(Note: I'm not sure where chapter 79 went, but it seems like no chapters are actually missing?)
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Chapter 80: Blanket War 1.0
[After watching the camera footage, you can't help but feel deeply shaken.]
[Artoria secretly visiting you in the middle of the night, along with the mature Scathach taking advantage of you being fast asleep to aggressively "drain you dry"—so many things actually happened in just one night.]
[And right at this moment...]
Eikou was just about to turn off the camera when new movement quickly appeared again in the footage.
"..."
At this point, no matter what happened next, he wouldn't be surprised anymore.
Eikou was emotionally numb, his expression unchanged as he continued watching the camera.
He only saw that in the footage around two in the morning, not long after Scathach had left, several pale blue, eerie ghostly flames suddenly appeared in the corridor area.
Immediately afterward, within those ghostly flames, a figure with a skull head silently emerged.
Good heavens, this hotel really does have a ghost. It scared the hell out of me—I even thought yet another woman had come this time!
He began to carefully observe the ghost in the camera.
This ghost matched quite closely with what Melusine had described last night. It was indeed a skull engulfed entirely in blue flames, but it didn't look like King Hassan. It appeared more slender and softer, and it wasn't as cold and terrifying as King Hassan.
But that didn't mean the ghost looked weak. On the contrary, from the inside out it exuded an imposing presence—solemn and sharp, yet not something that inspired fear.
Looking at the ghost in the camera, Eikou instead let out a sigh of relief.
So in the end, the effort wasn't wasted after all…
I watched so many unbearable recordings tonight. If you still didn't show up after all that, wouldn't everything I watched before have been for nothing?
In the camera frame in the corridor, that ghost quickly arrived in front of Eikou's room door.
Immediately afterward, the blue ghostfire flickered and vanished.
The gloomy, chilling skull shape instantly dispersed, gently, as if a thin veil had been removed.
In its place appeared a beautiful girl with blonde hair tied on both sides, holding a ghostfire lantern in her hand.
The dim, gentle moonlight vaguely outlined the snow-white face of the blonde girl, her slender, slightly thin figure, and her dark red eyes carrying a hint of unease as they furtively glanced around like someone doing something shady.
Draped over the girl's slender shoulders was a dark red cloak trimmed with gold, making it look as though her body felt cold.
Eikou's eyes widened.
That person was a student of Middle East Class, the Mistress of the Underworld — Ereshkigal!
So it was her who had been pretending to be a ghost in the hotel these past few days? But then again, why did she come to his room? Between him and Ereshkigal, it couldn't exactly be said that they were acquainted.
The moment he recognized her, Eikou became even more confused.
Whatever—he'd just keep watching for now.
Just like the two women before her, the Goddess of the Underworld, Ereshkigal, gently knocked on the door first. When she received no response, she tiptoed inside.
Looking at her sneaky appearance in the camera—hunched over, taking tiny, extremely light steps as she entered the room—she was actually rather adorable, just like a little tabby cat preparing to secretly lick cream off the dining table.
"Glup…"
Ereshkigal nervously swallowed a mouthful of saliva, walked straight to the bedside, and identified each person in turn, quickly recognizing Eikou.
"Alright, I finally found you. Mochizuki Eikou, right? The past few nights, finding you has really been a lot of work."
Ereshkigal quietly moved to his bedside, looking at Eikou sleeping soundly.
Perhaps because she was afraid of waking him, or afraid of disturbing his sleep, she silently set down the lantern she was using for illumination.
"Even though… even though this isn't what I originally wanted, I still ask that you come with me to the Underworld for a bit. There's no other way—I accepted King Gilgamesh's commission. I have to temporarily transfer you to the Underworld first, and then bring you to her residence afterward."
What the hell?
Watching the footage, Eikou's head was full of question marks.
In other words, that naughty Hero King, who on the surface claimed she would hold a fair and just festival, was actually planning to use dirty tricks in the end to secure victory?
