Could anyone have a bigger background than a mermaid idol or a mermaid princess? Could any background be bigger than that of an elf princess? Could anything be bigger than the leader of the dragon clan?
Behind him stood none other than Hachiman, beloved by so many demi-humans.
"Mm, that's right. Do you have their contact information? I want to talk to the person in charge of Lycoris, see if it's possible to have two people come to Sobu High. It's not really good to keep bothering you with small matters like today."
Hachiman made no attempt to hide his intention to contact Lycoris.
Lycoris might not be that capable in this world full of supernatural powers, but having people like them, licensed killers with official backgrounds, come to clean things up was still perfectly fine.
Otherwise, every time some small fry appeared, he'd have to either do it himself or ask Ursula to handle it. What a hassle.
Councilman Ichinose wouldn't refuse such a small favor, but asking him too often wasn't ideal either.
After all, the man had sent him one beautiful girl after another, and Hachiman had already slept with quite a few of them, including Ichinose's own daughter, Ayano. Ayano was even thinking of dragging her father down and inheriting the Ichinose family.
Councilman Ichinose was so ambitious, and yet when looking at himself, Hachiman realized he hadn't given the man any real benefit in return, just a bunch of empty promises.
When you take someone's favors, your hands are tied; when you eat someone's food, your mouth softens. He couldn't very well keep taking the man's girls and still act like a big shot toward him, right?
Of course, his reason for contacting Lycoris wasn't to call over the people he'd met before, Nishikigi Chisato and Inoue Takina. They were Lycoris too, but both were kind girls, not the kind to casually destroy evidence like he did. Asking them for help would only give himself a headache.
["I'm terribly sorry to disappoint you. I don't have any Lycoris contact information. You know what their line of work is like. If a politician like me got involved with Lycoris, it'd be very easy for something bad to happen."]
Hearing that Hachiman wanted to ask Lycoris to handle dirty work, Councilman Ichinose couldn't help feeling awkward.
Lycoris, as a special agency, could be simply described as one that took care of criminals and terrorists before incidents even happened. However, sometimes, they also went after politicians.
Ordinary criminals making trouble weren't on the same level as politicians making trouble.
Lycoris might be bad at dealing with demi-humans, but when it came to ordinary people like him, they were terrifyingly efficient.
He could be shot dead while giving a street speech. Of course, that'd be too flashy.
The more likely scenario was that he'd step into an elevator and be shot by a disguised Lycoris agent. No footage on security cameras, police arriving late, then being rushed to the hospital and "dying of failed resuscitation" or something like that.
"It's fine, I was just asking. I can contact someone else too. It's just that I happened to run into a few Lycoris lately and wanted to ask if you knew much about them."
["I'm terribly sorry! I'll deal with that delinquent student issue right away. Please rest assured, Mr. Hikigaya!"]
Apologizing, Councilman Ichinose quickly hung up the phone, then called upon his network and connections to deal with the people involved in the Sobu High convenience store incident, both the perpetrators and victims.
After everything was taken care of, he opened a certain family group chat he hadn't looked at in a long time, scrolling through the somewhat unfamiliar names of Ichinose family members.
Actually, last night when he learned that the two Yukinoshita sisters had appeared together with the Elf Princess at the Mermaid Songstress's concert, and had even sat in the ultra-VIP front row, his teeth had nearly cracked from grinding them.
Wasn't the Yukinoshita family's second daughter supposed to be bad at socializing, making no progress at all? How come she was suddenly going to concerts with the Elf Princess?
Meanwhile, Ayano and Hanami stayed home all weekend, not even going out, not joining the concert, not playing with the Elf Princess, what a waste raising those two useless girls.
He'd made so many arrangements and done so much work, yet somehow he still couldn't outdo the Yukinoshita family?
But the next day, when the maid said she'd seen a young lady with a graceful, rich-lady air come out of Ayano's room, a girl she didn't recognize, and that later only Marika came out, saying she was going to handle her transfer paperwork to Sobu High...
And that Hanami, Ayano, and Ayano's classmate who had been staying at the house had all vanished, leaving only a note saying they'd gone to school, when Councilman Ichinose heard this news, last night's gloom vanished instantly, his mood brightening again.
He'd underestimated Ayano. As expected of his daughter.
And Hanami wasn't bad either, not a waste of his effort to pull strings and transfer her into Hachiman's class, taking a risk just for that.
But still... such a big thing, and neither of them told him.
Were they trying to give him a big surprise?
