Watching Nakano Yu, who was fighting the Human-Faced Dog with the Golden Sword, Kasumigaoka Utaha's expression was complex and strange, as if she had lived more than ten years and then her mother suddenly told her that she was actually her mother's mother!
Kasumigaoka Utaha was experiencing that feeling of her whole world collapsing.
"Roaaar!!!"
At this moment, Nakano Yu toyed with the Human-Faced Dog and, with a light swing of Joyeuse in his hand, cut off one of its paws.
Immediately, a smelly, thick green liquid flowed from the severed paw of the Human-Faced Dog.
Seeing this, Nakano Yu couldn't help but show disgust.
He immediately lost the desire to continue playing with that dog. He swung Joyeuse, shaking off the green pus and blood from the blade, and then, with a thought, three more gleaming swords appeared behind him.
"Pierce this disgusting thing into a sieve!"
Nakano Yu shouted coldly, pointing the sword at the Human-Faced Dog.
Seeing that the prey in front of him, which could resist, suddenly had three swords appear from nowhere, the Human-Faced Dog, of course, had no intention of surrendering.
Its enormous body continued to twist, and from its hips, three tentacles actually sprouted!
The tentacles fell to the ground, and in a short time, three more Human-Faced Dogs appeared.
Seeing this, a look of concern appeared on Kasumigaoka Utaha's face.
This young man, who came from who knows where, was alone, and on the opposite side there were now four dogs! Could he really handle this by himself?
But what use was her worry? She didn't dare even approach to help, or rather, even if she did, what could she do? That monster would probably fling her aside with a single swipe of its paw.
"Oh? Clones?"
Nakano Yu, of course, did not know about Kasumigaoka Utaha's small worries. At this moment, the young man watched the monster that had turned from one into four, acting somewhat curiously.
At the same time, Nakano Yu noticed that the body of the Human-Faced Dog, after dividing into three more, had significantly decreased in size.
It seemed that it was not cloning, but self-division.
In Nakano Yu's opinion, such an ability was very weak. If you can't defeat someone while four-in-one, and then you split, your individual combat strength weakens, so wouldn't you then have even less chance of winning?
Thinking this, the young man also lost interest in continuing to play with the Human-Faced Dog. He snapped his fingers, and with a "snap" sound, another gleaming sword appeared behind him.
Before the Human-Faced Dog could react, Nakano Yu thought, and all the gleaming swords instantly turned into trails of golden light and dashed toward the Human-Faced Dogs.
In just the blink of an eye, all four Human-Faced Dogs were beheaded. With a few dull "thuds," their bodies fell to the ground and turned into pus.
"Boring."
Listening to the system message "Lottery chance +1" echoing in his ears, Nakano Yu indifferently returned Joyeuse.
Ever since the fight with Amaterasu, Nakano Yu had been eagerly looking forward to facing strong opponents. Now he even despised looking at things he could cut without any effort.
"Um, you… you're not hurt, right?"
Just as Nakano Yu was thinking about when he might encounter another Heretical God, Kasumigaoka Utaha approached him from behind, and her voice, surprisingly, was shy as she asked how he was.
Kasumigaoka Utaha actually felt very safe in the presence of the young man who suddenly appeared and saved her. She didn't know whether it was because he saved her, or because of his pure gaze from a moment ago.
Her current shyness was only a result of fear from the Human-Faced Dog, not because of Nakano Yu.
"I'm fine, it was just a little monster. But, Kasumigaoka, are you okay?"
Nakano Yu shook his head, acting calm, and then asked about Kasumigaoka Utaha's condition.
His arrival this time was very precise, exactly at the moment Kasumigaoka Utaha was trying to escape.
"I'm fine. Wait, how… how do you know my name?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha shook her head. She had just panicked and fallen, wasn't injured, so overall she was fine.
But as she shook her head, she suddenly realized that she had never told the young man her name, so how did he know it?
Could it be that this seemingly pure young man was actually a perverted stalker?! Did he appear here so "coincidentally" today because he had bad intentions toward her?!
Thinking this, Kasumigaoka Utaha's face turned pale, but she quickly composed herself. The young man in front of her was so strong; even if he had some thoughts about her, he wouldn't need to stalk her or anything like that.
Utaha, Utaha, how could you think like that about the benefactor who saved your life?
Clenching her fingers, Kasumigaoka Utaha couldn't figure it out. If the young man in front of her wasn't a perverted stalker, then how did he know her name?
"Um, excuse me, do we know each other?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha looked at Nakano Yu, her voice a little confused.
Seeing the slightly shy Kasumigaoka Utaha, who was far from her usual sharp tongue, Nakano Yu was a little taken aback. Only then did he realize that he knew Kasumigaoka Utaha, but Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't know him.
He had been so preoccupied with thinking about where he might find a Heretical God that he hadn't paid attention to this detail. He had been careless.
The most urgent task now was to somehow smooth this over. After a brief thought, Nakano Yu came up with the perfect excuse:
"Speaking of which, not only do I know Kasumigaoka's name, I also know her pen name. It's Kasyou Shiwa, right?"
"Eh?! How do you know that?!"
Hearing this, Kasumigaoka Utaha was no longer just confused, but shocked!
Kasumigaoka Utaha hadn't told many people that she had become a light novel author, and Nakano Yu was definitely not one of them! Because before this, Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't even know Nakano Yu!
"Speaking of which, I even bought the first volume of Love Metronome. It had Kasyou Shiwa-sensei's signature, but it was signed with her real name."
Nakano Yu rubbed his nose, lying to the innocent young girl without a plan.
He had actually never bought Kasumigaoka Utaha's Love Metronome, but he really did have the first volume personally given by Kasumigaoka Utaha.
