The angry Rana latched onto Seiji’s wrist with her teeth.

Seiji felt more surprise than pain, as he didn’t expect the cat girl to have such a side to her.

He tried to peel her off, but failed.

He tried using a taiyaki to distract her attention.

Rana’s eyes flashed with light.

He used a head-pat in addition to the taiyaki.

"Meow~" the cat girl purred in satisfaction.

Her jaws loosened slightly.

Seiji tried peeling her off again—and this time he succeeded!

He instantly stuffed the taiyaki into her mouth as he continued patting her on the head.

Rana still had some unvented anger remaining, but she accepted his coaxing and rubbed against Seiji’s leg.

There were teeth marks left on his wrist.

This was a precious memory!

Natsuya thought that this would develop into an incident when she saw Rana angrily biting Seiji, but now she didn’t know what to say anymore when she witnessed this result.

This game… actually seemed pretty fun?

The lady president picked up a controller and tried pressing a few b.u.t.tons.

Suddenly, she noticed two pairs of eyes upon her and turned around to see that the handsome boy and the cat-eared loli were both staring at her with bright looks of expectation.

Natsuya was rendered speechless by this.

‘Come, let’s play together!’ She felt as if she could detect them saying that with simply their eyes.

It was impossible for her to go against their expectations.

"This game… I don’t really know how to play it, so could you teach me?" Natsuya asked them, having decided to go along with the flow. 

"I’d be delighted to!"

"Meow!"

And so, the game tutorial for the scion began.

One hour later.

Seiji had collapsed listlessly on the carpet, while Rana had collapsed listlessly onto his back.

Both of them gave off such a feeling of helplessness.

Once again, Natsuya was rendered wordless as she watched them.

On the television screen, her white-haired elder sister character was making a victory pose on the post-battle screen.

That’s right—she had been the victor.

After the president learned how to play the game and figured out a few strategies, the president showed off an abnormal level of skill in reflecting attacks in a three-way free-for-all and defeated both her opponents!

Seiji and Rana found it difficult to accept this indisputable truth, which was why they had both collapsed onto the floor. From this it could be seen how ignominiously they had handled defeat.

Although this seemed rather silly to Natsuya, she couldn't help but admit that they looked a little cute.

"Milady, you’re rather talented."

The idle fish on the carpet… whoops, Seiji spoke up.

"Meow~" Rana also meowed in agreement.

"We… already have nothing else we can teach you."

"Meow meow~"

"Just use our bodies… as the stepping stones to a higher realm."

"Meow meow meow~"

"Why do I need to use your bodies as the stepping stones? Where is this higher realm even supposed to be!?" the president couldn’t help but forcefully comment.

It was just a game, after all.

"That realm is known as a utopia which people say is far removed from the world. They say that only the pure and battle-loving kings can reach it." Seiji lifted his head. "If you’re going to that place which you belong in, our sacrifices will have been worthwhile!"

"Meow!" Rana also lifted her head.

"What the h.e.l.l’s with utopia!? Stop joking around—even I know about the legend of Avalon!" Natsuya didn’t even know whether she should laugh or cry anymore. "Stop laying there on the carpet, you two! Get up!"

The boy and the cat girl obediently got up under the barrage of precise retorts.

"I had a lot of fun, but it’s time for me to go back now." Seiji patted Rana’s head yet again. "I think that you’re mostly alright now, but since you’re still injured, you should rest properly and remember not to go overboard with the playing."

Rana responded with a "Meow."

Natsuya smiled at this scene.

"Then, I’m gonna get going, President."

"Please wait a moment, Haruta-kun." Natsuya rose to her feet. "I’d still like to discuss something with you, so let’s return to my hospital room first."

What else was there to discuss?

The two of them left Rana’s room and returned to Natsuya’s room.

"What I would like to discuss is the matter of your payment," the president said after they reached her room.

"Payment?" Seiji blinked in surprise.

"That’s right—you didn’t think that you should do all this for free, did you?" Natsuya smiled. "You helped me achieve victory in the duel. No, I should say that if it wasn't for you, I wouldn’t have been able to win at all."

"President…"

"Don’t deny it, Haruta-kun. It’s the truth." Natsuya walked towards the desk in her hospital room.

"You helped me to such an extent in this duel and even took huge risks that you didn’t have to, so you deserve a generous payment. But, if I give you too much at once, that won’t be good either, and I took many things into consideration…"

She took something out of the desk’s drawer.

"Finally, I decided to give you this."

The item was… a bank card from Eastern Capital Bank.

Seiji was familiar with this bank because it was the same bank that he used.

"Five hundred thousand sakuras with no name attached to the account. The pa.s.sword is '123456.'"

"Five hundred thousand…" This wasn’t a ridiculously large amount, but it wasn’t small either. It was definitely more than enough to make many improvements to his life.

"Do you think that this amount is appropriate? If you would like more, I can have it increased." Natsuya shot him an inquiring gaze.

Seiji smiled. "It’s fine—it’s completely appropriate." 

This amount of money was perfect for him, as it was neither too much nor too little.

"This is far from the amount that you deserve. If you ever need more money, please call me and let me know at any time," Natsuya said seriously. "And if I’m unreachable for some reason, then call the number on the card."

The number on the card? Seiji took a look at the bank card and realized that there was a phone number written there. This definitely wasn’t the number for Eastern Capital Bank, which he knew already.

"What’s this phone number?"

"You can treat it as a rather special service line," the president replied lightly.

Seiji rubbed his chin in contemplation. "Could I ask, if I really needed it, the upper limit of how much money I could ask for?"

"Are you sure that you want to know?" Natsuya grinned widely.

Seiji mysteriously felt that he shouldn’t pry further upon seeing such an expression on her face.

"Er… nah, forget about it."

It was fine like this. It was just a casual question to begin with, and he didn’t intend to ask for more money.

"Apart from the cash, I’m also giving you this."

Natsuya also handed him a golden key.

"This is the key to my residence at school. You can go there anytime you like and use all the underground facilities, including the Spirit Image, the training grounds, and so on."

Seiji's eyes widened in surprise.

This was exactly what he needed!

Cultivation items for his Spiritual Power and Mana, along with training facilities... It definitely wouldn’t be easy for him to prepare all these in a short period of time by himself.

How to purchase them, the money required, how to keep them and maintain them… there were so many problems that even if they could all be taken care of, it was certain to be a huge bother.

And with this key… it was basically the president allowing him to permanently borrow all her items and facilities at her temporary school residence, which would make things much simpler. Just like when he was temporarily residing there, he could just go over there and use the facilities whenever he pleased!

Saving him all that trouble and money was definitely enormously worthwhile.

"Thank you so much, President!" Seiji paused for a moment before chuckling. "This is even more valuable to me than five hundred thousand sakuras in cash." 

"No need to be polite—it’s what you deserve," Natsuya said with a smile. "Apart from the underground facilities, if you want, you can even live in that residence whenever you like. I’ll have the room you were staying in set aside exclusively for you."