But that overwhelmingly arrogant and proud Kurashiki Reina, at this moment, just because a boy replied to her message, revealed such a happy smile, wasn't this being a simp?

Tsushima Rina completely couldn't believe this was Kurashiki Reina.

And seeing the utterly disbelieving expression of Tsushima Rina, Kurashiki Reina glanced at her and seriously nodded, saying, "It is. Very much so."

"Even just getting a message reply from Hikari-kun can make me very happy."

After encountering Hanako from the toilet, that kind of legendary urban ghost story, normally extremely proud, always looking down on others with her nose in the air, Kurashiki Reina really was almost scared out of her mind.

And Hikari, at that time, descended like a heavenly soldier, saving her.

That kind of thing made Kurashiki Reina have a lot of, and irreplaceable, good feelings toward Hikari.

In addition, Hikari was handsome, physically strong, and very mysterious, this all deeply attracted Kurashiki Reina.

Kurashiki Reina was very sure, Hikari was exactly her type.

However, even if she liked him this much, Kurashiki Reina wouldn't have been this humble and "dog-like" at first.

Mainly, it was because she was left hanging by Hikari these past few days.

Kurashiki Reina had a very confident personality. She originally thought that as long as she took the initiative, even an outstanding boy like Hikari could be easily won over.

But what she didn't expect was, on the first day she messaged him, she was rejected by Hikari.

Although under her repeated pleas, Hikari eventually found time to help her once.

But the second day, Hikari never responded to her again.

Same with the third and fourth days, not even replying to messages.

Kurashiki Reina went to class to find Hikari, but he was always not around.

That kind of frustration from not getting what she wanted, plus the physical toll of the vengeful spirit energy on her body, truly made Kurashiki Reina suffer a lot.

So, Kurashiki Reina gradually realized Hikari's importance to her more and more, and saw more of his good qualities.

Moreover, she had heard that Hikari already had quite a few pretty girls around him. Kurashiki Reina had seen some of them, and all of them were basically on par with her in terms of looks and body.

Some of them even had busts that were one size larger than hers. This completely shattered Kurashiki Reina's pride.

She clearly realized that Hikari's first refusal of her "confession" to be his dog wasn't about preserving her dignity, Hikari really just looked down on her.

She clearly realized, it wasn't that Hikari couldn't live without her, but that she couldn't live without Hikari.

So at this moment, after several days, receiving a reply from Hikari again, Kurashiki Reina was truly thrilled.

Because Hikari had reminded her not to talk about the toilet Hanako incident, Kurashiki Reina mostly praised Hikari's looks and figure to her best friend Tsushima Rina, even included things they usually both disdained, like studying.

"That guy called Hikari, is he really that handsome?", Tsushima Rina asked curiously, hearing Kurashiki Reina's praise.

"Yes!", Kurashiki Reina answered briefly and firmly.

"Okay, aren't you two meeting after school anyway? Then I'll come too and see for myself," Tsushima Rina gulped, a flicker of anticipation in her beautiful eyes.

She actually had a personality quite similar to Kurashiki Reina. Also proud, and a face-con. Otherwise, the two wouldn't be such good friends.

But Tsushima Rina's pride wasn't quite as high as Kurashiki Reina's. Though she too was a very popular school beauty, compared to Kurashiki Reina, she was still a little behind.

Though not as arrogant as Kurashiki Reina, who treated talking to others like dirtying her mouth, Tsushima Rina was even more of a face-con than her.

She was the type who got excited just seeing a handsome guy.

Unfortunately, she never met any who satisfied her, the so-called campus hunks were all ugly in her eyes.

So at this moment, hearing Kurashiki Reina's words, Tsushima Rina was really looking forward to seeing him.

"Alright, then after class I'll take you to see him."

Thinking it over, Kurashiki Reina agreed to bring Tsushima Rina along. Once she saw Hikari, she'd understand why Reina kept praising him.

Although she more or less knew her best friend's extreme face-con nature, even if she couldn't chase Hikari down herself, she wasn't afraid of being outpaced by Tsushima Rina.

———

[On the Other Side]

Hikari had no idea that his simple reply had excited the so-called campus queen Kurashiki Reina so much.

But out of guilt for ignoring her messages the past few days, Hikari did plan to properly dispel the vengeful spirit energy for Kurashiki Reina today.

Thinking about that, Hikari put down his phone.

But just as he closed the LINE chat, a video call suddenly came in.

It was from the strongest in some "aspects," and the most moist and satisfying, his socially anxious snow woman, Yukino.

"Hello, Yukino-chan?"

["Hikari-kun, are you coming to my place for dinner tonight?"], Yukino asked.

"Probably not today. No need to cook for me," Hikari thought about it, he had to help Kurashiki Reina today, and could eat at the Tsubakihara house with Miss Mira, so he said.

["Okay then. I'll just cook for me and Kaede-chan today~ Hikari-kun, how was your day at school?"], Yukino, who was always cold and completely silent in front of others due to her social anxiety, was now full of warmth as she asked.

"Not bad, no problems. How are things at home, Yukino-chan?", Hikari asked back.

["Hehe, things are fine here. It's just Kaede-chan still can't figure out that weird ring. She's been hammering away at it anxiously, looking really frustrated, hehe~"]

["Yukino-chan! Why are you talking to Hikari about me again?"]

Right after Yukino finished, a crisp complaint came from the other end of the call.

Obviously, it was Kiriryuin Kaede complaining that Yukino had "leaked intel" to Hikari, making her feel embarrassed.

