"Letting the wolf into the house!"
After signing the contract and fully grasping the situation, Kirika Tachibana covered her face with her hands, sitting on the sofa with a pained expression:
"Why did I have to take that route that day? Why did I have to drop my wallet?"
Regret. Kirika was drowning in it.
Had she known Luo Shu was this kind of monster, she would never have invited him to join the SDS.
Turns out Luo Shu was a cuckoo all along!
The kind of vicious bird that lays its eggs in others' nests!!
"A god..." Meer murmured as she processed the new information flooding her mind. "I see... So that's why Luo Shu is always worried about someone harming him? Keeping everything to himself?"
"Cough cough!"
Luo Shu, who had been sipping his tea, choked and shot Meer a displeased look.
'Even if it's all true, at least save some face for me!'
At that moment, Lacus clapped her hands together, beaming with obvious delight:
"So from now on, we're all truly comrades."
"Since we have time today, shall we hold a celebration party?"
Hearing this suggestion, everyone turned to look at Luo Shu.
Under the collective gaze of so many girls, Luo Shu felt the pressure mounting:
"A group meal sounds good."
He didn't reject Lacus's proposal. Since their date was definitely off now, dragging Lacus away alone in front of everyone would be inappropriate anyway.
A group meal didn't seem like a bad alternative.
Thinking about food, Luo Shu immediately suggested:
"I vote for sukiyaki! With extra beef!!"
Hearing this, Kisara smoothly produced a small notebook from her pocket:
"And extra mushrooms and bok choy, right? Just in case, we should get more enoki mushrooms too? Maybe some barbecue ingredients as well?"
"Yes, yes, exactly." Luo Shu nodded eagerly. Sukiyaki and barbecue – he loved both. Having them together would be double the happiness.
After noting down his preferences, Kisara asked: "What about beer?"
Luo Shu shook his head: "Skip the alcohol, let's go with soft drinks instead."
"Coconut juice from Hainan?" Kisara ventured.
"Perfect! As expected of Kisara, you know me so well! Though Wong Lo Kat would be even better." Luo Shu nodded repeatedly with a bright smile.
Watching this exchange, Utaha looked torn between laughter and exasperation.
One moment, he's pulling off a grand scheme of usurpation, the next, he's planning a feast?
She couldn't decide whether Luo Shu was highly career-driven or completely lacking in professional ambition.
"There's a decent chain supermarket nearby with good quality control. If we're going shopping, we should go there."
Yukino Yukinoshita stood up, clearly intending to make a contribution.
"I'll help too."
Eriri had always found the Hidden Management Department's operations peculiar. For a supposed covert organisation, why did everything feel like a school club activity?
Utaha sighed when she saw this:
"If Sawamura is going, then I suppose I'll have to tag along to help."
Eriri's face twitched as she glared at Utaha:
"Why do I get the feeling you're implying I'll definitely be dead weight?"
Utaha clapped her hands in mock admiration: "As expected of Sawamura-kun, so self-aware."
"You...!" Eriri gnashed her teeth, looking like she wanted to bite Utaha to death.
Kisara counted the number of people and considered the stoves, tableware, ingredients and other items they needed to purchase before saying:
"With four people handling procurement, it should be enough."
While Kisara was thinking, Luo Shu casually remarked:
"The expenses will come from the public account."
Hearing this, Kirika Tachibana burst out laughing and said to Lacus, who was suppressing her giggles:
"See? I told you this kid was cunning."
"Even squeezing funds from funeral businesses, and now he dares to raid the public account right in front of you."
"Next thing you know, this brat will be using your money to support other women."
Meer blinked in surprise and blurted out:
"But aren't we technically the 'other women'?"
The moment these words left her mouth, all the other girls present except Meer wore strange expressions.
Even Luo Shu, who considered himself thick-skinned, couldn't withstand this ultimate move from Meer. He quickly clapped his hands to hurry everyone along:
"Alright, procurement team go shopping, anyone free should go help. Quick, disband now and regroup here in 30 minutes."
