Seiji did his best to withstand the a.s.sa.s.sin maid… er, his senpai's pressure as he explained the situation.

Thanks to Reo's testimony backing him up, he managed to escape suspicion of being a pervert yet again.

Although Mai accepted his explanation, she still didn't seem to accept what was going on.

"Junior, I'd really like to give you a good sermon right now, but I'm short on time… At any rate, please take good care of yourself." The maid put extra emphasis on her last line.

'Don't do anything stupid.' Seiji felt as if he could imagine her saying that in between the lines.

"I shall remember it in my heart and will never overstep my boundaries." He could only answer in such a cla.s.sical fas.h.i.+on.

"Very good, then."

Everyone left together after finis.h.i.+ng breakfast.

Mika and Chiaki who was dragged over by Mika were astonished to see Mai at the Uehara apartments.

They had met this legendary former student council president during the school festival but had never talked to her before.

They all greeted and got to know each other.

At this moment, Kaede arrived as well. Mai greeted the blonde infirmary nurse, while Kaede smiled and greeted Mai by name.

"Juumonji-sensei, you're acquainted with Houjou-senpai?"

"Yes, she once brought a sick girl over to the infirmary, and we chatted a little. She left quite an impression on me at the time." Kaede smiled faintly. "I was thinking how she seemed like someone who might be Harano-kun's acquaintance or friend. It seems that I had been correct."

"Why did Sensei think so?" Chiaki was rather curious.

"Because I felt like she was somewhat similar to Harano-kun… she didn't seem like an ordinary student."

That was still a rather vague answer. However, Chiaki and Mika both now had looks of understanding.

"Heehee, Juumonji-sensei doesn't seem like an ordinary teacher, either. I could say the same for you." Mai smiled faintly as well.

The beautiful female student (maid a.s.sa.s.sin) and beautiful female teacher (mafia family daughter) exchanged smiles in a beautiful scene.

Seiji was rendered speechless.

There was a dark secret hidden behind the maidens' beautiful smiles… was that how he was supposed to describe this scene?

Afterwards, Mai took Reo to her elementary school.

Seiji, Mika, Chiaki, and Kaede went together to Genhana High School. On the way, Seiji explained what he was going to do soon.

"A duel between Spiritual Ability users… I'd really like to see that." Chiaki was as casual and relaxed as always.

"Shouldn't you be concerned about Seigo first?" Mika gave her friend a sidelong glance.

"It's fine, if he's partic.i.p.ating in a duel, he'll definitely win! Isn't that right?"

"I'm quite happy that you believe in me so much. Still, I would like it if you would worry about me a little," Seiji told her.

"Seigo, don't die on me! You said that you would marry me and accompany me for the rest of my life!" Chiaki pretended to be deeply emotional.

"I never said such a thing!"

"Seigo, make sure to return alive! Mika's waiting for you to marry her and accompany her for the rest of her life!" Chiaki pretended to be serious.

"There was no such promise, either!"

"Seigo, you can't die! You still need to realize your dream of creating an extravagant harem!" Chiaki pretended to be hot-blooded.

"Realize, the h.e.l.l! You're making it sound worse and worse! Stop trying to give me death flags like that!!" Seiji retorted energetically.

Mika and Kaede were rendered speechless.

The double-pigtailed girl could only sigh as she watched Seiji and Chiaki's vigorous debate, while the blonde teacher smiled.

"Ueharsan, you don't need to worry so much. If things were so serious, Harano-kun wouldn't be joking around like this." Kaede noticed Mika's emotions and tried to coax her.

"I know… but it's still a duel… even if Seigo makes it sound so simple…"

"If you're so worried, try talking to him one on one then. Don't take Wakabsan with you, heehee…"

"Yeah…" Mika felt that this was excellent advice as she observed the rowdy scene before her.

When they reached school, Seiji separated from the others and headed for the student council president's residence instead. He went to the underground practice field.

Now that he was a Yin-Yang Master, the first major spell that he wanted to learn was [Dragon Counterattack]!

