Jhin was watching a movie with Chisato when he received a text notification from his divine boss. Early the next morning, he headed to the small yard of Kazami Kazuki's villa.
As the star-studded, deep blue portal shimmered into being, the girls of the Gourmet Edifice stepped out through it. Jhin embraced each of them as they blinked in surprise, then led them inside the villa.
Having grown used to capsule houses, the girls had no trouble at all with modern furniture. Megumin immediately dashed into the kitchen and started digging through the fridge for cola.
"Is this Master's home?"
"Yeah, though I'm hardly ever here myself."
"I can't believe you actually managed to build a portal between worlds."
Kyaru had thought Jhin was joking when he talked about adventuring in Another World, but here they were, actually brought into his world. Her keen nose twitched as she caught a faint, distinctly feminine scent lingering in the house. "Does someone else live here too?"
"My sister, Kazami Kazuki. Oh, right — take these personal terminals. Kokkoro, Kyaru, remember to keep your cognitive interference active whenever you're out and about, or those ears of yours are going to draw a lot of attention."
"Ooh~ so this is a personal terminal?" Pecorine examined the blue bracelet in her hand with great curiosity, then put it on and started exploring its functions.
"The tutorial will walk you through how to use it. Also, I've sorted out identities for all of you — here are your documents." Jhin handed over the files that had arrived along with the text message.
The girls immediately set aside their exploration of the personal terminals and picked up their identity papers to look them over. Megumin barely glanced at hers before shooting her hand up. "Jhin, what does it mean where it says 'Third Year, Junior High Division, Mihama Academy'?"
"Well... just think of it as a school on our side."
"Ugh, I really don't want to go to school. Classes from Another World are basically meaningless to me."
"It's fine if you skip — I'll square it with the Headmistress. Though I do spend about half my time there too."
"Fine, I'll go, then."
Besides Megumin, Kyaru was also placed in third-year junior high, Pecorine in second-year high school, and Kokkoro... ended up in the elementary division. Jhin figured he'd better explain elven aging to his girlfriends sometime soon, or someone was liable to call the police on him.
The commotion in the living room naturally didn't escape Kazami Kazuki's notice. She came downstairs in a white slip dress and greeted Jhin. "Little brother, are these girls your new girlfriends?"
The four girls, lively just a moment ago, instantly froze like mice spotting a cat, not daring to breathe too loud. This was their boyfriend's sister, after all — they had to make a good impression.
"Hello, Elder Sister!" Pecorine was the first to react, and the other three quickly followed her lead.
"Hello, everyone. I'm Kazami Kazuki. Something urgent's come up, so I'll leave my brother to show you around."
"Huh, you're heading out?"
"Yeah, so consider yourself off duty for today."
Jhin realized she meant for him to look after Megumin and the others on their first day here. He could only offer an apologetic promise. "Got it. I'll make it up to you some other time."
Once Kazami Kazuki left, Megumin slumped over like a deflated balloon, all the tension draining out of her. "Your sister's gaze is terrifying. It felt like nothing could stay hidden in front of her."
"She just does that with people she's meeting for the first time out of habit. She won't be like that after this. Anyway, want to go check out the shopping district?"
None of them objected, so Jhin brought out the clothes he'd prepared in advance and had them change. The casual outfits looked refreshingly new on them, and he nodded approvingly. "These suit you all really well. Let's grab a few more outfits while we're out."
The sight of four gorgeous girls, clearly on close terms with each other, taking turns holding hands with the same guy made Jhin the envy of the entire mall. While the girls were off in the fitting rooms trying on clothes, several men even approached him to ask for advice.
His answer: you need an iron backbone, top-tier time management, and — most importantly — love.
Since the personal terminals kept their cognitive interference running the whole time, Jhin wasn't worried about anyone snapping photos and posting them online — any pictures taken came out hopelessly blurred, as if a thick wall of mosaic censorship were smeared right over the camera lens.
After finishing up at the mall, Jhin took them to an amusement park, a movie theater, an arcade — novelties that didn't exist on the continent of Astraea. With Spatial Displacement magic on hand, they skipped most of the unnecessary travel time. It wasn't until close to evening, when Chisato called him, that the group finally left the amusement park.
"Hey, Chisato, something going on at the café?"
"Jhin-nii, a bunch of girls came looking for you today. When they heard you weren't around, they just ordered something to eat and left. It's kind of demoralizing... are my desserts really that bad?"
"That's not it at all. They've probably just gotten used to the food I make, so their standards got a bit high. What you make is genuinely good."
"When are you coming back?"
"Hmm... probably not today?"
"What!? But I was planning to watch a movie with you! Ugh, fine — why don't you bring your friends by the shop instead? Introduce me to them properly."
Hearing her request, Jhin asked the girls what they thought, and unsurprisingly, the vote came back unanimous.
"Alright, we'll head back now."
The moment he hung up, Megumin jabbed a jealous finger into his side. "Who is this girl to you, exactly?"
"A kid I saved once."
"Oh, I see. Never mind, then. Let's hurry and get to this shop of yours!"
Jhin shot Megumin a subtle glance, sensing she'd misunderstood something, but he said nothing — quietly looking forward to the expression she'd make later.
When Megumin followed him to Café LycoReco and finally met the "kid" he'd mentioned, she immediately grabbed his collar with her right hand while jabbing her left finger straight at Chisato's chest, hissing under her breath, "You call this a kid?"
"I mean, yeah — when I saved her, she really was a kid."
"Are you saying that on purpose?"
Jhin grinned and gave her a thumbs up. "Good bro, you nailed it!"
"I'm going to kill you, you jerk!!!" Megumin breathed fire from her mouth, leaping onto him and wrapping her legs around his waist, both hands shaking his shoulders furiously.
Aside from Megumin, who was busy bickering flirtatiously with her boyfriend, the other three politely introduced themselves to Chisato and Kurumi.
The radar on top of her head kept blaring nonstop — Chisato realized her rival count had just gone up again. Except... none of these rivals seemed to view each other as enemies. If anything, they acted more like close girlfriends.
That left her thoroughly baffled. Could they really all be hiding their true feelings from each other that well?
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