Itsuki Shima walked to the edge of the tatami and looked down at the dying man, her eyes cold and without the slightest trace of pity, "From today onward, you are Mitsuishi Mitsuyaki. Remember this name. Remember your identity. You don't need to worry about anything else."
Jinpei Matsumoto's heart was pounding. Although the unease in his heart was growing stronger and stronger, the moment he thought about becoming the leader of the Queen's Society, taking control of its enormous wealth, and wielding supreme power, and even being able to do whatever he wanted to those devout female believers, his greed overwhelmed his fear.
"Okay!"
He nodded heavily, a trace of fanaticism flashing in his eyes. "I'll remember! From today onward, I'm Mitsuishi!"
Hearing Matsumoto Jinpei's answer, Itsuki Shima smiled in satisfaction, "Very good. Next, I'll take you through the leader's daily routine. You need to get used to it as quickly as possible."
Matsumoto Jinpei, no, Mitsuishi, nodded rapidly.
Thinking of the promise Itsuki Shima had made to him earlier, and then recalling the plump, tempting body of the married woman believer named Yoshino Ayaka, Mitsuishi could no longer stop himself from swallowing.
Next, Itsuki Shima took Mitsuishi to another room.
This room was much brighter. Neatly laid carpets covered the floor, and there was also a small incense burner with a strange design.
After entering, Itsuki Shima went over and lit the incense burner first.
As wisps of smoke rose from the top of the burner, Mitsuishi smelled a faint, mysterious fragrance that was much stronger than the one in the church hall outside.
His body gradually began to grow hot as well.
"What are you doing?", Mitsuishi could not help asking.
Itsuki Shima stood up and said with a smile, "I'm lighting Awakening Incense."
"Awakening Incense?", Mitsuishi was puzzled by the term.
Itsuki Shima smiled and explained, "It's a special incense made by the Queen's Society. It's a necessary item whenever the Queen's Society holds a ceremony. Its effect is to make a person's true inner thoughts and desires honestly and completely reveal themselves, making it easier to conduct ceremonies and communicate."
"For example, right now, Leader, you should already understand what you want most in your heart, shouldn't you?"
As the scent of the Awakening Incense grew stronger in the room, and as Itsuki Shima's soft red lips parted to utter those suggestive words, Mitsuishi's body grew hotter and hotter, "Yes! I understand! I understand what I want most."
"I want to become the leader of the Queen's Society. I want to control everything in the Queen's Society, including you, Miss Itsuki Shima. I want you."
"You said it yourself, right? The leader can control everything in the Queen's Society. That includes you too, right?"
Before he knew it, Mitsuishi's eyes had turned bloodshot. The rationality in his mind was gradually fading, replaced by an inexplicable instinct that began to control him.
But because of the mysterious aura surrounding Itsuki Shima, even in this confused state, Mitsuishi still felt an inexplicable fear and hesitation toward her, worried that she might refuse him and loudly rebuke him.
But to Mitsuishi's delight, Itsuki Shima's soft red lips parted, and she actually agreed, "All right. I will obey the Leader's orders."
Itsuki Shima, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life, had actually agreed.
At that moment, Mitsuishi felt an intense wave of joy surge through him, and he nearly fainted from it.
He saw Itsuki Shima begin to actively flirt with him, gradually fulfilling all of his desires.
The excitement left Mitsuishi completely satisfied, as if he had floated up into the clouds.
But leaving the bloodshot-eyed, agitated Mitsuishi's perspective and returning to what Itsuki Shima actually saw, the scene was completely different.
From Itsuki Shima's perspective, Mitsuishi was red-faced, grabbing and rubbing at the air, squeezing and embracing it.
It was as though he were holding a beautiful woman in his arms, completely unaware that there was nothing but empty air in front of him.
After watching him for a while as if she were watching a monkey, Itsuki Shima gave a light laugh and clapped her hands.
A woman who had been waiting outside the door earlier walked in.
The woman looked like a doll, her eyes empty and her movements sluggish.
"Pretend to be me and go satisfy our Leader," Itsuki Shima ordered.
"Yes," the woman replied mechanically.
Itsuki Shima turned and left the room.
