Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  Later that night, Seiji and Natsuya went to a place that they had agreed upon earlier—a high-class Sakura Island restaurant.

  However, they weren't there for dinner. They were there instead to meet with Akatsuki Mitarai.

  Natsuya returning to her family for a discussion earlier that morning ended unhappily as expected.

  Although Seiji hadn't been there to witness the discussion, he could imagine how unpleasant it must have been, as ever since Natsuya returned from visiting her family, her expression had been as grim as if a dark shadow had been cast upon her for the entire day.

  Since she was unable to convince her family otherwise, the only option left was to directly confront Akatsuki.

  Natsuya's car stopped in front of the restaurant. Seiji and Natsuya exited the car and entered the restaurant.

  The restaurant's interior was quite beautiful. It wasn't overly extravagant and seemed quite elegant instead. It was a type of low-profile luxuriousness.

  If Seiji had visited this place to enjoy the food, he was sure that he would have loved the atmosphere here. However, he was currently in no mood to enjoy his surroundings.

  A female server led him and Natsuya to a private room where they saw Akatsuki Mitarai already sitting inside.

  The dark-blue-haired handsome boy was currently sitting at the table while wearing blue Sakura Island attire the same color as his clothing. His eyes were shut as if he was meditating. There was a beautiful silver-haired girl sitting behind him.

  When Seiji and Natsuya looked at him, Akatsuki opened his eyes and glanced back at them as well, with his mouth arcing upwards slightly.

  "Good evening, Haruta-san, Natsuya."

  "Good evening. I believe I've stated before that our relationship isn't friendly enough to the extent where you can directly address me by name, Mitarai-san," Natsuya spoke in a cold tone.

  "As I'm your fiancé, calling my fiancée by name is something that I think nobody will take issue with," Akatsuki said as he smiled.

  At this moment, Seiji felt killing intent emanating from Natsuya!

  He turned around to see that although Natsuya's expression remained calm on the surface, the sharp glint in her eyes was evidence that she definitely wasn't calm at all right now.

  "We don't have that type of relationship yet! Although father may have such intentions, it isn't settled in stone."

  "Even if it isn't settled in stone yet, it's basically confirmed already. I'm quite happy about it, Natsuya."

  "I shall force it to be canceled, Mitarai-san."

  Natsuya slowly sat down across from Akatsuki.

  Seiji was inwardly impressed with the student council president's self-restraint as he sat down next to her.

  Akatsuki looked at Seiji.

  "Haruta-san, you chose in the end to stand against me. How regrettable."

  "Regrettable? I think it's exactly the opposite, Mitarai-san," Seiji responded calmly. "Last time we met, didn't we come to a 'happy' mutual accord? That both of us would be delighted to fight each other."

  "Heh heh… I suppose you're right." The dark-blue-haired boy chuckled. "But to be honest, I really did hope that you would wisely choose to retreat in the end. After all, your family background is honestly a bit of a bother for me."

  "I'm quite happy to hear that you were bothered. Please go ahead and be even more bothered in the future."

  "You're such an annoying fellow."

  "Same to you."

  If someone who didn't know what was going on merely observed them talking without being able to hear the words being said, the observer would likely receive the impression that Akatsuki and Seiji were quite calm right now and perhaps even good friends. However, this was actually a tense situation where both sides were highly likely to explode at any moment.

  "Allow me to introduce her to you." Akatsuki indicated behind him.

  The silver-haired beauty silently sitting behind him all this time opened her eyes.

  "This is my new Spirit-branded Retainer, Shinobu Miaki."

  Seiji and Natsuya looked towards the silver-haired girl.

  Naturally, they noticed this girl the moment they arrived. However, only now did they take a closer look at her.

  She was a silver-haired, silver-eyed beautiful girl wearing a pink miniskirt and Sakura Island style clothing. Although she was quite beautiful, something seemed off about her. She lacked a living aura… no, it was already beyond that extent, she was basically just like…


  "A 'human puppet,'" Natsuya muttered.

