Under the Veil of Night

"SIS! You took the sweets that I made yesterday, didn't you?" Laura glared at her sister with puffed cheeks. She had just tried creating a different recipe yesterday and stored the results of her work in the refrigerator after tasting one. This morning, she opened the refrigerator only to find more than half missing.

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

"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 into complete chaos. Although her cooking did see some improvement in the end, it was still too much for her eyes to see.

"You should buy more food for yourself, Sis. Don't go taking other people's snacks!"

"They looked tasty, so I took them."

"If you do it again, I won't make sweets for you again for weeks."

Kanae���s face fell. She absolutely loved her sister's delicious sweets. Getting up from her seat, she hugged her sister from the back.

"You're the best sister in the world, the most beautiful, most caring, sweetest, and greatest chef. You surely won't let me starve, right?"

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

"Come on, you've been threatening me with food a lot lately."

"If I don't do that, you won't listen to me!" Laura pouted. The only thing that her sister cared about was food, so it was the only weapon at her disposal to make sure that her sister didn't make a mess 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 how Kanae's talent would only result in the destruction of the kitchen, she genuinely hoped that her sister would never enter the kitchen again.

"I will listen, I will listen."

"Liar!"

In the end, the two of them argued for the entire morning before Laura had to leave for 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 due to the awful condition of this city. She also didn't have the intention to get involved in Kara Company as she wanted to leave it all in her sister's hands.

Mulling in her seat for a while, Kanae sighed. She didn't feel like reviewing the work that Jason left behind for her to handle. It was tiring and took too much work.

What should she do now?

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

…

Kale Company

"You came to visit again, Kanae?" Taka smiled wryly when he saw Kanae. It was still early in the morning, but Kanae had come. He was glad that he was still busy as an errand boy delivering packages, allowing him to meet 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. Did anything special happen lately?"

Taka shook his head. "Good morning, Kanae. Nothing much has happened so far. The company just had an inspection not long ago. I think, the progress of our company is attracting collaborators."

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

"Yes."

"Can you share your secret? Many other companies are at an all-time low because of the recent changes in Black Street, but Kale Company seems to be thriving."

Taka smiled. There was no way that this company didn't get affected. However, Neo used their power in Black Street to make sure that the company's operations didn't change too much. It was done covertly to not let anyone find out this company's strong connections to the underworld.

After all, it would do them no good if someone 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 entered the lobby from the other side. Her eyebrows arched in confusion.

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

Taka glanced at where Kanae was looking. He smiled. "They're people who lost their jobs recently because of the change in Black Street. Some companies rely on their connection to the clans as their backing. Once the Tamari Clan got destroyed, this is what happened to most of their employees."

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

It would surely affect the overall distribution of income, 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. So many things could happen in this city and change the lives of numerous people.

"I see. Is Kale Company still hiring people?"

Taka raised his eyebrows. "Don't tell me you want to apply again. Boss will not admit you as 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 have been unemployed but have decent characters. It would be nice if they can find proper work."

Noticing that Taka didn't answer her, Kanae turned her head to look at him 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 said the same thing as Boss did 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 suitable. Some work required higher education levels because of the nature of the work. Even though it didn't directly mean that higher education equaled better work, it was just how society worked.

"He has better insight."

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

"Yeah."