"By the way, about those 'Hours of the Dark Carving'... you guys were behind those, right? What exactly are they for?"
Alistair suddenly recalled his original purpose for coming here. The rumors he'd heard were varied but shared common points: men were forbidden entry due to extreme danger, and women would be overcome by intense lust.
"Oh, that? We use the 'Evil Holy Grail' to create an absorption field that gathers malice and converts it into energy for our ascension. While it can absorb ambient energy slowly, that efficiency is frankly too low," Alisa Kurusu explained. She clearly had no intention of keeping secrets from Alistair and laid it all out.
"So, there's a high-efficiency mode. Once activated, every ounce of malice from sentient beings within the range is converted into a liquid substance—the physical manifestation of negative 'Mystery'."
"However," Seraphina Kamiyozaka interjected, glancing at Alisa before finishing the explanation, "the absorption process draws out all kinds of negative desires. You need a specific method to let one specific desire dominate the field. Unfortunately, the only knowledge we have on that front pertains to Lust. To prevent our school from turning into a chaotic orgy pit, we tweaked it slightly: the absorption power for males is completely unrestrained. Any man in that field will be thoroughly drained until there's nothing left."
"So I have to leave too?" Alistair asked. He had entertained thoughts of sticking around for a massive orgy, but if the side effect meant being drained back to a civilian state by a 'Mystery' artifact, it wasn't worth the risk. He was still, fundamentally, a mortal lifeform.
"Yes. We can't perform an operation delicate enough to leave you a 'backdoor.' It's like a binary code—we can delete the '1s' and leave the '0s,' but we can't save one specific '1'," Seraphina said, pausing her work to take a sip of tea.
"Fine. When is the next 'Hour' scheduled?" Alistair asked. He coveted the 'Evil Holy Grail,' but he knew he couldn't plot for it yet. Stealing it would effectively cut off their path to Transcendence, and they'd fight him to the death. Besides, he still intended to bring these women into his fold.
"Next week. We've mostly digested our current gains. It's time for another round," Seraphina said, clicking her mouse as she checked her schedule.
"Next week? How much time off am I getting this time? If it's long enough, I might take a trip." Alistair calculated that if he had about a week, he could head to the countryside to collect the other items his 'Grandfather' had left for him—like the Demon Ring and the [Mark of Ur].
"About three or four days. We plan to make this session last longer. Today is Tuesday; we have make-up classes here and Saturday sessions as well. If you want a longer break, you don't have to show up until next Friday," Seraphina noted indifferently.
"Perfect. Back by next Friday. That's a nine-day vacation. I'm satisfied," Alistair said, giving a thumbs-up. This was plenty of time to retrieve his inheritance.
Once the room went quiet, Alisa's hand snaked toward Alistair's crotch. It had been a whole day since they'd last "played."
Slap!
Alistair expressionlessly swatted her hand away. This girl—no, this woman—constantly greeted him with the intent to go for a hundred rounds. Even with the Horse Talisman, he needed a mental break. Over the last week, the amount of "fluid" she'd extracted from him was probably enough to fill a water cooler jug.
Just then, Alistair's phone buzzed.
"Mina?" he muttered, looking at the message.
"Mina? Mina Morita? I recall the files saying she was your first girl," Alisa chirped, leaning over to peek at the screen.
"A gift, huh? You must treat her well for her to be thinking of presents," Alistair said. He didn't mind Alisa looking; his relationship with Mina wasn't a secret from people with Seraphina's resources. He decided he would go see what Mina had for him this afternoon before heading to the country tomorrow.