["I just mentioned it casually, blurted it out, hehe..."]

Hikari saw Yukino on the screen scratching her head and sticking out her tongue adorably, he couldn't help but laugh.

Then the two continued chatting happily.

———

Meanwhile, in Yukino's home, Kiriryuin Kaede, who was studying the ring, had a completely frustrated and annoyed expression.

Kiriryuin Kaede had been quite troubled lately.

She had agreed with Hikari to borrow the ring she got in exchange for information for just three days.

Once the three days were over, the ring had to be returned.

She originally wanted to figure out what exactly the powers of this hypnosis ring were, and what kind of strange force was on it.

But after researching all day, she still didn't get any useful results.

Only thing she figured out was, if she hit the ring with her family's ancestral spirit-dispelling hammer, it occasionally emitted a strange red light.

Other than that, nothing changed.

With no results from studying this bizarre hypnosis ring, Kiriryuin Kaede was very irritated.

She didn't know if it was because the weather was getting hotter, but she felt especially hot and feverish lately. At night she couldn't help but s-trip off her unde-rwear and return to sleeping n*ked in someone else's house, very impolite.

Especially when she saw Hikari clinging to Yukino, she felt like her whole body was burning, her lower abdomen like it had a fire inside.

The feeling was unbearable.

Like having an itch on your back in a spot you can never reach, no matter how much you stretch.

'Damn it... it's wet again...' Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Kiriryuin Kaede didn't understand why, as an oni race, she was now so heat-sensitive and feverish.

Kiriryuin Kaede was truly annoyed.

Even through the screen, hearing the lovey-dovey talk between Hikari and Yukino, hearing Hikari's affectionate voice, her lower belly heated up again, making her want to go full manual mode in her room.

"Damn it! It's all Hikari's fault!"

"All because of Hikari! All your fault!"

Kiriryuin Kaede muttered in a low voice, putting away the weird, unsolvable hypnosis ring.

In her view, the reason she was feeling so off lately, emotionally and physically different from her usual peaceful shrine maiden self, was all Hikari's fault.

Because whenever Hikari came to Yukino's house, not even overnight, just came over, they would definitely have a loud, crazy war.

And if he stayed overnight, they'd battle all the way till midnight.

It seriously disturbed her sleep.

"It's all that Hikari guy's fault I'm like this now!", Stuffed full of dog food, Kiriryuin Kaede knew she had to do something about it.

Clutching her hot, numb, and swollen lower belly, Kiriryuin Kaede quietly slipped into the bathroom, avoiding Yukino's gaze.

———

On the other side.

After chatting on the phone for a while with Yukino, Hikari hung up and grabbed some books to head to the library alone.

Although he had gotten a lot of information about the youkai world from Kiriryuin Kaede, and could now even contact that world as a human thanks to her being from the oni race.

Hikari wasn't the type to rely entirely on others, he trusted himself the most.

So in addition to getting info from Kiriryuin Kaede, he had also been borrowing many books on Japanese spirits and monsters from the library.

But even now he hadn't finished reading, Japan had way too many types of spirits and creatures.

Japan was said to have 8 million gods.

Though that was probably an exaggeration, the information on ghosts and spirits really was massive.

Even if he hadn't finished reading it all, Hikari had already learned a lot recently.

And aside from things about snow women and oni like Yukino and Kiriryuin Kaede, Hikari had also picked up a lot about urban legends like Hanako from the toilet.

Because Japan's supernatural forces weren't just limited to youkai, there were plenty of gods and ghosts too.

With books in hand, as soon as Hikari walked into the library, he saw a bored-looking girl sitting at the back.

But the moment she saw Hikari, the pretty girl's eyes lit up in surprise.

"Hikari-kun?", Serizawa Yukiha, the library assistant, stood up immediately and walked quickly to his side, "Hikari-kun, are you here to return books?"

Seeing the overly eager Serizawa Yukiha, Hikari smiled and handed her several books, "Yeah, I'm returning these. Also want to borrow a few more."

"I'll help you find them!", Serizawa Yukiha immediately patted her chest and said.

"Great, I don't know which section some are in. Sorry to trouble you," Hikari smiled.

"No trouble at all!", Serizawa Yukiha placed the books on the counter without even scanning them, then directly led Hikari off to look for more.

The two of them wove through the shelves, with Serizawa Yukiha helping Hikari find the books he wanted while chatting with him.

"Hikari-kun, wasn't the first time we met also in the library?", Serizawa Yukiha suddenly said.

"Yeah, it was," Hikari thought back and remembered.

They had met not long after he got to know Yukino. Since he didn't know much about snow women, he came to borrow books.

And ran into Serizawa Yukiha, who helped him out.

Now that he thought about it, quite a bit of time had passed, and not only had he gotten to know snow women, he'd studied them thoroughly, inside and out.

Of course, when it came to youkai, his knowledge was still limited, mostly just about snow women and their water-based abilities.

"You helped me find a book back then too, didn't you?", Hikari remembered not being able to find a certain book, and Serizawa Yukiha enthusiastically helping.

"Hehe, yeah," Serizawa Yukiha smiled.

"Meeting Hikari-kun back then, that was the greatest luck of my life," Reflecting on everything that had happened since then, Serizawa Yukiha was filled with emotion.

She couldn't imagine, if not for Hikari's appearance, what kind of inhuman treatment she would have suffered at the hands of someone like Kitou Masami.

Thank goodness... Hikari appeared.

That was something Serizawa Yukiha had already been grateful for countless times.

═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═

patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator

🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through Patreon.