Chapter 52: Don’t Be Afraid and Step Forth!
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: vb24
Snow Girl, a medium-ranked spirit in a popular video game Seiji played before in his past life, whose main attack was an AOE crowd control…
‘How nostalgic. She was the first character I received for free in that game.’ A memory flashed through Seiji’s mind.
*Cough cough.* He went on a sidetrack again.
In Sakura Island, snow girls were a spirit that everybody had heard stories about before. According to legend, she would possess incredible beauty paired with heartless cruelty; she wouldn’t even hesitate to take human lives, a frightening yet beautiful contrast.
Her appearance rate in animes in this world was very high, reaching almost 100 percent in animes regarding ghosts or spirits.
To Seiji, snow girls were the exact same legend from Japan in his previous world about the yuki-onna.
Anyway, snow girls were considered beautiful yet life-stealing existences.
"We’ll meet a snow girl if we continue investigating… It sounds like a joke, but I think they’ll believe me." Seiji rubbed his chin. "Let’s do it like you say, then; I’ll advise them to back off while doing my best to not reveal too much. But… as for you two, will you be able to deal with the enemy?"
Seiji directly faced the two adolescent girls in front of him.
Both girls remained silent.
"It doesn’t seem like you have high chances… Let me ask you a different question—how do you think the situation will develop?"
He was yet again greeted by silence.
Seiji received the impression that he wouldn’t be able to obtain an answer.
Just as he was about to take his leave, someone suddenly jumped onto his back and hugged him!
"Eh… Kirin?" Seiji was quite startled until he discovered that the person hugging him was the cat-eared girl who loved to appear out of nowhere!
"Rana?" Hitaka was astounded upon witnessing this sight: "Why are you…"
Much like Natsuya, Hitaka was nothing short of astonished at seeing the cat-eared girl acting so intimate with a boy she’d just met.
Rana Kirin was clinging Seiji’s back like a koala bear would, and she placed her head on Seiji’s shoulder while looking in Natsuya and Hitaka’s direction without blinking.
"Rana…" Natsuya seemed to detect something from the cat girl’s heterochromia eyes.
Silence returned for another few moments.
"Rana, hurry up and get off his back!" Hitaka called out to the cat girl.
But instead of letting go, she instead closed her eyes and rubbed her face against Seiji’s.
Seiji felt like it was a bit itchy.
He had no idea why she was acting so friendly towards him, or how he should respond to her. Should he just continue standing there?
Natsuya Yoruhana sighed.
"Rana, you feel like Haruta-kun will be of assistance to us?"
"Eh?" Hitaka was surprised at this revelation.
"Meow~" Rana purred as she continued rubbing against Seiji’s face.
How cute! Seiji was overwhelmed by a dose of moe.
"Milady?" Hitaka looked to Natsuya for direction.
"I don’t know what Rana is thinking either, but it seems that she believes we should let Haruta-kun know more about this situation."
"How could… Even if he is a ‘Haruta,’ he’s currently only a…"
"I know." Natsuya sighed.
Then, she fixed her gaze upon Seiji once more.
"Rana seems to believe you should hear more details… Would you really like to listen?"
From Natsuya’s eyes, Seiji received the impression that this matter was not one he could simply listen to then forget about.
Should he advance further into the realm of mystical ability users?
Seiji laughed in his mind.
There was zero hesitation within him.
Even if it wasn’t for the fact that the student council president who helped him was possibly in danger, and without taking into consideration the fact that he was a member of the Haruta family by blood, just Seiji’s own natural curiosity would impel him to learn more about mystical powers.
After reincarnating and obtaining such an overpowered cheat, how could he possibly back down from other mystical powers!?
There was no need to be afraid; he’d simply step forward!
"Please tell me. Even if I’m not certain I can be of any help… I don’t wish to watch without doing anything!" Seiji exclaimed resolutely with a firm look in his eyes.
Natsuya widened her eyes slightly.
Hitaka also showed a surprised expression.
