But in regards to this culture festival, with a motivation that was completely unthinkable compared to his usual attitude in class, he participated actively since the planning stage.

  Just what in the world was the reason for this difference in attitude.

  Of course Homura had his own reason for that.

  “I like the bustling atmosphere but the reason for my high spirit is not that. You gals also heard right? About how the sales of the store in the culture festival is split equally to the students.”

  Correct. The truth was that the culture festival of New Tokyo Sorcery Academy was adopting the system of returning the whole earnings to the students in order to encourage the students’ motivation.

  In other words, the students could make their business with zero risk using only their physical strength as the capital.

  “You gonna get high spirited from that?”

  “You really want money that much?”

  “After all I’m always running out of money see.”

  Anna seemed to guess something from these words and nodded.

  “Aah, I see. It’s really hard for -san who attracted the eyes of the government―”

  “If you really think so then attract customers, even if its just one more. I’m begging here.”

  Saying that Homura turned on his heels and left the three.

  “Homura-san, thank you very much for helping me! That was really cool!”

  “Ou-“

  After receiving the word of thanks by his back and returning the reply by lifting his arm, Homura dashed with all his strength towards the backyard of their cat ear teahouse which was located in a corner of the opened grounds of the imperial palace.

  It was a full power dash under the burning ray of the sun that rained down from directly overhead.

  For Homura who was always receiving a heavy burden on his mind and body as if he was inside the deep ocean from the effects of , it was quite an intense act, but his legs didn’t stop even though his breath roughened.

  That was how serious Homura was in this event.

  However that was only natural.

  Just like Anna guessed before, having the eyes of the zeroing in on him, Homura whose nationality was robbed couldn’t find a proper job. It meant that he almost had no way to obtain money.

  As the only way to properly obtain money, he could also exterminate demons and receive compensation from the , but they were extremely bitter in their payment. Because the other side also understood that even without compensating Homura he would still kill demons, and also because of the relation structure that the was under the control of the , they didn’t pay him generously.

  Yet despite so, it was not Homura’s personality to rip off money from other people by force or asked for money from humans who regarded him favorably like Kinugasa.

  As a result, Homura’s financial situation was always barely scraping by.

  For someone like him, this culture festival was an extremely profitable event.

  It was only obvious that he would be unusually motivated.

  However, until the end it was only Homura’s circumstance.

  It was irrelevant for the other students.

  No, rather, the more Homura got motivated, the other students who harbored fear to the would only shrink back more.

  But―that was only a story until before this.

  “Ah-! Homura-san came back already!”

  “Welcome baa―ck!”

  “Oo―. I’m back.”

  When Homura arrived at the backyard, several students who were working behind the scene saw his figure and gathered around him with light footsteps.

  In their expression there was no color of fear that was there until before.

  Rather, their expressions were even filled with adoration and respect.

  ――The impetus for this was the battle with Hecatoncheires.

  Not only once but twice, not just twice but thrice, Homura had showed that he saved this world from demons.

  No matter how much lies the church and government piled up, but such brilliant efforts were not something that could be hidden.

  The students were beginning to realize gradually.

  The was not that terrifying of an existence like how the government made him out as a .

  Certainly the power he possessed was terrifyingly fearsome, but… there was no doubt that he was the ally of them, mankind, a reassuring protector.

  And then, that change of recognition didn’t happen only inside the academy.

  The recognition of the normal civilians towards the was also in the process of changing.

  The truth was,

  “Ah, the back, look at the back. The has come back there!”

  “Hee. That’s the you-know-who… looking at him directly like this is my first time, but isn’t he really cool!”

  “Of course he is cool. After all he had already saved humanity three times now.”

  “Waa― lets’ take a commemoration photo!”

  The big part of the reason why their shop was thriving to the degree that he needed to purchase additional ingredients was the result of customers that came rushing to take a look at Homura.

  The moment Homura entered the weather-beaten backyard,

  Countless gazes were gathering on him.

  The gazes were filled more with interest rather than good will. The gazes were overflowing with curiosity.

  Among them there were also people taking pictures.

  {Even though they had feared Master until that much……. Self-interested bunch.}

  Looking at that populace, the avatar of that Homura hid in a pocket dimension, Vel leaked out her honest opinion in a small voice that only Homura could hear through mind transmission.

  That was because she didn’t wish for Homura to become closely mixed with humans.

  Because she knew that it was only a fleetingly brittle relation that would surely break someday.

  Homura talked to Vel who was like that with a soothing tone.

  {Come now, don’t say that. They dropped their cash here after all, so I’ll warmly welcome them.}

  {…Even something like that?}

  While saying that Vel directed Homura’s consciousness towards one of the customers, an old woman sitting at the corner.