Before leaving, she looked through the crack in the door once more.
Seeing the 'Leader' Mitsuishi so excited that his nose was bleeding and his behavior was utterly ridiculous, Itsuki Shima smiled faintly, then turned and left.
———
"This is the front hall. Only believers who are devout enough can pray here. But I believe that Hikari will definitely be able to do so in the future as well," Yoshino Ayaka had taken Hikari around many of the Queen's Society's internal buildings before finally bringing him to a small room and introducing it.
Believers who were devout enough? More like believers who offered enough money.
Hearing Yoshino Ayaka's words, Hikari shook his head helplessly inside.
However, when he saw the layout and decoration of the front hall, he immediately became curious.
Because at the very center of this front hall, which Yoshino Ayaka had solemnly introduced, there was an altar that was clearly meant for worship.
Yet for some reason, there was nothing at all above the altar.
Hikari immediately asked curiously, "Miss Ayaka, shouldn't there normally be a statue of the god's true form or divine body placed on an altar?"
"Why is this one empty? What are the Queen's Society believers worshipping here?"
Yoshino Ayaka smiled and explained, "Queen herself actually has no fixed form, but she exists in the hearts of every believer. So as long as you sincerely worship before the altar, that's enough."
"As long as you're devout enough, praying here will definitely allow Lord Queen to hear you."
Hearing Yoshino Ayaka's words, Hikari was speechless.
Religion was often all about form.
After all, it was something extremely idealistic, so a sense of ritual was very important.
Yet the Queen's Society had been so perfunctory that they had not even bothered to properly represent the deity itself. It was really hard to know what to say.
But then he thought about the strange fragrance that filled the entire church.
This so-called Queen's Society clearly possessed abilities beyond the ordinary. There might really be an evil god here.
Thinking about it that way, their perfunctory approach seemed to make quite a bit of sense after all.
After all, just this strange fragrance capable of confusing people's minds was enough to drive an ordinary person like Yoshino Ayaka crazy.
While dealing with Yoshino Ayaka, Hikari was also examining everything in the Queen's Society more carefully.
A secretary-general who had appeared casually just now had already made Hikari feel threatened. This made him raise his assessment of the Queen's Society's level of danger even further.
Naturally, Hikari had to be on full alert.
After analyzing things for a while, Hikari had roughly figured out the effects of the fragrance in the Queen's Society's grounds.
Its scent had some hypnotic and aphrodisiac effects, and it also seemed capable of magnifying the desires in a person's heart.
Although it had little effect on Hikari, its effect on an ordinary person like Yoshino Ayaka was obvious.
While she was introducing him to the Queen's Society's teachings, it was clear that the beautiful married woman's gaze lingered on his face longer than necessary, while she intentionally or unintentionally sized up his solid physique and certain sensitive areas.
Although there was a ring on her ring finger, this beautiful married woman, Yoshino Ayaka, seemed somewhat lonely.
After all, this was the 2D Underworld, and she was a devout believer in a lustful cult like the Queen's Society. Given that, the situation was hardly surprising.
Compared with that, Hikari had actually discovered something even more important.
That was that besides the strange fragrance filling the entire church, there was also a faint, mysterious energy permeating the place.
This energy would gradually attach itself to a person as they inhaled the fragrance.
Ordinary people could not sense it at all.
Only because Hikari's perception was far beyond that of ordinary people could he vaguely sense that something was wrong.
And although this energy seemed completely silent, it was actually immense.
Its source seemed to be that Queen's Society secretary-general named Itsuki Shima.
Based on this information, Hikari became even more suspicious.
The deity worshipped by the Queen's Society very likely really existed. There really was an evil god here!
Hikari thought for a moment and decided to be more cautious.
He directly opened the Pure Love Radar and silently activated the new ability he had drawn not long ago, Mist Investigation.
[500 Pure Love Points consumed. Mist Investigation activated!]
[Searching the target selected by the host, the Queen's Society grounds: This is the primary activity area of Queen's Society members. It is generally used to worship and pray to Queen, as well as for communication between members and religious ceremonies. An evil god's energy has been detected within the Queen's Society grounds. Searching for its source…]
[Abnormal energy source detected: Itsuki Shima. True identity is 'Queen'. An evil deity that has continued to exist since the feudal era. Possesses a slight ability to influence space-time and can hypnotize and manipulate others with a special fragrance known as 'Awakening Incense.']
