"Ha... ha..."
Kiyoharu jolted awake from his dream, greeted by the familiar rock-hard stiffness and familiar unbearable discomfort.
He hurriedly climbed out of bed, turned on his computer, and opened a hidden folder.
But while selecting material for his spellcasting, Kiyoharu noticed that the familiar Little Witch avatar was online on Disscod.
This was one of the gaming voice channels he had joined. The online friend with the Little Witch avatar was the virtual streamer who provided Kiyoharu with spellcasting material.
You there?
Come.
Their exchange was brief, their understanding perfect. Within ten seconds, they were connected by voice chat.
Kiyoharu put on his headphones, feeling a faint, excited tension despite this not being his first time doing this.
A sweet, captivating girl's voice sounded in his ears.
"Yūran-nii, do you need Mira to help you fall asleep again today?"
"I do. Thanks for the trouble."
"Not at all. Yūran-nii is the most important person to Mira. Taking care of something like this is Mira's duty."
Mira's voice was bursting with youthful energy, yet naturally seductive as well. Compared to those affected cutesy voices and sound-card monsters, she was practically divine.
Even rarer was how uninhibited Mira was whenever she voice-chatted with Kiyoharu. He did not even need to ask; she would take the initiative to arrange a scenario and use her extraordinary acting to make him feel completely immersed, achieving the ideal state for spellcasting.
If Kiyoharu was an ascetic archmage, then Mira was a god-tier familiar assisting his meditation.
"Today's scenario is 'The Gentle, Handsome Male Teacher and the Female Dean.' Please enjoy yourself to the fullest, Yūran-nii~"
Kiyoharu found it a little hard to handle. After all, he really was a "gentle, handsome male teacher." Putting himself into a scenario like that always felt terribly immoral.
Whatever. Since it was spellcasting material, he should not connect it to reality. Watching an action movie with a train setting did not mean someone would go commit a crime on a train, right?
More than ten minutes later.
Kiyoharu had the illusion that the immersive audio performance from earlier had controlled his entire body like a puppet, making him act according to her instructions.
Only when Mira announced the end of the sleep aid did Kiyoharu regain control of his body.
In any case, it had been incredibly immersive. Mira-san, love!
He had already been molded into Mira's shape.
Kiyoharu thought this was perfectly reasonable. After all, people needed an outlet for their desires. Using a virtual streamer's audio service was far safer than doing anything in reality.
She was a professional at flirtatious fanservice, after all.
Although Mira claimed she was a very devoted girl who only served Yūran-nii—Kiyoharu's online name—anyone who knew, knew. It was just the usual streamer routine for stringing along the top-paying old man. Nothing surprising there.
Unlike the other top supporters, Kiyoharu had no feelings involved. Put another way, it was much like his relationship with Airi: each took what they needed.
Taking what each needed was best. What the hell was love? Troublesome and dangerous.
Kiyoharu had probably reached a state of enlightenment, seeing through all worldly attachments.
The sage time arrived, and Kiyoharu felt a little weak in the waist and a little sore in the hand.
There was nothing to be done about the sore hand. This was the body of a male protagonist in a different world—it was just too sturdy.
If not for Mira's audio setting the mood, pure DIY would probably have taken several times longer to finish.
Of course, if it had been a real battle with loaded guns, the duration would have been much shorter. Just like at the bar, when he had nearly been conquered by Kitahara Ayano's fleshy ass.
"Host, since you crave it so badly, why not find an absolutely safe girl and establish a cooperative relationship as battle partners, just like your arrangement with Airi?" the system suggested at just the right moment.
"That makes sense, but why do I feel like you're taking the opportunity to trick me into opening another quest line?" Kiyoharu's guard instantly shot up.
"Waaah, Host, you're slandering me out of nowhere. I'm clearly thinking about your physical and mental health... To be honest, I've already selected potential partners with relatively low yandere threat levels from among your social circle..."
"Wait." Kiyoharu suddenly spotted the blind spot. "I remember you saying that you didn't have the ability to judge a woman's yandere potential?"
"Uh, I really don't, but I connected to this world's internet and integrated with this world's artificial intelligence perception and decision-making technology. After long-term computational iteration strategies, alignment of granular refinement, empowerment of system optimization levers, and the realization of a closed-loop top-level design..."
"Damn it, who are you trying to fool here? It's not like I didn't work at a major internet company in my previous life!" Kiyoharu rubbed his temples, filtering out the useless system's rambling nonsense. A sharp gleam flashed through his eyes.
It had used this world's AI functions... Holy shit!
Kiyoharu immediately demanded in a stern voice, "When you calculated yandere threat levels, did you use my premium AI account membership?"
"Ahaha!" The system's eyes darted around as it whistled innocently. "Nothing can be hidden from Host, can it? Upupupu~"
"Up your ass! No wonder I used so much metered traffic last month that the Chihaya Family finance department flagged it as a suspicious bill for the Young Lady to review. She even suspected I was using premium AI to generate porn... So it was you, you little bastard!"
"Let me explain, Host! I did it for our bright future..."
The system had been muted by Kiyoharu for 12 hours.
Kiyoharu shook his head helplessly, turned his gaze back to the computer screen, chatted idly with Mira for a few moments, then logged off.
Now was the best time to sleep. Kiyoharu planned to drink a cup of hot milk, then come back and collapse into bed.
As he passed the spot on the second-floor corridor overlooking the manor's main hall, he saw Airi sitting there, facing the window. Was she holding some kind of sweet wine?
Her crimson skirt fluttered in the wind.
