Besides helping Shinomiya stack up that practical experience, it was also just about time to start scouting for voice actor agencies.
Unlike publishing houses, where you could roughly guess their vibe based on published works, choosing a voice actor agency required digging into the actual workplace environment and considering all sorts of factors. Commission splits were especially important. If she ended up with some black-hearted agency, Shinomiya would earn less—and by extension, he'd earn less too. That would make the early stages way more painful.
Ideally, he'd just open his own voice actor agency. With that kind of media channel, Kuroha Akira's talent-spotting eye and proficiency cheat could truly shine. Unfortunately, being dead broke, he had zero startup capital and no initial resources. He'd just have to wait and see if that kind of opportunity ever came along.
For now, the best he could hope for was to network with some industry bigwigs—just like meeting Mori Katsuma, the editor from Hurricane Publishing, when submitting his light novel. That had been an excellent connection. In the voice acting world, there had to be similarly sharp-eyed people who could see Shinomiya's potential.
Of course, the main goal was still to accelerate Shinomiya's proficiency accumulation speed, so she could graduate into a powerful voice actor as soon as possible.
But the whole "practical experience leads to faster progress" thing was just Kuroha Akira's theory. It might not actually work. So he still needed to record her current proficiency and compare it with future data to see if this kind of trial by fire was effective.
So after finishing Tashiro Kurenai's wound care, Kuroha Akira commanded Shinomiya.
"Shion, hands out."
"Okay."
Kurenai was genuinely surprised. She knew Kuroha Akira had some kind of special ability, but she didn't expect him to just directly ask Shinomiya to stretch out her hands without any excuse or explanation.
What surprised her even more? Shinomiya didn't ask a single question. She just obediently extended both hands.
Had this been explained to her already? No…
Seeing Shinomiya's completely unconfused expression, Kurenai realized the truth: Shinomiya had completely submitted to Kuroha Akira. She'd placed herself in a position almost like a slave—hence the unconditional obedience to her master's commands.
Earlier, Kurenai had thought the two of them just had a mild, youthful ambiguity going on. But now it seemed she'd been completely mistaken.
Kuroha Akira had already conquered her body and mind. He was holding Shinomiya Shion's contract of servitude in his hands.
But Shinomiya had only been at the Kobayashi household for one month… Could a pure, innocent girl be trained to this extent in just thirty days?
How was this done? Did Kuroha Akira also have hypnotic abilities?
But if Kuroha Akira really had that kind of power, he wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to persuade her earlier…
Kurenai didn't quite understand. She could only chalk it up to Kuroha Akira's overwhelming charisma. But in reality, the "problem" wasn't with Kuroha Akira at all—it was with Shinomiya.
Kuroha Akira just wanted to maintain high enough favorability to make commanding her easier. He'd never actually thought about pursuing Shinomiya romantically—he was cultivating a top-tier voice actor, not a future wife. Aside from foot massages, he hadn't done much else to actively please her. But Shinomiya had already completed her self-conquest.
And the secret to her transformation lay in her proficiencies.
Kuroha Akira, who was currently checking those proficiencies, was also deeply puzzled.
First, voice acting proficiency. After reaching Lv1, the experience bar could only increase by about 1% per day—sometimes even taking two or three days to move up 1%. This was exactly why he'd been getting impatient.
As of today, the end of September, Shinomiya's overall voice acting proficiency progress was: Lv1 — 20%. Already considered very fast, but he wanted it faster.
On the other hand, acting proficiency was increasing more quickly—already at Lv1 — 80%, about to advance to Lv2.
She's still better at acting… Unfortunately, the barrier to entry for actors was much higher. Breaking into that industry without prior experience was incredibly difficult.
Some other proficiencies were also rising simultaneously. Bel canto had reached about Lv1 — 60%. A newly appeared running proficiency was also there.
*Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing")
All of that was fine. But the proficiency levels below were truly something even Kuroha Akira couldn't comprehend.
For example, this proficiency called "Basic Gymnastics Lv1"—he had no idea when that had appeared. He'd never seen her practice any gymnastics, right? Could just running every day really increase gymnastics proficiency? Was this the power of an S-rank talent?
Of course, it wasn't as exaggerated as Kuroha Akira thought. Even if "Flexible Body" was an S-rank talent, it wouldn't provide bonuses for things she wasn't doing. That meant Shinomiya had still been practicing behind his back.
