Seeing Hikari take a step back, Rurie hurriedly shook her head, "No! No!"
"Hikari-kun isn't wrong. Actually, it's Auntie's problem!"
"The hurdle in my heart… I still… still need a little more time to get past it."
"But the dead are gone. I'll definitely adjust as soon as possible!"
"Please, Hikari-kun, give me a bit more time!"
"And… even though I still can't kiss or do other kinds of things for now…"
"But… but I can help Hikari-kun in other ways."
As she spoke, Rurie reached out with her pair of soft, slender jade-like hands and gently stroked Hikari's chest, as if soothing him.
"Madam Rurie, how exactly do you plan to resolve this?", Hikari asked.
Seeing that Hikari seemed to have been calmed by her, Rurie slipped out of his embrace and stood up.
After giving him a charming smile, she knelt down on both knees once again.
"Hiss!"
———
On the second floor of the Munataka residence, inside a girlish bedroom filled with a pink cherry-blossom atmosphere.
Nakoto, who had been lying on her side, suddenly let out a soft groan.
Her delicate brows were tightly knit, as if she was enduring some kind of pain.
After letting out a few quiet sounds, the uncomfortable Nakoto adjusted her position.
From lying on her side, she switched to lying flat.
But after lying flat for a little over half a minute, she felt it wasn't quite right, so she changed to lying on her stomach.
But after staying like that for a short while, she still felt a faint aching, so she had no choice but to change positions again.
After switching through several positions in a row, Nakoto still felt restless and unable to settle.
In the end, she could only obediently lie on her side again, hugging a pillow, frowning as she endured it.
"That was too much…"
"Maybe… I shouldn't have taken Hikari-kun to go flower viewing."
"But I didn't expect before that Hikari-kun would actually be so… terrifying. It was really scary."
Thinking of Hikari's ruthless behavior, Nakoto reached out and touched the spot that was still bruised purple, and shivered.
"My butt still hurts so much… Hikari-kun was way too heavy-handed…"
The eldest young lady of the Munataka family, Nakoto, pressed her jade-like hand against her still faintly aching little raised butt, grimacing in pain.
"But this is good too. Hikari-kun's strength and riding skills are so impressive, it's amazing. The chances of defeating Mom will also increase a lot."
"As long as he can defeat Mom and make that woman kneel in front of me and beg for mercy, then everything will be worth it."
"But when the time comes, will I really follow the original plan and hand everything over to Hikari-kun?"
"When he was teaching me before, he definitely held back."
"With his strength, if he really went all out…"
"I-I might die, right?"
Nakoto touched her twin ponytails that had been pulled a bit painfully, then touched her bruised backside. With a pitiful little frown, she thought to herself.
———
On the other side.
While Nakoto was struggling in indecision by herself, Hikari was also mentally and physically occupied, scheming back and forth with Madam Rurie, who believed in an evil god.
"Cough! Cough! Cough! I can't drink anymore… Hikari-kun, you gave way too much…"
Rurie choked slightly and coughed several times, tears even spilling out a little.
Hikari's generosity had far exceeded Rurie's imagination of men.
Even though this wasn't the first time she had seen him bring drinks.
And she already knew that he hid something impressive within his chest and had always been very generous.
But seeing that amount of "juice," enough to nearly fill a standard mineral water bottle, Rurie still couldn't help but be shocked.
"I'm sorry, Madam. I'm so clumsy, I made a mess again."
Looking at Rurie's somewhat awkward state, Hikari, who found it a bit amusing, politely apologized.
"If you're going to apologize, at least lower your head a little!"
Seeing that he still kept his head held high even while apologizing, Rurie couldn't help but complain coquettishly and bit him again.
"Hiss! That hurts! Hurts! Hurts!"
Feeling those pearly teeth lightly press against his sensitive skin, Hikari quickly cried out a few times.
Rurie shot him a coquettish glance, "Hmph! I haven't even used any real force yet."
