"As the god of dating sims, I've studied eighty percent of the romance games on the market and distilled a few advanced conquest strategies," Selma said solemnly. "A fateful encounter! You pretend to trip over something, cry 'Ah!' and fall forward. He catches you on reflex, and then your faces press together."
"He has fast reflexes. On the Morania, I deliberately slipped, and he caught me right away, but I couldn't reach him," Zero said.
All right, Selma swallowed. That was an innate disadvantage.
"Then try this: a night raid!" She switched tactics. "Sneak into his dorm room in the middle of the night and hide under his covers. When he finishes showering and lifts the covers, he finds someone sweet-smelling-"
"Fingel," Zero said.
"...What?"
"Fingel has his days and nights reversed. He's still writing novels in the middle of the night."
"Fine, fine. Cross that out."
"Surely a line of dialogue will work! Hand him his lunch box, then turn your head away." Refusing to give up, Selma pitched her voice higher and said coyly, "I-idiot, it's not like I made it especially for you."
"But I did make it for him."
"I know, but you have to pretend you didn't."
"Then he'll eat someone else's."
Selma suddenly realized Zero had a point. With the demon queen Chen Motong watching like a hawk, if Zero really said something that tsundere, she would definitely seize the opening and say, "I made this especially for you."
"Then how about seduction?" Selma refused to admit defeat. "You're changing in your room, and you haven't shut the door. A gust of wind blows past..."
"I've tried something similar," Zero said.
"Huh?"
"We went swimsuit shopping together in Chicago." Zero thought back. "He didn't react in any particular way."
No reaction? Oh, no reaction