MARDUK

Um?

Whether it was just his imagination or not, Kudo Mitsunobu felt as if Saegusa Kasumi was making a grinding, gritting sound coming from her mouth.

It must be my imagination! Given the Saegusa Family's upbringing, how could Saegusa Izumi possibly grind her teeth like that?

Saegusa Mayumi, whose arm was being pulled by Kudo Mitsunobu, thought to himself.

"Stay away from my sister!"

Enraged, Saegusa Kasumi finally couldn't stand the ambiguous actions between the two and accelerated, breaking them apart.

Yes, it wasn't just my imagination.

Kudo Mitsunobu now deeply doubts whether it was the right thing to do to bring this mischievous third wheel on his trip.

He's already considering whether to just run away halfway through the journey with Saegusa Mayumi and leave this burden to Watanabe Mari.

Saegusa Kasumi was quite quick; the three of them only waited inside the revolving door for three minutes before seeing Saegusa Izumi running back, panting.

Looking at Saegusa Izumi, who was still panting, Saegusa Mayumi frowned and said.

"There's no need to rush, Izumi, you ran all the way back, didn't you!"

"Hey! Hehe!"

"I just didn't want to keep you waiting too long!"

Saegusa Izumi scratched the back of her head and smiled sheepishly.

"Let's head straight to the swimwear section!"

The four had already gathered here, Saegusa Mayumi pointed directly at the swimsuit sales area on the fourth floor of the building.

This building is a newly opened fashion shopping mall.

Unlike ordinary shopping malls where individual brands operate separately, this mall uses floors as units for joint exhibition and sales.

There are no partitions between the shops, so you could say that the entire fourth floor displays women's swimwear, lingerie, and intimate sleepwear.

In a sense, this place could be considered a sacred ground for men.

However, Kudo Mitsunobu now has a deep-seated resistance to entering the fourth floor. Originally, he only came to help with the payment and carry the bags.

How can you let a grown man into a lingerie store?!

"I told you I'd just wait downstairs, why don't the three of you go upstairs and explore?"

Kudo Mitsunobu broke free from Saegusa Mayumi's grip and stepped aside.

"Yeah! Yeah! Sister, isn't it a bit inappropriate to let this guy come in with us?"

Saegusa Izumi also strongly agreed with Saegusa Kasumi's words, nodding her head like a chick pecking at rice with her rosy cheeks.

After all, the sisters like to express their opinions on every piece of clothing in lingerie stores and compare them, but that's only when they're surrounded by other girls.

If Kudo Mitsunobu goes in too, and she accidentally blurts it out, wouldn't that be incredibly embarrassing?

"You really don't want to go in? I wanted to choose my swimsuit based on the suggestions Koushu- kun gave me!"

Saegusa Mayumi leaned close to Kudo Mitsunobu's ear and blew into it.

I'm smitten!

Although he didn't want to admit it, Kudo Mitsunobu's heart was racing.

Imagining Saegusa Mayumi on the beach in a swimsuit he had personally chosen, he couldn't quite suppress his impulse.

"Let's forget about it!"

Although he was tempted, and the women's lingerie store didn't explicitly state that men weren't allowed inside, his presence would inevitably cause inconvenience, and with bad luck, it might even lead to unnecessary misunderstandings.

P. S.: Second update

Chapter Sixty-Seven MARDUK

"Yes, sister!"

"Let's follow my brother-in-law's suggestion and go inside for a look around."

Saegusa Izumi nodded like a chicken pecking at rice. Heaven knows how worried she was when she saw Kudo Mitsunobu's excited look Kudo Mitsunobu he immediately agreed.

When Kudo Mitsunobu finally refused, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. At this moment, she absolutely couldn't let her sister seduce her brother-in-law again.

If my sister says anything unnecessary again, it could be bad if my brother-in-law can't resist the temptation next time.

"Besides, revealing it on the actual day would be a different kind of surprise! Let me save that anticipation for that day!"

"I see! That makes sense!"

Saegusa Mayumi thought about it and realized it was a reasonable suggestion, so she stopped insisting.

"Then Koushu, you can wait at the bottom of the stairs! We won't take too long."

After Saegusa Mayumi and the other two went inside, Kudo Mitsunobu idly fiddled with his mobile terminal on the bench.

He is currently looking at the construction progress of [marduk] that Kuki Uichi sent him.

Normally, after so much time, [Marduk] should have been completely built by now, but so far only the startup program has been completed, and there has been no progress at all in the construction of the gun's main body and outer shell.

After all, his requirements for the construction of this weapon were too high. Normal high-precision CAD designs are in the form of sniper rifles, and they are only equipped with strategic-level magic.

However, the weapon blueprints he provided were completely different, with the main structure somewhat resembling a traditional melee weapon (gun).

There were no buttons on the gun; he controlled the magic entirely with his brainwaves. The only difference was that there were two short hollow tubes extending from the sides of the gun tip.

The problem arose in material selection because the design had to simultaneously accommodate both the tip of a melee weapon and the hollow tube capable of withstanding unstable atoms.

Atoms are very volatile, just like the [Night] weapon currently used by Kudo Mitsunobu, which requires replacing many parts after each battle before it can be used again.

If you want to try out his [Dragon Star Cluster], the previous method of replacing parts will not work.

Ultimately, it boils down to a lack of suitable materials.

Kudo Mitsunobu stared into thought as he looked at the blueprints he had designed; this was the limitation of the world.