Only after shooing everyone out did Luo Shu turn to glare at Meer, who had stayed behind:
"Don't fire off indiscriminate attacks for no reason."
Meer stuck out her tongue, her large eyes darting about as if contemplating something.
At this moment, Luo Shu glanced at Kurumi Tokisaki, who had been watching the show with an amused smile. Seeing her expression, he couldn't be bothered to deal with her.
"Kurumi."
Luo Shu looked at Kurumi Tokisaki, paused for a moment, then said:
"This time, I owe you a favour."
Setting aside previous behaviour, the current stable situation was partly due to Kurumi's contribution.
If she hadn't deliberately leaked news of Luo Shu and Lacus's date, things might have tragically escalated due to the Kusanagi Sword's fear of the Divine Pantheon Reconstruction System.
After all, even Luo Shu hadn't anticipated that the biggest obstacle to forming a contract with Lacus wouldn't be securing her agreement.
Rather, it was the Kusanagi Sword - upon detecting its master being targeted by an old enemy - attempting to struggle free and flee.
Earlier, when Luo Shu went upstairs, he'd asked Lacus to inquire about the Kusanagi Sword.
The rather pedantic Sword Spirit personally admitted that if it couldn't stop Luo Shu's forceful actions, it would have taken Lacus's soul and escaped, using the power accumulated in the Kusanagi Sword's true form to rebuild a stronger body for her.
So if Kurumi hadn't taken them to the Hidden Management Zone to sign the Familia contract, things would have become extremely troublesome.
After all, even if Kirika Tachibana and Meer currently trusted Luo Shu, that couldn't compare to Lacus's longer history with them.
If Lacus had accidentally died by Luo Shu's hand, turning against each other would have been inevitable.
At that point, it wouldn't have been about Luo Shu's Familia taking over the SDS, but outright war between the two sides.
So Luo Shu truly did owe Kurumi Tokisaki a favour.
"Oh?" Kurumi Tokisaki narrowed her eyes slightly, then said with a smile: "Rather than favours, I'm more curious about how Luo Shu plans to handle Familia relationship issues."
At this point, Kurumi licked the corner of her lips and teased with a grin:
"I have a feeling your future days will be quite... eventful."
Hearing this, Luo Shu couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"Thank you for the reminder."
Regarding Kurumi Tokisaki's current spectator behaviour, Luo Shu naturally turned a blind eye due to her previous assistance.
After all, he couldn't very well forbid Kurumi from enjoying his misfortunes, could he?
Even if he did forbid it, would Kurumi actually comply?
For someone like Kurumi Tokisaki, who possessed time clones, very few in this world could stop her if she truly wanted to spectate.
And since stopping her was impossible, he might as well not bother trying.
For now, Luo Shu's primary task was to consolidate the resources of his Familia and the SDS, aiming for a powerful alliance.
Of course, all that could wait until after the feast at the gathering.
After all, Lacus had come today to enjoy herself—constantly talking about work matters would be rather inappropriate.
Though it was a shame their planned date with Lacus had been disrupted, Luo Shu reconsidered and realised it wasn't such a loss. The date would have been dominated by work talk anyway.
Hindsight being 20/20, Luo Shu now understood how utterly unromantic it was for a man to discuss serious matters during a date.
As this thought crossed his mind, Luo Shu glanced around the room, taking in the four women who remained, despite several others having left for shopping. He couldn't help but wonder:
'Come to think of it, should I pick up some books on relationships? To avoid actually getting 'knifed' by these girls?'
Though he vaguely recalled hearing about some corporate CEO who managed his mistresses like employees and still had them singing his praises...
So maybe management books would be more useful? But would that even work?
Luo Shu couldn't help but feel sceptical.
...
Ito City, Shizuoka Prefecture.
Within the aged Higurashi Shrine, its signboard weathered by time, stood a colossal sacred tree in the side courtyard—so massive it would take over a dozen people linking hands to encircle its trunk.
Around the sacred tree, wisps of black mist began to seep out, gradually enveloping the entire shrine unnoticed.