The first Devil he ever encountered was right after he moved to Itogami Island. Back then, he had accidentally summoned one… but who was it again?
Cid glanced at Tsubaki Shinra, who was busy cooking, and thought it over carefully.
It seems… maybe… possibly… the one he summoned back then was Tsubaki Shinra… right?
When he first learned that asking a Devil to do something required payment, he immediately decided not to summon any more. After all, he was seriously short on money. Tsubaki Shinra then told him that the quality of his spiritual desires was extremely high, so instead of charging money, she could accept his spiritual desires as payment. After his desires were taken, his spirit would become sluggish, but a few days of rest would restore it.
With a "might as well try it" attitude, he agreed.
After his desires were taken, he did feel uncomfortable for a moment, but he recovered almost immediately. To be precise, that discomfort only happened once.
It was not that they were not taking his desires.
It was simply that the amount they took could not keep up with how quickly he recovered.
The moment he realized this, he immediately suppressed any change in his emotions. On the surface he still looked weak and drained, but inside he was already popping champagne.
If not for the last bit of rationality holding him back, he might have signed a long term contract on the spot. He remembered her saying that ordinary people needed several days to recover their spirit, so as a proper background character, he obviously could not recover in a single day.
But asking him to give up such a perfect long term meal ticket? He could not even convince himself to do that.
So the only thing he needed to do was make sure no one discovered that he recovered within a day.
He could simply sign contracts with several Devils and summon each one every few days, filling up the entire week. As long as they did not share information, each Devil would think she was the only one he had contracted with. From their perspective, he would just be summoning them once every few days.
As expected of him, coming up with a flawless plan that perfectly matched his background character persona.
"Alright, dinner's ready. Come eat. I'm going to clean up."
"Oh, okay. Thanks."
As for the half dead look Tsubaki Shinra often mentioned, it was not because his desires had been taken.
The real reason was the Magical Power tempering method he maintained twenty four hours a day.
Although today, because of Natsuki-chan, he actually practiced basic sword training for an hour and a half, he had never stopped his daily foundational training.
He controlled the Magical Power in his body, fusing it into his flesh and compressing it. While refining the Magical Power, it also placed his body under pressure similar to what one would feel in the deep sea.
It was an unbelievably reasonable training method.
The only price was feeling mentally drained every single day, constantly enduring the pain of his body being torn apart and instantly repaired. On top of that, one small mistake could easily turn him into a pile of minced meat.
Every time he thought about this deal, one that perfectly fit his background character persona and had given him a free meal ticket for an entire year, Cid could not help laughing.
"Huh… huh… huh-huh-huh…!!!"
Suddenly, Cid's background character radar started blaring like an alarm, snapping him out of his smug, idiotic laughter.
"Huh? That's strange."
Once Cid came back to his senses, the extra radar immediately went quiet.
He looked around.
Aside from the bespectacled girl bending over to sweep the floor, her slender waist perfectly outlined, there was no one else nearby.
"Was it just my imagination? Whatever. Too lazy to think about it. I'll eat first."
With her back to Cid, Tsubaki Shinra continued sweeping while leaning slightly forward.
At that moment, her expression was tense, and a faint blush had appeared on her face. The serious, composed aura she had earlier was completely gone.
Tsubaki Shinra believed that Cid liked her.
This was not a random assumption. It was a conclusion she had reached after a full year of observation.
In her eyes, Cid was an incredibly hardworking person.
She knew that every day after school he stayed behind at the academy to train alone. As the Student Council Vice President, checking the surveillance cameras was a trivial matter for her.
And it was not just ordinary after school training.
Even after completing his daily Magic Swordsman practice while already mentally exhausted, he still pushed himself to do extra training.
Yet someone this hardworking was willing to give up his spiritual desires just to summon her.
Even if a few days of rest could restore it, the mental exhaustion during that time would still exist.
Cid would also occasionally look at her and suddenly break into a silly grin.
But she did not dislike it.
To be precise, she actually quite liked the way Cid looked when he smiled like that.
Just watching him gave her a strange sense of happiness.
He looked very cute.
She was very popular, and she knew it well.
As the piece of a pure-blood Devil, specifically a Queen, her future lover would inevitably be taken by her master Sona and turned into a member of her Peerage. With her master's potential, even an ordinary human would have at least the potential to reach High-Class Devil level (A-class) after becoming a servant. In other words, becoming her lover meant gaining both power and status.
It might sound a little boastful, but she was well aware that very few girls at school could compare to her figure. Combined with her good looks, this often attracted the disgusting stares of boys. Even though they would quickly look away the moment she glanced at them, she was already very familiar with those lustful, revolting gazes.
Cid's gaze, however, was completely different from the way those boys at school looked at her.
His eyes were clear, without the slightest trace of lust. When he smiled, it was simply the kind of smile that came from pure happiness, something he could not help showing.
At first, she was puzzled. Why would Cid show such a blissful, silly smile whenever they were alone together?
But as time passed, she gradually reached a conclusion.
Cid liked Tsubaki Shinra.
Once she realized that, everything suddenly made sense.
Why someone as hardworking as Cid would still summon her every time he recovered his spirit. Why he would smile so happily whenever he looked at her.
Because he liked her.
He liked her so much that simply being with her was enough to make him grin like an idiot.
As for Cid's secret crush, she did not know how to deal with it.
Normally, when someone confessed to her, she could simply refuse them. But going up to him out of nowhere and saying she did not like him, or telling him to give up before he even confessed, felt unreasonable. She might even end up being accused of being self-important.
Besides, when she imagined the scene of Cid confessing to her, she realized something surprising.
She could not even be sure whether she would reject him or accept him.
So... it was better to act like an ostrich.
Cid did not seem like the type who would confess first anyway, so she would just pretend she had never noticed his feelings.
If Cid had A-, no, even B+ level strength, she would not have to think this much. If she liked him, she could just say it directly.
But she had a master. She was also a Queen piece.
Her master was the younger sister of one of the Four Great Satans. She had to consider her master's position. Forcing her master to accept someone into the Peerage in this half-coercive way would only create trouble.
In short, until Cid actually confessed to her, she planned to keep some distance to avoid getting too emotionally involved.
"By the way, Tsubaki, since I summoned you this early, you probably haven't eaten yet. Come eat with me."
"Okay."
Looking down at the chopsticks in her hand, Tsubaki Shinra fell into deep thought.
When did I even sit down?
"Um..."
She stood up, intending to decline.
"Do you need to respond to someone else's summons later?"
"Yes, later I..."
"Don't worry. I'm in great shape today. It'll definitely cover several of your usual transactions. Just take it. Treat it like a day off."
There was absolutely no way she could refuse.
Fine. Just this once. Next time she would make sure to keep her distance.
With that thought, Tsubaki Shinra temporarily set aside the idea of distancing herself and instead focused on chatting with Cid.