Give children a little self-destruction shock to their worldview.

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“But now is the time to change things up, isn’t it?” said the phantom thief.

She knew the extent to which the Gentleman of the Abyss would go for his family.

Driven by the curse of the Desperate Monster, he even dared to tamper with the rules of the world—and he actually succeeded.

What if you told him that your actions could help more eccentric people, including his family, live better lives?

Even if a trace of madness from back then remains, it's time to get on board, Mr. Gentleman of the Abyss.

Main text: Chapter 218 The Agreement is Fulfilled

The Gentleman of the Abyss did not answer immediately, but instead revealed his closed eyes and opened them again.

His features began to emerge; he had a lean face that could be described as handsome, but it was rather blurry.

He stood up, his leather shoes landing atop the not-so-wide billboard, his body maintaining its balance with remarkable agility. More wind rushed into his collar, lifting the hem of his coat.

To be honest, although the Abyss Gentleman usually looks honest, when he transforms into a human, his appearance is clearly more aggressive.

Although he was excessively thin, his features were so sculpted that he looked like a foreigner, and he didn't have the vigor of a teenager. At first glance, the young man's face looked tired, with a smiling lip, slightly drooping eyes, and even fine lines when he smiled.

But it inexplicably gives people a sense of sharpness.

An aura of fear enveloped the young man like a fog. He stepped on the billboard, standing on a vertical plane in a posture that defied the laws of physics, and walked down before gently landing on the ground.

The Gentleman of the Abyss chuckled, snapped his fingers, and his features vanished again into the darkness of his silent face.

He didn't button up his collar as meticulously as usual, but this was closer to the image of the terrifying monster from the Phantom Thief's memory.

Then the Gentleman of the Abyss extended his hand: "It's a pleasure doing business with you, Miss Phantom Thief."

"Pleasant to work with."

The Gentleman of the Abyss merely shook the other person's hand lightly before politely letting go, without revealing a trace of deception.

He should have been smiling, but at that moment he hid his mouth behind the darkness.

Are you kidding me?

The Abyss Gentleman was unusually displeased.

Even back then, he wasn't the kind of weirdo who would follow others around and reap the benefits.

Despite a gloomy mood and considerable vigilance and resistance, now is not the time to act.

Cooperation is indeed a good idea... for both him and Miss Phantom Thief.

Though concealing all emotions, the abyss gentleman's appearance betrayed something amiss. Despite lacking facial features, one could sense his gaze and gentle smile.

"Alright, now can you tell me your next plan, Miss Phantom Thief?" The Abyss Gentleman feigned a complaint. "You've kept your mouth shut these past few days. I know nothing, which isn't a good thing for a collaborator."

"Don't rush, look at your palm," the phantom thief said.

The Abyss Gentleman realized something, raised his hand, and found that an orange magic seal was faintly visible under his white glove in the palm of his right hand.

“I’m just trying to be helpful, Gentleman of the Abyss.” The phantom thief knew she couldn’t sway the strange man before her with just a few words; his temper had always been eccentric, so this was a necessary precaution. “You know that oaths can have magical power under certain circumstances, right?”

"...Yes, I know." The Abyss Gentleman's voice remained calm, without the slightest hint of panic.

Indeed, oaths can be bound by magic, but that requires the consent of both the medium and the person being sworn in.

The Abyss Gentleman could only think of one reason for achieving the effect of a magical oath so silently.

I never expected that the ability of this phantom thief in front of me would be [Oath].

The phantom thief seemed to know what he was thinking and said directly, "My source magic is not an oath, but a covenant."

This is a more gentle term than "oath," and it fits the definition of a magical girl better.

After all, magical girls are the kind of group that would go all out for a promise that seems unimportant.

The Gentleman of the Abyss realized he had been tricked, but he wasn't particularly angry.

He found it amusing: "Were you really a magical girl before? Miss Phantom Thief?"

Using magic, originally meant to restrain herself, in this situation, the Abyss Gentleman truly didn't know whether to praise the phantom thief lady before him for her rapid growth in vigilance, or to mock her for not being a proper, upright magical girl at all.

