716 Take advantage of me all you wan (1/2)

Without a doubt, this was an incredibly important question.

Kaho's expression became extremely serious.

Karen appeared to begin worrying.

Seiji wanted to say something, but was unable to say anything.

It seemed that Kaho was quite clear on the meaning behind this question. Seiji decided to keep quiet and let her think about the answer.

”Kaho…” A few moments later, Karen couldn't help but speak up first.

”I'm no longer an ordinary person, Sister.” Kaho turned to look at Karen before the latter got a chance to say anything else. ”Even if I want to have an ordinary life, there's no guarantee that I won't meet something mystical again in the future. Rather than avoiding things, I prefer to face them head on. I don't know what the specifics of being a Spirit-branded Retainer are, but I believe in Seiji. I'm willing to obey him.”

Kaho then turned to look directly at Seiji.

Seiji looked her straight in the eye.

”You becoming my Spirit-branded Retainer means becoming my companion. I shall take advantage of you, as well as do my very best to protect you,” Seiji spoke in a serious manner.

Kaho smiled as she could sense his will.

”That's good,” she spoke softly. ”Take advantage of me all you want, Seiji. I'm willing to be used by you.”

At this moment, the smile she showed was so brilliant, beautiful, and sparkling that everyone else was stunned by the sight.

It all started from an ordinary afternoon.

An ordinary girl was encouraged by the boy. From then on, the ordinary girl started working hard to be able to get closer to the boy who shone like a star.

After some struggles, she was now finally able to truly stand by his side.

It was an awkward, foolish, and painful process which gave her friends and relatives great difficulties. It almost ended in a tragedy…

Yet, it wasn't a complex story. It was simply a story of youth… like any other out there.

[Kaho Miyamoto]

[Special Spirit-branded Retainer host. Contracted.]

[Traits: Host to a high-level demon within her body. Summoned type. Growth rate medium, potential medium.]

[Koumei]

[Special Spirit-branded Retainer vessel. Contracted.]

[Traits: High-level insect demon. Insect queen type. Currently extremely weakened.]

Seiji was able to see in his system's [Contracted Spirit-branded Retainers] that Kaho took up 30 Spiritual Power points for him to contract with her. She only produced one point per day in exchange, and the system only gave her minor increase to ability and growth rate.

He figured that this was probably because she had only been an ordinary person to begin with.

Seiji now also had a new category in his system called [Spirit Contracts]. This section indicated that Koumei was costing him a full 300 Spiritual Power points to keep contracted! Koumei also produced 25 points per day, and didn't gain any benefits from the system. This was because for the time being, the system was aiding her recovery at a low rate.

300 Spiritual Power points… this cost ten times as much as maintaining Kaho's contract, and five times as much as contracting with Natsuya cost!

At any rate, Seiji felt pained about how one-fourth of his total Spiritual Power value was being used up on maintaining contracts. Still, this also proved that Koumei was quite powerful indeed.

Koumei used up so many points even in an extremely weakened state. What if she was at full power?

Seiji figured that the point requirement would perhaps be multiplied several times over.

Seiji knew that Koumei was indeed quite strong. At full power, perhaps Koumei would truly be able to summon a full-scale insect invasion of Sakura Island! Luckily, it had been greatly weakened, which was why Seiji had been able to suppress it.

But even in such a weakened state, Koumei was still capable of utilizing great power as long as Seiji supported it with his Mana.

Seiji couldn't help but try imagining. With his Mana as support, if Kaho could use Koumei's power and summon a swarm of insects to crush everything… that made it seem like they were actually the antagonists.

Still, it actually felt pretty nice!

He would try it out if he got the chance… No, he didn't need to wait for a chance. He would do so immediately after letting Kaho get some rest to restore her condition. He would then enter Kazuko's Domain, and summon an insect swarm there to defeat everything within the Domain!

The more Seiji thought about it, the more he felt this was a great plan.

If this plan could work out, then it would be just like grinding for experience. He could use the insects to take care of all the monsters within the Domain. All his companions wouldn't have to do anything at all except from absorbing the experience mist.

Still, even if this seemed like a cool idea, his companions wouldn't gain any actual combat experience. It wouldn't be good for them to lose out on valuable practical experience.

Seiji decided to give it a try and see how it was later.

Something suddenly occurred to Seiji when he closed his system menu. Would existences like Koumei also appear in other places, undiscovered, and awaken on their own?

If such things truly occurred, then there might be a catastrophe in the future.

Or, perhaps the catastrophe occurred already, but was covered up, just like the Bloodwine Ritual tournament incident…

After thinking about it for a while, Seiji shook his head, and decided to stop focusing on this topic.

There were too many things to worry about. Since he had just finished with an incident, he wanted to relax a bit more.

Isamu felt like he could hear his heart beating.

It was impossible for him to calm down as he thought about the person he was about to meet.

Shiroya, a real Spiritual Ability user... would he really come?

And even if he came, would he come using his real appearance?