It was just that suddenly seeing Yukino caught him off guard. For a moment, he almost thought Yukino didn't want to keep staying behind in the Service Club anymore, had changed her name, and joined the Service Club's late-night activities too.
"Hm?"
Noticing Hachiman's gaze, Yukino Mifuyu lowered her eyes, her face flushed red, and couldn't help sneaking a glance at the person beside her who still hadn't gotten up either.
'Lord Hikigaya seems to really like my figure? He keeps looking at me again and again?'
But among the people around them, everyone's figure was basically outstanding. Why was he specifically looking at her? It couldn't be that she accidentally did something wrong, right?
Yukino Mifuyu was just about to ask the especially gentle and friendly-looking Hachiman, who showed no sign at all of the violent punishment he had just carried out, why he said that, when she looked up and froze in surprise.
A mature, beautiful elf with an elegant and noble temperament had already beaten her to it and hugged Hachiman.
"Savior-sama… originally, tonight it was Princess Nina who was supposed to serve you and receive your aid. However, she is unwell and cannot come. Please allow me to apologize on behalf of Princess Nina, and to accept your punishment in her place," The elf Lumaria looked up at Hachiman, pleading for forgiveness with utmost sincerity.
That left Hachiman stunned.
'Princess Nina? Atonement? What kind of game is this now?'
He had heard about Princess Nina from Iris and the others, and had even guessed that she might be a certain blonde elf princess he used to know. Honestly, there were a bit too many elf princesses among Iris and the others' race. He even suspected the Elf Queen might be someone he was very familiar with.
But weren't all the participants tonight arranged by Iris and the others? Suddenly saying someone was swapped out at the last minute and needed to atone…
"I also need to atone to you. It was supposed to be Kuon, Sayo's cousin, who would serve you tonight, but due to some accident I replaced her at the last minute. I know any excuse is just an excuse. Master, please don't hold back, punish me harshly~"
The equally mature and beautiful vampire Liye immediately hugged Hachiman as well, joining Lumaria in asking for punishment.
The succubus sisters Lamy and Lily were a proper pair of sisters, and the vampire Tsukishiro Sayo and her cousin Aoe Kuon could also be considered a sister pair. That arrangement would have been normal.
But after seeing the goddess-angel Suzune Shizumi and Majima Yuuri join the game, both Lumaria and Liye felt tempted. On top of that, Lumaria noticed that Princess Nina wasn't in good condition, so she swapped others out and came up together with Leticia.
Actually, she and Leticia were also sisters, good sisters born from the same elf mother tree.
Seeing that, Liye followed suit. She knew Tsukishiro Sayo was only here to meet her lover, unlike the elf side that brought so much "support," so she couldn't replace Sayo. She could only replace Aoe Kuon and step in herself.
"Lady Liye, Lady Lumaria, this stage doesn't have a reward phase. Please let go of Master."
Hayasaka Ai, standing to the side, looked at Lumaria and Liye, who only brought this up after everything was over, with some helplessness. She gave a light cough, hinting for the two, who were using apology as a pretext to continue their "atonement," to stop while they could.
"Huh? No reward phase?"
"There isn't? I thought there would be one."
Just as they were about to start competing, Liye and Lumaria were stopped by Hayasaka Ai. Both froze, then turned in surprise to look at Hayasaka, who had already changed back into her maid outfit, suspecting this human maid who had also just joined was fooling them.
Lumaria was from the elf camp, Liye from the dragon camp, and Hayasaka Ai was clearly from the human camp. It was very likely she was deliberately stopping them from getting close to Hachiman.
"Of course not. The upgraded ten-person stage is only for reviving Asai Saki and Kamijou Maki, who failed the previous stage and had to accept punishment."
Hayasaka Ai explained helplessly. Only with punishment is there reward. This stage was purely a revival round, letting those who failed earlier continue participating in tonight's service activities, so of course there was no reward.
These two stages had already taken quite a bit of time. If they continued with rewards for ten people, there wouldn't be enough time left for the later games.
Tonight's real highlight was actually in the second half of the night.
But the later part would be even crazier and more chaotic, unlike this warm-up stage that followed rules step by step.
"We'll play more with you next time. Let's leave it for tonight, there are still games Iris and the others prepared."
Hachiman looked at the reactions of Lumaria, Liye, Hayasaka Ai, and the others around them, and roughly understood the situation. He poked the cheeks of the two beautiful women and smiled helplessly.
Their initiative and enthusiasm did make him feel good, but tonight's focus wasn't them. A small taste was enough. Next time, if there was a chance, he could play properly with the "landlady" group.
"Alright… then when Savior-sama wants to punish us, just call us."
"We'll be waiting anytime. Master, you must punish us together~"
Seeing this, Lumaria and Liye could only rein in their greed, stand up, and wait for the next chance at "aid."
Honestly, tonight really wasn't suitable to continue. Next time, they could bring more people along.
Liye thought of Tsukishiro Sayo's cousin, Aoe Kuon. It would be a good chance to compensate her for taking her place.
Though, taking it was taking it. In terms of closeness, she was still closer to Sayo.