"That's not important. What's important is that you'd better not break the [agreement]." The phantom thief's face darkened instantly, as if she had been stepped on, and she warned sharply.

The Abyss Gentleman raised his hands: "If I were to betray them, I would definitely face a severe backlash."

He noticed that the black light in the eyes of the phantom thief in front of him was becoming more and more obvious.

This caused the other person's originally bright eyes to darken.

He got the answer.

After giving the warning, the phantom thief left the abyss gentleman with the task of continuing to observe the flow of magic before departing on her own.

If we want to seize the opportunity to integrate the world during this recent window of opportunity, we must improve efficiency.

The Fear Monster is bound by the [agreement] and will not betray itself anytime soon.

Therefore, we need to proceed with the next steps.

To reunite the two worlds, the power of despair is also essential.

This is not just Miss Phantom Thief's wild guess; there is a greater than 70% probability that it is true.

The power of despair will act as a drill and adhesive to connect the two worlds, linking two parts that were originally unrelated.

The eccentric with negative emotions is actually the most eccentric person remaining in the surface world who possesses the characteristics of the old era.

In other words, in a world where almost all the oddballs are new breeds, it is possible to extract enough elements of the old era from the core of the magic of these negative emotion oddballs.

When the inner and outer worlds were separated, most dangerous species were eliminated and moved to the inner world, leaving only the strange people closely related to humans to live in the outer world.

Under the power of God, the personalities of the strange people became more human, gentler, and more harmless after generations of peaceful living, and were able to survive peacefully in human society.

However, there are also strange individuals whose basic attributes make it impossible for them to be harmless.

That is [despair].

This eccentric attribute, so out of place in the surface world, shouldn't actually be recognized by the spiritual veins. But now, due to the Abyss Gentleman's alteration and another force, it has become a legitimate existence.

In other words, such eccentric traits not only allow one to navigate the surface world, but are also quite welcome in the underworld.

Miss Phantom Thief had been observing the whole time. She saw the Abyss Gentleman alter the rules of the spiritual veins to protect the teddy bear with the attribute of despair, and then there was the mess caused by the horde of insects.

However, there was another force that she could not observe due to the protection of otherworldly power.

However, it seemed to be just one person, and I couldn't sense any magic from them, so it wouldn't have any effect on me.

Unaware that the Despair Monster had been replaced, the phantom thief planned to pick up the Despair Monster while the Abyss Gentleman was working there.

To prevent the Abyss Gentleman, who is obsessed with family, from going crazy, he needs to find another place to take the Despair Monster to settle down.

Main text: Chapter 219 Yoko Sugiyama

"Yoko, Yoko—where are you?"

Her sister's voice came through a wardrobe. Yoko Sugiyama cautiously peeked out through the gap in the wardrobe and saw the back of her sister's head with messy red hair.

Twelve-year-old Sugiyama Rika looked around the room in distress, but couldn't find her younger sister.

She scratched her head: "Strange... Where did Yoko go?"

With puffed-out cheeks, she muttered a couple of things before disappearing from her narrow field of vision.

Yoko Sugiyama waited cautiously for Rikka Sugiyama to leave, and only breathed a small sigh of relief when her footsteps disappeared outside the door.

Hmph, now you can't find yourself anymore.

Yoko Sugiyama adjusted her position in the closet, curled up in the shadows, smelling the closet and clothes. There was no sound around her, only a sense of peace.

At this time, Yoko Sugiyama was eleven years old and not yet a magical girl. However, the image of magical girl Akatsuki had already appeared on television, and her classmates were excitedly discussing the super cool and cute little hero who was about their age.

Yoko Sugiyama naturally also liked the magical girl Akane very much, but the magical girl Shion who recently appeared immediately caught her eye.

She preferred this type of magical girl; she seemed much smarter than the red one, and was often calm and collected, which made the red magical girl seem clumsy and impulsive.

She's just as thick-skinned as her older sister.

Because her older sister's personality is so similar to Akane's, Yoko Sugiyama always has a strange sense of déjà vu, so it feels a bit awkward to actually like the magical girl Akane.

After the magical girl Shiwan appeared, she immediately fell in love with someone else.

