Inside the massive banquet hall.
A magnificent crystal chandelier hung high from the ceiling, shattering endless light into ten thousand points of broken diamonds that drifted down.
Luxurious delicacies from the mountains and seas were laid out across long tables that spanned the hall, while messengers carrying trays filled with wine shuttled between the interlacing shadows of light and cups.
Fragrance and shadows floated, hair was coiled high, and men and women adorned with gold, silver, and pearls looked like illusions floating out of a gorgeous background.
In the dark shadows, a string orchestra played melodies that also floated in the air, weaving together with the crisp sound of clinking glasses to form the collective sound of this grand banquet.
It was as if the word "luxury" had been personified by this scene.
"It's so elegant it's making my eardrums itch." Asakura said, casually picking at his ear.
Interestingly, when he arrived at the hotel in the old-timer car, he didn't encounter many of those novel-like plots where doormen or waiters look down on people because their car is old and try to kick them out.
He only saw a look in the eyes of those staff members that meant something like 'rich people nowadays really know how to have fun.'
"Otitis media?" Gokou Ruri raised an eyebrow.
"How is that possible." Asakura shook his head.
"Then it's simply earwax..." Gokou Ruri said, "Do you want me to help you pick your ears after we get back?"
I could make them turn into snakes and crawl out of my ears.
But saying that would be too much of a mood-killer.
"Then I'll have to trouble you." Asakura nodded.
During their idle chatter, Asakura was also secretly observing the banquet.
Not counting the service staff like the hotel waiters, the number of people attending the banquet who had already shown their faces in the hall exceeded three hundred. Moreover, he was certain many more had not yet appeared—he had already extracted some information from those waiters earlier. The Evil God Cult had not only booked this banquet hall for the evening, but had also booked quite a few small suites.
Although the waiters didn't say it explicitly, they indirectly indicated that those suites would be used for some "unspoken transactions."
However, out of professional ethics, the other party did not tell Asakura which suites the Evil God Cult had booked.
Of course, it was also possible that with his position, he wasn't yet qualified to know the specifics.
So Asakura wasn't in a hurry to act; after all, the main person he was waiting for hadn't shown up yet. At the very least, he had to wait for the little snakes he had sent out through the ventilation ducts to send back information.
Just as he was considering whether to take Gokou Ruri to get something to eat, a somewhat surprised voice suddenly came from not far away.
"Isn't this Asakura~?"
Asakura looked toward the voice and discovered that the person speaking was actually Yukinoshita Haruno.
She was wearing a conservative yet highly elegant formal dress, holding a martini in her hand, looking exactly like a social butterfly seasoned in high-society banquets.
"Miss Yukinoshita is actually attending this banquet too?"
Asakura raised an eyebrow and asked curiously.
Through Yukinoshita Yukino, Asakura once had a vague understanding of the Yukinoshita family's situation. Looking at it now, they should still belong to the kind of family with unique vision and rational thinking. It surprised Asakura that Yukinoshita Haruno would appear in a place like this.
Could it be his judgment was wrong, and Yukinoshita Haruno was actually the black sheep of their family?
"Just call me Haruno, otherwise it'll get mixed up with Yukinon." Yukinoshita Haruno smiled: "Hehe, that nickname the girl from Yuigahama gave her is actually quite good, though if I called her that to her face, she would definitely be very angry."
Asakura blinked and didn't respond.
So Yukinoshita Haruno continued: "As for our family, because several partners have been very obsessed with this recently and recommended it so many times, even if we don't believe in it, we have to show some face and attend a banquet, otherwise future cooperation will be a bit troublesome."
After a pause, she continued: "But since even Asakura-kun is attending, it means this religion... hmm, has something to it?"
A few days ago, she had suffered from acute idiopathic connective tissue systemic necrotizing disease (Human Face Sores) and thought her life would pass like a shooting star, but then she miraculously recovered.
Although Yukinoshita Yukino hadn't said it explicitly, based on Haruno's sharp observation and her understanding of her sister, she more or less realized that her recovery was inseparable from the youth in front of her.
Although she couldn't judge exactly what kind of existence Asakura was due to a lack of knowledge about supernatural powers, the fact that he appeared here was enough to explain a few things.
"It's not certain yet." Asakura spoke ambiguously: "Could Miss Haruno give me a general introduction of the situation? After all, this is my first time attending this kind of banquet."
"Your first time?" Yukinoshita Haruno quietly glanced at the girl beside Asakura.
Nice, her looks are no match for Yukinon, and even her 'oppai' is a rare draw with Yukinon—no threat.
She cleared her throat and began to explain.
"Although there are many people attending, if you observe carefully, you'll realize there are actually only five types of people present."
Haruno, who could barely still be called a young girl, held up her index finger and made a '1': "First are the members of the Evil God Cult. Most of them wear specific cult robes—that kind of clothes..." she pouted, gesturing toward a man in a long black robe not far away: "The kind with long sleeves and pants that they won't take off even outside in the middle of summer."
Asakura nodded understandingly, his eyes scanning those cult members who seemed nonchalant but were actually patrolling the venue quite diligently.
At first glance, they seemed fine, but if he opened up his perception fully, he could faintly feel some abnormalities in those people. However, he couldn't sense any magic power; it shouldn't be a case of being controlled by a curse.
"The second type are wealthy politicians who believe in the Evil God Cult to a certain extent. They are also the main facilitators of this banquet. Without connections, there's no way to book such a large hotel in a place like Ginza Center. Even the main force bringing others into this cult is this group of people."
Holding up a second finger, Yukinoshita Haruno said: "Those few clients of mine belong to this category, it's really a headache."
"The third type is like me, who personally have no impression of this cult, but are only here because of various interpersonal connections. Although I'm not boasting, our type is probably the main target this cult wants to win over today."