The morning train car was still fairly empty.
Motoki Yaze swept a glance through the car. Since there were plenty of open seats, there were more options to choose from. But just as he was looking for a suitable place to sit, his gaze accidentally met Ciel's and Natsuki Minamiya's.
Ciel's eyes were full of smiling amusement, while Natsuki Minamiya's were entirely appraising.
"Uwaa!"
Motoki Yaze cried out like a mouse that had run into a cat.
His two companions—Kojou Akatsuki and Asagi Aiba—had been talking to each other as they boarded and had not noticed the situation inside the car, so when Yaze instinctively backed away, he bumped right into the two of them, who were still moving forward.
"Why are you suddenly backing up? Idiot Motoki! That's dangerous! The doors are about to close! If we miss this train, we'll have to waste time waiting for the next one!"
The exceptionally striking middle school girl, Asagi Aiba, complained without mercy. She wore her middle school uniform in a bright, flashy style.
Motoki Yaze really wanted to say that taking the next train might actually be better.
But it was already too late. Those two had already noticed them.
"What do you think you're doing, shouting and fooling around in front of the train doors? Is this how I usually teach you? What if someone got hurt? Even if no one was injured, your behavior still inconveniences the people around you."
Natsuki Minamiya frowned in displeasure.
The moment she spoke, Asagi Aiba and the other two no longer had the nerve to keep bickering. All three shuddered at once.
They were instantly suppressed by Natsuki Minamiya's aura.
"Natsuki-cha—!"
Kojou Akatsuki had just tried to say something when a folding fan suddenly flew over and struck him squarely on the forehead.
It left a red mark on his brow.
After hitting Kojou Akatsuki's forehead, the fan traced a parabola through the train car, then landed in Ciel's hand before Ciel returned it to Natsuki Minamiya.
"You are not allowed to call your teacher '-chan'!"
There were other Saikai Academy students on the train at the moment, and all of them were gloating.
Ciel was also covering her mouth, wearing a gloating smile.
"Laughing, laughing, all you know how to do is laugh. What's so funny?"
Natsuki Minamiya jabbed Ciel in the waist with her elbow, and Ciel successfully diverted a little of Natsuki Minamiya's attention.
"What's wrong with it? Natsuki-chan sounds cute. It's proof that your students adore you."
"I don't need it. As long as they study properly and cause me less trouble, I'll be perfectly satisfied. I don't need any adoration."
"If you won't let the students call you Natsuki-chan, what about me? Can I call you Na-chan?"
Natsuki Minamiya suddenly fell silent, as if imagining Ciel calling her "Na-chan."
The folding fan in Natsuki Minamiya's hand tapped Ciel lightly on the forehead with a soft sound.
Though it was not a particularly hard hit.
"You're smiling too obnoxiously."
Folding her arms in front of her chest, Natsuki Minamiya lowered her head and began resting with her eyes closed.
While Natsuki Minamiya's attention was on her, Ciel secretly made an "OK" gesture at Kojou Akatsuki and the other two, and received grateful looks from all three of them.
Thanks to Ciel's presence, the three were able to temporarily escape disaster and avoid Natsuki Minamiya's verbal lecture.
They hurriedly found seats and sat down quietly. The train had long since left the platform and was heading to the next station, but because they were in front of Natsuki Minamiya, the three of them had been so nervous that they forgot to sit down. They had stood there trembling in place for quite a while, not daring to move.
Merely being watched by Natsuki Minamiya made them feel as if someone had seized their hearts. The instant their eyes met hers, they instinctively looked away in a panic, as though they had stared directly into the sun. This was the suppressive power a teacher held over students.
In the original story, Kojou Akatsuki, Motoki Yaze, and Asagi Aiba were close friends. Even in this timeline, where Kojou Akatsuki had not become Avrora's Blood Servant, he had still met Asagi Aiba and Motoki Yaze and formed deep friendships with them. The three had become good friends who could talk about anything.
Rather ironically, in the original work, Kojou Akatsuki had always carefully hidden his identity as the Fourth Primogenitor from those around him, afraid that the truth would frighten or alienate his friends. Yet he had never expected that Asagi Aiba and Motoki Yaze's identities were similarly far from ordinary.
Itogami Island itself was, in truth, a massive altar prepared by the descendants of Cain the Sinful God to welcome the god's return. These descendants were mainly divided into four great clans: the Yaze, the Hiina, the Aiba, and the Itogami.
