“What is it you wish to know?” Fueuduo asked.
Wang Yue began by inquiring about the Kitchen and the Spire.
“The Kitchen is where the meals are prepared, and the Spire is where ‘The Master’ resides,” Fueuduo answered, holding nothing back.
“The Master? Living in the Spire?”
Wang Yue felt a chill. Was the Lesser Lord entrenched within the Spire?
“Yes. I’ve heard they are the great figure who rules and dominates this secret realm, but I have never seen them myself,” Fueuduo replied.
“Then who was it that appointed you?”
“It was Sperose of the Theater. She is a terrifying lady.”
As she spoke, the doll trembled visibly.
Wang Yue’s mind raced. So, there were three remaining areas: the Spire, the Theater, and the Kitchen. The Lesser Lord was likely in the Spire, orchestrating everything.
“Also, at regular intervals, the Kitchen prepares a ‘Grand Banquet.’ All the young girls are invited to dance in the Theater and watch the opera. I was told the Master looks down upon the Theater from the high balcony of the Spire… however, I have never actually seen a Grand Banquet take place. I heard there was an issue with the Kitchen’s operations, and they couldn’t prepare the necessary dishes,” Fueuduo explained in detail.
The Kitchen is malfunctioning, yet it hasn’t been repaired…
The Master hasn’t shown their face for a long time…
Sensing a pattern, Wang Yue looked at Medeili. “We need to get into that Spire. The control console for the Demon Realm—the Force Field Generator—must be in there. It’s likely a Relic Artifact fashioned from relics and transcendent materials. If we prioritize destroying the Generator, the Demon Realm will overlap with the physical world again. Once that happens, our mana will recover.”
A mobile, controllable Demon Realm like this was clearly artificial.
During her studies at the academy, Wang Yue had learned that constructing a Demon Realm required a Rule Construct, transcendent materials, and ancient relics. Its initial state was a Force Field Generator; once activated, it projected a field outward, which eventually stabilized into the boundaries of the realm.
Seeing the worry shimmering in Meizi’s damp eyes, Wang Yue gently took her hand. She whispered, “If we fail, our end will be miserable. We might die, or perhaps something even worse. Before we go… is there anything you want to say?”
Meizi’s hand was small and soft, feeling almost boneless as it rested submissively in Wang Yue’s palm. She didn’t pull away.
Medeili’s mouth parted slightly, her breathing ragged. For a long moment, she couldn’t find her voice. Slowly, she leaned forward until her forehead rested against Wang Yue’s chest.
“I haven’t… really talked to you yet… properly…” she whispered, her voice thick with unshed tears. “Back at the academy… there was never a chance…” She slowly looked up, her gaze fixed adoringly on Wang Yue’s face. As they stood inches apart, she choked out, “I want to talk with you all day long…”
Seeing Meizi’s trembling lips and the pitiful glint of tears, Wang Yue felt a sudden, fierce urge to pull her into a tight embrace.
However, she restrained herself. Breaking down in tears wasn’t her style, nor was it Meizi’s. Indeed, after a brief moment of sorrow, Meizi regained her composure.
Aside from her strange weakness regarding the Tongue-eating louse, Meizi was strong-willed and an incredibly reliable companion.
Wang Yue locked eyes with Medeili, her gaze burning with resolve. “I promise you, once we’re out, we can talk for as long as you want. I’m quite the storyteller. I’ll tell you all about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland…”
“Then… can I listen while resting my head on your lap?”
“Ah, how sly of you…”
“Heehee.”
Wang Yue turned back to Fueuduo to ask how to enter the Kitchen. She needed to get the Grand Banquet started; it was the only way to gain access to the final Theater and Spire districts.
“I have the authority to provide maids to the Kitchen,” Fueuduo said. “You can disguise yourselves as maids to slip inside.”
Half an hour later, dressed in maid uniforms, Wang Yue and Medeili arrived at the entrance to the Kitchen corridor.
Fueuduo used her permissions to unlock the door. They passed through a crawlspace in the walls and followed a passage lined with drainage bricks until they reached a long, open-air hall.
It never rained in the Demon Realm, so roofs were merely decorative. The Kitchen district had discarded such redundancies entirely, relying on the radiance of the Silver Moon for illumination.
Kitchen utensils were hung in neat rows along the walls. On the long counters below sat exquisite gold, silver, and ceramic vessels, their surfaces catching the light in faint glimmers.
The chefs and maids were all life-sized, jointed dolls. Their eyes were fixed and unmoving, their faces frozen like flat textures. The group appeared exceptionally cold and devoid of life.
The head chef approached and spoke briefly with Fueuduo. He then turned his gaze toward the cool-headed, black-haired maid and the mysterious, orange-haired maid.
The two “maids” synchronized their movements, curtsying and bowing their heads in unison. With that, Wang Yue and Medeili successfully blended into the servant staff.
Dolls didn’t need to eat. Thus, the Kitchen only had to provide food for the girls in the flower house. Though there were fewer than forty girls, the workload was still significant.
Wang Yue grabbed a potato and used a paring knife to peel it in a single, continuous spiral. Once finished, she placed it on the cutting board and made precise, rhythmic slices, dicing it into perfect cubes.
Medeili was even more skilled. She cooked often at school and was naturally gifted in the culinary arts.
However, their minds weren’t on the cooking. Once the curry was set to simmer, their eyes began darting around the Kitchen.
Wang Yue observed that outside the windows lay a plantation and a livestock pen. The plots were small, and the ingredients were all freshly harvested.
She knew very well that achieving a closed-loop internal cycle in a sealed environment was nearly impossible. Sewage treatment, waste management, water recycling, energy supply…
To be honest, Wang Yue didn’t believe the Demon Realm was fully self-sufficient. The girls weren’t animals; you couldn’t keep them healthy just by throwing them some leaves and raw meat. They had to get salt and spices from the outside, right? At the very least, salt couldn’t be easily recycled.
She deduced that to support such elaborate and lavish meals, there had to be someone in the Demon Realm responsible for procurement.
And the easiest way to make a procurement officer appear…
Wang Yue and Medeili whispered together for a moment before Meizi slipped away.
Then, Wang Yue covertly emptied the salt from the seasoning boxes.
A short while later, a doll came by to refill the salt.
Medeili, who had been hiding near the warehouse, waited for the doll to leave before approaching the salt storage cabinet. She moved the salt bags to a different location.
While in her invisible Chameleon state, it was impossible for the dolls to detect her. Furthermore, the dolls’ intelligence wasn’t high enough to deduce that someone was stealing the salt.
They only knew one thing—there was no more salt.
Almost simultaneously with Meizi’s action, Wang Yue emptied the last of the salt supplies in the kitchen. Their coordination was flawless.
Then, they waited.
The head chef found a maid wearing an armband and informed her of the salt shortage. The doll nodded and headed to an office. After a brief exchange with a doll wearing a suit and a pencil skirt, the suited doll shook her head and spread her hands.
“There is an issue with the External Passage. I applied for permission, but I cannot open it. It’s not just the salt—we ran out of jam and bread long ago. There is no more wine, either…”
Medeili overheard the conversation from outside the door.
Shortly after, the head chef announced that salt would no longer be used in cooking; sauces would be used as a substitute for saltiness.
Wang Yue’s eyes flickered with thought.
It was clear: something was very wrong with the Demon Realm.
