"Wakaba-san, this isn't a place for reading books, you know~"
At Eriri's words, Wakaba Hiiro raised her head without a change in expression, glanced at Eriri, then closed her book and stood up from the floor.
Without replying, she took a few steps forward, stopped in front of Eriri, and stuffed the dress she had been holding into Eriri's arms.
"I have no desire to try on clothes. If you want to buy them, try them on yourself. I'll wait for you here."
Her tone was flat, her face betraying no hint of emotion.
With that, she moved to walk past Eriri and leave the fitting room. But before she could put her hand on the door handle, Eriri caught her by the arm.
"Come on, Wakaba-san, I was really looking forward to seeing you wear this…"
Wakaba turned back, only to find herself momentarily stunned by the sight before her.
Eriri's flawless face now wore a pitiful expression, one so disarmingly adorable that Wakaba felt the urge to agree on the spot.
This subtle shift in her own feelings caught Wakaba's attention again. She hadn't expected a mere change in expression to have such an effect on her—a god who had lived countless years.
But she didn't dwell on it long. Over the past few days, she had grown used to the strange fluctuations in her mood whenever she dealt with Eriri.
"Fine. You go out first. I'll change."
Giving in to her current mood, Wakaba took the dress back from Eriri.
The moment Wakaba agreed, the pitiful look vanished from Eriri's face as if flipping a switch.
Realizing it had been an act, Wakaba didn't bother to comment. She'd given her word, and she wouldn't go back on it.
Eriri, however, made no move to leave. Instead, she crossed her arms, leaning against the wall with a smug expression.
"To make sure what happened before doesn't happen again, I've decided to stay here and watch you change."
Wakaba didn't argue. After silently regarding Eriri for a few seconds, she began to change clothes.
She didn't care if Eriri saw her body, and it was only a dress—there was no need to remove her underwear.
Under Eriri's unabashed gaze, Wakaba finished changing in short order.
As the saying goes, beautiful people look good in anything. For someone like Wakaba, the effect was even more pronounced—especially in a dress hand-picked by Eriri.
"Mm~ not bad at all. Very pretty!"
Eriri circled Wakaba, examining her from every angle before nodding in satisfaction and giving a thumbs-up.
"Wait here a bit, Wakaba-san."
Without waiting for a reply, Eriri left the fitting room. Less than two minutes later, she returned with another set of clothes and handed them over without ceremony.
"Come on, let's try the next one!"
Wakaba glanced down at the white hoodie, light blue plaid knit cardigan, and cream pleated skirt. After a moment's consideration, she silently began changing again.
And so it went. Eriri made several more trips in and out, until the storage basket in the fitting room held a tall stack of outfits Wakaba had already tried on.
Beyond the first dress and hoodie set, there were sundresses, chiffon blouses, denim skirts, and all sorts of trendy outfits in different styles. At first, Eriri only watched Wakaba Hiiro change. But as time went on, she started helping her change directly—much to Wakaba's quiet exasperation.
For over half an hour, Wakaba was completely reduced to Eriri's dress-up doll.
Since the entire process took place inside the fitting room, no one but Eriri got to enjoy Wakaba's various looks.
Because Eriri never once tried on anything herself, the customers and sales clerks who had been watching her every move eventually gave up their vigil and returned to their own business.
Still, many of the shoppers lingered in the boutique, holding onto the hope that they might get to see Eriri in a new outfit. Time wasn't a concern—they were used to spending hours shopping whenever they went out.
When Eriri finally emerged from the fitting room with Wakaba, now back in her school uniform, every gaze in the store converged on them again.
But to their disappointment, Eriri didn't begin picking out clothes for herself. Instead, she took Wakaba by the hand and walked straight out of the store.
She had no intention of buying any of the outfits Wakaba had tried on. Her goal in bringing Wakaba here was already fulfilled.
Leaving the shop, Eriri led Wakaba around to other spots along the station street. It wasn't until she received a call from Aoi Kujou that she brought Wakaba back home for dinner.
Time flew, and in the blink of an eye, more than a month had passed.
During that month, aside from sleeping, Eriri spent nearly all her time with Wakaba Hiiro.
They attended school together during the day, played games together after school, and on weekends, in addition to gaming, occasionally went out shopping—though not very often.
In most cases, Mirei Shinohara also joined them.