Senra Itogami of the Itogami family had designed and led the construction of the entire artificial island, while the Yaze family controlled the island's core authority. The young Motoki Yaze had already been unofficially designated as the next head of the Yaze family, making his position immensely important.
And Asagi Aiba, who seemed the most ordinary of them all, might in fact have the most special and crucial identity.
She was the "Priestess of Cain," regarded as the key to activating The Cleansing. As long as she remained within the bounds of Itogami Island, the altar of the Sinful God, she would be protected by a certain kind of immortality. Whenever she encountered danger or was pursued, she would always survive through a series of coincidences and fortunate turns. Not only that, but without realizing it, she would also come to know many people with extraordinary identities and outstanding abilities, as if fate itself were silently guiding her path.
Back when Ciel followed the series, she had felt that Kojou Akatsuki, as the Fourth Primogenitor, and Asagi Aiba, as the Priestess of Cain, coming to know and love each other was probably fate's guidance. After all, it had been the Fourth Primogenitor who killed Cain the Sinful God back then.
She had not expected that even now, with Kojou Akatsuki no longer having become the Fourth Primogenitor, he would still form a connection with Asagi Aiba.
The train ride must have been torment for the three of them. Whether the next head of the Yaze family or the Priestess of Cain, in this moment they were all merely students.
The three of them did not dare sit too close to Natsuki Minamiya, yet did not dare sit too far away either. Inside the train car, they were frozen stiff with nerves, terrified of displeasing Natsuki Minamiya again.
...
After getting off the train, there was still a short walk before they reached Saikai Academy.
Along the way, Ciel and the others encountered more and more students in Saikai Academy uniforms.
If Ciel had been alone, plenty of students would probably have come up to greet her enthusiastically. But after seeing that Natsuki Minamiya was there too, far fewer students still dared to approach.
Ciel understood them very well. Back when she was in school, if she ran into her homeroom teacher halfway there, she would basically turn around and run.
For example, one time she and three roommates had sneaked out of school to look for food. One roommate had spotted their homeroom teacher from afar. Ciel and the other two roommates had refused to believe it and stared hard in that direction, only to discover that it really was the homeroom teacher. The four of them immediately turned and ran.
As for Kojou Akatsuki and the other two, since they had gotten off the train together, they also walked the road to the academy together. The three of them quietly followed behind Ciel and Natsuki Minamiya, keeping a distance that was neither too close nor too far.
For their sake, Ciel decided to take the initiative and open a topic, breaking the slightly stifling atmosphere.
She first chatted with them about daily life at school, and then the topic naturally turned to her concern for Kojou Akatsuki's younger sister, Nagisa Akatsuki.
Unlike the original course of events, Nagisa Akatsuki had not been possessed by the Fourth Primogenitor's soul. Even so, she had still developed a fear of demons. Ciel could not help thinking that if she had arrived at the scene a little earlier during the Gozo Island incident, perhaps things might have turned out differently.
Also, precisely because no outside soul had been lodging inside her, Nagisa Akatsuki's body was not as frail as in the original story. She did not faint frequently or require hospitalization; she could attend school normally like most ordinary students.
Once Nagisa Akatsuki was brought up, Kojou Akatsuki was not the only one who began talking more; even Motoki Yaze and Asagi Aiba joined the conversation.
Nagisa was lively and loved to talk. When she got going, she was practically a little chatterbox who could not stop. Kojou Akatsuki would sometimes be unable to withstand his little sister's enthusiasm, so he would bring in the two "reinforcements," Yaze and Asagi, to help share part of the conversational "firepower."
After enough back and forth like that, Motoki Yaze and Asagi Aiba naturally became familiar with this energetic little sister as well, gradually becoming friends who could joke around easily with her.
Asagi Aiba actually liked Kojou Akatsuki very much in her heart, but she was too embarrassed to show those feelings. Because of that, she always used Nagisa Akatsuki as an excuse to get close to Kojou Akatsuki.
In order to help that romance bloom, the girl had put effort into makeup and dressing up. She knew the rules of basketball inside and out, and she could even discuss NBA tactics with Kojou Akatsuki. She always gave the impression that she was trying almost too hard.
Originally, their classmates had always found Asagi Aiba difficult to approach because of her outstanding grades and overly refined features. But after seeing Asagi Aiba's awkward efforts in love, their classmates—especially the girls—changed their attitude toward her quite a bit. Their evaluation of Asagi Aiba shifted from "an unapproachable beauty" to "a cute but unlucky-in-love classmate who's bad at romance," and they all quietly supported her.