After scolding him, she stood up and rubbed her knees, which had gone a bit numb from kneeling.
Then she pulled out a few sheets of paper from the desk nearby and casually wiped the spots where the "juice" had splashed earlier.
The sticky feeling on her cheeks, neck, and chest.
"Tsk! So sticky, it's all your fault."
"I can't stand it. I'll go rinse off first. Hikari-kun, wait for me."
Rurie seemed unable to tolerate that sticky feeling. She hurriedly stood up and walked lightly toward the washroom.
As the shower room door slowly closed, the sound of water poured down like a waterfall, the rushing noise especially clear in the quiet bedroom.
Hikari, who had just finished tidying up, looked up. Behind the frosted glass door, light and shadow intertwined, faintly outlining a graceful figure.
That vaguely visible, exquisite silhouette, refracted through the light, formed a heart-stirring image through the doorway.
The scene gave a restless, itchy feeling that tugged at the heart, making one's pulse quicken, almost wishing to push the door open and find out.
But at this moment, Hikari simply leaned quietly against the sofa, watching calmly.
Having just entered sage mode, his mind was extremely clear.
The plan didn't succeed. Although just now, in a sense, he had taken advantage again.
In reality, judging by how proactive Rurie had been, it was clearly deliberate on her part.
The original plan of using a kiss to break through her defenses still failed.
Because Rurie had indeed been guarding against that all along.
However, after these repeated interactions, Hikari had also noticed something.
There was indeed a faint trace of something strange about Rurie.
Perhaps that was the power of her belief in the evil god.
But those threads of sinister power were hidden very well.
They were tightly bound within her physical body.
Making it impossible for Hikari to determine how much was actually there.
Perhaps, only by breaking through further, by engaging in deeper contact, could he probe how much of the evil god's power she carried. And trace it back to sense just how powerful that so-called evil god truly was.
Although it was already certain that Rurie was a cultist who believed in an evil god, she still retained many of her own personal thoughts.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have maintained such a gentle attitude and played along with Hikari like this.
Moreover, based on her behavior earlier and just now, Hikari knew that after her husband's death, she was indeed very lonely.
So, out of confidence in his own strength, Hikari believed, as long as he could have one deep interaction with her, he would definitely be able to roughly figure out her background.
But Rurie was unwilling to do that.
It wasn't that she herself didn't want to have deeper interaction with Hikari.
On the contrary, Hikari could feel that during their previous interactions, she had been willing.
Even enjoying it.
So deep interaction was something she likely longed for deep down.
But in order to keep him in check and make him do things for her, Rurie kept using this as leverage, dangling it in front of him.
Only after he dealt with Nakoto and fulfilled her plan of sacrificing her daughter to bring the evil god into the world would she probably obediently give everything and have a thorough, intense "deep interaction" with him.
But that wouldn't work.
According to what Nakoto had said earlier, having deep interaction inside the Munataka residence carried great risk, it might very likely trigger the descent of the evil god.
So even just for testing, the first time of deep interaction should ideally be with Rurie.
But with her constant vigilance, relying only on her weakness of being unable to refuse after being kissed likely wouldn't be enough to push things further.
So he needed to think of other methods.
Only then could he make this calculating Madam Rurie lower her guard.
Just as Hikari was thinking about what method he could use to probe deeper into Rurie's background, the shower room door opened with a creak.
A graceful figure, still steaming with warm mist, slowly walked out.
"Hikari-kun, sorry to keep you waiting~", Rurie's charming voice sounded as she walked toward him.
Looking at her elegant, swaying figure approaching him,
Hikari, who had just entered sage mode, slightly widened his eyes.
———
The night was like ink, spreading across the land.
The magnificent golden castle was also veiled in a faint gray.
Inside the castle, most rooms had already fallen silent. Only a few scattered windows still shone with bright light, like stars dotting the night sky.
In the Munataka residence, inside the largest master bedroom on the second floor.
Hikari, sitting on the sofa, watched as Madam Rurie walked out of the washroom.
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