Chapter 587: Aren’t they supposed to be love rivals?

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

"It's also possible that Spirit Worlds aren't controllable and are simply some unexplained phenomena."

"I feel that's an incredibly low possibility."

"Yeah, I agree."

Several seconds of silence passed between them.

"No matter what the truth is, right now, I'm interested in seeing if the change in the Spirit Worlds has affected Kazuko-san's Domain ability." Something flashed in Seiji's eyes.

The Spirit Worlds' disappearance would affect him as well. No matter how things developed in the future, right now he first wanted to contact Kazufuru and ask how Kazuko was doing.

Seiji immediately dialed Kazufuru's number after he finished his conversation with Natsuya.

"Good morning, Ooike-kun. I apologize for calling so early in the morning. Something major happened last night, so I want to confirm Kazuko-san's condition. Could you allow her to meet with me in a bit?"

By the street side.

Seiji walked over and greeted a brown-haired girl wearing eyeglasses and the Genhana High School girls' uniform.

Kazuko responded with a smile.

"Calling Kazufuru so early in the morning yet asking to meet with me? Harano-kun, you're such a demon."

"How am I a demon!?"

Seiji started directly with the main topic and explained the situation—after retorting, of course.

"I don't feel like my abilities have changed in any way. But, we can test things out right now. Do you want to try immediately?"

"Let's test your abilities immediately, then."

Seiji and Kazuko walked over to an isolated alleyway.

Kazuko raised her hand and used her ability, instantly causing a black crack which led to her Domain to form on the ground.

Seiji's vision darkened as he entered the Domain.

Instead of seeing the Genhana High School buildings as he did previously, he instead saw an ancient palace! Plants and trees were growing everywhere, with gigantic vines reaching out of the ground that glowed and spread all over the place…

This was the "Forest Palace"!

Seiji immediately recognized this location as the only Spirit World he had visited previously.

The difference from before was that the vines here were glowing and acted as a light source.

"Things really have changed inside here," Kazuko spoke up.

"You didn't make any modifications to the environment yourself, did you?" Seiji looked at Kazuko.

"Of course not. It seems that what you surmised was correct. My ability was affected."

"Yet you didn't notice anything at all."

"Yeah, I noticed nothing." Kazuko paused for a moment. "Demons are coming… do you want to fight them?"

"It should be fine if there's only a few of them." Seiji prepared himself.

A dark mist seeped out from the cracks in the palace walls and speedily formed itself into several black wolves. These wolves had sharp gazes filled with a red light… these were the exact same spiritual creatures as the ones he previously fought in the Forest Palace!

"Even the demons' forms have changed." Kazuko adjusted her eyeglasses.

'An incredibly similar environment and the exact same spiritual creatures. There's no mistaking it, this is the Forest Palace's Inner World,' Seiji thought to himself.

The black wolves growled and rushed over!

Seiji fought back with his fists. Hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit...

He defeated them quite easily.

The black wolves transformed into a dark-red mist which then evaporated. There were no strange sounds like the previous demons in Kazuko's Domain.

Another wave of wolves arrived.

Seiji experimented with his [Cleansing] against the wolves. His target black wolf received only minor damage from the [Cleansing] spell—unlike the previous demons that were instantly exploded by [Cleansing].

Seiji told Kazuko that would be enough and asked her to teleport him back outside after he finished defeating the second wave of wolf monsters.

"I once went to a Spirit World named the Forest Palace. The environment and creatures in your Domain are almost exactly the same as the Forest Palace's," Seiji informed Kazuko back in the real world. "That's why I believe that your Domain has now changed to become the Forest Palace's Inner World!"

"I don't feel like there's any differences in my ability… I can still use everything normally just like yesterday." Kazuko slightly tilted her head.

"This change is quite meaningful to me. Previously, I was worried that the Hell's demons would have a negative influence on my friends. But now that they've become the spiritual creatures from the Forest Palace, I'm no longer worried about that… No, I can't say that there's no more danger." Seiji rubbed his chin in contemplation.

Although he didn't hear the same strange sounds from these spiritual creatures, [Cleansing] hadn't been completely ineffective. It was just that it was far less effective than against those demons.

This meant that the Forest Palace's spiritual creatures might also be "tainted"! But, it was just that they were tainted to far less of an extent than the previous demons.

"Perhaps they can become strong, or they can also become monsters. You can only pay attention to the situation and stop things if you feel like something is going wrong."

That was what his older sister Yui had told him about the Awakened.

Thinking back on her words, perhaps her words had contained a hidden message: that it was impossible to completely avoid being "tainted" and people would have to pay attention… this type of hidden meaning.

The Awakened would have to become "tainted" if they wanted to become stronger. Was it a case of "wanting to grow powerful would contain risks"?

Rather than simply thinking about it, Seiji decided to directly ask.

He immediately took out his cell phone and dialed Yui's number.

Nobody answered his call.

"Whom did you want to call?" Kazuko inquired.

"Someone who can answer my doubts. But unfortunately, she's not free right now." Seiji put away his cell phone. "If possible, I'd like to ask you to investigate more about your own abilities in the future."

"I shall do my very best to improve my abilities to change my clothing at will." Kazuko's eyeglasses flashed.

"I'm not talking about those types of abilities!"

"I watched a lingerie show last night and received great amounts of inspiration."

"Why lingerie!? Why not an ordinary fashion show!?"

"The lingerie models are capable of calmly showing off such embarrassing underwear, which makes me seem so inexperienced in comparison. I need to improve my level of shamelessness."

"You're going in the wrong direction!!" Seiji retorted.

Kazuko smiled happily before she started to give off a blinding red glow.

After a bright red flash, she turned back into a brown-haired, eyeglasses-wearing boy now in the Genhana High School boys' uniform.

Seiji exchanged glances with Kazufuru.

"Let's go to school, Ooike-kun."

"Yeah."

They then immediately headed to school together.

The tall and handsome Seiji was witnessed walking together and chatting happily with the cool excellent student Kazufuru. This caused a bit of a commotion at school!

"Why are Harano-san and Secretary Ooike walking together?"

"They seem like they're good friends… Aren't they supposed to be love rivals?"

"I heard that they even ate lunch together yesterday."

"For real? What exactly happened?"

The other students were astonished to see this.

Seigo Harano was quite famous in school now as the Magic-Devouring Dragon. Kazufuru Ooike was also semi-famous in school as he was an excellent student, had a classical handsome scholarly appearance, and was the student council secretary.

The sight of the two of them together attracted quite a lot of attention, especially from the girls. And, people paid attention most to what their relationship could possibly be.

Kazufuru had been the boy that everyone knew was closest to student council president Natsuya Yoruhana until Seigo transferred into school!

Things started changing after Seigo transferred into Genhana High School.

Seigo and Natsuya had a close relationship with each other… such rumors started appearing.

Since Seigo and Natsuya never had any contact with each other at school, these rumors quieted down for a while. But, during Valentine's Day of this year, the student council president gave the Magic-Devouring Dragon her love chocolate, which explosively confirmed the original rumors!

The scholarly student council secretary who was believed to have the best chances ended up as the loser.

Although Kazufuru appeared quite calm on the surface, he must have been feeling quite pained inside—that's what all the other students believed.

His opponent was the extraordinary Magic-Devouring Dragon. Even if he wanted to counterattack, he was no match at all, making him quite pitiful—all the students pitied him.

Yet, they never expected that…

The scholar (loser) and Magic-Devouring Dragon (winner) actually came to school together!? And actually seemed like they were having fun chatting with each other!?

What exactly could have happened!??

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