But bringing Kuon along wasn't impossible.
As for Lumaria, she didn't have more "good sisters" to bring. Leticia's closest sister was Leona, who had already been "eaten" by Savior-sama along with the other elves.
However, she had already come up with an even better idea.
The "good sister" route was already crowded with younger competitors. Even the "elf princess" route had Princess Iris competing fiercely. Maybe Iris had already set her sights on the princesses of human kingdoms, just waiting for them to walk into the trap.
But what about queen-level ones?
Savior-sama's aid was so powerful, the Elf Queen surely couldn't ignore it.
As the most noble and strongest Elf Queen of their race, Lady Miste, once she received Savior-sama's development aid, her strength would surge dramatically.
If more high elves also received his aid, maybe their elf race wouldn't need to worry about the decline of the source or the weakening caused by low mana density. They might not need to migrate to this world at all. Instead, they could step out of the Elf Forest in their own world and restore the glory of the elf race.
When she went back tomorrow to report the results of Iris and the others' aid, the Elf Queen would definitely consider hiding her identity, crossing worlds, and coming here to receive Lord Hikigaya's aid.
At that time, she would personally demonstrate for the Elf Queen how to serve Savior-sama.
'Yes! It is all for the sake of the elf race! To make the elves great again!'
Seeing Lumaria and Liye talking about "next time" while clearly still craving more and practically drooling, their relatives Leticia and Tsukishiro Sayo exchanged glances. Both felt a bit embarrassed, but couldn't bring themselves to say anything.
Leticia and Tsukishiro Sayo were both experienced. They knew they simply couldn't resist Hachiman's allure.
Still, Lumaria and Liye's acting was a bit exaggerated.
Even if they didn't know the two came voluntarily, no one would believe that.
People said the succubus sisters Lamy and Lily had been starving for years, but in truth, elves and vampires had been starving for a long time too. It was just that vampires could sleep through time, and elves lost most of their desire outside of their breeding period, appearing more abstinent with little need.
However, as elves and vampires, they had it slightly better than succubi. Using the shared-sensation collars could barely quench their thirst, though it was only a temporary fix. To truly satisfy it, they needed to actually "eat" Hachiman's plums.
Among everyone, Majima Yuuri, the only one from the human camp, saw Lumaria and the others acting like they wanted more even after already having enough. Her cheeks turned bright red. She didn't dare look at the others, only sneaking glances at Suzune Shizumi, who still seemed to be savoring something, standing there at a loss.
Unlike Leticia and Tsukishiro Sayo, Suzune Shizumi, who had accepted punishment together with her, was her guide on the path of becoming a goddess-angel, her mentor in that identity.
Today was her first time personally experiencing Hachiman's magical girl training game, while Teacher Shizumi had already undergone who knew how many rounds of development training with him.
If she didn't know Suzune Shizumi was a goddess-angel from the divine realm who had only come into contact with Hachiman due to special circumstances, she might have thought all of Rion's powerful strength was trained on Hikigaya's bed.
"Yuuri, come here. Carefully feel the energy inside your body."
Suzune Shizumi slowly opened her eyes, licked her lips, and saw Yuuri standing there awkwardly. At a glance, she could tell Yuuri was still shy and hadn't realized the changes in her strength.
"The energy inside my body? So… so strong…"
Yuuri walked over to Suzune Shizumi. Hearing the reminder, she quickly focused on sensing her condition.
The moment she did, she discovered the energy inside her had multiplied several times. She was so shocked she couldn't speak.
She knew receiving Hikigaya's aid could increase strength, but she only thought it would be a noticeable improvement. She never imagined such a terrifying leap.
Several times stronger… If she could receive this every day, even if her combat experience was still lacking, wouldn't she surpass Teacher Suzune Shizumi in just a few days?
"It's just that the first time has the best effect. After that, you'll need to keep accepting Hikigaya-kun's training to achieve noticeable improvement."
Suzune Shizumi shook her head and explained with a smile.
"However, every drop of sweat shed here with Hikigaya-kun brings results. Even at my current level, I still haven't noticed any slowdown in my growth."
"I struggled with whether to tell you about this. If I told you, I was afraid you wouldn't be able to accept it. But if I didn't, the other magical girls would quickly surpass you."
"If everyone else could awaken their magical girl talent and surpass you after just a few days of training, that would be a huge blow to someone as hardworking as you."
"Luckily, you discovered this yourself and chose to join."
Suzune Shizumi didn't know about the "service halo." The more people served Hachiman, and the more they liked him, both he and those serving him would gain growth proportional to their level of devotion.
In other words, as long as new people kept joining and more people liked and served him, their growth rate would never slow down.
Even without knowing the exact mechanism, she could infer the general situation from observing everyone serving him.
She had never seen such an absurdly powerful ability. If the demon realm had something like this, the world would have long descended into chaos.
If not for the fact that both the divine realm and demon realm were spiritual worlds, and it wasn't easy to cross into the material world, she would have boldly tried to bring the goddesses from her realm into this service as well.
