TBR CH272: Extra

The second person to accept the invitation was Asta, although the question of “who is treating whom” was reversed.

Looking out from the bakery window, the azure sea stretched to the horizon, its surface shimmering under the bright sky, creating waves of white foam like the sweet cream used to decorate a cake. When the Black Book flew in, the wind chimes hanging by the door tinkled, releasing a delicate and cheerful string of music.

“Ah, you’re here,” Isidor said, looking up. “Just a moment, I’ll have Asta hurry up a bit. We have to deliver the cake before sunset.”

On the table in front of him sat a beautiful and exquisite cake, not too big and not too small. A cartoonish octopus was drawn on top with dark chocolate, and the cream was piped to resemble the texture of ocean waves. On it, “Happy 7th Birthday, Alice” was written in flamboyant capital letters. The World Consciousness could smell the fragrant aroma of the freshly baked cake, making the entire space feel warm and cozy.

The tentacle beside him waved at the Black Book.

Then, it resumed its work, using the baking carving knife in its grip to refine the small decorations on the cake.

Yes, it was because of this…

Time rewound to the day the System was killed. The monster and the green-eyed human had been a great help. Although Isidor modestly said he was just doing clean-up work, Asta was still busy. If He were here, He would say it didn’t matter. Of course, it wasn’t that it didn’t matter.

“Thank you for your hard work,” the World Consciousness said with emotion. “If it weren’t for your help, this world would have collapsed long ago.”

The power that could tear through time and space could also destroy this world. At the critical moment, the monster’s tentacles had propped up the collapsing sky, casting a black shadow over the land in a different way. It had created a small but crucial safe zone above the heads of this world’s survivors.

“Asta said he’ll be here soon,” the human said, his eyes curving into a smile. “He has to make sure everyone has left.”

“And your shadow—”

“He’s not very reassured about me, so he left a few tentacles to keep me company.”

Isidor crouched down and stroked the rolling shadow behind him. Then he opened the bag in his hand and carefully and intently selected a croissant. The croissant was perfectly shaped and baked to a golden brown, its center filled with cream, white, fragrant, and sweet. As he held it out, a dark tentacle reached over, its tip curling to hook the pastry. Just as the human was about to pull his hand back, another tentacle reached out and wrapped around his wrist.

Once, twice, three times…

Perhaps because the main body wasn’t here, the monster’s tentacles seemed a size smaller than usual, flexible but very well-behaved, completely harmless.

It was like being hooked by a black cat’s tail while feeding it. Isidor even felt a little flustered as the tentacle slid over his skin.

Then, it wiped away the small dab of cream left on his fingertip.

“Oh—” Isidor patted the tentacle. After they had retreated back into the shadow, satisfied, he stood up and handed the remaining pastries in the bag to the Black Book.

“Is this for me?” the Black Book was flattered.

“Of course,” the human said. “Asta said you should try them. Our skills have improved a lot. At least, people have started coming to our shop specifically to buy pastries for others. When things are over in a bit, I’m afraid we can’t stay here too long. I mean, if there’s some kind of world-saving victory banquet… a couple has booked a birthday cake for their little daughter, and they are really looking forward to it.”

Hurriedly saving the world during the bakery’s business hours—this was their priority.

Seeing the Black Book looking a little dejected, Isidor smiled, his green eyes gentle.

“But if you have time tonight—”

“What?”

“Asta and I were going to have dinner anyway. We don’t mind an extra pair of chopsticks at the table.”

The tentacles behind him also poked their heads out, bobbing up and down in a friendly manner, as if nodding.

This was why the World Consciousness was here at this moment, in this leisurely and peaceful town, putting itself in the place where humans and monsters lived. It always had to marvel at the simplicity and happiness of their lives. This town wasn’t the one they had been in when they said their goodbyes; this was so that people wouldn’t be suspicious of their ages. But thank heavens, the people here also seemed very friendly, a far cry from their past lives.

The cake was finished.

Asta emerged from the large pile of shadows and flour-scented tentacles on the floor at some point, reached out, and patted the Black Book’s pages. “Do you think a seven-year-old girl will like this?”

The World Consciousness circled the cake.

It personally liked the cake very much, especially the small octopus carved from chocolate. But would a seven-year-old girl like an octopus? It felt that, according to its knowledge, little girls preferred things like kittens, clouds, and flowers—in short, sweet and soft little things… But the chocolate decoration looked so round and cute that the Black Book thought it would be hard for anyone not to like it.

“No, she will definitely like it!”

Asta laughed. “I’m not sure about others…” Before he could finish explaining, a melodious sound of music suddenly interrupted the tranquility of the room. Isidor gave an apologetic look and walked over to answer the ringing phone.

“Hello,” he answered the phone. “…Yes… Alice is recovering well, Asta and I are both very relieved… Mr. … no problem, Xin, this is your duty.”

He hung up the phone.

The Black Book keenly noticed that the caller ID on the phone was the local police department.

