Pretending Not to Notice
That was the message left by the one who had barged into my chat window. I decided to just call him the Helper.
He'd dropped those words on me after I slept with Yupi, while I was still drowning in the afterglow.
At the time, I had no idea what the hell he meant by that.
Easier to seduce women? Did the Halo even come with a function like that?
Sounded like a straight-up scam to me.
Solis Auram — the original owner of the body I now occupied. He wielded the Halo's power flawlessly. A child of that bloodline, born bearing the mana of the sun. For all the savage temper he carried, the Halo — the divine — had chosen him.
Even in the original story, there were passages describing how Solis drew out the Halo's abilities to their absolute limit. The author of this world had vouched for it in her own novel, so it couldn't be wrong.
And that was exactly why I'd written off any notion that the Halo might have a power that made wooing women easier.
Now I think I finally understand what the Helper was getting at.
"Uuungh!"
So that's what he meant?
Ter was having an accident. Alone with a man, no less. In a cave, of all places — a dark, damp, suggestive setting. Flushed like she was in heat, she scrambled about in a flustered panic.
"That's what I'd like to ask you. I'm genuinely curious myself why she's like that."
What did he mean, "easier to seduce women"? If anything, it just made my life more complicated.
Or was this his way of blackmailing me — the situation itself an invitation to take her at will?
It was a possibility I couldn't rule out. If the old me had heard it, I'd have shot back with some lame joke — Yeah right, like that'd work? Take a hike! — and dismissed it outright.
But after achieving my first union with Yupi, my thinking had changed. I can do it. The me of right now can!
A mysterious Helper was backing me — someone with the power to drive women to climax, turn them into fools who knew nothing but sex, and even make them squirt. And he was extending that protection to me.
Of course...
This doesn't quite sit right with me.
It wasn't my style, so I deliberately ignored the opening. Once, maybe — but letting this happen a second time felt like a step too far.
"Observe the situation meticulously. Then, in exhaustive detail. Once we've identified the cause, we analyze it, and we resolve it. That's my approach."
"Cough — what nonsense! If anything, I'm the one shedding tears of blood here. Do you have any idea the anguish of watching that precious holy water soak into the ground right before my very eyes?"
Ah. The Writer was looking at me with pure contempt. Her revulsion bled through the chat window and crawled along my skin, raising goosebumps.
"I'm kidding, kidding. I was flustered, that's all. Words slipped out."
"Believe it or don't, here's one thing I'll say. So what exactly am I supposed to do here? Shove a finger into Ter's urethra or something?"
All we could do was stand by and watch. Once I made that clear, the Writer posted a deep-sighing emoticon in the chat and offered her condolences.
"Why is this happening to me! It won't stop — huuugh!"
Ter was putting on a magnificent fountain show. From her side of it, I could see how desperately she was trying to hold it in. She stamped her feet in place, then clenched her legs together and sank to the ground, spreading her short skirt as wide as it would go in a frantic effort to hide the water she'd let out.
She wasn't particularly fussed about her body getting dirty. Naturally — pissing yourself openly in front of another person was the greater shame.
The day she swore to become head of her family, dressed in gowns that never quite fit, she had absorbed the peculiar pride of body and mind that aristocrats carry. Born a bastard, denied the special standing her sister enjoyed, she had spent her life proving herself through results so no one would look down on her.
Flawless. Immaculate. She had striven tirelessly to become a person worthy of that word. How hard must she have worked to never once expose her own failings to the world? I knew from reading the original just how much strain that had put on her.
For a woman like that, a spectacle like this — one she wouldn't want to show even to a child in swaddling clothes.
"Yikes. What a state. Wetting yourself in front of another person."
"Shut up..."
Head bowed in shame, she wouldn't even meet my eyes. She probably wanted to die of embarrassment on the spot.
"Stay right there."
I took pity on her. I directed mana at Ter, and sunlight mana steeped in bright golden warmth flowed into her body. The puddle that had soaked the cave floor, her damp clothes, her wet legs — everything dried in seconds, as if run through a dryer.
"All better now?"
Ter slipped a hand under her skirt and gingerly straightened up from her crouch. Looks like even her underwear dried just fine.
"I wet myself. In front of someone else. Like a clumsy little fool."
"Yep."
"Haaah."
Ter pressed her forehead against the cave wall, eyes vacant. Unable to accept this reality, she took a long moment of zen. A little later, having calmed herself, she turned to me wearing her usual sly expression.
"I'd like you to never breathe a word of this to anyone. That said..."
Pretending it was nothing, managing her expression with practiced ease, Ter made her request. The cool, graceful move would have been to just nod and keep my mouth shut — but my mischievous streak kicked in, and a smile curled across my lips.
