"Is it about to start?"

  Rikka and Sanae wideheir eyes simultaneously, eager not to miss a single moment of what was about to happen.

  Yukino and the others beside them also watched carefully.

  Even though they'd seen Ryuji harange is before, the girls were still quite curious about the process of exorg.

  Yumiko, standing at the front, was a little scared.

  But thinking about Yui and Hina behind her, she stood her ground firmly.

  Ryuji didn't waste any time.

  He raised his hand and began to pull down his colr. While there were many ways to hahis, Ryuji wao try the cursed teique he had just acquired.

  At first, the others didn't think much of it.

  But when they noticed a special curse rune appearing at the er of Ryuji's mouth, they were all taken by surprise.

  "What is that?"

  Before they could think too much, Ryuji had already started the cursed teique.

  "Dissipate!"

  A wave of special cursed energy, apanied by a gust of wind, swept over the three girls.

  They didn't even know what was happening.

  "Ah!"

  Everyone heard a sharp scream.

  In the moment, something strange, with half of its face resembling a skeleton, struggled out of Yumiko and the others' bodies.

  It looked as if it had suffered a serious injury.

  Its expression was twisted in pain, and it only struggled for a brief moment before—

  "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

  Three secutive sounds, like balloons bursting, echoed as all the weirdness vanished.

  The exorcism was over!

  Ryuji felt a little dryness in his throat, but with his RCT, it returo normal almost instantly.

  Ryuji pulled his colr back up.

  "Is that it?" Yumiko and the others were in disbelief. They had expected some kind of dramatic battle.

  For instahey thought wheray emerged, Ryuji would struggle to defeat it at first, then triumph through the power of friendship or something.

  Wasn't that how it usually went in novels?

  If Ryuji knew what Yumiko was thinking, he could only sigh.

  It's best not to read too many ridiculous novels!

  "What else did you expect?"

  Ryuji shrugged, looking nont.

  It was solved in one move. What more could be said?

  "What was that just now?"

  pared to the others, Yukino was more curious. The special rune on Ryuji's lips hadn't appeared when he was eating the straies before.

  "Those are uterns used when casting cursed teique," Ryuji expined, pulling down his colr to reveal that the patterns had disappeared.

  "I just acquired this ability retly, so I wao give it a try!"

  It wasn't something he cared about keepi.

  "cursed teique?"

  "Yeah, you think of it like 'what you say bees reality.'"

  It was too plicated to expin iail, so he opted for the simplest expnation.

  "Hiss!"

  'What you say bees reality?' Don't make something so terrifying sound so casual!

  This ability was undoubtedly fearsome.

  "..."

  Just by looking at their faces, Ryuji could tell what they were thinking. Although the cursed teique owerful, it wasn't invincible. Otherwise, the Inumaki family wouldn't have only one remaining member left to maintain the lineage.

  Of course, that artly because the cursed teique family hadn't produced a caster capable of trolling the cursed teique.

  Without someone who could reverse the curse, it was iable that the family would dee.

  "Don't be too shocked. The spell also has side effects. For instahe more difficult the task, the greater the backsh when you speak it!"

  This was akin to a curse, simir to how the Heavenly Restri traded off power for a formidable physical body.

  In addition to gaining powerful abilities, the spell inflicted a penalty each time it was used, essentially ag as a hidden curse.

  Thinking about it this way, it made perfect sense.

  "Side effects?"

  The girls, who had been amazed at the spell's power, immediately grew ed when they heard about the side effects, including Yumiko and the others in front of them.

  "How do you feel now? Are you unfortable anywhere?" Yumiko asked, stepping closer to Ryuji.

  "Don't worry, I'm pretty tough. The side effects don't really affect me!" Ryuji wasn't pretending to be strong. In truth, the backsh didn't really impact him.

  Even without using the RCT, the worst he had felt was a slight hoarseness in his throat, which had quickly healed.

  It was mainly because he had ed so many straies through soul-swallowing, which had strengthened his body overall.

  Seeing Ryuji speak so fidently, the girls finally felt more at ease.

  Miko, standing beside him, gently held Ryuji's hand and spoke early.

  "You should use that ability as little as possible iure."

  The st thing Miko wanted was to see Ryuji get hurt.

  "Don't worry!" Ryuji smiled and squeezed her hand iurn.

  Time passed, and soon it was the end of the school day.

  "Yumiko!"

  Now that the strange problems had been resolved, and the sense of dread hanging over the three girls had lifted, their moods lightehey no longer had to worry about nightmares involving the skeleton woman.

  Yui, while pag up her schoolbag, suddenly had an idea.

  "Why don't we treat Ryuji to dinner?"

  "Yes, we really should thank him for what he did for us!" Hina chimed in, nodding in agreement.

  Now that they khe world tained such strahings, it would be smart to maintain a good retionship with someone as capable as Ryuji.

  "Ahem!"

  Hearing her friends suggest this, Yumiko cleared her throat and spoke seriously.

  "You don't o worry about that. I'll take care of it!"

  Yui didn't think too much about it, but Hina, watg Yumiko's expression, suddenly grinned.

  "Oh, Yumiko, are y to have dinner with Ryuji alone?"