It seemed its old friends’ lives were more turbulent than it had imagined.

“We’re not cooperating with the police department. It’s just that life always has some small accidents.”

Asta winked at Isidor, and the human returned a reassuring and warm smile, his green eyes shining against the setting sun. He handed over the storytelling rights to the monster and began to focus on wrestling with the cake box and colored ribbon.

In Asta’s telling, the accident began with a phone call received last night.

“It was a call filled with sobs.”

The owners of the bakery still remembered the woman who had come to order the cake. She was wearing a professional suit, seemingly working in a nearby city, and her makeup couldn’t hide her fatigue. But the little girl she was holding hands with was happily skipping. She pressed against the glass counter, admiring the cakes on display inside. “Mommy! Mommy! I like this one! I want to eat cake with you on my birthday!”

“You have good taste,” the green-eyed human said with a smile. “This is our shop’s specialty.”

The woman bent down to examine the counter, and Asta’s craftsmanship clearly moved her as well. She looked at her child gently, her eyes filled with a happiness she herself hadn’t noticed. She quickly paid the deposit. “Alice, let’s go home. Daddy is waiting for you at home too.”

“I love Mommy and Daddy the most.”

The little blonde girl spun around happily, her white cotton skirt swirling like a cream-frosted cake base.

…

This was supposed to be just another normal order among their countless others. But then, an accident happened—

“There’s no need to deliver the cake anymore,” the woman’s voice was tense, but her emotions were on the verge of collapse. She had intended to hang up just like that, but perhaps because Isidor had gently greeted her, her emotions suddenly broke through. “Alice… they took Alice… My Alice, what if something really happens to her… They won’t let me call the police. The police said they can’t give the kidnappers a ransom. But what if Alice gets hurt, or…”

On the other end of the line, she suddenly broke into tears.

Then, the phone was hung up with a click.

Asta looked at Isidor. The human’s fingers were still clutching the phone, looking a little dazed. His green eyes regained their focus only when they looked at him. He said slowly, “I think I know what happened.”

They had seen a headline in the morning paper, or heard the horrifying news of kidnapping groups holding children for huge ransoms on the radio, but they hadn’t realized the danger was so close.

This was a quiet, peaceful seaside town where most people knew each other.

That family was targeted, perhaps only because the woman worked in the city and looked like she had some savings. But even so, it was still too unfair. She was clearly a very well-mannered person, so even in her greatest pain, she still thought not to trouble others, calling to cancel the reserved birthday cake. But—

…

The Black Book listened with some awe to what had happened before.

Asta patted its pages reassuringly. “So I said to Isidor, if this cake is just canceled like this, it’s obviously a bit of a pity. We don’t get to sell our signature cake every day, and Isidor particularly likes this one.”

The human, steadying his breathing, nodded without hesitation. He didn’t consider himself a person with a strong moral compass, but his star was, and the good thing was that he could do it. He was as grateful for his abilities as he had been disgusted by them countless times in his past life.

In the bakeshop filled with sweet aromas, his fingertips brushed over blades and weapons, leaving behind the faint smell of gunpowder.

They recounted the subsequent events rather briefly, and somewhat vaguely. For example, they said, the tracks of those criminals certainly couldn’t escape the star’s eyes. Asta had so many eyes, and they would never realize that as they walked through the streets late at night, the vast, unimaginably large sea in the distance witnessed everything.

And for another example, when they pushed open the basement door, a very friendly-looking young man turned around and smiled at them.

His green eyes were like ice floating on the sea.

Guns fired with a bang, gunpowder exploding at the end of the barrels. Not a single bullet reached the young man. They somehow got stuck in the darkness behind him and then disappeared without a sound. The criminals had never seen such a thing, and even suspected they were drunk and hallucinating,竟然覺得黑暗中有某種柔軟又堅韌的觸手一閃而過，吞沒了他們所有的武裝。

This seemed like a completely absurd dream.

But when they wanted to turn and flee, the door was slammed shut with a bang. A kidnapper let out a terrified scream. This time he saw it clearly. A tentacle really did flash by his feet. The tentacle looked ferocious and terrifying, and it even opened an eye to look at him.

He shivered and sat down on the ground.

The sleeping girl shouldn’t have been disturbed, but that scream woke Alice up.

A seven-year-old girl already knew fear. She had been roughly pushed into the basement alone, a knife held to her neck, and she thought of “death” from the storybooks. What did death mean to her? Her innocent mind had never pondered such a complex topic.

But not being able to eat a birthday cake with her mom and dad was a real pity.

The basement was cold, and the cuts and bruises on her body were untreated and stung painfully. But she still couldn’t hold on and fell into a dream in the darkness and dampness. When she opened her eyes again, she thought she was dreaming too.

The kidnappers in front of her all had the exaggerated expressions you would only see on TV. They were waving their arms and legs, saying something she didn’t understand.

