We still had to walk a couple hundred meters before we would actually reach Himari’s house.

“Hmm… that’s weird, the garden looks a bit neglected.”

“Still looks fine to me Himari, those bushes are even sculpted into the logo of the bank of Japan…”

“No, those bushes are normally trimmed every day, the grass is also starting to get out of hand, it’s normally mowed every 2 days…”

Her words fail to surprise me anymore, I decided to just accept her ridiculous statements.

We enter the giant mansion through the front door, but… we are only met with darkness and silence.

“Is anybody home? Head butler Pierre? The young lady has arrived!”

Nobody answered

“Hmm… weird.”

Looks like Sakura is a bit scared:

“B-Big bro you don’t think there will be any zombies right…”

“Nah, it’ll be fine, zombies can’t climb over these tall gates. Besides you have Ren and me to protect you.”

“Okay I’ll just summon an imp to scout the place… since the mansion is this big I’ll try to summon two.”

To my surprise, I could actually summon multiple imps, I never tried it before, but I assumed I could only summon one… looks like my limit is three though, after that the magic circle just disappeared upon completion. I let the imps roam freely through the building until I spotted something weird…

“Himari! I found something. Looks like a letter addressed to you! I think it’s located in a… dining hall?”

“Ooh really? which one?”

“…. The left one?”

“Aah right, so the second guest dining hall then. Follow me everyone, be careful not to get lost.”

We followed Himari to the dining hall, and sure enough, as everything else in this castle, it was truly giant, I think the ceiling is at least 15 meters tall and the table in the middle of the room could fit 10 chairs on either side…

“Alright, I’ll read the letter out loud.”

Dear Himari,

We hope you are in good health, if everything went well you should have arrived here together with Reo, make sure to please him and listen to everything he says, he’ll provide for you and ensure your safety according to the contract.

We are sorry we had to leave you behind, it was either you or your elder brother. Don’t worry about us, we are part of the chosen few to represent humanity as a species. To compensate for abandoning you here on earth, we spend a good portion of our wealth to install an altar in our backyard that Reo can use to buy a gene awakener and a physical enhancer for you.

We wish you all the best and hope to see you soon. If everything works out, Reo will get you out of that place.

Greetings,

Mom, Dad and elder brother.

Tears start running down Himari’s face.

“T-They just left me here… all alone…”

I tried consoling her:

“You’re not alone Himari, you got us… I… I’ll give you a warmer home to come back to than your parents ever did…”

I’m not sure if my words comforted her or not, she said she had to process this new information and headed back to her own room, which we passed on our way to the dining hall, together with the girls. Only me Daichi and Yuma stayed.

“Don’t let it bother you Ren, she is just dealing with a lot at the moment. Let’s discuss the letter, I think we all noticed some weird things.”

“Y-Yeah, they said she should have come here together with Reo… Does that mean their parents had an earlier arrangement of some sort that said: Reo will take care of Himari during the apocalypse?”

“Yeah I noticed that too Daichi, but that would mean her parents knew about this apocalypse before it actually happened… what do you think Ren?”

“I think it’s likely there is some sort of larger conspiracy here… the reason earth got chosen as a crystal farm, people who suddenly just disappear… plus her parents kept saying things like ‘leaving behind earth’ so I think some people might have been taken by the aliens or something…”

“That’s a scary thought… why would they spare certain people form this hell and others not?”

“I-I don’t know, we should ask Reo some more questions when we see him again. He’s suspicious, I think he knows more than he’s telling us.”

I think we just stumbled upon a secret we weren’t supposed to know yet…

“Well… I think the only thing we can do right now is strengthen our group… We’ll go search for that altar and then discuss our strategy with the girls.”

We didn’t have to search very long, it just stood there in the center of the backyard in front of a giant fountain.

I walk up to the altar with my bag of crystals, there should be 74 crystals and 2 mutant crystals.

The screen that normally would display my options now read: ‘First Entry, Choose an item: Gene awakener, Machete of the ox [E], Physical Enhancer’

This confirms it, Reo was definitely lying to us… But the choice is quite obvious, Gene Awakener is much more valuable to us at the moment compared to those other two, although I would also like a weapon for Daichi in the future...

I choose the Gene awakener and continue my shopping.

I first click on the ‘Blood Borne’ tab and try to buy the ‘Beginner spells that will drain your blood’, it worked! But it did consume my 2 mutant crystals, so I guess a mutant crystal is only worth 50 regular crystals, I was hoping for a few more, but whatever.

I continue browsing the other tabs, I noticed that not all altars charge the same price, a physical enhancer [1] costs me 70 crystals here instead of 100 crystals at the gymnasium-altar…

I decide to buy the physical enhancer, it might be useful for Daichi or one of the girls.

I exit the altar and check my status.

Looks like I’m broke again… Let’s discuss with everyone what we’ll do from now on.

“Alright I’m done shopping, I got some real nice goodies. Let’s head back to the ladies and discuss our plans.”