"Omurice~ omurice~ become more delicious~"
"Moe~ moe~ chu~"
Luo Shu stood speechless in the doorway, watching a succubus maid cast magic upon an omelette rice.
But what truly left him dumbfounded was the grey-haired, green-eyed girl in an orange sweater - her face angelically beautiful yet radiating distinctly middle-aged uncle energy.
That lecherous grin and the wandering hands along the succubus maid's waist completed the unsettling picture.
Just as Luo Shu registered Nia Honjo's presence, the sofa-bound girl noticed him too:
"Oh dear, our guest has arrived already? Didn't little Maria keep you longer to express her gratitude?"
Nia's roguish smirk widened as she teased: "And here I'd gone through the trouble of delivering this maid cafe's most precious treasure to you."
"Director Luo really doesn't know how to enjoy himself~~"
"While I anticipated some of this, your personality still manages to surprise me."
Luo Shu sighed without quite knowing why - perhaps mourning the tragic flaw marring such a stunning beauty's character.
Nia blinked in genuine astonishment at his words. Dismissing the maid with a wave, she studied Luo Shu with newfound curiosity:
"Ohhh? The Director knows things about me? Now that's unexpected."
Luo Shu watched the departing succubus maid bow before him. Only after the door clicked shut did he approach the sofa, settling opposite Nia:
"Just like your Raziel, it's perfectly normal for me to possess some high-authority divination-type Abyss Artefacts, right?"
"Are you referring to the fragment of the Authority of Knowledge?"
Nia Honjo stroked her chin before speaking with a hint of confusion:
"That thing you call the Mysticism Encyclopaedia is primarily for alchemy and esoteric development, isn't it? Divination and knowledge retrieval are merely extensions of its knowledge."
"I should have warned you - divination isn't omnipotent."
"Take today, for example. When the Mysticism Encyclopaedia was obscured by someone in the shadows, didn't you also fail to detect the problem?"
Luo Shu's pupils contracted slightly at these words before he asked Nia Honjo in a peculiar tone:
"It seems you know me quite well, don't you?"
As if oblivious to the deeper meaning in Luo Shu's words, Nia Honjo grinned mischievously:
"Hoho, though you might not like hearing this, perhaps I'm the person who understands you best in this world?"
Luo Shu's expression remained unchanged as he asked directly:
"Can your Angel, Raziel, display information about me, too?"
"No!"
Nia Honjo divulged this intelligence without hesitation:
"Any information concerning you, Luo Shu, appears as unretrievable blanks. The same goes for those girls you've recruited into your Familia - their descriptions often show blank sections too."
"The reason I know these things is entirely because I conducted searches on the traces instead."
As she spoke, Nia Honjo suddenly picked up a silver teaspoon from the table and held it aloft:
"Look at this spoon..."
She pinched the spoon's handle... then gently released it.
Clink.
The spoon fell onto the wooden table with a crisp sound.
Having done this, Nia Honjo addressed Luo Shu:
"Suppose I couldn't divine the spoon itself, but still wanted to know what happened to it."
"Then both the act of picking up the spoon and it falling on the table would remain unknown causes and effects."
"But!"
Nia Honjo picked up the spoon again, narrowing her eyes and curling her lips slightly:
"The air displaced by the spoon, the table that was struck - these become my known quantities."
"By arranging these two elements - recognising something displaced the air first, followed by the wooden table being struck and making noise - couldn't I reasonably deduce that someone picked up the spoon, released it, and let it fall?"
Nia Honjo's smile widened further, especially when she saw Luo Shu's thoughtful expression, prompting her to beam:
"See now~"
"I can't divine anything about you, Luo Shu, yet you undeniably exist in this world!"
"If I can't retrieve your information directly, what about those who've interacted with you?"
"Air, plants, people, even magnetic fields..."
"By painstakingly gathering intelligence from these sources, I can arrive at the desired conclusion. Even if there are minor errors, they're inconsequential."
At this point, Nia Honjo unveiled her true intentions with a saccharine smile:
"Am I right, my young and powerless deity~?"
After hearing Nia Honjo's explanation, Luo Shu slowly closed his eyes, raised his hands, and began applauding.
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
The crisp applause rang out successively.
Amidst the applause, Luo Shu's voice rang out in admiration:
"I underestimated you, Nia Honjo."
"Raziel's abilities truly exceed my expectations."
"It's hard to reconcile the you before me with the Nia Honjo in my memories who fell victim to schemes and became an experimental subject."
"Wow, directly prophesying my future, are you?"
Nia Honjo made a disgusted noise at this remark and said with some distaste:
"Though I might not have much curves, I still wouldn't want my body being ogled by a bunch of researchers."
"And according to the setting, Luo Shu, shouldn't you have strong possessive tendencies?"
"Even if you captured me, at most you'd just do things like filling me with milk or developing my cavern yourself, right? You wouldn't let others study me, would you?"
Hearing this bold, even somewhat wanton statement, Luo Shu gave Nia Honjo a strange look before replying:
"The intel I have states that it wasn't me who captured you."
"No wonder..." Nia Honjo immediately understood. "So it seems an Angel or even Divine Rank Abyss Artefact shielded itself from Raziel's detection, allowing them to successfully scheme against me?"
"Fair enough. Without Raziel's abilities, my combat strength doesn't even match some Elite Rank sorcerers. This outcome makes sense."
"However..."
Nia Honjo suddenly drew out her words, looking meaningfully at Luo Shu:
"Providing such intel right after meeting me... My, my, does Luo Shu already consider me his untouchable exclusive property?"
"How terrible~ I'm not ready to go to a hotel with a boy I just met~"
"Speaking of which, Luo Shu, what brand of condoms do you use?"
"Or perhaps we shouldn't use them at all?"
Watching the eager Nia Honjo before him, Luo Shu's lips twitched slightly:
"Is there a possibility..."
"That the intel just now was repayment for your earlier warning?"
"Eh~~ Still being so pure at a time like this?" Nia suddenly looked at Luo Shu with disappointment: "I thought you'd lose control of your beastly desires the moment you saw me and pounce straight away~"
"You do realise this is our first meeting."
Luo Shu forced the words through gritted teeth, rolling his eyes irritably:
"Besides, even if I did pounce, it wouldn't achieve anything, would it?"
"What's here isn't your real body, is it?"