She'd completely forgotten about the visitor log!
What should she do? What should she do?!
Airi Sakura was flustered, but she had no idea what to do.
She couldn't delete it, and it was obvious it had already been seen!
"Whew, whew..."
Airi Sakura steadied her breathing.
"Keima... probably won't recognize me, right? He definitely won't!"
Then another notification appeared.
[User God] followed you.
"!!!!"
Airi Sakura's face instantly flushed bright red, and she buried it in her pillow.
He followed me?
Did he recognize me?!
Keima shouldn't have recognized me, right?
But soon, a trace of disappointment flickered in Airi Sakura's eyes.
Keima Katsuragi had probably followed her not because she was "Airi Sakura," but because she was the idol "Shizuku."
After all, online, Shizuku was a bright and youthful girl, and it was only natural for people to like her.
The real me was nothing like that.
If only I could be a little braver...
Airi Sakura buried her head even deeper.
"God of Conquest, was it really a good idea to follow Shiina directly? She probably doesn't want anyone to know who she is. Won't this lower her affection for you?"
Elsie had some misgivings about Keima Katsuragi's actions.
"Ordinary people would never realize that Shizuku and Shiina are the same person."
"Of course not! They're so different!"
"If I couldn't figure it out either, how would I be any different from an ordinary person? If I'm going to win a girl over, I need to seem 'special' to her."
"I see! As expected of you, God of Conquest!"
Elsie nodded with sudden understanding, though she hadn't understood a thing.
Keima Katsuragi glanced over his follower list again. Most of them weren't particularly interesting.
Except for one.
[User Miss Marple] followed you
Keima Katsuragi's eyebrows twitched slightly. The username Miss Marple seemed familiar.
One of the games he'd cleared earlier had involved some mystery elements, so Keima had crammed in a bit of related knowledge.
Having enough knowledge was essential to clearing games!
Miss Marple was a fictional detective created by the British author Agatha Christie.
Another mystery novel, huh...
Keima Katsuragi glanced at Elsie beside him, then at the mystery novel in his hands, and pursed his lips.
Shiina Hiyori, you've caused me no end of trouble!
Elsie might not be bright, but she was still a demon, and she had special abilities. For all he knew, she really could wipe out the entire school faculty.
Wait...
Could this person actually be Shiina Hiyori?
Keima Katsuragi opened her profile. There was nothing on it except the account's creation date...
The very day school started.
No way.
Absolutely no way!
A literary girl like Shiina Hiyori probably didn't spend much time browsing this kind of website. She cared more about physical books than electronic devices.
But the feeling that something was up grew stronger. He took out Shiina Hiyori's card.
[Name: Shiina Hiyori] [Affection: 20%]
"???"
Volume One, Chapter Thirty-One: Elsie's God-Tier Assist!
A string of question marks appeared in Keima Katsuragi's mind.
Why had Shiina Hiyori's affection increased?
Wasn't it ten percent the last time they met?
Had she started winning herself over, too?
Keima Katsuragi knew literary girls very well, but this shouldn't have happened.
Drawing on his years of Gala Game experience, Keima Katsuragi immediately ruled out the possibility that Shiina Hiyori had won herself over.
Literary girls who weren't good at socializing were just as sensitive as anyone else. But unlike Airi Sakura, who was simply shy around people, raising Shiina's affection significantly meant slowly getting close to her and listening to what was in her heart.
Keima hadn't spent much time with Shiina Hiyori. In fact, they hadn't really spoken directly, and even after exchanging contact information, they hadn't talked all that much.
That alone couldn't possibly have put her in a state of "winning herself over."
Unless someone else had done something.
Keima Katsuragi thought quickly.
Come to think of it, if the person behind that blog really was Shiina Hiyori, she wouldn't be using social media so often, much less find him with such precision.
Someone had definitely done something!
And the most suspicious person was—
Elsie!
"You said you went to the library again today, right?"
"That's right! I went to see Shiina! These are all books she recommended to me!"
"Did you talk about anything?"
"Talk about what? Not really. We just chatted. I even messaged her on my terminal a little while ago!"
"What did you talk about?"
Keima Katsuragi immediately took Elsie's terminal and opened her chat history with Shiina Hiyori.
[Elsie]: Shiina, do you have any other books to recommend?
[Shiina Hiyori]: Elsie, have you already finished the books I recommended last time?
[Elsie]: I have! I learned quite a lot!
[Shiina Hiyori]: That's great! I'll recommend a few more, then. Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None are both really good!
[Elsie]: Huh! I've heard that name before!
[Shiina Hiyori]: Oh? I didn't know you'd heard of Agatha, Elsie.
[Elsie]: I happened to see that name at my elder brother's place once!
Keima Katsuragi had been playing games earlier when Elsie happened to see him a few times.
[Shiina Hiyori]: Katsuragi? I didn't know he was interested in that sort of thing, too.
[Elsie]: Interested? He knows absolutely everything about it!
[Shiina Hiyori]: Come to think of it, wasn't it Katsuragi who encouraged you to read more?
[Shiina Hiyori]: I'd like to talk to Katsuragi again sometime! You and your brother are really close, too!
[Elsie]: My elder brother is the person I admire most! And before long, he'll be someone all the women in the world admire!
[Shiina Hiyori]: Haha.JPG
"..."
Reading the chat, Keima Katsuragi's face flushed red.
Th-this was so embarrassing to type out!
In the messages that followed, Elsie had told Shiina Hiyori practically everything about Keima Katsuragi, including his strategies for winning over girls on the website.
[Shiina Hiyori: Screenshot.JPG, this user named God is Katsuragi, right?]
[Shiina Hiyori: Katsuragi writes so well! Even I, who don't know much about games, find myself absorbed in his writing.]
[Shiina Hiyori: In a way, novels and games are alike. They're both ways to tell stories. I'd like to learn more about games sometime and experience different stories.]
"So it really was Shiina!"
Keima Katsuragi sighed. This had all been Elsie's doing after all.
Perhaps hearing from Elsie that he knew about those things had raised Shiina Hiyori's affection for him.
If one hundred percent affection meant she'd been completely won over, then eighty percent meant love, sixty percent meant fondness, forty percent meant that she valued him highly, and twenty percent meant she saw him as a friend.
At least in Shiina Hiyori's eyes, Keima Katsuragi was a friend he could talk to about their shared interests.
In truth, Keima Katsuragi wasn't interested in novels or the like. In his eyes, books were the least efficient medium.
But since Shiina Hiyori seemed to be getting interested in games, I suppose I can make an exception and approve of her for now.
"God of Conquest, is something wrong with the chat history?"
"Never mind. It's fine."
Keima Katsuragi handed the terminal back to Elsie, then took several books from his desk and piled them in front of her.
"Since you've started liking books, read all of these, too."
They were all textbooks.
"God of Conquest?!"
"You're not allowed to rest until you finish them!"
"Yes, sir!!!"
The next morning.
Keima Katsuragi arrived in class as usual, playing a game as he made his way to his seat.
"Good morning, Katsuragi..."
The voice was so faint it was almost impossible to hear. It came from beside Keima Katsuragi, as fleeting as a passing breeze.
This was the first time Airi Sakura had ever greeted someone of her own accord.
Though most people probably wouldn't have heard her.
"Good morning, Sakura."
Keima Katsuragi replied softly, then sat down and immersed himself in his game world, looking no different from usual.
Airi Sakura turned her head slightly. The movement was small, but through her glasses, her gaze settled on Keima Katsuragi.
Katsuragi was just as usual today. He didn't seem any different, and he wasn't acting strangely either.
Before you continue