After finally escaping the Kyuubi's relentless assault, Kai took a moment to compose himself before setting his plan into motion—a plan he had carefully devised the night before. A wide grin slowly spread across his face again as he imagined the outcome if everything went perfectly.
Kai was slightly worried when the Fairy Goddess decided to follow him this time. He only hoped she would not ruin his plan by making a bunch of unnecessary comments along the way.
"Kai, before you do anything, can you tell me what exactly you're thinking right now?"
Sadly, that hope did not last long. Kai had not even started carrying out his plan yet, and the Fairy Goddess was already pestering him with pointless questions.
"Why do you even need to know what I'm thinking? You can't help me anyway, so what's the point of asking?"
Kai already knew the Fairy Goddess would refuse to help him no matter what. After all, she was constantly restricted by all sorts of annoying divine rules, making it impossible for her to directly interfere or lend him any meaningful help.
"Even if I can't help you directly, I can at least keep you from doing something stupid that you'll regret later!"
The Fairy Goddess was certain that Kai was plotting something troublesome again. The fact that he kept avoiding her questions only made her even more suspicious.
"Relax! I'm just following your advice!"
Kai answered with a confident grin, clearly pleased with himself after finally coming up with what he believed was the perfect plan. However, instead of feeling reassured, the Fairy Goddess only grew more uneasy after hearing his response.
"Advice? What advice did I even give you?"
"Obviously the advice about getting closer to girls! This time, I'm sure I'll succeed! I already came up with a perfect plan!"
Kai proudly gave her a thumbs-up, his grin widening even further as he spoke. Unfortunately, his confidence did little to calm the Fairy Goddess. Since Kai still refused to explain what he was actually planning to do, she could not shake the bad feeling building inside her.
"I'm sure you still remember my advice properly, so stop twisting my words however you want! I told you to get closer to all the villagers, not just the girls! Understand? All the villagers!"
The moment the Fairy Goddess loudly emphasized the words "All the villagers," Kai immediately covered both of his ears in protest. Just imagining himself trying to get along with every strange villangers in this village was already enough to give him a headache. If he actually had to do it for real, he felt like he would lose his mind sooner or later.
"Kai, stop covering your ears and look at me!"
Even though the Fairy Goddess spoke in a firm tone, Kai stubbornly refused to look in her direction. Instead, he deliberately turned his head even farther away, making it painfully obvious that he had no intention of listening to her.
"KAI!"
The Fairy Goddess raised her voice even louder, her expression growing increasingly irritated. Unfortunately, Kai still ignored her completely. He even tried to quietly slip away from her sharp glare, but before he could take more than a few steps, the Fairy Goddess immediately flew in front of him and blocked his path.
In the end, Kai could only give up on escaping. No matter how he thought about it, there was no way he could outrun someone with wings. The Fairy Goddess could simply fly after him whenever she wanted, so competing with her in speed was completely hopeless from the start.
"Fine! I get it!"
Kai finally gave up resisting and answered with slumped shoulders, looking as though all the energy had completely drained out of him.
"I can't promise anything, so don't expect too much... but I'll at least try talking to all the villagers... even if it's only a word or two."
Although Kai still sounded half-hearted while saying it, the Fairy Goddess smiled happily after hearing his answer. At the very least, Kai was finally willing to make an effort instead of ignoring her advice entirely.
"Good! So how are you planning to get closer to them?"
"Right now, I'm only thinking about how to get closer to the girls."
"…Even though I already have a bad feeling about this, I guess that's still better than nothing. So, what's your plan?"
Kai immediately frowned after hearing her response. Even though the Fairy Goddess could not actually help him because of her restrictions, she still kept questioning him about every little thing, which only annoyed him even more.
"Obviously by raising their affection toward me!"
"...And how exactly are you planning to do that?"
The moment the Fairy Goddess asked that question, Kai immediately showed a confident grin, as though he had been waiting for her to ask that from the very beginning. Without saying another word, he proudly pulled something out from the small pouch hanging at his waist.
"Of course with flowers! There's no girl in this world who wouldn't love receiving beautiful flowers!"
Kai proudly answered while showing her the red flower he had found on his way home the previous night. He did not even know the flower's name, but he still considered himself incredibly lucky to have stumbled across it by chance. Thanks to that, he no longer needed to risk going into the dangerous forest just to pick a single flower for his plan.
"Hm... Umm, Kai..."
Unfortunately, the Fairy Goddess did not look impressed by Kai's answer at all. Seeing her hesitant reaction, Kai immediately glanced down at the flower in his hand.
'Is there something wrong with this flower...?' he wondered quietly to himself.
"Do you realize that every girl has her own favorite flower?"
The moment he heard that question, Kai immediately let out a relieved sigh. For a second, he had thought there was something wrong with the flower itself or that some other troublesome problem had come up. In the end, the Fairy Goddess was only worried about something so trivial.
"Of course I know that... I may not know her favorite flower, but I know Elly will be happy with anything I give her!"
To Kai, this world worked almost exactly like a typical dating sim. Giving gifts to someone could raise their affection toward you, but the results depended entirely on whether they liked the gift or not. The more they liked it, the more their affection would increase. On the other hand, giving them something they disliked would only lower their affection instead. Those basic rules were something Kai already understood perfectly well.
"Well... I can't deny that a kind girl like Elly would probably be happy with anything you gave her, even if it wasn't something she actually liked."
Some games always included characters who were unusually easy to win over, making things simpler for the players. And in Kai's eyes, Elly seemed to be exactly that kind of character in this world. Although he felt slightly guilty for thinking of her that way, her gentle personality still made him decide to choose her as his very first target.
"Now that you're satisfied, can you move aside already? I want to go see my future wife."
The Fairy Goddess immediately pouted after hearing Kai's shameless declaration. Even so, she eventually moved aside and let him pass. Although she still could not shake off her uneasiness, she had no real reason to stop him anymore. After all, Kai was technically trying to follow her advice in his own way.
The moment the Fairy Goddess cleared the path, Kai happily walked forward without any hesitation. He continued holding the red flower in his hand, clearly intending to hand it directly to Elly the moment he saw her.
It did not take long for Kai to arrive in front of Elly's home. Completely confident in his so-called perfect plan, he immediately opened the door and stepped inside without the slightest hesitation.
"Good morning, my beloved Elly. Would you accept this beautiful flower as a greeting from me?"
Still fully convinced that his perfect plan was about to succeed, Kai confidently held out the flower in his hand without even bothering to check who he was actually offering it to.
"Goldchick, throw that man out of this house!"
"QUACK!"
A powerful kick slammed directly into Kai's stomach before he could even react, sending him flying straight out of Elly's house.
The Fairy Goddess, who had been following behind Kai the entire time, could only stare blankly at the scene in front of her. Everything had happened so suddenly that she could not immediately understand what had just occurred. Fortunately, she had been floating slightly to Kai's left. Otherwise, Kai's flying body probably would have crashed straight into her as well.
After finally snapping out of her daze, the Fairy Goddess hurriedly flew toward the spot where Kai had landed to check on his condition. Kai's eyes were spinning in circles, making it painfully obvious that he had already lost consciousness.
In the end, Kai's so-called perfect plan had failed the very moment he tried to put it into action.