Only Asagi Aiba herself still thought she had hidden those feelings very well... Oh, and Kojou Akatsuki, that blockhead, had also completely failed to notice Asagi Aiba's far-too-obvious behavior. He was the very model of the dense harem protagonist from a Japanese anime.
...
As usual, once the day's classes were over, Ciel was able to leave campus early, while Natsuki Minamiya, as a homeroom teacher, still had to remain at school and deal with the seemingly endless class affairs and paperwork.
There was one small difference today, however: Ciel did not need to make a special detour to Tensou Academy to pick up Kanon Kanase as she usually did, letting her go straight home.
When she unlocked the front door with her key, the sight that greeted her was an undamaged living room. There was no aftermath of an explosion, nor had the place been frozen into a glittering ice cellar by ice magic. Relief immediately welled up in Ciel's heart. It seemed Avrora had been quite well-behaved today, which was undoubtedly delightful progress worth recording.
She even wondered whether she ought to give the little ancestor some sort of reward. However, when she opened the refrigerator, she discovered that it was completely empty... Twenty bottles of chilled cola and forty boxes of ice cream had all vanished without a trace, clearly swept clean by Avrora.
Twenty bottles of cola and forty boxes of ice cream, all in one day? Can your stomach even handle that...?
Ciel could not help retorting inwardly.
But looking at Avrora's lively, energetic state, she did not seem to be unwell at all.
On second thought, compared to the house being frozen into an ice cave or blown into ruins, the cost of buying another twenty bottles of cola and forty boxes of ice cream was practically negligible.
...Forget it. As long as she's happy.
"Hm? Avrora wants to go to school?"
Closing the refrigerator door, Ciel, who had no choice but to get herself a bottle of Sprite because the cola and ice cream had already been finished off by Avrora the bandit, looked at Kanon Kanase in surprise.
"Yes. After I told Avrora about my experiences at school today, she became very interested in school life. She said she wanted to attend the school where Ciel-oneesama is."
A gentle smile appeared on Kanon Kanase's face. Ciel had no idea what exactly Kanon had told Avrora today to give her such unrealistic fantasies about school.
However, perhaps this was a good suggestion.
Although Avrora was being cared for by Ciel, Natsuki Minamiya, and Kanon Kanase, that care was not all that different from supervision. For Avrora, it was far from enough.
Mogwai hoped that these vessels sealing the Fourth Primogenitor's Beast Vassals could become closer to real humans.
Whether making friends or experiencing life, they needed to possess selves of their own and grow attached to living.
Besides, if Avrora attended Saikai Academy, with Ciel and Natsuki Minamiya there, it would be difficult for anything unexpected to happen.
"We can bring this up with Natsuki-oneechan. Kanon is about to move up to the middle school division anyway. When the time comes, we can arrange for you two to be in the same class. It would be hard to feel at ease if all your classmates were strangers."
"Avrora, did you hear? Ciel-oneesama agreed to let you attend Saikai Academy. And when the time comes, we'll be classmates in the same class."
Kanon Kanase was sincerely happy for Avrora, and Avrora also showed a brilliant smile so dazzling it was hard to look at directly, her eyes sparkling.
Seeing Avrora so overjoyed at the thought of going to school that she could barely contain herself, Ciel also smiled helplessly, as though infected by the smiles of the two of them.
Sigh... These two children were both the type who were so well-behaved that it only made people worry even more. She could only hope their future classmates would also be obedient and sensible, with fewer little hellions among them.
A moment later, Ciel remembered the issue of dinner.
"What do you want to eat tonight?"
"I... I wish to eat frozen ambrosia!"
"I'm asking what you want for dinner, and as everyone knows, ice cream cannot be dinner... Also, you ate all the ice cream in the fridge by yourself, didn't you? And you still want more?"
"..."
Being stared at by Avrora with such pitiful eyes, even Ciel felt a little unable to bear it.
At that moment, Ciel suddenly remembered the shaved ice spell she had learned long ago.
The missing toppings, such as jam, milk, and sugar, could all be found in the kitchen at home.
Once the milk fruit shaved ice was complete, Avrora took her first bite and immediately showed an expression of bliss.
"Magic of the divine realm! Sweet dew from the heavens!"
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