Academy's Savior
The students of Arashi Academy took their cultural festival seriously. From the very first stages of preparation, they threw themselves into it with genuine enthusiasm.
The problem was that Japanese craftsmanship spirit kicked in during those preparations.
They're trying to do every last thing with their own hands…
Making the signs themselves, I could understand. Grab a decent wooden board and slap some paint on it, or draw something on paper — a sign was easy enough to put together.
But making the chairs and tables yourselves? Come on.
I couldn't wrap my head around it.
In this day and age, building chairs and tables from scratch for a cultural festival was just a waste of time, wasn't it? Being academy students didn't mean they were any good at furniture-making. Store-bought chairs and tables would look nicer and be worth more, hands down.
Well, if it's a budget issue, I guess furniture-making makes some sense.
Each class had been allocated a budget for the festival. Even being generous, it wasn't much money — less than a million won in Korean currency. The amount varied depending on what each class was putting on… and the maid-and-butler café was operating on the bare minimum.
But why are they making the clothes themselves too?
Grumbling under my breath, I left Arashi Academy and headed into the city. My job for the day was buying materials for the butler and maid outfits.
I hadn't come alone, of course. Off in the distance, a young woman was walking toward me down the street.
Shinbo Reika.
With every step she took, her fresh green hair — a mark of the elf blood mixed in her veins — swayed and shimmered.
You really could call her an elf. Every male gaze on the street locked onto her. Some men stared openly; others pretended not to look while remaining painfully aware of her presence.
Maybe it was because we were outside the academy. Reika was in casual clothes.
Jeans and a light-blue T-shirt.
Nothing special about the outfit itself — but pair it with those long, elegant limbs and a full E-cup bust, and the story changed completely. On top of that, Reika was on the tall side. Watching her walk, the city street might as well have been a runway.
Reika approached me. The envious, resentful stares of the surrounding men shifted my way. I curled the corner of my mouth into a smirk and laughed right back at them.
"Sorry. Did I keep you waiting long?"
Reika's voice was clear and refreshing.
"Nah. About ten minutes? And you weren't even late for our meeting time, so no need to apologize. By the way — you look great today."
"R-really? I just threw something on. I'm glad it doesn't look weird."
It was a perfectly standard compliment, yet Reika's face flushed red. That told me exactly how much experience she had with men.
A simple compliment like that? I can dish those out all day.
Almost no woman disliked being praised. Men liked praise too. Especially when it came from someone they already had feelings for.
Let's see. Reika's favorability right now is…
Three points higher than yesterday. First-date bonus, maybe?
A favorability of 64 meant she was seriously considering a relationship.
In other words — if I play this right… I can take her.
Charna
Remaining Stacks: 6
In a world slowed to a crawl, I leisurely laid out my plan. The reason we'd met today was to buy materials for the butler and maid outfits. What mattered from here on was the atmosphere. I needed to lead this like a proper date.
"Reika. Want to stop by a café first? My treat."
"A café?"
"I'm thirsty… and what we're running for the cultural festival is a café, right? Might as well go to a real one and see how they operate. A maid café or butler café would be ideal, but those are probably only in bigger cities."
Maid café? Butler café? Even if they existed, I wasn't going. Those places were terrible for a date.
"Alright. Let's stop by."
"Do you go to cafés often?"
"I'm not really that into tea… so only occasionally?"
"Same here."
"…That's surprising. You brew black tea so well, I figured you must love it. The others said you used to work at a café."
"Never worked at one. Black tea… I do like it, but not enough to go hunting for cafés. What about you — coffee? Or green tea and black tea?"
"Coffee, please."
I ordered coffee and a fresh fruit juice. If the alternative was the café's terrible coffee and tea, fresh fruit juice was far better.
It's not like I actually came here because I was thirsty.
What mattered was setting the mood.
Reika and I talked over our drinks. She mostly asked about the Korean academy; I asked about the Yggdrasil Knights. After leaving the café, we wandered the streets looking for fabric.
"The budget isn't much. We'll need to shop around and compare. Shinbo — you free on time?"
"If it's a budget problem, there's no helping it. Time-wise, I'm fine."
After that, we crisscrossed the city hunting for fabric.
My plan was to drag things out until evening. Have dinner, use dessert as an excuse to keep wandering, then lure her to a motel on the grounds of being tired. Normally that wouldn't work at all… but Reika's favorability was currently 64. It wasn't completely out of the question.
What should we eat for dinner? We're in Japan — sushi, right?
I had plenty of money, so a high-end sushi place came to mind. There had to be one somewhere. But Reika might feel pressured, so I hesitated.