No, that didn't seem right. With the arrogant and self-important personality of someone like Gilgamesh, there was no way she would think of using petty tricks before the competition. A more reasonable guess was that she simply felt lonely, and thus resorted to any means necessary to quickly abduct Eikou.
"Haah, being targeted by that kind of woman—one could say you're pretty unlucky…"
Ereshkigal looked at the sleeping youth before her with an expression full of sympathy, her voice carrying a trace of reluctance.
Her fair and adorable face gently leaned closer to Eikou, as if she wanted to carefully look at his sleeping face.
"Don't blame me for taking you away, okay? If you have to blame someone, blame Ishtar. It's all because that unless idiot goddess failed at her startup, and even signed my name under the guarantor section, so now I'm in debt too—and even got sold off to Gilgamesh! There's really no other choice. This is all out of necessity, so please, please don't blame me..."
As she said this, she forcefully shook her head again, for some reason feeling a bit irritated.
"No, wait—why am I even explaining this to someone who's asleep? It's like I'm so lonely that I have to talk to the air like a child who's been left behind! I'll explain all this slowly once we get to the Underworld!"
After saying that, Ereshkigal lifted the lantern in her hand. That thing was actually her spear, capable of drawing a person's soul inside and then taking it back to the Underworld.
The faint blue ghostly flame gently illuminated Eikou's sleeping face.
Ereshkigal's cute face flushed slightly.
"Still… well, he really does look quite nice. No wonder that Hero King can't forget him and insists on having me bring him over."
After that, she forcefully shook her head, sweeping away the random thoughts in her mind, then took hold of the lantern, preparing to draw Eikou back to the Underworld.
"Alright, come with me to the Underw—"
Before she could finish her sentence, the wardrobe behind her suddenly made a noise.
"There's someone in the wardrobe?!"
Not only Ereshkigal, but even Eikou watching the camera froze in shock.
At this point, there's still someone else in my room?! Is this ever going to end?! How can such a tiny room fit this many people—do you all think this is a marketplace?!
And Ereshkigal in the camera, flustered, immediately hid under the bed without a second thought.
"How is this possible..."
She wore an expression of disbelief, her heart pounding with tension.
"Besides me, there's someone else sneaking into his room in the middle of the night?"
There are tons of them, they're everywhere! Eikou wailed madly in his heart.
"Hmph..."
In the footage, a small, beautiful figure crawled out from the wardrobe. That person was clearly Melusine, the top player of the Lancelot-verse.
Eikou instantly couldn't take it anymore.
Melusine, when exactly did you sneak into my room?! Why didn't the camera capture you at all?!
Melusine carefully crawled out of the wardrobe, looked at Eikou sleeping soundly by the bed, and revealed a "keikaku doori~" kind of smile.
"Ha ha, I really am too smart. Since I was both afraid of ghosts and wanted a night raid, I just slept inside the wardrobe!"
So you basically never left the room since last night. No wonder even the camera couldn't find any trace of you. This little brat really went all out just to secretly snack on my body!
"Hehe, darling, hand over your chastit—"
Before she could finish, Melusine suddenly startled.
A figure suddenly flashed past the window, frightening her so much that she hurriedly hid back inside the wardrobe.
"There's someone outside!"
This is bad—someone outside the room is about to come in!
"What is wrong with you people, are you done yet?! Why is there someone outside the window too?!"
Eikou screamed in his heart while staring at the camera: "How many times is this development going to repeat itself?! How many people have to come in one single night before it finally stops?! I'm really sick of this trope already!"
Ereshkigal hid, Melusine hid, and at that very moment, yet another figure suddenly appeared, lifting the window and climbing inside.
It was Medusa.
The Servant who was absolutely loyal to him, and who had been getting increasingly clingy lately.
"Phew, I finally managed to meet Master again. It really wasn't for nothing that I rode my bike all the way to the seaside… ah! There's someone outside!"