Seiji’s current imposing manner moved both of these girls that possessed mystical powers of their own.
"Alright… as you wish."
Natsuya nodded.
"Hitaka, could you pour some cups of tea for us?"
A minute later.
The three of them sat around the round table with a steaming hot cup of tea in front of each of them.
Seiji originally wanted to just hug the cat girl like last time, but she closed her eyes and fell asleep while clinging on to his back. She was just like a real koala.
Well, she didn’t weigh much to him, and she was warm, soft, and cute, so he decided to leave her there!
Seiji took a sip of the president’s tea for the second time. It was good tea, just like last time.
"Haruta-kun, I think you’ve noticed already, but we don’t exactly have the upper hand." Natsuya drank some tea as well before speaking up. "The enemy’s already made a move, but we still don’t even know who the enemy is. We haven’t even succeeded at stopping the enemy’s Spirit-branded Retainer. If this situation persists as it currently is, the enemy will get closer to finishing their preparations. When the enemy challenges me to a duel, they’ll be completely prepared… I think I don’t need to explain what that means."
Seiji nodded in understanding.
"If it’s that difficult to prevent the enemy’s actions, why aren’t you making your preparations? If the enemy knows how to prepare a spell formation, you should know similar techniques, right?"
"Our spell formation is already located here." Natsuya peered outside the window. "The entire Genhana High School is part of our spell formation."
‘Whoa, she suddenly got the entire school involved!?’
Seiji raised his eyebrows.
"You don’t appear all that shocked."
"I’m still a bit surprised… It’s just that I can imagine it due to seeing so many similar plotlines in animes before."
"You’re right…" Natsuya chuckled.
Her smile made Seiji recall the question he wanted to ask her the last time they met, but now wasn’t an appropriate time for it.
"You can view Genhana High School as my personal castle in which I hide my identity as a Yin Yang Master. The school grounds are covered by a huge spiritual barrier, and there’s many hidden magical traps awaiting any enemies. There’s also many spirits and demons patrolling, both out in the open and in hiding—only those with mystical abilities are able to detect these. Hitaka and Rana are like my left and right arms while I’m the commander that’s controlling everything here while only appearing to be the student council president on the surface. So this place is usually safe, which means a Yin Yang Master would be unable to invade the school in a normal situation. However, things are different in the case of a duel between Yin Yang Masters.
"Continuing to use the analogy of a castle, if I’m the one that’s in a strong defensive fortress, then what the enemy is currently doing is akin to building siege weapons and arranging their armies. When they’re finished with their preparations, they’ll challenge me to a duel, which is equivalent to beginning their attack on my castle. You should understand now, right, Haruta-kun?"
Seiji rubbed his chin as he nodded.
The enemy would only attack her figurative castle when fully prepared. If the enemy didn’t feel optimistic about their chances of winning, they wouldn’t even bother to challenge her.
This also meant that when the enemy began their attack for real, there would be a high chance of her castle’s defenses being unable to withstand the enemy’s attack!
So the only options that Natsuya’s side currently had were to either interrupt the enemy’s preparations, thus disrupting their preparations to complete the spell formation necessary to attack Natsuya’s castle, or to discover the enemy’s identity and hideout before they finished preparing and launch a preemptive attack to defeat them!
"I… understand. The most important task right now is to stop the enemy’s Spirit-branded Retainer that’s currently making the preparations for a spell formation. No matter if we want to interrupt their arrangements or find out whoever this hidden enemy, the Spiritual Retainer is the only breakthrough point."
Seiji glanced at Natsuya.
"Indeed, that’s right." Natsuya sighed before continuing, "But we’re currently stuck with no progress on this."
Silence fell once more.
"Hypothetically speaking—just in theory…" Seiji spoke up again cautiously, "If the present situation persists, and you aren’t able to prevent the enemy from finishing their preparations, what will happen to you guys when the enemy begins the attack after fully preparing? And what will happen to this school?"