Only when Kaguya finally couldn't take it anymore—ignoring their mutual nakedness—and rushed forward to shove Takakai out of the small parlor did he finally relax upon stepping into the mansion's hallway, which now felt strangely unfamiliar, as if he hadn't been there in ages.
We're back.
Once again, we've overcome hardships and returned to the real world.
Survived perilous exploration and battles, and everyone made it back intact—no missing limbs.
And in just half a month, I'll have to dive into another dungeon. Damn it.
But that's a problem for later. For now, at last, I can rest. No more struggling for the time being.
"Could you prepare a guest room for me? I need to rest. Thank you."
While Kaguya had the mansion's maids fetch clothes for her, Takakai casually grabbed one of them and had her arrange a room for him. He went straight in, collapsed onto the bed, and fell asleep in under a minute.
All worries and troubles cast aside.
No thoughts, no lingering doubts—just closing his eyes and embracing the respite after battle.
He slept soundly, deeply, comfortably, waking up completely refreshed, ready to face a brand-new day without a trace of fatigue.
Though for some reason, the mansion's staff were giving him odd looks. The maids seemed somewhat... afraid of him?
Weird. Did I do something noteworthy?
Clearly, in his relaxed state, he'd completely forgotten about the two naked beauties in the parlor yesterday evening. Naturally, he didn't consider what the maids might be thinking after seeing him leave that room.
"Ah... we're really back..."
Only after waking up and getting out of bed did Takakai murmur to himself, genuinely feeling at ease.
Then, he noticed he was now wearing plain men's pajamas and was neatly tucked under the covers. He distinctly remembered flopping onto the bed fully clothed. So someone had changed him while he was asleep? And he hadn't even woken up?
Realization dawned. Takakai lifted the pajama collar and sniffed.
Hayasaka's scent.
Ah, so that's why. Since it's someone I trust, and she meant no harm, my instincts didn't react defensively.
But still—Hayasaka just got back, and she's already taking care of me? Isn't that too much? Or are anime maids just built different? Recovering from being turned into a dog for days and immediately returning to work—that's way too hardcore.
As he pondered, Takakai sensed a change within his mind.
A blessing power, quietly integrated into his body and soul during his sleep.
From [Hachiya Chiyo], the once-carefree little girl who had all her happiness stripped away, was driven to madness, and became a witch who destroyed everything—now that she'd regained her happiness, she bestowed this blessing upon Takakai.
Wait, isn't this the third blessing I've gotten from an underage girl?
Closing his eyes, Takakai carefully examined this power.
Unlike Hirano Sousuke's blessing, which emphasized brute force, Chiyo's blessing seemed more mental—a reshaping of spiritual strength.
The first ability granted by this blessing was mental reconstruction, duplication, linking, and transmission—a composite, low-cost blessing.
With it, Takakai could partition and reconnect his memories at will, forgetting what he chose to forget and recalling it whenever he wished.
Moreover, like Kumami's ability to create personality fragments, Takakai could now generate unconscious mental fragments based on his own psyche. These could shield him from mental erosion or be embedded into others' minds—essentially, he could now equip himself and others with fixed SAN-value barriers.
Beyond that, this blessing had another powerful feature: memory linking and transmission. Using it, Takakai could store the memories of teammates he considered family through mental connections. With this, he could discard the black watch's memory retention function, freeing up one of its 12 slots. The watch's willpower-sharing feature could also be replaced by this blessing, which had a larger effective range of 30 meters.
In short, Takakai could now share mental energy within a 30-meter radius at any time. However, compared to the watch's function, this blessing's compulsion was weaker, meaning those with strong wills who resisted might not be fully affected.
"This blessing... Hmm, takes about 3 hours to generate one mental fragment. Each fragment seems to have roughly half my willpower strength. The fragments themselves lack independent thought but can be sensed when linked, though they're hard to control directly. Based on this intensity... a Dusk-rank player could probably handle 3 fragments, while a strong-willed Crimson Moon player could take 5 or more."
The fragments appeared to regenerate automatically, with a storage cap of around 10. To put it in RPG terms, if Takakai's willpower was 139, each fragment would act as an 80-willpower mental shield. Even if the shield was overwhelmed, it would shatter to protect the holder's mind. And since these could be stacked, even weaker Dusk-rank players could carry 3 fragments—meaning a well-equipped party could ignore horror rules and brute-force their way through.
Perhaps, for Chiyo—who had lost everyone and only had cherished memories left—this was why she granted such a blessing.
Incidentally, the blessing also seemed to boost willpower, but... Takakai felt he was already near the soft cap, so the effect was negligible—maybe a 0.0X increase, practically meaningless.
And of course, as expected of a Crimson Moon blessing, it had more than one function.
"Sigh..."
A deep breath.
Then—crimson light spread.
The floor warped. The bed, curtains, and walls became stained with dark blood.
Faint, stifled sobs and wails filled the air.
Mutilated corpses materialized on the floor, twitching as if struggling to come alive.
Through sheer will, Takakai twisted the guest room into the blood-drenched nightmare that had surrounded Chiyo.
This was the second blessing effect—a domain-like ability that forcibly transformed the surrounding area into a special zone.
Though visually gruesome, allies within the domain would regenerate health and mental energy, while enemies would have theirs drained. Remnants trying to breach it would face Crimson Moon-tier resistance—an overpowered package of defense, offense, and recovery.
In a dungeon, activating this Bloodsoaked Domain required Takakai to contend with the local horror rules. The more he understood the dungeon's structure, the larger the domain he could create and the longer it would last.
As for using it in the real world, where no Remnants existed...
Takakai closed his eyes, gauging its range. He estimated he could cover nearly half of Tokyo. As for draining ordinary humans' life force within it? Wouldn't even take 10 seconds.
"Are all Crimson Moon blessings like this? If this power fell into the wrong hands..."
Takakai couldn't help but mutter.
Then again, truly malicious people probably wouldn't reach Crimson Moon rank and possess the ability to resolve Core Obsessions, right?
Mental reconstruction, domain deployment, and a near-useless willpower boost—these were the three blessings Chiyo had given him.
No doubt Kaguya and Hayasaka received the same. Could all three of them stack their domains for a supercharged effect? Wait, these blessings are all support-oriented—am I being demoted from DPS to support? They say DPS comes and goes, but supports are eternal—does that make me a must-have SSR in gacha terms now?
His mind buzzing with random thoughts, Takakai washed up casually in the guest room's bathroom, then stepped out into the hallway.
The moment he opened the door—
—he saw Hayasaka, dressed in her maid outfit, seemingly having lingered nearby for a while.
"Morning. How's your recovery?"
Takakai waved casually.
"..."
The golden-haired girl stopped in her tracks, cheeks faintly pink, her clear blue eyes fixed intently on him.
What's up with her?
For some reason, Takakai felt a hint of pressure from her gaze.
"Ta... Master..."
Her voice trembled slightly, as if wrestling with something internally.
"Master?"
Takakai blinked, unsure what she meant.
But before she could articulate further—
—Hayasaka stepped closer, puppy-like, pressing against his chest, nuzzling lightly, and in a voice soft as a whisper:
"Master~"