Chapter 104 104 The first plan failed
The mayor decided not to stay around for what would happen next. He quickly ran back to his office with a happy expression on his face.
After all, he had done what he came here to do. He had managed to get Lady Yoko into trouble with the authorities.
As soon as the kid agitated Lady Yoko's beloved beast and got hurt, everyone would point at her and blame her. This kid would have to die so that she could not spill anything about what happened.
But the mayor was more than confident that he would be able to pull off killing a kid.
"Mayor, why are you in such a happy mood? Why don't you share the reason with me as well?"
The mayor almost felt his heart break out of his chest once he heard Lady Yoko speak. Her voice was coming from right behind the mayor.
And he turned around, only to see Lady Yoko outside of his office. She seemed to have followed him outside.
'Did she notice anything? Did Lady Yoko see what happened here? Does she know what I did? Does it matter?"
After all, even if Lady Yoko knew what the mayor had done, she would not have any evidence. And the mayor was also crafty enough to get out of any accusation.
Once the whole town was angry at Yoko Tsurugi, they would not listen to her reasonings and throw her out.
"Y-You. What are you doing out of the office? I asked you to wait for me in there."
The mayor pointed his finger at Yoko dramatically to drive his point further in. But Yoko seemed uninterested in what he had to say about her.
She just rolled her eyes and watched the mayor let his anger out.
"I did wait for you in the office at first. But since you were taking too long, I decided to just come out and find you myself. Why, is there a reason I should not have done this?"
Yoko asked and the mayor held his breath back. He could not let Yoko know what he was planning.
So, to stop himself from saying anything to Yoko, he quickly diverted his attention away from Yoko and looked away.
"A-Anyway, you should have waited in my office for me. Let's head back now and finish our talk."
The mayor was insistent and forced Yoko to turn back. For a minute, it seemed like Yoko would head back on her own. That made the mayor far happier than he thought he would be.
But then, Yoko turned back and headed toward the beast's enclosures.
"You know what? I think I need to check in on my best friend I brought back. I am sure nothing happened to him but it would put my mind at ease to check."
The mayor panicked as soon as he heard Yoko speaking about checking in on the beast. He could not allow Yoko to do that.
"N-No, you cannot. I mean, you should not disturb the beast right now. Don't you trust the beast to be on his best behavior?"
The mayor was sweating bullets now. His whole plan depended on Yoko being here and not going after the beast.
"Mayor, I trust the 'beast' to be on his best behavior. That does not mean I trust 'humans' to be equally good to the beast. I should head back now for sure."
The mayor had nothing to say about Yoko's logic once she finished speaking. After all, he knew that Yoko was stubborn and would not listen to him.
He could only hope for the kid to hurry up and agitate the beast faster. That way, the mayor will not have to wait for Yoko to act.
...….
Amane was not surprised to see the mayor try and stop her from going after the beast. She had seen him try to get the kid to head toward the beast's enclosures.
Usually, Amane would have run out immediately and stopped the kid from touching the beast in question.
But an enlightened beast was different.
If nothing major happened, the Gwazi would not attack the human child no matter what.
And once Sakura was there on the scene, she would be able to handle it all with ease as well.
"Well, if you insist on going back, mayor, then we shall head back as well now. I am sure we will have a good time in the future."
Amane held her hand out toward the mayor. But the stubborn old man refused to touch Amane.
He tried to pretend like he did not care about Amane but the mayor was full of pride and prejudice. He was only going to follow his standards about things.
"Hump, let's head back. We have wasted enough time fooling around anyway."
Amane shook her head and followed the mayor. She looked toward the Gwazi's direction one last time and noticed Sakura heading toward the enclosure. She seemed to have noticed the extra person in that enclosure as well.
'Sakura will be able to handle things with ease after this. I hope she does not make this situation worse.'
Meanwhile, Sakura came back from her short washroom break, only to notice that a kid was trying to run toward the Gwazi.
Alarm quickly settled inside her mind and she ran toward the kid and picked her up before she could make it to the end.
"What do you think you are doing? Don't you know that it is dangerous to meet beasts like this? You could have startled the beast and gotten yourself into trouble."
Sakura scolded the kid in front of her. But the kid only looked away without saying anything.
It angered Sakura more and the kid finally flinched once she noticed the look she was getting.
All the confidence and joy drained out of the kid's face and she suddenly looked away.
"I-I am sorry. I did not mean to cause you any trouble. I just wanted to see the beast up close since it looked cool and…"
The kid babbled on, trying to justify what she had been trying to do.
The more Sakura heard the kid speak, the more her head ached. She did not want to hear anymore about what this kid had thought she was doing.
"Look kid, I will take you back now. But I hope you will not be this reckless next time."
Continue your saga on empire
The kid shook her head and looked away. She was ashamed of what happened in front of her.
But once she was over her shame, the kid was escorted out of the enclosure by Sakura. And then Sakura breathed a sigh of relief at the tragedy she had avoided.
"This feels like a conspiracy to me. I cannot believe a kid managed to sneak past the barrier all on her own."
Sakura checked on the barrier once more. But there was nothing wrong with the barrier in front of her.
Now it was clear that there was some kind of foul play at work here.
Sakura did not want to stay outside for any longer. But now Sakura was sure she would have to spend the night out as well.
"Ugh, this is annoying. I will have to check the perimeter once more and ensure nothing happens when Yoko is not here."
Sakura did not know if it was only the kid, or if anyone else was involved in this situation as well.
...
"Lady Yoko, is something wrong? You are looking a little distracted."
Amane looked at the mayor in front of her. The mayor looked distracted and a little annoyed at the lack of attention he was getting.
Amane's smirk widened just a little bit more when she heard the mayor's nervous voice.
"Hmm, you think I am distracted? Well, I guess you might be right in saying that."
Amane watched the mayor flinch in front of her. As expected, the mayor was not able to look Amane in the face after that.
They both continued to walk back toward the mayor's room with a tense silence.
But the mayor was brewing plans inside his mind. He was looking for ways he could further his plan tonight.
Since the kid had failed to work, the mayor would need to find another way to agitate the beast. And the only thing he could think of us - drug usage.
He would drive the beast mad with the use of drugs and then disperse the smell so that no one would know.
This way, he would not be caught and the blame would shift to Yoko Tsurugi for bringing in a mad beast.
Amane could guess what the mayor was thinking by just looking at his face. She could have exposed him outright if she wanted to.
But she decided to let the mayor try his plan out. Foiling someone's plan was much more fun than stopping them after all.
And the mayor also needed to learn that he could not beat Amane, no matter what he tried to do.