"So, boss, did you do something to the Principal and Aunt Himeko?"
After Theresa and Murata Himeko had left, Bronya pushed open the dormitory door, her gaze following the direction the two had gone, her eyes shifting as if she were deep in thought.
After a long moment, she turned her head and asked her lover.
"A part of the Eighth Divine Key—Fenghuang Down. It's a Key of Consciousness, equipped with functions like creating illusions, modifying memories, and implanting consciousness."
"Not long ago, the Schicksal Overseer sent it to me as one of the experimental materials for Chaldeas."
"What I just used was the memory modification function."
The young man, with a crimson feather floating in his hand, spoke openly, making no attempt to hide the utterly demonic thing he had just done.
A Divine Key that can arbitrarily modify someone's memories?
The girl thought back to how, in just a short time, she had seen Teacher Murata Himeko and Principal Theresa quickly return, acting as if they had forgotten what had happened before, and coming back to demand her salary all over again.
What a terrifying ability.
A person's consciousness is built upon an accumulation of memories. If one could freely delete and alter a person's memories, the target's values and behaviors would inevitably change.
Bronya, who knew full well the consequences of altering someone's memories, listened to the young man's calm description beside her, her expression changing slightly.
The Key of Erosion, Jizo Mitama, with its ability to corrupt machinery and living beings, as well as amplify a target's emotions.
The Key of Consciousness, Fenghuang Down, with its ability to create illusions, modify memories, and implant consciousness.
When these two Divine Keys were combined...
Honestly, she felt that her lover's skillset was a bit demonic.
"Boss, don't you think... there's a bit of a problem with your ability system?"
Bronya chose her words carefully, organizing her thoughts before speaking.
"There is a bit of one."
Li Zihan shrugged.
"My abilities are too miscellaneous? The systems are different, the development paths are divided between heavy assault, control, and surprise attacks, making them hard to integrate?"
"Too miscellaneous?"
Bronya was stunned.
What she wanted to say was that the boss's abilities were a bit evil, easily bringing to mind certain doujinshi and eroge galgames.
But Li Zihan was talking about the complexity of his ability composition.
Did that mean the boss actually possessed many different kinds of abilities and just preferred to use the ones related to erosion and consciousness?
At this thought, the corner of Bronya's mouth twitched slightly.
"I'm carrying a lot of things on me."
Li Zihan turned to look at the girl's somewhat astonished face beside him.
"And they come from very different sources, so they're hard to integrate."
"Honestly, I'm even a little conflicted about which path to take next."
Should I use the Greater Grail's mana to materialize the Saint Graphs of Gilgamesh and Cú Chulainn, then use the relic of Ozy's wife to summon Ramesses II, and turn them into 'nutrients' to cultivate Karna's Saint Graph, then go searching for high-spec powers of destruction and balance to complete a cycle of creation-balance-destruction?
Or should I seize Welt's Herrscher of Reason core, analyze the powers of the First to the Thirteenth Divine Keys, then guide the direction of civilization's development, create the Herrschers I want, and seize their Herrscher Cores?
Or perhaps, I should perfect the Emiya family's research, wait within a Reality Marble for the end of the world, contact the Root that will manifest after the universe ends, and try to become a Magician?
Honestly, Li Zihan was a bit lost.
There were too many choices, and each seemed to have a very promising future, as well as its own flaws.
Although he could have them all, when pursuing multiple ability systems, one must ultimately distinguish between primary and secondary paths.
Perhaps this was the trouble of the nouveau riche.
Li Zihan lamented.
He was fundamentally different from those who could only blindly walk a single path their entire lives.
However, there was no rush to consider these things now. After all, in his current state, he couldn't accomplish any of the above.
With that thought, he reached out his hand and wrapped it around the waist of the girl beside him.
Then, it was slapped away by the girl's slender hand.
Her beautiful, light-gray eyes then moved to the young man's face, looking at him as if he were a pervert.
"Boss, Bronya thinks you should use Fenghuang Down to modify your own thinking. Boys who are too perverted are not popular with girls."
"What's wrong with a man being a pervert?"
Li Zihan pursed his lips, speaking words that seemed to have some logic to them.
He put his arm around the girl's shoulder, and as if he had suddenly thought of something, he suddenly leaned in, his lips close to her delicate little ear, and chuckled softly.
"Besides, Bronya, would you hate me for a reason like me being lecherous?"
"...No."
Bronya wanted to say yes, then stomp on his foot hard to wake this pervert up.
But when she turned her head and saw the boy's face with its slightly wicked smile, the words on the tip of her tongue changed.
She didn't really want to joke about expressing her feelings.
Hearing her words, the smile on the boy's face grew even more brilliant.
And then—
It froze.
The girl lifted her calf, clad in its exoskeleton armor, and stomped down hard on his foot.
"Bronya won't hate the boss for this, but that doesn'...mean that Bronya won't get angry because the boss makes perverted requests."
The girl, who was by no means weak, fiercely stomped on her lover's foot, and then, with an expressionless face, added another stomp for good measure.
"...."
The expression on the young man's face after being stomped on twice was quite a sight.
"I was just talking, do you have to go that far?" the young man, who had looked anything but joking before Theresa arrived, argued.
"So, you're saying, boss, that you're actually a genuine gentleman who isn't interested in special plays?"
As if she had heard some kind of joke, the girl narrowed her eyes, her tone shifting in a way that made Li Zihan laugh dryly.
He was a gentleman of the "Golden Spirit Inheritor" edition.
"Shouldn't the punishment phase and all that come after I've already committed the crime?"
Li Zihan, who had the heart and the guts of a thief but alas, lacked the opportune moment to succeed in his "crime", sighed.
"Boss, you really are a pervert."
Remembering the "heat" she had felt when he held her in his arms earlier, Bronya mercilessly exposed this fact.
Having said this, she immediately turned her head to look away, leaving only the back of her head in Li Zihan's sight.
"Bronya, what are you looking at?"
Feeling that Bronya seemed to be looking for something, Li Zihan took a step forward, walked to her side, and asked.
"Bronya is just a little curious, boss, who are you painting?"
Boss, it couldn't be a painting of a girl I don't know at all, right?
The girl, who had also noticed the oil painting with its upper half covered in the corner of the living room, had a sharp glint in her eyes.
Then, words that put her heart at ease came from Li Zihan's mouth.
"It's Seele-da!"