Chapter 404: Normally, I charge for this service
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
A petite woman with dark long sleek brown hair that reached her waist, sleek bangs, and a creamy complexion walked into the store. She was a beauty who had vividly red eyes.
She was wearing a black lace dress with a white jacket. Although she wasn't wearing the gothic lolita style, it felt rather similar.
'No way… a 'Kuroneko' for real!?'
Seiji was unable to believe what he just saw.
They had an over 90% resemblance! Even the fact that they had moles by their eyes was the same. The only difference was in the location.
This was the first time Seiji had ever seen someone with such a high degree of resemblance to a fictional character from his previous world. He was truly astonished.
He stared at the girl walking up the stairs to the second floor of the coffee café in stunned amazement.
"I think that she's Kinsa-san," said Chiaki who was sitting across from Seiji. "How about you?"
Seiji was still in a stunned state.
Chiaki had to call out to him one more time to help him regain his senses.
"Er… Sorry, what did you say just now?"
"I said that I think she's probably Kinsa-san, because I can feel that she's no ordinary woman." Chiaki looked towards Seiji. "You seemed to be looking at her in fascination. Could you have fallen in love at first sight?"
"No, I just…" Seiji paused for a moment as he considered how to explain. "She just happened to greatly resemble a character I thought of in my story, which was why I was so astonished."
"Oh? How similar?"
"Almost exactly identical, right down to details like the mole by her eye."
"That's really quite similar, then." Chiaki blinked. "Could it be that you've met her somewhere before, so you reflexively imagined her as one of the characters in your novel?"
"No, I'm certain that I've never met her before."
"That's such a wondrous coincidence then."
"Yes… it truly is wondrous," Seiji exclaimed sincerely.
This was going to be a challenging job.
That was Ruri Kinsa's opinion after learning the basic situation from her new female disciple as well as seeing her disciple's spiritual creature.
Although Ruri had experience in teaching others, this girl named Mika Uehara was a rather special case.
Firstly, Mika had been an ordinary person not long ago.
Secondly, the spiritual creature that Mika possessed was highly unusual.
As a Spirit Controller, Ruri was confident about her knowledge in this field. However, she was completely unable to see through or understand what the spiritual creature named "Mashiro Uehara" was supposed to be.
Even though its internal structure was obviously chaotic, it was still alive, and obviously quite intelligent. It seemed at the level of a human child, which was truly strange.
This type of creature shouldn't exist… or at the very least, Ruri didn't know of any such creature that existed.
However, it indeed existed.
Although Ruri was self-aware, knowing that her own knowledge was limited, "Mashiro Uehara" still gave her an impact regarding her knowledge. It was as if an expert on animal species had suddenly met an alien lifeform, something out of her domain of knowledge.
She needed some time to take it all in still. That was how much of an impact she had received.
Teaching a complete newbie who had just been an ordinary human not long ago was already a difficult task. On top of that, this newbie possessed such a mysterious spiritual creature. Ruri couldn't think of any words to describe things other than "challenging."
If this was a simulation video game of some sort, this type of setting would definitely be the most hellish and difficult one.
She didn't fear such a challenging difficulty, but rather the opposite. She reveled in such situations.
"Let's begin with having you cultivate Spiritual Power." Ruri sipped on some coffee as she told this to Mika.
"Eh?"
"The way to get stronger as a Spirit Controller is to raise both your personal strength as well as your spiritual creature's strength. But since your spiritual creature is far too unusual, I don't know how to raise its strength, so I'm first going to have you try improving your own power level."
"Oh…" Mika nodded.
"Tomorrow… no, let's start this afternoon. Will there be any problems with that?" Ruri asked while looking at Mika.
"This afternoon… That's fine!" Mika was nervous at first, but soon revealed an expression of resolution. "I'll try my very best," she said in a serious manner.
"Excellent."
'Nice attitude she has there. I hope she can maintain it.' Ruri thought that to herself.
"Although, I have a question…"
"What is it?"
"Should I call you 'Master' from now on?"
Ruri blinked with her vividly red eyes as she smiled.
"You could just call me sensei, but being called master sounds nice as well. You can do as you like."
"Then… Master Kinsa, please take good care of me from now on!" The twintailed girl lowered her head in deference.
"Yep, I'll teach you well, Mika."
Seiji and Chiaki saw Mika coming downstairs together with the red-eyed beautiful young woman.
"It was her as I thought! I guessed it! You're treating me to our next meal." Chiaki was all proud of herself.
"Stop pretending like we had a bet." Seiji gave her a sidelong glance before looking back towards Mika and the red-eyed woman.
Mika looked at him as well, and smiled towards him.
Ruri noticed this.
"Was that handsome boy someone you knew?" She asked after they exited the coffee café.
"Yeah, he's my friend…" Mika paused for a moment. "Actually, he was worried about me, so he followed me."
"Haha… a knight in shining armor." Ruri smiled faintly. "Was the girl sitting together with him also one of your friends?"
"Yes, the two of them are my most important friends."
"One boy and two girls… this type of friendship can change easily." The red-eyed young woman's mouth subtly arced upwards.
"Eh?"
"Although a change in friendship is also a type of youthful experience, I don't wish to see my disciple receiving too much of an impact from it which could cause you to become depressed and neglect cultivation. Let's take care of it right here and now." Ruri paused in her footsteps.
"Er… Take care?" Mika felt an ominous premonition.
"Yep. First, answer me, do you like that boy?"
"Er… this…"
Ruri was instantly certain of the answer when she looked at the twintailed girl's expression.
"Now then, select the method to deal with this matter. The first is to make that boy fall in love with you, while the second is to make them dislike each other. Which do you choose?"
"This…" Mika widened her eyes in surprise.
"I recommend the first method as it's more direct. But if you don't like it, choose the second." Ruri smiled. "I can accurately control the level of like that they have for each other to maintain their friendship, but make it impossible for them to develop into lovers."
Her current smile was not only beautiful, it also seemed slightly devilish.
Mika was stunned by the sight.
She didn't expect that her nice-seeming master had such a side to her.
"I… I don't want to do this!" Mika hurriedly said when she finally returned to her senses.
"Hm?"
"I don't want to do either method… I don't want to treat them like that."
"Why?"
"Because they're my friends!"
"It's precisely because you're friends that you have to take care of things early. Otherwise, you'll lose this friendship." Ruri's smile became even more devilish.
"This… something sounds wrong about that!" Mika denied it.
"Where am I wrong? I'm thinking about things for your sake. If it wasn't for the fact that you're an important disciple of mine that I must take good care of, I would never do such a thing for free."
"Free… Master, could it be that…"
"Yep, normally I charge a fee for this type of thing. My prices aren't cheap." The red-eyed young woman ran her fingers through her own hair, seeming quite attractive while doing so.