I Became the Cute One in the Problem-Solving Team

Two people frozen in front of a single door, huh?

What on earth should I do about this atmosphere? It was genuinely quite troublesome.

In this kind of mood, the first to snap out of it and act was Raven.

He cleared his throat quietly, tore his gaze away from me, and glanced around inside the store.

“Hmm, what kind of shop is this? Sigh, since we’re here, I might as well buy just one….”

“…”

“Phew, fine. Alright, let’s go, let’s go.”

What kind of clueless act is this? It’s honestly absurd.

I quickly grabbed Raven’s hand, who was trying to brush it off, and walked outside.

Seeing that, he seemed to realize I wasn’t hiding anything and followed me without a fuss.

…Then what was the point of wearing a robe and that Goblin Mask?

I mean, one of the reasons I came all the way to the Northern Slum was that it was a place Raven rarely visited.

Meeting openly here… suggests he’s been following me for quite a while, no matter how you look at it.

So, was there a point in hiding? The situation had been blown from the start.

“Customer! If you come back within a week, I’ll refund you for free! If you change your mind, make sure to stop by! Got it!”

“…!”

“And you… come here. You need a good scolding. Did you forget to collect money from the customer? There are other things to forget!”

“Eek! Master! I’m sorry!”

I waved my hand towards Tara, who was yelling outside the store, then walked alongside Raven, leaving the Northern Slum.

I could hear the young man with yellow hair getting scolded by Tara as we moved away.

But if he sold things without collecting money… he’ll just have to deal with the consequences.

The way out of the slum was much easier than getting in.

That was because Raven dealt with the punks blocking the way moderately well.

“Hey, hand over everything you’ve got… ack!”

“Uh? Jason is acting like a fly… Pardon me! Sorry for not recognizing you!”

“Right. Good work.”

“…”

The punks stacked with muscles collapsing like leaves from a palm slap.

It really struck me how Raven was in a league far beyond ordinary people.

After walking for almost an hour, we left the Northern Slum and arrived near the office, stepping into a familiar franchise cafe and sitting face to face.

Me, sneaking into the black market to buy something, and Raven, who got caught tailing me.

It was an awkward situation in many ways.

“Hmm. I’ll go with a chocolate latte. What about you, part-timer? The usual apple mango?”

“…!”

Nod, nod.

I nodded at Raven’s words, swallowing my saliva.

He’s crazy about sweet things, especially chocolate. As for me, I prefer the refreshing sweetness of fruits.

In particular, the apple mango drink, which combines the rich sweetness of mango with the tartness of apple, was one of my favorite beverages at this cafe.

‘Wait, hold on. This isn’t the time to be blissed out.’

I snapped back to reality and swallowed the saliva pooling in my mouth.

Then, resting my fists on the table, I looked up at Raven with an expression that asked why he did that.

Why did he follow me without permission? Did he want to pick a fight with me?

That was a rather intimidating and aggressive posture that conveyed that kind of meaning.

I wondered if that message successfully reached him.

Raven, who had ordered drinks with the code engraved on the table, scratched his cheek sheepishly.

“Um, well… sigh, the thing is… they were making such a fuss.”

“…?”

“Alice and David, you know. They were wailing about making a big decision if anything happened… So I had no choice but to follow you a bit. I’m sorry about that.”

“…”

So it’s really that.

After all, there’s no way he followed on his own volition.

Though I’ve felt slightly closer to him lately, it’s only been a month since we met.

It was a bit odd that Raven, who is somewhat reserved in social relationships, would go out of his way to follow me.

But if it was a favor from David, who has ties to overprotective Alice or Sabrina lately… that would make sense.

But it was bizarre that those two weren’t anywhere around.

If they had been, it would have been obvious right away. Guess it was a proper division of roles.

‘In that case… I really don’t have a reason to be angry. He just followed because he was worried about me, after all. As long as my telekinesis didn’t get exposed, I wouldn’t need to worry too much.’

The fact that I ended up being outed was probably because I stayed in the shop too long. It felt like I got caught right at that moment while trying to figure out what was going on.

If the intention came from goodwill rather than suspicion, I had no reason to dislike it.

Given Raven’s usual behavior, he wouldn’t harbor any strange thoughts anyway.

Besides, anyone watching from afar would only see someone suddenly collapsing, so my identity as a psychic wouldn’t have been revealed.

…It wouldn’t, right?

No matter how smart Raven is, we’ve never met when I’m in my ghost form, so surely he wouldn’t have figured that out?