Although the Yukinoshita sisters went to the Mermaid Songstress concert with the Elf Princess, while Hanami, Ayano, Marika, and Ayano's classmate were hanging out with the Elf Princess's favorite, Hachiman.
On the surface, it seemed like the Ichinose family was at a disadvantage, trying to curry favor not with the Elf Princess herself, but with someone close to her, and even sending so many people.
But he had long sensed that Hachiman's relationship with the Elf Princess and her group was special.
The dignified Elf Princess had no shortage of places to stay, so why was she living in an ordinary civilian's house? And not just her, but her sister, her guard, and other elves too?
And Hachiman was so close to the Mermaid Songstress and the Elf Princess, how suspicious.
He didn't even need to show up at the concert, didn't need to accompany anyone, yet could still come over to his house in the middle of the night to play with girls. That spoke volumes.
As for the noble, powerful, poised, and deeply calculating Elf Princess, there was no real way for him to curry favor with her. He couldn't even figure out what Hachiman had done to win her favor.
But if he couldn't curry favor with the Elf Princess... couldn't he still curry favor with Hachiman?
Hachiman's physical abilities were unusually strong, and unexpectedly, quite... alluring.
Even though he was surrounded by girls at school and at home, he could still come here and mess with more girls. Even Marika, who had just arrived yesterday, had already been "taken care of." The maid said she looked very happy when she left.
'Well... that is a good thing, actually.'
How could the mere two sisters of the Yukinoshita family compare to his grand Ichinose family.
In a pleasant mood, Councilman Ichinose scrolled through the family group, looking at each Ichinose name one by one, recalling who each person was, what his relationship with them was, whether they had daughters, and whether those daughters were pretty.
The Ichinose family wasn't small, though some members had gone abroad, and some lived in the countryside, those would be hard to bring over.
But the ones still in the city, still studying, those, he could work with.
Like Ichinose Hanami's family, who lived poorly in the city.
Ichinose Marika's family was doing okay, though Marika's mother was ambitious and often pushed her daughter to compete with his.
Ichinose Kasumi... he remembered her as a cute little girl when he'd met her before. She should be in high school now. It'd been years since they met, hopefully, she hadn't grown ugly.
Ichinose Riko, Ichinose Anna... those two sisters were also good prospects... apparently the older one had even become a magazine model.
———
[Service Club Clubroom]
Hachiman, unaware of Councilman Ichinose's burning ambition, looked down after hanging up the phone, at Hanamori Kotomi, who was resting in his arms, secretly listening to his call, and smiled a warning smile.
"Kotomi-chan, you don't need to eavesdrop. If I'm making a call here, it means I'm not afraid of you hearing it."
"But don't even think about keeping secrets from me. If you run into trouble and don't come talk to me, once I find out, it won't be something a simple 'anger-dispelling spell' can fix."
"Of course, if you ever need me to help you with something, you have to go through the same process as this time."
"If you're worried that Yukino and the others will find out, then I'll change the location. The student guidance room is pretty good, should be empty during lunch."
No need to think too hard to know that this idiot Kotomi was probably planning to hide things from him.
That's how girls from the "2D World" were, saying no but meaning yes, often doing silly things on impulse.
But he'd already mastered the strategy for capturing these "2D world" heroines. He could easily handle Hanamori Kotomi without worrying she'd disobey.
Such a cute little idiot, only he was allowed to bully her.
"..."
Hearing Hachiman's domineering and absolute words, Hanamori Kotomi bit her lip, clenched her small fists, and sulked in silence.
She kind of regretted it now. No matter how much she wanted to help Sakashita clear his name, this wasn't right.
Maybe she should've waited for Yukinoshita-san. What if Yukinoshita-san succeeded?
Although, if Yukinoshita-san failed... she'd probably still have to come to Hikigaya anyway.
And without Hayase-san or Tsukishiro-san there to share the load, she might actually collapse onto the floor, unable to get up.
After a while, Hanamori Kotomi suddenly realized something, her eyes widening in panic as she looked at Hachiman, who was teasing her while calling her an idiot, and at Hayase Saki, Sakurase Shino, and the other girls gathered around him.
"Wait, you said the student guidance room? Don't tell me, even Hiratsuka-senpai..."
"What about her?", Hachiman looked at Hanamori Kotomi's heaving chest and asked with a smile.
Come to think of it, he'd known Hiratsuka Shizuka longer than Kotomi, yet somehow he was now closer to Kotomi.
But that couldn't be helped, those "Anime World" heroines were always more proper, harder to deal with.
