111: indulge

In the courtyard garden during the afternoon, sunlight filtered through the lush foliage, casting dappled shadows on the stone steps where the five sat. However, beneath this tranquility surged an unspeakable undercurrent.

Furuhashi Fumino pushed her phone screen toward Lin Luo, her fingertips trembling slightly. The screen was frozen on the figure of a 'Sword Immortal' swinging a brilliant sword light. "Luo-kun, this... what do you think?"

Lin Luo only took a glance, his tone as flat as if he were confirming today's weather. "Yeah, it's real."

Without waiting for the others to process the shock, he continued as if stating a perfectly ordinary fact. "Whether it's the military suppression or the Sword Immortal's strike, they all come from the same place—the Special Affairs Department, the official department for handling special affairs."

"Special Affairs Department?" Ogata Rizu immediately caught the keyword, her eyes behind her glasses sparkling with a thirst for knowledge. "An unrecorded official department? Then, from an aerodynamic analysis, this unconventional flight posture—"

"Rizu!" Furuhashi Fumino clutched her head, interrupting her with a tearful voice. "Are you still analyzing whether it's scientific? My worldview is about to crumble into dust!"

Lin Luo looked at her helplessly. "Didn't I reveal some of this to you guys before? Does the reaction need to be this big?"

"That's different!" Furuhashi Fumino looked up, her face filled with trepidation. "Hearing you say it and seeing 'evidence' with my own eyes are two different things! This has completely exceeded my range of understanding!"

"You can even calmly accept a Yokai like Fat Wave, so what else can't you accept?" Lin Luo said, turning his gaze toward Kato Megumi's lap.

Fat Wave was curled up lazily on Kato Megumi's knees. Hearing this, he lifted his head, licked his paw, and squinted his heterochromatic eyes as if smiling.

"That's different!" Furuhashi Fumino retorted. "Fat Wave is cute!"

"Hmm?" Lin Luo raised an eyebrow, seemingly unable to understand the distinction.

Fat Wave seemed to understand, letting out a purr from his throat and smugly rubbing against Kato Megumi's hand, whispering, "Megumi, look, she's praising me for being cute."

Kato Megumi gently stroked Fat Wave's fur, her tone calm. "What are you so smug about?" She looked up, her expression the most composed of the group. "When I encountered danger before, the Rapid Response Force that handled the scene afterward wore the same uniforms as the troops in the video." Her narration was objective and concise, yet it provided evidence for the existence of that hidden world.

"It's precisely because they fear this kind of reaction that the officials have chosen to keep it hidden." Lin Luo clicked his tongue, then changed the subject. "But looking at the momentum of public opinion fermentation now, and how the higher-ups haven't intervened for so long, I estimate... they plan to gradually go public."

Shiina Mahiru, who had been listening quietly, spoke softly, her words cutting to the heart of the matter. "I... heard some rumors. The newly appointed Prime Minister has quite a heavy-handed approach. Could the circulation of these videos themselves be a... deliberate release? Otherwise, given the Special Affairs Department's secrecy level, how could ordinary people obtain so many core images..."

Lin Luo nodded in agreement, then as if remembering something, turned his gaze to Shiina Mahiru. "Speaking of rumors... the Young Miss of the Shiina Financial Group, Shiina Sayo, I heard she suddenly disappeared?"

Shiina Mahiru's eyes dropped abruptly, her long eyelashes casting a faint shadow on her cheeks. "Um... it seems there is such a thing." Her hands resting on her knees tightened unconsciously, her knuckles turning slightly white.

Furuhashi Fumino didn't notice this detail and said dismissively, "There are plenty of such things in wealthy families. Maybe she's just on vacation, or has some private matters she doesn't want outsiders to know about."

A faint arc curved at the corner of Shiina Mahiru's lips, a smile as thin as a crack on ice. "Perhaps... wealthy families are like deep seas. What outsiders see are always just the ripples on the surface."

Inside the study of the Shiina Residence.

The red sandalwood desk was like a chasm separating father and son. Shiina Asahi sat across from his father, his fingertips tapping the table impatiently. "Father, Sayo's matter has already been filed. She's a grown person, what could happen to her? What's important now is that the Prime Minister is opening doors for us! All those projects that were stuck for years have been greenlit! This is a once-in-a-century opportunity for the Family!"

Behind the desk, Shiina Soichiro slowly raised his eyes. His face, appearing unnaturally ruddy and youthful due to consuming the blood-colored crystal, formed a bizarre contrast with the bottomless fear in his eyes. His withered fingers unconsciously rubbed the jade thumb ring of the Legacy, his voice hoarse:

"Asahi... do you really think there's such a thing as a free lunch in this world?"

Shiina Asahi frowned. "Father, now is a critical period! We must seize—"

"Seize the cable leading to Hell?!" Shiina Soichiro interrupted sharply, leaning forward, his cloudy eyes staring fixedly at his son. "Sayo... she didn't go to clear her head..." His throat bobbed, and the unnatural ruddiness on his face seemed to dim slightly. "She has likely already become... what that person calls 'nourishment'!"

"nourishment?" Shiina Asahi laughed. "Father, what nonsense are you talking about? Are you feeling unwell?"

