Ma?l woke up in a fluffy bed staring at a white ceiling with cornices. The walls were light beige and one of them had a painting of a landscape, a river flowing through the meadows. He didn’t recognize the place. A bright sun streamed in from the window. He glanced around the unfamiliar surroundings for half a second. The Peninsula Hotel. Kaori was curled up, her head resting on his arm.

  This truly is a brand new world! He thought as he gazed lovingly at his sleeping companion. She still wore her shirt, but the bra he failed to remove the night before had mysteriously disappeared and her bare breasts were pressed against his side.

  He caressed her cheek, trying to convince himself this was real. She groaned and buried her face into his chest, pulling at his side as if he was a bolster pillow. She wasn’t ready to be woken up yet, he wisely concluded. He allowed his mind to drift, taking stock of their current situation.

  It had been a crazy ride so far. Barely a week since she fell out of her window and into his life, knocking him flat into the ground and dragging him into another world. He’d truly been isekaied!

  I should check my stats window, he chuckled to himself in derision.

  Show stats! He ordered mentally. Nothing happened.

  God, I’m such a nerd! He looked at Kaori’s shape burrowed into his side.

  Well, I got some time to burn. Fine. No stat windows. What else should I do in this new world? Situation analysis. What are my priorities? First, secure a weapon. He’d ditched the biker’s gun into the sea. He looked around and his eyes landed on his massive arm. He didn’t need a weapon, he was a weapon. He tried to move on down the list, which should have been a supply of food—or was it learning magic?—but he was… troubled. He was missing something important, it was right there, just at the edge of his consciousness and he couldn’t quite grasp it…

  The biker’s GUN! The man had pulled a gun and tried to shoot them! Same when Kaori jumped out of the window. How many gunshots had he heard? Five? Maybe six?

  He’d been swept up by this wild adventure, gone overboard in the storm, drowned into Kaori’s eyes and somehow lost track of this very important fact. Someone was trying to kill her. No. Several someones. An organization probably, because it couldn’t be just bad luck to run into the one biker looking for them. More likely there had been other killers deployed at other major intersections.

  What kind of organization had a number of killers at the ready in the middle of the night?

  He was beginning to realize he had grossly underestimated the strength of their opposition. He’d thought they were in the clear after escaping on board the ship, but by now, they should have found the car.

  From there, they’d find the ship missing, get the AIS tracking…

  Screw them. That trail ended cold in the storm! Track that you bastards! He grinned, pleased they were safe.

  His heart sank.

  We took the plane with Aoki’s passport! If they caught that, they know we are in Bangkok! They might even know where we are, right now!

  His world was starting to cave in on him. Their helicopter ride should have shaken off the pursuit, but what if it didn’t? Any police contact would know where Noi was staying! It wouldn’t take a genius to guess where he would have taken them last night. It was now well into the morning. Depending on the enemy’s resources, it was totally possible for someone to pinpoint their location!

  Ma?l took a deep breath. Calm the fuck down! Panic won’t help. He concentrated on his breathing, stretching his awareness as far as it would go. He listened to the surroundings. The glass door was obviously well insulated for he couldn’t hear the raucous sounds of Bangkok’s streets. In fact the whole place was silent, except for the muffled sound of light steps outside, in the corridor. He tensed, focusing all of his attention on the sound. It was… coming closer?

  Ma?l pushed Kaori off delicately, placing his finger across her mouth. She made to protest but understood and stayed quiet, hidden under the thick cover. The foot steps were now right outside their door.

  They stopped!

  Ma?l slid off the bed and positioned himself behind the door. He moved without a sound, his naked body covered with a bulging layer of tense muscles as if protected by armor. He seemed a chiseled statue, more stone than man.

  The soft buzz of the key card pressing against the door’s lock resounded like a warning alarm and the door opened softly with a light “click.”

  A black nuzzle passed the edge of the door!

  Ma?l lunged. Clasping the intruder’s hand in a vice grip, he hurled himself forward, and pivoting on his front foot, he used his momentum to whip his opponent’s through the air, slamming his back onto the bed, upside down. Pinning him with one hand over the mouth without even looking, he turned toward the door. No one else in sight.

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  Satisfied, he locked his eyes on the form pathetically struggling under his iron grip and gasped in horror.

  A young woman. Wearing the hotel’s uniform. Housekeeping. He glanced at the floor, searching for the gun.

