The days trickled by, and it was now the Winter Snow Festival.

Today, it happened to be snowing. The snowflakes covered the roofs and streets in a warm, romantic blanket of white.

It was finally time for the season of White Alb.u.m… cough, let's not mention this anymore.

After eating breakfast, Seiji played a video game together with Reo, while s.h.i.+ka silently observed them.

After it was about time to go, he put down the game controller and got ready. Just as he was about to leave his apartment, his cell phone started ringing.

Seiji accepted the call. It was from Natsuya, who asked him where he was. After telling her he was on the way, Seiji looked towards s.h.i.+ka and Reo.

"I'm going out," he said.

"Be careful on your way," the two girls said together.

"I'll be back later this afternoon." Seiji smiled as he left.

After he left, there was a brief silence. s.h.i.+ka looked towards Reo, soundlessly picked up the game controller Seiji had left behind, and indicated that she would take Seiji's place.

Reo's eyes lit up as she restarted the game.

Seiji rode in Natsuya's car to the battlefield… whoops, the party.

Currently, he was wearing a windbreaker with a high collar and long black plants. He was also wearing a wool knit cap and sungla.s.ses. As long as he kept his collar up high and b.u.t.toned up, almost his entire face was covered. He felt as if he was cosplaying s.h.i.+no Aburame.

Not only that, Natsuya also cast a disguise spell on him. This was all in order to protect his true ident.i.ty.

If he was recognized as Seiji Haruta, lots of unnecessary trouble could crop up. This was the only method to avoid that.

Although his appearance was certain to attract attention, there was no helping it. This was a way to let everyone know that he wanted his ident.i.ty to remain private.

If someone saw through his disguise and discovered his true ident.i.ty, they would have to worry about the fact that he obviously didn't intend for people to know who he was before they publicized it.

The president, who was currently sitting across from him in her car, was wearing a plain, light pink Sakura Island outfit. She appeared rather reserved and less eye-catching than usual.

If it wasn't for the fact that as the daughter of the Yoruhana family, she had to make a respectable impression, she would have worn something even plainer. Perhaps she would have gone so far as to wear a full winter jacket, wrapping many thick layers around herself.

"Can you tell me about that person that you strongly dislike?" Seiji asked.

Natsuya fell silent for a moment before speaking. "His name is Akatsuki Mitarai. Slightly over three years ago, when I was in my first year of middle school, he transferred into the cla.s.s that I was in," Natsuya said in a light voice. "The first time that our eyes met, I noticed that… there was something very wrong with the look in his eyes.

"Although that feeling stopped later on, due to the deep first impression I had of him, I didn't want to get close to him.

"However, it seemed as if he really liked me for some reason. He kept talking to me, inviting me to go out with him, and giving me presents… no matter how much I refused, he kept trying to approach me.

"One day, he confessed his love for me and even forcibly tried to hug me. I got angry. I broke free from his embrace and knocked him to the ground before leaving.

"The day after, he didn't come to school. There was one other girl in my cla.s.s that didn't come to school either, and this girl had a very good relations.h.i.+p with him. Later, on the same day that I rejected him, someone saw him being intimate with this girl.

"For an entire week, neither he nor that girl appeared at school. After that week pa.s.sed, he returned to school and apologized to me for his actions at the time. I also apologized to him for hitting him, and we appeared to make up our differences on the surface. Then, I asked him about that girl.

"When he heard my question, he revealed a slight hint of the dark expression I saw when we first met. He smiled faintly and said, 'I don't know.'

"That girl never came back to school again. Some said that she had transferred schools. I was highly concerned about this matter and later investigated it by myself. I discovered that the girl had gone missing on the same day that I rejected him. Akatsuki Mitarai is most likely the final person to have seen her."

Seiji felt an icy chill as he listened to Natsuya's tale.

Natsuya didn't say anything else and turned around to look out of the car window.

The luxury car pa.s.sed through an enormous gate. After entering, the car followed along a forested path for quite a while before it finally arrived at a huge, Sakura Island-style mansion.

Seiji recalled his experience from visiting the Juumonji mafia group.

The Juumonji mafia group's residence was huge as well, but it was nothing compared to this one—it wasn't even the same level.

This residence didn't even have its own grounds; it had its own forest. The mansion within these gates was extravagant to the point that it seemed like a palace.

He straightened his collar and b.u.t.toned up before he got off the car together with Natsuya. They followed a female employee of the residence inside. The employee was wearing a plain Sakura Island-style outfit.

The mansion was quite warm.

When they arrived at an intersection in the hallway, the female employee paused and requested politely for Spirit-branded Retainers to go down the left hallway.

'We're actually going to split up?' Seiji looked towards Natsuya questioningly.

Natsuya nodded in his direction, and Seiji complied.

With a different beautiful female employee leading the way, Seiji arrived at a garden.

There was a fake mountain, a pond, some trees, and an abundant amount of plants and flowers. The scenery was beautiful, and there were even birds flying around, with b.u.t.terflies dancing amongst the flowers… it was impossible to tell that it was actually winter right now.

The snow falling in the sky was blocked by an invisible barrier, and it melted into water vapor in midair. It was a rather mystical sight to behold.

There were well over ten people either sitting or standing around. There were males and females, young and old, each one with a different appearance and clothing style. Some of them were chatting and having fun, some were sitting there quietly, some were drinking alcohol, some were playing chess, and some were jumping around on the fake mountain…

All of these people were Spirit-branded Retainers!

When Seiji walked into this garden, a few people turned to look in his direction.

"He doesn't look familiar. Do you know him?"

"Here's another strange onii-san. He looks rather strong."

"You're the strangest one here! Stop standing on the fake mountain; get off already!"

A brown-haired teenaged boy wearing a black martial arts uniform walked up to Seiji and asked, "h.e.l.lo, may I know your name?"

"You can call me s.h.i.+roya." Seiji gave the boy the fake name he had agreed upon with Natsuya.

The brown-haired boy blinked at this. "Alright, s.h.i.+roysan. My name is Shunsuke Furukawa. I'm the Spirit-branded Retainer of the host of today's party, Ryouta Moritama. May I ask whose Spirit-branded Retainer you are?"

"Natsuya Yoruhana."

"Lady Yoruhana… understood. Please rest here as you like. If you need anything, let one of our employees know. You can ask me any questions that you may have."

"Then I won't be reserved. I'd like to ask, why are you separating the Spirit-branded Retainers and the Yin-Yang Masters?"

Furukawa smiled. "My young master believes that this is for the best. It's more appropriate for Yin-Yang Masters to mingle with Yin-Yang Masters and for Spirit-branded Retainers to interact with Spirit-branded Retainers."

Seiji fell silent for a moment.

"Of course," Furukawa added, "this won't be for the entire party. When the game begins later, we'll rejoin our masters."

"What game is that?"

"Please allow me to keep it a secret for the time being. Everyone will find out when it's time."

At this time, someone called Furukawa, so he respectfully said goodbye to Seiji and left.

Seiji looked around the garden, seeking a place to sit down. He saw an elegant-looking paG.o.da in the forest, so he walked over to it.

When he got closer, he discovered that there was a girl with long gray hair sitting there already…

'No, it's a boy.'

The boy's gray hair reached his shoulders, and he had a dark red eyepatch covering his left eye. Even with this, he was definitely handsome, and he was engrossed in reading a novel…

'Is that a… light novel?'

The novel's cover had a beautiful girl wearing bikini-armor and wielding a gigantic greatsword. The novel's name was I Reincarnated to Another World and Became a Magical Female Swordsman!

Seiji was rendered speechless.