Shiina Hiyori: Malicious Book Friend

The study session, which began at four o'clock after school, had stretched on until past six.

Many students were beginning to feel exhausted or hungry, and one by one, they started to stand up and bid their companions farewell.

Chihaya Rei and the others decided to call it a day as well.

Current torture progress 66%, rewards will be unlocked upon reaching 100%.

It had been another day full of gains.

Chihaya Rei was in a wonderful mood.

"Do you want to walk with us?"

Karuizawa Kei looked at Chihaya Rei and suddenly extended the invitation.

Usually, after being put through special training by Chihaya Rei, she would always slink off to the dormitory alone to take a shower.

Perhaps having her two friends by her side today had made her uncharacteristically bold?

Matsushita Chiaki, however, found herself unable to meet Chihaya Rei's eyes because of what had happened earlier.

What are you feeling guilty about? We're innocent.

Chihaya Rei cast a faint glance in her direction.

Karuizawa Kei sensed that the two of them were hiding something from her! While she might lack other skills, her observational abilities were sharp enough.

"I won't intrude on the three of you."

Chihaya Rei shook his head decisively. "I plan on browsing the library."

With those words, he waved his hand to bid the trio goodbye.

As a mature and seasoned master of the torture arts, one must know how to light up new areas on the map, meet new NPCs, accept side quests, and complete them to gain experience and level up.

Although not seeing a senior in a Christmas bunny suit made Chihaya Rei feel as if Mai-san were crawling all over him, stumbling upon the library NPC Shiina Hiyori wouldn't be bad either.

Thus, he set off with light steps toward the mystery novel section.

On the way, Chihaya Rei caught a glimpse of Ichinose Honami surrounded by girls from Class B, patiently helping them solve problems.

When would he ever be able to enjoy such treatment?

One could only say that the succubus Honami was truly terrifying.

While inwardly marveling at Ichinose Honami's personal charisma—which was, in a sense, comparable to a hypnosis app—Chihaya Rei arrived at the mystery novel section.

The first thing to catch his eye was a petite, pale blue figure seen from behind.

The owner of this figure was none other than the NPC who was guaranteed to refresh in the Advanced Nurturing High School library: Shiina Hiyori.

Shiina Hiyori was standing on her tiptoes, her slender calves encased in light gray knee-high socks.

With her head tilted at a 45-degree angle, she looked to be trying very hard, stretching her arms out to their limit in an attempt to reach a book on the shelf.

The cuffs of her uniform slid down, revealing a sliver of her snow-white wrists.

The pale blue tips of her hair, which rested against her back, swayed gently with her movements.

He had to admit, Chihaya Rei thought, that he was witnessing quite a lovely scene.

However, even though Miss Shiina Hiyori had stretched her height as much as she could, her fingertips remained a few centimeters away from the books lined up on the shelf.

Logically, in a situation like this, one should go find a small step stool. The library was usually equipped with them.

But Shiina Hiyori seemed to think that if she just tried a little harder, she could reach it; after all, her fingers had already brushed the edge of the book, it just wouldn't budge.

In the next second, Shiina Hiyori chose to push off with her toes, leaping upward to make up for the few centimeters of height difference.

Her hand luckily, yet barely, managed to pull out the book she wanted.

A look of joy couldn't help but bloom on Shiina Hiyori's face, but as her feet touched the ground, she felt herself lose her balance, and her body quickly tumbled backward.

With a muffled "thump!"

Shiina Hiyori landed squarely on her bottom on the white tiled floor.

However, she noticed that the book—which should have fallen with her and landed heavily on her head—did not follow her down; instead, it was held firmly in mid-air by a hand.

Shiina Hiyori sat dazed on the floor, curiously tilting her head to look at the person holding the book.

Chihaya Rei lowered his gaze to inspect Shiina Hiyori, whose hair was disheveled and who was sitting in an ungraceful posture with her slender legs spread apart.

"A bit of a clumsy situation, isn't it, for such a book-loving student?"

He chuckled without trying to hide it.

Hearing this, Shiina Hiyori blinked in confusion.

When she looked down and realized her disheveled sitting posture, a flush of red stained her porcelain-white cheeks. She hurriedly pulled her legs together and reached out to smooth her skirt, a soft, apologetic voice escaping her lips.

"I, I've embarrassed myself in front of you, fellow student."

For various reasons, Shiina Hiyori felt a rare sense of nervousness in her heart.

Just as she was about to stand up, she heard the other person's voice again.

"Actually, I could have caught you just now."

"Eh?"

Shiina Hiyori was slightly stunned.

"But I wanted to see what you looked like after falling, so I only caught this book."

Chihaya Rei curled the corners of his lips into a smile, pulled back the book that had been hovering over Shiina Hiyori's head, and waved it in front of her.

Shiina Hiyori's purple eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"That really is a mean-spirited thing to do."

She sighed softly, but then a smile appeared on her soft, sweet cheeks.

"But it's okay. I'm glad you were able to protect the book."

Shiina Hiyori's overly innocent response caused Chihaya Rei to show an expression of surprise.

"Besides, even though you didn't catch me, you did catch the book, which saved me from getting hit on the head."

"So I still have to thank you."

Shiina Hiyori blinked her eyes, her smile sincere and warm.

"You really do love books, don't you?"

Chihaya Rei sighed, setting aside his urge to tease her, and reached out his hand to pull Shiina Hiyori, who had been sitting on the floor for quite a while, to her feet.

He hadn't found any reason to torment her on Shiina Hiyori just yet...

Shiina Hiyori had no obvious personality flaws, and she didn't seem to have a shameful past.

She was a literary girl who only had eyes for books; she spent the vast majority of her time sitting quietly in the library reading, and she didn't pay much attention to anything outside of books.

She also never proactively participated in class competition.

Perhaps once they got to know each other better, he could say to her, "Look at how Ryuen is working himself to the bone for Class C, yet you, Shiina Hiyori, are here reading leisurely—is that really okay?"

"Thank you, you slightly mean-spirited classmate."

Gently letting go of his hand, Shiina Hiyori could only describe him this way, half-jokingly, since she didn't know his name.

However, as she reached out to straighten her skirt, her gaze drifted toward Chihaya Rei from time to time.

She noticed that the mean-spirited classmate was flipping through the pages of the book.

He seemed interested in this book?!

Thinking back to the fact that he was the only person who had walked into this area in quite some time, she couldn't help but wonder.

Could this classmate, who seemed mean-spirited but was essentially a good person, be the book-loving friend she had been longing for?