In the throne room, a white magic circle appeared on the floor.
A moment later, Akira stepped out of it.
The black Vader armor immediately opened around him with mechanical clicks, the plates unfolding like a machine flower. Akira stepped forward as the suit separated behind him.
And immediately—
"HHRKSHH!"
He sneezed.
Then again.
"HHRKSHH!"
Akira sighed.
"That was irritating."
Erika quickly walked over to him.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Akira replied. "It's just sneezing."
From the throne, Selena suddenly burst into laughter.
"Hahaha!"
Then she pointed at him dramatically.
"You have failed to show off perfectly, my apprentice!"
Akira looked up at her.
"…What now? Are you playing Sidious?"
Selena leaned back lazily on the throne.
"Well, why not? I may not be an emperor, but I do sit on a throne all the time, exactly like Sidious."
Akira crossed his arms.
"But Sidious is an old man."
Selena waved her hand dismissively.
"Yeah, and Vader doesn't sneeze… and he definitely doesn't run away from a fight because he's hungry."
Akira frowned.
"Well, his lungs and most of his internal organs are destroyed, so of course he doesn't sneeze. And I'm pretty sure I played everything else perfectly."
Erika quietly added with a smirk,
"Yeah… you even said your girlfriend's name is Padmé."
Akira replied immediately,
"That's not me. That's Vader."
Then—
GRRRRRRRR.
A loud stomach growl echoed through the throne room.
Selena smiled.
"So why are you suddenly this hungry? Didn't you eat your daily radioactive blue jelly?"
Akira frowned slightly.
"It's called Energy Bar Alpha. And it's not radioactive."
Selena shrugged.
"Well, it glows, it tastes like gasoline, and it even explodes sometimes."
Akira calmly replied,
"Still not radioactive."
He took out his half-eaten Energy Bar Alpha from his inventory and took another bite. The glowing blue jelly bar emitted a faint light.
Erika looked at it.
"What happened? You usually finish it."
"I'm running out of them," Akira replied. "So I'm rationing."
Erika remembered that he had eaten most of them during their time in the Demon Slayer world, and he had only produced a limited batch.
"Then why don't you make more?" she asked.
Akira sighed slightly.
"I should. But I haven't had time, and I want to improve the formula anyway. Right now it tastes bad… really bad. And it requires a lot of food resources to produce."
Selena crossed her legs on the throne.
"Why not use magical creatures? They should work better than normal food."
Akira nodded slightly.
"I could. But most magical creatures in this world are either extremely rare or protected by different factions. Getting a stable supply is difficult."
Erika, who had been listening quietly, suddenly spoke.
"If you can't get the ingredients from this world… what about other worlds?"
Both Akira and Selena froze.
A moment passed.
Then Akira nodded slowly.
"That's actually not a bad idea."
He looked up at the throne.
"Sis, can you send me to the Toriko world? I'm pretty sure I can find something useful there."
Selena shrugged.
"Sure. Just give me a day or two."
"Alright," Akira said.
Erika blinked.
"Wait… what's the Toriko world?"
Akira looked at her.
"You haven't read that manga?"
He thought for a moment.
"Well… It's basically a world filled with dangerous but extremely delicious food."
Erika tilted her head.
"How dangerous are we talking?"
Akira considered for a second.
"Do you remember the Dark Continent from Hunter × Hunter?"
Erika nodded.
"Yes."
Akira said calmly,
"It's basically like that… but everything is delicious."
Erika stared at him.
"…The Dark Continent creatures can cause extinction-level disasters, right?"
Akira waved his hand.
"Don't worry. I'm stronger than most of the creatures there. And the dangerous ones are very rare."
Erika sighed.
"…Fine."
Just then, her phone buzzed.
Erika glanced at her phone.
"Oh. My brother says he finished cleaning up the battlefield."
Akira nodded.
"That's good. How bad was the damage?"
From the throne, Selena answered,
"They managed to damage the outer barrier a little, but not enough to break it. Other than that, nothing serious."
Akira nodded again.
"That makes sense. They were only there to probe me. They probably didn't want to waste too many resources attacking the barrier."
Erika frowned slightly.
