"Isayama-kun, please use this if you don't mind!"
Kenmyo Isayama stared blankly at Eru Chitanda as she tried to hand him something. He pointed a finger at himself in bewilderment.
"What is this? For me?"
"Yes, it's my class notes."
Recalling how she had been caught peeking at him earlier, Chitanda's moist, large eyes flickered toward Kenmyo before guiltily darting away. Then, fearing he might misunderstand, she added a hurried explanation:
"Because Isayama-kun said during the class meeting that you were going to study hard, but you've missed so many previous lessons."
"So, I thought of lending you my notes, thinking they might be of some help to you."
Clutching several notebooks tightly, Chitanda leaned forward slightly in her eagerness. "Don't worry about the quality of the notes; for every subject—"
"Alright, alright, Chitanda-san, I understand."
Seeing the girl leaning in so close she was almost pressing against him, Kenmyo immediately took the notes and thanked her. "Heh, these are Chitanda-san's notes; how could I possibly doubt them?"
Unlike Kenmyo, who was currently the "anchor" of the grade, Eru Chitanda was a top-tier honor student. Since enrollment, she had firmly held a spot in the top ten of the second year. At Aoyama Academy, anyone in the top thirty would basically be considered a "God of Study" in any other high school.
"This really helps a lot."
"It's nothing, really. I just... like studying a little more than most."
Seeing the notes successfully delivered, Chitanda let out a small sigh of relief and added one more thing: "Isayama-kun, if there's anything you don't understand, you can always ask me."
"I got it. Thanks, Chitanda-san."
"Mhm!"
Seemingly in a visibly better mood now that she could help him, Chitanda nodded happily and returned to her small circle of girlfriends.
"You did it! Amazing!"
He could vaguely hear a few girls over there patting Chitanda on the head and praising her: "Eru-chan is so brave~"
Did you think Kenmyo was like those "pure" young boys who get flustered and keep their distance because a girl got too close?
Not a chance. Kenmyo didn't consider himself that kind of spineless "herbivore."
When faced with Chitanda's approach, Kenmyo had chosen to step back because his survival instinct was screaming at him. While he looked nonchalant on the surface, he was actually so terrified inside that he could have broken into a frantic shuffle dance on the spot.
As cute as this girl was, in Kenmyo's eyes, she was equally terrifying.
As Chitanda had drawn near, the ink-black Cursed Energy on her person had gone completely haywire—it felt like it was going berserk. From Kenmyo's perspective, the dense resentment behind her had materialized into twelve blood-red tentacles, each thicker than his thigh, surrounding him from all directions.
That wasn't even the worst part. What nearly caused Kenmyo to lose his sanity was the subsequent mutation of these spiked tentacles: their skin split open, and within moments, they were dripping with fresh blood. The split flesh was pushed wide to reveal countless, wildly rolling, maddened eyeballs.
As Chitanda nearly bumped into him, all those bloodshot eyes opened wide and stared fixatedly at Kenmyo.
Meanwhile, the Flesh Hound lurking in Kenmyo's shadow had bared its razor-sharp teeth, letting out a heavy, low growl. It was clear that these twelve bizarre tentacles posed a massive threat to its master's safety.
Kenmyo looked at his remaining 30 Mana points. What else could he do?
Naturally, he had to pretend he saw absolutely nothing.
He immediately soothed the restless Flesh Hound to keep it from making a scene. As for himself, Kenmyo let his eyes go vacant, hypnotizing himself with the thought: "I see nothing."
Dammit, don't let those rough tentacles touch my face...
The moment he felt that coarse texture, Kenmyo's act almost crumbled. His heart was nearly leaping out of his throat.
Ultimately, he suppressed the urge to blast those bastard tentacles with a [Psionic Blast]. He stared straight into Chitanda's eyes, using her cuteness to forcibly neutralize the revulsion in his heart. He managed to converse as if nothing were wrong and ended the interaction pleasantly.
Only after Chitanda walked away did Kenmyo realize his back was completely soaked.
Strangely, once she was at a distance, those tentacles—symbols of madness themselves—vanished into thin air like a mirage, as if it had all been Kenmyo's hallucination. Or perhaps they only reacted to him; the girls who had just patted her head were perfectly fine.
"Must be nice~ 'It helps a lot' indeed."
As Kenmyo drank some water to calm his nerves, he heard the fatty behind him mimicking their conversation in a sour, sarcastic tone.
"You already know all this stuff, so why did you take Chitanda-san's notes?"
Earlier during the break, the fatty had secretly compared his answers to Kenmyo's completed exam paper. Finding that Kenmyo got everything right had caused him to have an immediate mental breakdown.
It felt worse than being killed.
"When I was last in the grade, no one ever said to me: 'If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me anytime'..."
Kenmyo just gave a cold laugh and didn't hold back, delivering a heart-stabbing remark. The fatty's face turned green, and he tried to stand up to argue, but Kenmyo walked out of the classroom without giving him a second look.
After mocking the fat boy, Kenmyo felt significantly better. Indeed, happiness should be built upon the suffering of others.
Just as he slid open the back door to get some fresh air, Kenmyo sighed.
"What bad luck..."
He casually crushed a twisted, humanoid low-level Cursed Womb that was standing in the doorway, blocking his path.
He watched the notification pop up on his information window:
[Cursed Energy Absorbed, Points +1]
To kill something so low-level it couldn't even be called a Cursed Spirit, Kenmyo didn't even need to expend mana; he simply used brute force, crushing it with Psionic pressure.
The system was working normally.
"So the thing on Eru Chitanda... isn't a curse?"
Just moments ago, Kenmyo had taken a massive risk. While taking the notebooks, his hand had seemingly brushed against Chitanda's fingers, but in reality, he had used a blade made of Psionic energy to cut a microscopic fragment of that blood-colored mist.
The result was clear: even after the fragment dissipated into the air, the system couldn't absorb it.
Logically, [Warhammer Simulator] should be able to absorb inanimate Cursed remnants, but it triggered no reaction.
Fine, he wouldn't force it.
It seemed it wasn't that Class A had good feng shui or that no Cursed Spirits came to bother them—they were simply terrified of the thing inside Eru Chitanda. They didn't dare cross the line.
Kenmyo looked at the "freaks and monsters" with vacant stares wandering the second-year hallway. With a thought, his hands were enveloped in Psionic energy.
"Haven't been to school in a while. Might as well play janitor for a day."