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Chapter 170 — Conversations End with “Heh”
🕑 Added 2025-07-12 15:10:07 +0000 UTC“You’re awake! The surgery was a success—you’re now a handsome young boy~!”
“EHH!?”
The shocking words jolted Nia Honjou awake.
She sat up abruptly, her head snapping toward the source of the voice.
What she saw was Nagami, looking completely at ease while being hand-fed apple slices by Maid Kurumi.
Still under the blanket, Nia’s hand instinctively reached down toward the fabled “triangle zone.”
Not feeling any unfamiliar additions down there brought an immense wave of relief.
That scared her to death!
If something had been missing down there, how would she ever gather references for her doujinshi again?
Wait—
Technically, she could still gather material… just from a different angle…
“…Who are you guys?”
She turned her head slightly to the right and saw a red-eyed girl—Itsuka Kotori—watching Nagami with arms crossed and a deadpan expression.
Nia’s gaze returned to the black-haired boy again—Nagami—who was now calmly feeding Yuzuriha Inori slices of apple.
For some reason…
Just looking at him made her feel warm inside.
A hazy memory surfaced—one where the boy held her gently in the sunlight, protecting her in his arms.
“You’re awake. How do you feel? Any pain or discomfort?”
His voice was gentle and full of concern.
When Kotori had first learned what Nia had been through, she’d nearly launched the Ratatoskr ship to blow up those unethical human experimenters.
Only after hearing how Nagami had handled them did her fury begin to subside.
“I-I’m fine…”
Clearly a little unused to Kotori’s kind and patient demeanor, Nia’s expression turned somewhat awkward.
“Um… where exactly am I? Why am I here? And who… are all of you?”
A triple whammy of questions.
“Master, did you use that memory-erasing manifestation device on her?”
Kurumi—now dressed in a frilly maid outfit—tilted her head and placed a finger on her lips as she looked at Nagami.
“Nope. I didn’t use anything like that,” Nagami replied with a thoughtful frown. “It’s probably a side effect of the Void energy I used to soothe her spirit.
Her brain may be subconsciously suppressing the traumatic memories.”
From her mental state, it was safe to say Nia didn’t remember what had happened in captivity.
“Will it affect her negatively?”
Kotori took out a lollipop and, anticipating the inevitable, handed one to Nagami.
After all, he’d steal it anyway—might as well offer it upfront.
“No, not at all. But… if she recalls those memories later, I’m not sure how she’ll react.”
Nagami unwrapped the candy and popped it in his mouth, frowning slightly as he glanced at Nia, who was still sitting on the bed.
“…Forget it. I’ll just find out for myself.”
Apparently tired of waiting for answers, Nia nodded to herself and took matters into her own hands.
A dazzling light swirled around her, and her plain white pajamas vanished, replaced by a mystical, semi-transparent nun outfit—deep black like ink, adorned with a silver cross and a black-ink-themed headpiece.
Although the outfit carried the solemnity of a nun’s garb, it featured an open slit along the thighs, and its translucent fabric revealed long, porcelain-smooth legs that shimmered under the light.
[Divine Spirit Equipment: Second Form (Yod)!]
A Spirit’s battle gear and a Valkyrie’s combat armor—two sides of the same fanservice coin.
Especially when it came to aesthetic appeal.
“Zadkiel, the Book of Revelation.”
Raising a hand, Nia invoked the name of her Angel.
Gleaming Spirit energy gathered and formed a large black tome in her palm.
Its golden cross-embossed cover gave it the holy aura of a divine bible.
“Let’s see what the heck is going on here…”
Her previously cheeky and carefree tone came to a sudden halt the moment she read the blood-drenched record within the Angel’s pages.
Imprisoned…
Tortured to the point of unconsciousness…
Then saved—by a boy named Nagami…
“So this is the Angel that records everything, huh?” Kotori leaned in, curious, as glowing words appeared on the pages.
Kurumi’s crimson eyes narrowed slightly.
Nagami, for his part, stopped parsing Kurumi’s data.
A six-pointed star lit up in his eyes as he turned his attention to analyzing Zadkiel itself.
Nia flinched involuntarily, hugging her arms tightly around herself as her shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
She hadn’t remembered the events.
But the graphic, detailed records within the Angel’s book triggered a deep, primal fear from within her soul.
Nagami didn’t try to stop her this time.
