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By the time Asher snapped back to his senses, the qingtuan in the box were already gone.
Every single one.
"Mmm, that was so good!"
Yingcao was sitting on the carpet now, rubbing her belly with a blissed-out expression.
But soon, she seemed to feel a faintly resentful gaze on her.
She opened her eyes and looked in the direction of that strange feeling.
What she saw was Asher staring at her with pure grievance written all over his face.
Clearly, Yingcao had no idea how serious the situation was.
She simply raised a finger to her chin and looked at Asher with wide, innocent eyes.
"Huh? Are you my master?"
"Nice to meet you, Master!"
"Oh, right, do you have more of those dumplings? Yingcao wants to eat more!"
"Eat more? I'll show you 'eat more'!"
Asher's eyes twitched.
He grabbed Yingcao straight off the carpet, plopped her onto his lap, lifted her skirt, revealing those diaper-like white bloomers, and gave her a few sharp smacks.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
"Yingcao, do you have any idea what you just ate?"
"That was my lunch for tomorrow!"
Asher felt like crying.
"Waaah… Master, I'm sorry…"
"Please don't hit Yingcao… waaah…"
Feeling the stinging pain, Yingcao whimpered a few times.
Still, it was obvious that this level of punishment meant basically nothing to a shikigami like her.
Looking at her adorable face, Asher finally let his anger fade.
Even so, he picked her up again and headed toward the bedroom.
"Since you ate my lunch, consider this your repayment."
"You'll just have to make do as my body pillow."
…
Morning arrived quickly.
When the gentle sunlight streamed through the window into the bedroom, Asher slowly opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was Yingcao's sleeping face right beside him.
Her little mouth moved softly with her steady breathing, letting out lazy, kitten-like snores.
There was no denying it. Yingcao was incredibly cute.
Especially as a body pillow. Soft, warm, and faintly fragrant.
After just one night, the blanket was already infused with a fresh grassy scent.
Very fitting for a grass-type shikigami.
Checking the time and seeing it was getting late, Asher got up.
After washing up, he prepared his lunch bento and headed off to school.
Naturally, Yingcao was stored away in the system's shikigami space. There was no way he was leaving her home alone all day.
It was worth mentioning that when shikigami were placed into the system space, they weren't sealed away like objects.
That space was a world of its own, something like the barrier zones from games in his past life.
So Asher didn't worry about Yingcao or the others getting bored while not being summoned.
…
About half an hour later, Asher arrived at his classroom.
Same greetings as always. Same desk stuffed full of love letters.
And, as always, Asher dumped every single one into the trash without even looking.
What surprised him, though, was that Akizuki Marina actually greeted him first today.
"Good morning, Asher."
"Morning, Akizuki."
"That's unusual. You're greeting me first today."
Asher said with a smile as he sat down.
"Eh? Is that really so strange?"
"Aren't classmates supposed to greet each other…?"
As she spoke, her voice gradually trailed off.
Only then did she realize something felt off.
Right. She had never greeted any boy before.
Even when others greeted her, she usually just smiled politely in response.
Yet somehow, at some point, she had gotten used to greeting Asher naturally, without thinking anything of it.
That kind of subtle change was honestly a little scary.
"Ah… I… Asher, how could you do this?"
After realizing what was happening, a faint blush spread across Akizuki Marina's cheeks.
She puffed out her lips, shot him an annoyed glare, then quickly turned around like she'd been caught doing something embarrassing, leaving him with nothing but a perfect view of her back.
Asher caught all of her flustered reactions.
Watching her like that, he simply smiled calmly.
Putting aside all those preconceived filters, Akizuki Marina was actually pretty cute.
That thought made him curious about her younger sister, Airi.
Still, it was just idle curiosity.
He wasn't the type to approach someone based on shallow stereotypes.
Even if that person happened to be a classic anime heroine.
As he was thinking this, the class bell rang.
Their homeroom teacher, Hiratsuka Shizuka, wearing her white lab coat, walked into the classroom.
Soon enough, the sound of students reading aloud filled Class 2-B.
…
Time flew by, and noon arrived.
As Asher took out his carefully prepared bento and ate with his classmates while listening to idle chatter, one of the boys suddenly spoke up with an unusually serious expression.
"Hey, do you guys know about the Seven Mysteries of the school?"
"The Seven Mysteries? What's that?"
"Wait, is it some kind of horror story?"
"I think I've heard upperclassmen mention it before…"
His dramatic tone immediately grabbed everyone's attention.
Once the murmuring settled down, he continued.
"These so-called Seven Mysteries are strange rumors about supernatural rules on campus."
"First, it's said that there's a huge mirror in the old school building. If you turn around while standing in front of it, the ghost of the old building will pull you inside, trapping you forever in the mirror."
"Second, there's a staircase somewhere on campus with exactly thirteen steps. The last step is an entrance to another dimension. If you step on it by accident, you'll never come back."
"Third, when Seito Academy was first built, a female student died in an accident. Enraged by her unjust death and mourning her fate, she became a wandering spirit. She longs for others to understand her pain, so she seeks people out, drags them into suffering with her, and takes them to the other world."
"Fourth…"
"....."