"Sae, what are you up to~?"
A voice as gentle as a feather sounded behind Sae Chabashira. A woman whose face looked younger than her age smiled warmly and rested a hand lightly on Sae's shoulder.
She had amber hair and eyes, and an incredibly cute, doll-like face. Her beauty was every bit as striking as Sae's.
Chie Hoshinomiya.
She was the homeroom teacher of Class 1-B, and had once been Sae's classmate.
"Nothing."
As she spoke, Sae casually set down the test papers and pushed them aside.
Chie tilted her head slightly and glanced at the papers, then quickly looked back at Sae.
"I heard you gave your students a pop quiz today, Sae~"
"It was just a symbolic start-of-term activity."
Sae answered without expression.
"Really? You always seemed so indifferent to your students before. Does that mean you've taken a particular interest in one of them? I did hear there's a student in your Class D with a remarkably high assessment score~"
In that instant, the smile vanished from Chie's face, and her gaze turned ice-cold.
It was as if she wanted to peel Sae open layer by layer and dig out her heart.
"—Or is it that you've started fantasizing about taking Class D all the way to Class A?"
"That's none of your business. And I told you, this was just a routine test."
Sae replied coolly, gathered her things, and left the office.
Watching Sae's retreating figure, Chie's face once again broke into a meaningful smile.
"What was that student's name again?"
"It's such a shame for someone with an assessment score that high to be stuck in Class D."
"I think it was... Keima Katsuragi~"
Meanwhile, Keima Katsuragi had already dragged Elsie to the school library.
The place was enormous, rivaling even a city library, and its shelves held all kinds of books.
Even rare books that weren't part of the library's collection could be ordered from the school in exchange for points.
It was a paradise for book lovers.
"Go find a few books about basic common sense. Got it?"
Keima led Elsie to the reference section, where books on all kinds of general knowledge were kept.
"You're not going back to eat until you've finished reading this entire row today."
"Ah! There are so many books! How am I supposed to finish all of them? God of Conquest, are you just trying to find an excuse to get rid of me?"
"Of course not! You asked me to help you figure things out, didn't you? You need to understand some basic common sense first. This'll also be good reading practice."
Keima enunciated every word.
"If you get expelled and the world gets destroyed..."
"I understand, God of Conquest! I'll do my best!"
Elsie quickly nodded, then ran off to start reading in earnest.
Keima planned to find an empty spot and quietly play his game.
But as he walked past a bookshelf, he saw a girl stretching up on tiptoe with all her might, trying to reach a book on the top shelf. She was so petite that she couldn't get anywhere near it.
She had long, silver-white hair and a sweet, demure face. Her purple eyes shone like crystals, and gray over-the-knee socks outlined her slender legs beneath her uniform skirt.
Keima's attention didn't linger on her for even a moment. He quickly lowered his head to look at the handheld console in his hands and continued on his way.
Just then, Elsie hurried up behind him with several books in her arms.
"God of Conquest, are these the ones?"
As she ran over, Elsie's gaze landed on the silver-haired girl nearby, and suddenly she remembered something.
This girl—
She seemed to be one of the mission targets!
The girl was still trying to reach the book on the top shelf.
"Hey! Let me help you!"
Elsie hurried over to offer assistance, but she was about the same height as the girl and had several books in her arms. She couldn't reach the top shelf either, so she turned to Keima with a pleading look.
"God... big brother!"
Keima sighed inwardly. He'd intended to ignore her and keep walking, but Elsie had appeared at just that moment and forced him into a trigger event. There was no helping it.
He stepped forward and took the book down for the girl—
For Shiina Hiyori.
Volume One: Chapter Fourteen: You're Not an Ordinary Bookworm, Are You?
After Keima helped her get the book down, Shiina Hiyori lowered her head to look at it, a happy smile on her face. She soon hugged it to her chest and turned her gaze toward Keima.
"Thank you so much."
Shiina Hiyori's voice was as soft as a feather.
"Don't mention it."
Elsie smiled and nodded at Shiina Hiyori.
"You didn't help at all."
Keima grumbled, already holding up his handheld console to play.
"Are you two first-year students, too?"
Shiina Hiyori asked.
"Yeah."
"I'm Shiina Hiyori from Class C. It's nice to meet you."
"My name is Elsie Katsuragi! I'm from Class D, and this is my big brother, Keima Katsuragi. It's nice to meet you!"
