When they went downstairs, some passing hotel staff couldn't help but steal glances.
The auburn-haired female manager who had been attending to Hikari and who had just finished cleaning up the mess left by the half-bodied wraith quickly came over to greet him.
Hikari replied casually.
But when Hikari led Miss Mary out of the hotel entrance, the manager kept staring at their backs.
After all, although she had long known that this young lady's distinguished guest kept a beauty hidden in the presidential suite, this was the first time she'd seen the hidden "precious one" in person.
Yet contrary to what she expected, this girl was far too pet*te and cute.
Compared to Hikari, they looked exactly like a father and daughter, couldn't that image immediately pierce one's imagination?
And Hikari himself was quite young.
But a young father… might not be so bad?
Hikari had no idea that the sight of him taking Miss Mary out was enough for the female manager to imagine an entire drama.
At this moment he was taking Miss Mary to find something to eat.
But compared with restaurants, Miss Mary seemed more interested in street stalls and oden stands.
Along the way her overly delicate features and super-cute appearance attracted a lot of attention.
Someone even came up to ask if she wanted to sign as a chi*d star.
Of course, Hikari brushed the person off and sent them away.
Miss Mary didn't care about the humans staring around them; she was focused on happily enjoying the food Hikari was buying for her.
"Hikari-kun, this is tasty, this is super tasty too…", Miss Mary held a huge pile of oden, fried chicken cutlets, and other snacks, stuffing herself crazily; her cheeks puffed out almost as much as when Hikari usually fed her grilled sausages in the hotel.
"These junk foods aren't that good. If you have time I'll make you something tasty," Seeing this urban legend who'd never been exposed to the world, Hikari said offhandedly.
"Ah! Hikari-kun can cook? I'm looking forward to it!", Miss Mary nodded repeatedly while eating.
When she tried to buy even more snacks, Hikari stopped her and casually led her into a sushi place she'd said was tasty when ordering takeout before, "That's enough, don't eat so many random things. Have some staples."
Although for an urban legend there probably wasn't much difference between nutritious and non-nutritious food, Hikari still reflexively restrained the pet*te, chi*dlike Miss Mary's binge-eating.
After they ate their fill in the shop and packed a big bundle of snacks to take away, Hikari brought an extremely happy Miss Mary back to the Richter Hotel.
"As the old saying goes, when you take someone's hand you become indebted, Miss Mary, you need to listen to me from now on, understand?", Hikari said casually as he saw Miss Mary immediately curl up in his arms the moment they entered, looking obedient and happy.
"Mm… although Hikari-kun is human, if Hikari-kun gives me the food, I'll reluctantly listen to you from now on~", Perhaps out of urban-legend pride, though already won over by food and Lei's domineering ways, Miss Mary said with a bit of tsundere tone.
"So you'll do whatever I say?", Hikari double-checked.
"Mm!", Miss Mary nodded seriously this time.
"Then I'll make you my shikigami," Hikari said.
"Okay," Miss Mary didn't ask how he would do it, she trusted Hikari's ability absolutely.
As for being Hikari's shikigami, meaning she'd serve him and recognize him as her master, Miss Mary had no resistance.
In truth, that was already how things were, this would just make it official.
After Miss Mary agreed, Hikari took out his Record of Strange Tales, pricked the page with Miss Mary's picture with a drop of blood, and began to formally register her.
Because she had opened up to Hikari earlier, Miss Mary's affection for him had already surpassed 80.
So when she felt a fated connection reach out from Hikari to her, she happily agreed.
Soon a hexagram of vines appeared on Miss Mary's forehead and on the back of Hikari's hand, and both felt a certain link between them.
Hikari could feel that he now had a degree of control over Miss Mary.
With a thought, he could have Miss Mary do certain things; his thoughts could directly influence her.
Miss Mary, who already liked and depended on Hikari, felt even closer.
She hugged Hikari, rested her head against his chest, and said, "Hikari-kun, being held by you feels so warm."
Hikari wrapped his arms around her slim waist and patted her head with a smile.
"Now, you should tell me about that Hanako fellow, right?"
After locking up Miss Mary for so long, Hikari, besides wanting to deal with this urban legend herself, also wanted to know how to force Hanako out of her vengeful-spirit space and then settle that toilet-dwelling Hanako once and for all.
After all, having a girl in a red pinaf*re who thinks about you in the toilet every night is bound to make you uncomfortable.
For example, whenever his gacha luck was bad, Hikari wondered if Hanako was secretly cursing him every day.
Anyway, once he confirmed Miss Mary had truly returned to him,
Hikari immediately asked her again about the matter he had asked many times before but she'd always refused to talk about: Hanako.
"Mary-chan, now I'm more important than that Hanako who uses you, right?"
"You don't want me to one day go to the bathroom and have that thing secretly assault me in the butt, do you?"
"So tell me, how do you force Hanako out of her vengeful-spirit space, or is there any way to bring me into her vengeful-spirit space?", Hikari held Miss Mary's tiny body in his arms and, to prevent her from escaping, pressed her little belly firmly with his hand.
As before, at the question Miss Mary instinctively wanted to run away.
But this time she clearly couldn't.
Seeing Hikari's blazing gaze, Miss Mary had to obediently sit by the big whip Hikari used to intimidate her, looking helplessly at him.
"Greek milk!", Miss Mary suddenly blurted out.
