Chapter 351: A Taste of Jealousy
"Long time no see, Admin-sama."
As the black-haired girl appeared, a bright, clear voice reached Ryū's ears. There stood Kaguya, a faint smile on her face, none of the low spirits she'd carried lately.
He couldn't say exactly why, but ever since he and Yukari had made things official, Kaguya had seemed a little quieter than usual.
She used to pop up in the chat group practically every hour. Lately, though, she'd been showing up far less — and even when she did, it was usually just a quick line or two before she vanished back into lurking again.
So Ryū had gotten the sense something was weighing on her lately.
As for exactly what, he couldn't say for certain — he wasn't Kaguya, after all.
And with her knowing full well that Observation Haki could read minds, she'd clearly made sure to keep whatever she was thinking buried well out of his reach. No amount of Haki on his end could crack through that.
"What's wrong? You look a little surprised to see me, Admin-sama."
Kaguya asked, faintly puzzled — Ryū hadn't bothered hiding his expression, so she'd read it easily enough.
At that, Ryū snapped out of it, shook his head with a small laugh. "Just surprised you actually made it here first, that's all."
Kaguya blinked, then gave a soft laugh. "I did say so in the DMs — I wanted to be the second one here. Even if I couldn't keep up with Yukari-nee before, I've still got a shot at catching up now."
"Yara yara, cheapskate Admin-sama, this humble— eh? Little Kaguya's here already?"
Yukari's voice cut in from the side, unannounced — she'd arrived in Ryū's world too, and the earthquake-level shaking underfoot barely seemed to register with her at all.
Her gaze flicked, sly and unhurried, back and forth between Ryū and Kaguya, until something apparently clicked. The corner of her mouth curled up. "Trying to find a playmate for Ran and Chen, Admin-sama? And you've got your eye on Little Kaguya too? Heh... what a two-faced man."
Ryū's expression turned faintly strange. He wasn't buying for a second that a youkai sage like Yukari genuinely misread the situation this badly.
On the surface, her comment was aimed at him — but underneath, it was really just her staking her claim as First Wife, plain and simple. Comparing Kaguya to Ran and Chen implied that even if Kaguya somehow succeeded in winning him over, she'd never rank above second place.
Ryū suddenly felt a headache coming on. He'd invited these people over to help fight monsters and pick up a little Void Beast salvage money on the side. Instead, the moment they'd arrived, sparks were already flying — top-tier players trading barbed remarks, every line loaded with a second meaning.
Good thing his emotional intelligence stayed switched on, and that he wasn't quite the hopeless straight-shooter some people made him out to be — otherwise he might not have caught half of what they were actually saying to each other.
And it helped that Yukari and Kaguya got along so well besides, always off doing who-knew-what together, giving off that same "orange" energy.
Had this been anyone outside the chat group, Yukari the jealous youkai might already have gone nuclear.
Drawing a breath, Ryū rolled his eyes and grumbled, resigned, "Think whatever you want. Main thing today is dealing with those Void Beasts — if we don't take care of them, I might have to move house. Cross-dimensionally, at that."
Yukari gave a light laugh and let the topic drop, only to quietly ping Kaguya through a private message in the chat group.
Beside Ryū, Kaguya blinked, her puzzled gaze shifting to Yukari.
Catching Yukari's expression, Kaguya split off a bit of attention into the chat group herself and glanced at the DM.
A few seconds later, the corner of her mouth lifted, and she gave Yukari a small nod — message received.
Just as she was pulling her attention back out of the group, a low, teasing voice reached her ear: "Little Kaguya-chan, all this eye contact with Yukari-senpai — cooking up some kind of secret deal behind everyone's back? Don't tell me you're trying to woo Yukari-senpai and cheat on Admin-sama! Ooh, you two have been giving off some serious orange energy lately..."
The sudden voice made Kaguya's whole body jolt. She very nearly yelped out loud, whirling around to find the chat group's #3 Permissions Hound had apparently shown up at some point without anyone noticing.
Ryū's gaze flicked over to Yukari, who was doing her level best to look like nothing at all had happened, the picture of unbothered composure.
Truth was, he'd caught the two of them trading knowing looks too — he just hadn't said anything about it. Didn't expect Tatsumaki's sudden arrival to pop that particular bubble for him.
At first, Ryū had thought the chat group could really use more female members. Right about now, though, he was starting to think fewer might be better — Kaguya and Yukari together were already giving him a headache all on their own.
The two of them clearly weren't fighting over him the way he might have expected — if anything, they seemed to have struck up some kind of backroom deal instead.
Ryū mulled it over for a moment, then gave up trying to make sense of it. Better to just let things run their course.
The instant he let go of that particular train of thought, a terrifying presence erupted from beneath the earth without warning, and the entire village of Konoha turned to rubble in an instant!
A single massive, jagged claw tore up through the ground — and that claw alone, belonging to just one Void Beast, was already as large as the Hokage Monument itself.
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you