"Takumi-san, this... probably isn't edible, right?"
Asia spoke up carefully, warning him not to eat it.
Just from the look of it alone, it seemed dangerous.
Hearing that, Tohru immediately looked offended.
"What are you saying, you lowly human? This is my tail meat. How could it not be edible? I put a lot of effort into detoxifying it. Or do you think I didn't roast it long enough? Should I throw it back in and cook it some more?"
Tohru said it with complete seriousness, to the point that Mio and the others couldn't even laugh.
"Wait, this thing is poisonous!?"
"Come to think of it, eating Tohru's meat feels kind of hardcore. Maybe we should just..."
Before Yuki could finish, Takumi calmly cut off a piece and popped it into his mouth.
The juices burst across his tongue, rich meat flavor flooding his mouth.
Tohru, who had already grown herself a new tail, immediately leaned in excitedly.
"How is it? My tail meat is delicious, right?!"
"It's not good. There's no seasoning at all, and honestly, eating your meat really is a bit too hardcore."
Takumi answered without expression and quietly finished the piece anyway.
A dense surge of life force exploded inside his body, and his aura rose a little again.
The only thing really worth praising was that this dragon meat was the real deal.
Even without seasoning, it didn't taste terrible, and the boost it gave him after eating it was obvious.
If he kept eating it for a while, breaking into Chief God-tier should be easy.
Seeing Takumi finish her tail meat, Tohru looked as excited as some animal that had just successfully won a mate.
In her eyes, this was a symbol of her becoming one with Takumi.
This was basically a token of love.
And after seeing him eat it all, Yuki actually got a little curious. Mostly because she'd never had anything like it.
"You low... you lot can forget it. I'm not giving my meat to any of you."
Noticing Yuki's interest, Tohru gave a little huff.
Though because Takumi was right there, she corrected her wording midway through.
Her attitude was still arrogant, but compared to the beginning, it was definitely progress.
"I was just curious. I wasn't actually planning to eat it."
Yuki muttered that, then looked at the empty table.
"By the way... where's breakfast?"
"Takumi already ate it."
Tohru answered with complete sincerity.
After a brief silence, Maria asked quietly, "Yuki-san meant our breakfast."
"Why would I make breakfast for you people?"
Tohru frowned and looked at them in confusion.
In her eyes, she was Takumi's maid, so she was only going to serve him.
As for everyone else, they could do whatever they wanted.
Honestly, Tohru already found it irritating enough that they were living with Takumi.
If she hadn't been the newcomer here, she might've wanted to kill them all or drive them out.
Seeing that, Takumi let out a long sigh.
Getting Tohru to genuinely get along with them was obviously going to take time.
For now, she still couldn't truly treat them as equals from the bottom of her heart.
"Enough. I'll handle breakfast this time. Later, Tohru, you can learn from Maria. And stop cooking with tail meat all the time."
Takumi stepped in to smooth things over, then used his Alchemy Technique to create a rich, delicious breakfast for everyone and had them sit down.
"Mmm~ It smells amazing. Takumi is incredible!"
Looking at the food that had appeared in the blink of an eye, Asia instantly thought of Jesus from the Bible.
Mio, Maria, and Yuki all had their attention pulled over too.
"Wow, Brother, you can even conjure up food like this?"
"Just a new spell I picked up recently."
Takumi shrugged in response to Mio's surprise.
Then he followed up, "How's your gravity magic development been going lately?"
"I can already create a pseudo black hole!"
Mio immediately answered, proudly reporting the results of all her recent hard work.
"Mhm, very good. At this point, even against a Maou-tier opponent, you'd be able to fight."
"That's all thanks to you, Onichan~~"
As Takumi patted her head, Mio's face turned bright red, happiness written all over it.
After fusing with a Servant Piece, her potential had been developed tremendously.
But being able to reach this point also showed that she'd been working really hard on her own.
Seeing Mio getting head pats, Tohru immediately couldn't sit still anymore.
"Takumi, I want one too!!"
"Alright, alright. I'll pat your head too."
Looking at Tohru already leaning her head over, Takumi had no way to refuse.
The moment his hand ran through her hair, Tohru instantly broke into a blissful grin.
"Hehehe~~"
And seeing that, Asia, Maria, Yuki, and the others immediately shot over envious looks.
What had started as a perfectly normal breakfast had somehow turned into a full-on head-pat party.
For a moment, Takumi honestly wondered if he'd wandered into Naruto or something. Why did every single one of them want head pats?
And just as he was making his way through satisfying them one by one, Kobayashi, drunk and half-dead upstairs, finally stirred awake.
"Mmm~~ That's the best I've felt waking up in forever~~~"
After stretching lazily, Kobayashi realized her waist didn't hurt, her back didn't ache, and she felt incredibly refreshed.
But the moment she opened her eyes and looked around, she froze.
"Where... am I?"
Kobayashi looked utterly baffled.
This wide, bright bedroom with its cute pink girly style was definitely not her tiny wage-slave shoebox of an apartment.
How the hell had she gone to sleep and somehow ended up in someone else's house?
"This is bad. I really shouldn't have drunk that much. It's all that bastard boss's fault."
Muttering to herself, Kobayashi's first move was to check her clothes.
Once she realized she was still fully dressed, she let out a huge sigh of relief.
Thank God nothing happened.
"Some girl probably picked me up. I definitely need to thank her properly."
"Mmm... what the hell did I even do last night? Why do I have all these weird memory fragments?"
"I think I met a really hot guy... and then I ran into a ghost, and a dragon... and drank something insanely delicious... and I was hugging and kissing that guy..."
"Ah! What kind of messed-up dream was that? Have I just been single for too long?"
As those scattered memory fragments surfaced in her head, Kobayashi's face flushed bright red.
As an adult woman, she'd never had a sex dream that vivid before.
But after thinking about it more carefully, she realized she was already twenty-five.
In a few more years she'd be thirty, and after that...
"Ugh... boyfriend, marriage... impossible."
Just thinking about it gave Kobayashi a headache.
Ever since majoring in computer science in college and then becoming a programmer, she'd basically become completely cut off from romance.
She was either working overtime or on the way to working overtime. Every day there was endless work waiting for her.
Her only real joy was going to a maid café after work, having a drink, and relaxing a little.
At this rate, she might actually stay single forever.
Thinking that, Kobayashi opened the door and stepped outside.
The sound of girls laughing drifted toward her.
Looking down, she immediately saw a handsome boy patting the heads of a group of girls.
The scene was so weird and so weirdly beautiful that Kobayashi froze on the spot.
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.