Kasumigaoka Utaha stared suspiciously at Kawashima Toya with her wine-red eyes, sensing that the situation wasn't as simple as he made it out to be.
The tenant next door had moved in not long ago, only about ten days or so.
Having received no straight answer, Utaha tried beating around the bush, hoping to find out why Toya was so shocked by Gabriel next door.
However, no matter what method she tried, she couldn't get anywhere.
Later that night.
As the night grew darker, Toya and Utaha sat face-to-face after dinner.
"Are you sure you really want to know?" Toya asked, his expression serious.
"Once you know, you can absolutely never return to your peaceful life."
"Can I go back now?" Utaha rolled her eyes charmingly. "After the experience of almost turning into a monster, there's no going back anyway."
Seeing that Utaha wouldn't give up, Toya sighed. "Then I will tell you the truth."
"All of this requires an explanation starting with an indescribable mythos."
----
A long time passed before Utaha snapped out of her daze, staring blankly at Toya.
Her eyes were filled with disbelief. To think such terrifying existences existed outside the world.
Just knowing their names would cause corruption.
Hearing their voices would drive one mad and turn them into monsters.
Seeing their forms meant instant death, with no chance of resistance.
Even when Toya spoke of these matters, he didn't use any closely related terms to describe them, merely recounting the characteristics of that unknown, dangerous mythos.
"If I hadn't experienced such impossible things earlier, I would definitely think you were a lunatic," Utaha said with a bitter smile on her exquisite face. "I'm just an ordinary girl. How could I qualify to be targeted by such an existence?"
Toya rubbed his chin and nodded in agreement. "Indeed, you don't qualify to be noticed by such high-level entities."
"If They had targeted you, there would be no possibility of saving you."
"So, you should think carefully. Did you come into contact with anyone strange before the nightmares started?"
Although Kasumigaoka Utaha had reverted to human form, the danger hadn't been completely eliminated.
The minion of the Evil God, wherever they were, had a metaphysical connection with Utaha.
Now that this connection had been severed, the minion would inevitably check to see what had gone wrong.
Rather than being passive, it was better to find the point of anomaly and root it out completely.
Utaha rested her chin on one hand, half-lying on the table in thought.
The beautiful girl perfectly displayed a sensual figure that far surpassed her peers.
Toya remained expressionless, waiting quietly for Utaha's answer.
This slight level of temptation wasn't enough to sway a seasoned otaku like him.
"Does a new book signing event count?"
Deep in thought, Utaha didn't notice Toya's appreciative gaze and spoke lazily. "Before the nightmares, I held a signing event for my new book."
"A bespectacled otaku brought a notebook with a very strange texture for me to sign."
"At the time, I thought it was just a notebook made of special material. Plus, that otaku is a fairly famous blogger."
"His promotion helped my new book quite a bit."
"So I signed my name in that notebook."
As her memory cleared, Utaha's expression turned grim. "Thinking back now, the texture of that book was very similar to human skin."
"The skin of an adult..."
"After signing my name, I felt my body suddenly become slightly heavier."
"Heavier?" Toya looked at Utaha with a strange expression. "You could feel that?"
Utaha rolled her eyes at him in disgust. "Kawashima-kun, if you want to verify whether I've gained weight..."
"Please let us finish our serious business first."
"Besides, the heaviness back then wasn't physical weight gain. It felt as if my ethereal soul had become heavier."
"Don't worry, I just momentarily lost my composure."
Toya coughed lightly and said seriously, "We can be certain that the culprit behind all this is that otaku."
"In that mythos, the existence of Human Skin Books is quite common."
"They are incredibly evil items that only minions of Evil Gods can create."
"The specific effects are currently unknown, but it is undoubtedly a truly evil tool."
Toya asked with a strange look in his eyes, "Do you have that otaku's contact information?"
When a blogger otaku was mentioned, the first person he thought of was the original work's protagonist, Aki Tomoya.
Aki Tomoya was a hardcore otaku who loved recommending various light novels.
He fit the characteristics described by Utaha perfectly.
"Let me look for it."
"I should have it."
"Although I don't use LINE much, I likely accepted the friend request from that blogger." Utaha thought for a moment, unable to recall the answer, so she took out her phone and began searching rapidly.