More than a thousand Kurumi clones surrounded Souta, their gazes sweeping up and down his body as they whispered and chatted among themselves.
Their excited voices echoed through the night, filling the air with a chaotic yet strangely playful atmosphere.
Some of the bolder clones had already reached out, touching and feeling him up.
It seemed that the sheer number of them had given each one more courage than usual.
The ones closest to Souta were getting increasingly bold, their hands wandering freely over his body.
Some even started pulling at his clothes, looking as if they wanted to devour him whole.
"Ahem... Alright, everyone, let's not rush. We have plenty of time to go on dates in the future—one at a time, okay?"
Souta was both embarrassed and nervous.
Then, a dangerous memory surfaced in his mind—Kurumi had once teased him by saying she could use her clones to drain him dry.
If she ever actually did it, would he... literally die at the hands of her clones?
"Alright, that's enough. We need to get to work now."
Thankfully, the real Kurumi finally stepped in, rescuing him from the sea of grabbing hands.
She stood there, watching him with a knowing smile, her gaze carrying an unmistakable message—
"If you ever dare cheat on me, I'll make sure you're too weak to get out of bed for days."
Souta quickly opened the sack of seeds, diverting his attention.
"Alright, let's get to work."
The clones reluctantly released him, sighing in disappointment.
They began taking out seeds from the sack, attaching each one to a "Third Bullet" ability card.
Meanwhile, Souta helped bury the cards in the ground.
By his calculations, planting over 100,000 seeds at standard spacing would cover roughly 2,000 acres.
That was about 1.2 million square meters—
Or nearly 200 full-sized soccer fields.
The numbers sounded crazy, but if you converted the units, it was actually just about 2 square kilometers of forest.
More than enough to show off and impress people.
Souta and Kurumi worked until dawn before returning to Jelock.
Of course, there was no way they could finish the entire job in a single night.
Even though they had enough manpower, the limit on how many ability cards they could extract per day slowed their progress.
It took three full nights to finish planting all the seeds.
Three or four days without sleep wasn't an issue for Souta, thanks to his undying body and enhanced mental resilience.
But Kurumi... was starting to feel it.
Her usually flawless face now had dark circles under her eyes.
Souta suggested that she take a break, leaving the clones to finish the job while she rested.
But Kurumi immediately shut that idea down—
"If I'm not around, who knows what my clones will do to you?"
Her playful gaze landed on Souta.
"They're... very proactive when it comes to you, you know?
They all love you very much."
"Are you sure you want to take that risk?"
Souta instantly gave up on the idea.
Meanwhile, Chelsea had finally arranged their public identities.
From now on, they wouldn't need to hide in the shadow space during the day.
Everything was proceeding smoothly.
The only unexpected issue... was Kurumi's beauty.
Her presence quickly drew attention, and gossip about her began spreading among the followers of Path of Peace.
Naturally, this information soon reached the ears of Bolic, the Imperial minister's spy.
At that moment, in one of the luxurious palaces behind the church—one that was nearly as extravagant as the Lord's own—
Bolic sat with his four elite guards, the Four Rakshasa Demons, discussing recent events.
To ensure secrecy, Bolic had dismissed all his personal slaves from the room.
These slaves were all women he had selected from among the faithful, using his position to trick, threaten, or outright force them into submission.
For example, he would deceive them by saying—
"The Lord has chosen you, but your body is impure. As his assistant, it is my duty to cleanse you before you can serve him."
With reasoning like that, many pious women would willingly offer themselves to him.
In a world , there were plenty of people gullible enough to fall for it.
And for the few who refused, Bolic had other methods—his status alone was enough to force most of them into submission.
He was nothing less than a parasitic cancer within Path of Peace.
"Bolic, have you figured out why Path of Peace is hosting this massive gathering?"
The strongest of the Rakshasa Four, Gozuki, directed a stern gaze at him.
As personal enforcers of the Prime Minister, the Four Demons answered only to him.
Which meant they had no obligation to speak respectfully to a mere pawn like Bolic.
Bolic, clearly uneasy, stole a glance at the man in the restraint suit, then answered:
"I've already looked into it.
Apparently, the gathering is meant for followers to hear divine revelations.
Most likely just another faith-strengthening ritual."
To Bolic, the idea of divine revelation was obviously nonsense.
Unlike the common folk, he wasn't some ignorant fool.
There was no way he'd ever believe such ridiculous fairy tales.
This was simply another tactic to reinforce control over the followers.
"You were sent here to suppress armed uprisings, not sit around!"
Gozuki let out a cold snort.
"Any large-scale movement must be prevented. This failure is on you. I will report it to the Prime Minister."
"W-Wait!" Bolic panicked.
"The gathering was personally ordered by the Lord!
He ignored all warnings!
There was nothing I could do!"
"Not my problem. I'm just the messenger."
Gozuki dismissed his excuse.
"When does the event begin?"
"It's already started.
The followers are gathering outside the city as we speak.
I claimed to be ill so I wouldn't have to go."
Bolic sounded completely indifferent, as if he saw no real danger in this event.
"There's nothing to worry about.
The Lord organizes these kinds of faith ceremonies all the time.
This one is just... a bit bigger than usual—"
Suddenly, a massive pressure descended upon the room, cutting Bolic off mid-sentence.
His entire body became unbearably heavy, unable to muster an ounce of strength.
Losing all support, he collapsed off his chair, falling to the floor.
The Rakshasa Four Demons fared slightly better, managing to stay standing, but their faces were frozen in shock.
The oppressive force came swiftly—
And vanished just as quickly.
For a moment, it felt as if the entire palace had grown brighter, as if some dark veil had been lifted.
"What... the hell just happened!?"
Bolic shouted in panic.
Gozuki reacted immediately.
He rushed to the balcony, leaped onto a higher vantage point, and gazed into the distance.
Left him completely speechless.