Rin and Mai both felt a sudden rush of warmth surge from their mouths throughout their entire bodies. The next moment, one clutched her chest and stomach, while the other collapsed to the floor, groaning and holding her abdomen.
Surprisingly, Rias—though her face was equally flushed and she was clutching her chest as well—still managed to stay on her feet.
Well… her legs had started shaking, though.
"See? This is exactly why I told you not to eat things I warned you not to touch," Ryuji said calmly as he continued eating, unbothered, watching the three obviously affected girls.
"This dish is from that Erina's world I mentioned earlier. For some reason, in that world, chefs, their skills, and even the most basic ingredients all carry some kind of weird power."
He ate on with a blank expression.
Honestly, he was eating it not because he particularly liked it, but to motivate himself for training.
That's right—he wasn't immune to the effects either. But since training in this zombie-ridden world wasn't tiring, just boring, he needed a way to push himself. The food, as ridiculously stimulating as it was, helped with that.
After all, as someone who had just narrowly escaped death and used to be a regular office worker, expecting him to keep up a strict training regimen was a bit much.
And because he had some dignity, he couldn't just ask Rias to do those kinds of things for him. So instead, he relied on the near-erotic heat from the food to drive himself to exercise—and to channel the energy away from... other urges.
"You put something weird in there, didn't you?! And if that's how it works, why are you eating it too?!" Rin glared at Ryuji, her face bright red, though her eyes couldn't help darting back toward the plate of food in front of him.
Despite how her body was reacting—despite the intense heat coursing through her and the feeling that she was having a wet dream at night—there was no denying it:
It was just too delicious.
Delicious enough to feel borderline illegal.
"Because I need motivation to train, princess. I'm not like you people—if I don't work out, I won't immediately die. But if I want to get stronger, I need something to push me," Ryuji replied bluntly.
Honestly, he felt completely out of place among the others.
He wasn't a battle-hardened athlete from China, nor a grizzled veteran solider from America. He wasn't a high school protagonist from Japan or a muscular warrior from India. He had no tragic backstory like some African super-survivor, nor was he born with wealth or connections.
He was just the most average kind of human from Earth.
Frankly, the fact that he hadn't simply given up and gone full degenerate was mostly thanks to the lower half of his body calling the shots.
Sure, he made it sound noble. But in truth? A small part of him still fantasized about going to bed with someone like Tsunade and the other girls he had slept with. That desire was definitely still there—just… a little shaky now.
Because even in this world, real people weren't that easy to bed.
"I get that, I really do," Rias said with a sigh, rubbing her temples. "But could you at least tell me why you're so desperate to get stronger?"
Ryuji almost instinctively blurted out his answer. He even said part of it aloud before catching himself:
"Bo—"
He cut himself off mid-word and quickly corrected himself.
"—Love. I want to become stronger… for love."
"You were gonna say boobs, weren't you?" Rin deadpanned.
"Nope. You misheard me," Ryuji said quickly, turning his head away. After tossing the last piece of beef into his mouth, he disappeared into his room to begin training.
"…This guy, seriously…" Rin muttered, half amused and half exasperated.
"You know, being honest about your desires isn't necessarily a bad thing," Rias said thoughtfully. "If Ryuji didn't distrust me so much, I'd really like to make him my servant."
She sighed, feeling a little disappointed.
He really didn't understand her, and he clearly had no intention of becoming her peerage. But to her, a man like Ryuji—someone who acted on his desires, but wasn't ruled by them—was incredibly attractive. Having a servant like that would've made her genuinely happy.
"Oh right, I forgot you're a devil. But… are devil in your world still into collecting souls and making shady contracts?" Rin asked, her mouth twitching.
Rias was clearly not what she expected a devil to be. Then again, in Rin's time, demons had already vanished from existence.
"Not quite," Rias replied. "Soul contracts are still part of our business, but these days, we mostly deal in emotional energy. We've signed peace treaties, after all. In my world, it's rare to make a direct soul-exchange contract unless the person willingly agrees to it."
"That still sounds pretty awful, honestly," Rin silently muttered to herself.
At that moment, Mai, who had been keeping a low profile and trying not to draw attention to herself, suddenly brought her legs together, sitting up straight as she pointed expressionlessly at the zombies outside the barrier Rias had cast.
"Will those zombies really disappear?"
Rias nodded.
"Yes. I'm not entirely sure how they disappear, but last time, they vanished quite suddenly."
She had observed it closely before—there was something distinctly strange about the way they left. As soon as they moved out of her line of sight, they would simply vanish into thin air.
"I see…"
Mai didn't press further. Instead, she quietly sat down with her legs tucked, which made Rin glance at her in confusion—but her attention quickly shifted to something else:
Rias's magic.
"By the way, Miss Rias," Rin asked with a serious tone, "your magic… doesn't seem to follow the standard limitations, does it?"
She was genuinely curious. In her world, magic was restricted by a system called the Thaumaturgical Foundation—constructed based on legends, formulas, and theoretical models. But Rias's magic didn't seem to rely on any of that.
And that struck Rin as odd. In this world, her own magic wasn't bound by those limits anymore—and neither, apparently, was Rias's.
"Oh? So you noticed as well?" Rias smiled lightly. "Then let's share some knowledge, shall we?"
She too was intrigued by Rin's magical system.
Time quietly ticked by.
Whenever Ryuji felt his motivation starting to dip, he would take a bite of the food from the Food Wars world. Instantly, images of himself having sex with beautiful girls would flood his mind.
And just like that, his fighting spirit would spike again, pushing away all boredom and frustration.
Meanwhile, Mai listened attentively to the two mages' discussion, occasionally chiming in with questions of her own.
But suddenly, as an ominous sensation crept over everyone, their attention turned toward the barrier Rias had constructed.
The next moment, faint ripples shimmered across its surface.
Clearly, the zombies were hitting it harder.
After gauging the drain on her magical energy, Rias turned to Ryuji.
"…The zombies are getting stronger. Ryuji, the blood moon's effect is intensifying."
Ryuji paused mid-training and looked over at her.
"How much stronger?"
"Twice as strong. And their durability has gone up too."
"Tch."
Ryuji clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"This world seriously wants us dead, huh? Can't that so-called world consciousness control itself a little? I mean, if it's looking for a successor, why is it trying to kill them?"
He really wanted to rant about that. Rias, unsurprisingly, didn't hesitate to join in.
"If it could control things, it wouldn't have to go around selecting a dimensional ruler in the first place. And the zombies getting stronger? That seems to be one of the core rules of this world. Even the world will can't override it."
Rias brushed her hair aside with a sigh. As things stood, her barrier could still hold—for now. But if they didn't find a way out soon, she would have no choice but to rely on Ryuji.
…And reluctantly bring an end to this extremely effective training setup.
Aside from the monotony, it was a perfect overlimit training environment—no real danger, no lasting side effects.
Rias honestly didn't want to give it up.
The atmosphere turned heavy again. Rin and Mai, still lacking a foundation of trust with the others, remained silent and observant.
Time passed once more in quiet tension.
Finally, Rias sensed something shift—the pressure outside started to ease, and the zombies began to vanish once again.
She stood up at once.
"Looks like new arrivals are coming."
She opened the door. Ryuji and the others quickly followed her out, and the moment they stepped outside—
Rin and Mai saw it.
How they themselves had arrived in this world.
And then, in a flash of eerie stillness, two new figures appeared before them.
One was a silver-haired girl in a black dress and blindfold. The other, a young woman wearing a cowboy hat.
They had seemingly emerged from nowhere.
~~~~~~~
Bonus chapter every 200 PS.