They had very dangerous things in their hands, things that would shoot fire… but those things seemed to have all been knocked away, falling at their feet.

Then they all fell down one by one like tumbling dolls.

Alice couldn’t help but cheer.

Just like in a fairy tale, the bad guys were defeated. The one who defeated them was a great hero. Although from the back, this hero looked a little thin to be a story’s protagonist, and he didn’t have that imposing aura of one man holding the pass against ten thousand. But the girl still decided to write him into her favorite hero story as the main character.

She saw something and a scream caught in her throat.

Oh no, an evil villain didn’t seem to fall down immediately and was still struggling. In his struggle, he raised a very scary knife and, just as the hero had his back to him, he suddenly struck, casting a ferocious shadow on the wall. Alice couldn’t help but prop herself up, wishing she could rush over. But her hands were still tied behind her back, and she stumbled and almost fell to the ground.

Her forehead didn’t hit the cold floor.

Instead, something caught her. A cold touch, but not hard. It gently and gentlemanly helped Alice up. Alice was also starting to suspect that this was all a dream she was having. When she noticed the tentacle beside her, it was as if a switch had been flipped. She realized the darkness around her was like a dark, deep pool, with countless tentacles lurking within.

What has tentacles? the girl thought. An… an octopus?

Wait, what happened to the hero?

She quickly looked forward and found that the knife the bad guy was trying to swing down had strangely turned one hundred and eighty degrees, its tip inexplicably pointing at himself. Looking closer, she saw that a tentacle was also wrapped around his hand, forcing him to loosen his fingertips, and the blade fell again.

The dark tentacle looked very scary when it was on the kidnapper’s arm.

But when it quietly slid a short distance on the ground, and slid up the wrist of her lifesaver, it looked much gentler, even a little bit coquettish. Alice thought in a daze, all the kidnappers had fallen, so she should be safe now…

She closed her eyes with relief.

…

…

Asta looked very polite. “We reported the crime mainly because we heard strange noises when passing by this house. And their door wasn’t closed, so we saw someone lying on the steps of the basement entrance at a glance… Yes. We called the police as soon as we discovered the scene.”

He looked down at his watch.

The local police looked at them with some difficulty. These two people did look very normal, and quite friendly, but the whole thing was too strange—when the kidnappers woke up, they were all talking nonsense, saying they had seen a monster impervious to knives and guns, and terrible tentacles. Alcohol was detected in their systems, but alcohol obviously wouldn’t immediately knock down a group of armed kidnappers.

And the little girl was rescued unharmed, but she couldn’t provide any useful information either.

Could it be that they had done too many bad things and had been struck by divine retribution?

No, strictly speaking, the two people in front of them were still more suspicious. Although even if they had done it, the police wouldn’t have a problem with it… but the green-eyed human looked at the person beside him with gentle eyes, then spoke faintly.

“We have something to do today. If you need anything, perhaps we can talk later.”

“According to the rules…”

He sighed, then said, “I’ll make a phone call.”

They were not criminal suspects, so of course they could make a phone call. The young man’s call could be said to be very concise, basically just expressions like “Yes, it’s me,” and “Help me solve this.” The person on the other end of the line seemed to be named John, but there were too many people with that name, and they couldn’t hear clearly.

About thirty seconds after the call was hung up, the police chief pushed the door open and came in, his face showing a complicated expression.

“Let these two go first.”

“Er,” the World Consciousness asked cautiously. “The something you had to do, does that mean when I contacted you?”

Asta nodded.

Alright, the local police would probably never know that the pair of strangers they had detained were busy saving the world at that time.

And on their way to save the world, they had even received a new order, from the woman who had once canceled her order—

“I almost thought it was too late…” she said, choking up, not even knowing that the person on the other end of the line was the informant who had provided the crucial information. “My Alice is back with me, so… so of course I have to fulfill her birthday wish. She said she still wants the same cake, but…”

“But she hopes to add a small octopus-shaped decoration to the cake.”

Isidorefinished packing the cake and said, “It’s really cute this way.”

“If you like it, I’ll make it for you later.”

“I have a real one, you know,” the human’s eyes curved, and he held Asta’s hand tightly.

The chocolate octopus was hand-carved by the deep-sea monster Asta, genuine and without deception. The carver and the carved object formed a clever intertextuality.

“Overall, we still hope to live as peacefully as possible,” the black-haired, black-eyed monster had clearly fully integrated into human society. He said, “But sometimes it gets very busy, and we don’t mind doing it occasionally, as long as we do it quietly and aren’t discovered by too many people.”

This was obviously a very good attitude towards life.

The Black Book was amazed.

But soon it couldn’t think about it that much anymore. The green-eyed young man, and the monster with a very deep shadow, both smiled at it. Their attitude was friendly and natural, as if they were seeing an old friend they hadn’t seen in a long time.

The sky darkened. Isidor set the dinner table, lit the candles, and the sea outside made a rustling sound.

A beautiful evening was just beginning.

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