Chapter 41

Eden was in his kitchen, sipping on a cup of coffee, and reviewing his experiment notes from the training session he had with Rias. After waking up due to Hisato delivering the pills he had requested, Eden also woke up the three girls. With Hisato around, there wasn't much morning fun, so they settled for a simple breakfast prepared by him before they all left. After being driven home and arriving later than expected, Eden talked to Asia, who mentioned that she was going out with Minami and Natsubayashi, two girls Eden vaguely knew as Aoi's friends. While Asia went off, Eden prepared for their upcoming visitors.

Eden had invited both Tomozaki and Ichigaya to come over today. Tomozaki declined, citing an assignment from Aoi, but Ichigaya gave a positive response, mentioning he had nothing better to do. After looking through his notes for a while, he heard the doorbell ring.

Amano and Ichigaya, not having a key to the place, knew that the door was usually unlocked when Eden expected guests. Eden, not wanting to get up but eager to make a decent impression on Amano's friends, was dressed quite well, sporting one of the black cotton hoodies he had gotten yesterday.

Walking up to the door, he opened it and was greeted by a girl. She was pretty attractive, with a girl-next-door look, short blue hair, and a nice figure. She wore a lime green hoodie and khaki pants. Based on Amano's description, Eden said, "Are you Hoshinomori-chan? Amano told me about you, but I didn't expect you to be so early."

She arrived about half an hour ahead of the designated time, and upon seeing Eden, she seemed nervous. "Umm... Yes, I'm Chiaki Hoshinomori. Nice to meet you, Eden-kun," she said with a slightly awkward bow. Her nervousness reminded him of the first time he met Amano.

"Hoshinomori-chan, no need to add anything to my name. Just call me Eden. Come in. Would you like some coffee?" Eden invited her inside, and she followed him nervously, taking in the luxurious and foreign mansion she found herself in.

Leading her to the dining room, where he was enjoying a cup of coffee, Eden finally got her response. "Coffee. I've never had coffee before, but sure."

"Have a seat; I'll prepare you a cup," he said before quickly going to pour her a cup. He prepared the coffee with a good amount of sugar and almond coffee creamer, just the way Amano liked it. He brought the coffee out and handed it to her, and she bowed her head slightly before taking a sip and looking at him. "Thank you," she said.

"So, what kind of gaming nerd are you? Casual, min-max, perverted?" Eden closed the notebook he had been reading and focused on the conversation.

"I'm a casual gamer, and I program games."

"Really, a programmer? That's actually kind of cool," Eden genuinely praised her. He was pretty hopeless when it came to learning tech-related stuff, relying on magic artifacts for research. He thought that anything technology could do, he could do better with magic, and that sentiment hadn't let him down yet.

"So, as a programmer, what do you do? I know nothing about that," he inquired after taking another sip of his coffee.

A few minutes into her detailed explanation of programming, someone else walked into the room. "Eden, thanks for making the arrangements so last minute," Amano said as he entered, but his expression changed upon seeing Hoshinomori. "Seaweed head, why are you here? You're half an hour early; you're annoying, Eden."

"What do you mean 'annoying, Eden'? Before you showed up, Beansprout and I were having a lovely conversation. Besides, you're here early too," Hoshinomori retorted. After that, the two of them engaged in friendly banter, while Eden enjoyed his coffee and was entertained by their bickering. 

As more time passed, the two friends got worn out from arguing with each other. Just a couple of minutes before the scheduled meeting time, another person walked into the room. Ichigaya entered and saw his two friends, and he went over to greet them. However, upon seeing Hoshinomori, he suddenly grew quiet, not wanting to witness his friend in such an embarrassing predicament. He decided to introduce her instead.

"Ichigaya, this is one of Amano's friends that he wanted to join our group. She's Chiaki Hoshinomori. Hoshinomori-chan, this is Kagetora Ichigaya, our group's standard Otaku."

"Don't call me standard," Ichigaya quipped, though he had to admit that it was somewhat accurate. Among everyone in their friend group, Ichigaya was the most ordinary. Excluding Eden from the equation, there were only two other options: Tomozaki and Amano. Both of them were much more unique than Ichigaya. Tomozaki was currently the best Atafami player, and Amano had the most hardcore gaming opinions that he would argue about until he ran out of breath, as Eden had just witnessed.

After a chuckle at their banter, Hoshinomori introduced herself, and then Ichigaya did the same. "So, what were you three talking about before I came?" Before anyone could answer the question, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it. You guys can keep talking," Eden said, getting up to answer the door. Opening it, he saw a familiar Japanese blonde whom he had met for the first time about a week ago. "Tendou-sempai, it's good to see you again," he greeted Karen Tendou.

"Nice to see you too, Eden. Do you live here alone?" she asked, a valid question considering the mansion's size even from an ordinary perspective.

"Yeah, but I hire help for things like cleaning, so I'm doing fine. Most people are already here now; I think we're just waiting for the couple." Walking into the foyer and then the dining room, where everyone was just relaxing, they both entered the room as Amano and Ichigaya's eyes locked onto Tendou, who followed Eden.

"Tendou, do you want anything to drink?" Looking around and seeing that most people had coffee, she asked for the same, and Eden went to get her a cup. When he came back, Ichigaya seemed a bit dumbfounded by Tendou, while Amano and she tried to have a conversation but both appeared very nervous.

Coming back into the room and handing Tendou the coffee, he sat near the group. "So, Tendou, you're in your school's gaming club. Amano told me that your club is really good and wins competitions and stuff."

"Yes, we're more on the competitive side of things."

"I get that winning is more fun than losing. I kind of wish my school had something like that. So, what competitions do you enter?" After getting the conversation started again, it was mostly Eden and Tendou talking while Eden tried to include everyone in the conversation. However, Amano and Ichigaya remained nervous around Tendou, and Hoshinomori didn't seem to do well in larger groups.

About ten minutes into the conversation, he heard the doorbell ring again. Getting up to answer it, he went behind Amano and whispered, "Talk to her." Then he went to the door and opened it, revealing two people. The first was a taller guy, taller than the Japanese but still shorter than himself. He was quite handsome with a good physique and muscles. Standing beside him was a cute girl with long pink hair on the shorter side.

"You two must be Uehara and Aguri. Everyone is already here in the dining area," Eden informed them, turning around to guide them. He couldn't see the surprised looks on their faces due to his appearance.