"May I ask who you are?"
Sakayanagi Arisu beside her asked politely.
"Ah! You're Sakayanagi!"
Elsie's eyes widened when she saw Sakayanagi Arisu.
She remembered her name.
Sakayanagi Arisu was also one of the mission targets in this world.
"Oh? Do you know me?"
Sakayanagi Arisu curiously sized up Elsie, whom she had never met before.
"Well... I, um, heard about you!"
Elsie quickly made up an excuse.
"Oh, sorry. My name is Elsie! This person is my dear older brother, Keima Katsuragi. It's nice to meet you!"
"I see. Though 'dear older brother' is quite an old-fashioned way to address someone."
Sakayanagi Arisu nodded, then turned her gaze to Keima Katsuragi.
"Katsuragi just... suddenly fainted. I had my classmate help carry him to a chair, but we couldn't wake him no matter what we tried. Should we contact the infirmary staff?"
Sakayanagi Arisu didn't mention that the two of them had just collided.
"Oh, I see. It's fine! I know what to do!"
Elsie said with a smile, then turned to Masumi Kamuro.
"Kamuro, could you please hand me the handheld console?"
"Huh? Oh..."
Masumi Kamuro froze for a moment, then handed over the console she had just picked up.
Elsie placed it in front of Keima Katsuragi, turned on the speakers, and started a game.
The startup jingle of a Gala Game rang out instantly!
"This is the theme song for After Confessing to a Girl in My Class, I Discovered She Was a Demon Princess Who Had to Spend Ninety-Nine Days in Intimate Contact with Me to Break Her Curse!"
Without even half a second's delay, Keima Katsuragi, who had been unconscious, suddenly woke up and sprang straight out of his chair.
"?!"
Sakayanagi Arisu was so startled by the completely unexpected turn of events that her hand tightened around her cane and trembled.
What was with this guy?
Had he been faking his faint?
No, that didn't seem likely, judging by how he looked.
But why...
What was that name just now?!
For the first time, Sakayanagi Arisu had encountered a situation she couldn't understand at all.
The White-Haired Loli: None of Them Are Ordinary!
The first thing Keima Katsuragi did after waking up was check whether his handheld consoles were safe and sound.
Only after confirming that nothing was wrong did Keima Katsuragi finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Sakayanagi Arisu walked over to Masumi Kamuro and whispered something to her.
"Dear brother, you really do make people worry about you!"
Elsie bowed deeply to Sakayanagi Arisu and Masumi Kamuro.
"Thank you both!"
"You're welcome, Elsie. It's only right for classmates to help each other."
Sakayanagi Arisu replied simply, but a meaningful smile played on her face, as if she were looking at something amusing.
After exchanging a few words, Keima Katsuragi and Elsie left. Sakayanagi Arisu watched them until they disappeared from view, then turned with interest to Masumi Kamuro.
"Tell me, Kamuro, what do you think of those two?"
"What do you mean?"
Masumi Kamuro didn't understand what Sakayanagi Arisu was asking.
"The older brother seems like a gaming addict. The younger sister is very cute, but that's about it."
"You've got it completely wrong, Kamuro."
Sakayanagi Arisu's lips curled into a slight smile as she spoke in her clear voice.
"Those siblings are probably not simple at all."
"What?"
"The younger sister was able to call me by name just now."
"That's not strange, is it? You're pretty well-known around school, Sakayanagi."
There was a hint of teasing in Masumi Kamuro's voice.
But Sakayanagi Arisu didn't seem to mind. She simply continued:
"I wouldn't care if it were just me, but... that girl called Elsie also knew your name."
"What?"
Masumi Kamuro looked surprised. She had completely overlooked that.
Sakayanagi Arisu was quite active around school, so it wasn't strange for people to know her name.
But aside from occasionally spending time with Sakayanagi Arisu, Masumi Kamuro was usually on her own. She didn't have many friends in her class, let alone in other classes.
How did that girl know her name?
"It means they've already looked into us."
Sakayanagi Arisu lifted her chin.
