After their visit to the Sakura family dojo had concluded.
Su Yuzu had Soga Iori take her back to Keigunen Private Academy.
Originally, Sakura Mai and Soga Yura had wanted to accompany Su Yuzu to go question Lyudmila as well. But... after reading the expression on the girl's face, Soga Yura and Sakura Mai chose to hand every last right of decision over to Yuzu.
Heaven is vast, earth is vast, but Yuzu is the vastest of all.
If it was Yuzu's wish, then so what if the very sky came crashing down.
Without even going to inform Yamabuki Nanako and Director Saionji of her own discovery, Su Yuzu waited alone in the lobby of the Healing-type academic building.
The girl sat on the long bench, both hands clasped together, her eyes lowered as she gazed at the grain of the floor in front of her, as though lost in a daze.
For the convenience of Feeding the little rabbit and Lyudmila their Combat Records, Su Yuzu's phone held the girls' class schedules.
Saotome Yukina and Lyudmila were both well-behaved, obedient good children.
Under ordinary circumstances, they would never skip class.
So Su Yuzu didn't have to worry about staking out the spot and missing anyone.
The second- and third-year Healing-type students, whose classes ended earlier, walked out of the lobby in wave after wave.
Perhaps because it was the Healing-type, most of them were girls.
Some of the bolder girls, eyes seemingly aflicker with stars, worked up the courage to sidle over to Su Yuzu's side, wanting to take a photo with her.
Apart from things slightly too far over the line — like wanting to leave a signature on a girl's body — Su Yuzu seemed to be in such a good mood that she turned no one away.
During this time... she even, by good luck, Recruited a new Operator.
She was clearly a girl who looked terribly shy, who had only worked up the courage to draw near Su Yuzu's side amid the urging of her companions, yet didn't even have the courage to ask for a photo.
In the very instant she accidentally brushed against Su Yuzu, she was — luckily... or rather, unluckily — successfully Recruited.
[☆☆☆]
[Operator: Asagiri Sachi]
[Level.9 - Wind-Speech Esper]
Su Yuzu looked at the girl's experience points, which seemed to have been stalled and clogged for ages, and so kindly gifted the girl a Combat Records.
Because she was worried the girl might burst into tears right there in the lobby, Su Yuzu was even, for once, considerate enough to ~~~ only use a single "Primary Combat Records."
The result, well... the girl nearly toppled over right in front of Su Yuzu.
Only after Su Yuzu steadied her by the shoulder did she, stammering and sniffling and whimpering, sit down at Su Yuzu's side for a good while before finally leaving.
The girl's classmates assumed she was simply too overcome at seeing the senior she'd longed for day and night, and though their gazes were full of teasing mirth, they said nothing.
Ring-a-ling-a-ling——
As the sound of the dismissal bell rang out, the warbling, chirping clamor gradually swelled louder, and the first-year Healing-type students gradually came pouring out into the corridor.
The little rabbit's ahoge radar pointed straight toward the lobby, and the little rabbit, arm linked with Lyudmila's, spotted Su Yuzu sitting on the long bench as if waiting for someone almost the very instant she stepped into the lobby.
The little rabbit's snow-white ahoge swayed back and forth in delight all at once, and she immediately let go of Lyudmila's arm, breaking into a trot toward Su Yuzu.
Su Yuzu gently embraced the little rabbit's shoulders, nuzzling her cheek against the little rabbit's neck.
A chorus of startled gasps instantly went up throughout the lobby.
Although they'd long heard the news that Yuzu-senpai and Student Saotome were on very good terms, still... rumor and seeing it with one's own eyes were, after all, two entirely different things.
Some of the girls simply gasped in astonishment, or ~ sighed in wonder at the beauty of the moment the two girls held each other.
And some of the girls... wore the look of someone who'd been struck by a ship — utterly smitten.
There was no shortage of strange and peculiar voices, things like "Yukina stocks rising!!!"
"Claim Yuzu-hime!"
"Go for it, Yukina-chan! Make Lady Yura cry!"
"We just wanna watch Lady Yura cry!" and the like.