  A vacuum cleaner.

  He’d just assaulted a maid!

  Instantly letting go, he stepped back allowing the maid to gather herself. She sat on the edge of the bed with a look of utter confusion. Fortunately, the bed had absorbed the impact and she was unhurt, but what the hell just happened?

  She stared at her aggressor, eyeing him from head to toes with shock and disbelief. The giant was completely naked. Completely.

  Ma?l felt her stare on him but she wasn’t looking at his face. She was staring at… He followed her gaze and let out a most unmanly shriek as he covered his nether regions with both hands.

  Kaori, who had risen from the covers, exploded with laughter at the incongruity of the scene. Somehow this released the tension and the maid smiled. She didn’t avert her gaze. Let him squirm. He was a bright shade of crimson as both girls inspected brazenly the details of his anatomy.

  Ma?l promptly executed a strategic retreat to the bathroom and wrapped himself in a towel.

  When he came out, the maid seemed to have mostly recovered. Had Ma?l been alone, the situation would have been terrifying, but Kaori’s presence shone the scene in a different light as she pleaded a misunderstanding. Ma?l bowed deeply, his hands above his head, apologizing the best he could for his unconscionable behavior.

  Eventually, she waved the matter off.

  “That’s fine, that’s fine. What are you doing here anyway? These are police rooms and this one was supposed to be free, you’re not on the planning!”

  Noi, you bloody bastard!

  “Err… I’m a… security consultant?” Ma?l answered. It sounded more like a question than an answer, but he decided to work with the lie as an actor getting into a role.

  “I work with the police, we arrived late last night, and it seems Noi… lieutenant colonel Noi forgot to log us in.”

  The maid smiled, finally understanding. Noi wasn’t the first police officer to take advantage of the security deal to accommodate some friends. Happened every year, though not quite like that. Never like that!

  Ma?l grabbed his wallet and pressed a few thousand bahts into her hand.

  “For your troubles. Once again, I’m truly sorry, nong…” he glanced at her name tag, “nong Lek.”

  She looked at the bills and pocketed them with a wide smile. It was easily half a month of salary. Better yet, she now had one very juicy story to tell her friends about the naked farang and his gorgeous Japanese princess.

  Kaori closed the door behind the maid, and turned to Ma?l.

  “What on earth was that?”

  She sounded upset. Worse, disappointed.

  Ma?l’s heart sank. He screwed up pretty bad. Footsteps in a hotel did not mean “killer at the door.” And mistaking the head of a vacuum cleaner for a gun? What was I thinking?

  Now he had to explain to Kaori he’d gotten carried away with the whole spying thing. Where to start?

  She was waiting for an explanation, and he was like a school kid who had to explain that his dog really did eat his homework.

  “We went through the airport yesterday.” he blurted out.

  “What has that got to do with anything?” she replied, incredulous.

  “I… I thought that maybe the organization trying to kill you found your trail. We used your real passport yesterday…” he said looking contrite, “then I heard some really light footsteps in the corridor, like someone approaching stealthily, and when she opened the door without knocking…”

  Kaori looked at him stunned.

  She had been about to berate him for being a violent paranoid lunatic, but she was the one in the wrong! He thought they were being hunted by a spy organization and he was trying his best to protect her. He couldn’t know she was just running from a crazy cheating fiancé and his henchmen—well connected to be sure, but by now, he was probably arrested already.

  It had been a week and Japanese police was well known for its effectiveness and competence. No matter Oroshi’s connections, getting caught by the CCTV cameras firing a gun at her in the Chinzanso hotel was a scandal impossible to recover from.

  It’s my fault, he doesn’t know I’m just avoiding the media while the police wraps things up, she thought. I overplayed the danger and now he’s trying his best to protect me from some international criminal organization!

  She looked at him with renewed respect. He thought he was facing the criminal underworld and still chose to stand with her, no matter the odds!

  “You did good, but we are not in Japan anymore, we are safe here. I’ll check on the situation, but we should be in the clear already. For now, just relax, we don’t want to go to jail for killing maids, do we?” she said with a hug.

  He grinned. She was hugging him, therefore everything was right with the world.

  “Got it. Not assaulting any more maids. I don’t think my wallet can take it anyway.”

  She chuckled.

  “Come on, let’s get dressed. I need to see what Bangkok is like.”