Aleph did not have any clue as to why Vill-V visited in the middle of the night. His mind reoccupied by it.

  ‘Oh…’

  Sakura’s senses were extremely sharp. The room’s state a few moments ago was hidden by some power. It also wasn’t difficult to notice the hickeys on his neck.

  Only when Aleph snapped out of it did Aleph notice Sakura’s strange gaze.

  ‘Things are going downhill after I took in Albion’s power…’

  He awkwardly tried to heal it bit-by-bit using his reversed curse teique. After a few ghe mark disappeared.

  Then, there came the problem.

  “Hm~?”

  Kurumi, who was holding his pinky fiilted her head teasingly. She was currently wearing her bd-white gothic dress. Her neck was half-covered by it, though the hickey was still noticeable.

  ‘She wants this…’ He thought. ‘Nevermind. I’ll face whatever happe.’

  “Right.” Kurumi stopped walking and lightly pulled his arm at her. “Don’t use your special eyes.”

  “Hm..?”

  Her words alone gave rise to a series of doubts. Sakura, who was in front of them, grasped something.

  ‘She knows about it. If so…’

  Thinking of the mark on Kurumi’s neck, she wondered whether it had something to do with Aleph having three girlfriends at ohe matter was too plicated for her.

  ‘Will I be able to uand it?’

  The pink fox had strahoughts. Aleph, who caught onto what was about to happen, was slowly pulled by Kurumi who went in front of him. As a result, Sakura had to hasteeps.

  True to the teags she learned (i.e., Sphere Boundary), she easily went unnoticed.

  By the time the trio desded the floor, what greeted them was a huge ‘fshbang’. The loud sound of one party horn took his attention.

  “Advanced happy birthday, my trusted partner!”

  Under his surprised gaze, everyone resent to greet him.

  *****

  Aleph had been in this world for sixteen years. Nearly a year has passed sihe third eruption.

  His birthday, perhaps a product of ce, was o day of the year, December 31st.

  The Previous Era had a dar system simir to Earth’s, even calling each month from January to December. The only differehey held were the writing systems.

  Today was December 30th.

  “Well? How was it?”

  Vill-V’s nose pierced through the heavens. Her crossed arms added to the se of her ‘bragging’ that was not ‘bragging’.

  With her help, she was able to create extremely realistic holographic images. All five senses could be passed onto the people using them, given they wore a neural chip on the surface of their necks.

  It was for this exact reason that everyone close to him appeared inside Sakura’s moderately big apartment. Vill-V installed the equipment needed and lihem, who should have been in other pces, to here.

  “Ahem.”

  Kevin cleared out his throat as he threw his embarrassment out of the window.

  “Happy Birthday—”

  He was the one who kickstarted the song. It didn’t take long before nearly everyone followed suit. Only Mobius remained silent while g.

  Ohe song was finished, Vill-V brought out a huge cake and prese in front of him. It had seventeen dles, pertaining to his current age.

  “e on. Make a wish.”

  “A wish…”

  Aleph thought hard for a while before a smile was drawn on his lips. He blew the dles over.

  Sou-!

  [Achievement Obtained: A Year Further]

  A prompt appeared at the exaent he did so. He chose not to open it further and focused on the surprise that repared for him.

  *****

  “It’s more luxurious this time. I could only save enough money back then to buy those tickets.”

  Kevin sighed as he remihe days of fooling around with Aleph. He held a gss e jui his hands. Of course, it urely structed out of data.

  “And you bought ohat cided with our csses. You really are askio cut csses with you.”

  With a “tsk”, Aleph shook his head.

  “I mean, anyone would’ve been moved by those tickets. It was Miss Eden we were talking about!”

  “Corre. Anyone else.” Aleph responded. “Oh, that’s right. I am pnning t her to this group.”

  “You…wha… kuf!”

  Aleph’s bombshell caused Kevin to choke. Despite the gss of juiot being real, the sensations simuted by it were real.

  “It’s enough for roup to be small, but it o expand a little. I am pnning t a few people here.”

  Currently, the people in their small group included Elysia, Sakura, Hua, Vill-V, Mobius, Mei, and Kurumi. It was still small pared to the responsibilities they had to fulfill.

  “From the things I saw, she has a good potential and character. It’s just right t her in.”

  “I have a feeling you will end up ier trouble than before.”

  It wasn’t difficult for Aleph to see the meaning behind his words.

  “You’re overthinking it.”

  “We’ll see. Wheime es, I’ll be sitting on the sidelines with pop.”

  Kevin did not have many friends to open up with, more so being the same age as him.

  Though he said these words, he khat Aleph was built differently—that he could indeed hahe path he was taking.

  While the two were fooling around, Elysia sat together with Sakura and Hua.

  Fag the stoic duo, she became quite clueless as to how to start a versation. She ended up eating the sponge cake silently.

  Even the invincible Miss Elysia was ‘quite’ helpless in the face of the expressionless duo.

  “Oh, that’s right! You have a sister. Right, Sakura?”

  “Um. She was sleeping upstairs.”

  “Miss Sakura… Did your swordsmanship improve again?”

  Fortunately, Elysia was still strong enough to kickstart a versation.

  While they were having a good talk, the three women who sat not far away from them were very silent.

  Mobius and Mei saw the hickey on Kurumi’s neck—a deliberate per formuted.

  “Let us set this straight, shall we?”

  Kurumi pced the teacup ba the saucer. Hers was the only real cup, while the ones on Mei and Mobius were both geed virtually.

  “It is time to put ao this farce, after all~”

  “I agree.”

  Mei expressed her approval.

  “How do you pn to do this?”

  Mobius squinted her snake-like eyes.

  “Well, do you have something in mind?”

  “I do.”

  None of the three wao cede this time. Their biggest cession was when they agreed to take part of Aleph. At the very least, they wao settle these subtle fights without actually b him.

  As such, the iations began.

  *****

  A/N: I wasn't able to write a bonus chapter during this week due to my horrid schedule at Uni. I mean, what's worse than 8AM csses? 7AM csses (*shrugs*). Anyways, Aleph is set to explore the others' enviro while he carries out his Evolution Cube treatment. That should do for the worldbuilding. After that is the seveion, then...

  Anyways, I am w. Different from my previous two fics, I am pnning to add lemons to this one. I am curious how many would be ied in this o should be lohan the usual chapters (1.5k chapters, maybe?) and should st two or so chapters for the best experienbsp;

  Lastly, there's a bonus chapter tomorrow. I'll try to finish the bonus chapter stockpile before the end of this week.

  Happy Reading~!