After that night, Arius Squad's treatment of Kasuka... had gone through quite a massive change.
The most prevalent and noticeable one would be their treatment of her.
They learnt from Madam that Kasuka would take the punishment for anything they do.
In that case, here's an example: If 'Family' stole some equipment from the base, then 'Family' shall not be punished. Instead, Kasuka shall receive the punishment in their place.
Now, whether they realize it or not, they are all trying their best to be on best behavior.
And possibly, the person who was affected by this the most was no doubt, Azusa.
She's a willful child, one that was longing for freedom. Due to that, she often went against the instructors during lessons.
Although, more often than not, she's usually punished most of the time. That's the reason she had so many patches of bandages on her skin.
But as of recently... Well, there's not much to be said.
She had been on real good behavior, so much so that Kasuka had to wonder if she's the same child that was being beaten down when she first got into this persona.
'She's all grown up...! Is this what a mother feels like when their child starts walking on their own?'
She followed all orders flawlessly, she's practically a text-book example at this point.
Meanwhile, the others also had the same thing happening.
They all suddenly got on good behavior, not that they weren't on good behavior before, but this time it was more obvious.
It had gotten to a point where the instructors would use them as an example of a good squad.
They completed missions on time with perfect execution, barely missing the curfew. All in all, they've gotten more efficient in their craft.
Well, that's a brief explanation of what had happened this past month.
To be exact, 35 days had passed by since that night.
And what has Kasuka been doing at that time?
"I'm bored."
"Really? What do you want to play today? Hiyori found a deck of UNO the other day... I don't know how to play it but there's instructions written on the back." Atsuko replied as she searched through the shelf. "Also found a dart board..."
"I want to go out."
"Ah... Um. Well, we could do that later. For now, how about we play some old maid together?"
As you can see, she was silently placed under house arrest by her 'Family'.
...That took a turn, didn't it?
Although, it really wasn't as bad as she would have expected. While she was stuck in the house, everything came to her.
Friends? Hime was practically home 24/7 with her.
Food? Somehow, there's always something on the table.
There are some other things to take note of, but it's not really that important. It's just that... she can't really go outside, for one reason or another.
Well, firstly, they're probably afraid of her suddenly meeting up with Beatrice again.
But don't they know that she'd get punished for that?
Since she had already agreed to take the full brunt of the punishments, the Arius Squad wouldn't even feel a thing!
She'll go through their punishment individually!
Not that it's a bad thing... Although they tried to be on good behavior, this simple act of hiding her away alone was enough to neutralize all their efforts.
Technically speaking, this is equal to the wrongdoing of 5 different people!
There are 5 accomplices in this!
And they're all her family!
Maybe it was because they're all kids, they don't really know how to handle these kinds of problems with great detail... Due to that, some mistakes are bound to happen.
But isn't this a bit too big for the first mistake?
Not that Kasuka's complaining, in fact, this is the most beneficial setup for her.
One day, they would realize that this action of preventing Kasuka from leaving the house would... of course, have consequences.
Not that they'd be the one to experience it, it would all be Kasuka.
Just the way she likes it!
This past month, she had been farming them so dry to the point that a mere 10,000 Points weren't enough to phase her no more.
What does her stats look like now?
Heh.
Here, have a look at this golden chest!
Remaining Points: 540,200
[Halo Upgrades:
Pain Control (3/5) (Active at Level 3)
Self-Healing Constitution (3/5) (Inactive)
Halo Switch. (On)
Bond Meter. (Passive)
Increased Reaction Time (1/20) (Passive)
Increased Dexterity (2/20)
Death Contract (One Time Use (In Progress))]
Indeed! She had bought and upgraded many things!
Although there's a lot to be said about what she had gotten, Kasuka had thought that her greatest purchase had been 'Bond Meter'.
Not for any grand reason or anything. Simply put, it does what the name implies.
[Bond: Karumi Kasuka
Joumae Saori: 58
Imashino Misaki: 52
Shirasu Azusa: 72
Hakari Atsuko: 68
Tsuchinaga Hiyori: 60]
She could finally track how close their relationships are!
This is an absolute game-changer, Kasuka even had to ask the system why it wasn't implemented in the base version of the system!
She couldn't believe the fact that such an important feature was locked behind a paywall.
If there happens to be a time in the future where she could meet the creator of such a bad system, she would've wanted to choke the life out of him just for this one decision.
It was fortunate that the system doesn't have a tangible body, otherwise it would've probably needed to go to ER just to get some extra oxygen pumped in its body...
The reason she's been feeling bored recently was because she had ran out of method to milk the Arius Squad dry. But since she couldn't voice that thought out loud, she simply said that she's got nothing to do.
Besides, there are many things she could be doing instead of milking her friends.
Either through playing card games, or other stuff.
Hm? Why are we not using our phones?
Well, we don't have it yet!
Speaking of which, when did the Arius squad get their phone?
Maybe it was after the actual creation of Arius Squad?
After all, Kasuka had been calling them Arius Squad this whole time because there's nothing else she could call them without feeling her mouth full.
But as of today, Arius Squad hasn't been 'officially' formed.
Was it because Beatrice hasn't seen their potential?
Kasuka doesn't know anything about that. But she hasn't been idle in farming the Arius Squad this whole time.
She had also been orchestrating a massive event for them!
And for it to work, she'd need to... sneak out!
That's right!
She's running away from home!