Unlimited Ambition

"What is this?" Haruna asked, looking at the crystal that refracted seven colors under the light.

"It's just a small prop; it might save your life in a critical moment," Da Laoshi said casually.

Actually, the only function of this crystal is that when it gets close to a certain special intelligence (like a certain demon prince), it will send a special message to the Great Teacher in Biliye. After that... hehehehe.

"Teacher, your smile is so strange," Haruna asked curiously.

"Cough, it's nothing. If there are no problems, let's go now."

"Oh!"

"Remember to be careful."

"Oh!"

"Contact me regularly."

"Oh!"

"Once you see Wright Baldwin, tell him to come to me right now."

"Oh!—Ah?!"

"Sorry, please forget about this part."

"Oh!"

And so, Haruna, the magical girl still unaware that she was being used by her teacher, stepped into the real world...

Chapter Thirteen: Starve You to Death

Sera wanted to leave, but I naturally wouldn't let her. So we discussed it, and I decided that Sera would stay here temporarily for a while. Once my strength had recovered sufficiently, I would let her go—of course, this might take a long time.

So, the two of us went back and, with Sera's help, finished setting up the tent. It was almost noon, and those mischievous kids still hadn't called me for lunch. I was actually starting to get hungry.

So, I muttered to myself as I held Sera's hand (afraid she'd run away) and headed towards the riverbank—oh, right, right, now that my powers have returned a bit, I can eat normally again. It's just that, as a remnant of the vampire era, strawberry milk has become my favorite drink, nothing more.

Although I know that for a big shot like myself, swirling a crystal glass with a mysterious smile—when the glass actually contains strawberry milk—it feels a little out of place. But who cares? As long as I'm happy, that's all that matters. Anyone who dares to say anything out of line, I'll kill them.

That's about it. I yawned, pinched Sera's little hand, and then walked to the riverbank.

"It's almost afternoon. Isn't lunch ready yet?" I said. "Let me introduce you to a new friend—"

Immediately afterwards, I witnessed an extremely horrific scene.

The tempting aroma of curry was spilled all over the floor, and Yuko, standing nearby, looked utterly panicked. She was probably the one who did it.

"Huh?! Ah!! That!!" Yuko looked at me, sweating profusely, then looked at Naganohara Mio who was cooking over a fire—and then knelt down on the ground, pretending to be in great pain and dry heaving.

...Are you trying to say that you vomited all of this? How could that be?! Do you only have one rectum?

At that moment, Mio, who was in charge of cooking, also looked up and saw what was happening.

Hunger can drive a person to do anything.

The two girls were stunned at the same time.

"Um, my stomach isn't feeling well today..." Yuko, do you know how unconvincing you sound?

"..." At that moment, Naganohara Mio burst out in a fit of rage.

"Let me see... what color is your blood!!!"

—Then I stood up and took a step—and tripped over the cooking rack in front of me—and ended up covered in curry.

"Aaaaaaahh ...

When Mio turned around, she also screamed, "Aaaaaaahh ...

The lunchbox was spilled.

Well, speaking of which, there was a lovingly prepared bento box for me. I can just share it with them. They're teenage girls, after all. Missing a meal isn't a big deal.

Half an hour later, Mio changed out of her curry-stained clothes, washed them, and hung them up to dry. Then, she and Yuko knelt prostrate before me and the girl with the long black hair, and recounted what had happened.

"That's pretty much it. Do with me as you please," Mio said.

“Actually, there’s another box of jelly…” Yuko said, then held up the box of jelly, which even a cat couldn’t feed, above her head as if it were a treasure.

The woman with long, straight black hair remained unmoved. Sera had just witnessed the whole thing and was barely suppressing her laughter when I slapped her on the head.

"—It's on the hook!" At that moment, the man with long, straight black hair pulled on the fishing rod, and a carp that looked to weigh at least six pounds was pulled up in one go.

"Mai-chan!" Yuko and Mio exclaimed involuntarily, tears welling in their eyes. They were already fantasizing about devouring the fish dishes.

"...Release it." The next moment, the woman with long, straight black hair released the carp, which was enough to feed five people for one meal, back into the water.

After that, Yuko and Mio exploded.

“That’s very suspicious,” I said, frowning.

“What’s suspicious?” Sera replied in a low voice as well.

“It’s that guy with long, straight black hair.” I continued, “It’s already very unusual for such a big fish to appear in such a shallow stream. And it just so happens that she caught it. What’s even more coincidental is that she caught it at this time. And the most coincidental thing is that she actually let such a good fish go.”

"The last one is the important one, hey."

I ignored Sera's comment and continued, "So, based on my years of experience solving cases, this girl—is definitely suspicious. That fish was definitely something she prepared beforehand, just to deal with this kind of situation and to skillfully toy with us."

“How could she have known this would happen? She’s not a god,” Sera said nonchalantly.

