Still, it was worth a try.

Before trying to locate Chiaki's mother in the Realm of Cherry Blossoms, Seiji decided to try locating her in the real world.

Natsuya took a sample of Chiaki's blood and some of her hairs to cast a locating spell. But, as expected, the spell failed.

When all the knight order members arrived, everyone trained in the Domain as usual. After Seiji collected all the Inner World Crystals from everyone, he went into the Domain again with only Natsuya, s.h.i.+ka, and Hitaka.

Seiji and s.h.i.+ka dealt with the monsters within the Domain. Natsuya began to draw a spell formation for spellcasting, while Hitaka stayed by Natsuya's side to guard her. Kazuko watched everything from the air.

As Natsuya incanted, Kazuko suddenly sensed something that caused her to furrow her eyebrows.

Natsuya's spell formation immediately started to glow red. Chiaki's hair and blood, which had been placed in the center of the spell formation, suddenly started glowing with a blinding light before vanis.h.i.+ng right in front of everyone's eyes!

Natsuya: "!?"

She widened her eyes on seeing this unexpected outcome.

"Some existence came here just now," Kazuko spoke up.

"What was it?" Natsuya looked at Kazuko.

"I could feel something… some type of existence, or some type of power, that suddenly came here." Kazuko adjusted her eyegla.s.ses. "That something likely interfered with your spellcasting and then left."

Some existence had come… Natsuya's expression became serious as she immediately called Seiji over.

"This proves that Chiaki and her mother are indeed somehow connected to the Realm of Cherry Blossoms. My conjecture has been partially proven," Seiji concluded after hearing this. "What Kazuko sensed was likely a G.o.d or a G.o.d's power, or something similar. That existence came here and interfered with the locator spell on Chiaki's mother, destroying Chiaki's hair and blood, most likely to prevent us from finding her, or to give us a warning…"

Seiji felt that a situation might arise, so he had Natsuya and Hitaka leave the Domain while he stayed behind with s.h.i.+ka.

Actually, he also wanted s.h.i.+ka to leave for her own safety so that only he would be at risk, but s.h.i.+ka adamantly refused to leave his side.

Natsuya also wanted to stay behind with her boyfriend, but she knew that following Seiji's arrangement was the logical thing to do.

She believed that even if Seiji met with the worst possible situation, meeting a G.o.d or "demon king" level existence, he would still be able to escape. If she and Hitaka stayed behind, they might actually even become a burden to Seiji.

After Natsuya and Hitaka left the Domain, Seiji and s.h.i.+ka continued fighting the monsters in the Domain.

But, unexpectedly, nothing abnormal happened at all even after clearing out the final boss wave.

That mysterious existence had only prevented them from locating Chiaki's mother… it seemed that was all for now.

However, Seiji had now learned that there was a definite connection between Chiaki's mother and the Realm of Cherry Blossoms.

If using a minor amount of Chiaki's hair and blood for a locator spell attracted a G.o.d's attention to the point where it interfered with the spell, what would happen if they used even more hair and blood? Or even "used" Chiaki herself…

Just thinking about it seemed quite dangerous. Seiji would never do such a thing.

However, Chiaki came up with the idea herself, offering to use herself as bait!

"I want to lure out this G.o.d and ask it about my mother."

"That's too dangerous. Denied."

"We can try it after we're fully prepared… Won't it be fine as long as we're ready for it?"

"There's a huge problem with that! Even with the best preparations, and even if we can deal with a G.o.d, there's no guarantee of your safety," Seiji told her seriously.

Chiaki fell silent.

"What other method is there, then?" she finally asked in a soft voice after a long silence.

It was now Seiji's turn to fall silent.

"Since there's no other method, then this is the only thing we can do." Chiaki looked directly at him. "I'm already being targeted. At this rate, I might vanish just like my mother… rather than waiting for the enemy to make the first move, isn't it better to attack first? Don't you agree?"

What Chiaki said made sense.

Rather than pa.s.sively waiting for something bad to happen and responding only after danger had already arrived, it would be much better to prepare as much as possible first and then send out a lure.

