Blind

"Is this really necessary?"

After dropping Klee off and returning to his room, Paul was stopped at the door and asked to put on a thick blindfold. He no longer had access to his X-Ray Vision, so donning the piece of fabric would leave him functionally blind.

Maintaining her usual, businesslike smile, Ningguang replied, "The show we put on earlier was supposed to be the evening's entertainment. Since you've already witnessed what we had prepared, we had to come up with something else to surprise you."

Though he smiled wryly, Paul handed the blindfold to Ganyu and allowed her to put it on him. Afterward, he allowed the duo led him into the room by hand while Lilia followed close behind.

As a pleasant smell pervaded Paul's senses, Ningguang took the initiative to explain, "Since your senses are sharper than the average person, we've developed a game, especially for you. Your goal is to find each of the girls stationed around the room. Once you find one, you have thirty seconds to guess their identity. They have been instructed not to speak, but you are permitted to use any method to ascertain their identities. Once the game has concluded, you will be rewarded according to your rate of success..."

Leading Paul to his first target, Ningguang guided his hand to someone's shoulder and purred, "Good luck..." directly into his ear. Her voice caused goosebumps to develop across his body, but he quickly shifted his focus to the unseen beauty moving about in response to his touch.

After ascertaining that the woman was facing him, Paul adopted a smile and said, "Pardon me..." before wrapping his arms around her. He didn't think he would be able to identify her using just a hug, but the image of an ice-cold beauty immediately entered his mind when he felt the firmness of her lithe and shapely body.

Just to be safe, Paul moved his hands from the woman's lower back to her perfectly sculpted bottom, gently squeezing it as he declared, "If this isn't Eula, I'll eat my own foot..."

Though she was relieved that Paul was able to determine her identity so quickly, Eula couldn't help frowning as she flatly remarked, "You're going to make me self-conscious about my hindquarters..."

Returning a cheeky smile, Paul retorted, "You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Your ass is amazing..."

Disregarding the fact Paul was wearing a blindfold, Eula averted her eyes and muttered, "Fool..." under her breath. However, before pushing Paul away and insisting he move on to someone else, she briefly reciprocated his embrace and placed her head against his chest.

With Ningguang moving away to take up her own position, Paul was left to feel and smell his way around his oversized bedroom. Fortunately, it didn't take him long to detect an aroma distinct from Eula's, a thick, earthy scent that immediately reminded him of a specific person.

Confirming his suspicions, Paul felt around before he made contact with a figure even taller than himself. He immediately knew who the woman was, but went out of his way to squeeze her firm and muscular buttocks before touching her tail and declaring, "Unless Lynette spontaneously grew thirty centimeters and developed a six-pack, this is definitely Ghislaine..."

With a somewhat smug expression on her face, Ghislaine replied, "That's right." before wrapping her muscular arms around Paul and squeezing him with enough strength to pop his back. She was nowhere near as jacked as her anime counterpart, but she was the tallest and most muscular woman Paul associated with. As a result, Paul often felt she was more of a lioness than a traditional cat girl...

When Ghislaine eventually released him, Paul gave her a somewhat wry smile before departing in search of his next quarry. To his astonishment, he almost immediately detected a hint of perfume, his nostrils twitching ever so slightly as he openly remarked, "I'm positive this perfume belongs to Yun Jin..." before following it to its origin.

Before Paul could wrap his arms around her body or attempt to feel her up, Yun Jin took his hands into her own and expressed, "You did well." in an approving tone. She wasn't fond of public displays of affection, so she did her best to ensure a respectable distance between them when others were around.

Understanding Yun Jin's intent, Paul supplied a curt nod and commented, "Your perfume suits you...it's a pleasant and refined aroma..."

Adopting a smile of her own, Yun Jin teasingly replied, "You certainly have a way with words. Unfortunately, there are others awaiting you. I'm afraid this is where we must part..."

Extracting her hands from Paul's, Yun Jin took a few steps away to ensure he couldn't reach out to her. She didn't mind being held by him, but there was a time and a place for everything.

Though he followed Yun Jin's movements with his head, Paul eventually just smiled and moved on. Yun Jin was the type of woman who would only reveal her 'true self' when they were utterly alone. Why? Because she was actually an exceptionally lazy and slothful person, a stark contrast to how she presented herself in public...

While images of Yun Jin's hikikomori-like room flashed through his mind, Paul sniffed around for his next target. He felt a little ridiculous looking for people by their scent, but it was surprisingly effective as he quickly found himself in front of someone that barely came up to his chest.

As even someone like Ningguang was nearly twenty centimeters shorter than him, Paul didn't immediately assume that the petite figure was Diona. She was inarguably the shortest person present, standing only 144cm in height, but Hu Tao was a very close second at 146.2cm. While this might sound incredibly short, the average height of human females in the world of Mushoku Tensei was only around 151cms, roughly 4'11''. However, as it was a world created by a Japanese author, it was to be expected that the average height of characters would reflect the standards of Japan.