"If Yupi ever found out, this could get fun. That our scatterbrained little sister peed herself right in front of her boyfriend."
Crackle! I'd touched a nerve — sparks burst from Ter's hand. Knowing full well she couldn't beat me, though, they fizzled out almost immediately.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing, really. If I had to name a wish, I'd say I'm just dying to see the look on Yupi's face when she hears about it."
"Quit joking around. Provoke me any further and I'll genuinely get angry."
"Tch. No fun at all."
Having caught on that my words were deliberate bait, she hardened her expression — as if to say she wouldn't dance to my tune one step further.
If it were Chloe, she'd have raged hard enough to bring the whole cave down. I'd been hoping for a reaction that entertaining, and now the mood was thoroughly spoiled.
"The lesson was cut short today by a certain someone's bodily functions. That's all for now."
"Wait — we're ending already?"
Ter glared at me, brow furrowed in disbelief. Tch. If it's over, it's over. What's with the scowl.
"Right now you can't even do properly what I already taught you. Teaching you anything more here would be pointless."
"I can manage at least what you showed me!"
Ter drew out the Thunderbolt and tried to give it form. Shaping mana into constructs was her specialty, so I fully expected her not to fail—
Crack!
"Huh...?"
Far from gathering, the mana scattered even faster, and her panic was plain to see.
"What did I tell you? I said it wouldn't work."
"Wait, I've only just started. A little more repetition and—"
Crack!
Crash!
Rumble!
"See? Not so easy, is it."
Ter kept at it, but not a hair's breadth of progress showed. Eventually she seemed to realize this was no small hurdle, and gave up on gathering the mana altogether.
"Once you can hold the Divine Relic's shape, we'll move on to the next lesson."
"Fine, I'm going. I'll stay here a little longer before I head out."
Since I'd come all the way to the cave, I intended to pick up the training I'd been doing before. Ter's lesson was over, and she had no further business here. She slipped out through the entrance she'd come in by.
"What now?"
"She absolutely will not be able to shape the lightning. That part isn't something effort can fix."
A Divine Relic reveals itself only to those it acknowledges. The lightning — the Wrathful Heavenly Thunder — had promised to take Yupi Citrine as its master and sworn its loyalty to her.
Ter knew none of this. She believed the relic had chosen her, when in truth it had merely been handed over — Yupi's sacrifice to save her sister.
To the Writer, this probably looked like training a stray dog. I couldn't say I felt none of that myself. But it would still be a good experience for Ter.
"Someday, all that effort will shine. Let's just wait until then."
Because the moment she cleared up the misunderstanding with Yupi and found her own destiny, Ter would achieve growth beyond anything anyone expected.
The next day, after the interminable lectures, we gathered at the café once again.
"I'm gonna diiiiiiie..."
Dark circles ringed Eva's eyes. Face planted on the table, she let out a moan that sounded like her dying breath.
"Why so dead? What happened?"
"C-Chloe m-makes me study. Every s-single free moment she s-sends problems by text... waaah..."
"Brutal. For real."
Apparently, in the time since I'd left the café, Eva had been put through the wringer by Chloe. Marin, suffering in her own way, leaned against the sofa with a sour look on her face.
"I'm the one who finds it fascinating that you two can doze off with those scores."
"Mister, you really shouldn't say things that suit you so little..."
"Yeah, exactly. You strike me as the type to savor a little degeneracy more than anyone."
"Judging people by their looks isn't nice. Also — why 'mister'?"
When we first met on the walkway, I'd let it slide since she didn't know my age. But by now she surely knew we were students of the same year? When I asked her about it, she answered with impeccable sincerity.
"Y-you're r-really the same age as me!? You didn't l-lie about your age to get in here?"
"Solis. Lying is bad. Don't do it."
"Haaah. I should just keep my mouth shut."
Arguing with these two would only cost me, so I swallowed the irritation rising in my chest. More importantly — did I really look that old? I thought I looked reasonably decent for my age, honestly.
"Hello, everyone!"
"Hiiiek!"
"Ah — the demon!"
Just as I was checking my own reflection, Chloe barged in. At her appearance, Marin and Eva went white as sheets and hid behind my back.
Good lord. Chloe must have run those two into the ground.
"I-I don't want to study, please."
"Absolutely opposed. Absolutely opposed."
"Everyone, calm down. Today, instead of written work, we'll be practicing something else."
"S-s-something else?"
"Mm. I expect everyone here will get a perfect score."
"R-r-really?"
"Hooray. Hooray-hooray."
One of them cheered at the prospect of getting home sooner; another, at being spared the demon's torment. Chloe smiled at the pair of them and beckoned with a hand.
"Everyone outside. Today is field practice."