Mifune City.
Inside the teachers' room of an elementary school.
"Phew~ That's enough work for today. Time to head home."
Atalanta, dressed in a teacher's uniform, tidied her desk, turned off all the lights, and left the office.
It was already 5:30 p.m. If this were a middle or high school, there might still be students around, but this was an elementary school. Even the kids in after-school clubs had long gone home, as had the other teachers.
Atalanta was the last to leave the school. For the past two years since she started teaching here, it had always been this way.
It stemmed from her care for the children. There had once been an incident where a child got locked in the sports equipment storage room, leading to their family reporting it to the police. To prevent such incidents from happening again, Atalanta always checked the entire school after hours before leaving.
Thanks to this, over the past two years, there hadn't been a single case of a child accidentally getting locked in. Atalanta's reputation as a teacher grew stronger, and some news outlets even reported on her.
Of course, Atalanta didn't care much about external praise. She simply loved children and had no need to use them for her own gain.
"It's getting late. I could only buy this much food."
Holding the groceries she'd just bought from the supermarket, Atalanta sighed lightly. Despite having a physical body for six years, she still hadn't mastered the art of competing with housewives for ingredients. Between her teaching duties and after-school patrols, she could only pick up whatever was left.
Fortunately, having grown up in the forest, she could handle any tough conditions—whether it was food or lodging.
Atalanta's home was in Ogawa Apartments, located in a newly developed area of Mifune City. When the apartments were first built, there were unsettling rumors about ghosts, but after the Ryougi family bought the complex two years ago, those old rumors gradually faded. Atalanta was one of the first residents to move in after the renovations were completed.
Shiki had specifically reserved a unit for her, charging only a symbolic rent. After all, they were acquaintances to a certain extent, so taking care of her wasn't a big deal—especially with Naoki's request.
Atalanta's apartment was on the tenth floor, on the east side of Ogawa Apartments, the innermost unit after stepping out of the elevator. Since she lived alone, her front door should, in theory, always be locked.
When registering, Atalanta had listed her family name as Natsukawa.
But as she returned with her groceries and saw her front door half-open, Atalanta frowned. "The door's open… Did someone come? Shiki?"
Over the past two years, Atalanta and Shiki had developed a good relationship. Since Shiki had lived in these apartments before, she occasionally came by to spend the night at Atalanta's place.
The young lady of the Ryougi family still enjoyed wandering around at night.
Pushing the door open and stepping inside, Atalanta walked toward the living room while saying, "Shiki, if you're coming over, let me know first. I didn't buy many vegetables. And remember to close the front door properly."
"Huh? The door wasn't closed? Sorry, sorry, I must not have shut it properly when I came in."
The voice came from the kitchen, but it wasn't Shiki's. Her voice was usually cool and detached, while this one was the opposite—and to Atalanta's ears, it was very familiar.
Her gaze shifted to the kitchen, which was adjacent to the living room, and she finally noticed who was standing there.
"Welcome back, Miss Kitty. Sit down for a bit; dinner's almost ready."
Naoki, wearing an apron, spoke while tasting the food in the pot.
Blinking and recovering from her surprise, Atalanta couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "Why'd you show up out of nowhere? No more business in England?"
"I took some time off. Roman asked for my help, and since I was already on leave and hadn't seen you or Shiki in a while, I flew straight here after finishing things there."
"So I'm just an afterthought?"
Stepping into the kitchen, Atalanta gently flicked her tail against Naoki's waist, then wrapped it around him. "You heartless jerk."
"Even without Roman's business, I was planning to come see you soon. We last met a month ago, right? How've you been lately?"
"Same old, same old. By the way, you came back alone this time? No Gray or Rei?"
"Gray will arrive in a day or two. Roman asked me to look after someone, so I had Gray escort them to Merry's place."
Normally, Naoki would be accompanied by one of those two. Seeing him alone this time surprised Atalanta a bit. "Hmmm~ You're not planning something shady, are you?"
"What do you think?"
Naoki deliberately tilted his head and blew on Atalanta's cat ears. The warm breath instantly made her face flush, and the tail wrapped around his waist tightened sharply—
"Ow, ow, ow… You're gonna break my waist…"
"Keep that up, and I'll claw you, believe me!"
Annoyed, she flicked her tail against Naoki's back a few times. Turning away, Atalanta grabbed some plates from the upper cabinet and handed them to him.
Seeing her pretend to be fierce, Naoki gave a wry smile. "If you were going to claw me, you'd have done it already. Those tail flicks don't even hurt. You could hit harder if you wanted."
*WHACK!*
Atalanta immediately flicked her tail at Naoki's head, and as if that wasn't enough, she kept going four or five more times. But the force of her flicks… Naoki felt they weren't even as strong as Gray fanning him with a paper fan.
"By the way, how long are you staying this time?"
"As usual, a week. I took two weeks off. The other week, I have to head to Antarctica to check on Chaldea."
A week.
Atalanta's ears twitched. "You're really busy. When are you planning to visit Shiki?"
"Tomorrow."
"Then come with me tomorrow morning, okay?"
"Again?" Naoki grinned, counting on his fingers. "We've sparred a dozen times already, haven't we? Want another round?"
"Getting constantly crushed in a field I thought I was good at isn't my style. Besides, you don't have other plans, right? Just one morning. I know you can make time."
That meant he'd have to visit the Ryougi family in the afternoon.
Considering the timing, Naoki nodded. "Alright, I'll go along with you—"
Grrr~
An untimely sound interrupted.
Carrying a bowl of soup out of the kitchen, Naoki pulled Atalanta to sit down. "Looks like we need to eat dinner first. Can we talk about that later? Neither of us is going anywhere."