But what she was practicing wasn't proper exercise. Shinomiya probably didn't even realize that her self-entertainment could actually increase gymnastics proficiency.
This "basic gymnastics" proficiency didn't refer to professional competitive gymnastics or rhythmic gymnastics. It was just simple stretching exercises for fitness—things like sit-and-reach, standing forward bends, and leg splits during physical tests. All of that fell under basic gymnastics.
This proficiency had actually been developed when Shinomiya was twisting her body on his bed. So naturally, Kuroha Akira had no idea.
Similar to yoga's bridge pose—lying on your back, bending your knees, and lifting your hips upward. Of course, for Shinomiya, she wasn't doing bridge pose for yoga. She was doing it for… other reasons.
Since no one knew, her movements had become increasingly bold. Her innate physical talent allowed her to perform movements that ordinary people would struggle with. So in the daily process of "going crazy for love," Shinomiya's body joints had loosened up completely.
In short—she was having a lot of fun by herself.
In the past, as a good girl stuck at home, she'd been self-respecting and had never encountered anything spicy. But after developing romantic feelings and starting to "manually relieve" herself, she'd become unstoppable… doing it several times a day.
Plus, Kuroha Akira gave her foot massages every day but always stopped just short—never touching more sensitive areas. It was like a tease challenge that left her itching with desire and her body burning.
This caused Shinomiya's desire accumulation bar to constantly overflow. She couldn't hold back for more than half a day. So leaving her "scent" on Kuroha Akira's bed became her daily routine.
Recently, it had even progressed to the point where—even on weekends when Kuroha Akira was home—if she couldn't "generate electricity" on his bed, she'd sneak into the bathroom for some self-enjoyment.
Then she'd have to desperately suppress her sounds, which meant her control over vocal volume had also become increasingly proficient.
After she was done, she'd return to the room wrapped only in a bath towel, letting Kuroha Akira help her dry her hair.
Because Shinomiya's hair was very long, it always took a while to wring dry. To avoid damaging her hair quality, Kuroha Akira carefully spent a long time helping her dry it. During this time, Shinomiya could enjoy the wonderful sensation of being touched by him, accumulating another wave of "desire points."
Then, after Kuroha Akira fell asleep at night, she'd secretly reward herself again. To prevent the bed board from shaking and waking him up, she'd even straighten her body completely… these were the origins of her proficiency gains.
With that many self-reward sessions per day, it would be strange if the proficiency didn't increase.
Ordinary people who "reward themselves" too much might suffer from lower back muscle strain, mental lethargy, and poor sleep quality. But even though Shinomiya was deeply indulgent, she didn't become physically weak like typical teenage girls. This was the excellent physical recovery ability her S-rank talent "Flexible Body" provided.
Furthermore, because Shinomiya slept in the same room as the person she liked, his scent was the best sleep aid. So she slept soundly every day and her spirit was increasingly full.
Enjoy foot massages → accumulate desire → gain proficiency after release → find opportunities to stick close to Kuroha Akira → continue accumulating desire → continue releasing → continue gaining proficiency…
It was a beautiful cycle. And Shinomiya was loving every second of it.
And because her previous home environment was so suffocating, she never dared to explore things she actually enjoyed. So now that she's discovered this particularly comfortable hobby, she feels zero shame about it. She's all in, 100%.
Besides, nobody knew. Right?
So here's the thing—neither her favorability nor her proficiencies came out of thin air. It's just that Kuroha Akira wasn't around to witness Shinomiya's "stealth training sessions," which wass why he found her growth so inexplicable.
But hey, isn't this great?
In his mind, a 3S-rank talent is just broken. You can literally let it develop on autopilot and still watch those numbers climb.
This is precisely why Kuroha Akira could never bring himself to give up on Shinomiya. It's like back in the day when he played FF14—leveling every job and sub-job, watching those levels skyrocket—that satisfaction was just chef's kiss.
The only potential hidden danger? Shinomiya Shion's favorability and desire for Kuroha Akira were stacking up without any upper limit…
She was quietly evolving into a Kuroha-Akira-exclusive succubus in the shadows.
And Kuroha Akira? Completely oblivious. Absolutely zero clue.