"Sigh…"
"Back to work again…"
Inside his own foot spa, Su Luo let out a weary groan.
"You idiot—this is your shop. Isn't it normal that you have to work?" Noren Ace looked at him like he was hopeless. "Besides, weren't you the one who told Guanghui you didn't want any other foot-massage staff? If you're not here, the place literally can't run."
"Noren, you don't get it. Sometimes people just want to slack off for a while! It's called a lazy phase! It's human nature!"
Su Luo sprawled across the table like a salted fish, flopping dramatically.
"What lazy phase… You're just being lazy."
Noren Ace walked over, reached out her pale, slender fingers, and gently pinched his cheek.
"You don't understand. When you grow up, you'll—ow!"
"What kind of 'talking to a child' tone is that?! I'm not a kid!"
Her pinch turned into a proper twist, and Su Luo's face started to hurt for real.
And then—right in front of him—her ample chest bounced as she moved, and Su Luo immediately surrendered.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not little. Not little at all."
"So perfunctory…"
While the two of them were shooting the breeze, the shop's doorbell rang.
A horsegirl wearing a white hat and sunglasses pushed the door open.
"Hello, this is the place that's rumored to be…"
"Yes—this is the famous 'rumored' foot spa~"
Noren Ace instantly slipped into work mode, putting on a perfectly practiced customer-service smile.
"Eh… Miss… have I seen you somewhere before?"
"Ah, that must be your imagination. I think this is our first time meeting, Miss Clerk~?"
The horsegirl in sunglasses paused for the briefest moment before answering, almost imperceptibly.
"Is that so…?"
Noren Ace studied her—hat, shades, the whole getup. She really felt like she'd seen her somewhere.
"Anyway, can I go in now?"
"Oh! Of course." Noren Ace hurriedly led her inside. "By the way, how should we address you, Miss?"
"…"
The mysterious customer lowered her head, thought for a moment, then said:
"Luna. Just call me Luna."
"Luna… got it! Miss Luna, this way!"
—
When Su Luo guided the customer who called herself "Luna" into a quiet private room in the back and motioned for her to sit in the comfortable massage chair, Luna didn't sit right away.
She looked around the room—professional, even tasteful—then let her gaze settle on Su Luo, who was about to go fetch hot water.
"Mr. Su Luo, right?"
Luna spoke, her voice coming through the sunglasses with a faint, almost unnoticeable edge of scrutiny.
"I'm a little curious. As the owner of a… rather distinctive shop like this, why did you choose to open in a place like Kasamatsu?"
She tilted her head slightly. Under the brim of her hat, her gaze seemed to lock onto him with unsettling precision.
"The spending power here is probably far behind the cities around Central. And I've heard your promotions seem to focus more on… Trezan Academy?"
Huh?
When did I ever advertise this place in Central?
Wait…
Is someone advertising my shop for me?
No wonder so many horsegirls from Tokyo have been showing up lately…
The hell?!
Damn it—someone's making me do overtime!
Who the hell is it?!
Luna sharply sensed the air pressure around Su Luo's back drop in an instant. A strange mix of confusion, sudden realization, and—finally—dense, seething resentment silently spread outward.
Su Luo hadn't made a sound. He hadn't done anything dramatic. And yet Luna felt as if she could see a solid, black cloud of low pressure forming right above his head.
"…?"
Behind the sunglasses, Luna's brow quirked slightly.
Was that… her imagination?
A small doubt rose in her mind.
Why did the moment she mentioned promotion at Central Trezan Academy, the owner's reaction become so… weird?
It didn't look like surprise at having his business strategy exposed. It looked more like… the bone-deep resentment of an exhausted worker discovering they'd been forced into pointless extra labor.
"Ahem." Su Luo finally turned around. He forced a smile that was almost professionally perfect—except it came out stiff, with the tiniest twitch at the corner of his mouth. "Miss Luna, you may have misunderstood. Our shop… doesn't currently have such grand promotional ambitions."
His tone was steady, but with her keen eye, Luna still caught a fleeting trace beneath his words—something that felt like he was grinding his teeth.
Su Luo gently set a wooden bucket filled with hot water beside Luna's feet, his face wearing a flawless, almost warmly genial work smile.
"Miss Luna, please relax. I'll provide you with the best service."
His voice was gentle. His movements were textbook. Everything looked perfectly professional.
And yet, staring at that overly "kind" smile, Luna blinked behind her sunglasses, and an inexplicable, subtle unease crept up inside her.
That smile… there was nothing wrong with it. But it felt like a perfect mask over something else—enough to stir a faint warning reflex deep in her instincts.
Was she overthinking it? Maybe this owner just had exceptionally good service.
She hesitated, then decided to behave like a proper customer. She gave a soft "Mm," and obediently soaked her feet into the pleasantly warm water.
The heat wrapped around her feet, loosening her up, easing her into comfort—and temporarily pressing down that hard-to-name suspicion.
She watched as Su Luo rolled up his sleeves and crouched in front of her, preparing for the massage.
Maybe… I really am thinking too much?
Luna told herself, deciding to just enjoy this service that everyone claimed was unbelievably effective.
Everyone knew Su Luo was the kind of good young man who never got stuck in mental spirals.
Whenever that kind of problem started to form, he always chose to vent it immediately.
Sorry, Miss Luna.
Please accept my sincere service!
Su Luo said nothing more. Both hands plunged into the warm water and precisely grasped Luna's small, pale feet.
There was a faint impatience in his movements—less like "service," and more like he was handling a task that needed to be finished right now.
His fingertips pressed down with force, almost brutally kneading the pressure points on her soles.
"Mm…!"
The sudden, intense stimulation forced a short, startled sound out of Luna's throat. She instinctively tried to pull her foot back—but Su Luo held her firmly, leaving her no room to move.
The force carried a commanding, uncompromising strength. The pressure points he hit were precise and vicious. Soreness, swelling, tingling—sensations shot up like electric current, and her whole body tensed without permission.
This technique… it's way too rough!
And yet, in the middle of the near-torturous pressing, something strange began to spread.
That hard force seemed to pierce through flesh and muscle, striking perfectly at the exact knots where fatigue and stiffness had built up from her daily work.
The sour, unbearable ache gradually twisted into a deeper sense of release—as if blocked channels were being forcibly cleared, and tight muscles, after the pain, were met with an unprecedented slackening.
An indescribable comfort actually grew out of the roughness, like warm water slowly flowing through her limbs and bones.
Luna's cheeks flushed uncontrollably—not from embarrassment this time, but from the body's most honest reaction.
She bit her lower lip hard, trying to suppress any strange sounds that might slip out. Behind the sunglasses, her eyes grew faintly wet and unfocused under the complex, overwhelming sensation.
Th-this… what is this feeling…?
I…
I can't hold it in…
"Ohohohoho—!"
And just like that, the shop gained its second "fairy lady"