  "Human puppet?" Seiji couldn't help but recall certain manga he had read before in his past life when he heard this term.

  "The highest level of humanoid puppet. They appear physically no different from real humans, and are capable of independent movement… To use a modern description, they're just like androids with artificial intelligence."

  Seiji was rendered speechless.

  The manga that he had been thinking about when he heard "human puppet" referred to a humanoid weapon that was actually a revived person who was able to use a person's previously mastered techniques when alive. However, that human puppet needed someone to manipulate the puppet.

  The "human puppets" in this world were actually like androids, capable of independent movement!?

  Seiji widened his eyes in surprise as he looked at the silver-haired beautiful girl across from him.

  "Heh heh, that's right. Shinobu is indeed a human puppet. She's my masterpiece." Akatsuki smiled rather pridefully. "I completed her just today. Her abilities are quite high. When I tested her automatic mode in battle, she even defeated one of my Spirit-branded Retainers, so I decided to have her become one of my new Spirit-branded Retainers in that person's place."

  A human puppet was even capable of becoming a Spirit-branded Retainer? Seiji glanced inquisitively over at Natsuya.

  "It wasn't rare for people to use human puppets as Spirit-branded Retainers in ancient times. But, it's almost unheard of in the modern era. That's because very precious materials are required to create them and human puppets have limited flexibility and combat strength compared to actual human Spirit-branded Retainers." There was a grim look on Natsuya's face. "However… there is a rumor that by using a 'certain method' to create human puppets, not only can one save on having to use precious materials, the human puppet Spirit-branded Retainer created in such a process will also have greater flexibility and combat strength than a normal human puppet, to the point where they can even compare with typical Spiritual Ability user Spirit-branded Retainers."

  "What's the method you speak of?" Seiji could faintly guess at the answer.

  "One would have to create the human puppet using an actual living Spiritual Ability user or person with spiritual potential as a living sacrifice for the materials," Natsuya stated in a heavy tone.

  Seiji instantly felt a chill run down his spine.

  He looked at the silver-haired girl again who had such an empty expression, then glanced at the smiling dark-blue-haired boy. Apart from feeling a chill, he also felt like something was revolting in his stomach!

  He knew this from the very start.

  This bastard… was this type of person!!

  Even though Seiji already sensed the darkness within Akatsuki long ago, he still received an impact from directly facing Akatsuki's darkness for the first time.

  Seiji silently clenched his fist.

  It would be quite simple to angrily insult Akatsuki or even fight him right here and now.

  However, it wouldn't be meaningful to do it at this location and time. It would be nothing more than him venting, and it would also cause Natsuya to lose face.

  They'd already determined to take care of everything through an official duel. They just needed to wait…


  Seiji was determined to use his current emotions as strength fueling him for his duel!

  Akatsuki didn't confirm or deny anything about Natsuya's words. He merely continued to smile.

  Akatsuki didn't care that they saw through the truth. Nor did he care what they thought of him.

  After all, he was special. He didn't need ordinary people to understand him. In fact, he even considered it normal that they didn't understand him. Being angrily shouted at, despised, looked down upon, given icy gazes, ostracized, avoided, and feared… these were all experiences that the special had to go through.

  History had proved already that geniuses were always regarded as insane by the world. The more special the genius, the more insane they were considered.

  Foolish ordinary people would never be able to see a genius for what a genius was. It was only possible after generations passed for ordinary people to understand genius, although it was also possible that they may never understand.

  Since Akatsuki was a special existence, all he had to do was do what he wanted to achieve his goal.

  However…


  Although it didn't matter that much in the long run, Akatsuki still felt displeased about being glared at by an arrogant exiled piece of trash who looked like he wanted to fight Akatsuki right here and now.

  Akatsuki didn't have anything else to say to Seiji. Akatsuki felt that this should be a discussion between him and Natsuya, so Seiji being here really affected his mood… what should he do?

  Akatsuki thought of an idea that caused his smile to appear even gentler.

  "Haruta-san, it looks like you have quite some fighting spirit in you. Are you interested in trying out a little practice round against Shinobu?"