~ 💎 WEEKLY POWER GOALS 💎🔥 60→1ch | 100→2ch | 200→5ch ⏰ Resets Monday!
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A blanket spread across the ground.
Two bento boxes and a handful of bread rolls laid out between them.
Kotonoha Katsura, Setsuna Kiyoura, and Xenovia Quarta sat side by side on one side.
Li Ancheng and Issei Hyoudou sat beside them.
Across the blanket, Rias sat at an angle, eyes fixed on Li Ancheng as he leisurely worked through a bread roll.
This guy…
He just looks like an exceptionally handsome, completely ordinary person.
And yet Yuuto actually said…
That when facing him, he couldn’t even draw his sword?
“Ahem…” Issei Hyoudou cleared his throat and spoke under his breath.
“B-Big Bro…
want something to drink?
I’ll go grab it.” Setsuna Kiyoura quietly reached into her bag, pulled out a bottle of orange juice, and set it in front of Li Ancheng.
“I brought some.” “Th-Then dessert…” Issei Hyoudou wasn’t ready to give up.
Xenovia Quarta produced a small cake from nowhere.
“I brought one!” Issei Hyoudou: “…” He was screaming on the inside.
Those are demons who’d kill someone without blinking!
Not the friendly, humans-welcome types from the Supernatural Studies Department!
How are you all just sitting there so calmly?!
Can’t you see Rias’s eyes have been glued to Ancheng Big Bro this entire time?!
It feels like a fight could break out any second!
Kotonoha Katsura quietly ate her bento.
This was her first time seeing the famously renowned Rias Gremory up close.
Her first impression: too beautiful to be real.
Could she be a succubus?
Did the Supernatural Studies Department actually have creatures like that?
Li Ancheng swallowed his last bite of bread and finally looked over at Rias.
“Did you come looking for me specifically for something, Senior?” “It wouldn’t be about how I scared Kiba-senpai, would it?” He smiled.
“I generally don’t have a great temper around men.
Especially ones with yellow hair.” Rias shook her head gently, the corner of her mouth curving upward.
“Yuuto was the one being rude.
That’s on him.
But…
I was also in the wrong.
If I was the one inviting you to lunch, I should have come to ask you in person.” “Fair point.” Li Ancheng tossed a bread roll to her without looking.
“I like you.” “…Hah?!” Everyone froze at once.
Issei Hyoudou quietly gulped and gave a mental thumbs-up.
Rias caught the bread roll, her expression visibly caught off guard for a moment.
Li Ancheng took a slow sip of orange juice before he explained.
“I just mean you seem like a good person.
Same way I appreciate Setsuna, Kotonoha, and Xenovia.” Issei Hyoudou jumped in on reflex.
“Wh-What about me, Big Bro?” “You…” Li Ancheng paused.
He picked up a bread roll and stuffed it into Issei Hyoudou’s mouth.
“You eat the bread roll.” Rias exhaled softly.
She’d almost thought he meant that kind of like.
She’d heard from Akeno before, apparently this was called a direct attack.
She lowered her head and bit into the bread roll.
When she looked up again, her smile had settled into something warm and bright.
“I quite like Ancheng-kouhai too, you know.” Li Ancheng raised an eyebrow.
“Good taste.” “Pfft!” Issei Hyoudou sprayed bread crumbs across the blanket.
Everyone turned to look at him.
“Cough cough — ch-choked!
I choked!” He waved his hands frantically.
As expected of Big Bro…
Too fierce!
“Ancheng-san.” Xenovia Quarta spoke up quietly, her ears faintly pink.
“What…
what kind of girl do you like?
I mean, the kind you’d actually want to date…” Kotonoha Katsura and Setsuna Kiyoura both discreetly perked up their ears at the exact same moment.
Rias propped her chin on her hand, watching with undisguised interest as she waited for the answer.
She was genuinely curious.
This transfer student’s attitude toward her was far too ordinary.
No nervousness.
No excitement.
Not even a stray flicker of extra emotion.
As for Issei Hyoudou…
She’d make him a servant eventually.
