Seiji couldn't see everything in the picture clearly due to the lack of lighting, but he saw various unusual objects.

For example, there was a windmill that had rotor blades made out of mirrors, and cyan-colored spiral runes were engraved onto each rotor blade.

There was a silver kettle with various strange red lines drawn upon it. It also had two spouts, one on each side.

There was a wooden sword which appeared to be over 1.5 meters in length. One side was black while the other side was white. The black side had tiny white words etched upon it, while the white side had tiny black words etched upon it.

There was a

kendama

that had a dark blue hilt with strange black lines upon it. The ball portion was painted dark red and had numerous black dots.

"If all of these are actually Spiritual Artifacts… that would be an incredible discovery." Seiji returned Mika's cell phone to her after he finished looking at everything in the picture.

"I already called Natsuya and told her about what happened. She thinks that this board game is a high-level Spiritual Artifact, which means that it's definitely something out of the ordinary. If all of these are on the same level as that board game… well, that's probably unlikely, but even if only two or three of these objects are on the same level, it'd be really incredible."

A moment of silence fell between them.

"You called the president by name," Mika said.

"Eh?"

"You just said the president's name, instead of calling her 'President,'" Mika said, looking into his eyes.

"Indeed," Seiji admitted. "We've begun calling each other by name."

Another moment of silence fell between them.

"By the way… does Miss Landlord know where these objects in her husband's collection originated from?" Seiji asked.

Mika shook her head. "Mom said that when she asked Dad in the past, Dad said that they were gifts from other people, but wouldn't mention who they came from. When Mom pressured him about it, he would only say that the person who gave it to him wished to remain anonymous. After hearing the exact same answer several times, Mom gave up on asking."

Saying that someone else had given the objects to him, but not being willing to say who they came from… this seemed like an obvious excuse. However, there was also the possibility of it being true.

Seiji contemplated the matter.

If Mr. Uehara was telling the truth, then was the person who gave him these gifts a Spiritual Ability user? Did he receive these gifts all from a single person, or several different people? And why did they give such things to Mr. Uehara? Was Mr. Uehara himself a Spiritual Ability user?

There were many unknowns.

"I think that we should show all these items to Natsuya; what do you think?"

"…Whatever you want." The pigtailed girl laid her head down listlessly on Seiji's table.

"You don't want to?"

"I think it's fine either way."

It was obvious that she was being a bit difficult.

Seiji blinked. "What's the matter, Mika?"

"Nothing… I just feel rather tired." The pigtailed girl closed her eyes.

"I see… then you should have some rest." Seiji looked at her closely.

He wanted to say something but didn't know what to say. He instinctively felt that she wanted silence right now.

So, he remained quiet. He simply observed her face in silence. Mika felt his gaze upon her and opened her eyes, meeting Seiji's gaze.

"Why are you looking at me?"

"Because I want to look at you," Seiji answered reflexively. When he realized what he said, he suddenly felt a wave of embarra.s.sment.

'What did I say just now!?'

Mika's face flushed red, and she averted her gaze.

"I-I'm not that pretty; it's not like I'm as beautiful as the president…"

She noticed what was wrong with her sentence after she said it, and she was overcome by a wave of embarra.s.sment.

'What did I say just now!?'

"Mika…" After hearing what she accidentally let slip just now, Seiji realized what was going on.

"Pretend that I didn't say that just now," Mika muttered in a tiny voice.

"I already heard you."

"You can forget what you just heard."

"My brain isn't a computer's hard drive—it's not able to delete things at will," Seiji said with a chuckle. "Mika… do you want to hear the truth from me?"

"Eh?"

"The truth about the difference between you and the president's looks."

Mika didn't know how to respond to this.

Seiji smiled. "It might not be good to judge girls by their looks, but if you want to hear what I think, then I'll tell you my opinion."

"…I want to hear it."

"Alright then, I won't hold back." He acted as if he was the host of a variety program and cleared his throat. "To be direct, Mika, you're indeed a beautiful, very pretty girl. However, Natsuya is a meglevel beauty who's even prettier than you are.

"This is a review based on anyone's normal sense of beauty. I think that you yourself should agree as well. It's quite obvious that there's a difference between your looks."

"Wah…" Mika seemed to receive an impact from this.

"Not being as good as someone else in looks or some other area and feeling depressed is something normal," Seiji continued. "There's no especially good method to deal with this either. One can only face reality and do the best that they can. And what I believe the worst thing to do in this case is to… deny oneself, or to make things difficult for oneself.

"Everyone is unique… although this sounds like something nice yet empty, it's the truth. You can't be Natsuya Yoruhana, nor can Natsuya Yoruhana be Mika Uehara. You're you, and you should value yourself more." He reached out with his hand and patted Mika on the head. "You have to take good care of yourself, Mika."

"What are you saying…" The pigtailed girl was feeling a mixture of emotions.

She knew that Seiji wanted to comfort her, but… couldn't he say something that sounded nicer? 'I know she's quite beautiful, but you're more important to me in my heart,' would have been fine. Didn't he know that girls needed to be consoled with they're feeling down!?

'These words of yours have basically zero effect in consoling me!' Mika energetically retorted in her mind.

However, Seiji's gentle look and the way he patted her head both gave her a feeling of warmth.

'Idiot,' she said in her mind. Mika then stopped thinking about anything else.

Later that night, Seiji received a phone call from Yukari Asamiya.

"Good evening, Seigo."

"Good evening, Yukari."

"Are you free during the Winter Snow Festival?" She took the direct approach.

"I'm sorry… I'm busy," Seiji replied.

"You already have a date with someone else?"

"That's correct."

"Can't you abandon this date and change it to spending time with me instead?" Yukari asked in a soft voice.

"Eh?"

"If you can go out with me during the Winter Snow Festival, I'll give you an amazing present~" Yukari said in a sultry voice.

Seiji felt as if he could imagine the purple-haired beauty's flushed face and seductive expression.

A girl giving a boy an "amazing present" during the Winter Snow Festival… his imagination ran wild for a moment.

He was moved for a moment but quickly firmed his resolution.

"I apologize, I can't do that," Seiji answered. "I already promised… since that person needs my help."

"Help?"

"Yeah, that person has a troublesome matter that I need to help out with."

Yukari fell silent for a moment.

"As expected, this approach was no good," Yukari chuckled. "I knew already that you wouldn't be the type to go back on a promise, but I still couldn't help but try. I apologize. It was rude of me to attempt to make you break a promise. I hope that you don't mind."

"It's fine; I don't mind," Seiji answered.

"That's good, then." Yukari paused for a moment. "Are you free tomorrow, then?"

"Tomorrow… I'm free in the morning."

"I'd like to meet you to discuss the game we're making. Is that alright?"

Seiji fell silent for a moment.

He recalled the words he said to s.h.i.+ka when he returned home after his last meeting with Yukari.

Yukari Asamiya was an excellent and beautiful girl who matched his interests. If he had a date with her…

His adopted younger sister's face popped up in his mind.

Seiji made his decision.

"If it's about the game… we can simply discuss it over the internet."