“Fufufu, how impressive, Hero-sama~”

“Please. Stop.”

“No~”

 

The operation to gain insiders was an overwhelming success, to the point that Yokoso-san kept teasing me about it.

 

I still unfortunately, vividly, remembered, right after we left the restaurant, the Mitsa couple started doing strange things.

 

“Hero-sama, there’s a puddle of water there. Please, step on me instead.”

“Hero-sama, there’s a street duel blocking off Katipunan. Shall I end this fight myself?”

Juan-san discovered something about himself, while Sister Eve wanted to be a battle junkie. Of course, I declined both offers.

I told the two of them I’d just stay in touch and left as fast as I could, returning to IRL Resistance HQ—which was to say, the employee lounge behind Yokoso-san’s store.

 

“To think you would gain two followers so fast, Hero-sama~”

“Yokoso-san, keep it up. I wanna be desensitized.”

“Aww, but that’s no good, Akiino!”

 

Yokoso-san started poking my cheek. I had no energy to react. This couch, when did it become so comfy…

 

“Y-Yokoso-san, my brother is tired…”

“Hm? What did you say, low-priority Akiino?”

“I’m what?!”

My sister started saying something about the older sibling having higher natural priority than the younger sibling, except when it comes to affection and gifts—wait, sis, that’s not healthy, you know?

 

An activation aura glowed around sis’s hands.

 

Sensing the inevitable carnage, I lazily body-vaulted over to the back of the couch. I didn’t give half a thought as to whether Yokoso-san’s existence would continue after this.

The following explosion messed up half the lounge—Eh? Only half?

 

I peeked over the couch and saw that everything behind Yokoso-san was pretty much intact—including myself and the couch—but everything in front of her was rubble, as expected. Though, what I didn’t expect was my sis’s hand stopped in front of Yokoso-san—a hand which she had caught bare-handed.

No, no—no matter how I looked at it, Yokoso-san wasn’t subscribed to any magic service providers. Therefore, Yokoso-san should have stopped existing at this point.

Though technically murder, it’s not like my sister could get arrested for it. Or get arrested at all.

 

No body, no evidence, am I right?

 

“No, wait! Sis! What are you doing firing magic against a non-subscriber!”

“Eh?”

We both shot a look towards Yokoso-san, who glanced between the two of us and cupped her hand under her chin as if to think. After a while—

“…Teehee!”

 

Was all she replied! She even did the cat paw thing!

 

“No, as expected, Yokoso-san is—”

“Teehee!”

“Kaba-kun has a point, there’s something wrong here—”

“Teehee!”

 

 

A week had passed, and we never got an answer from Yokoso-san. It was Teehee! all the way, every day. It wasn’t like we were particularly pushing for answers, but it was just fundamentally strange, like… you’d think this would have major consequences later on, you know!

 

I later found out that my sis pre-emptively transferred enough cash to cover the repairs 0.5 seconds before she sent that magic-infused fist towards Yokoso-san. Wouldn’t that qualify this as attempted and pre-meditated murder?

 

 

Anyway, the Resistance was brewing.

 

Pouko wasn’t around during the last operation to interview Sister Eve and her husband, Juan-san.

He was… busy. Yeah. A mission of utmost importance.

Speaking of Sister Eve and Juan-san, the only reason why we targeted them in particular was because they were the only ones I knew in high-but-not-that-high positions.

In the last meeting, we agreed to keep a low profile and just gather intelligence for the time being, so we opted that I “interview” a certain married couple to get a better sense of the state of affairs. It was supposed to be a pretty mundane interview, too.

That Sister Eve and Juan-san suddenly switched sides was not part of the plan at all!

 

Apparently, it was all Yokoso-san’s fault.

 

“Fufufu~ They started talking like religious nutcases. I know the type, so it was easy to be convincing~”

 

She just ad-libbed the whole play on the spot after cold-reading people she’s never met before…

N-No way, she figured out their personalities from how they ate their omurice?! Yokoso-san is a formidable scammer…

 

But, thanks to that, we gained high-level insiders in both organizations! An overwhelming success!

 

It was so overwhelming, in fact, that one could say that I’ve already accomplished one of my goals: to make a cult.

 

“Hero-sama, I have managed to copy the janitor’s keys. We now have access to the entire Revivalist headquarters at our leisure.”

“Hero-sama! We’ve gained another comrade among the Obstructionist summoners! Also, here’s their employment contract. Please sign it, the government won’t wait—but then they’ll ‘lose’ these documents then we’ll have to do it again…”

 

 

It has been one week since the “interview” with Sister Eve and Juan-san. They’ve been diligent at growing the roots of the Cult of Solomon—a naming sense in which I had no hand in.

 

Associating me with the Wise King himself, huh… No, seriously, I don’t want to be associated with it! Not like I have a choice, though…

On the other hand, it’s been becoming pretty formidable, huh? We already had 10 members in high-ranking positions in both the Revivalist and Obstructionist Churches, all feeding us information on their plans and movements. Apparently, there was another cult war just a few days ago, but it was pretty small-scale compared to the HQ raid back when I was visiting the Revivalists in Rejisu.

Juan-san told me he had about “217 more candidates” lined up for membership, while Sister Eve had “319 more candidates” on her list—after which Juan-san said “No, wait, I flipped it. It’s actually 712 candidates” then Sister Eve interjected with “Ah! I flipped mine too! It’s actually 913 more candidates!”

 

Come on, guys. If you add those two together, that’s—wait, I can’t mentally add numbers that big… That’s nine plus three, so… Let’s just say 1200 as an estimate. Yeah—I can’t possibly have a cult in the 4-digit range!

 

It’s definitely not helping that Sister Eve and Juan-san have gotten pretty competitive about this lately. Compared to when I first saw them together, though, it’s as if the competition was more for shits and giggles—that’s the vibe I was getting, at least. They were still baring teeth at each other, but this time with the corners of their lips pulled upwards.

 

 

I couldn’t help but feel that they were actually having fun.

 

 

 

 

…I’m kinda jealous.