Seiji looked directly at Chiaki. He knew that she had to be afraid to offer herself as bait, yet she still worked up the courage to face such danger.

Apart from her own courage, this was also because she trusted him completely.

Seiji understood and felt all of this as he took a deep breath, and spoke up in a heavy tone. "You're absolutely correct. Choosing our own plan of attack is the best choice. Let's make our preparations to fight against the G.o.ds… I shall do my very best to protect you!"

Chiaki smiled as she looked at her reliable boyfriend's resolute expression. Her smile was incredibly vivid and mesmerizing.

Seiji told the plan to all his knight order members, telling them all to choose for themselves whether to partic.i.p.ate or not.

It was highly likely that the enemy existence would be a powerful and dangerous G.o.d. It was likely that this would be far more dangerous than the previous difficult training in the Domain since no such powerful existences had appeared in the Domain as of yet.

Seiji needed more power on his side. However, he would never force his companions to join him, since this would be so risky.

But, when his knight order members had learned that he needed their strength, they all made the same decision as when Seiji asked them if they would stay or leave.

"What our King commands, we knights shall follow. This holds true even if our King points his sword at the G.o.ds!" Hisas.h.i.+.

"It makes me feel hot-blooded just imagining that we'll be fighting against the G.o.ds. I absolutely won't miss such an event." Yukari.

"I want to help you and Wakabsenpai." Hos.h.i.+.

"Fighting for the contractor is the meaning of being a Spirit-branded Retainer." Kaho.

"I'm really curious what an actual G.o.d will be like. This will be an excellent reference for my manga." Mayuzumi.

"You don't even need to ask." s.h.i.+ka, Mika, and Kaede.

Seiji was of course delighted to receive his companions' support, although he also felt some pressure from everyone's expectations.

Apart from discussing the preparations with Natsuya, Seiji also contacted a certain game-addicted younger sister of his.

"What the h.e.l.l do you mean by saying you're going to fight against the G.o.ds!?" The cat-eared hat girl Hana appeared on Seiji's computer screen after accepting a video chat.

"Exactly what you think it means."

"Please explain to me clearly in 20 words!"

Seiji thought things over for a moment, and then typed "In order to protect my friends, I've decided to lure out a vicious G.o.d to talk or fight it".

He had used exactly twenty words, without a single word extra or less.

Hana was rendered speechless.

In the end, she still required a clearer explanation.

"You're courting death!" After she heard the entire situation, the cat-eared hat girl told Seiji this directly.

"Don't make it sound so absolute."

"What else am I supposed to say, then? You're trying to lure out an existence on the level of a 'demon king'. What else can I say besides that you're courting death!?"

"Indeed, I might be courting death, which is why I want to be as well prepared as possible."

"All you need to prepare are coffins!"

"I won't allow anyone to die. I swear on my honor and glory as a hero from another world!" Although Seiji was making a chuunibyou statement, he had a serious expression that wasn't joking in the slightest.

Hana was slightly impressed by the powerful aura Seiji was giving off.

"…Not a bad aura, but you can't do this with only a nice aura."

"I know. That's why I'm asking for help from you."

"Hmph…" The cat-eared hat girl paused for a moment. "I'll search for relevant information and provide you with equipment that may be useful."

"Thank you, Hana."

"Don't say something that sounds so corny… and don't count on me too much. Luring out a demon king level existence is something incredibly dangerous. It's highly likely for the person acting as bait to die. Or, they might turn into a monster. You need to realize this!"

"Of course I realize this," Seiji stated seriously.

Turning into a monster… The Kaho incident had just happened not long ago, and Yukari and the other Awakened also had that danger looming over them. Seiji was naturally quite aware of this risk.

Yui said that "maybe things will be highly dangerous", and that if the "limits werea stretched, Chiaki would be dealt with". Seiji figured that Yui had been referring to such a situation.

Luring out a G.o.d… more accurately, an unknown powerful existence, for it wasn't confirmed to be a G.o.d yet. This existence might possess Chiaki or cause her to mutate, transforming Chiaki into a demon king level monster!