In a World Where Chastity is Reversed, I Ended Up Working as a Hot Spring Attendant

Chapter 198: Extra Edition, Ruri’s Preparations, Chaotic Girls’ Night (Ruri’s Perspective), After Chapter 190

“Uh, this goes here, and that goes there…”

In the karaoke room I was shown to, I connected the PC, instruments, karaoke set, audio equipment, and cameras one by one. Some were wireless, but wired connections were still unbeatable.

“That looks pretty tough.”

Ojiro watched with a wry smile and said so.

By the way, Hakuto had already started drinking with this as a side dish, claiming it was her day off, so it was fine. How carefree…

“It’s no big deal; just connect it, and it works.”

Honestly, it wasn’t a big deal. The real hassle came with initial startups and fine-tuning. Once it ran properly, disassembling and reassembling wasn’t confusing.

To be honest, it was a pain, and moving or cleaning was a hassle. This time, when I took it apart, the back was covered in dust!

But this wasn’t the time for that!

“I’d offer to help, but…”

“It’s faster if I do it myself than explain the steps.”

So, my office basically ran on my solo performance. Hiring people was too much trouble, and I ended up a lonely creature.

It wasn’t social anxiety or anything; I was just lazy, and people gradually disappeared.

Thus, my office only had my younger sister, Koruri, hanging around. Lately, we’d been doing our own things, and with her busy with tours and other jobs, I left her behind, which suited me fine.

Unlike me, she got by with enthusiasm and efficiency, so she’d probably jump in later.

Even so, as the eldest daughter, I always took the lead.

“By the way, what do you two, Hakuto and Ojiro, think of that guy, Hisui?”

While running connection check apps and such, I shifted to small talk. When tweaking connections, you had to do aging or breaking-in, like noise cancellation and leveling—professional work.

Nowadays, people said built-in auto-filters were fine, but it made a difference!

Even if it was a niche obsession!

Well, it was mostly done, so I grabbed a drink.

Ojiro joined the drinking with a “guess I have no choice” vibe.

Cheers.

“I don’t get the point of the question.”

Hakuto grinned back at me.

“Ugh, what an annoying response…”

I said it out loud without thinking.

“But it’s a bad question.”

Ojiro looked exasperated too.

“Ugh, fine! As a man!”

I forgot these two were the type to ignore subtlety and social cues completely.

They were the free-spirited, “I’m the only one that matters” type.

“Among the guys here, at least in Japan, as far as I know, he’s the best.”

Hakuto answered in her usual light tone.

“Well, yeah.”

I got that the moment he showed up, or something like that.

“There’s no other way to put it.”

Ojiro seemed to agree.

“His vibe…”

“Super soft, or like, gentle?”

Ojiro replied casually.

“Super hard, that thing.”

“Pfft…”

Hakuto dropped a crude joke, and I nearly spat out my drink.

Wait, you confirmed it?!

I mean, I was curious!

Super curious!

“After that hug, what are you even saying?”

“His charm…”

“For a guy to face us big, tough Self-Defense Force girls without flinching, that’s a done deal, right?”

Ojiro said. True, that was a life-or-death issue for tall girls.

From a woman’s perspective, they were cool and popular.

“For me, he stood right in front of me at our first meeting, didn’t look away, stared in awe, got me all hyped up, and when I lifted and hugged him hard, he blushed and got excited, which made it fun, so I just carried him off under my arm like we were eloping.”

Hakuto spoke gleefully. That was too specific for a fantasy—wait, was it real? What was she doing?

Call the cops, it’s this one!

It felt like I should call Officer Mozu or someone.

“Passing him to me like that was a bit much.”

Ojiro sounded exasperated too.

Naturally, these two were causing a ruckus somewhere I didn’t know about.

Being escorts this close, it probably wasn’t a big deal.

With other men, that behavior would be super suspicious.

But they were very tolerant?

“About marriage… romantically?”

I steeled myself and brought it up. This was the main topic.

“I proposed within 30 minutes of meeting him.”

Hakuto said casually.

“Shorter? Longer? Total, less than an hour.”

She mumbled on, clearly a bit drunk.

“I’ve got lots of wives, but he’s my first husband.”

“Huh?”

Ojiro continued like it was nothing, and I could only make a weird noise.

My mouth flapped uselessly, no words coming out.

“Our team’s on the front lines in remote areas. We had tons of fan clubs, but if someone said they loved us and followed through to reach us, we’d marry them all.”

“And before we knew it, about 30, right?”

You get the rest, yeah?

She made a gesture with three fingers.

“So passionate…”

I didn’t know how to respond.

Between women, it was legally lighter than with men, but that charisma and extrovert energy was shocking.

“We’re trained~♪”

“Hahaha~♪”

It turned into a pretty chaotic girls’ night.

—

Chapter 199: Extra Edition, Behind the Scenes, Another Dimension

“Hm?”

“Alone?”

“Single?”

I found a curiously isolated tag among those inscribed with true names.

My current location was Kamiarizuki, at the great shrine in Izumo.

For us, the eight million gods active in the Land of the Rising Sun, this was the most important task: the matchmaking conference, in full swing.

By the way, I was Kazura, a high-ranking divine messenger of the Inari line, a Kuzunoha fox.

Now, which one should I pair this with?

To “see” a true name was a kind of divine authority. I could conceptually observe the causality of things connected by some kind of bond—past, present, or future.

For matchmaking, creating a bond from nothing was troublesome, or rather, it required steps and reasons, so I wanted some justification.

“Amber”

Hmm, alone? Single? The bond felt thin.

Was he dead on this side?

Maybe in the next life?

I focused my eyes to see the bond.

“Yatagarasu”

A strange name appeared.

A divine messenger bird, a conspicuous three-legged crow, enshrined around the great shrine in Kumano.

I instinctively glanced at the owner of the name.

Our eyes met, and they awkwardly looked away.

Was my gaze too intense?

Oh well, I focused again.

I saw another thin thread of fate stretching out.

Who was this?

I looked further.

“Sekirei”

…You too?

In ancient times, during Izanami and Izanagi’s nation-dotage myth, this bird taught hip movements.

As a divine messenger, it had no shrine or worshippers, but its history was long.

In a land of eight million gods, where even a grain of rice or a weed could have a deity, it didn’t matter what had a god.

The tag, from this dimension’s perspective, appeared single, but from the other side of the dimension, thin threads of fate connected it in a tangled, dumpling-like mess.

Uh…

“What are you guys doing?”

I couldn’t help but switch seats, plop down beside them, and interject.

“Hiu, hiu~♪”

“Pi~♪”

Both whistled poorly, trying to cover something up.

They were sweating oddly, so they probably had something in mind and had messed up.

By the way, there wasn’t much hierarchy among the gods, but the number of shrines or worshippers created some conscious rank differences, so I was pretty strong.

The Yatagarasu of Kumano’s great shrine was also strong, but this time, it claimed no guilt.

“Your divided spirit is stuck in another dimension, so we’re just providing some support.”

They’d spilled it—they’d broken through the dimensional wall. What was that about?

“What about the rule of not interfering too much with the mortal world?”

Not just the mortal world, but breaking through the dimensional wall, even past the spirit world?

“You’ve got a kept boy bound until the next life too.”

Yatagarasu pointed at the tag tucked in my pocket.

“That’s fine! It’s just a blessing, a prayer, a curse, tied to fate!”

My beloved fool, securing just one, was cute enough.

I tied the bond, left it to the wilds and mountains, released it upon death, hoping to meet again.

In a land of eight million gods, love between gods and humans was commonplace.

Well, maybe not that commonplace!