After over a month of this, Eriri could clearly sense that her standing in Wakaba's eyes had risen significantly. She was now an important presence in Wakaba's life.
Whether Wakaba would step in to protect her when the dimensional strike between Demon Lord and Hero arrived, however, remained to be seen.
As for Mirei and Wakaba, their relationship hadn't grown any warmer over the past month. Eriri was the only real link between them—if she was present, they might play games together and even talk occasionally. Without her, they ignored each other entirely.
Mirei's attitude stemmed from jealousy over Eriri's special treatment of Wakaba, while Wakaba simply didn't care about anyone other than Eriri.
That said, under Eriri's subtle influence over the past month, Mirei had changed considerably. She had become something of Eriri's shadow, clinging to her whenever she could and obeying her without question.
This shift had nearly cut her off from her previous circle of friends, erasing her former status as the central figure among the girls in her class.
She didn't seem to care. Compared to spending time with Eriri, the things she once valued so highly had become trivial.
Under normal circumstances, Eriri would protect Mirei in the future—perhaps even bring her into the world of transcendents. But this time, she had no such plans.
Because of certain long-set plans, she intended to let Mirei be reincarnated into another world. However, when that happened, Mirei would receive extraordinary privileges.
"Everyone, I'm sure you all know—the annual cultural festival is coming up soon. As always, it will be held by class, so does anyone have ideas for our class's program?"
On the podium, Okazaki Kanami cheerfully brought up the cultural festival. Her words were met with immediate, lively responses.
"Haunted house, of course!"
"A haunted house is a lot of work though, both for props and set-up."
"I say we do a fighting game exhibition match—lots of people would participate."
"How about forming a temporary band? I can play a little guitar!"
Suggestions flew thick and fast—haunted house, dance performance, live band, mock food stalls selling yakisoba, crepes, milk tea, and other snacks. But no one mentioned the ever-popular maid café.
The reason was simple: Eriri. While everyone wanted to see her in a maid outfit, they knew asking would earn an outright refusal—and likely leave a poor impression on her. No one wanted to be that sacrificial lamb.
"Alright, quiet down for a moment."
Seeing the noisy classroom, Okazaki clapped her hands. "It looks like we can't agree, so how about this? I'll write down all your suggestions on the board, and then we'll vote."
"Sounds good!"
The proposal was met with unanimous approval. Okazaki picked up chalk and began writing the suggested events on the board.
"Okay, now everyone can vote. Write your choice on a slip of paper, then have the last person in each row collect them and bring them to me."
Paper tore from notebooks as students began writing. Even Eriri and Wakaba Hiiro joined in.
But Eriri's mind was on something else.
In the corner near the podium, a tiny spider, recently hatched, rested on a web spun by its mother—though the mother herself was absent.
The moment Eriri saw the little female spider, she knew what it was: the previous life of Kumoko, yet to be reincarnated by Wakaba Hiiro, just an ordinary spider with barely a year's lifespan.
She had been watching it for over a week. To ensure her presence didn't cause its premature death, she had even placed a small protective measure on it.
If Wakaba Hiiro was her main objective in coming to this world, Kumoko was her second. She had no intention of letting such an interesting little creature slip away. Keeping a spider as a pet wasn't bad—especially if it would one day become a beautiful girl.
Of course, what she wanted wasn't the spider as it was now, but the goddess it would become after reincarnation.
Glancing at the board, Eriri finally wrote "Haunted House" on her slip. Compared to the other suggestions, it sounded the most fun. And with her set-up, visitors might have a cultural festival they'd never forget—if it won the vote.
The chances weren't great. As students had said, a haunted house was hard to prepare, and finding people to play ghosts was another problem.
Still, Eriri didn't meddle. For something like this, she was content to let nature take its course.
When her group had finished writing, Eriri stood, collected their slips, and handed them to Okazaki. Wakaba and Mirei Shinohara did the same for their respective groups.
There were only five groups in the class, and the three of them covered three of the back-row collector spots.
Returning to her seat, Eriri stopped watching the spider and leaned toward Wakaba, whispering to her.
It didn't take long for Okazaki to tally the votes.
As it turned out, the world favored Eriri. Even without any interference on her part, events unfolded exactly as she'd hoped.
The haunted house won by the highest number of votes.
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