes lit up. ”You have Cinderstag?”

”Two cuts.” The chef set them on the board, dark red meat veined with orange that pulsed faintly under the kitchen lights. ”Tell me what you’d eat at home and I’ll work with what we’ve got.”

”I like ashfire peppers. They only grow in deep volcanic soil, and you have to crack the seeds with mana-heated iron or they numb your tongue for a week.” Calypso leaned on the counter, tail swaying behind her. ”Do you have those?”

The chef winced. ”Those are... No.” She studied her rack, then pulled two jars and a vial. ”But hellvein salt has a similar burn profile, and if I layer it with scorched marrow powder and sear on a mana-heated plate...” She trailed off, already thinking.

”Sure, let’s try it. At worst I’ll just eat you instead.”

”W-wait what?” the chef jolted.

”Kidding...” Calypso chuckled. ”Have you taken a look at yourself? You’re just skin and bones. Not even your breasts look big and juicy.”

”...I’m glad to hear...” The chef’s face was rather sour for some reason.

Calypso decided this poor girl was tormented enough for the time being, so she instead watched her begin working with bright eyes, chin propped on both hands, asking questions faster than the chef could answer.

What temperature? Why that oil first? What happens if you sear it longer?

The chef answered each one while moving between burners, and somewhere around the third question she stopped being nervous and started being genuinely excited, because the demoness was truly fascinated.

”Try this,” the chef said, and held out a piece of Cinderstag crusted in dark, fragrant hellvein salt.

Calypso took it, chewed, and her tail went rigid with pleasure. ”That’s close. That’s really close.” She laughed. ”Can you make it spicier?”

The chef grinned back. ”Alright. How spicy are we talking?”

”Like hellfire.”

The male agent switched to channel three. ”Please tell me this one has something useful.”

He listened for ten seconds.

”They’re bonding over meat,” he said.

His colleague didn’t look up. ”Which channel has the card game?”

At the card table, things had escalated.

Nyx dealt with spatial precision, each card gliding to its recipient without her fingers visibly releasing it. Three rounds in, she had won every hand.

”You’re cheating,” Alice said.

Nyx’s pink eyes widened with wounded innocence. ”Little sis is a sore loser~”

”You moved the cards.”

”I dealt them. That’s how dealing works.”

Alice’s expression sharpened, focused and dangerous. She turned to Alexandra. ”We’re taking her down.”

Alexandra yelped. ”I don’t even understand the rules properly yet! I keep thinking I have a winning hand but I always lose!”

”Concentrate, Lexi! Prove you’re not a dumb bimbo!”

”N-no one called me that besides you just now! And I’m trying!”

Nyx watched them huddle over their cards and smirked. ”Working together is actually cheating, you know~”

Alice scoffed. ”You talk too much.”

Nyx set her hand down and tilted her chin, her smile losing its playfulness. ”Oh, you’re on, little sis.”

She gathered the deck with a flick of spatial manipulation, cards lifting off the table and restacking in her palm. ”Let me show you the hierarchy in this family.”

Both agents sat up. ”Hierarchy,” the male agent said. ”She’s trying to show Alice Ashborn who’s boss through a card game...”

His colleague snorted.

In the armchair, Aria had moved into an extended interview of Vespera that showed no sign of ending. Kaiden pulled out his phone and opened Sudoku.

”Mother, did Kai like steak when he was little?”

Vespera took a measured sip of tea. ”He preferred fish.”

”Fish!” Aria’s eyes went wide. ”Kai, you never told me that.”

”I was six.” He didn’t look up from his phone. ”And you know I like seafood.”

”Yes, but not that you did it as a young child! I need to know these things.” She turned back to Vespera. ”What about breakfast?”

”Toast. Always burnt.”

”H-huh??”

”He believed it tasted better.”

”K-Kai, you can’t be serious!” Aria laughed, soft and delighted, and fed Kaiden another piece of steak. He opened his mouth without glancing at it, chewed, and filled in a row of fours.

”No comment.”

The male agent checked channel one.

The man who had broken the sky was holding a woman in one arm and filling in Sudoku squares with the other while two of the most dangerous people alive discussed his toast preferences.

”He’s playing Sudoku,” the male agent said.

”What?”

”The guy who just... ’summoned’ that terrible thing is playing Sudoku while his mother and his girlfriend talk about whether he ate burnt toast as a child.”

His colleague opened her mouth, closed it, and went back to her notes.

”Did he talk in his sleep, Mother?”

”Occasionally.”

”What did he say?”

Vespera sipped her tea. ”Names.”

”Whose names?”

”His childhood crush’s, mostly.”

”Kai...?” Aria went through several expressions too fast to count, then landed on extreme outrage.

”What? I was a healthy kid. Pretty girls are pretty girls.”

”Kai...” The question was no longer present in her tone, replaced by a deep yandere growl, very displeased.

Then, like a true schizo, she giggled joyously. ”I won and she lost.”

”I’m not sure I’m following the logic-” Kaiden mused but was interrupted when she then kissed his cheek hard enough that he nearly dropped his phone.

”Logic?” Aria tasted the word on her tongue, looking as if it was alien to her.

The female agent’s pen had stopped moving.

”That’s actually kind of sweet,” she murmured.

Her colleague stared at her. ”They’re all crazy psychos.”

”They’re cute.”

Kaiden had not contributed to the conversation about himself in any capacity, and showed no indication of planning to start.

”Mother, what was Kai’s first word?”

”No.”

”’No’?”

”His first word was ’no.’ He said it to his father.”

Aria pressed her cheek against his shoulder and laughed. ”That sounds exactly right.”

Kaiden turned his phone sideways to check a column.

The male agent took off his headset.

”We’re not getting anything,” he said.

”...It’s not over yet,” the female agent countered.

”You just want to keep listening to this utter nonsense.”

”...Not true.”

And just like that, the break time came and went, without any of them offering a single iota of useful information for the government.