Chapter 25: Magical Nature

“Yawn… It’s another tired Monday, and Qing Yue entered the classroom with a yawn. Yesterday, after getting to know Yukio, the two exchanged SNS. Yukio’s account was very new, probably created recently. This inexperienced ‘princess’ was always full of curiosity about various things, so Qing Yue was pestered by her to chat on SNS until late at night, leaving Qing Yue a bit sleepy now.

If it were an ordinary night, Qing Yue wouldn’t have had time, as she usually spent this time hunting for food. However, due to Yukio’s increased popularity, she didn’t always have to personally seek out ‘fans’ anymore. Thanks to this, the duration of her mimicry had also been extended.

Upon entering the classroom, she could already hear the boys’ noisy chatter; they seemed to have endless energy to squander.

“Hey Ashu! Did you see that?! The Snow Qing you pushed actually released a photo book!!”

A boy excitedly patted Ashu’s shoulder.

Qing Yue, with dark circles under her eyes, propped her cheek with her hand and took out a carton of milk, bored.

“Oh, oh! That—I’m getting it too, especially that female teacher’s outfit, it’s really unbelievably good!”

Another boy beside him also joined the discussion.

“Kindred spirits!”

The two, in unanimous agreement, instantly completed a handshake of friendship.

“If only there were a swimsuit photo book, that figure in a bikini… No, just imagining it is unbearable.”

“Objective, fair, and straight to the point.”

The two nodded in deep agreement.

Yukio calmly listened to their conversation. She had anticipated this situation, so the photo books she released were personally screened by her. They were ordinary and normal, and the swimsuit photos with Han Quan were kept as a memento for themselves.

(Well… this way, it’s also advantageous for me to obtain spiritual energy. Just endure and it will pass.)

“Cough cough, how can you guys say such vulgar words?”

However, unexpectedly, someone was even more upset than Qing Yue, which made Qing Yue slightly change her view of him.

“It’s too disrespectful to speak such obscenities in front of the hero who saved himself. Snow Qing must have been caught by those people from the Hou Entertainment, and then had to submit to them, forced to take these evil photos, and maybe even…”

For some reason, Ashu’s speech speed increased as he spoke, his face getting redder.

Okay, Qing Yue retracted her recent change in opinion of him.

“Cough cough!!”

She coughed forcefully twice, indicating that there was an ignorant girl eavesdropping behind them.

“Ah, cough cough, just now… where were we?”

Immersed in his fervent fantasy, Ashu finally came back to his senses, awkwardly and with a red neck.

“Oh, right, Snow Qing can’t continue to be the underground magical girl, hmm… this is also inevitable, cough cough.”

“By the way, Ashu, aren’t you only into underground magical girls?”

“Oh! I remember, Ashu seems to only like the type of Silver Warrior, right? After all… with Snow Qing turning official, there’s no love left? Truly a strange XP~”

Another person taunted.

“What does this have to do with XP?” Ashu blushed and glanced at the other person. “I just think that keeping a mysterious hero is the most attractive. I feel regretful for Snow Qing being forced to submit to the company, and I have always respected her.”

Ashu said with a feigned seriousness. However, he did not notice the actions of his friend beside him.

“Hey? Respecting her? Look at what I found in Ashu’s bag! This is really amazing…”

The boy took something out of Ashu’s bag and tossed it to his companion.

“Wow! Isn’t this Snow Qing’s latest photo book? This is a limited edition, and only a few deluxe collector’s editions were released! When I checked yesterday, they were already sold out. How did you manage to get one, Ashu!?”

Their words had a somewhat sarcastic tone.

“Hey hey! Don’t randomly go through people’s bags, you jerk!”

Ashu’s face turned as red as a boiling kettle.

“Don’t look! Damn it—give it back to me!”

Ashu’s social death was imminent.

Qing Yue rolled her eyes at the scene unfolding before her.

“Is this your respect for heroes? It’s truly incredible.”

“Oh! This collector’s edition even has a mysterious extra that the regular version doesn’t have. Let me see—wow! This is amazing too?! It’s a swimsuit!”

(?!)

The words of the boy made Qing Yue, who was coldly observing nearby, suddenly shudder.

(What’s going on? How come I didn’t know about this kind of thing?!)

“Ashu, you absolutely have to lend me this. I’ll return it to you tomorrow! No, wait, I’ll go to the restroom first, and I’ll give it back to you later!”

