"I'm done for."
Yui looked at Mio, who still seemed a bit out of it. Just now her head had gone hot and she'd kissed her, without stopping to think any of it through.
To do something like this to Mio, without enough fondness built up to back it—she wasn't about to end up hated for it, was she?
But Mio just now hadn't shown the slightest resistance. And before she'd leaned in, Mio had clearly noticed her—yet hadn't pulled away. Didn't that have to mean something?
The two of them had done this kind of thing before, too. So going by feel, it should be fine, right?
Just as Yui's head was a total mess, Mio finally came back to herself.
She slowly sat up, looked at the flustered Yui, hesitated a moment, then spoke anyway. "Yui, you like me, don't you?"
"Eh!?"
Yui had not seen that coming—Mio opening with a bombshell like that. It took her ages to react, and then she gave a serious nod. Since Mio had laid it all out in the open, there was no point in hiding it anymore.
"Liking me isn't exactly a smart choice, you know. Someone like you, Yui, could definitely find a person more worth liking—the kind who's ten, a hundred times better than me."
"Even if someone like that exists, I don't want them. I only want you."
"But I don't even know who I'll end up falling for in the end."
"Why do you say that?"
"All sorts of reasons. It's hard for me to explain. There's no way I really can." If she actually tried to explain it properly, she'd be sure to expose the System's existence—and if that happened, then before she ever became anyone's girlfriend, she'd very likely end up the heroine of a doujinshi first.
"That's okay. Even so, I'll work hard to make you fall for me."
Looking at Yui's earnest face, the System's voice abruptly sounded in Mio's ear. "Yuigahama Yui's conquest rating toward the host has increased by 5 points."
Mio paid the System no mind. Instead, matching Yui's earnestness, she told her, "Then if you're not willing to give up, make conquering me your goal. And by the way—right now your conquest progress on me is at about 57%, with 43% still to go before you've fully conquered me. So work hard, okay?"
That said, Mio stood and stretched lazily. "It's about time. I should head back too. See you at school later."
"Let me walk you out."
"No need. I'm not a kid."
Mio scooped up Cake and slowly walked out of the Yuigahama house.
The instant Mio stepped through the front door, the System's voice rang out again. "Task failed. Yuigahama Yui's conquest rating toward the host has decreased by 1 point. Please select your penalty card set, Host."
"Hold on—the task didn't count as complete? I just kissed Yui for way more than five minutes, didn't I?"
"Just now, Yuigahama Yui was the one who took the initiative, whereas the task required you, Host, to initiate. And I did warn you—you just weren't listening at the time."
"Tch. I suspect you did that on purpose."
Saying any of this now was pointless. Three semi-transparent cards had already materialized in front of Mio.
[Severe Punishment]
When a task fails, the number of penalty card sets to be drawn +1.
[Self-Challenge]
All task difficulty rises by 1 level, but task rewards stay unchanged.
[Nearsightedness]
The host's eyesight will be somewhat affected. As the card's level rises, the effect will grow more and more severe.
Mio gave them a casual glance and, without a second thought, chose [Nearsightedness].
There were times she needed to deliberately fail a task to keep the conquest ratings from climbing, and bumping up task difficulty was a real pain for her too—so the first two were basically a non-starter. Skip them.
Only [Nearsightedness] wouldn't affect her much. On top of that, she had Eriri's glasses, the ones that auto-adjusted to your prescription—this was actually the perfect chance to put them to use.
As soon as Mio made her choice, time began flowing again, and the world in her eyes turned a touch blurrier—though not too badly.
It was hardly an issue even without glasses; things just looked a little fuzzy when she focused on something far off.
As long as the card didn't level up any further, it wasn't much of a problem.
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"I'm home."
Mio pushed open the door and called out, out of habit.
In the past there'd been no one to answer—but ever since Mashiro moved in, things were different.
Mio's words had barely faded when she heard a string of hurried footsteps. Mashiro came running out of her room and said, "Welcome back."
"Look who I brought home with me."
"Cake!"
Hearing someone call its name, Cake pricked up its ears, leapt from Mio's arms to the floor, and made a beeline straight for Mashiro.
And Mashiro made a beeline straight for... Cake.
Just as Mio braced herself for a heartwarming reunion, Mashiro walked right up to the cake Mio had just bought—while Cake the cat strolled right past Mashiro's feet and trotted off back to its cat bed.
Watching the whole thing play out, Mio was, for a moment, completely lost for words.
After lunch, Mio fired up her computer for the first time in a while and even logged into her chat app.
The moment she entered the artists' chat group, she found everyone busy discussing their Comiket hauls.
Even though plenty of days had passed, the buzz from Comiket still hadn't died down in the group.
Mio even spotted people discussing her own work.
The reviews were broadly positive—though watching others praise the doujinshi she'd drawn left her feeling a touch bashful.
While she had the time, Mio took the opportunity to scan the drawings she'd done back at the hot-spring inn into the computer, then posted them to her social media account.
Ever since Comiket wrapped up, her follower count had grown quite a bit.
Maybe because she'd gotten lazy over the New Year stretch and hadn't put out much new work, a lot of fans had DMed asking whether something had happened to her—and others were trying to commission her.
Since she didn't have much time lately, though, Mio turned them down.
Most importantly, she wasn't short on money.
Just as Mio was getting ready to draw a sexy pretty girl to reward herself, her phone buzzed. It was a message from Yukinoshita Haruno: "My dear little kouhai, what are we having for dinner tonight?"
"Haven't decided yet. What does senpai feel like eating?"
"I want to eat you."
"If there's nothing else, I'll get back to being busy now."
"Don't be like that~ Send me a few photos of Cake. I'm going to see if I can lure Yukino over."
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