Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

Working nearly twenty hours a day and sleeping less than four hours. This is not a waiter, this is a slave.

"How long have you been here?" Frilian asked.

Xiaochun lowered her eyes: "I've been here for eight months. My family owed us a lot of money, and my father sold me."

Akemi didn't answer, but Frillie noticed a small tattoo on the side of her neck, the mark of the Oni Clan. She was transferred from within the organization, not "acquired" from outside.

"Have you ever thought about leaving?" Frillian asked tentatively.

Xiaochun was startled and quickly shook her head: "Sister Qianyu, please don't say that! It will be a big problem if you are found out! There was a sister who tried to escape before, but she was caught and brought back."

Her voice grew softer and softer until it was almost inaudible.

"and then?"

Akemi picked up the conversation, her tone as flat as if she were talking about the weather: "His leg was broken, he was locked in the basement for three days, and then he was sent to the 'special guests' place. He never came back."

Frillie fell silent.

She continued wiping the teaware, but her magical senses had already been activated, scanning the surrounding environment.

There was no surveillance in the tea room area. The surveillance at the Pleasure Pavilion was mainly concentrated in the lobby, corridors, and VIP areas, while back-of-house areas such as the tea room, kitchen, and maid's area were relatively less monitored. However, guards would patrol the area every fifteen minutes.

Furthermore, each maid had a tracking device, a microchip sewn into her kimono's obi (sash). This is what Furiel noticed when Akemi was adjusting her obi.

A perfect cage.

...

The morning training was tedious and rigorous.

The tea ceremony teacher was an elderly woman in her sixties with eyes as sharp as an eagle's. She corrected Frillie's posture in holding the tea whisk for a full twenty minutes, until Frillie's wrists began to ache.

"Your wrist must be steady, but your fingers must be flexible," the old lady said, tapping the back of Frillie's hand with a bamboo ruler. "The way of tea is like life; too rigid and it will break, too soft and it will fall apart. You have to find that balance."

Frillie suddenly remembered that her mentor Flamel had said something similar about alchemy.

"Teacher, what do you think is the most important thing in the tea ceremony?" she asked.

The old lady glanced at her: "It's 'ichi-go ichi-e' (one time, one meeting). Every tea ceremony is unique and will never happen again. So you must devote your whole heart and soul to the guests, the tea, and this moment."

"Once in a lifetime," Frilian savored the meaning of the phrase.

For someone who has lived so long, time has lost its unique meaning. Every moment can be repeated, every choice can be made again. At least in her long life, she has experienced many things multiple times.

But for these maids, every moment could be their last.

Just like that girl named Natasha last night.

Lunch was served in the maids' private dining room. The food was simple: a bowl of rice, a small dish of pickled vegetables, a bowl of miso soup, and a few thin slices of fish. It was nutritious enough to maintain energy, but not particularly delicious.

Frillie carried her tray and found a corner to sit down. Haru and Akemi followed her.

"Sister Qianyu, which private room were you in last night?" Xiaochun asked softly.

"Between the plum blossoms."

"Wow, that's a VIP room!" Xiaochun's eyes lit up. "How are the guests? They didn't... give you any trouble, did they?"

"Fortunately."

Akemi suddenly said, "The guests at the Ume-room are Tanaka and his group, right? They're very difficult to serve. Last time, Reiko-neechan served them and was forced to drink so much that she had a stomach hemorrhage."

Koharu shrank back: "I heard that Representative Tanaka has... a special fetish."

“Hmm.” Akemi lowered her head and ate her food. “So, Chiba is really amazing to be able to finish it.”

Frillie didn't respond; she just ate her meal quietly.

Chapter 557 What is Frillian doing at Elysium (Part 2)

The dining hall was quiet; the maids ate silently, and no one spoke. The only sounds were the soft clinking of cutlery and the distant murmur of water from the kitchen.

Just then, a commotion broke out at the entrance of the cafeteria.

Several male waiters hurriedly carried a stretcher past, on which lay a maid, her face pale, blood at the corner of her mouth, and the hem of her kimono soaked with blood.

Everyone lowered their heads, unable to look.

Frillian scanned the maid with her magical senses and saw that she had suffered a severe blow to the abdomen and was bleeding internally. If she didn't receive immediate treatment, she wouldn't survive the night.

“It’s Yuriko-neechan,” Koharu’s voice trembled. “She was at ‘Chrysanthemum Room’ last night; the customer was a wrestler.”

Akemi held Xiaochun's hand and shook her head.

The stretcher was carried away, leaving a few drops of dark red blood on the floor.

The cafeteria returned to its deathly silence.

But Frillie could sense a suffocating fear in the air. Like the calm before a storm, you knew disaster was coming, but you were powerless to stop it.

...

During the afternoon break, Frillie was called to Mrs. Matsumoto's room alone.

Instead of punishment, Mrs. Matsumoto showed a rare, relatively kind expression.

"Chiba, Ms. Sakurai wants to see you," she said. "Go to the Sakura Room, now."

Frillie followed Mrs. Matsumoto through a long corridor to a secluded courtyard deep within the Pleasure Palace. This was Sakurai Kogure's private residence, and ordinary maids were strictly forbidden from entering.

The courtyard was small, but exquisitely decorated. It was a dry landscape garden with moss-covered stone lanterns and a huge weeping cherry tree. It wasn't a variety that bloomed this season, but through special cultivation, its branches were adorned with sparse pink blossoms.

Sakurai Kogure is not here.

"Wait here," Mrs. Matsumoto said before leaving.

Frilian stood in the courtyard, observing her surroundings.

