Reincarnated into a Multiverse, but High School DxD

Seeing the girl wake up, Ren turned back and said, "Now that you're awake, go wash up. Breakfast is ready."

Ren was lazy when it came to daily life and had never been in the habit of cooking for himself. Over the years, he either ate out or ordered delivery.

Breakfast had been delivered by the hotel butler. It was not particularly lavish: **, shumai, bread, just some simple homestyle breakfast foods.

"Okay."

Hearing that, Asia's face flushed slightly. She had not expected to sleep for so long today, and she wondered whether she had given Mr. Ren the impression that she was lazy.

After getting off the sofa, the girl carefully folded the blanket. Feeling the lingering warmth in her palms, she could not help recalling her bold behavior from the previous night.

Although Ren had not done anything to her, which reassured her, she still felt a little uneasy deep down.

Asia did not know what that unease meant, so she could only bury it in her heart.

After breakfast, Ren told Asia to get ready, then went into another room and called Jeanne.

The phone rang for a while, but no one answered.

Ren persisted and kept calling.

It was not until the third attempt that the call finally connected.

"Hello?"

A somewhat weak female voice came through.

"It's Ren."

"Oh."

"I already made contact with Oz's witches yesterday, but unfortunately, I heard that their leader, Jaucusta, was killed in battle. By the time I wanted to find the remaining ones, they had already retreated somewhere unknown."

Ren told the truth, but concealed most of the crucial details.

After all, he could not let Jeanne know that he was the one who had ruined the witches' plan and caused a potential ally of the Hero Faction to lose several major figures.

Otherwise, he would immediately be branded an "infiltrator."

"Mmm..."

Jeanne still sounded listless.

"I'm done. Is there anything else?"

"..."

After quite a while, Jeanne's voice finally drifted over.

"Tell me... do you know what time it is now?"

Ren checked his watch. "Nine in the morning."

"But it's only two o'clock over here. Little Ren, shall we make an agreement? No matter how much you miss your big sister, don't call me this late at night, okay? Not getting enough rest makes a girl's skin sag."

Even without looking, Ren could guess that Jeanne wore a deeply aggrieved expression right now, with her hair probably a complete mess.

"What about the witches?"

"Since they had problems of their own, there's no one to blame. They were only one of the Hero Faction's options. It's not a pity even without them."

"Little Ren, even if you're not particularly sociable as a member of the Hero Faction, you must remember our creed: to strive for humanity's peace in this world. For that purpose, the Hero Faction will pay any price to challenge those lofty gods, Buddhas, and asuras. We will prove to them that humanity can do what gods and Buddhas can do, and that humanity can also do what gods and Buddhas cannot."

Even without guessing, Ren knew Jeanne must be wearing a fanatical expression right now.

"Hello? Little Ren, are you listening? Hello?"

"I am, I am."

The moment Jeanne began her lengthy speech, Ren had set his phone down. He only picked it back up after she finished.

Although he had held the phone away from himself, he had still heard everything Jeanne said.

As an outsider, Ren felt every time that the Khaos Brigade had thoroughly confirmed its essence as a pyramid scheme.

And the part about challenging gods and Buddhas to prove themselves was even harder to stomach.

After all, even Cao Cao, the leader of the Hero Faction, was funded by Indra, the Chief God.

As for whether the other members of the Hero Faction knew that Cao Cao was also a pawn controlled by Indra, Ren did not know.

Thinking of this, Ren could not help wondering whether he could use that information to split the Hero Faction apart when necessary, if the others did not know Cao Cao was Indra's pawn as well.

But it was only an idea, and Ren did not think any further about it.

He usually would not bother doing things that took effort without offering quest rewards.

"One more thing, Little Ren. As punishment for disturbing your big sister's sweet dreams this time, you'll treat me to a meal next time."

"Fine."

Ren did not refuse.

"Later!"

With that, Jeanne hung up without a trace of reluctance, then pulled the blanket over her head and went straight back to sleep.

"Come on, let's go out and have a look around."

With nothing to do for the moment, Ren looked at Asia, who was sitting obediently in the living room.

Originally, he had planned to head to Kuoh Town after picking up Asia, complete the system mission, and naturally join the Kuoh Town storyline of DxD while taking a look around the place.

But through a series of coincidences, he had gotten involved in the conflict between the Five Great Houses and other factions, disrupting his original itinerary.

After last night's battle, the various factions here would probably behave themselves for a while. Ren could finally take Asia out for a stroll.

If nothing else, Kyoto had plenty of sights to see.

The moment she heard they were going out, Asia's eyes lit up.

When she was alone, she had been both curious and afraid of the outside world. But now, she felt that as long as Mr. Ren was with her, it would be fine no matter where they went.