Confirming his suspicions, Paul reached up to pat the petite figure on the head, instantly noting the absence of cat ears. Their hair was very fluffy and warm to the touch, however, so he could immediately eliminate Hu Tao as she put a surprising amount of effort into keeping her hair straight and free of knots.

With only two possibilities remaining in his mind, Paul used both hands to feel around the sides of the woman's face.

"Ah..."

Though Paul immediately recognized the woman's voice, he had already confirmed her identity when he felt the two antler-like horns growing from the sides of her head.

"Hello, Yanfei..."

Adopting a somewhat awkward smile, Yanfei replied, "You found me." in an audibly embarrassed tone. Her ears and horns were 'very' sensitive, so having them grabbed and caressed so wantonly left her feeling flustered.

Pretending to be unaware of Yanfei's 'plight,' Paul continued rubbing the base of her horns with his thumbs. Their interior was purportedly harder than diamond, but they were covered in a layer of pliable keratin and soft, velvety fuzz that made them incredibly pleasant to touch.

"Master Paul...I believe you have more than confirmed my identity at this point..."

Nodding his head, Paul reluctantly released Yanfei from his clutches and offered an insincere, "Sorry. Guess I got a little carried away..."

Exhaling a sigh of relief, Yanfei replied, "I didn't mind. It's just that quite a few others are waiting for you to deduce their identities. If you'd like, you may touch my horns as much as you want later..."

Hearing the sound of someone clicking their tongue, Paul turned away from Yanfei, a devilish smile on his face as he said, "I'll be over there in just a moment, Kishi. I'm not sure if it was Rika or Risu, but I'm positive it was one of you..."

As they had been asked to stand together, Kishirisu couldn't help giving Kishirika a stink eye. She was also annoyed by Yanfei's blatant attempt to secure her place as one of Paul's bedside companions, but she kept mum to avoid giving away their location and identity.

Realizing she had erred, Kishirika adopted an awkward smile and directed a silent plea at Ningguang. The latter rolled her eyes but eventually gave a slight nod to indicate that the pair could relocate before Paul sussed out their exact location.

Though he could hear Kishirika's and Kishirisu's movements, Paul didn't say anything as they were on the opposite side of the room. His plan was to make a counter-clockwise circuit around the room's periphery, so there were at least a handful of women between his present location on the one they had just moved from. Scrambling over to try and capture them would just disorient him.

With such thoughts in mind, Paul continued his counter-clockwise circuit before pausing within arm's reach of his next target. He was about to pass the location by due to the lack of an aroma, but he stopped upon sensing a very faint warmth lingering in the area.

Forcing several people to cover their mouths to avoid snickering, Shinobu narrowly evaded Paul's hand every time he reached out to touch her. She was a taciturn woman, but she had the heart and soul of a kunoichi and a delinquent. She also knew Paul would be able to identify her instantly due to the thick cord tying up her shuriken-like ponytail, so she did her best to avoid him until he gave up and said, "This is definitely Shinobu..."

Snorting through her nose, Shinobu cockily replied, "Lucky guess." before evading Paul's attempt to grasp her with his right hand. Then, as her role in the game had been fulfilled, she leaped up and away from him, sticking to the ceiling and snickering at him with a smile reminiscent of a Cheshire cat.

Though he couldn't see her, Paul could perfectly visualize the look on Shinobu's face as he 'stared' up at her and remarked, "And people call me cheeky..."

Disregarding the fact he was currently blindfolded, Shinobu responded to Paul by pulling down her left eyelid with her middle finger and sticking out her tongue. Similar to Yun Jin, she had a persona she 'needed' to maintain in public, so she always behaved like a delinquent whenever other people were around. She was a lot like Xinyan in that regard, outwardly gutsy but secretly very affectionate, almost to the point of being puppy-like.

Smiling wryly, Paul made a mental note to 'pamper' Shinobu plentily the next time they were alone. For now, he still needed to locate seventeen more people, preferably without making a single mistake...

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While Paul was busy fumbling around the room, the girls he had already identified gathered together on or around his bed, doing their utmost to remain silent. They knew it was going to take some time for Paul to find everyone, so Shinobu pulled out a deck of cards and began dealing them out to those who were interested.

With nothing better to do besides silently cheering Paul on, most of the girls readily joined in on Shinobu's impromptu poker game. Yun Jin was the only exception among the original batch of girls, but her mask began to crack after nearly half an hour of standing off the side by herself. By then, Paul had correctly identified Yunyun, Xinyan, Ganyu, Venti, Sucrose, Shenhe, Kishirika, Kishirisu, Albedo, Lilia, and Hu Tao, but there were still six people remaining, each near the center of the room or in locations that weren't easy to discover.

Though she didn't join in on the poker game, Yun Jin knew Paul kept a board game similar to shogi under the desk near the corner of the room. Thus, with the intent of challenging Shenhe to a match, she attempted to sneak around Paul, getting all the way to his desk before he snapped his head in her direction.

"Kuh..."

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