Chapter 165: The Tsundere Rias
Haruto didn't press further, instead saying, "Then let's exchange LINE contacts first. We can go out together when you have time later."
Mizuki became flustered, "I... I didn't bring my phone..."
"I see..."
"I'll go back to the classroom to get it right now!"
Hearing the regret in Haruto's tone, she even abandoned her training and quickly ran toward her classroom.
Watching the beautiful girl's swift running figure, Haruto was momentarily stunned. He just realized his own foolishness—in Mizuki's current outfit, there really was nowhere to keep a phone.
She still had track training to do—she couldn't exactly store her phone between those two perky soft mounds. If it accidentally fell out during training and broke, she'd have nowhere to complain.
As Mizuki ran too hurriedly, she bumped into several classmates along the way. Watching her repeatedly stop to apologize, Haruto suddenly laughed.
Mizuki's pure and adorable appearance made him feel that everything he'd been doing these days was indeed correct. Setting aside personal desires and thoughts of revenge against the Cuckold Protagonist Template, he truly wanted to save Shinomiya Natsuha and the others from the hands of those delinquents.
...
After adding Mizuki's LINE and phone number, Haruto visited the Occult Research Club's activity room while there was still time during lunch break.
"President, Akeno-senpai, good afternoon."
Pushing open the activity room door, he found Himejima Akeno cleaning the tableware on the tea table. The two had just finished their lunch.
Haruto didn't see Yuuto Kiba or the white-haired loli, apparently they had eaten lunch in the school cafeteria today.
Rias picked up her steaming hot tea and gently blew on it, not even glancing sideways as she said, "Haruto, what do you need my help with this time?"
From Rias's calm tone, Haruto sensed deep resentment. He instinctively glanced at Akeno, who returned a "you're on your own" look.
After a moment's thought, Haruto roughly understood what was going on.
These past few days he had been busy pursuing various girls, while somewhat neglecting Rias. Although they knew Haruto's dual cultivation abilities depended on women, they still felt somewhat jealous inside.
Especially since the girls Haruto had been targeting were all ordinary girls who couldn't help him break through his current bottleneck at all.
It seemed more like he was on the hunt for romance, otherwise why would he only choose girls famous for their figures and looks in the school?
Understanding was one thing, but Haruto knew Rias was jealous because she had feelings for him. Otherwise, with her personality, she wouldn't care how much he fooled around outside.
However, the secret of his ability to copy talents, his identity as a transmigrator, and the existence of the Cuckold Protagonist Template couldn't be revealed yet. So, he could only silently apologize to Rias in his heart.
"President, I was wrong." Haruto promptly admitted his mistake and brought up the matter himself. "I wanted to see if I could break through my current realm and reach SS-rank strength by relying on numbers."
As he spoke, he subtly observed Rias's expression. "Since many girls gave me love letters on Valentine's Day and they didn't mind, I selected a few who still had their primal yin and tried it with them."
Sure enough, hearing Haruto's explanation, Rias's expression softened considerably, though she remained silent.
Feeling more confident, Haruto relaxed and continued, "There are only two left. I've already promised them, and after this, I won't target any more girls in the school."
Rias set down her teacup and turned her head away. "I don't care how many girls you fool around with. I'm just worried you'll get too absorbed in it and forget what you promised me."
Seeing the usually mature and steady red-haired beauty acting tsundere, Haruto was momentarily stunned by this unexpectedly girlish side of Rias.
"Ahem..."
Snapping out of it, Haruto cleared his throat and smiled. "Don't worry, how could I forget my promise to you, President?"
"However, it seems now that to quickly reach the Satan level, I either need to engage in combat—especially life-and-death battles—to awaken my potential as a martial artist, or I need higher-quality women for dual cultivation."
Rias furrowed her delicate brows and asked, "Are you sure quantity won't work?"
"Yeah, basically confirmed."