And not only the first volume, Nakano Yu also had the second and third volumes.
As for how he got them, he would have to ask the system. He didn't know where the system got the second and third volumes of Love Metronome from.
Nakano Yu estimated that Kasumigaoka Utaha hadn't even written them yet. Perhaps his system even had the ability to travel through time to steal them.
"Really?"
After hearing Nakano Yu's excuse, Kasumigaoka Utaha was still a little skeptical.
She didn't remember seeing Nakano Yu when the first volume of Love Metronome was released. After all, there weren't many people that day, and she had a fever and dizziness, so she didn't have many impressions of the people who came.
Seeing that Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't believe him, Nakano Yu casually pulled the first volume of Love Metronome out of the system space and showed her the open cover.
Seeing that it really was her Love Metronome, Kasumigaoka Utaha was surprised. She almost dismissed the young man's words as just an excuse to deceive her, but she didn't expect him to actually pull out a copy of Love Metronome.
Eh? Wait, where did this guy pull the book from?
Well, it doesn't matter, anyway it's something I can't understand, so I won't bother.
Thinking like this, Kasumigaoka Utaha looked at the cover and saw that her pen name "Kasyou Shiwa" and her real name "Kasumigaoka Utaha" were indeed written there.
"Could it be that my head was foggy from the fever that day, and I accidentally wrote my real name?"
Muttering to herself, Kasumigaoka Utaha closed the book and, slightly blushing, returned it to Nakano Yu.
Now she fully believed Nakano Yu's earlier explanation, and at the same time felt a little embarrassed.
Of course, it wasn't because Nakano Yu had saved her. Kasumigaoka Utaha very well knew that it was already the 21st century, and the story of a hero saving a girl and then getting married was long outdated.
She was embarrassed because, by a thousand coincidences, she had run into one of her readers!
And her reader had saved her and recognized her!
"Since you're okay, I'll be going now."
Seeing that Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't insist further on that topic, Nakano Yu took the book, put it away, and turned to leave.
Suddenly, Kasumigaoka Utaha froze.
She still didn't understand what was wrong with her Love Metronome.
When she asked her editor, Machida Sonoko, the other party couldn't give a clear explanation, only replying, "The writing is good, but the plot is weak." Kasumigaoka Utaha couldn't understand why the plot was weak.
She wrote about love, putting in a lot of effort to describe the intimate interactions between the male and female protagonists. Was that wrong?
And now she had a reader right in front of her. If she could get the most honest feedback from the reader, maybe she could understand exactly what went wrong!
"Please, wait a moment! I still want to ask something!"
Seeing Nakano Yu leave, Kasumigaoka Utaha quickly spoke, even stretching out to grab the young man's hand.
"Is there anything else?"
Hearing this, Nakano Yu stopped and turned to the girl behind him.
The girl was holding his hand with one hand, while nervously fidgeting with the hem of her skirt with the other. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, her lips pressed together, looking as if she had something to say but was hesitating.
Seeing this, Nakano Yu was stunned.
What the hell?! Isn't Kasumigaoka Utaha going to confess? This expression is exactly the same as Nino's that night during the courage test!
Speaking of which, Nino had said earlier that when they returned to Tokyo… Hiss~ No, I have to find time to… Ahem, a decent person does decent things, don't get me wrong.
"Um, I'd like to ask if you have any suggestions regarding the first volume of Love Metronome?"
After a brief pause, Kasumigaoka Utaha asked. When it came to some topics, she was bold in a way unlike a girl, but when it came to her book, Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't have her usual charm or sharp tongue. She only had a sense of responsibility toward her work.
Hearing her words, Nakano Yu felt that his excitement had been in vain, but on the other hand, Kasumigaoka Utaha might appear bold on the surface, but she was not an irresponsible girl.
However, although he read Kasumigaoka Utaha's Love Metronome out of curiosity, he had only read the first few pages.
It had to be said, her writing was very good, but the plot was too mild.
As for the plot, Nakano Yu could only say that he didn't dare praise it too much. Almost the entire first volume revolved around what the male and female protagonists did that day, what happened, who blushed, whose heart fluttered, who felt embarrassed.
In fact, there was nothing wrong with that, but having only that was completely wrong.
Love shouldn't be like that. In love, there are also quarrels, not just ambiguity.
If it were really like that, then one of them would certainly be pretending.
After a short thought, Nakano Yu, under Kasumigaoka Utaha's expectant gaze, spoke:
"Kasumigaoka, you've never been in love, right?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha, curious about what advice Nakano Yu would give, was confused by his sudden question, but still answered:
"No, I haven't."
"Then that's normal. Actually, for Love Metronome, the main theme being love is really correct, and Kasumigaoka's writing also creates a very good atmosphere of love, but in love there is more than just love."
"The male and female protagonists are living people, not just tools to show affection. They will quarrel, misunderstand each other, and be jealous. In the first volume of Love Metronome, I didn't see any of these elements. If the second volume could introduce some changes, it might be better."
Nakano Yu's advice struck Kasumigaoka Utaha's mind like lightning. In that moment, she experienced enlightenment and everything became clear to her!
So, what Machida Sonoko meant by "the plot is too mild" was this. That person surely had never been in love either, otherwise they wouldn't give advice in such vague words.
After realizing this, Kasumigaoka Utaha quickly bowed to Nakano Yu in gratitude, then, without looking back, ran toward her apartment.
Watching Kasumigaoka Utaha's back as she walked away, Nakano Yu scratched his head, feeling a little confused, but didn't say anything more and turned to leave.
It was already late. He had to go home to rest. Tomorrow he needed to report to Shuchi'in Academy.