There were no security cameras here; Sakurai Kogure was clearly concerned about privacy. But her magical senses told her that there were at least four guards outside the courtyard wall, all of them B-rank hybrids, and they were well-hidden and coordinated with each other.

A perfect defensive formation.

She waited for about ten minutes, and then a man came out of the house.

It's not Sakurai Kogure.

He was a young man, about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, dressed in a black waiter's uniform. He was tall and slender, with delicate features that were somewhat androgynous. His hair was an unusual silver-gray, his left eye was a normal dark brown, but his right eye was pale gold, with a vertical pupil.

It is a half-dragon transformation, and a very rare one-eyed dragon transformation phenomenon.

“Miss Chiyu,” the man said with a slight bow, his voice gentle and polite. “I am Qinglan, Miss Sakura’s attendant. Please come with me; Miss is waiting for you in the tea room.”

Frilian followed him into the house.

The interior decoration is even more elegant than the exterior. The sliding doors are decorated with hand-painted floral patterns of the four seasons, the tatami mats are woven from the finest rush grass, and the air is filled with the delicate fragrance of sandalwood.

Qinglan's walking posture was very special; her steps were extremely light, almost silent, and each step was exactly the same distance. This was the gait of a strictly trained waiter, who had to maintain a respectful posture without making a sound to disturb her master.

"How long has Mr. Qinglan been by Miss Ying's side?" Frilian asked.

"Seven years," Qinglan replied calmly. "I am an orphan, and I grew up in the training facilities of the Demon Clan. I was assigned to the Paradise Hall at the age of fifteen, and became Miss Sakura's attendant at the age of eighteen."

What do you usually do?

Qinglan pushed open a paper door: "Daily care, arranging schedules, handling chores, and protecting Miss's safety."

Inside the tea room, Sakurai Kogure was already kneeling before the tea table, preparing tea. She had changed into a light pink dress, and her hair was simply tied up, making her look much gentler than the night before.

"Qianyu is here." She smiled. "Please sit down. Qinglan, you sit down too."

Qinglan sat down at the lower end of the tea table, her posture as perfect as a textbook example.

Frillie knelt opposite Sakurai Kogure.

The tea room was quiet, with only the soft hissing of the tea whisk stirring the tea powder. Sunlight streamed through the paper windows, casting soft dappled patterns on the tatami mats.

Sakurai Kogure handed the teacup to Frilian: "Try it, this is one of my treasures."

Frillie took it and sipped it. The tea was rich and had a unique seaweed aroma; it was indeed top-quality matcha.

“Qinglan,” Sakurai Kogure said to the servant, “Miss Chiba wants to know about the daily operations of Gokurakukan. Why don’t you talk to her? I have some documents to deal with.”

She got up and left the tea room, leaving Frilian and Qinglan behind.

Qinglan refilled Frillie's tea, then asked, "What would Miss Qianyu like to ask?"

“Anything is fine,” Frillie said. “For example, what is your daily schedule like?”

Qinglan didn't answer immediately. Instead, she poured herself a bowl of tea, held it with both hands, and sipped it slowly. Her movements were elegant and composed, showing no trace of the servant who had handled the corpse in the dark the night before, calm and almost ruthless.

“My day begins at four in the morning,” he began, “an hour earlier than the maids. First, I check the security system of the Pleasure Palace, the handover records of the night shift guards, whether there are any abnormalities in the surveillance footage, and whether the alarm devices in each area are working properly.”

“Then I go to the kitchen to confirm the availability of ingredients for the day, especially the special ingredients ordered by VIP guests. Some guests are very picky about food, like that Tanaka businessman—”, he paused, “He likes to eat pufferfish, but it must be caught that day and processed within three hours. We will airfreight it from Shizuoka Prefecture.”

Frillie felt a wave of nausea as she recalled Tanaka's greasy face from last night.

"Around five o'clock, I started organizing Miss Sakura's schedule. Which guests she would meet, which activities she would attend, and what gifts or documents she needed to prepare," Qinglan continued. "At six o'clock, I woke Miss Sakura up and helped her wash and change. At seven o'clock, I accompanied her to breakfast. Starting at eight o'clock, I handled the daily affairs of the Paradise Pavilion, account reconciliation, personnel scheduling, and communication with other departments."

"Sounds like you're very busy."

“Yes,” Qinglan nodded, “but the afternoons are relatively free. Miss usually takes a nap, or reads or arranges flowers. I will use this time to handle some personal matters.”

"for example?"

Qinglan glanced at her, her pale golden right eye shimmering slightly.

"For example, dealing with 'accidents' like Tanaka's business," he said calmly. "Every year, Gokurakukan has guests who 'die unexpectedly.' Some are genuine accidents, and some are accidents we create."

His bluntness surprised Frillie.

"Aren't you afraid I'll tell others?"

“Miss Qianyu wouldn’t,” Qinglan smiled. “Because you were involved last night as well. We are already accomplices.”

He took a sip of tea and continued, “The work at night is more complicated. I have to make sure every VIP guest is properly ‘taken care of’ while monitoring their conversations and gathering valuable intelligence. Some guests will let slip information when they’re drunk or excited, and that information is very useful.”

"for example?"

“For example, a certain senator accepted bribes from a construction company and approved a project with safety hazards. A certain tycoon has secret accounts overseas used for money laundering. A certain priest is involved in human trafficking and uses the daughters of believers to pay off debts,” Qinglan said calmly. “These secrets will become the Paradise Pavilion’s protective charms, and also the bargaining chips in the hands of the young lady.”

Frillie recalled what Sakurai Kogure had said: "The Pleasure House is where they indulge their desires, and it's also where we collect their secrets."

"Don't you feel disgusted by collecting this intelligence?" she asked.

Qinglan remained silent for a long time.