---o---
At this time of year, Raiden Mei was an early riser. She finished her morning routine with practiced ease and then began preparing breakfast.
With six people living in the house, a substantial amount of food was needed, requiring an early start. However, thanks to her skill and experience, Miss Mei didn't find preparing a meal for six to be much of a challenge.
Soon, the clean, savory aroma of food filled the kitchen.
"Breakfast is ready," Miss Mei announced, making her way to the second floor where the bedrooms were.
One by one, the residents of the house emerged, all neatly and properly dressed.
The scene filled Miss Mei with a quiet satisfaction. Everything was normal, aside from the fact that Miss Seele, just like Sirin and Ana the day before, kept looking at her with a guilty expression.
Honestly, one would think she should be wary of a girl who had an ambiguous relationship with her fiancé looking at her like that. However, Miss Mei often helped clean everyone's rooms and had never found any strange or suspicious traces in her friends' rooms or her fiancé's.
Besides, just yesterday, after finishing breakfast early, she had suddenly knocked on Li Zihan's door to wake him and had seen nothing inappropriate.
Thus, after a moment of suspicion, her heart was put at ease.
The way Seele and the others looked at her was most likely born from the guilt they felt for having feelings for her fiancé.
After all, Seele, Sirin, and Ana were all good kids. They would absolutely feel guilty for doing something as rotten as getting involved with someone else's fiancé.
The truth was, Miss Mei was completely oblivious to a certain scoundrel's methods.
Within a Reality Marble, whether or not its time is synchronized with the outside world is entirely up to the caster.
Li Zihan had chosen "no."
Therefore, no matter how long Li Zihan and Black Seele spent together inside the Reality Marble, upon returning to reality, it would be the exact same moment they had entered. As long as they cleaned up after themselves within that space, there would be no discernible evidence.
Of course, it was only natural that Miss Mei wouldn't understand.
A Reality Marble was the grandest of grand magics, a mystery second only to True Magic itself. Without reaching the rank of "Color" in the study of mystics, one couldn't even begin to comprehend it.
And Miss Mei's level of mystic knowledge… well, it was limited to the common sense tidbits Li Zihan would casually mention when he was bored.
Li Zihan had actually proposed transplanting some of his Magic Circuits into her so she could learn magecraft. As a first-generation magus, Li Zihan's aptitude was almost unbelievably high. His Magic Circuits were on par with Tohsaka Rin's, with forty main circuits and thirty auxiliaries each. Parting with a few circuits was not an unbearable loss for him.
However, Miss Mei felt it would cause harm to Li Zihan's body and had, of course, refused.
"Good morning, Mei."
The young man, whose eye color had now transformed into a reddish-gold, like the sun, emerged from his room and greeted Raiden Mei.
"Morning, Zihan."
Completely unaware that a certain someone had been cuckolding her with Black Seele just moments before, Miss Mei smiled at her fiancé.
"Yeah, morning."
The man in question, who had in fact been awake for just as long as Mei, greeted the girl who was probably his fiancée.
Driven by the notion that a delayed marriage might be a cuckolded one, the girl who had decided on an early marriage naturally took hold of his hand and led him towards the dining table where several other girls were already seated.
This sort of action can be seen as a declaration of sovereignty, right? the girl, who had her own little schemes, thought as she looked at the familiar faces.
Yes, that's it.
Declare her sovereignty through everyday actions. The method was gentle, yet effective.
As long as she could make them fully realize that she was Zihan's true lover, and then naturally bring up wedding plans in front of them to widen her advantage… she would undoubtedly be the heroine of this new world.
Under the somewhat complicated gazes of the other girls, the one who was indeed his official girlfriend led the young man who had made promises to them all and sat him down across from her.
Miss Seele, who had been woken up by her other self inside the Reality Marble and had also "received her share of the public grain," kept her head down and ate her food quietly. Having just placed a green hat on Miss Mei's head, she felt a little bit guilty.
"So, Zihan, do you have any plans for what's next?" Miss Mei asked, arranging the bowl and chopsticks for the young man beside her, much like a wife inquiring about her husband's schedule.
Does 'find a world and marry Seele' count as a plan? thought the young man, who had just been urged by Black Seele to marry her right after they had finished.
But he couldn't say that out loud.
If he did, even the good-tempered Miss Mei would go berserk and unleash her ultimate right in his face.
The young man, who had come to the God-Slayer world to fulfill his pact with Kevin and take his girls on a trip, rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
His gains from this trip had been quite substantial.
The Authority, "Though the Sun May Set Three Times," which granted him three lives and a twenty-percent stat boost upon revival.
The Authority, "Ame-no-Murakumo," seized from that old schemer Susanoo, which had the same effect as his sword, stealing the characteristics of others' powers and applying them to other things.
And from Surya, who basically came to offer his head on a platter, the Authority "Fire-Thief" and a chief-god level divinity of Creation.
This set of Authorities was truly disgusting. If it appeared on a game boss, it would be a build that would make players curse the developers' entire family line.
So, all he had to do now was chop up a few more God-Slayers or gods, obtain the final divinity for his Three-God-Garment, and he could go back.
"The general plan is to help you all get the God-Slayer buff, and then go and test my skills against a certain extraordinary prince," the young man said, having basically decided to take Rama's divinity of Balance next.
Speaking of which, how was Fu the Brawny doing now?
According to Kevin, Fu the Brawny had practically turned Shenzhou upside down for a week and still hadn't found a Heretical God.
That Guardian of Shenzhou's luck was so bad, he wondered if her part-time job was Guardian of Africa.
Just as he was internally mocking a certain someone's rotten luck, a knock suddenly sounded at the door.
Who could that be?
Li Zihan thought as he stood up to answer it.
When he opened the door, he froze.
In his line of sight was the unconscious form of the Demon Sect Leader.
Then, the weak voice of a certain Guardian of Shenzhou sounded out.
"It's me, Hua."
---o---
Author's Note:
PS: Seriously, do you guys want to see more fight-focused plotlines?
If you do, I'll try to cut down on some of the scenes with the female characters and replace them with descriptions of enemies and the overall situation to build up to the fights.
Honestly, for me, writing battle scenes is much easier than writing scenes with female characters.