As a result, when I mentioned it at the dinner table today, my sister seemed a little unhappy for some reason.

Yoko Sugiyama wrinkled her nose and puffed out her cheeks, clearly displeased.

My sister has no taste at all.

The two sisters have been bickering since childhood.

My older sister, Sugiyama Rikka, is active and simple-minded, a bit thick-skinned, and athletic. Her grades aren't particularly good; she's the classic type of idiot.

The younger sister, Yoko Sugiyama, is more sensitive and introverted, but she is always teased and annoyed by Rika Sugiyama, so she is always at odds with her unreliable older sister, and they always have something nice to say to each other.

Overall, it's a good family atmosphere.

Today was no different. During dinner, Yoko Sugiyama said that she preferred the magical girl Shion, and Sugiyama Rika retaliated by yelling and tickling her until Yoko Sugiyama hurriedly ran away and hid in the closet.

I really don't understand this sister who likes to act crazy...

Yoko Sugiyama remained as dismissive as ever.

She had intended to come out of the closet after Sugiyama Rika left, but she had never been very strong since childhood, and the smell of her sister's closet made her fall asleep without realizing it.

Yes, this is Sugiyama Rika's room. She had fled in a panic while being chased and hid in the closet, managing not to be discovered by her older sister, who had been inexplicably busy lately.

I woke up again to a blinding light.

She felt as if a sun had suddenly appeared in the room, its light so intense that even just passing through the crack in the wardrobe door could illuminate the entire inside.

I opened my eyes in a daze, and the light from the outside world had finally disappeared.

Yoko Sugiyama overheard her sister talking to the strange girl.

"Red, it's supposed to be your turn to patrol tonight, isn't it?" It was a voice suppressing anger.

Sugiyama Rika: "I'm so sorry... but my sister has gone missing, and I'm looking for her."

The magical girl Shiwan was silent for a moment, somewhat incredulous: "You can't use magic to find it? Didn't I just give you a notebook to search for magic yesterday?"

"Huh? Oh, right!" The idiot slapped her palm, her forehead lighting up. She wasn't embarrassed at all for not having thought of this method; instead, her eyes sparkled as she looked at the other person. "Ayasa is so smart! She can master so much magic so quickly!"

"You're so stupid." Magical girl Shion felt a little uncomfortable with the praise and added, "Don't say your real name after transforming, or you'll be found out, you idiot!"

As she spoke, she took the small goggles that Sugiyama Rika handed her—Yoko Sugiyama's personal belongings—and then helped her use magic to find the person.

Sugiyama Rika said awkwardly, "It's just us here, so no one will find out..."

From the magical girl Shion, who is also the young Terasaki Ayasa after her transformation, a beam of light was pointed directly at the wardrobe with a small crack in it.

“…” Sugiyama Rika finished the last word with a daze, then shut her mouth.

Because the two of them discovered that the person they had been searching for was actually inside the closet. Magical light fell into the girl's red eyes, which had been constantly observing them, taking in everything that had just happened.

Wait, what's going on?!

Sugiyama Rika rushed over and opened the wardrobe, and sure enough, she saw her younger sister sitting inside in shock, staring at her wide-eyed.

Sugiyama Rika had a bit of a headache: "Yoko, when...when did you see everything?"

This is troublesome... She rubbed her temples.

But Terasaki Ayasa had a different idea.

She didn't think it was a pure accident that Yoko Sugiyama saw them transform here.

After all, magical girls' magical costumes have a confusing effect. Even if someone transforms in front of you, if you don't have magical aptitude, you won't be able to connect the person before and after the transformation.

Moreover, through her gem beast Lena, she learned some of the hidden rules of magical girls.

One of them is:

Magical girls will never reveal their identities unless absolutely necessary.

【Necessary】means that the person who discovers their identity will not have any negative impact on them, and will provide necessary help; they are the partners that magical girls need.

What's more, the other party is a magical girl from the future.

So, do these two sisters both possess magical aptitude?

Terasaki Ayasa's gaze fell on the flustered Sugiyama Rika and the composed Sugiyama Yoko.

The two sisters look alike, but you can tell at a glance that they have different personalities.