(Absolutely impossible, that.) But what she was actually more curious about right now was the mysterious master of the Demon Court.
Li Ancheng let his gaze drift across the girls and smiled.
“I like girls who care enough to ask that question.” Issei Hyoudou nearly slapped his thigh in awe.
A master.
An absolute master!
The chopsticks slipped from Xenovia Quarta’s hand and clattered onto the blanket.
Her mouth fell open.
She pointed at herself in a daze.
“…I-Is that me?” Setsuna Kiyoura turned red and pressed her hand down.
“Don’t overthink it.” “B-But isn’t Ancheng-san talking about me?!” Xenovia Quarta looked genuinely lost.
She turned to Kotonoha Katsura.
“Right, Kotonoha?!” Kotonoha Katsura drew a quiet breath.
She shook her head and said softly, “Ancheng-san was just answering the question.
Xenovia, you walked right into his trap.” “…Eh?” Xenovia Quarta blinked, even more bewildered.
“What trap?” Rias couldn’t hold it back anymore.
She covered her mouth, laughing.
“Ancheng-kouhai, you really are something…
and quite greedy, aren’t you.” “Thanks for the compliment.” Li Ancheng smiled at her.
“So — what did you actually come here for, Senior?” “It’s really nothing.” Rias turned the bread roll over in her hands, smile brilliant.
“I just heard that a super handsome guy who was supposed to join our Supernatural Studies Department ended up in the Literature Department instead.
I got curious.
Came to have a look.” Li Ancheng nodded.
“And now that you’ve had a look — your conclusion?” Rias blinked her azure eyes.
“Very boyfriend material, honestly.
Tall, handsome, standing next to you would probably feel very safe~” Li Ancheng laughed despite himself.
“You said it yourself.
I’m very greedy.” “…Rias-senpai.” Xenovia Quarta leaned in with wide eyes.
“What do you mean by greedy?” The corner of Rias’s mouth curved.
Her gaze drifted slowly and deliberately across the three girls sitting opposite her.
“It means…
Ancheng-kouhai probably feels one girlfriend wouldn’t quite cut it~” She paused just a beat.
“Of course, it’s also possible…
he never planned on having a girlfriend at all.” Xenovia Quarta and Kotonoha Katsura both, without consulting each other, quietly leaned toward the second guess.
Setsuna Kiyoura, though, found herself thinking back to the look on Li Ancheng’s face when he’d called her cute.
Her cheeks warmed.
She lowered her head without a word.
“Ah?!” Issei Hyoudou spun toward Li Ancheng, stunned.
“Ancheng Big Bro!
Is your dream also to become a Harem King?!” Li Ancheng sighed.
He didn’t answer.
Instead he asked, “Is that your dream?” “…Well.
Not exactly.” Issei Hyoudou scratched the back of his head, a little sheepish.
“Right now, if I could just get one girlfriend, and then grope…
cough cough!
I’d die with no regrets!
As for Harem King…
you’d need to be seriously, insanely powerful for something like that, right…” “Seriously, insanely powerful?” Rias caught the words the moment they left his mouth.
Her gaze sharpened as it moved to Li Ancheng.
“Mm.” Li Ancheng nodded and glanced naturally toward Kotonoha Katsura.
“I’m fairly good at Iaido.” “…Ancheng-san is being modest.” Kotonoha Katsura’s voice was soft.
“He’s the most formidable person I’ve ever seen.
Even my teacher can’t cut with a plain iron bar the way he can.” “That’s impressive.” Rias felt something ease in her chest.
She shifted to a lighter tone.
“In that case, Ancheng-kouhai, if you ever get the chance, you should spar with Yuuto sometime.
He trains in swordsmanship every single day.” Li Ancheng was about to reply when something moved through his eyes, a faint, barely-there flicker.
“Sorry.” He stood.
“Something urgent just came to mind.
I need to head home.” And he walked toward the stairway.
“Th-Then I’m heading out too!” Issei Hyoudou scrambled after him.
➤ Next: One Second Laughing Madly with Provocation, the Next Second Bursting into Blo…