In situations like this, asking directly was always best. When I turned my head toward her, she was staring intently at a street corner. My gaze naturally followed hers. A woman with black hair tied in a ponytail was walking briskly somewhere.
…That's Miyakado Mieko.
My expression hardened. As the shrine maiden of Tsukuyomi Shrine, she almost never left the academy grounds. Even in the original story, she was famous for turning down every invitation to hang out outside, no matter the excuse.
She's out here in casual clothes, no less. Looking at that grim face, this clearly isn't a fun outing…
What was going on? I was intensely curious.
"Seong. I'm sorry, but I think I need to leave it here for today."
Reika suddenly looked apologetic as she spoke. I already knew why. She was going to follow Mieko. Reika and Mieko had a decent friendship, so of course she'd be concerned.
No reason to refuse. Cling too hard and her favorability just drops… and besides, I'm curious about Mieko myself.
I nodded at Reika.
"Got it. Next time, though… you can buy me a drink."
"You like cola, right? Sorry for cutting out so suddenly today."
Reika hurried off in the direction Mieko had gone.
Mocha.
I summoned the thunder owl Mocha. Without materializing her, I pointed toward the sky with my eyes. Mocha spread her great wings and soared high overhead.
Watch Mieko.
Mana stirred inside my body and flowed toward my eyes. My irises turned gold. I had activated the Spirit Eye.
My right field of vision changed. A view looking down from the sky. One of the Spirit Eye's abilities: shared vision. I could share the sight of any spirit I had contracted with.
With this, tailing someone is a piece of cake. Let's approach slowly.
I was walking forward when I suddenly stopped. Clara had appeared in Mocha's field of view.
What's she doing here?
As a celebrity, Clara didn't leave the academy much either — not quite as rarely as Mieko, but close. Except when she had singer work, of course.
Singer work? No. She's alone. If it were a performance, her manager and bodyguards would be stuck to her.
This definitely wasn't a casual outing. Clara's face was every bit as serious as Mieko's. I scratched my cheek. Without meaning to, I started imagining the choices.
▷ Follow Miyakado Mieko
▷ Follow Clara Peired
▷ Do nothing and return to the dormitory
Three choices. In the original, that was exactly how they would have appeared.
The worst option was doing nothing.
Whatever it is, you've got to pick something for an event to trigger.
I thought it over briefly, then decided to choose both.
This isn't a game — it's reality. There's no rule saying I have to pick only one option.
I had Mocha.
Mocha. You follow Mieko.
Reika was already trailing Mieko. Even if something happened, Reika's help would let them handle it to some degree.
Clara, on the other hand, was alone. If something went wrong, no one would be there to help her.
I broke into a run in the direction Clara was heading.
She's going toward the outskirts of the city. What the hell is going on?
Clara disappeared from Mocha's view. As Mocha followed Mieko, Clara had left the shared field of vision. Mieko entered a luxury hotel. Mocha tried to go inside after her, but I stopped her.
Don't go in. There's a barrier protecting the hotel. The moment you enter, even as a spirit form, you'll be detected. Look inside through the windows.
— Kuu.
Mocha obeyed my command faithfully. Through a first-floor lobby window, she peered into the hotel. Mieko was talking with someone — a middle-aged man with a goatee. Square jaw, and a face that, even being generous, wasn't pleasant. But the vibe he gave off was more detective than yakuza.
The moment I saw him, I relaxed. He was a character from the original story. He was neither a yakuza nor a detective.
Hiragi Jiro. An information broker with a grudge against Madojeong. Originally he makes contact with Hyodo Yuuki… but that's changed.
The original plot shifting was something that could happen anytime. It barely surprised me anymore. What mattered was why Mieko was meeting an information broker…
Obvious. Miyakado Mieko still can't let go of her attachment to the Tsukuyomi Magatama.
Hyodo Yuuki, who was originally supposed to take the initiative himself, wasn't stepping up. In the original, Mieko and Yuuki joined forces… but my interference had changed that too.
Still, just in case… Mocha, keep watching the hotel.
And thanks to running without rest, I managed to catch up to Clara. She was face-to-face with a brown-haired foreign man in a suit.
A foreigner. I've got a pretty good idea.
It would be the Hemingford family, the ones targeting Clara. This was Japan, not Korea — the Hemingfords had more than enough room to operate here.
Looks like they're trying to handle it with talk first… which means I need to step in. Let's hide and watch for the right timing.
I draped the Ghost Cloak over my shoulders and approached them.