Miss Witch, even if we're poor, we can't sell ourselves!

Deep in the alley, the footsteps completely disappeared around the corner.

The witch wearing a baseball cap leaned against the wall, panting for a while, before finally taking off the cap to reveal a head of short, chestnut-brown hair that had been pressed down into a mess.

She wiped the sweat from her forehead and turned to look behind her. The sunglasses-wearing witch had finally caught up, one hand on her knee, the other pulling off her sunglasses to reveal her eyes rolling back in her head.

"Didn't...didn't keep up?"

"Follow a ghost."

He stuffed the baseball cap into his pocket, looking like he'd just finished a marathon he hadn't even registered for.

"Do you know how fast that little girl runs? I've never pushed myself that hard in my physical fitness test."

The sunglasses-wearing witch leaned against the wall, catching her breath for a while before she could catch her breath. Then she took out her phone, swiped the screen, and tapped on a contact whose profile picture was a pink rabbit.

The phone rang twice before being answered.

A sickeningly sweet girl's voice came from over there, as sweet as cotton candy.

"How's it going, my dear little employees? Have you finished the task yet?"

The person in the baseball cap and sunglasses exchanged a glance, both seeing a "you're the one who'll get yelled at" expression on the other's face.

In the end, the man in the baseball cap took the phone and took a deep breath.

"We lost them."

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.

"..."

The sweetness of the marshmallow suddenly dropped, as if someone had poured a whole bottle of lemon juice into the syrup and then stomped on the table.

"Huh? Lost you? You two together have four legs, following a useless little maid, and you're telling me you lost me?"

"Sisters, I didn't hire you to go for morning runs to lose weight, okay? That shorty isn't even 1.5 meters tall! How did you manage to lose her? She just crouched down and hid behind a trash can and you couldn't find her?"

Hearing this, the sunglasses-wearing witch finally couldn't hold back anymore. She reached out and snatched the phone, her expression full of grievance and frustration.

"Miss Yuciting, could you please let us have a word with you?"

"explain."

"Do you know who you asked us to follow?"

There was a pause on the other end of the phone.

"Nonsense, just a little maid, new to Nightingale's Nest, she only started working yesterday—"

Have you been watching MikuFans lately?

"...Why would I look at that? I'm not a fan of celebrities."

The woman in sunglasses rolled her eyes, her voice sounding like a wage slave, worn down by life, reporting to her aloof boss.

"That little maid's name is Miya, right? She was trending at number one on MikuFans yesterday with three million views. Do you know what it was about?"

"I don't--"

"Meredis, an academician of the First Magic Academy of Bellavita and a top influencer in the Moon Forest with two million followers on MikuFans' education section, slept on that little maid's lap for more than an hour. The comment section has gone crazy. Some people are saying that anyone who dares to touch this little maid in the future is going against the entire Moon Forest."

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

The light from the screen danced on Yu Citing's face. Her twin ponytails hung down on either side of her shoulders, and the pink highlights at the ends of her hair gave off a faint glow in the dim room.

Seeing that the other person was silent, the sunglasses-wearing witch decided to spill the rest of her words as well.

"There's something even more exciting, do you want to hear it?"

"……explain."

"Do you know who brought the little maid into Nightingale's Nest? Reminal, I can't pronounce the long surname, but you know the name, right?"

"The top freshman at Moon Forest University this year is the only daughter of the Reminal family. And I've dug it up: Reminal was previously the number one fan in Miya's live stream, spending tens of thousands of Loren. Now some people are guessing that the little maid is her illegitimate daughter—"

"Illegitimate daughter, my foot! How old is Reminal herself!"

The person in the baseball cap couldn't help but chime in.

"Gossip bloggers don't care how big you are, as long as you get traffic. Anyway, the current online sentiment is that this little maid has the Reminal family and the academician of the Moon Forest backing her. One of these big shots is giving her money, and the other is giving her a lap pillow. Who would dare to touch such a background?"

The sunglasses-wearing witch took a deep breath and slowed down her speech.