Elsie enthusiastically introduced herself to Shiina Hiyori.
She wasn't as outgoing as Kushida Kikyo, and Shiina Hiyori seemed much quieter, but she still felt comfortable to be around.
"Elsie, do you like reading?"
Shiina Hiyori noticed that Elsie seemed to be holding several books. She couldn't make out the titles from that angle, so she asked curiously.
"This is my first time at the library. I don't usually read much, but my big brother insisted, so I came here to try out all kinds of books. He said it would help me read more."
"I see!"
Shiina Hiyori tilted her head slightly and looked over at Keima, who was already absorbed in his game.
So Keima was actually someone who liked books. That was why he'd encouraged his little sister to visit the library and read.
"It's hard to find classmates who like reading. I can't find anyone in Class C to talk about novels with... Elsie, do you have any favorite books?"
"I haven't read many books before, so I don't really have any favorites."
"In that case, I highly recommend this one: Whose Corpse, the first book in the Lord Peter series."
She bent her knees and crouched down, her skirt swaying as she did. Soon, she pulled out a book.
Although it was only the second day of the school year, Shiina Hiyori seemed to know the library's layout by heart.
"Whose Corpse?!"
Elsie froze when she heard Shiina Hiyori say the title.
What? What?
Whose corpse?
Was it a book about claiming unclaimed bodies?
Did people in the human world have to claim corpses, too?
Elsie didn't know much about human society yet. Hearing the title set her mind racing, and she grew more and more curious.
"Sorry, did I make you uncomfortable?"
Noticing Elsie's dazed expression, Shiina Hiyori quickly apologized.
"No, not at all! I'm just curious about what it's about! I'm pretty interested!"
Elsie took the book from Shiina Hiyori, whose face brightened with a happy smile.
When the conversation turned to books, Shiina Hiyori seemed a little different from before, almost more enthusiastic.
"Big brother, why don't you come over and talk with us a little?"
Elsie turned to Keima and pouted slightly.
Shiina Hiyori was one of the mission targets, but Keima seemed to have no motivation whatsoever.
At that moment, Keima's gaze never strayed from the screen of his handheld console.
I'm already getting tired of the library as a setting. In games, the bookish girl is always one of the characters who shows up in the library. Most schools have one, so using the library as her base limits where she can appear and makes the story easier to write.
The bookish girl is one of the most fiercely contested archetypes in school romance games.
If she's not exceptional, I can't bring myself to care.
Keima thought to himself.
Completing the missions was a requirement, of course, but there shouldn't be any problem with leaving this girl named Shiina Hiyori until last.
"It's all right."
Just then, Shiina Hiyori smiled and turned her head slightly to look at Keima.
"Everyone has something they love, and focusing on what you love is a wonderful feeling."
Shiina Hiyori lowered her head and hugged the book in her arms a little tighter.
"Books are where I can find something that feels more real. Nothing else can replace that. They're even more captivating than the real world. Sometimes I get so absorbed in reading that I forget about everything around me. That's why I don't have many friends in class... Maybe your brother feels the same way I do, so I understand him."
"You're right. For me, games are the better world."
Keima's voice came from beside her. For the first time, he looked away from his screen and at the girl in front of him.
He could tell Shiina Hiyori was sincere. She wasn't just being polite; she truly meant what she said.
Keima glanced at the books nearby. In his mind, books were the worst option.
They were an inefficient way to get information: linear, lacking interaction, and offering no branching choices or multiple endings.
Still, Shiina Hiyori had changed his opinion a little. She seemed subtly different from most of the bookish-girl characters he'd encountered in games.
"Um... if you don't mind, could we exchange contact information? If Elsie ever has any questions about books, she can ask me."
"Sure."
"That sounds great!"
After spending some time in the library, Keima and Elsie finally left.
"God of Conquest, why did you seem so unmotivated at first?"
"Because I've met too many bookish girls. If they're not exceptional, I have no motivation at all."
"Then why did you speak up later?"
"Because Shiina Hiyori seemed a little different from the characters in my games. Bookish girls in games are usually librarians. They tend to be quiet and withdrawn at first, and in some ways, they start out living in their own worlds. She's different. She may not be particularly sociable, but she's a little more outgoing."
"Can you win her over?"
"Even if she's different, Shiina is still a bookish girl. They all follow one ironclad rule—"
Before you continue