After Work, I Brought Home a Devilish Beauty - Chapter 28

“…Chiba?”

The moment Yuichi saw the familiar girl standing outside his apartment, his eyes widened in surprise.

“…It really is you.”

Chiba looked slightly embarrassed under his gaze.

She lowered her head and greeted him softly.

“Good morning, Yuichi.”

Yuichi immediately smiled.

“Good morning!”

His gloomy mood from the past few days instantly disappeared.

Staying home today was definitely the right decision.

He stepped aside to let her in.

“So…”

“What brings you here all of a sudden?”

Chiba hesitated.

She seemed unusually reluctant to speak.

Finally, after gathering her courage, she quietly said,

“…I need your help.”

Yuichi blinked.

“…Mine?”

This was the first time Chiba had ever asked him for a favor.

She tilted her head slightly.

“…Is that a problem?”

Her large crimson eyes looked straight at him.

Yuichi hurriedly waved both hands.

“No, no!”

“It’s not that.”

“I’m just surprised.”

“I’m only an ordinary human.”

“I don’t know how much help I can actually be.”

“So…”

“What exactly do you need?”

After thinking for a moment, Chiba asked a simple question.

“…Do you know how to use a computer?”

Yuichi couldn’t help smiling.

If there was one thing he was confident about…

It was this.

“Of course I do.”

Hearing that answer, Chiba visibly relaxed.

“…Good.”

“That makes things much easier.”

After entering the room, Yuichi dusted off the desktop computer that had been sitting unused for quite some time.

The machine slowly powered on.

Since it was Chiba’s first time seeing a computer, she leaned closer, watching every movement with obvious curiosity.

The monitor suddenly lit up.

A familiar startup sound echoed through the room.

“…!”

Chiba immediately flinched.

“…What’s wrong?”

Yuichi asked.

“N-Nothing.”

She answered quickly.

But judging from her stiff expression…

She had clearly been startled.

…Did the startup sound actually scare her?

Yuichi found it slightly amusing but decided not to tease her.

Instead, he turned toward the monitor.

“Alright.”

“The computer’s ready.”

“What are we looking for?”

Chiba thought carefully before answering.

“…Can we find information about restoring magic power?”

Yuichi scratched his head.

“…Magic…”

That would certainly be difficult.

As far as he knew…

Magic didn’t exist in this world.

Still…

Since Chiba had come all this way to ask for his help, he decided to try.

Opening a search engine, Yuichi entered several keywords related to restoring magical power.

Search results quickly filled the screen.

Unfortunately…

Almost every result led to fantasy novels, role-playing games, or websites discussing fictional magic spells.

None of them looked remotely trustworthy.

“…Did you find anything?”

Chiba asked hopefully.

Seeing the anticipation in her eyes made Yuichi feel a little guilty.

He really didn’t want to disappoint her.

“…Maybe I used the wrong keywords.”

“Let’s try again.”

Just as he was about to perform another search…

Something strange happened.

A brand-new webpage suddenly appeared near the top of the search results.

It hadn’t been there a moment ago.

According to the timestamp…

It had been posted only one minute earlier.

“…That’s odd.”

Curious, Yuichi clicked on it.

The webpage itself looked incredibly strange.

Most of the text was unreadable.

Lines of incomprehensible symbols and distorted characters filled nearly the entire page.

“…What is this?”

Even Yuichi couldn’t make sense of it.

Scrolling all the way to the bottom…

He finally found a paragraph written in normal language.

“If a demon wishes to restore its magical power…”

“Seek the haunted house.”

“There lies the answer you desire.”

Yuichi frowned.

“…A haunted house?”

Beside him, Chiba tilted her head.

“…What’s a haunted house?”

Yuichi thought for a moment before answering.

“It’s an attraction where people deliberately try to scare visitors.”

“You go in…”

“…and people dressed as ghosts jump out to frighten you.”

“Oh…”

Chiba quietly fell into thought.

Yuichi waved a hand in front of her face.

“…Chiba?”

No response.

Several seconds later…

A mysterious smile slowly spread across her face.

“I’ve figured it out.”

She suddenly grabbed Yuichi’s sleeve.

“Yuichi.”

“Please…”

“Take me to this haunted house.”

Her crimson eyes sparkled with determination.

Whatever secrets this world held…

She intended to uncover them herself.