Ren quickly took Asia outside.

Although he did not know exactly where to go, he felt that Asia constantly wearing a nun's habit was inconvenient. So he took her to a clothing store and swept through the place.

"This one, don't want that one. Wrap up everything else."

The clerk thought she had misheard him.

Asia was also startled when she heard Ren wanted to buy her so many clothes. "Um, Mr. Ren, I... I don't need so many clothes. As long as I have something to wear, that's enough."

"Clothes make the man, and a saddle makes the horse. You should dress up a little more normally. Besides, walking down the street in a nun's habit every day is more conspicuous than wearing these."

Ren said with a light laugh.

"...Thank you, Mr. Ren. You really are a good person."

Feeling Ren's kindness toward her, the sentimental Asia could not help having her eyes redden again.

But upon hearing that, Ren suddenly said seriously, "Asia, don't call me a good person anymore."

"Huh? Wh-why?"

"No reason."

An Encounter with a Fox Girl

Chapter 40

After shopping, Ren took Asia to visit several famous local attractions.

From the Silver Pavilion to the Golden Pavilion.

Ren had first learned about this place from a tokusatsu show.

A monster had appeared at the Golden Pavilion, directly melting it into liquid gold and absorbing it. That had once made Ren think the Golden Pavilion was made entirely of gold, but in truth, it was merely covered with a layer of gold leaf.

Asia, however, was deeply moved by the sight. Like Ren back then, she asked whether the Golden Pavilion was made of gold.

Ren bluntly shattered her fantasy. "No. It's just a way to attract tourists."

After ruthlessly breaking the girl's illusion, Ren led Asia to their next attraction.

Time quietly passed.

After night fell, Ren brought Asia to explore a snack street that was called a festival but was really a night market.

There were no attractions here, but at least there was a wide variety of food, which interested Ren quite a bit.

When he had no missions, aside from using his phone and driving around, Ren passed the time by eating.

Fortunately, his physique did not allow him to gain weight. Combined with his regular exercise, even after eating like that for years, he had not put on any excess fat.

Still, it made Ren begin to worry about Asia's future.

She had once been so thin because of exhaustion and malnutrition, but after following Ren for only a few days, her cheeks already showed signs of filling out.

Just then.

Ren suddenly noticed several neutral white dots approaching on the system map.

Not long afterward, a somewhat youthful voice sounded beside him.

"Excuse me... you aren't locals, are you?"

The speaker was a blonde girl in shrine maiden robes, standing on the steps.

Her dazzling golden hair resembled ripe wheat, subtly different from Asia's rapeseed-yellow hair.

Her golden eyes were lively and spirited. They were currently studying Ren curiously, while obvious interest showed on her face.

"May I ask who you are?"

Asia looked at Ren, then at the little shrine maiden, asking with a puzzled expression.

Ren thought the girl before him looked somewhat familiar.

And the aura coming from her was entirely different from that of an ordinary human.

The drawback of turning two-dimensional characters into three-dimensional people had appeared again.

When flat characters became real, three-dimensional figures, their appearances changed more or less.

Unless a character had particularly distinctive features, it was difficult to recognize them at a glance.

Even Ren was no exception.

Fortunately, the system thoughtfully provided a character panel.

[Name: Kunou]

[Description: A direct descendant of the Jade-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox. Note: She was not born through normal reproduction, but was a descendant created by the Nine-Tailed Fox using essence blood.]

Seeing the name, Ren understood why he could not remember her.

Kunou was a character the original protagonist's group would only meet after going to Kyoto. Like Koneko, she belonged to the flat-chested category.

No wonder she had not left much of an impression. So that was the problem!

Compared to Kunou, however, Ren had a deep impression of her mother, Yasaka. After all, Mount Fuji was truly enormous, and also quite generous.

Unfortunately, no new mission had been triggered.

Could this little fox have simply run out to play?

Then, her following conversation with Asia confirmed that was indeed the case.

"I'm Yasaka, a youkai of Kyoto."

"Milady!"

Behind the little shrine maiden stood two masked men and women in kimono. Faint youkai energy emanated from them. Like the Inugami Gyobu and Onra whom Ren had killed, they belonged to the youkai faction.

Unlike those two unlucky fellows, though, Kyoto's youkai were not united. For instance, Kunou was also a leader among the youkai, but she belonged to the moderate faction.

Seeing their young mistress reveal her identity on her own initiative, the two guards who had followed her from the youkai world immediately changed expressions and hurriedly called out.

"A youkai?"

A surprised expression appeared on Asia's face.

She was unfamiliar with Eastern culture, so she did not understand at all what the word "youkai" represented.