  Although Hina was known for her love of yaoi stories, she had excelleional intelligend quickly caught on to what was happening.

  "How did you—" Yumiko started in surprise but quickly turned her head away, her words trailing off. Damn, she'd been found out!

  "Hey!!!" Yui excimed, finally realizing what was going on.

  "Does Yumiko want to ask Ryuji out alone?"

  "Oh, I thought you liked Hayato?" Yui added, fused.

  Hearing this, Yumiko immediately refuted.

  "Don't make it sound like there was ever anythiween me and Hayato. I just had a little crush on him, that's all!"

  "So, you like Ryuji nht?" Hina pressed, eager to get to the bottom of it.

  "..."

  Yumiko was silent for a moment, then shot a cold gre at Hina.

  "So what if I do!"

  At this point, there was no point in hiding it.

  "Yumiko, you're so bold!" Yui excimed, impressed by her friend's straightforwardness.

  Hina gave Yui a helpless look. Was that really the point right now? Fet it this girl was too simple to think any deeper.

  "I just think that for our first meal together, we should all go. After all, Ryuji helped all three of us!"

  "That's true. Alright then!"

  Yumiko hinking it over. It would probably be too forward to ask Ryuji out alohe first time. Wouldn't he think she was too casual?

  So, she agreed with Hina's proposal.

  However, Yumiko didn't notice the sly look in Hina's eyes after she agreed.

  Heroes love beauties, aies love heroes.

  "e to think of it, I fot to check those two entries!" Ryuji suddenly remembered after school that he still hadn't checked the entries he had gained.

  The purple entry from Yumiko and the goldery from Yui.

  "Purple entry: Queen of Fire!"

  "?"

  What was this? Sure, Yumiko had the "Queen of Fire" niame at school, but that was just something her cssmates came up with.

  Then again, not long ago, he had triggered ary from Yukino called "Mountain Flower."

  He quickly gnced over the description.

  It was simir to Yukino's, both abilities that altered a person's temperament, giving them an air of dominance like a queen.

  "Tsk, a queenly vibe, huh?"

  It felt a bit odd frown man to have a queen-like temperament. It just seemed out of pce.

  "Fet it, I'll depose it!"

  After deposing the purple entry, he received 1,000 points—not bad at all.

  was Yui's goldery.

  "Goldery: Dark cuisine!"

  "...?"

  Arange one.

  He g the description.

  "Dark cuisine: No matter how carefully you follow the recipe, whatever you cook will always turn out as dark, inedible cuisine."

  "..."

  Ryuji eechless.

  e to think of it, Yui really was a disaster i.

  Fet it.

  "Depose it!"

  He didn't want to deal with it.

  "Points: 73,120!"

  After deposing both entries, Ryuji's points had now surpassed 70,000.

  The 100,000 points required to extract a goldery weren't far off!

  "Speaking of which, Shizuka is also terrible at cooking. I wonder if I trigger a simir entry from her!" Ryuji mused curiously.

  Since he had promised to visit Shizuka that evening, after dropping Miko off at home, Ryuji made his way over to her pce.

  Late that night!

  Ryuji found himself sittio a thhly exhausted Shizuka, feeling somewhat dazed.

  But it wasn't because of anything inappropriate; it was because...

  "Purple entry: Dark cuisine!"

  Yes, Ryuji had iriggered the "Dark cuisiry from Shizuka, just like he had with Yui.

  However, Yui's "Dark cuisiry was golden, whereas Shizuka's was only purple.

  Was her cooking just one level below Yui's in terms of disaster?

  No wonder Shizuka's cooking was so terrible.

  "Sensei, we discuss something?"

  Feeling a bit mischievous, Ryuji suddenly called out softly to her.

  "What is it?" Shizuka responded zily, pletely worn out. Her posture was rexed, aone sluggish she didn't even bother moving her head.

  "Maybe... you should stop cooking?"

  "???"

  Shizuka blinked in fusion, thinking he was going to say something important. But it turned out to be that?

  Wait, are you looking down on me?

  She turned her head to gre at him.

  "..."

  Fag her intense gaze, Ryuji quickly waved his hands defensively.

  "I'm just saying, you cook if you really want to!"

  "Ugh! What the hell!" she excimed.

  Feeling provoked, Shizuka who had been exhausted moments ago somehow found the energy to roll over and prop herself up on both hands.

  "What are you doing?" Ryuji asked, caught off guard.

  "Round two!" Hiratsuka decred, her eyes locked on Ryuji.

  She wasn't about to let this slide. She'd make sure he wouldn't be able to move by tomorrow.

  As it turned out, though, Shizuka had overestimated herself. The m, she was so tired she couldn't eve out of bed.

  Thankfully, it was a weekend, so she didn't o request leave from school.

  Around noon, as Ryuji fiidying up, Shizuka staggered out of her room, barely managing to stay upright.

  "Hey! You're awake? I've made lunch!"

  Oable was a freshly prepared meal, still warm and fragrant.

  Seeing the food, Shizuka felt a wave of warmth in her heart. This kind of life... was really nice.

  "It's the weekend today. Are you going somewhere?" she asked.

  "Yeah, I'm meeting up with a junior from school."

  "..."