“Don’t! Don’t do that to ‘her’!”

Ashu, with a look of a helpless victim, faced the snatched collector’s edition.

His expression almost made Qing Yue spit out her milk on the spot.

“Alright, alright, stop playing. Ashu, you’re really exaggerating, haha…”

In fact, the boy was just teasing Ashu.

Ashu quickly “snatched” back his “treasure” and carefully wiped away the fingerprints on it with a glasses cloth.

“Sorry, I might have gone a bit too far, hehe.”

The two apologized to Ashu with smiling faces.

But Ashu snorted in a tsundere manner, then turned his head away. It seemed that his anger wouldn’t dissipate easily.

Whether it was an illusion or not, Qing Yue felt that Ashu’s recent figure seemed to have shrunk a bit, and his demeanor had become quite effeminate.

“Uh-oh, Ashu is angry. I’ll slip away first.”

“Don’t just slip away by yourself. It’s because you went too far. Wait for me.”

The two of them reconciled, leaving Ashu alone cherishing his collector’s edition.

At this moment—

“Can you let me have a look?”

Familiar warm breath hit Ashu’s neck, and a silver bell-like voice sounded in his ears. Somehow… Qing Yue from the back table had brought her face close to his side.

Her fair and slender fingers lifted her hair to the ear, and her crystal-clear big eyes gazed at the photo book in his hand.

“Ah, um! This, this…”

The side profile so close, the fragrance in the air, made Ashu feel at a loss, and the collector’s edition in his hand almost fell to the ground.

“If you don’t want to, forget it.”

The clear voice brought Ashu back from his daze.

“I-it’s okay! Here, take it…”

Ashu weakly handed over his collector’s edition.

Qing Yue took it briskly.

The photos on it were actually quite well taken—

Golden sandy beaches
Blue seawater
Purple bikini swimsuit.
Snow-white thighs
Majestic mountains
A deep and alluring cleavage.

It had to be said that the photographers at Hou Entertainment were indeed top-notch.

Flipping through the pages, Qing Yue scrutinized each of her own photos. At the time of posing, she didn’t feel much, but looking at the pictures now, she realized that the person in them was truly extraordinary— in various senses.

Diverging from the youthful and vibrant styles of other magical girls, the figure in the images exuded a mature and alluring charm akin to a peach. The delicate makeup applied by the artist enhanced her already captivating features, and the photographer’s guidance on ambiguous poses made her golden-proportioned figure particularly enticing. The lazy expression and enchanting smile in the images seemed to silently invite the viewers, exuding an irresistibly seductive allure throughout the entire photoshoot.

Ordinary people wouldn’t be able to perceive it, but Qing Yue herself could undoubtedly see—

The bewitching power of the demons had taken refuge in these photos, using Snow Qing’s image as a medium. As long as someone gazed upon them, the magical power would entice the desires within the observer’s heart. These desires would then transform into spiritual energy, absorbed by the photos, and transmitted across space through the medium of the image to her body. Finally, she would personally enjoy the benefits.

The remaining desires in this process would be absorbed by the photos themselves, making the “her” in the pictures even more charming and alluring.

Seducing prey, consuming prey, nurturing the master, and then absorbing nutrients to grow—these photos were like some kind of wicked living organism.

In other words, these sinister photos were actually harmful to the human body, and Qing Yue herself was benefiting from harming others… It was her instinct as a predator, not something she intentionally chose.

But…

Did she really have no foresight of these evil effects from the very beginning?

While realizing the ominous nature of the photos, feeling repulsion for their inherent evil… deep inside, did she genuinely not feel excited? Did she secretly rejoice at the prospect of obtaining more spiritual energy?

Her salivary glands involuntarily secreted saliva, and the desire to swallow stirred her throat up and down.

In the photos, she seemed to come alive. “She” enticingly shared the beauty of desires with the original. “She” claimed to be the concealed side of her inner self, whispering in Qing Yue’s ear, tempting her to abandon the shackles of boredom…

“Qing Yue, are you okay?”

(！)

Ashu’s concerned inquiry interrupted Qing Yue’s immersion. She finally snapped out of it, and Ashu’s worried gaze appeared before her.

“Is there something wrong with your health?”

“No, no, everything’s fine.”

Qing Yue returned the collector’s edition to its owner… without the slightest reminder about the sinister nature of the explicit photo content.