Medusa hurriedly hid inside another wardrobe.
Hey, you're speedrunning this a bit too hard—before you even finished speaking, you already jumped straight into the wardrobe. Who exactly is still out there?! Who are you even guarding against?! How many people still haven't entered the room tonight, and who else is still about to come in?!
Eikou complained desperately in his heart.
[…The surveillance video ends here.]
[Not long after the girls hid, you woke up from the heat, and then began checking the cameras.]
The surveillance footage ended here.
What happened afterward was exactly the present.
Watching the video end, a cold bead of sweat slid down Eikou's forehead.
In other words…
Eikou swallowed nervously, glanced at his bed, then looked at the two wardrobes beside it.
Those three women were still in the room right now…
Ereshkigal, Melusine, and Medusa…
And outside, there were still other women lurking.
It was just that these man-crazy girls all sensed the presence of others, so no one dared to act rashly. As a result, a bizarre balance formed, turning the situation into one where no one could make a move on Eikou.
"..."
Eikou looked around his room once, then sighed.
After that, he gave up, casually tossed the phone aside, closed his eyes, wrapped himself tightly in the blanket, and lay stiff as a corpse.
Do whatever you want, I'm going back to sleep!
[You pretend you know nothing about these things and go straight to sleep.]
[Just as you expected, the women hiding under the bed and inside the wardrobes kept stalemating each other all night long, and instead no one had any chance to make a move on you.]
[Even so, you still constantly felt as though there were many gazes around you watching you…]
[You slept poorly, and on top of that, having previously been "drained dry" by Scathach, your late-night condition became even more severe…]
[...]
Time gradually passed.
The calendar flipped over to a new date.
[By morning, you were woken up by Gawain and the others, then went together to eat breakfast.]
[Your [Staying Up Late] status increases, and all skills and parameters decrease by another tier.]
…
June 26, morning.
Only four days remained until Gil Fest.
"…Sir Eikou, did you sleep poorly again last night?"
Seeing the dark circles under his eyes growing heavier, Gawain asked with some concern.
"…More or less."
"Could it be that you were disturbed by that ghost again last night? This time you must have recorded something, right?"
"Oh, now that you mention it..."
Eikou opened his phone and, without a second thought, deleted all the surveillance footage, then lowered his head and continued eating.
"Last night... nothing happened at all."
"What about the ghost?"
"It doesn't matter anymore."
Eikou's hand holding the spoon trembled slightly as he let out sighs one after another.
"I shouldn't have installed that camera in the first place. Not knowing anything is happiness. I already know too much. The fear born from knowing the truth leaves me with no way to escape."
Tristan froze. "Did you encounter Cthulhu last night?"
Gawain stroked his chin and thought seriously. "Don't you guys feel like something seems to be missing this morning...?"
"I know what's missing,"
Tristan smiled lightly. "Don't rush, let him digest it himself."
"Haa..."
Eikou silently set down his chopsticks and took a deep breath.
Then he raised his head and shouted loudly toward the sky:
"What kind of cursed morning is this a a a a a!!!!"
"Hahaha, I knew you'd say that!"
[And with that, Blanket War 1.0 comes to an end...]
"Why is it 1.0?! Don't ever let me encounter something like this a second time! Damn it!"
[There is no doubt that the biggest winner this time was Scathach.]
[Today, everyone who met her felt that her spirits were exceptionally radiant, like a long drought finally meeting rain, fully nourished, looking even more feminine than usual...]
[Scathach's affection toward you increases. You receive one Encouragement Dice.]
"Why did her favorability increase? What exactly did I do to win her over?!"
Eikou shouted.
Damn it, I'm so sleepy. I really want to stay far away from these man-crazy women with unmet needs and find a place where no one will disturb me so I can sleep properly!
[Carrying those emotions, today's training session begins once again...]
"Can't you just let me sleep a little? What kind of cursed morning is this——"
Eikou's miserable cries echoed over the sea.
…