Sensing Misha's interest in Takumi, Syr's grip tightened.
She quickly tugged Takumi along and led him back onto the festival street.
"Takumi-san—ah~~~"
Syr lifted a steaming piece of bread, spread with lightly sweet peanut butter, and held it up to his lips.
Takumi played along, opening his mouth and taking a neat bite.
As he did, his lips brushed Syr's pale fingertips. In an instant, a blush crept up Syr's long white neck.
Realizing he'd done it on purpose, Syr looked shy and flustered.
"Mm… Takumi-san, don't tease me…"
Takumi laughed. "How can I not, when you're this cute?"
"Then… let me feed you more."
Syr blinked mischievously and immediately began her feeding tour in earnest.
…
In a narrow side alley, Anya peeked around a corner, secretly watching Syr and Takumi walk ahead together.
"Takumi is so handsome, nya~"
"Yeah. Takumi is handsome."
"Huh?"
Anya blinked, looked down—and found herself staring directly into Lili's face.
At the same time, Alise, Hestia, and a whole crowd emerged behind her.
The alley was already cramped. Now it was packed.
"Why are there so many people here, nya?!"
Anya yelped, instantly realizing they were here for the exact same reason she was.
"Wait—Alise, Kaguya… Astraea Familia is here too, nya?! Aren't you supposed to be guarding the festival today, nya?"
Alise turned her head away awkwardly.
They were supposed to. They just… didn't.
"The festival patrol is handled by Ganesha Familia today," Kaguya answered flatly. Then she narrowed her eyes. "I should be asking you—why are you here?"
Everyone stared at Anya.
Anya had no comeback.
They all knew it: both sides were chasing Takumi.
Ryuu watched Takumi walking arm-in-arm with Syr and felt her chest tighten.
That earlier fluttering in her heart had turned into a sharp ache—hot, impulsive, unreasonable.
She wanted… she wanted the person holding his arm to be her.
"So what do we do now?" Lyra whispered, scowling. "We can't just interrupt someone's date."
That killed the momentum instantly.
Alise and the others froze, exchanging looks. Nobody wanted to say it out loud.
So they did the only cowardly thing left—they followed.
A silent tail squad. Full-on spying.
Takumi, who'd already sensed them, wore the faintest look of disbelief.
Why are there so many of you?!
You're not even subtle—you're basically a marching unit!
Good thing the cognition barrier was covering him and Syr. Otherwise this would be impossible.
Since they weren't trying to barge in, Takumi decided to pretend he hadn't noticed.
Instead, his attention shifted to the other group stalking him.
From different angles, two killers were tracking him:
The assassin known as "Black Cat," Chloe Rollo, and the one called "Iron Fist," Lunoire Faust.
Both had the exact same ugly expression.
"Assassinate him?" x2
"Are you out of your mind?!" x2
They'd accepted the job—then discovered the target was Takumi.
The man who defeated Zald, the man who erased the black winged dragon in seconds—and they were supposed to assassinate that?
This wasn't a mission. It was a suicide note.
"I'll be the one to strike," a voice said from the shadows, steadying the two who were already preparing to run. "You two just create the opening."
The payoff was huge.
After a long silence, Chloe and Lunoire decided to gamble it.
But the instant anything felt wrong, they were gone.
Neither of them realized Takumi had already noticed them.
"Chloe and Lunoire… so Horn even hired backup."
To Takumi, the whole thing was almost funny.
It felt like a kitten with no teeth trying to threaten him.
He wasn't scared. He wasn't even mad.
The gap was so ridiculous that it barely registered as danger.
"Alright," Takumi thought. "Let's see what kind of stunt you're planning, Horn."
…
He lifted a snack and held it to Syr's lips.
Syr parted her soft mouth and took a delicate bite.
Then, like she was copying him on purpose, her teeth lightly grazed his fingertip.
That fleeting, innocent little gesture hit Takumi harder than it should've.
He had to fight the urge to pinch her cheeks right then and there.
The two of them continued down the street like a sickeningly sweet couple.
Behind them, the girls watching grew increasingly jealous—and increasingly miserable.
"She's—she's—she's really that forward?! She can even do that?!"
"There wasn't even a forest witness or a wedding—how can they act like that?!"
Ryuu yelped softly, covering her red-hot face with both hands… and then kept peeking through her fingers anyway.
Their behavior was normal couple stuff, but to a pure, morality-obsessed elf, it was dangerously intense.
Even as she gasped things like "Ah—!" and "N-no way…!" she never looked away.
Hestia, meanwhile, was completely furious.
"…That damned fox!"
But Lili and Haruhime were dragging her, and she couldn't even take a proper step forward while yelling.
Even Chloe and Lunoire—professional assassins—were getting irritated watching the public flirting.
…
Takumi and Syr, of course, had no awareness they were triggering half the city.
Under the cognition barrier, they moved like ghosts—unnoticed by strangers.
Only girls who already knew Takumi could pierce the barrier enough to keep tracking them.
Up ahead, on the street in front of them, Ais was eating.
"Mmm… mmm… haa…"
After everything that had happened, she'd been feeling down.
Even if Takumi saved almost everyone, some people had still died.
So she decided to reset her mood the only way she knew how: Eat every single Jagamarukun shop in the city.
With that plan, she pulled a potato ball from her paper bag and popped it into her mouth.
"Pumpkin-flavored Jagamarukun… I thought it was cursed food, but it's actually… pretty good."
The gloom in her chest lifted, and she let out a satisfied breath.
Then, at that exact moment, she came face-to-face with Takumi and Syr as they rounded the corner.
"…Mmph—whuh?!"
Ais let out a strange, garbled noise.
Still chewing, she froze. It took her a beat to recover.
She wasn't good with romance, but right now, for some reason, she suddenly hated the scene in front of her.