"And most importantly, that little witch has discovered us."

"She glanced back as she turned into the alley. Although I couldn't see her expression clearly, she definitely noticed."

"That person was so skilled at taking detours, turning left and right, going around and around, I couldn't keep up even if I ran my legs off."

"If we keep chasing her, what if she turns around and knocks us both over, or worse, calls Reminal and says someone's following her? Then we really won't see the sun tomorrow morning. You know how rich girls handle things; they usually don't need to do it themselves."

The person in the baseball cap nodded vigorously beside him, as fast as a woodpecker.

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

This silence lasted even longer; the woman in sunglasses could almost hear the sound of the other woman's teeth gently grinding against her lower lip.

"……snort."

The sound of rain finally rang out from the pavilion.

"Alright, alright, come back now. You'll still get paid, but if you mess up again next time, I'll deduct half of your payment."

"Next time? There's going to be a next time?"

"Just kidding, look how scared you've made your sister."

The phone hangs up.

The man in the baseball cap and sunglasses exchanged a glance, simultaneously exhaled a long breath, and then helped each other walk out of the alley, their backs looking like those of wounded soldiers who had just retreated from the front lines of a battlefield.

In a detached villa in the eastern part of Bella Vita, the curtains on the second floor were drawn tightly shut.

The only light source in the entire room came from three curved monitor screens placed side by side, and the cool white light cast a bluish hue over everything in the room.

A young girl was sitting in front of the monitor.

She looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old, with a thin build and pale skin that didn't get much sun.

What's most striking is her hair, tied into two high pigtails with dark roots but the ends looking as if they've been dyed with pink ink.

His eyes were a deep, dark purple, and the pupils reflected the code and command-line window flashing on the screen.

She was wearing a loose hoodie that was clearly two sizes too big, with the hem covering her mid-thighs. She was barefoot, curled up on the gaming chair, with her knees pressed against her chest.

Yu Citing casually tossed her phone onto the table, then put her hands back on the keyboard.

"...Tsk."

She bit her lower lip and tapped Enter with her right index finger.

A written web crawler script begins to run, and windows pop up one after another on the screen, with the data stream scrolling down at a speed that the naked eye cannot keep up with.

MikuFans' public API, surveillance footage from the neighborhood surrounding Nightingale's Nest, and even order records from food delivery platforms were all crawled through by her mini-program, as if she had turned the entire internet upside down.

A lazy smile played on Yu Citing's lips.

Hacking is her original profession and the skill she is most proud of.

In her view, everyone in the world is a flawed system.

As long as you live in this world, you will inevitably leave a trace.

Birth records, school records, spending records, likes and comments on social media, and keywords typed into search engines at 2 a.m. that I don't want anyone to know.

All the traces pieced together make up one person.

No one is completely clean, no one is without a weakness; once you find that thorn, you can—

The data stream on the screen suddenly stopped.

Yu Citing blinked, thinking the program had frozen, and tapped the keyboard twice.

no response.

She closed the pop-up windows one by one until only one summary page remained.

There were only a few lines of text on it.

Name: Miya

Age unknown, no school records, no social media accounts, nothing else.

...?

There is no birth record, no parent information, no social security number, and no record of whereabouts.

This girl named Miya appeared out of thin air in Bellavita a year ago, without leaving a trace.

"interesting."

Her voice was much lower than when she was on the phone earlier.

It's common knowledge that people with connections aren't scary; after all, the bigger the connection, the more people are wary of them.

But the real problem is someone whose background cannot be traced.

She leaned back in her chair, her pigtails hanging down on either side of the back, her fingertips unconsciously tapping the edge of the keyboard, clattering away.

"What exactly are you, Miya?"

Yu Citing put down the keyboard, jumped off the chair barefoot, walked to the window with a thud, pinched the edge of the curtain with two fingers, and pulled it open a crack.

The afternoon light pierced the dim room and shone on her face, causing her to squint.

Then, looking at the faintly visible city skyline in the distance, she smiled and revealed two small tiger teeth.

We'll meet again sooner or later.