-1145- Wait for me

Due to the suspension of classes during the Harurouin Festival, in order to prevent students from causing trouble, during this period before the holiday, mentors from various grades and classes would extend the time of their class meetings, giving numerous reminders and instructions to the students, which was a fixed routine every year.

Therefore, during this time, the students of Saikai Academy would leave home earlier than usual.

However, for some students who had already participated in the Harurouin Festival multiple times, and had heard the school's reminders every year, there weren't many who genuinely listened to the lengthy explanations from the school.

Ironically, in the Minamiya household, there were quite a few students who took these explanations very seriously.

Putting aside Rozen and Kojou, the girls surprisingly treated these explanations very seriously.

Nagisa, who was usually lively and cheerful, was actually very disciplined and rarely skipped class meetings.

Kanon, on the other hand, was even more so. With her innocent, pure, and kind nature, she couldn't possibly skip class meetings just because they were long and boring.

Avrora, though not particularly serious, was attending this kind of class meeting explanation for the first time and naturally wouldn't miss it.

Astarte needed to go to school to replace Natsuki, who was working, and read out the instructions at the class meeting on her behalf.

As a result, after finishing breakfast, the four girls hurriedly left the house.

Seeing how rushed they were, Rozen decided to let them take the private car and headed to the station himself, planning to take the train for once.

"I hope I can avoid it as much as possible."

With this thought in mind, Rozen didn't plan to go to school so early.

So, when the class meeting was about to start, Rozen picked up his backpack and left the house.

"Why... why didn't you wake me up!?"

Before leaving, Rozen seemed to hear someone's scream, but deliberately ignored it. After closing the front door, he headed to the station.

Even so, Rozen wasn't alone.

A certain diligent observer coincidentally also left the house at the same time and took the train with Rozen.

"The Harurouin Festival... huh?"

In the crowded carriage, Yukina, carrying her guitar case, looked around at the advertisements hanging everywhere, while trying hard to find a safe support point for her petite body, and slightly twisting her body.

"Please stay still! It's really crowded!"

Rozen stood in front of Yukina, as if protecting the girl in the crowded crowd, pressing her to the deepest part of the carriage. As a result of Yukina's twisting, the friction between their bodies immediately increased significantly, causing him to gasp in surprise, unable to remain calm.

"I-I'm sorry!"

Yukina seemed embarrassed by this and quickly froze in place.

That being said, Rozen's entire body was still pressing against Yukina's body. Even though they were wearing clothes, he could still clearly feel the softness of the girl's body and the unique fragrance of a maiden.

(This... this girl unexpectedly has some substance...)

Rozen couldn't help but have such evil thoughts, but immediately shook his head and dispelled the wicked thoughts from his mind.

"Although it's not yet the Harurouin Festival, all the major companies in the Itogami Island will have holidays for the festival. Especially the research facilities in the northern district, almost everyone will be on holiday, turning it into a deserted city. Thanks to this, everyone will be very busy before the festival due to work or social commitments, and the trains will be crowded like this."

This part could only be said to be Rozen's miscalculation.

If he had known this, he might as well have continued to daydream at home and used spatial transfer to go to school at the last second before class, which would undoubtedly be much easier.

However, it was also because he didn't do this that Rozen could now be so close with the princess of the middle school, a situation that many boys could not achieve, leaving Rozen in a complex emotional state of not knowing whether to be happy or regretful.

But Rozen successfully changed the subject.

"In the middle school section, the Harurouin Festival has always been a topic of discussion recently, but I didn't expect it to be such a large-scale celebration."

Yukina sighed with emotion.

As a transfer student who had just arrived and had not yet been in school for two months, Yukina naturally didn't know about the Harurouin Festival.

But...

"Is the Harurouin Festival based on Halloween?" Yukina murmured to herself, "It's really a fitting reference for the Demon Sanctuary."

Yukina's statement was not unreasonable.

The so-called Halloween was originally a ritual for exorcising demons.

In ancient Celtic beliefs, people believed that during the early winter period, the passage between this world and the spirit world would open, allowing spirits and witches to flood in large numbers.

Therefore, in order to protect themselves from these demons, people would wear masks and light bonfires, which was the origin of Halloween.

For the Demon Sanctuary, this was indeed a very suitable reference object.

Not to mention...

"It has been proven that during this period, the continuity of time and space becomes very unstable. There have been cases in the past where people encountered visitors from different timelines and monsters from other worlds during this time. Excessive magical and spiritual power would attract them."

Yukina looked at Rozen with a serious expression.

"So please be careful, senpai."

Yukina reminded Rozen like this.

"Me?" Rozen said somewhat incredulously, "If we're talking about magical and spiritual power, there are plenty of people on Itogami Island who are stronger than me, right?"

This was the truth.

At least, under normal circumstances, Rozen's magical power could rival that of high-ranking demons, but that was all. There were many people on the island with stronger magical power than him.

In that case, even if there were visitors from another world, they would go to someone else, not Rozen.

That's what Rozen thought.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.

In just a moment, the world seemed to suddenly become foreign, making the atmosphere incredibly heavy and time itself appeared to behave strangely, giving the sensation of accelerated motion while everything around seemed to slow down.

Rozen suddenly turned his head and looked out the window of the tram.

In the next second, Rozen saw it.

Far away from the tram, on the rooftop of the Keystone Gate's top floor, there seemed to be a figure standing against the wind.

With Rozen's vision, he could only see a girl standing there, gazing in this direction.

Rozen couldn't make out the girl's features at all.

However, Rozen could feel it.

The girl was looking at him.

Across the vast distance, the girl's eyes met his.

And then, as if by intuition, Rozen seemed to vaguely see the girl smiling.

A joyful and interested smile.

Then, it seemed like the girl was saying something.

At this distance, Rozen couldn't possibly see or hear what she was saying.

But Rozen still understood instinctively.

She said, "Wait for me."

That's what she said.

Then, the girl's figure disappeared.

The surrounding time suddenly returned to normal.

"Senpai?"

Yukina's surprised voice entered Rozen's ears, waking him from his gaze towards the direction of the Keystone Gate outside the tram.

"It's nothing."

Rozen shook his head.

But Rozen himself was quite aware.

"It seems like trouble is brewing again."