Chapter 258: The 'Corrupted' Piece
The second requirement is that the individual possesses sufficient potential.
If a person's potential limit is only A-rank, no amount of dual cultivation can help them break through to S-rank.
Just like the mother and two daughters of the Takamine family, the quartet including Reina, Sakura, and other heroines from the inner world, it's not that Haruto is unwilling to help, but rather their potential is limited and they cannot keep up with Haruto's pace.
No one can say for certain whether their potential has truly reached its limit, as they are currently stuck at the threshold of A-rank life metamorphosis.
However, there are a few individuals whose situations are clear, such as Kurashiki Reina.
Her strength has remained stagnant at C+ without any progress, unable to even break through to B-rank—a classic case of exhausted potential.
Without a tremendous opportunity, it's basically impossible for her to improve any further.
That being said, if it weren't for Haruto, Kurashiki Reina and others would never have had the chance to come into contact with the inner world, and even if they had, they wouldn't have been able to embark on the path of cultivation.
Haruto had once worried that his own potential might be insufficient to advance further, but it seems now that he need not worry until reaching the Satan-Class.
Even after becoming an SSS-rank powerhouse, he still hasn't felt the slightest hint of a bottleneck.
As long as he engages in dual cultivation diligently enough, he can quickly accumulate the necessary foundation and then attempt to break through to the Satan-Class.
However, after reaching SSS-rank, without cultivating with women of this level or stronger, the speed of dual cultivation cannot be increased, and he can only accumulate power bit by bit through persistent effort.
Rias suppressed the distracting thoughts in her heart and forcibly dragged Gasper out of the box.
The slender-bodied, cross-dressing boy with golden hair trembled incessantly, muttering repeatedly, "It's so scary outside..."
It seemed he had been frightened by the powerful aura Haruto emitted during his breakthrough, but under Rias's soothing words, he quickly calmed down.
Haruto watched from the side and didn't find anything particularly special about Rias's behavior, but she did indeed possess an innate ability to inspire trust and a sense of security.
It could only be described as a unique kind of charisma.
"Little Gasper, would you like to become my servant?" Rias asked once the golden-haired cross-dresser had calmed down a bit.
"S-servant?"
"Yes, through the Evil Pieces..."
A Western chess piece shimmering with a strange light appeared in Rias's hand as she briefly explained the concepts of reincarnation and the Evil Pieces.
The golden-haired cross-dresser listened with partial understanding, his gaze unconsciously fixed on the chess piece in Rias's hand, and he nodded instinctively. "O-okay, I-I'm willing."
Though his voice trembled, his tone was surprisingly firm.
Rias smiled slightly. Through her perception, she knew that among the remaining pieces in her hand, only the mutated Bishop Piece could possibly complete Gasper's reincarnation.
After receiving the golden-haired cross-dresser's reply, she didn't hesitate and directly took out the mutated piece to perform the reincarnation ritual.
A crimson magical circle bearing the Gremory family crest appeared beneath Gasper's feet.
Using the Evil Pieces for reincarnation is actually quite simple—it's essentially a process of merging the tool with a contract.
However, just as the mutated piece was about to enter the golden-haired cross-dresser's chest, the blood-red glowing magical circle suddenly collapsed, and the reincarnation was declared a failure.
Rias stared at the mutated piece that had returned to her hand, her brow furrowed tightly.
Her intuition told her that the contract failure was definitely related to Haruto.
But why was it that when she contracted Yuuma and the other two previously, it went smoothly, and the aura and energy of Haruto within the pieces had no effect at all...?
If Rias was puzzled, then Gasper was feeling dejected.
He wouldn't say it out loud, but deep down he truly longed for companionship.
Whether it was Rias, who inexplicably made him feel close, or Haruto, who had forcibly disrupted his life, he wanted to build good relationships with both of them.
Especially with Haruto—the blonde crossdressing boy felt both fear and awe toward him, yet his heart was also filled with admiration.
He hoped that one day he could become someone like Haruto: decisive, strong-willed, and unafraid of social situations or strangers.
"Senior Rias..."
The blonde crossdressing boy whispered a suggestion, "Should we try one more time?"