  “Gratitude~gratitude~……nanmandabu, nanmandabu……”

  {No well, as expected I wanted to be spared from getting prayed on while rubbing prayer beads like that……}

  “Eh? Kamishiro-san. Where is the additional ingredients?”

  One of the students tilted her head and asked Homura who was looking at the old woman with a wry smile.

  Homura moved his gaze from the old woman hearing that voice and said “Aah, wait. I’ll take it out now”, then he took out a cube that shined like rainbow the size of a dice from his trouser pocket. After that――

  “――release.”

  He liberated the space that was compressed by the dimension element fifth grade sorcery, .

  Large amount of food and drink of various kind was brought out in the backyard.

  “Wow, amazing……! Isn’t there around the amount of one mini-truck here?”

  “That’s a convenient sorcery.”

  “Can you teach me somehow?”

  “Oi, there is no way you can use fifth grade sorcery……”

  “If it’s not for combat use then it’s not that hard of a technique y’know.”

  “But Homura-kun. No matter what, this amount is just too much……”

  One of the female students pointed that out after looking at the materials that were in a heap.

  From that the other people were also continuing “Certainly.”

  The truth was, the amount of material that Homura brought was around five times the amount that the kitchen group requested.

  But naturally, there was a reason for this.

  “Aah, about that――”

  When he was going to explain that,

  “Master―!”

  With pitter-patter footsteps, among everyone who were wearing cat ear hairbands, there was only one petite girl wearing dog ears, Ichinotani Chikori was energetically running into the backyard.

  Homura asked Chikori.

  “Oo―. Chikori! How was it? You can borrow it?”

  “Yes-. The additional tables and chairs. The share for twenty tables, the people of the Imperial Household Agency lent them to me.”

  Right. This was the reason why Homura procured an excessive amount of ingredients.

  Homura intended to invite even more customers by doubling the number of the shop’s seating.

  “Yoo―sh, you did well!”

  “Ehehe―”

  Homura messily patted Chikori’s head that accomplished her errand properly.

  Thereupon Chikori’s small ponytail shook all over like the tail of a dog.

  But in contrast with the two’s harmonious atmosphere, the surrounding students’ expressions paled from that exchange.

  “A, additional table, you want to increase the seats more than this!?”

  “No way no way, that‘s impossible! Even though we are in the brink of burning out here already……!”

  Their reaction was most correct.

  Currently even with just twenty tables the students who were not used of working part-time were already gasping for breath.

  If the number of seating was increased more than this, both the kitchen and the hall wouldn’t be able to manage.

  But naturally, Homura had also expected that. Therefore he said this.

  “Calm down. After all I’ve already called for helper soon.”

  “Eh? Helper?”

  “Well, more accurately they are not people though.”

  “Eh, wai-, not people you said, don’t tell me……!?”

  Those were ominous words one couldn’t pretend to not hear coming out from the mouth of Homura who was the .

  Hearing that all the students in that place felt a bad premonition, they even tried to stop――

  They were already late.

  (This time ain’t a battle, so there ain’t any need to manifest them at full power I guess.)

  Like that, Homura discarded almost all the chanting――

  And called the name of the god he summoned.

  “Come walking like gliding. Bastet!”

  “Uwaaa! It’s as expecteddd~~~~!”

  “What are you thinking――――-!”

  The students screamed.

  However the summoning was heartlessly carried out without any trouble.

  The moment Homura called the name of the god, a silver pentagram― was carved on the ground, an eruption of light was produced from there.

  Before long that surge of light was settled and on top of the , a lot of furballs were making their appearance.

  That was a mountain made from countless cats that curled up their bodies.

  And then there was a single girl that laid sprawled on top of that cushion of cats.

  Light brown skin and jet black hair.

  And then on the head of the little girl was crowned with cat ears of the same color as her hair.

  This girl was the god of love and bountiful crops which were revered by the ancient people of Egypt, the goddess that supervises the cats of the earth― Bastet.

  Homura talked to the materialized god of cats with a carefree tone as if asking a favor from a friend.

  “Bastet. It has surely reached your ears which can listen to the voice of the Jupiter cat. Just as you know, this is a situation where I even want to borrow a cat’s hand. Cooperate with me.”

  In response, Bastet raised her body on top of the giant furball,

  “Fu……. Being flattered or the like by a human is not something we the highly proud cats do but, if it’s thy request then we cannot also just refuse. Leave it to us.”

  Smiling a little after that, she largely opened her mouth where there were two fangs growing there,

  “Nyaa―oo――――-“ She emitted a greatly low sound that was like a rumble, it was not a sound range that generally could be pronounced with a human’s vocal cords.

  That sound, no, that voice made the cats that were curling up until now to come alive all at once.