"They're Class D students, yet they had the nerve to investigate us."
"So that's what's going on..."
"You did what I asked you to do, right?"
"Yeah."
Masumi Kamuro nodded, then pulled something from under her skirt.
It was Keima Katsuragi's game cartridge.
Earlier, at Sakayanagi Arisu's covert instruction, Masumi Kamuro had pretended to return the items to Keima Katsuragi, but had actually stolen one of his game cartridges.
Masumi Kamuro had exceptionally skilled pickpocketing abilities, and she was confident she hadn't been noticed.
"Why steal this?"
"With this, we'll have a good excuse to keep in touch with him. All you have to do is pretend you forgot to return this cartridge. He probably won't be too suspicious about why you're approaching him."
"I see..."
Sakayanagi Arisu raised her head and gazed into the distance, her smile growing brighter.
"Maybe they really will be able to entertain me a little!"
Meanwhile, on the other side of the school.
"God of Conquest, both of those people just now were mission targets!"
As she spoke, Elsie pulled the Mission Card out of Keima Katsuragi's pocket.
It had been created with powers surpassing those of Hell. No one but Elsie and Keima Katsuragi could see or touch it, so Masumi Kamuro hadn't noticed it earlier.
[Name: Sakayanagi Arisu]
[Affection: 1%]
[Name: Masumi Kamuro]
[Affection: 0%]
"Huh? That's strange. Why is Sakayanagi's affection a little higher?"
Elsie scratched her head in confusion, then turned to Keima Katsuragi.
"God of Conquest, shouldn't you take this chance to get to know her? They seem to be in Class A, and we rarely get to see students from Class A."
"No need."
Keima Katsuragi had gone back to playing games every waking moment, as before, and replied to Elsie.
"They'll come looking for us on their own."
After fainting—or rather, taking a nap—Keima Katsuragi's energy bar had recovered quite a bit.
"Huh? Why's that, God of Conquest?"
"Because that person called Masumi Kamuro just stole one of my game cartridges."
"What?!"
Elsie's eyes widened in surprise. She hadn't seen anything just now.
"They probably thought no one would notice. But that was As an Ordinary Office Worker, After Signing That Contract, I Had No Choice but to Launch a Romance-Simulation Project with Five Goddesses from Different Worlds, Each with a Distinct Personality, in a Modern City to Determine Humanity's Fate—the game I was planning to beat next!"
"God of Conquest, that title is getting more and more ridiculous..."
Elsie sighed, then quickly asked another question.
"But, God of Conquest, why would she do that?"
"I'm not sure yet. While I was checking whether my console was damaged, Sakayanagi whispered something to Kamuro. She was probably giving her an order. You must have done something weird earlier and attracted their attention."
"I didn't do anything weird!"
"Anyway, we can be fairly sure Sakayanagi is a very calculating person, and Kamuro is... something like the thief in a party? Normally, I'd get back to my dorm and realize something was missing. Then I'd go straight to them and ask if they'd seen it. Maybe that's their plan."
"God of Conquest, I didn't understand any of that."
Elsie wore a very adorable, vacant expression.
"...I'm not surprised. Never mind. Just pretend I didn't say anything. All you need to know is that Sakayanagi is probably a troublesome person. You can tell just by looking."
Keima Katsuragi sighed.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"White hair and a loli. No character with both of those traits is ever ordinary!"
Keima Katsuragi suddenly thought of something and turned to Elsie again.
"You didn't do anything weird just now, did you?"
"Nothing weird at all!"
Elsie looked completely innocent.
"Really?"
Keima Katsuragi's face was full of suspicion.
"Absolutely! When Ayanokoji came to find you, I just went to get some ingredients so I could show you my cooking skills, God of Conquest!"
Elsie confidently patted her chest.
God of Conquest, Don't You Dare Run Away!
"You... can cook?"
Keima Katsuragi looked at Elsie in disbelief, his eyes full of doubt.
"Hey! Don't underestimate me, God of Conquest!"
Before you continue