Though Hiratsuka Shizuka was a marriage-hungry, single woman past her prime, she wasn't just with anyone, otherwise she'd have married long ago. Only a clumsy young teacher like Hanamori Kotomi would let him push her around without daring to protest.
"Gulp! Hiratsuka-senpai, she..."
Seeing Hachiman looking at her with that "you've discovered my secret, so I'll eat you" look, Hanamori Kotomi swallowed nervously.
She hadn't expected the usually cool, reliable Hiratsuka-senpai to have also been bullied by Hikigaya-kun.
Then her being bullied didn't seem that surprising anymore.
For some reason, realizing that made Kotomi feel strangely relieved.
After all, as a grown-up teacher, being bullied by a student and not daring to talk back was extremely humiliating.
But now that she wasn't the only one, and even the "Iron-Fisted Teacher" Hiratsuka-senpai couldn't handle Hikigaya-kun, then she couldn't really be called "easy to bully," could she?
Hachiman played with the thick, silky hair falling over Hanamori Kotomi's shoulders, smiling without saying a word.
He knew she had misunderstood. Hiratsuka Shizuka was indeed better than Yukinoshita Yukino, at least she knew what he was doing in the student guidance room, that there were not only the Elf Princess Iris but also a few other girls.
But that was all. She didn't know exactly who those girls were, hadn't seen them with her own eyes, or heard anything herself.
Still, he didn't bother explaining for Hiratsuka. Instead, he waved toward Hayase Saki and the others.
"Lunch break's almost over. Saki, you girls should get to class."
"Hehe~ President, we're heading out then! Bye, Hanamori-sensei~ Let's eat together again next time~"
After greeting their club advisor, Hanamori Kotomi, the well-fed Hayase Saki and her friend waved goodbye, dragging along their still-hungry besties, Narahashi Miku and Sakurase Shino, as they left the Service Club.
She really wanted to tell Hanamori Kotomi about the Mutual Aid Society right now, but since Kotomi had just joined them, her mindset probably hadn't shifted yet.
Once the President properly "educated" her, they could bring her in later. No rush.
Of course, they had to watch the timing, otherwise, with Kotomi's dumb head, someone else might snatch her away first.
For now, only a few people knew about Kotomi. They could afford to wait.
"Hikigaya-kun, I'm going too. Next time, introduce me to Iris and the others, okay?"
The vampire girl, Tsukishiro Sayo, said goodbye to Hachiman, gave him a big kiss on the cheek, and then followed the others out of the Service Club.
She wasn't going back to class, though, she was heading back to the library to catch up on her light novels.
What did a vampire need to study for, anyway? She came to school just to experience campus life.
Though snuggling up next to Hikigaya-kun and reading together would've been much nicer.
But she couldn't force herself to drink his blood. To avoid losing control when hunger hit later, she decided to leave while she was still full.
Since Hikigaya-kun was kind and forgiving about her earlier offense, and even agreed to form a blood contract with her, she had to keep her promise, she could only drink when he allowed it.
"Bye, everyone... Wait a second, Hikigaya-kun, what about you? You're not going to class?", Hanamori Kotomi blinked at the girls leaving, then suddenly turned to Hachiman, who was still holding her, showing no sign of getting up.
"Me? Of course, I'm going to pay the price. Guess why I can order Councilman Ichinose around?"
Hachiman looked at Hanamori Kotomi, who had gotten used to sitting on his lap without any resistance, qnd smiled, marveling inwardly at how terrifying his "Absolute Taming" ability was.
Though Kotomi's personality was naturally gentle, the fact that after just one afternoon of talking and brief intimacy, she now sat on his lap as if it were the most natural thing in the world proved just how fearsome Absolute Taming was.
The only downside was that Absolute Taming wasn't an active skill. It was purely passive, and most of the time, he couldn't even tell when it was working.
After all, most of the "2D World" heroines around him became obedient and docile after his "education," even without the ability's influence.
"Huh? A price? What price?", Hearing his words, Hanamori Kotomi looked at him in total confusion.
She had already noticed his small touches as he held her, but compared to that indescribable sensation earlier, she found his current actions, like touching her stockings or pinching her cheek, far more tolerable.
To avoid having to use the "anger-dispelling spell" again, she figured this was fine.
"You'll find out soon. I'm going to the student guidance room. If you're free this afternoon, Kotomi, come take a look at the 'price' I have to pay."
Seeing that Kotomi hadn't caught on, Hachiman didn't bother explaining further. He stood up, still holding her, then released her soft waist.
"The student guidance room? No, wait, don't call me by name at school! I'm a teacher!"