The weekend right before summer break.

Or, to put it another way, the weekend right before the summer camp.

I had been called out by Irena-san, and now Nina-chan, Irena-san, and I were on a bus together.

The reason we were on the bus? To help out with Irena-san’s work.

Well, calling it “help” might be a bit off.

I had gone to Nina-chan’s house to practice Recollection Condense, and Irena-san was there. She casually invited me, saying, “I’m going to work this weekend; why don’t you come along?” And it wasn’t just going to be me and Irena-san.

Nina-chan, who had now learned to exorcise monsters, was coming with us too.

Knowing that Nina-chan would be there, and realizing it would be a good opportunity to improve my still-underdeveloped Recollection Condense, I decided to join them.

When I told my dad about it, he encouraged me, saying, “It’s rare to get the chance to see fairy magic; you should go.”

That’s a lie.

He whined a lot about it.

Complaining about how we wouldn’t be able to spend the weekend together. It was only thanks to my mom persuading him that I was able to head out with Nina-chan and Irena-san.

“We’re almost there,” Irena-san said.

“…Faa…”

Next to her, Nina-chan let out an adorable yawn. Seeing that made me almost yawn, too.

We had been traveling for three hours by train, followed by an hour on the bus.

In total, we had been on the move for four hours. It was long, but Irena-san didn’t seem fazed at all.

As for the surroundings—mountains, and more mountains. We were deep in the countryside. Traveling four hours from Tokyo, it felt like we had entered an entirely different world.

At first, I thought, “This nature is beautiful.” But after a couple of hours, I got bored of the view and turned my gaze away from the window.

“By the way, what kind of monster are we going to exorcise?”

I asked Irena-san in a low voice from the back of the empty bus, thinking that it would be good to know what we were up against now that we were close to our destination.

At the mention of the word “monster,” Nina-chan flinched a little.

“Oh? Now that you mention it, I haven’t told you yet,” Irena-san said with a smile, before continuing.

“In the town we’re heading to, there’s been a man who shows up around evening and talks to elementary school children. He’s dressed in a pitch-black suit and wears a hat.”

“A man?”

“Yes, and he asks strange questions. Things like ‘Is your mother home?’, ‘Are you sixteen?’, ‘Are you happy?’. The witnesses all report different questions, but the common thread is that the man is always wearing a black suit and hat.”

At first, it just sounded like a creepy guy.

But the mention of a man in a black suit reminded me of the frog-headed monster I had encountered a while back, the one that was chasing a girl. There was also the slug-headed monster, and they too had been wearing black suits.

“If that were all, it might just be a case of a weird guy, but three children have gone missing since this man began appearing.”

“…Three children?”

Hearing this, Nina-chan squeezed my hand tightly. It seemed that while she could now see and exorcise monsters, she was still scared by stories about them. I couldn’t blame her.

“Given the seriousness of the situation, the police began patrolling the area, but the man disappeared right in front of them.”

A regular creep wouldn’t just vanish.

That was undoubtedly a monster.

“And that’s when the exorcists were called in,” Irena-san concluded.

As I listened to her explanation, I began to organize my thoughts.

Based on what I was hearing, the monster sounded like it was of the First or Second Order, given the disjointed way it behaved.

You’d think a local exorcist could handle a monster of that rank. But there had to be a reason why someone of Irena-san’s level, a Fourth Order exorcist, was dispatched.

Maybe it was because of the missing children? Maybe it was urgent and needed immediate action?

As I was thinking that, the bus stopped. I got up, feeling the soreness from sitting for so long, and we stepped off the bus.

What greeted us was a desolate town.

The buildings along the roadside were mostly discolored from age or cracked.

This place might have been prosperous once.

Most of the old buildings appeared to have been shops, all now closed down.

And the posters hanging outside the shops were ancient. I couldn’t see the details because they were so faded, but I think I saw the year “1970” on one of them. How long have those been up?

“We’ve arrived a bit early. Why don’t we find somewhere to kill some time?” Irena-san said, checking her wristwatch.

I had also checked the time on the bus, and it was just past 3 PM.

“Itsuki-san, Nina, is there anything you’d like to eat?” she asked.

“…Something sweet,” Nina-chan muttered.

And so, to satisfy the princess’s request, we set off in search of a café.

After walking for about 10 minutes, we found a small café and went inside. The place had an old-fashioned feel to it, and inside, it was filled with people—likely regulars.

Naturally, the moment we stepped in, we stood out.

No, that’s not quite right. It wasn’t “we” who stood out. It was Irena-san and Nina-chan.

These two, with their striking blonde hair and blue eyes, would catch anyone’s attention, not to mention their beauty. Walking with them made them even more noticeable, while I, being an average-looking guy, merely emphasized their presence.

An elderly woman showed us to a table, and we sat down. We picked up some well-worn menus, and after a bit, we ordered drinks. Nina-chan also ordered pancakes.

The drinks arrived first, and we took a brief break.

“Hey, Irena-san.”

“Yes?”

“If the monster is targeting elementary school kids, does that mean we’ll have to walk around on our own?”

In other words, I was asking if we would have to act as bait. But Irena-san shook her head quietly.

“Oh no, there’s no need for that.”

She spoke more seriously than usual.

“The thing is, that monster has grown. Now it approaches people regardless of their age.”

“…Huh?”

“And the number of missing people has increased. The current count is 122.”

Hearing that shocking number, I furrowed my brow.

I thought I must have misheard. So I glanced at Nina-chan to gauge her reaction, but she was more interested in the pancakes that had just been served. Guess she was really hungry.

“And among those 122 are two Second Order exorcists.”

“Wait… So that means this monster is…”

Irena-san nodded. Continue reading at m|v-l’e -NovelBin.net

“Most likely a Third Order or higher. My estimation is that it’s Fourth Order.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep