IdleYoungMaster
patreon
Chapter 88: Switching to the Offensive
🕑 Added 2024-10-18 14:50:16 +0000 UTCSchool is a place to learn new things. However, it becomes irrelevant to those gifted people. Mei was one such example.
She could’ve sped through the entire educational phase and graduated with a doctorate. The only reason why she didn’t was due to her father’s insistence.
“It’s not just knowledge you’ll learn.”
It was a serious remark. Ryouma knew his daughter was more than capable, but there are some things that could only be sought for by herself.
Making friends, socializing with others…
That was the only reason she went to school. The rest of her time was spent in their laboratory. What she did not expect was the encounters her father said.
Aleph was the same as her. She immediately knew about his beyond college-level knowledge at a glance. She also knew that he inadvertently looked at her now and then. The surprising thing was that he somehow had eyes at the back of his head.
When she tried to return the glance, she found out he was already preoccupied with other things. The only reason why she caught him was through a reflection.
In the end, their glancing contest ended when Aleph found Mei sleeping in the library’s closing time.
‘It’s like that… Like a game.’
Her mind returned to the office.
‘Hm… Am I missing something?’
For some reason, Mei felt slightly uneasy. She couldn’t see any abnormalities on Aleph other than his physical changes. She couldn’t see the sleeping black cat on top of his head.
“About that theory… the Imaginary Space.” Aleph mentioned another topic. “The Divine Key Project is about to be completed. We’re planning to finish the first herrscher core first, then the second.”
“We can proceed with the finalized plans. There’s no need to ask me about it.”
Currently, Fire MOTH is in possession of four herrscher cores. Over the years, they haven’t found the right way to use it.
With Vill-V’s insane talent and Aleph’s cheats known as Elemental Sight and Great Sage, creating the divine keys was a matter of time.
Even the Meta-Morph (MANTIS) project reached an unprecedented height due to the knowledge Aleph brought out of the sanctum. Even, the ones he revealed weren’t the entire findings he had.
Nevertheless, it was more than enough for the safety standards and the success rate to go up. Mei’s three months was the exact time Aleph needed to accomplish these.
“We found a way to deal with your lack of honkai resistance.”
Aleph went to the most important topic.
“Giving you an emperor-class genome shouldn’t be a problem anymore.”
Unlike the others, Meis suffered from her lack of honkai resistance. Aleph already knew it from her death in the Previous Era as well as her usage of the Blank Key during the Herrscher of Dominion’s attack.
They originally had to develop special means to let her merge with a chariot or even a templar-class honkai beast, but Aleph used the knowledge from the Sanctum to directly circumvent the problem.
In theory, it should be enough to let her become another high-ranking MANTIS.
“You will be able to act like Mobius. Isn’t that great?”
“...Thank you, Aleph.”
“Hm..?”
The atmosphere turned serious all of a sudden.
“I… I didn’t have the chance to tell you this before. When we were at Nagazora…”
Mei did not hold back anymore.
“I am aware you might have known about it… my feelings. If you weren’t lucky…”
All of her worries and fears were exposed at this moment. Aleph couldn’t immediately react upon seeing this vulnerable side of hers.
“Back then, I didn’t have the courage… the courage to tell you straightforwardly.”
Highschool romance was like that. Either one of them was bold enough to express their love… or they get stuck at an impasse.
The rom-com manga Aleph saw depicted just that. There were two members of a student council who couldn’t confess their love to the other. It resulted in a hundred-chapter long spectacle made to laugh at their immaturity. That constituted the comedy in a rom-com.
Fortunately, things were different in real life.
“I like you.”
“...”
His heart skipped a beat. He directly received Mei’s gaze despite knowing this would happen. Aleph doesn’t know how to react for a while. His entire mind was seemingly sent into a blender.
Despite the multiple minds or the accelerated thoughts, he stopped thinking for an entire moment.
‘Like… for two years… yes…’
Mei was the literal Yamato Nadeshiko (Perfect Woman). Be it her looks, her cute personality (albeit somewhat unapproachable at first), Aleph couldn’t find anything bad.
In the end, it was he himself who had the problem.
After all—
‘...she’s not my only Yamato Nadeshiko.’
For the first time, Aleph wanted to sucker punch himself.
‘I’m a scumbag…’
Was it wrong to catch feelings on more than one girl?
Probably.
Was it his choice?
Perhaps.
Was it wrong to want all of them?
Only god knows.
That was why he avoided these matters in the first place. He doesn’t know what to do with it. He would rather fight several herrschers at once than face Mei’s confession unprepared.
‘Great Sage…’
Aleph became desperate enough to look for Great Sage—
{Result: It is recommended to become honest with your thoughts. There is an objective 61.99% chance of the entity known as Mei to accept a poly…}
—only to be given unreliable (?) advice.
‘Stop, stop, stop!’
In reality, only one second had passed. Mei saw his ears starting to turn red. That, and his frozen look.
‘As expected…’
That was enough for her. Those two years were enough for her to investigate. Although he didn’t reject her advances (i.e., teasing), there was something holding him back.
‘Was it his childhood friend? Her influence is big… considering he lost both his parents…’
Mei seemingly made up her mind. Her voice became Aleph’s salvation to this deadlock.
“I am not asking you to reciprocate my feelings… but I want to let you know.”
The moment she gave a brief pause, she let out a lethal smile.
“Even if you like someone else, I won’t stop, Aleph.”
‘Until I make you mine.’
The domineering nature of the Current Era’s Herrscher of Thunder overlapped with MEI. Coupled with her cool stare and deadly smile…
‘What should I do…’
Aleph had seemingly fallen into a trap.