“What if she had planned all of this beforehand?” I continued.

"It was planned in advance? How is that possible?!" Sera exclaimed.

"Keep your voice down! Don't let anyone hear you." I said, "Actually, it's quite easy to outmaneuver her because Yuko is an idiot. So, if she's holding a hot pot, she'll drop it eight out of ten times. And Mio has a bad temper. When she sees Yuko's mistakes causing her to go hungry, she'll definitely go berserk, and at that point, her IQ will be about the same as Yuko's."

“…I still don’t believe it,” Sera said.

"Okay, there's one more small loophole—you can check it out in a bit. I bet the long-haired girl with black hair definitely brought a spare lunch."

Ten minutes later, five people were facing a box of cold noodles that even a cat couldn't get enough to eat.

"Let me introduce you first. This is Serafim, a distant relative of mine. She'll be transferring to our school next week," I said to the other three girls.

“…Never mind that, let’s solve the food problem first.” Yuko said, “There’s only one box of jelly left. We can share it. Each of us can take a bite and then pass it on to the others. But since this is entirely Mio’s and my responsibility, and the teacher is a man, we only have Mai-chan and Seras-chan left to choose from.”

“Actually, I had already eaten lunch before I came here,” Sera said.

"That's Mai-chan, Mai-chan—"

She calmly took out a McDonald's from her backpack.

"..."

“It really is just as you said,” Sera whispered. “You wouldn’t have guessed, that child seems quite well-behaved…”

"Hmph... How naive..." I rolled my eyes and said that.

"Then teacher..." Seeing the two girls with tears in their eyes, I really felt too embarrassed to take it from them.

"Alright, you two finish your food. I'm fine," I said.

Then Yuko took the jelly, tore open the packaging, and picked up a fork.

“Never do something like eat it all at once,” Mio said.

"How could that be? I'm not a devil."

...No, the devil is much cuter than you think, like me.

As I thought this, I turned around, unable to bear watching any longer, and prepared to take Mina's bento and share it with the two of them.

Just as I took out the bento box and turned around, I saw Yuko spit out a mouthful of saliva along with some jelly, which landed directly in the box.

"..."

"Sorry, I choked," Yuko explained with a smile.

"You can divorce my wife!!" Blue Hair's rage exploded again. He rushed forward, grabbed Yuko's leg, and slammed her to the ground. His movements were so skillful and his moves so exquisite that they rivaled those of a professional wrestler.

“…You never mentioned before that you practiced freestyle fighting.” I said this while separating the two of them: “Alright, stop arguing. I also brought a bento box, so I’ll just go hungry for a meal and share it with you two.”

"Huh? Really?" The two girls seemed very happy when they heard me say that.

"That's about it. Don't be disgusted—" Then, I opened the lid, but what appeared was not rice with hearts drawn on it and various dishes—but two tomatoes and a carton of strawberry milk.

……

That's fine...

I handed a tomato to Mio, kept one for myself, and then, suppressing the sadness in my heart, gave my favorite strawberry milk to Yuko.

"You drink this, teacher will just have a persimmon..." I said, fighting back tears. "This is a token of my appreciation, teacher, don't be shy."

"Huh?!" Yuko's mind was in complete chaos—why was the teacher's lunch tomatoes and strawberry milk? Why did the teacher seem so unsurprised? Why did she give me the strawberry milk, as if she'd suffered a great loss? Should I be touched? Should I be touched? Should I?!

"...Thank you, Professor Wright..."

Yuko, her eyes also brimming with tears, said the same thing.

For the next few hours, the long-haired black-haired girl continued to pretend to fish by the stream, while Mio and Yuko, hungry and too exhausted to even play, remained. I, on the other hand, pulled Sera aside and extracted quite a bit of information from her about Japanese vampire ninjas.

Today, Japanese vampire ninjas are divided into two factions due to differing ideologies. One is the conservative faction, which is the one Serafim belongs to, and the other, naturally, is the opposing reformist faction. The two factions are locked in a standoff for various reasons. That's about it.

"I am bored."

That's my only comment on it.

"You don't have many people to begin with, yet you still do such idiotic things that cause division. Luckily, there aren't any other organizations opposing you here. Otherwise..."

Sera, however, dismissed my words.

When night fell, everyone crawled into their tents and lay down in their sleeping bags. Only the girl with long, straight black hair was still reading by lamplight. However, the other two girls' stomachs were making a series of rumbling noises, keeping everyone awake.

"No! If this continues, this camping trip will end in tragedy! We absolutely can't let it happen! Let's play cards, I remember I brought some!" Yuko jumped up and said.

“That’s right!” said Mio, who shared the same plight as her son.

"It doesn't matter anymore." After saying that, I sat up.

As a result, Yuko took out a deck of cards—a whole deck of fifty-four cards, all of which were the Ace of Hearts.

"Magic playing cards."

"Magic Poker..."