Haruna and Eu watched curiously as Raize picked up a piece of sauce-coated Ozone Grass with his chopsticks and leaned toward Sei, lowering his head and holding it in front of her mouth.
"Ozone Grass needs two people to bite it at the same time to taste it properly. Otherwise it leaks air and turns to residue. Sei, bite the other side."
Raize placed the other end of the Ozone Grass near his own mouth without biting. Being this close to him made Sei's fair, innocent face flush slightly, giving her a delicate charm.
She leaned forward, opened her mouth, and bit onto the Ozone Grass. At Raize's signal, they bit down together.
A crisp cracking sound rang out. Under Haruna and Eu's curious gazes, the Ozone Grass didn't leak air or wither like before.
Splash!
Explosive deliciousness surged through their mouths, as if hundreds of fruits and vegetables were rampaging inside. The Ozone Grass bounced around between their teeth, and as its dense fibers broke apart, vibrations traveled through their jaws.
The chewing sensation was incredibly enjoyable, impossible to describe, followed by an addictive, perfectly balanced bitterness from the leaves.
It was transcendent-level deliciousness. Calling it the king of vegetables was no exaggeration.
Raize felt his blood flow more smoothly as well. The energy contained within Ozone Grass was no joke.
Seeing Sei covering her mouth gracefully, eyes half-closed in bliss, Raize handed the plate to Eu and Haruna.
The two girls followed his instructions and bit together. The transcendent taste made their eyes widen instantly.
"...Mmm! It's delicious!!!"
Haruna didn't hide her reaction at all. Her cool eyes sparkled as she enjoyed the bouncy texture and refreshing flavor. The near-depleted magic within her body even showed signs of recovering.
This delighted the magical girl immensely. Calling this vegetable worth hundreds of millions wasn't an exaggeration at all. It was the most delicious vegetable Haruna had ever eaten in her life.
But recalling how she had wasted a precious piece earlier, she apologized sincerely, "I'm sorry, Raize. I ruined the earlier Ozone Grass on my own."
Crunch.
Biting again together with Sei, whose cheeks were flushed with enjoyment and shy color, Raize responded calmly, "This kind of food is meant to be shared. Since you didn't eat it alone and thought of Eu and Sei, I won't be too hard on you."
"As punishment for wasting precious ingredients, you'll be responsible for cleaning the house for one month."
Haruna accepted the punishment without complaint. Considering the value of the ingredient, Raize not demanding compensation and still letting her eat was already generous.
Tug tug.
A gentle pull on her clothes snapped Haruna out of her guilt. Eu was holding a piece of Ozone Grass up to her mouth with chopsticks, notebook in her other hand.
(Haruna, eat with me.)
Haruna eagerly agreed, and the two girls bit together, closing their eyes in shared enjoyment of the extraordinary taste.
"It can be eaten alone too, but the requirements on the eater are pretty high."
Hearing this, all three girls looked over curiously.
Raize picked up a piece of Ozone Grass and held it in front of himself, then focused.
Crunch crunch!!
For an instant his head blurred, and when they looked again, there were already two bite marks on the Ozone Grass. Seeing Raize chewing with slightly puffed cheeks, it was obvious he had succeeded.
Haruna asked in surprise, "How did you do that?"
(Before the Ozone Grass could react, he bit it twice in extremely rapid succession. It was too fast for you to see.)
Eu explained neatly in her notebook.
So it required strength. Sei nodded in understanding. She picked up a piece of Ozone Grass, golden light flickering in her eyes as holy power flowed into it. She bit elegantly.
The Ozone Grass didn't wither.
Seeing this, Haruna had no questions. She was a genius who could easily grasp such things.
Raize relied on speed. Sei used holy power to anesthetize it.
"Heh, Lady Haruna can do it too!"
Haruna confidently activated her remaining magic, cast a paralysis spell on the Ozone Grass, and bit down.
It worked.
Eu sat quietly with a piece of Ozone Grass in her chopsticks, silent. She understood the method, but her own conditions didn't allow it.
Raize naturally noticed and prepared to cook instead, planning to anesthetize the remaining Ozone Grass gently like Sei.
"Finish these first. Dinner will be ready soon. Wait a bit."
Raize came to Eu's side. With a sweep of his hand behind his back, he used holy power to paralyze the ozone grass in front of her, then turned around and walked into the kitchen to make dinner.
Eu looked at Raize's back as he headed into the kitchen, then lowered her head and looked at the ozone grass on her chopsticks that had been paralyzed by holy power. She silently put it into her mouth and began to eat.
After a while, Raize's house became a bit lively that evening. Raize and the other three girls all had hearty appetites, and Raize cooked in large quantities, with the dishes being both plentiful and very rich.
(Another bowl!)
The familiar little notebook appeared in front of Raize. Eu's rice bowl was already empty. Knowing her appetite well, Raize skillfully piled another small mountain of food into her bowl. After taking the bowl, Eu glanced at him, then showed him the words written in the notebook.
(You seem to have an extra rather sinister power inside your body. Did something happen?)