That was surprising.
In the middle of the night, drinking alone in an elegant formal dress—there were only two possibilities for the Red-Eyed Devil: she was either in an extremely good mood or an extremely bad one.
"Yo, Kiyoharu-kun. You're still awake? Don't tell me massaging my feet got you overly excited?"
All right, so it was probably the extremely good mood option!
Kiyoharu was in sage mode, his heart as still as water, completely unaffected by the teasing. He went to the kitchen to pour himself hot milk, then yawned as he headed back to his room.
"I'm talking to you. How dare you ignore me?" Airi's fierce voice came from behind him.
"It's private time now, Young Lady."
"But you came out of your private room."
"I'm only getting some milk. I'm going to sleep right away. Good night, Young Lady."
"You're not allowed to sleep. Come over here!"
Airi issued the order forcefully—but she was not simply throwing a tantrum. She opened her mobile banking account and transferred one hundred thousand yen to Kiyoharu in real time, with the note: "Late-night chat fee."
Kiyoharu's foot massage had made her a little sleepy earlier, but after lying down for a while, she wanted to talk to him again. Bound by their agreement, she could not barge into Kiyoharu's room. Now that she had caught him, she was not about to let him go.
After a brief hesitation, Kiyoharu accepted the transfer and walked downstairs to Airi's side.
The Young Lady might have a terrible temper, but she had money power. Since she was willing to play the role of a cash-sprinkling big sister, Kiyoharu did not mind playing the gentle fiancé for a while.
A live-in son-in-law needed money in the early stages!
Watching Kiyoharu approach with an utterly unconcerned expression, Airi, who had been observing every subtle detail of his face, became ninety percent certain that Kiyoharu-kun... was not angry.
After that evil, twisted impulse faded, Airi calmed down. Alone in her bedroom, preparing to sleep, she suddenly realized...
She had crossed a line.
Making Kiyoharu lick her feet—something so... excessively submissive—did not conform to their agreement.
Kiyoharu had been right. At their core, they had an employment relationship. Of course he would not do that sort of thing for her. Normally, Kiyoharu was not the type to grovel either; theirs was an equal exchange.
Airi usually paid close attention to that distinction. She knew Kiyoharu was completely different from those worthless things who would grovel at her feet without limits... That was one of the reasons she had chosen to cooperate with him.
In the fitting room, Airi had called Kiyoharu a little pig. Sometimes, she thought of him as a kitten, but never as a puppy. Puppies were fawning and could be trained completely, but Kiyoharu was different.
Airi understood all the logic, but she had lost herself earlier. She had wanted so badly to turn Kiyoharu into something that belonged to her. Looking back on that state now scared her. It was as if she had not even been herself anymore, with nothing left in her eyes or mind except Kiyoharu-kun, Kiyoharu-kun, Kiyoharu-kun...
And yet, look at Kiyoharu-kun.
He had merely used a little trick to make her suffer a bit. He had not flown into a rage, nor had he given her the cold shoulder.
Look at him now. He looked exactly like some office drone working overtime for extra cash.
Kiyoharu was like a calm, clear spring, making those who lived beside it feel exceptionally at ease.
That atmosphere made Airi's heart itch. Her normally rock-hard mouth softened for no apparent reason.
"I apologize for what I did earlier."
"...Huh?"
"I shouldn't have made you lick my feet."
Kiyoharu rubbed his ears in disbelief. No way—the Young Lady was seriously apologizing? He had not misheard?
Airi had always been known for her abnormal control freak tendencies and her lofty queenly demeanor. She was also the type who was incredibly stubborn and would rather die than admit she was wrong.
His thoughts spun at overclocked speed for several rounds before Kiyoharu suddenly had an epiphany. "I get it! You're right. The Young Lady's noble feet truly should not be sullied by the saliva of a mere mortal like me."
That deduction nearly made Airi choke to death.
No, dude.
She had sincerely apologized, yet he interpreted her as someone so tasteless!
Airi's eyes flickered as she gritted her teeth slightly. "Are you being sarcastic?"
"Not at all. Anyway, the Young Lady probably did not call me over for a late-night chat just to discuss this. Let me guess, is it a work-related problem?"
Kiyoharu really did understand Airi's temperament well enough.
If she only regretted what she had done, Airi would have just sulked alone in her bedroom. She would soon have been able to control her emotions.
What could truly keep her awake was the complicated situation within the Chihaya Conglomerate.
Airi also did not want to keep talking about feet, lest Kiyoharu say something outrageous again that left her flustered.
"At the headquarters meeting this afternoon, some blind idiot used Takagi Akane's situation to accuse me of lacking control over my subordinates... What a joke. I only allowed Takagi Akane to return to Tokyo for the family business, yet somehow it became my fault instead."
"Interesting."
"Hey, I paid you to keep me company, not to hem and haw like an ostrich."
"If the Young Lady wants a rational analysis, it's actually very simple." Kiyoharu took a large gulp of hot milk and exhaled in satisfaction. "The executive who attacked you probably recently had some business-related conflict with you. Considering the conglomerate's poor operating situation lately... Gen'ichiro probably ordered a certain piece of business that originally belonged to that executive to be handed over to you."
Airi's eyes flickered, and her lips moved. "...Yes."
"Then of course he had to attack you. The best outcome for him would be for you to mess up the business, so he could jump even higher and shout even louder."
"But it was clearly Department Head Kuroda's own problem! If not for his poor management causing product quality-control issues and delaying the order, why would I have had to step in and put out the fire?"
Before you continue