"There's none left. Not a single drop left... Let go of my tail!"
The beast-girl vengeful spirit's voice trembled slightly. Her rage meter had exploded. She desperately wanted to turn around and bite off the dog head of the man behind her, but she couldn't.
In the state of hundred-percent capture, her body already belonged to Natsuki behind her.
Never mind just playing with her tail—even if he practiced writing tally marks on her body, she couldn't resist at all.
"Huh, you're out already?"
Chika wiped the liquid from the corner of her lips, her tone disappointed. "How weak."
"I haven't eaten anything in ages! How could I possibly produce any more?!" The beast-girl vengeful spirit's gaze was fierce. Her crimson-glowing eyes fell on Rikka. "Push that girl with the eyepatch over here. Let me eat her!"
"Fulfill my demands, and I'll be able to produce food!"
It's her. It's her.
She actually brought several humans back to ambush me. A traitor will never be forgiven!
This dairy cow vengeful spirit's hatred for Rikka ranked second, right below Natsuki.
Rikka was startled and quickly hid behind Chika. She timidly looked toward Kaguya. Some animal instinct deep down told her that this beautiful girl with long black hair was quite frightening—she might actually hand her over to the vengeful spirit.
Kaguya's expression remained cool and composed, as if she hadn't noticed Rikka's gaze at all. Her left arm crossed over her chest while her right hand gently supported her chin. She looked directly at the vengeful spirit:
"As long as you have food, you can produce more food?"
"That's right." A cruel smile appeared on the beast-girl vengeful spirit's face. "Hurry up and push that girl out here."
"Impossible." Kaguya replied calmly. "However, we can provide you with other food."
"Don't try to fool a vengeful spirit. How could you possibly have any food?"
"..."
Kaguya Shinomiya's eyes shifted slightly as she looked toward Natsuki Amamiya, a faint smile gracing her pink lips. "Amamiya-kun, please bring out the 'food.'"
"Wait, how does Natsuki have food?" Chika Fujiwara's eyes went wide, her face full of curiosity. Clearly, she hadn't caught on yet. "Kaguya-chan, you must be mistaken?"
"Shinomiya-san is correct. I do have 'food' for our dear cow lady."
Natsuki had already grasped what Kaguya meant. As he spoke, he retrieved an item from the game's storage grid.
The vibrant green stood out strikingly in the gloomy, dimly lit room.
Green.
The color of life and miracles.
"Huh? Chinese chives?"
The girls all stared with widened eyes.
"That's right, you can feed chives to a cow." Chika slapped her forehead in sudden realization. "She eats the chives, we get milk—perfect cycle!"
"That bundle of chives actually has a use?"
Asuka Kujo, the previous owner of the chives, was utterly dumbfounded.
Thinking about it carefully... it actually seemed completely viable?
Humans couldn't eat raw chives, but a cow would have no problem.
Cows were herbivores to begin with, and chives were an herbaceous plant. Eating chives seemed perfectly normal, right?
Though surprised, Asuka felt no regret whatsoever. Even if she'd kept the chives, they would've remained useless in her hands. She would never have dared come here to feed a vengeful spirit.
Trading a bundle of chives for the chance to cling to someone powerful—no matter how she looked at it, she'd come out ahead!
"Here."
Natsuki handed the chives to Kaguya. He stood behind the cow spirit and needed to maintain his capture state, so the feeding would naturally fall to someone else.
Kaguya produced a small knife, cut the chives loose, then held the vibrant green stalks before the beast-girl spirit's face. Her voice was calm.
"Please enjoy."
"I refuse to eat this!" The beast-girl spirit stared at the chives before her, trembling with rage. She bared her saw-like teeth. "Just look at my teeth! I'm a carnivore now—I want meat!"
"Carnivores can eat grass too," Chika chimed in from the side. "Even cats occasionally eat cat grass. Besides, you were originally a dairy cow."
"I'm a vengeful spirit, not a dairy cow!"
She was a malevolent ghost! How could she endure such humiliation!
"Miss Spirit..." Kaguya tilted her head slightly, her voice carrying the timbre of the night. "Do you know how French foie gras is made?"
The beast-girl spirit looked completely bewildered, clearly having no idea.
"I know." Chika raised her hand to answer. "I saw an explanation on Twitter before. They make the goose stand in a specially made small cage where it can only stand all day and night, unable to sleep. Then they grab the goose's neck and force-feed it... French foie gras is delicious, sure, but ever since learning that, I've never eaten it again."
Kaguya picked up where she left off. "Miss Spirit, would you prefer to eat on your own, or shall we stuff it down for you?"
"..."
The beast-girl spirit's eyes welled with tears as she chose to submit.
Eating voluntarily was better than having it forced down her throat. At least this way, she could preserve some final shred of dignity.
"Cough cough..."
The beast-girl spirit opened her mouth and bit into the chives. As she chewed with tear-blurred eyes, she issued a threat: "Humans, I will remember this grudge!"
Kaguya's expression remained cool and composed, completely unmoved.
Desperate threats from a prisoner only revealed how fierce their bark was compared to their bite.
"Amamiya-kun, please proceed." Kaguya looked over at him.
Natsuki nodded and gripped the beast-girl spirit's tail once more. He had to admit, the sensation was unexpectedly pleasant.
"W-Wait a moment!" The beast-girl spirit hurriedly called out. "That tiny bit of feed isn't nearly enough. Even if you play with my tail, I can't produce food from nothing!"
Did they really think a single bundle of chives would make her produce food? It wasn't that simple. These humans were celebrating way too early!
"No problem." Chika pointed at the table, her voice bright and clear. "The chives have already grown back."
The beast-girl spirit turned to look, her eyes widening involuntarily. That bundle of chives was actually growing back at a visible rate, right out of thin air. It was enough to make a ghost shudder.
"Ah, ready to harvest."
Chika enthusiastically took on the task of cutting the chives. She harvested them and handed the bundle to Kaguya.
"Miss Spirit." Kaguya held the chives up to the cow spirit's mouth. "Please continue eating."
"This is too much! Way too much!" The beast-girl spirit completely broke down. "You people won't even spare a vengeful spirit!"
"..."
Her resistance was futile.
The beast-girl spirit soon found herself living the miserable life of eating grass and producing food.
"The taste is quite good."
"It really does feel like Meiji milk."
"Speaking of which, the spirit has 'Meiji' written on her neck. Could she have been a Meiji Dairy cow in her previous life?"
The girls chattered among themselves as they each drank the milk, clearing the 'Hunger' status from their bodies.
Seeing that all the humans had finished their milk, the beast-girl spirit let out a teary sigh of relief. Finally, she would be freed from this chive hell.
What she didn't know was that hell had only just begun.
"Kujo-san, Takanashi-san." Kaguya crossed her arms over her chest, her voice cool. "You may open the door now and begin soliciting customers as planned."
The villainous capitalist young lady, Kaguya Shinomiya, was about to establish her empire of wickedness.
(Author's Note: By the way, you can actually eat chives raw. I once had raw chives at a roadside restaurant—they seemed to just be lightly salted. The taste wasn't bad...)