"Mm."
Rias nodded. Although it had failed, there didn't seem to be any side effects, so they might as well try again.
But the result was the same—the reincarnation process stalled at the stage of fusing with the Evil Piece.
After retrieving the Evil Piece, Rias's sky-blue eyes kept shifting between Haruto and Gasper.
Suddenly, she seemed to have thought of something.
"Haruto, Gasper, both of you wait here for a moment. I'm going to find Sona."
Rias pushed open the clubroom door and hurried toward the student council office.
About ten minutes later, Rias returned to the Occult Research Club with Sona. They were accompanied by Tsubaki, Akeno, and the other members of the Occult Research Club.
Since their club president was attempting to recruit a new servant, and for some reason had failed, they felt they should come and see what was happening, being servants themselves.
"Gasper, Sona is going to use an Evil Piece on you in a moment. Cooperate with her."
"Okay, Senior Rias."
The blonde crossdressing boy was utterly obedient to Rias's words.
Moreover, he was timid and shy, not stupid—he had probably guessed Rias's idea.
Unlike the bright red magical energy of the Gremory family, a blue magic circle appeared beneath Gasper's feet, with the distinctive Sitri family crest positioned at its center.
Sona had more servants than Rias, but her roster wasn't full either. To ensure the accuracy of the test, she also used a Mutation Piece.
Watching the shimmering blue magical energy, Haruto suddenly thought of himself.
His magical energy also manifested as blue, but compared to Sona's cool blue, his carried an additional sense of gravity and destruction.
Originally, his magical energy had also been a light blue, but after acquiring Rias's talent for destruction and Akeno's talent for lightning, it had changed.
The external manifestation shifted from light blue to deep blue.
While Haruto was lost in thought, Sona concluded the reincarnation ritual.
"It's no use. I encountered the same situation as you, Rias."
She shook her head and looked strangely at Haruto. "I think your guess is most likely correct."
Haruto began to understand at this point.
"President, Chairwoman," he said awkwardly, "do you think the failed reincarnation has something to do with me?"
"Though we can't be one hundred percent certain, it's almost certainly the case."
Rias crossed her arms and voiced her speculation.
"Most of your abilities are related to dual cultivation—in other words, they're connected to women."
"Both Sona and I have tried to reincarnate you using Evil Pieces. Setting aside the failure for now, the process itself was unprecedented, causing our Evil Pieces to become tainted with your aura—or rather, your unique traits."
Haruto was momentarily stunned, his gaze shifting to Yuuma and the other two. He seemed to have grasped Rias's line of thought.
"President... are you saying that because they've been tainted by my traits, the remaining Evil Pieces can only reincarnate female devils?"
"Correct. Perhaps with an additional condition—they must carry your aura."
Rias looked toward Ravel. "And verifying whether this is true is what I intend to test next."
Ravel was only nominally Rias's servant, and being a pure-blooded devil to begin with, Rias had temporarily refrained from using Evil Pieces on her. The golden-haired twintailed young lady also hadn't undergone dual cultivation with Haruto, making this the perfect opportunity to test the theory.
If the second restriction didn't apply, then it wouldn't be a waste of a piece anyway.
Since Haruto had no immediate plans to take Ravel under his wing.
In fact, even after the Evil Pieces meant for him were ready, he had no intention of forming his own team to participate in Rating Games with other devils.
Just like handling commissions—he hadn't done those in a long time.
He didn't care about the meager power boost from forming contracts with humans.
The same logic applied to Rating Games.
Not to mention he was already an Earl, which was sufficient. Once he reached Satan-Class, the noble devils would likely be more than happy to bestow upon him some grand duke title or another.
There was no need to laboriously climb the ranks through Rating Games.
More importantly, having servants would require investing significant effort into their training—in every sense of the word.
It would also take time to slowly seek out suitable candidates. As for recruiting readymade ones...
Aside from Ravel, there were only the Naruse sisters.
Other young women with decent potential, like Akeno and Tsubaki, were already 'spoken for.'
He certainly couldn't poach from Rias and Sona's circles—that would be like taking off pants to fart: completely unnecessary.