Even if he could erase the memory now, she would eventually read it herself one day.
Rubbing his forehead with a sigh, he reached out and gently took her hand.
“You’re safe now,” he said softly. “And those who tortured you… they got a lovely little ‘gift’ in return. You can even see what happened to them, if you’d like.”
“… …”
That familiar warmth spread from his palm into her chest, slowly soothing her nerves.
Nia gradually calmed down and stared silently into Nagami’s eyes.
She began flipping through Zadkiel’s pages again, reading about what Nagami had done afterward.
And somewhere deep inside her—like the gentle ripple of a plucked string—her heart stirred with a feeling she hadn’t known in a long time.
“Thank you, Nagami. And… Kurokuro~.”
Despite the gentleness and sincerity in her soft voice, the strange nicknames caused Nagami and Kurumi to exchange glances, both of their mouths twitching slightly.
“Kurokuro… pfft!”
Itsuka Kotori couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst into laughter.
“Oi, oi! What kind of ridiculous name is that!?”
Seeing her face finally regain some color, Nagami gently let go of the girl’s small hand and turned his attention toward the angelic book that looked suspiciously like a holy bible.
After all, no matter how cute a girl was… having full map access came first!
“Ehehe~”
Not the least bit bothered by Nagami’s wandering hands on her angel, Nia cheekily stuck out her soft pink tongue.
For a fleeting moment, Nagami entertained the thought of asking Lumine to go beat up Barbatos just to vent.
“You know, Nagami, you really were like a hero from an anime—dropping from the sky to save the day.
I almost fell in love with you on the spot! Too bad you’re not an actual anime character…”
Pure otaku babble.
Although she had clearly forgotten the details of her torment, she still remembered that one vivid moment—Nagami holding her gently in his arms.
A black-haired boy, descending from the skies with his loyal followers—or, well, maids—and rescuing a despairing spirit.
Classic romance arc setup!
Nia knew her tropes well.
“While I appreciate being called a hero, Miss Nia… can you really call yourself a princess?
Shouldn’t a princess be raised in a rich, pampered environment? Malnutrition kinda breaks the fantasy, don’t you think?”
Nagami blatantly glanced at her chest with zero shame, his disappointment written all over his face.
“I have a friend who’d get along very well with you.”
Maybe they could even co-sponsor some ad campaign for Taixuan school together.
“Now that you mention it… you’re right! What kind of main heroine is flat-chested anyway?!”
Nia squeezed her own chest with a surprisingly self-aware nod.
“Wow. You… really do have some self-awareness.”
Unlike Fu Hua, Nia had already reached a point where she was immune to teasing—a true “What do I have to lose?" attitude.
Come at me, shame—I fear you not.
“Cheer up. Kotori isn’t that much bigger than you, either.”
“You wanna die or something!?”
…
After a bit of back-and-forth banter with Kotori, Nagami turned back to Nia, who was still sitting on the bed.
“Just a heads-up: don’t expect too much from me. I’m not some noble savior.”
He tossed Tome of Revelation back toward her with a flick of the wrist, clearly unimpressed by what he’d found inside.
Honjo Nia—created by humans using magic, shaped by the planet’s ley lines and spiritual force—was essentially Earth’s version of a god.
Her separated Spirit Crystals, though powerful, were still finite.
And Tome of Revelation that deeply linked to the world itself was more like Kamen Rider W’s Gaia Library than anything else.
It had some similarities, but fundamentally it was different.
Likely something connected to Gaia itself.
It wasn’t impossible to use in other worlds, but its power would be limited.
Which meant—unfortunately—no full-map cheat.
At best? A glorified wallhack.
“I’ll admit… saving you in the end was out of pity. But at the start, I had… other motives.”
Nagami raised an eyebrow at her, smiling playfully.
“Wanna take a peek and find out what they were?”
“……”
“That’s so mean, Nagami! Can’t you just read the room for once?
All you had to do was go with the flow, and you would’ve added one more cute girl to your harem! Do you even know what you just missed out on?!”
Her tone was teasing, but the nervous tension beneath her words was impossible to miss.
“Heh…”
Nagami just shrugged.
Thanks to his time with Kurumi, his resistance to all forms of flirtatious nonsense had leveled up significantly.
And so, the conversation came to an end—with nothing more than a dry chuckle.