After seeing this, Sei also looked toward Raize. After sizing him up and down, she followed up with,
"It's true. It's somewhat similar to the dragon power I remember, but why does the one inside you feel so eerie?"
Haruna was relatively close to Raize. After Eu spoke through her notebook, she also noticed that something was off.
There really was an additional rather eerie power inside Raize. It couldn't exactly be called evil, but it certainly wasn't very friendly toward living beings.
After all, it was the Dragon's Heritage power… those who know, know.
Damn it, are you people's senses really that sharp?
Raize raised an eyebrow, swallowed a mouthful of food, put down his bowl and chopsticks, then extended a hand under the gazes of the three girls. He activated the Dragon's Heritage power within him, letting it manifest tangibly in his palm.
Since it had already been discovered, there was no need to hide it. These three girls weren't enemies.
A cherry-pink, beautiful energy condensed into the shape of a small dragon and hovered above Raize's palm. Although it looked beautiful and captivating, when Haruna saw it, she reacted like a cat with its fur standing on end. Even the ahoge on her head stood straight up like an antenna. With a face full of vigilance, she flashed behind a chair and cautiously stared at the cherry-pink energy in Raize's hand.
Although Haruna didn't understand the true nature of the power in Raize's hand, her intuition told her to stay far away from that energy that looked so pretty.
Eu and Sei, two top-tier figures of this world, neither dodged nor showed vigilance. Sei touched the cherry-pink energy in Raize's hand with interest. After a trace of it clung to her pale fingertip, she rubbed it lightly between her fingers.
"It really is dragon power, that's for sure. Its offensive strength isn't particularly strong, but it's extremely powerful for survival. It can plunder life force and turn it into your own."
The Biblical loli God was well-read. With a single glance, she saw through the essence of the Dragon's Heritage power and examined it with interest.
After observing carefully, Eu handed over her notebook.
(A high-level immortality-type power. However, when you plunder life force, this power will make you increasingly crave vital essence. If possible, please use it as little as you can!)
Regarding the Dragon's Heritage power, Eu perceived even more of its ominous nature and wanted Raize to minimize its use.
Raize took her words to heart. After all, in the Sekiro world, the Dragon's Heritage power had caused many tragedies. Those who pursued immortality rarely ended well—either becoming grotesque monsters or living lives worse than death.
His physique was special, allowing him to withstand it, and he believed that as he continued to grow stronger in the future, he would completely assimilate the Dragon's Heritage power into himself.
That night, Devil May Cry would also be unlocked. The mini-games he had unlocked over the past few days hadn't offered much in terms of direct power enhancement, though he had obtained quite a lot of miscellaneous items.
From Bubble Bobble, he got plenty of bombs. From Contra, he obtained an Aurora Launcher—the kind with a see-through ability, but where the first shot disappears when the second is fired.
However, after clearing Metal Slug, he no longer lacked weapons like those.
Playing Snow Bros slightly strengthened his ice power, though Raize found it most convenient for making ice cream.
Clearing the NES version of Final Fight only gave him the character template of the male protagonist Cody Travers. There weren't many techniques—just rough, brawling combat—so Raize only regarded it as a bit of mosquito meat.
None of the games he had played recently had significantly improved Raize's strength, though he had gained quite a few items.
That was why he was extremely looking forward to playing and clearing Devil May Cry that night.
"Oh right, Haruna and Eu, you two shouldn't go out recently. There are people everywhere outside searching for you, Eu."
After finishing dinner, clearing the table, and washing the dishes, Raize wiped his hands and headed upstairs. Before going up, he reminded Haruna, who was in the living room watching TV and playing a handheld console.
Hearing this, Haruna frowned, put down her handheld console, and looked at Raize.
"Why do I have to stay inside too?"
Not going out for a short time was fine, but being stuck in one place for a long time was difficult for the lively and active Haruna. They were only searching for Eu, so why couldn't she go out?
In response to Haruna's question, Raize calmly gave his answer.
"The aura of Megalo is increasing in the city. You've lost your magic—what are you going out and wandering around for?"
Haruna had no choice but to give up. Without magic and unable to transform into a magical garment girl, she would feel fear whenever she encountered beings releasing magical power.
(I have no intention of going out, but please be careful when you're outside alone.)
Eu herself was naturally annoyed by those hunting her down. Staying in Raize's house with food and shelter, she had no reason to wander around unnecessarily.
Her purpose in coming to the human world was curiosity toward that existence with an enormous causality line. Now that she had lost track of its location, staying at Raize's house suited her just fine.
Moreover, Raize himself was quite special. In his home was a wandering soul of unknown strength and identity who called herself Sei.
And he also had an incredibly good relationship with Tohru, the daughter of the Emperor of Demise.
Yesterday, when she had drawn her pursuers to herself and ended up dragging Raize into it, her emotions had fluctuated slightly.
Afterward, she discovered that it hadn't affected him at all. She possessed mind-reading abilities, yet she couldn't use them on Raize. She could only faintly sense some goodwill directed toward her.
Layers upon layers of mystery veiled Raize's true nature, but in Eu's eyes, he was a good person—someone who hated trouble, cold on the outside but warm on the inside.