Fortunately, she had Yuuri with her. Even though their small goddess-angel duo wasn't anything special among so many magical girls, at least they had each other and could trust one another completely.
"Mm… I understand. As long as I can gain the power to protect everyone, this little sacrifice is nothing…"
While listening to Suzune Shizumi's guidance, Yuuri glanced at Hachiman, who had walked over to the snow woman Yukari. She couldn't help recalling the unforgettable sensation that had just spread through her whole body. Blushing, she nodded.
In normal training, the more sweat you shed, the less blood you'll spill when fighting evil forces, and the more innocent people you can save.
This little bit of sacrifice really didn't matter. And… she didn't actually feel it was something unpleasant.
Because it really felt… incredibly good.
Training where every drop of sweat brings a reward truly draws people in.
Maybe she could bring Sayuka and Byakuya to join the training as well. She knew that outside this Service Club, which was basically a magical girl base, other magical girls like the "Super Radiant Angels" mostly fought alone and had a very hard time.
The demi-human sister pairs who participated in the upgraded ten-person stage were more or less a bit embarrassed.
Only the succubus sisters Lamy and Lily, real sisters with the closest relationship, felt no embarrassment. Not only that, after Lumaria and Liye stood up, they directly took their places and crawled in front of Hachiman.
Whether it was Lamy experiencing it for the first time or Lily who had already gone through it several times, even though they had just eaten their fill, neither showed the same satisfaction as the others.
For vampires, elves, and snow women, Hachiman's allure leaned more toward enjoyment.
For succubi, however, his allure leaned toward instinct, feeding, reproduction, and so on. While it was equally pleasurable, it was far harder to restrain. Even when they were completely full, they still wanted to keep eating.
However, Hachiman wasn't lacking, so he didn't mind these two hungry succubus sisters. He gently stroked their heads while shifting his gaze to the black-haired, straight-haired snow woman, Yukari, who wasn't Yukino Mifuyu's sister, just of the same race.
"I didn't expect our next meeting to be in this kind of situation, Miss Yukari."
Their first meeting had been during the vacation before school started. At that time, he had gone out with his childhood friends from the countryside, got caught in danger on a snowy mountain, and was saved by Yukari.
Back then, he had been lying on the ground, watching Yukari, dressed in a kimono, with long black hair, flying before him amid a storm of snow.
A few months later, they met again. Yukari was still in that white kimono, but now she was kneeling in front of him.
"I didn't expect it either, Lord Hikigaya. So this is how you treat your savior?"
Her white kimono hung loosely, carelessly revealing a figure even fairer and more eye-catching than the pure white fabric itself. Yukari wiped the corner of her mouth while tapping her long, pale legs that had grown a bit sore from kneeling so long. Hearing him, she rolled her eyes at Hachiman without hesitation.
She had lived for many years and wasn't actually a young girl in her teens like her appearance suggested. She mostly stayed in the mountains and rarely went into human society, at most visiting small towns to buy food and things to play with. Over the years, she had saved more than just Hachiman.
Though she didn't care about human repayment and had never told humans her name, that didn't mean she liked what Hachiman did.
How did he treat his savior?
Even though he had already guessed it was her through the wall, he still made her kneel the whole time.
Among the ten participants just now, Yukari had actually been a bit special. She was kneeling on the other side rather than lying down like the others. But that "special treatment" didn't make things easier for her.
Even Yukino Mifuyu, who was also a snow woman, got to enjoy it, while she could only open her mouth and endure it.
Still, she had to admit that Hachiman's record of aiding so many demi-humans and humans at once wasn't exaggerated. The sheer density of his power was enough to leave her speechless.
"Who told you not to tell me your name back then? Consider this a small bit of revenge."
Seeing that Yukari spoke respectfully but didn't act restrained at all, Hachiman smiled.
In the original "In/Spectre," a snow woman's name couldn't be casually told to others, only to the person closest to them. So when he first learned Yukari's name, he hadn't realized her identity, since the original only called her "snow woman."
But in this world, things were different. Back then, Yukari simply didn't want to tell him.
Well, there was nothing to dwell on. They didn't know each other at the time. As a snow woman, it was normal for her not to bother with a random human.
But looking at the result, she really hadn't told him her name, which meant he couldn't recognize her immediately later. Otherwise, when he learned the snow women had enrolled early, he would have gone to meet her directly.
Of course, that still wouldn't guarantee whether she'd be kneeling or lying down, but at least it wouldn't have been like just now, making her kneel without even seeing her face.
"So petty. How did you get so many girls to like you?"
Yukari looked at Hachiman, who didn't hide his pettiness at all, and got up from the floor with some exasperation. Her slender feet, wrapped in pure white tabi socks, stepped onto the ground.
If everyone had come purely for aid, purely to become magical girls, she wouldn't have thought much of it. Hachiman really did have that level of strength. Just the life energy overflowing from his body was already so pure and vast it was unbelievable.
No wonder he could aid so many demi-humans and humans at once. Even without recovery, that enormous life energy could support multiple rounds for so many of them.
But the key point was, everyone wasn't here just for aid, nor just to increase their strength.
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