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Last Embryo Volume 8 Chapter 1 Part 5

The fact that she is wearing a cook’s apron and was walking behind Tokuteru must have meant that she manifested in order to attend to Indra, the temple’s main deity.

「Nevertheless, even if I may be classified as a Divine Spirit, it doesn’t mean that I have the power to become one. I overheard that there is a certain Demon Lord in Little Garden who has attained the rank of Senryu at the end of his training, but I can’t reach that realm myself. Please think of me as a simple Pine Tree Dragon who is good at doing chores and is a bit witty.」

「I see, what a convenient Dragon to have around. Personally, I feel content as long as there are beautiful women around, but since the client is a junior high school girl, then having a female listener here with us will be that much more reassuring for her.

「I certainly hope so.」

When Tokuteru sat down, the door of the shop opened at the same time.

Two girls, Kudou Ayato, the introducer of the two girls who wore the uniforms of Hoei University Junior High School, and Masami Tendo, the client, showed up.

「Look, Masami-san. You won’t be able to move on at all if you keep holding yourself back forever.」

「B-But Senpai… Are these detectives really trustworthy people?」

「We are not strictly detectives, but free agents. We are also running a security service. My company is also a proper mercenary company for hire, so you can definitely trust it.」

Ayato laughed with her golden hair fluttering, and Masami looks even more worried. It was a natural reaction, because it’s unlikely that a normal junior high school student would ever have anything to do with free agency of any sort.

「Mr. Manager, Is Tokuteru-san here already?」

「Yes, he’s here. He’s scheming in the back seat.」

Ayako looks at the person that Don Bruno pointed to.

When Ayato in her uniform spotted Izayoi and the others, she gave them a complicated smile.

「…..Izayoi-san, you’re here too?」

「Oi, oi, that’s a cruel thing to say. I was the one who called the president in the first place, remember?」

「I’m grateful for that, because for some reason, he was rejecting calls from me.」

Mikado Tokuteru looked away from Ayato while swallowing quite hard. It would seem that he is indebted to Ayato as well. Since she is a daughter of the CEO of Everything Company, then she is probably receiving a pretty sizeable allowance on the regular… but what kind of adult would Mikado Tokuteru be if he were to settle his debts by borrowing money from a junior high school girl?

「Well, I’ll be looking forward to seeing you do your best, Mr. President!」

So the daughter is her client

「Looks like I’ll really have my work cut out for me, huh? Well, nothing I can do about it now I guess… so, this girl is the client?」

「Yes. This is Tendo-san, who is also my kouhai in the student council.」

「Yes, yes…!」

A quiet-looking girl with a bobbed haircut who hid behind Ayato was the actual client. Although she came to make a request, she probably didn’t even think to ask what kind of person is going to be handling the request itself.

Seeing the two scary-looking men she shivered and looked at Tokuteru and the others with frightened eyes.

「…Oi. See what you did now? She’s getting scared because of you, Mr. President.」

「So you’re saying that it is my fault?」

The two of them glared at each other with their legs crossed. Omatsu stepped forward with a wry smile and talked to Masami Tendo to calm her down.

「Excuse me, cute ojou-sama. Allow me to introduce ourselves. We are the employees of a free agent company 『Twelve Devas』.」

「Yes, I heard about it. But I’ve never heard of it operating in Japan.」
「Fufu, that’s because in Japan there are a lot of petty jobs like detective work and the like. In the past, you used to be bodyguards for the VIP’s in Everything Company, and you also undertook overseas investigations, right?」
「It seems that this type of jobs has now become an exclusive field of work for your company. But I’m seriously thinking if we should just buy you off entirely if only to avoid having you miss our calls.」

Ayato smiled and said that with a large-scale sarcasm. For her parents who own the entirety of Everything Company, buying a small company like Tokuteru’s would be like spending pocket change.

Tokuteru turned away and broke into a cold sweat, while Masami Tendo opened her mouth in surprise.

「Ah… I’m sorry! It’s not that I was suspicious of Ayato-senpai’s acquaintances, but the difference in living standards is so great that I just can’t keep up with the conversation…!」

Masami Tendo waved her hands while bubbling some incomprehensible words. Ayato tried to calm her down by adding that she wasn’t angry at her or anything, but she probably looked like she was scolding this girl who seemed to be the quiet and timid type.

In reaction to that, Omatsu elegantly giggled and raised her index finger.

「Please calm down, Masami-san. We may look like a ragtag bunch indeed, but our company’s president is a truly excellent person, I assure you.」

Masami Tendo, who got hit with that statement out of the blue, jumped up in surprise.

「That’s right! I wanted to ask you to search for my father who hasn’t returned home since two days ago… so please, if you could find him for me, I’d be….!!!」

「With the help of our company’s president, gathering information to that extent is something that we’ll definitely be able to do, so how about you just sit down and we’ll talk for the time being?」

Omatsu took control of the situation and steered it in the proper direction. It was probably thanks to her smile and calm demeanor that she was able to calm down and voice her request properly, so bringing her along here seemed tto have turned out to be the right choice after all.

Their client, Masami Tendo, sat down in front of Izayoi and Tokuteru and began to discuss the situation.

「To tell you the truth… my father’s company has amassed a lot of debt, and is currently in the middle of the proceedings for filing for bankruptcy.」

「No doubt as a result of the economic recession in recent years, I assume?」

「Looks like t’s become quite difficult to live in Japan while I was gone. In other words, your father’s company started generating losses instead of gains and is on the verge of disappearing… and now your father has gone missing as well?」

Contrary to popular belief, finding a missing person is actually not all that hard, which means that Tokuteru himself should be more than enough to handle this job without any difficulties, however, Masami Tendo shook her head.

「No, it’s actually the opposite. You see, the thing is… he just had the chance to pay off all of the debts that we owe.」

「「Hmm?」」

Izayoi and Tokuteru had question marks flowing all around their heads, because there’s just no way for such a shady story about being able to suddenly pay off all of your debts would be true.

Tokuteru of all people should know that to be true, since he has to pay off his own debts constantly.

Realizing that the direction of the wind had changed, the two or them decided to let Masami Tendo speak and listen intently to what she had to say.

「About a week ago, a distant relative of ours who lived in Kyushu died in a traffic accident, and we were entrusted with the handling of all the arrangements related with his inheritance. That relative of ours seemed to come from a reasonably wealthy family, so even if the money from the inheritance wasn’t enough to pay all of our debts off completely, it should still be enough for my father to sell his old factory and find himself a new job.」

「So you think that these two happenings are connected to one another?」

「Most likely, but even if they truly are, I still don’t see any reason why your father should simply disappear because of it. You said that even if the inheritance wasn’t enough to pay the debts off completely, it would still be enough for him to start over fresh?」

「Y-Yes. However, some people said that they would be willing to buy a part of the inheritance at a much higher price…. take a look for yourselves here.」