The Way to Win a Maiden’s Heart

“As I thought. The essence of this move is vibration, isn’t it?”

In the ruined hallway, Ewan sat on a piece of rubble from a shattered wall, studying the movements of his own hand. His fingers would sometimes curl, sometimes straighten, mimicking the claws of various beasts. But no matter how the movements changed, the core principle remained the same. As he waved his hand, the air around it would tremble slightly.

Thunderclap LV2!

Looking at the record in the black book, Ewan couldn’t help but show a look of joy. After being slaughtered hundreds of times by Elka’s husband, that powerful adventurer, he had finally gotten the hang of this move. Compared to the Shadow Step, which could only be used for movement, and the Dagger Combat Technique, which was more of a skill than a martial art, this move was clearly more versatile. It could also be said to be the first offensive martial art Ewan had learned. And since it was so powerful at only LV2, he couldn’t even imagine how terrifying it would be when its proficiency was higher.

But that was also why this move was so much harder to learn than the Shadow Step.

“But as long as I’ve gotten the hang of it, the subsequent progress will be much easier.”

Learning martial arts through combat, due to the lack of a teacher’s guidance, the most difficult part was always getting started. But once you got started, the high-intensity training would make the subsequent improvement much easier.

For example, Ewan’s Dagger Combat Technique had now reached LV8. In terms of just the skill of wielding a dagger, Ewan prided himself on being no weaker than the maid assassin from before. Of course, he still had no hope of winning against her in the black book. The gap in their ranks and overall abilities was still a chasm that he couldn’t cross for now.

“I still have to keep working hard.”

Ewan looked away and turned to his side.

Ryan, who was lying on the ground, covered in blood, was trembling slightly, a low groan escaping his throat.

He opened his eyes, a look of confusion on his face.

“Are you awake, Ryan?”

“Where… am I?”

Ryan felt the tearing pain from his body and with great difficulty, he turned his head to look at himself.

His right hand was pinned to the ground by an ordinary fruit knife, the blade buried in his palm up to the hilt. His other limbs were bent at strange angles. He tried to move, but all he felt was an even more intense pain shooting through his nerves.

“Sorry. You were a little too scary just now, so I had to temporarily immobilize you,” Ewan said softly. “Do you remember what happened?”

“I…”

Ryan’s expression was dazed, his lips chapped from blood loss.

Of course he remembered what had happened.

He had led a group of cultists into the dormitory to find Ewan. He had fought Ewan Campbell and had been beaten into this state. And… before that, he had been constantly stealing boys’ underwear from the other dorm rooms and collecting them as if they were precious treasures, even going so far as to put a dozen locks on an ordinary wardrobe.

But the problem was…

Why did he do that?

Why did he hurt his own classmates?

Why did he become a member of those cultists?

And…

Why did he do such a perverted thing?

He had always longed for a pretty girl to be his girlfriend.

He wasn’t gay!

“It seems you’ve finally come to your senses.”

Ewan stared into Ryan’s eyes and, after confirming that the previous anger and ferocity were gone, he let out a sigh of relief. “But I’m sorry. I can’t let you go just yet. I can’t be sure if the Evil God’s influence on you is still there.”

“I’m sorry… Ewan,” Ryan said, trembling and crying. An endless wave of regret filled his heart. Although he didn’t know why he had done those things, he knew that they were all wrong.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

Ewan smiled, his handsome face, as if carved from a golden ratio, seemed to shine with a bright light under the illumination from outside.

“Do you remember when you became like this?”

“When?”

Ryan fell into a memory.

“Probably… before the start of the semester… I was wandering the streets when I saw someone handing out flyers… The flyer said that it could make you popular, that it could help you find your true love… so… I went… I don’t remember where it was exactly. After I went, it was that High Priest. He said something to me… and then… and then I thought… well, I can’t find a girlfriend anyway… maybe liking men… isn’t so bad? And then when I came to my senses, I was already back at the academy. I didn’t feel like anything was wrong. I thought it was just a boring dream. But every night, I would lose control and do those things… and before… when those people appeared in front of me, I was in a daze… as if… I wasn’t myself. And when I was fighting you, Ewan… the anger in my chest was about to erupt, as if the things you said to me… were defiling my love.”

“As I thought.”

Ewan sighed at his words, but then he couldn’t help but smile in relief. “A silver lining. You were only controlled in some way. You weren’t truly corrupted by the Evil God. Or rather, the corruption wasn’t deep.”

Like Elka, and the High Priest before her, a significant feature of being corrupted by the God of Love was that when they lost control of their emotions or were in a desperate situation, they would transform into that disgusting, hideous monster. It was an external manifestation of their completely twisted hearts, a sign that the Evil God’s power had already seeped into their very bones.

But Ryan hadn’t. The change in his body shape before was more like some kind of martial art or talent of his own. And he was able to wake up again, which meant that he was not beyond saving.

“I’m so sorry. I just… I just wanted a cute girlfriend,” Ryan continued to apologize, snot and tears streaming down his face, mixed with blood, making him look very wretched.

After the Evil God’s influence had faded, his true nature was now revealed before Ewan.

Not a hot-tempered pervert, nor a psychologically twisted gay man.

Just an ordinary boy who was troubled because he longed for the affection of a cute girl.

“I see. In that case, as the academy’s famous playboy, I’ll teach you how to win a cute girl’s heart,” Ewan suddenly said.

“Eh?”

Ryan hadn’t understood Ewan’s words before he saw him suddenly stand up and look out the corridor window.

Under the illumination of many searchlight-like beams of light, below the dormitory building, a huge, twisted monster was roaring non-stop.

It was the High Priest.

After being cornered by Ariel and the other student council elites who had rushed to support her, the High Priest, like Elka before him, had devoured the other muscular men and had transformed into this huge, disgusting monster.

But unlike Elka’s situation, this was Saint Marika Academy, which was famous for its magic. Such a huge body was practically a living target.

And so, under the fierce, overwhelming magical assault, even with his rapid regeneration, the High Priest was soon torn apart, revealing a weak spot.

The source of the corruption, that thick holy scripture, was floating in the flesh and blood, as if it had a mind of its own, dodging the magical attacks.

But since the source had been revealed, there was no reason to let it go.

Ewan bent down, picked up the huge horse-chopping saber on the ground, and walked to the shattered window.

“Ah, right.”

Just before he was about to jump down, as if he had remembered something, he turned back to look at Ryan and gestured to his own ear. “Your ear. The cut is very clean. I think it can be saved with timely magic. So you don’t have to worry about your appearance affecting your popularity in the future.”

“Ewan…”

“So, watch carefully.”

Ewan smiled, then turned and, without any hesitation, he leaped from the floor, plummeting toward the monster below.

“Rule number one for winning a cute girl’s heart:

—Never miss an opportunity to look cool!”