I, the spiritual mentor of beautiful girls from all over the world

A thought, like a bolt of lightning, cleaved through her chaotic mind.

wrong……

My strength is the subject.

My freshman year is a subject of study.

So……

my heart.

My feelings for you.

My white kimono...

Why can't it be—a final task dedicated to him?!

This thought, like a thunderclap, exploded in her collapsing world!

The tears in her eyes stopped instantly.

On that tear-streaked face, a sickly yet holy smile slowly, bit by bit, appeared.

She slowly raised her head, exposing her tear-streaked face to Lynn's scrutinizing gaze without any concealment.

Then, a single word was uttered clearly from her lips—

"Yes."

……

This single word caused a moment of surprise to appear on Lynn's usually calm and collected face.

Seeing the teacher's rare expression, Shinobu Kocho's heart, which had been in her throat, finally felt half relieved.

She was right.

She pleased her teacher with her "enlightenment" in the face of adversity.

Her smile widened, and she took a small step forward.

"teacher……"

But when she met Lynn's gaze, she showed a hint of girlish shyness.

She paused for a moment, as if gathering courage for what she was about to say.

“You taught me to face anger, to create breathing techniques, to fight… I have learned all of these.”

She raised her head, and her purple eyes, still wet with tears, shone with an astonishing brightness, burning with a fanatical light.

"But teacher... it seems you... forgot to teach me the final topic."

Her words trailed off, and a flush of burning red rose uncontrollably across her cheeks.

Then, in a prayerful tone, she whispered the final answer she had "realized".

"—That is, how to… give to you the whole soul that you have reshaped and made whole."

However, the surprise in Lynn's eyes quickly faded.

Instead, she received neither the "recognition" nor the "joy" she had hoped for.

Rather, it's a kind of playfulness that comes with appreciating a childish yet interesting play.

He smiled.

He walked slowly to her, and under the gaze of her purple eyes, which were filled with expectation and unease, he spoke.

His voice carried a hint of languid laughter that seemed to see right through everything.

"A very interesting definition: patience."

"but……"

The smile on his face remained, but all the playfulness had faded from his dark eyes, leaving only pure, indifferent coldness.

"When did it become the students' place to presume to define my research topic?"

Lynn didn't even glance at her again.

He merely turned his face slightly to the side, leaving her with only the cold, hard profile of his face under the starlight.

Then, the real, fatal verdict was uttered lightly from his lips.

"And, patience..."

"You're too noisy."

——! ! !

Shinobu Kocho's holy yet morbid smile froze instantly.

Like the most perfect porcelain, a shocking crack appeared.

All the light, all the fervor, all the self-righteous "enlightenment" that had just ignited in her eyes...

In that instant, they all went out.

"Uh……"

A faint, choked moan escaped from her pale lips.

Her body could no longer support her; she staggered backward and collapsed to the ground.

Lynn admired her completely broken, puppet-like state, and slowly walked up to her, squatting down.

He extended his index finger and gently lifted her chin, forcing her to raise her head and meet his eyes... which had regained a hint of a smile.

"but……"

"Although your definition of the topic was completely wrong, the way you were desperately trying to please me, the way you were struggling just now..."

He watched as the intense emotional storm raged in her eyes because of her words, and the curve of his lips finally transformed into the purest, most contented joy.

"I love so much."

As soon as he finished speaking, he lowered his head and kissed her.

"Ugh...!"

Her emotions, in an instant, burst forth like a dam!

All the grievances, all the pain, all the repressed love, all the morbid ecstasy of the past three years... all turned into the most primal scream!

Her body arched backward suddenly, like a dying fish.

So hot.

It was his lips.

Do not……

It is his soul.

My body... won't obey me...

do not stop.

Please...don't stop...

Only then did she understand.

Her struggles, her failures, her misery, her ulterior motives... the teacher saw it all.

And... he found it interesting, so he liked it very much.

This thought, like a pebble thrown into a still lake, stirred up a thousand waves.

That was... the immense injustice of being treated like a plaything.

It was also... a morbid ecstasy that came from finally having his "acknowledgment" of his own wretchedness.

Even more so... that humble, yet uncontrollable, burning love!

Wronged, ecstatic, in love... all emotions intertwined and collided, ultimately forging only one thought.

One, her only and final thought in this life.

She needs to respond!

With her last ounce of strength, her cold lips trembled slightly as she awkwardly tried to respond to the sacred mark.

Her arms struggled to rise and embrace the man who had given her everything.

She works so hard.

Just a little bit...

But in the end, she overestimated herself.

The light that surged into her soul was both a blessing and a destruction.

When she tried to embrace it with her mortal body, the light became too dazzling.

It was so dazzling that it completely devoured and burned away the last bit of courage that she had just mustered as a young girl, along with her consciousness itself.

His arm hung limply at his sides.

Consciousness was plunged into darkness.

In the last second before she lost consciousness, a vague yet incredibly reassuring thought slowly surfaced.

"So, this is what the teacher's perverse sense of humor is like..."

"That's...so mean..."

"But...why..."

"I think... I like you even more now..."

……

(CHUN) points.

In that instant, Shinobu's soul, stretched to its limit, finally snapped.

The light in her eyes completely faded.

Her petite body, dressed in a white kimono, slumped weakly into his arms like a marionette whose strings had been pulled out.

He pulled her close, supporting her firmly against her vulnerability.

He could feel it clearly.

The nervous system of the girl in his arms was twitching slightly out of control due to the divine impact that far exceeded the threshold.

Moreover, the temperature of her cheeks was alarmingly high.

Lynn looked down at the sleeping face in his arms, which was tear-streaked yet filled with a sense of satisfaction, and murmured to himself.

"In an instant, I switched back and forth countless times between extreme humiliation, ecstasy, despair, and the happiness of being recognized..."

"This kind of emotional storm is enough to make anyone faint."

He chuckled and shook his head.

Two other familiar yet troublesome faces involuntarily surfaced in my mind.

"If it were Seraph, or that unruly little wildcat Black Song..."

"At this moment, it's not a matter of fainting outright."

"Instead, it will immediately go into berserk backlash mode, crying and excitedly draining me dry..."

It seems that the constitutions of humans, demons, and cat demons cannot be generalized.

"Yes, the task of upgrading Shinobu's physical strength must also be put on the agenda."

"We must spur them on and give them plenty of encouragement..."

……

A safe house is a space that can be folded up infinitely.

Lynn can expand or shrink it at will, as he pleases.

He can even keep several visitors inside at the same time, yet keep them in different dimensions so they never meet.