In the end, the girls remained hungry but did.

  The lingering nausea made it impossible for them to stomaything.

  Yesterday's events had also left an impression on Amamiya Ren, though not to the same degree. As long as he avoided meat, he didn't feel the urge to vomit while eating.

  So, in the end, he was quite satisfied with st night's vegetarian dinner.

  The m, he woke up early as usual.

  But today, he didn't go for a run.

  Yesterday's m jog had only been a preteo gather intellige wasn't as though Ren had developed a m exercise habit during his vacation.

  After waking up, he soaked i spring for a while, washed up, and got dressed.

  Once he finished his m routine, he headed to che the a teams stationed he danger zone of the hotel.

  Not all the team members were on duty, some remained on guard while others rested.

  That arra erfectly reasonable.

  After all, if everyone remained on high alert through the night, they would've been too exhausted to stay sharp by the time m arrived. Splitting the shifts ehey maintaiheir vigince.

  After firming the situation, Ren made his way to the hotel entrance, where Sato Miwako had been stationed.

  When he arrived, he found the heroic polian slumped against the wall, fast asleep in an uncharacteristically u manner.

  Seeing this, Ren quietly returo his room, retrieved ara b from the bed, and spread it out on the ground. Then, using the power of the Gray Fog, he carefully transferred Sato Miwako onto the makeshift bed and covered her with the quilt.

  With that done, he left without a word.

  He strolled through the empty main hall and sat down in one of the chairs.

  The wave of officers from the Metropolitan Police Department should arrive soohought.

  The bodies found in the drug b couldn't be handed over to ordinary officers, they would need professional forensic specialists to hahe situation.

  The presence dealers actively researg new substances also required experienarcotics officers to join the iigation.

  Aside from the front-line special forces, most of the officers here will likely leave with us.

  Tsukikage Isnd wasn't a rge pce. The only detective stationed here year-round was an old veteran, and the isnd cked proper facilities to store bodies, let alone perform autopsies.

  The bodies would have to be transported to Tokyo.

  Moving that many corpses is no small task.

  The interrogation of the captured drug dealers likely wouldn't yield mu just a single night. Besides, Tsukikage Isnd was only a small piece of the puzzle, just a stepping stone.

  The real danger remained in Tokyo.

  If we want to dismahe drug work that's spread across Tokyo, we'll have to dig deeper into what these arrested dealers know.

  As his thoughts drifted along, something suddenly came to mind.

  The lottery.

  The tents of yesterday's diary had been unusually eventful.

  While Ren didn't fully uand the diary's evaluation criteria, he could feel that yesterday's events had been far more intehan usual, perhaps twice as much so.

  Maybe… this time, I draw a Sequence 8 potion.

  With that hope in mind, Ren summohe diary and initiated the lottery.

  The massive roulette wheel spun rapidly, the needle cirg faster and faster.

  Eventually, it slowed and came to a stop.

  The pointer nded on a single phrase.

  [Lord of Mysteries].

  The result wasn't particurly surprising.

  His path had already bee, it was only a matter of what he might draw along the way.

  [Obtained Source: River of Eternal Darkness]

  "??????"

  Seeing the message, Ren instinctively froze. A giant question mark seemed to appear above his head.

  But after a moment of disbelief, he quickly processed what had happened.

  I actually drew a sed Sefirot…

  "Did yesterday's diary really have such a big impact?"

  The diary's lottery meism prioritized signifit emotional impact. The greater the psychological sho the diary readers, the better the rewards drawn from it.

  He still remembered how, when he first obtained Sefirah Castle, he self-destructed to lure Shinomiya and the others into iigating him.

  That exposure bined with the ripple effe those who read the diary, triggered the most signifit ge in his life.

  But for yesterday's events to cause the same effect as that first time…

  Ren furrowed his brow and recalled the reas of Kaguya, Nagi, and Ran.

  Yesterday had ripped open the darkest er of the ordinary world for them to witness—a er filled with horror, despair, and filth. And beyond that, it showed them that the supernatural world was errifying.

  The shock of that revetion had undoubtedly shaken their worldview to its core.

  e to think of it, I wasn't immuo that impact either.

  Even he had never experienced such a grotesque, visceral se before.

  "…Yeah, it really was a lot."

  The emotional shock, the psychological distress, it had affected everyone involved.

  And given how fate seemed to influehe diary's meisms, maybe it wasn't so surprising that he'd received such a signifit reward.

  And it wasn't just those three who were affected.

  What if the diary alsistered the reas of the irls?

  If that were the case, then it might expin how he had drawn another source so quickly.

  But if the diary aowledges the emotional impact of others as well… does that mean a sed wave of diary holders might soon appear?

  The possibility intrigued him.

  If more diary holders emerged, he would prefer to select didates from the girls who had apanied him to Tsukikage Isnd. After all, they were already somewhat familiar with the mysterious side of the world.

  Still… let's leave that for ter.

  Ren shook his head, dismissing the thought for now.

  Instead of tinuing to sit in the living room, he returo his room.

  There, he used the Door pathway's abilities to block the door and seal off any potential intrusions.

  Once everything was secure, he sat down, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

  Focus.

  A sensation of falling immediately followed.

  "Plop!"

  It felt like his entire body had been submerged in water.

  Ren opened his eyes, but the world around him itch-bck, an abyss of shadow without any disible color.

  He realized he was floating within a river, though he felt no disfort.

  I still breathe normally…

  As he slowly adjusted to the darkness, faint glimmers of light became visible. An inexplicable glow filtered down from above, causing the surrounding water to shimmer softly.

  The river surged beh him, pushing his body upward.

  The invisible current lifted him until he broke through the surface.

  There, beyond the river, he saw a familiar sight.

  A majestic castle stood on the riverbank, its walls adorned with a faint, starlike radiahe castle gates were wide open, as though waiting for him to step inside.

  Sefirah Castle…

  "The river flowing before Sefirah Castle… is actually the River of Eternal Darkness?"

  The realization struck him like a thundercp.

  Had his own as caused this shift?

  At that moment, he could feel an unfamiliar resonance, a new e between the Sefirahs.

  If the Evernight Goddess from the other world saw this se, she would probably lose her mind.

  ***

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