"Huh?", Hikari looked at her puzzled.
"Greek milk! I don't know! Honestly, Hikari-kun, I don't know any of those things you asked about Hanako," Miss Mary said helplessly.
"Don't know? Really?", Hikari frowned and considered whether to pin her tin*y body on his lap, spa*nk her backside, and then wh*ip her a bit.
"I really don't know… Hanako-chan never told me how to enter her vengeful-spirit space, nor how to get her out."
"Maybe, like a cat looking for a safe spot like under a bed when moving to a new home, a vengeful-spirit space is Hanako-chan's safe house. So about the safe house, she never told me anything…", Miss Mary shrugged helplessly.
Looking at Miss Mary's clear blue eyes, Hikari was silent.
Through the Record of Strange Tales connection after registering her, Hikari could confirm she was telling the truth.
These were all honest answers.
But precisely because of that, Hikari was even more speechless.
He couldn't help pulling Miss Mary's body straight to face him and pressing her onto his thigh.
Seeing Miss Mary embarrassed to look him in the eye, Hikari couldn't help but ask, "If you really don't know Hanako's secret, then when I interrogated you those many times and you always acted like 'I know but I won't say,' what was that about?"
Miss Mary answered earnestly, "That was my loyalty to a friend. Even though I truly don't know those things you asked about, Hikari-kun!"
Hearing Miss Mary's righteous answer, Hikari was utterly speechless.
So all his hard work of locking Miss Mary up in the Richter Hotel's costly presidential suite and interrogating her didn't yield the answers he wanted.
"Mary-chan, I'll ask you once more, do you really not know?", Hikari grabbed her two slender arms and asked.
"I really don't, Greek milk," Miss Mary blinked her innocent big eyes at Hikari. She knew he must know she didn't know, so she didn't understand why he kept repeating the question.
But soon she found out.
"Don't know? Then punishment."
———
[Half an Hour Later]
Miss Mary lay motionless on the sheets, her bottom puckered up, looking like someone whose muscles locked after stretching.
After Hikari had worked so hard and still failed to get the answer he wanted, he naturally couldn't help but give the culprit a proper punishment.
Although he didn't get the answer, he did gain another urban legend as his shikigami, so that wasn't bad.
Hikari patted Miss Mary's waist to indicate she could stop.
But the moment he touched her, she collapsed.
Hikari had to feed her some Pure-Love-brand nutritional drink.
Not bad, true to the Pure-Love system, this stuff even worked on Miss Mary, the puppet spirit urban legend.
After Miss Mary's spirits recovered, a little shaken by Hikari's full-force approach, she obediently moved closer and said, "Um… although I don't know how to enter Hanako-chan's vengeful-spirit space, I'll keep helping Hikari-kun look for that information."
"That'll do," Hikari nodded casually.
Seeing Hikari not overly concerned, Miss Mary hurried to promise, "Hikari-kun, don't not believe me! Although I don't have many friends, my intel network is well-connected!"
Hikari smiled and ruffled her hair, "Don't worry, I believe you. You are the legendary Miss Mary; of course you have channels. All right, when you find anything useful about that Hanako, tell me."
Miss Mary nodded seriously, "Mm! I can go ask that human-faced dog fellow, its nose is super sensitive; maybe it can find the positional node of where Hanako is hiding in the vengeful-spirit space…"
Hikari didn't know much about Miss Mary's plan and said little, he just hoped the human-faced dog friend would be reliable.
He reminded Miss Mary to first ensure her personal safety and gave her some useful items like Clear Jade talismans, then let her go confidently to gather intel.
With the Record of Strange Tales, he could control Miss Mary to an extent and could feel her situation, if she were in danger he could arrive in time.
Since he no longer needed to imprison Miss Mary, Hikari checked out of the presidential suite.
Although he and Miss Louisa of the Richter family were as close as father and daughter, he couldn't keep causing them losses forever.
After contacting the hotel manager to settle the room, Hikari left the Richter Hotel.
———
After leaving the Richter Hotel, Hikari headed straight to Harmony Apartments.
At the door of Room 301 he was about to take out his key when Yukino Shendong opened the door and welcomed him in.
Bundled up warmly, Yukino was holding a shopping basket and seemed to be just heading out to buy groceries.
"Hikari-kun~"
Yukino was naturally very happy to see Hikari.
Sitting on the sofa in her off-shoulder shrine-maiden outfit, Kiriryuin Kaede also glanced over.
But this miko's look was not friendly; her mouth was full of sarcasm, "Human, coming to see Yukino again? You come every day, so annoying."
Hikari immediately fired back, "What business is that of yours? I'm not like someone who freeloads off Yukino every day, shamelessly."
"Who says I freeload? I do housework every day," Kiriryuin Kaede complained.
"Housework meaning watching TV on the sofa?", Hikari sneered.
Seeing the two immediately bickering like this, Yukino felt helpless.
After all, one was a boyfriend and the other a best friend, she could only stand between them and try to mediate.
"All right, all right, stop arguing! You're both my closest, most important people, if you keep fighting I'll be sad."
After Yukino said that, Hikari and Kiriryuin Kaede quieted down.
Yukino, carrying her basket, walked to the door and warned as she left, "I'm stepping out to buy some groceries, be back soon to cook. You two stay home and don't fight, okay?"