"So what exactly is this relationship you can't tell anyone about?!"
Inside the club's activity room, Eriri glared daggers at the white-haired beauty sitting across from her, pouring every ounce of menace she could muster into the stare—fully intending to make Shirai Mio acknowledge her crimes.
Mio, for her part, didn't seem to feel a thing. She calmly picked up a piece of potato with her chopsticks and held it out toward Eriri's mouth. "Want a taste, Sawamura-san?"
Eriri had been ready to refuse. Then the smell hit her, and the refusal dissolved—along with a bit of drool she swallowed back down.
She wouldn't have stood for being hand-fed by someone she'd just met. But she and Mio had known each other long enough that this sort of thing wasn't exactly new anymore. She'd honestly just gotten used to it.
Of course, the real reason she never said no was that Mio's cooking was genuinely delicious. Why pass up free food?
Once Eriri accepted the bite, Mio smiled sweetly and said, "The thing I can't tell people about is obviously that Sawamura-san and I draw 18+ doujinshi together~"
...Okay, technically true. But the way you phrased it last night was way too suggestive. You were basically asking for misunderstandings.
Not that it mattered much. Aside from a handful of people, nobody knew she was Kashiwagi Eri—the group even assumed she was a guy, which was fine by her.
"Oh, by the way—I read White Album last night all the way up to the latest chapter," Eriri said, shifting the topic. "Even looked up reviews online. Most people are really positive about it. There's already a whole argument in the comments about whether Setsuna or Kazusa is the real main heroine."
Mio tilted her head slightly. "Already?"
The manga had barely gotten started. She hadn't expected the fandom wars to break out this soon.
"How are you not even a little surprised?"
"Why would I be? As the scriptwriter, I expected this. And honestly, once the story really gets going, it's only going to get worse."
For some reason, Eriri felt like Mio's smile at that moment radiated pure, undiluted scheminess.
And somehow—infuriatingly—even that was weirdly captivating.
Eriri quietly looked away. She didn't know what was wrong with her lately, but whenever she was around Mio, her brain kept conjuring up... things. Images. Ideas she really shouldn't be having.
Why is a girl having weird daydreams about another girl?!
Was it the yuri doujinshi? I've been reading too many. This is the group admin's fault for recommending them to me.
Noticing Eriri had gone quiet, Mio was just about to ask when the System chimed in ahead of her:
"The tsundere golden-haired beauty seems to be a teeny bit troubled. As her friend, the Host will definitely want to help, right~?"
"Please have the Host make Eriri's heart race at least three times before lunch ends. Success may reward Eriri Series cards or item rewards. Failure will draw from the Punishment Deck."
"Making someone's heart race—how is that helping her?!" Mio muttered under her breath.
The System didn't respond. Per usual.
She sighed. Fine. Task is a task.
After the whole [Lucky Draw Card] incident a while back, she'd cleared a bunch of Eriri-related tasks in one go. Eriri's conquest rating had already hit 20 points.
Five more, and Eriri-related tasks would bump up in difficulty.
...She wasn't going to deliberately slow things down though. One difficulty spike was manageable.
While Mio was still turning over her options, the counter in her vision suddenly ticked from 0 to 1.
Wait—
She hadn't done anything. Why was Eriri's heart already racing?
She looked across at Eriri, who had apparently been watching her—and the moment their eyes met, Eriri flinched, immediately dropped her gaze, and buried herself in eating with exaggerated focus.
Nothing to see here. Totally normal. Just eating.
Her acting was terrible. Mio spotted the guilt immediately.
But she couldn't figure out why Eriri was guilty. She genuinely hadn't done anything yet.
Before she could say a word, the counter ticked again—1 to 2.
Mio stared at it. She was starting to wonder if she could just... sit here and let the task complete itself.
On the other side of the table, Eriri was spiraling. She'd been sneaking glances at Mio—had she gotten caught? Probably. Why was she sneaking glances in the first place? She could just look normally! And why was she nervous about it?!
"Sawamura-san, your face is really red," Mio remarked. "You okay?"
"I-I'm fine! It's just... a little stuffy in here."
"The window's open, though."
Any other time, Mio would have tactfully let it go. But she had a task to finish—so she pressed on without mercy.
It worked. Eriri's face went even redder, and she fumbled for a response she couldn't find.
Right on cue, the System chimed with task-complete fanfare.
Three for three.
Eriri's conquest rating went up by two points. Mio chose [Eriri's Drawing Skills] as her reward.
Once she confirmed the selection and time resumed normally, Mio still felt vaguely bewildered. She hadn't really done anything. How had that worked?
"Sawamura-san," she said, watching Eriri still visibly struggling across the table, "if you can't figure it out, you don't have to force it. No need to stress yourself."
"A-Anyway!" Eriri blurted. "My face being red has nothing to do with you, so don't get any ideas!"
"Sure, sure." Mio smiled.
But she was pretty confident she had, in fact, been the cause. She thought it over—and landed on [Aura Overload], the punishment card she was still carrying.
People who spent time near her were susceptible to certain... influences. Developing odd thoughts. That had to be it.
She'd been under the impression that card was pure downside. Apparently she'd been underestimating it.
But if it's actually useful, she wondered, why was it ever in the Punishment Deck?