Under The Veil of Night

"SIS! You’re taking the sweets that I made yesterday, aren’t you?" Laura was glaring at her sister with puffed cheeks. She had just tried to create a different recipe yesterday and stored the result of her work in the refrigerator after tasting one. This morning, she opened the refrigerator only to find them missing by more than half.

At this time, Kanae had just woken up because she slept late at night. Seeing her angry sister, Kanae grinned sheepishly. "I just taste your new sweet a bit."

"Sis!"

"Come on, don’t be angry."

Laura glared at her sister. Just a few days ago, her sister had used the kitchen, sending it to complete chaos. Although the cooking has some improvement in the end, it was too much for her eyes to see.

"You should buy more foods for yourself, Sis. Don’t go taking other people snacks!"

"They look tasty, so I take them."

"If you do it again, I won’t make sweets for you again for days."

Kanae’s face fell. She completely loved her sister’s sweet because they were good. Standing up from her sitting place, she hugged her sister from the back.

"You’re the best sister in the world, the most beautiful, caring, sweet, and great chef. You surely won’t let me starve, right?"

Laura rolled her eyes. "Stop that, Sis."

"Come on, you’ve been threatening me with foods lately."

"If I don’t do that, you won’t listen to me!" Laura pouted. The only thing that her sister cared was food, so it was the only weapon she had to make sure that her sister didn’t mess up this place when she was away. Of course, the only place her sister could possibly mess up was the kitchen.

She didn’t understand why her sister always challenged her by trying to cook. Given by how Kanae’s talent would only result in the destruction in the kitchen, she genuinely hoped that her sister would never get inside the kitchen ever again.

"I will listen, I will listen."

"Liar!"

In the end, the two of them argued for the entire morning before Laura had to go because of another meeting in her company. On the other hand, Kanae didn’t have anything to do because the school closed down recently. The current condition of Nolen School C has deteriorated thanks to the awful condition of this city. She also didn’t have any intention to get involved in Kara Company as she wanted to leave it all in her sister’s hand.

Mulling on her seat for a while, Kanae sighed. She didn’t have any interest to review the work that Jason left behind for her to handle. It was tiring and taking too much of her work.

What would be the best for her to do now?

"Let’s visit Kale Company," standing up, Kanae headed to her room. It has been a while since the last time she made a visit. She was curious as to how much the company has grown after a long period of time.

...

Kale Company

"You come here again, Kanae?" Taka smiled wryly when he saw Kanae. It was still early in the morning, but Kanae had come here. He was glad that he was still busy as an errand boy to deliver the packet which allowed him to meet with the girl near the entrance.

Kanae nodded with a smile on her face. "Good morning, Taka. I can see that you’re still working hard as usual. Is there anything special that happen lately?"

Taka shook his head. "Good morning, Kanae. Nothing much has happened so far, there’s just some inspection for the company not long ago. I think, the progress of our company attracts some people to come."

"I haven’t come here for a while, and it seems the company is doing well," Kanae giggled.

"Yes."

"Can you share your secret? Many other companies are in their low point because of the recent changes in Black Street, but this company seem to be thriving."

Taka smiled. There would be no way that this company didn’t get affected. However, Neo used their power that they had in Black Street to make sure that the income for the company didn’t change too much. It was done covertly to not let anyone found out that this company was that powerful in doing their work in the underworld.

After all, it would do them no good if someone did caught wind of it.

"I’m sorry, it’s a trade secret."

"Stingy," Kanae clicked her tongue. Her eyes wandered to the new batch of employees who come into the room from the other side. Her eyebrows arched in confusion.

"I didn’t know that the company is still growing."

Taka glanced to the direction where Kanae was looking at. He smiled. "They’re some people who lost their job recently because of the change in Black Street. Some companies rely on their connection to the clans to make sure that they can still stand. Once the Tamari Clan was destroyed, this is what happened to most of them."

Kanae had heard that some people lost their job because of the shift in the city, but she didn’t expect that it would be this bad. After all, Kale Company was located in Ryukalin Clan’s territory, which was quite far from Tamari Clan’s territory. If a lot of people migrated like that, there would be no doubt that there might be an imbalance in the city.

It would surely affect the overall earning of the people in this city, traffic, and so much more.

As she was not that familiar with how the system worked, Kanae wouldn’t be able to say for sure what would happen. There would be so many things that could happen in this city and changed the lives of numerous people.

"I see. Is the Kale Company still hire people?"

Taka raised his eyebrows. "Don’t tell me you want to apply again. Boss will not allow you to become a normal employee."

Kanae laughed. "I can just become his secretary again if he still wants me to work for him. I’m not talking about myself but for people in Black Street that has been unemployed but have decent personalities. It might be good if they can find proper work."

Noticing that Taka didn’t answer her, Kanae turned her head to look at his face again. Seeing the stunned expression on his face, she was surprised. Did she say something wrong?

"Hello? Taka?"

"Ah," Taka snapped back. He smiled wryly. "Sorry. I was just surprised."

"Surprised?"

"Yeah. You kind of saying the same thing as Boss not long ago. He arranged some of the people from the Black Street to work in the factory instead because their education level is a bit too low," Taka explained.

Kanae was surprised that Kevin would do something like that, but considering it from another perspective, it was indeed better. Some work required education level to be higher because it was a bit harder. Even though it didn’t mean that higher education meant better work, it was just how the society works.

"He has better insight."

"You’re not bad too," Taka shrugged. "After all, not many people can think of something like that."

"Yeah."