Haruto wasn't entirely comforting Rias; he had considered this possibility before. He had ruled it out back when he first broke through to A-rank, and this experience only reinforced his belief.
"The primal yin from Shinomiya and the others wasn't completely useless. My strength at the S-rank limit improved slightly, but the progress was minimal, almost negligible, and definitely not enough to trigger a qualitative change."
There was another point: regarding talents, aside from Saya providing a completely new [Precision] talent, the talents from Natsuha, Hinata, and Akane were ones he had already acquired.
Hinata Sakuramiya had the [Perception] talent, which Haruto had already obtained from Yui.
Akane had [Physical Enhancement], the same talent as Yukina, but hers was completely undeveloped, which was why she hadn't been recruited into the hidden academy upon enrollment.
While the probability of female leads having talents was high, it seemed unlikely he would acquire many new ones now.
This also extinguished Haruto's interest in continuing to hunt for talents. Once he resolved the hidden dangers within Kuoh Academy, he had no intention of continuing to spite the Cuckold Protagonist Template.
Simply to annoy the Cuckold Protagonist Template, searching all of Tokyo or even the entire Japan for targets...
He wasn't that idle. With that time, he'd rather focus on pursuing women who were either powerful or possessed rare talents, bloodlines, or skills.
Haruto was well aware that his current strength meant nothing—anyone below Satan level was merely an ant, with S-class being slightly stronger ants at best.
Even reaching Satan level only granted a minimal sense of presence; true peace of mind required god-tier strength as a starting point. The more he understood this chaotic world, the more deeply Haruto recognized this truth.
"Hmm... life-and-death battles would be quite difficult. Though during the previous Three Clan War, there were plenty of opportunities," Rias remarked.
Rias didn't mind why Haruto wanted to take in two more girls—he'd already been intimate with dozens of women, so two more made no difference.
"Many combat-focused experts rose to prominence during the great war back then, but the risks were enormous. I wouldn't recommend you follow that path."
"I don't want to either, but it seems there are no women in the human world with strength exceeding S-class," Haruto shrugged helplessly. "Besides, attempting dual cultivation with women of that caliber... seems almost as dangerous as life-and-death combat."
If possible, he'd prefer achieving breakthroughs on the battlefield of the bed.
Fighting women—especially beautiful ones—whether in bed or out of it, was always preferable to battling men or monsters.
"This matter needs further discussion. You don't need to rush to break through to Maou-class. I was just joking with you."
Rias didn't want Haruto to take risks and persuaded him, "With S-class strength plus the Boosted Gear, it should be enough to deal with that guy."
Haruto nodded obediently. He thought so too - if it really was the third son of the Phenex family, he believed his current strength was completely sufficient.
If absolutely necessary, he could always overexert himself and use the Balance Breaker of his Sacred Gear.
Speaking of which, that third son of the Phenex family... seemed to be a blond too...
Haruto shook his head, dismissing the absurd thought. He was probably overthinking things.
"By the way, President, I heard the school's track and field club hired a new advisor, and it's a male teacher. Do you know about this?"
After calming Rias down, Haruto hadn't forgotten his original purpose for coming.
Rias picked up her teacup again and said indifferently, "Not really. Hiring a teacher is handled by the board of directors. I don't get involved in such minor matters."
Haruto nodded. Although Kuoh Academy was established by the Gremory family and Rias currently held the highest authority, there were too many affairs in the academy for her to manage everything.
Or rather, Rias basically didn't handle administrative matters. Academy affairs were all handled by the school board and the principal and teachers below them.
"I want the academy to not hire that teacher. If they must hire someone, they should hire a female coach instead."
Haruto didn't know if the incoming track and field club advisor had ill intentions, but in the original story, the guy who trained Suzumori Mizuki had hidden his nature well. Not only the track and field club, but girls from other clubs hadn't escaped his clutches either.
"You just wish you were the only male in the academy, don't you?" Rias rarely made such a sarcastic remark.