This was the ultimate spell that his system rewarded him with after winning the duel against Okubo Yos.h.i.+aki. It had caused him to recall Genji from Overwatch's ultimate ability.

The first two prerequisites for learning this spell was to learn three attack type and then three defense type spells and martial arts techniques. That was why at the time, he could only set it aside despite how cool it looked.

By now, he only needed one more defensive technique in order to fulfill the first two prerequisites. He wanted to do his best to learn this spell now as soon as possible.

After some consideration, Seiji decided to learn [Martial arts technique - Ksitigarbha technique].

This was an earth-based defensive technique that required him to be standing on the ground. He could transfer a Manbased or physical attack against him into the ground in order to absorb most of the attack's force. It would be even more effective when combined with [Mana Barrier]… that was the basic explanation from the system.

He immediately started the process of learning [Ksitigarbha technique].

While he was busy cultivating, Hitaka and Rana arrived as well. They greeted him and began working on their own cultivation.

Time pa.s.sed just like that.

Around lunch time, Seiji received a phone call.

The call was from Editor Yos.h.i.+zawa whom he had intended on contacting anyways.

"'Brother Monogatari' is scheduled to be published on next Wednesday," the editor told him right after she greeted him.

"Next Wednesday… wonderful!" Seiji was quite happy to hear this.

"And, tomorrow night, I need you to attend an award ceremony where you'll receive a Judges' Choice special prize!"

"Eh? Award ceremony? Special prize?"

"Yes, it's a newcomer's award for Thunderbolt Literature's new and outstanding authors. 'Brother Monogatari' received a Judges' Choice special prize!"

"Oh… thank you." Seiji was still a bit too stunned to know what to say.

Having suddenly received a newcomers' award prize like this seemed rather amazing to him…

He suddenly recalled that several of the light novels he had read in this world had been awarded this same newcomers' award, such as "Record of the Demon Sword" and "I Can't Sleep When I'm Sleeping Together With My Younger Sister!"

He had a more solid understanding of this award now that he had recalled some stories that had won it.

"Do you have time tomorrow night to attend the award ceremony?"

"I sure do!" Seiji replied. He definitely wanted to go get his award since he was lucky enough to win one.

Saki told him the time and place of the award ceremony.

Seiji wrote them down and promised to be there on time.

They ended their conversation there.

Not only did he learn the publication date of "Brother Monogatari", he even received an award. That came as quite a surprise to him.

Seiji left the practice field and went to rest for a while in the living room, taking a break from cultivation. He surfed the internet on his cell phone and checked out the information about "Thunderbolt Literature's Newcomer Awards".

That was when he discovered that these awards were actually considered a pretty big deal. The first place prize awards were basically always given to light novels that became bestsellers, and as for the special prize category… well, it wasn't so special after all. It was just an extra prize category, or perhaps it should be called a consolation prize.

Although he was somewhat disappointed to learn this, he felt that it was only natural. After all, he never even submitted his own work to be considered for the award in the first place. It would have been unusual if he'd received first place.

When he did more research about this award, he discovered that the submission deadline for the newcomers' award had ended at the beginning of November of last year! At that time, he had just entered Genhana High School and met s.h.i.+ka at the drama club for the first time… "Brother Monogatari"'s first words hadn't even been written yet.

After the submission deadline was over, the editing department would determine the chosen candidates. Neither the first publicized list of candidates, nor the second, much shorter list of culled candidates included "Brother Monogatari" among them. Only the third and final publicized finalists list included "Brother Monogatari", and it was explained that it was chosen as a "special exception"!

Wait a moment, if that was what happened…

Seiji's eyes twitched as he continued searching for information on the internet. Then, as he expected, he discovered that there were incredibly "heated" discussions on relevant message forums about how "Brother Monogatari" had won an award without even having gone through the first and second rounds of selection, instead directly appearing on the list of finalists to receive a "special" award.

The keywords that people were discussing were "bribery," "deceitful organizers," "shame of the Newcomers' Awards," "rigged by the industry", and so on.

The h.e.l.l!