[ “Here are your deep chocolate latte and apple mango juice.” ]

As I was thinking that and adjusting my sitting posture, a robot waiter approached with my drinks.

Raven’s warm latte had a whole chocolate bar submerged in it, while I had a cool apple mango juice with mango slices floating on top.

Receiving our favorite beverages, we drank quietly without any conversation for a bit.

Well, I couldn’t speak, and Raven wasn’t really the type to lead conversations anyway. That was Alice’s specialty.

At this rate, we would finish our drinks and head back to the office without saying a word. Suddenly, I noticed the box that contained the terminal I bought earlier.

There wasn’t anything to do in this awkward atmosphere, so why not open this?

Thinking along those lines, I pulled the box out of the bag I’d placed on the chair beside me, and Raven, lost in thought, became curious and looked over.

“Oh right, you went all the way there to buy this, didn’t you? What exactly is it…?”

“…!”

“Wait. That’s… a terminal, right?”

Swish.

As I opened the box I placed on the table, a well-packaged terminal was revealed inside.

A slightly larger, white terminal than my palm. Somehow, it felt like it matched my color theme.

But Raven seemed puzzled by the terminal inside the box, narrowing his eyes slightly.

Did I really go all the way to the black market just for a terminal? That seemed to be what he was thinking.

Well, I was thinking he could see for himself.

I took the terminal out of the box.

Then, as he observed closely from the opposite side, he rubbed his chin and lightly critiqued it.

“Hmmm, looks like a safe design. But without a chip, isn’t it just a can? What are you planning to do about that? Want me to get you an illegal chip from the black market?”

“…”

He was right. The terminal itself was nothing more than an expensive toy.

To fully utilize it, you needed to insert a user authentication module—commonly referred to as a chip.

So, Raven’s words meant to ask whether it made sense to buy the terminal after all that trouble if the chip issue wasn’t solved. Which was indeed true.

I didn’t respond much to Raven and shook my head, then connected the charger inside the box to the terminal to power it up.

In no time, the terminal’s screen brightened up, displaying the message that initial setup was required.

Of course, there was no need to enter a name or anything. I pressed the button saying I would set it up later, neatly skipping through the process.

[ Welcome! Are you ready to swim through the world with Echo now? ]

Once everything was ready, the message that appeared on the screen was as follows.

The name of the terminal was Echo. This was something I needed to remember carefully.

Awesome! Finally, I have a terminal just for me!

With a delightfully bouncing heart, I fiddled with Echo, unable to contain my excitement.

Seeing my reaction, Raven chuckled and suggested I place an order, pointing to the order code on the table with his finger.

Hmm, that shouldn’t be too hard.

I instantly opened the camera, scanned the order code on the table with Echo, and smoothly tapped the screen to order a cake, chocolate latte, and cherry cola.

To see if the information was successfully conveyed, an alert popped up in one corner of the cafe indicating the order was complete.

Raven, who had been quietly watching me, was grinning from ear to ear when he suddenly snatched Echo from my hands.

Hey! What are you doing? Give me back my terminal!

But he only raised his voice bewildered as if he saw something unbelievable.

“Wait a minute. You just ordered with this? Um… How?”

“…?”

You told me to try!

I barely held back a laugh at Raven’s flustered expression and tilted my head innocently.

But he combed through the terminal he took, confirming that it didn’t have a chip and slapped his forehead in disbelief.

Then he flipped the terminal over and tapped the screen a few times, looking like a programmer who had witnessed a code that shouldn’t work functioning perfectly.

…Well, it wasn’t too surprising that Raven was astonished.

After opening the box and not setting anything up, even ordering online with a terminal that had no communication chip meant it was bound to catch anyone off guard.

For someone like him, who had some knowledge about terminals, it was no wonder he would be surprised. He must have just meant to poke fun at me.

But for me, already knowing the situation, it really wasn’t that shocking.

Ha, do you think I walked all that way to the Northern Black Market for nothing?

Ah, never mind. Just hand it back.

I reached out my hand towards Raven as if to say that.

Seemingly clueless, Raven returned Echo to me.

And when Echo drew closer into my arms, as if sensing the shift in atmosphere…

The Tesseract, lounging around, suddenly raised its cheerful voice.

[ Oh! Mama! Friend! ]

At that moment, Echo’s screen flickered subtly, dimming for a moment before returning to normal.

It looked as if it instinctively sensed something was very wrong.

I looked down at Echo for a moment, retracing my memories.

What popped into my head was, indeed, one of the horror episodes—a haunted terminal.