"Who were they anyway?"
Akira shrugged.
"According to what Kuroka said, they were just some random rogue mage guild hired by Chaos Brigade to test me."
Erika looked surprised.
"Chaos Brigade… you said they're a terrorist group, right? That cat girl is part of that group, too, right?"
Akira nodded.
"Yeah."
Erika crossed her arms.
"What do they want from us?"
Akira thought for a moment.
"Honestly? Not sure. They're bad guys. They're probably planning something bad."
Erika frowned.
"Don't joke around. What if they attack us again? We need to know more about them. You said they're strong."
Akira nodded calmly.
"They are strong. But don't worry. They probably won't move against us directly for the time being."
He paused.
"…Probably."
Selena sighed.
"Don't worry. As my brother said, they won't attack us directly for now. As for what they want from us… We'll figure it out."
She leaned back on the throne.
"I'll come up with a plan."
Erika sighed and nodded.
Just then, Akira let out a long yawn.
"Anyway… I'm going back to sleep."
Selena rolled her eyes.
"Idiot. Don't forget Erika's blood. She's running low."
Akira nodded sleepily.
"Right. Sleep later. Blood first."
He gently pushed Erika toward the door.
"Come on, let's go, let's go."
The two of them left the throne room together.
Selena watched them go and sighed.
"Those two…"
She leaned back on the throne and opened a holographic screen in front of her.
"I have work to do."
Then she looked at something and frowned slightly.
"…Wait. What's that?"
Back at the mansion, Akira dragged Erika back to her room.
Erika blinked.
"Why my room? We can do it in your room, right?"
Akira shook his head.
"You're already tired. Your room is fine."
After entering, they both sat on the bed.
For a moment… neither of them spoke.
They had done this many times before.
But this was the first time since they had officially become a couple.
For some reason, the atmosphere felt different.
A little awkward.
A little embarrassing.
But they couldn't stay like that forever.
So Erika took the initiative.
"Alright… let's begin."
She gently hugged him.
Akira stiffened for a moment, clearly caught off guard. Then he relaxed.
Erika leaned forward and lightly bit his neck.
Akira wrapped his arms around her to steady her.
She had drunk his blood many times before.
But tonight…
For some reason…
It tasted even better.
Richer.
Sweeter.
Without realizing it, she bit slightly deeper.
Akira's mind also wandered.
"I want to bite her back."
The thought appeared suddenly.
He knew it was probably a bad idea.
But Erika always bit him.
So why couldn't he do the same?
Sure, he wasn't a vampire and didn't really want to drink her blood… but just biting should be fine, right? Lightly?
All lovers probably do that, right?
The urge felt strangely natural.
But he held himself back.
He couldn't try something like that without her permission.
So instead, he simply hugged her a little tighter.
After a while, Erika pulled away.
The awkward silence returned.
Trying to break it, Akira suddenly said,
"Oh, right… Erika."
"Hm?"
"When I was sleeping as Ghost… did you hug me tightly?"
Erika blinked.
"…Huh? How did you know? Were you awake?"
Akira shook his head.
"No. But I remember feeling comfortable when I slept. And you smell like me, so I thought that might be why."
Erika's face turned slightly red.
"I wasn't hugging you! I was trying to crush you to death!"
Akira tilted his head.
"Really? It didn't feel like crushing."
Erika crossed her arms.
"I did the same thing Kanade does! You're always scared of her, so why wouldn't you be scared of me?"
Akira thought about it for a moment.
Then he looked at Erika.
His eyes briefly moved downward before returning to her face.
He looked at her very seriously.
"Because there's two huge differences between you two."
Erika frowned.
"What difference?"
Akira answered seriously,
"I already told you. Two huge differences."
Erika froze.
Then she realized what he meant.
Her face instantly turned bright red.
"You—!"
She grabbed him and threw him straight out of the room.
"GET OUT!"
SLAM.
The door closed.
Akira stood outside the door, confused.
"…Why? I thought that was a reasonable comparison."
Inside the room, Erika shouted,
"GO AWAY!"
Akira shrugged and walked back toward his room.
Anyway, he needed sleep.
Tomorrow was going to be another busy day.