[Danger level assessment: Overall threat to the host is rated 'moderately low'.]
[Based on the above information, if the host becomes an enemy of this entity, a direct assault is not recommended. Although Queen Itsuki Shima mainly relies on seducing and manipulating people, the host has an overwhelming advantage in a direct confrontation, but once she senses danger, she may flee. The host currently has no good means of capturing her, so direct confrontation is not recommended.]
[However, water can carry a boat or overturn it. Queen's divine power originates from the gender and thoughts of her believers, so it is recommended that the host target this aspect. Relevant clues for defeating the evil deity 'Queen' have been detected: 'Ayaka,' 'Rui,' 'Marina,' 'Kiriko'.]
"So there really is a Queen in the Queen's Society, and she's the secretary-general, Itsuki Shima?", Even with Hikari's broad experience, he was slightly shocked at this moment.
The information provided by Mist Investigation left Hikari pleasantly surprised, but also greatly surprised him.
He had to admit that this new ability obtained after the Pure Love Radar's upgrade was indeed extremely useful.
Originally, he had only wanted it to conduct a casual investigation and give him a little information.
He had never expected the Pure Love Radar to directly investigate the deepest secrets of the Queen's Society.
It had completely exposed the evil god Itsuki Shima, right down to her underwear.
Although it had cost a considerable 500 Pure Love Points, the information he had obtained made it feel completely worth the price.
After obtaining this information from the Pure Love Radar's investigation, Hikari also resolved most of his earlier doubts.
So this mysterious secretary-general, Itsuki Shima, was actually Queen herself. No wonder even he, who was now practically a little superhuman, could sense such a significant threat from her.
Although gods were a dime a dozen in Japan, you could casually find thousands upon thousands of them in even some tiny backwater place.
But Itsuki Shima, or Queen, was clearly not some useless roadside stray god.
On the contrary, according to the Pure Love Radar's investigation, Itsuki Shima had actually been a deity that had survived from the feudal era all the way to the present.
She also possessed certain abilities related to reincarnation and influencing space-time.
Even if these extraordinary abilities were extremely weak, they still posed a significant threat to him.
But the Pure Love Radar's detection was even more capable than he had expected.
It had not only uncovered Itsuki Shima's background, but also discovered her weakness.
Just as those blond-haired NTR types often did not directly force their way in, instead using leverage to threaten the heroine,
now that he knew there was a better way to deal with Itsuki Shima, Hikari naturally had no need to clash head-on with this evil god.
'Ayaka, Rui, Marina, Kiriko… These seem to be four people's names, and they're all very feminine. Could these four people be the weakness of the evil god Itsuki Shima?'
Hikari thought about it for a while. He had never heard of Rui, Marina, or Kiriko, so he was not familiar with them yet. But didn't Ayaka happen to correspond to Yoshino Ayaka, who had brought him into the religion today?
With Yoshino Ayaka's looks and figure, she was absolutely the heroine-level existence of this evil cult.
On top of that, there was Mitsuishi, whom Itsuki Shima had brought back earlier, that middle-aged, fat man with a lecherous gaze who fit the stereotypical protagonist of the 2d Underworld to a T. The moment he saw Yoshino Ayaka, the look in his eyes had practically been that of someone wanting to devour her.
With that, Yoshino Ayaka was almost certainly the heroine.
If that deduction was correct, then Rui, Marina, and Kiriko should be the other three heroines of this lustful cult, the Queen's Society.
And as for dealing with the evil god Itsuki Shima, what role would these four heroines play?
Could the four heroines, Ayaka and the other three, be Itsuki Shima's four incarnations, with sealing them also sealing Itsuki Shima?
Hikari thought of one possibility, but soon shook his head.
He had already used his Aura-Viewing Technique to examine Yoshino Ayaka. There was no doubt that Yoshino Ayaka, whose forehead was dark, was an existence similar to the victimized heroines of the 2d Underworld. She could not possibly be an incarnation of the evil god Itsuki Shima.