  With their inherent keenness and nimbleness, the cats spread out through the whole area of Homura and the others’ shop in the blink of an eye.

  “Kyaa! Wh, what’s this!?”

  “Ca, cat!? Look, the cat is carrying the food!”

  Some cats clutched a cup with their tail, bringing it until the table――

  Then some other cats were skillfully carrying a plate of hotcake on top of their heads,

  And some other cats began to carry out transportation of ingredients for the sake of the students in the kitchen.

  Sometimes there was also a cat that sneaked a bite, but those individual cats were immediately punched by other cats and punished.

  Actually, their movements were led really well.

  All the students and also the customers similarly opened their eyes wide towards this sight.

  “How cute~. It looks like a fairyland for some reason!”

  Precisely because this was a shop that originally was dressed as a cat ear teahouse, that these helpers generally received great evaluation.

  However, the students who knew about what happened behind the scenes couldn’t stay calm about it.

  “Wa, wait Homura-san! Is this really okay!? Using the power of for something like this is……!”

  A student asked Homura while sweating buckets.

  As if in agreement with that student, Bastet smiled bewitchingly.

  “Fufu. The worry of that person is most correct Homura. My power certainly cannot be borrowed so casually. My name is the Bastet. The that has the like of blood and entrails as offering! Now, thy wish is fulfilled. Just as what the priest of Bastet did for me before, thy can present the compensation of blood to me now! ……Or maybe, the people that are here in this place are that offering?”

  “ “ “Hii……!” ” ”

  Bastet’s eyes that shined bewitchingly made the students tremble and back away.

  But, Homura reproached Bastet who acted like that.

  “That ain’t it―. Don’t threaten anybody even though you know already. In the first place, you aren’t eating things like humans anymore anyway.”

  After that Homura plunged his hand into his pocket and,

  “――Here, the promised thanks.”

  Homura carelessly threw [that bag], which he purchased together with the ingredients for the shop’s use in the supermarket, to Bastet.

  Instantly, Bastet caught it with a agile movement that should be expected from the god of cats, then that childish face burst out in a smile.

  “Oo~♥ Monpucchi! Further it’s the grill-type that I like best~♪”

  Correct. What Homura bought from the market was cat food.

  And it was of the grade that was a little expensive.

  The moment Bastet caught it, she immediately opened the seal.

  She plunged her hand into the bag like a kid that was eating snack food and began to eat with a completely satisfied expression.

  “Nn~♥ Deliciousss. Deliciousss~♪ I thought that you all just merely a hairless ape, but you human bunch are quite a big deal. After all you made something this deliciousss~♪ The instant you know this flavor, things like humans just smell so fishy that you cannot bear to eat♥”

  “Is that so? That’s really great.”

  Homura who had paid the compensation to Bastet gave his guarantee to the students around who were still showing a fearful expression.

  “……It’s fine not getting scared like that. , like Bastet, is different from , like Ithaqua or Iod, they are that have coexisted with humans for a long time until now. They are not so friendly to the point that they can be called as ally, but they are not a bunch that actively harm humans. They can be talked with as suits the occasion. Especially Bastet, she is harmless as long as you don’t torment cats, so it’s fine to relax.”

  “What’s going to happen if you torment a cat?”

  “Death.”

  “I know right―”

  “She is a goddess of bountiful harvest as long as you don’t torment cats. She is just right as a beckoning cat.”

  After laughing in a joking tone, Homura gave out orders to all present in the backyard.

  “Now. With this the lack of personnel is resolved. Resume all the closed menus. Everyone to your stations! Get money, money, earn more money!”

  “U, understood!”

  “Be careful to not step on any cats……!”

  “Chikori. You are going to set the new tables with me.”

  “Go―t it!”

  Like this, without any considerable difficulty Homura and the others operated the cat ear teahouse favorably.

  Perhaps because this was connected with Homura’s livelihood, he showed unusual motivation, ran around between the hall and kitchen as the supervisor of the project and gave out instructions to the students.

  Looking at his figure that was like that……Hoshikawa Sumika who was wiping a table at the hall while staring at him was sighing deeply in amazement.

  “Ge, geez Homura-san……”

  Certainly with this busy time where it made one’s eyes spun around, Sumika herself was also thinking that she wanted to borrow help even if it was a cat’s hand, but… to call an for this kind of reason was just too much.

  (…Well, Bastet herself is not a god that harms humans, most of all it’s exactly because she is safe that Homura-san also summoned her in this kind of place……)

  As a straightforward, common-sense woman, Sumika felt dizzy from this idea that was extremely lacking in common sense.

  But, towards that Sumika,

  “Ahaha! As usual, he is really an extraordinary boy isn’t he, that Homura!”