"Shut up!" Shiina Soichiro growled, suddenly clutching the fabric over his chest. Since swallowing the crystal, that frantic craving for specific 'food' had followed him like a shadow. Cold sweat slid from his temples:

"What do you know... that kind of hunger... a hunger that can drive a person mad..." There was bone-chilling coldness in his eyes. "What he gave us... is poison, a shackle! 'nourishment'... living, life-filled 'nourishment'!"

He pointed tremblingly toward the bustling city outside the window:

"Sayo is only the first... who will be next? Me? You? Or the millions of 'Blood Food' in this city?!"

Shiina Asahi was deterred by the pure fear in his father's eyes, but irritation soon surged. "Father! Are you having delusions because of too much pressure? Sayo's matter will be handled by the police—"

"Delusions?" Shiina Soichiro's voice was hoarse and broken. He slowly pressed his hand against his stomach, his fingers trembling from resisting the massive internal suction. "Asahi... look at me."

Only then did Shiina Asahi notice the terrible contrast between his father's outward youthful vigor and his internal pain on the verge of collapse. Those eyes held no high spirits, only a bottomless desert of hunger.

"This youth... this energy... what was it exchanged for?" Shiina Soichiro's voice was extremely low. "It's that 'blood-colored crystal'... I swallowed it." He swallowed with difficulty, as if resisting an invisible temptation. "It gave me what I dreamed of... but what followed was 'hunger'. Not hunger for food... but... hunger for 'life' itself."

Cold sweat soaked his hair, and the hand on his stomach clenched into a fist, his knuckles turning white. "I've guessed it... what those 'nourishment' are. Sayo's disappearance... was no accident. She won't be the first..." He couldn't go on, his face showing fear, guilt, and a trace of unspeakable desire.

"I'm enduring, Asahi..." He looked at his son imploringly; it was the final fragility before a strong man breaks. "I'm using all my willpower to suppress it! But... I'm about to lose control over it..."

Shiina Asahi stared blankly at his father. This was more hair-raising than any external mutation. He finally believed that this wasn't a delusion, but a horrifying reality taking place.

The price of siding with the Prime Minister, swallowing the crystal, and gaining power and youth was to become a... monster driven by a terrifying sense of hunger?

After the initial shock receded, dark thoughts began to sprout in Shiina Asahi's heart. He looked at his father's youthful body and felt the heart-palpitating aftershocks of energy. Power, youth, and the hunger that needed to be constantly filled with 'nourishment'... "If... if it can be controlled?" he murmured to himself, his gaze gradually sharpening, even carrying a manic luster. "If... a 'safe' source of nourishment can be found? Or... if one has strong enough will to master this hunger?"

A few days later, the atmosphere in the study was entirely different.

The dead silence was replaced by a strange and satisfied tranquility. Shiina Soichiro leaned back against the wide chair, the previous hunger and fear on the verge of collapse having vanished without a trace. His face glowed with an almost demonic glory, his skin was tight, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes had faded significantly, and even his originally hunched back was as straight as a pine. He squinted slightly, his fingertips tapping the armrest rhythmically as if savoring some ultimate delicacy, his whole body exuding the laziness and powerful life field after a full meal.

Shiina Asahi, sitting across from him, also wore an unmistakable excitement on his face. However, his satisfaction came more from the change in his father before him and the reachable future that this change heralded. He looked at his father's face, which seemed over ten years younger, his eyes flashing with a burning light.

Not long ago, when Shiina Soichiro was almost consumed by the hunger originating from his marrow, it was Shiina Asahi who made the decision. He used the Family's power to secretly arrange a "feeding" according to his father's vague and painful description—"living nourishment full of vitality." The process was secret and beyond scrutiny, but the result was obvious and shocking.

That visible reversal of youth occurring in a person at the end of their life brought an incomparable impact. Shiina Asahi watched his father transform from a withered old man tortured by fear into the energetic and even more majestic "prime-aged" head of the Family before him. The last of the hesitation and fear in his heart was completely replaced by intense desire.

This was no longer a curse, but a blessing! It was a ladder to a higher level of life! As long as... that subsequent "hunger" could be satisfied.

"How do you feel, Father?" Shiina Asahi's voice carried a hint of imperceptible urgency.

Shiina Soichiro slowly opened his eyes. Those eyes, once cloudy and dull, were now piercing and incredibly sharp. He felt the surging power and unprecedented vitality within him, and a deep smile curled at the corners of his mouth.

"Better than ever..." His voice was loud and full of confidence. "As if... I've been reborn." He raised his hand, looking at the smooth skin and full muscles on the back of his hand. The last trace of complex emotion arising from the source of the "nourishment" was drowned out by the powerful sense of strength.

Compared to the youth and power obtained, those prices... seemed to become acceptable, even natural.

"It seems the power 'he' bestowed requires us to actively maintain it." Shiina Asahi whispered, looking at his father with burning eyes. "We need a stable... source of nourishment."

The father and son glanced at each other, both seeing the same determination and ambition in the other's eyes. That path leading to the abyss had already unfolded beneath their feet, and they were preparing to stride forward with heads held high.