Even someone as bold as a rabbit like Saotome Yukina still felt a touch of embarrassment at being held by Su Yuzu like this under the gaze of all those onlookers, and Su Yuzu could clearly feel the little rabbit's body, as if it were gradually rising in temperature.
Su Yuzu raised an eyebrow and glanced at Lyudmila, who had already halted her steps and now stood rooted in place.
The flawless, pure-white Saintess stood frozen where she was, both hands having unconsciously hugged her schoolbag to her chest, a picture of frightened, anxious tension, as though she were shrinking back from something.
The expression with which Lyudmila looked at Su Yuzu was a most complicated one.
The Saintess gently pursed her lips, the lovely shape of them nearly pressed into a thin sliver of a line, every muscle in her body seemingly already drawn taut, entering a state of wariness.
And yet, those clear... one might even say holy and pure, pale-gold eyes, fell fixedly upon Su Yuzu.
So lovely.
So clean.
And yet it also made Su Yuzu feel that this flawless Saintess... was luring her, enticing her to Feed her a Combat Records.
Favorability 73 (Dependency) — in truth, it was already quite high.
In the game, at this Favorability level, even if one wished to forcibly unlock a CG, the girl would, in all likelihood, only put up token resistance while half-yielding.
That very look of refusing-yet-welcoming was, in itself, already alluring enough.
Not to mention... its owner was a Saintess so pure and white and flawless that one couldn't summon even the faintest blasphemous thought toward her.
After seeing the look on Su Yuzu's face — embracing the little rabbit's shoulders, yet lifting her head to flash a smile toward her — even Lyudmila's hand clutching the schoolbag tightened unconsciously, clenched into an adorable little fist.
The pure-white Saintess still wore that same pure-white, Grecian-style white gown.
The hem, giving off a half-translucent, dazzling impression, swayed gently, faintly revealing the lovely lines of the girl's legs.
Beneath the hem, the girl's bare feet shod in white sandals were slender and adorable, yet she nervously curled her toes ever so slightly.
After seeing Su Yuzu flash that wicked sort of smile toward her, the Saintess merely timidly shrank her shoulders a little, then carefully, in small mincing steps, came up to stand before Su Yuzu.
This was Attachment-level Favorability.
"Yuzu-senpai——"
Even though she dreaded that Blessing that came from some unknown Goddess, still... she had subconsciously already developed a touch of Dependency upon Su Yuzu.
Su Yuzu, who threw her faith into disarray.
Though she knew full well it was drinking poison to quench her thirst, still... she savored it as if it were the sweetest nectar.
Su Yuzu calmly swiped open the little rabbit's [Operator Development] panel, then tapped Confirm on the little rabbit's "Develop."
The little rabbit's waist instinctively wanted to arch upward, and Su Yuzu — who knew full well the little rabbit's predicament at this moment — gently breathed hot air beside the little rabbit's ear and murmured tenderly.
"Yukina."
"Wait here for me a little while, won't you~"
"There's something I'd like to talk over with Student Lyudmila."
Saotome Yukina had no possibility nor ability to refuse, and as she watched Su Yuzu... Lyudmila, who could even clearly sense that Su Yuzu had already obtained that power to freely manipulate the descent of that unknown Goddess's Blessing, found her body involuntarily drawing taut as well — she had heard Su Yuzu's words.
Her heart pounding, thump after thump, accelerating, the Saintess's figure looked as if it might topple at any moment as she followed Su Yuzu into the stairwell.
In an instant, the Saintess's mind could conjure up a whole series of images of a demon-like Su Yuzu holding her faith hostage.
Those, in fact, were none of them frightening. What was truly frightening was... Lyudmila's sorrowful, weak realization——
That she herself was, of all things, looking forward to it.
"Yu... Yuzu-senpai..."
"Did you need something from me?"
"I do indeed have something I need from you~" Su Yuzu gazed at the Lyudmila before her, the corners of her lips curving up, her appraising crimson eyes seeming, in Lyudmila's view, to strip her bare — looking her through and through, looking her over clean and thorough.
"Lady Saintess."
"Or rather——"
"Lord Michael."
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