It was imperceptible, but it was there. A heavy pressure surrounded Aleph. That was why Hua saw through a part of his current flicts.

  “Are you willing to bee stronger?”

  Suddenly, Aleph asked her this question.

  She didn’t hesitate to give an answer.

  “I am willing.”

  “Alright. I will put you in Project Soldier’s list. You should have heard of it from your superiors.”

  Due to the prior notification to the ander-in-Chief, there was already a mature pn put in pce. Aside from the specially-chosen soldiers with suffit honkai resistahere were also testing sessions about to be put in pbsp;

  Even civilians be tested by it. In turn, they would receive certain privileges ohey agree to bee a part of the project.

  Hence, Hua heard it already from the prior annous.

  “Though it isn’t enough to immediately grant you power simir to mi’s much better than your current strength. There’s still a huge gap between humans and MANTISes.”

  After a moment of silence, she responded:

  “I uand.”

  “...I will tell you about the finer details ter.”

  Aleph wao ask why she didn’t even ask about the ive side-effects. But then, he realized.

  ‘It’s not just me who was fighting.’

  *****

  Aleph y ft on his metal bed ihe temporary base. He seems to be bnkly staring at the tent’s ceiling.

  {Results: New reas were detected iifact.}

  Great Sage’s voice rang in his ears. His mind was directed towards the mark in his left hand that tinuously draiwo-thirds of his cursed energy reserves.

  Even if he had the reversed curse teique to heal his brain, his cursed energy output began to fall off.

  ‘It’s already an hour…’

  Just when he was thinking, he felt a sudden halt in the energy absorption. It didn’t take long before Aleph’s cursed energy reserves became full again.

  “Hm..?”

  The vertical mark in his left hand began to shine dimly. It was then that someone came out from Aleph’s shadow. It was a mix of murky red and bck.

  A familiar girl with a gothic lolita dress appeared inside his bedroom.

  “Ara. That was too sudden of me, Ain.”

  “...That was reiyoku?”

  Beyond normal sight, Aleph’s dark blue world told him everything. His elemental sight worked wonders as he immediately saw what was different from Kurumi.

  “Your eyes are even sharper than before. What else you see~?”

  “Sorry.”

  He immediately disabled his elemental sight. It became his habit to turn on his elemental sight every time he was about to experienething new. It was akin to his instincts getting ready for a potential ambush.

  Only now did Aleph realize how ‘disrespectful’ it was to peer through a friend of his.

  Seeing this rea, she smiled iurn.

  “So you still have that side.”

  “I ’t help it.” He replied.

  Back then, whewo were talking about things, a mention of Kurumi’s ‘problem’ was enough to turn Aleph serious. He wouldn’t joke about a friend’s dire situation whehey entered one.

  That resulted in him being ‘unnecessarily’ serious in some joking sarios.

  “Kurumi, that was your power?”

  “Mn.” She nodded. “I wao prepare myself for events I could be of help. It is your world that needs saving, isn’t it so~?”

  Aleph’s elemental sight fed him back the informatiarding Kurumi’s state. Before, she oed as ay vessel. She could i with the world and touch objects. But, she would only have a strength simir to that of a normal human’s.

  Later on, she expi came from her ‘injuries’ when fighting the ‘First Spirit’. The ‘jouro this world also took a toll, depriving Kurumi of her reiyoku (spiritual power) as well as her authority (time).

  “I access my power now. How~e~ver…” Kurumi made a dramatic pause. “It requires something important.”

  “What is it?”

  “A kiss.”

  “A—what?”

  Aleph knew his face must’ve been funny looking now. Still, he wasn’t in a capacity to trol it.

  “Fufu. Why? Is it impossible?”

  “No… It’s just… you might be f yourself…”

  “A kiss on the cheek?”

  “...Ah.”

  He showed a look of uanding. It was the sed time he was being pyed like this. The only other person who was able to do this was Mei.

  Beep-!

  Seeing the name of his caller, Aleph’s heart trembled slightly.

  It was Mei.

  “Hee? Who was it?”

  “Another friend of mine.”

  “Rea~lly?”

  Kurumi came closer oep at a time. Her hands were pced behind her back.

  Aleph swiftly took the phone and answered it.

  “How was everything?”

  Mei’s raspy voice came from the other side.

  “It’s fine. I shouldn’t take long here. Maybe around a week or so.”

  “Alright. Is there anything else? Have you entered any other problems?”

  “No… there isn’t any. Why—”

  It was a soft tou Aleph's cheek. It made him abruptly pause his words.

  ‘She really… did it..?’

  It was a kiss… on his cheek. His peripheral vision saw Kurumi near his face.

  She broke away a sed ter. He could immediately feel a sense of e with her. Atop this startling a, it seemed like she was telling the truth when it es to her powers.

  Aleph's mind processed everything swiftly.

  ‘What?’

  ‘What? She did it?’

  ‘I thought she was joking.’

  ‘No. I thought she was teasing me.’

  ‘This is… real.’

  It was the first time Aleph miscalcuted.

  To greet his shock, Kurumi merely gave a silent smile towards him. Her pair of bd golden pupils made his heart skip yet another beat. A pyful stare right after the kiss was a deadly bo.

  “...Aleph? Is something wrong? No. There’s something wrong. What was it?”

  Mei’s serious tone brought him back to reality. It was at this moment did he realize… he screwed up.

  “No. It’s not a big deal. It must be fatigue.”

  “...Remember to take care of yourself.”

  *****

  First Institute, Mu ti.

  Beep-!

  Upon ending the call, Mei frowned.

  ‘There’s something wrong.’

  Judging from Aleph’s words, she couldn’t glean anything wrong. Even his excuse of fatigue was reasonable for someone who fought multiple emperor-css honkai beasts in one day. The only other noticeable thing was the ge of his tone over the call.

  ‘What was it?’

  Her heart…no, intuition was telling her something was wrong; and it should be something that came from her blind spot.

  For example, a thieving cat.

  Her finger tiapping on the desk for a while.

  ‘I shall keep this in mind.’

  Without finding any evidence of sorts, she became determio keep this occurreo her mind.