A minimum of 150,000 sakuras per person was no small price.

As for Chiaki, she said already that she was going to Mika's place to stay over tonight, so Chiaki should be fine. Peach-sensei could probably afford the payments for her and Editor Yos.h.i.+zawa's protection. As for Hisas.h.i.+, he could also afford the payment. Kaede was living right above him, so it wouldn't be necessary.

As for Hos.h.i.+, he was currently living with Rika Amami, the confectionery store owner and manager… Perhaps Rika would be able to pay. As for Rion and Kotomi, they were currently living together with their grandfather, Shouzou Amami.

Seiji recalled the time when he met the Amami Family's grandfather.

Although they never discussed the mystical during their last meeting, Seiji's instinct told him that Shouzou might know something about the mystical side of society.

And so, Seiji decided to have a talk with Shouzou about it.

He immediately called Shouzou, and Shouzou accepted the call quickly.

"Good afternoon, Young Master Seiji." Shouzou's raspy voice greeted him.

"Good afternoon, Amami-san… please don't address me like that."

The old man chuckled.

"Harano-kun, is something the matter?"

"It's like this, Amami-san. Although we didn't mention it last time we met, you probably know about the 'mystical' side of society, right?" Seiji tried asking Shouzou.

"Yes, I know about it." Shouzou admitted it directly.

"Amami-san, are you a Spiritual Ability user?"

"I was once in the past."

"In the past?"

"Now I'm just an ordinary old man."

"Oh…" It would seem that there was a story behind this. "Since Amami-san knows about the mystical, this will be much easier." Seiji paused for a moment. "I would like to discuss what happened last night…" He gave a rough explanation of the situation.

"Thank you so much for being concerned about my grandson and granddaughters," Shouzou thanked him sincerely after hearing his words.

"They're my friends and companions. It's what I should do."

"Heh heh, I definitely didn't misjudge you."

Seiji felt rather awkward about being praised like this.

"As for the matter of barriers, there's no need, Harano-kun. Although I'm no longer a Spiritual Ability user, I still have some connections in that side of society. I'm capable of protecting my family from demons and spirits."

"I see… Since Amami-san says so, I feel more rea.s.sured now."

"Harano-kun, please be careful yourself as well. It's nice that you're thinking about others, but it's more important to protect yourself."

"I will. Thank you."

They ended the conversation there.

It seemed that he wouldn't need to worry about the Amami family.

That just left Yukari and Kaho… what should he do?

If the night of one hundred demons was a real threat, then he should explain it to them. But, the problem was that this threat was rather uncertain.

Perhaps demons wouldn't appear anymore tonight… Perhaps he was being overly concerned, just like how he wouldn't know if it would rain tonight or not, but he still wanted to buy a super expensive umbrella. In such a situation, was it really alright to tell them about the existence of the mystical?

Seiji thought over this question for quite a while.

In the end, he decided that he should tell them.

Although it was also alright to secretly pay for their personal barriers out of his own money without telling them about it, he felt that it wasn't something very good to do.

'Let's just tell them the truth and face it together.'

Mayuzumi was quite astonished to hear from Seiji about her uncle's true former ident.i.ty as a member of the mystical side of society.

After thinking it over for a little while, she decided not to trouble her uncle. She would personally pay for barriers to protect her and her good friend Saki.

As for how she would convince the editor to accept such an expensive protection, Seiji didn't know.

After Hisas.h.i.+ learned about this available option, he requested to purchase three personal barriers, as well as a 50-square-meter fixed-location barrier.

Seiji immediately contacted s.h.i.+zuka Saran again and placed his order.

"I need some time to prepare for these barriers. I'll contact you again after I'm finished with my preparations."

"How long do you need."

"Approximately three hours."

"I might order some more barriers from you later. Is that alright?"

"Yes… Feel free to contact me if you need my services."

They ended the phone call there.

After that, Seiji called Yukari.

"Good afternoon. Do you have time to meet up?"

Yukari was quite surprised to receive an invitation to meet up from Seigo Harano.

When he told her that he wanted to discuss something important with her face to face, she agreed although she was somewhat confused.

What important thing could it be?

No matter what, she was happy to be able to meet with him.

After dressing herself appropriately, Yukari headed over to Seiji's apartment.

"Sorry for suddenly calling you out like this." Seiji opened the door for her when she knocked.

"It's fine, I just happened to be free." Yukari smiled as she entered his apartment.

Seiji had Yukari sit down by the kotatsu and served her some tea and confectioneries. After that, he took out a white gift box.

"This is my return present for the Winter Snow Festival. I apologize that I'm only giving it to you now."

"Thank you," Yukari accepted it happily. "Can I open it up right now?"

"Of course."

Yukari immediately opened up the box to see an exquisite light novel ill.u.s.trations collection—this was something that she had been wanting recently!

"This… is amazing." Yukari was delighted with this present to the point where her eyes were sparkling. "This was something I really wanted… did I ever mention it to you before?"

"No, you didn't. I just felt like this light novel ill.u.s.tration collection was pretty good and that you'd like it as you're also an artist yourself," Seiji told her.

Actually, he had used the power of the gift information card in his system.

"I really like it! Thank you for giving me this." Yukari smiled beautifully; it came from her heart.

She was more delighted with the fact that he gave her such an appropriate present for her rather than the light novel ill.u.s.tration collection itself.

Seiji was entranced by her beautiful smile, and was slightly dazed.

"…It's good that you like it." He sipped on his tea in order to help him regain his senses.

"Was the important thing you mentioned this present you gave me?"

"No, it's more about what I mentioned this morning…" Seiji paused for a moment before lifting his head and looking into her eyes. "If I tell you that there really are demons out there harming humans, what will you think?"

"Eh?"

"There really are demons out there, as well as Spiritual Ability users that exist. I'm one of them."

Yukari was rendered speechless.

She didn't know how to react to this sudden revelation, and her expression became a little strange.

Of course, Seiji wasn't surprised at all that she reacted in this manner.

In order to make her believe as quickly as possible, he lifted his hand and cast the most pretentious spell he knew in his a.r.s.enal.

*Whoos.h.!.+*

The light novel ill.u.s.tration collection began to fly in midair.

Then, it dropped down back towards the table, but flew up again when it was almost about to hit the table. Then, it flew in all sorts of random directions, flew in circles, whirled around in midair, and flipped itself around and around… all sorts of fancy flight paths.

The purple-haired girl was stunned to see this sight.

Finally, the light novel ill.u.s.tration collection landed back in Seiji's hands.

"Go ahead and inspect this. There's no tricks to it whatsoever," he told her as he handed her the light novel ill.u.s.tration collection.

Yukari maintained her dazed expression as she woodenly accepted the ill.u.s.tration collection and inspected it.

It didn't seem like there were any tricks possible to her…

"Actually, I can perform the same thing with other objects as well. As long as the object isn't too heavy, I can do the exact same thing with it."

The purple-haired girl looked at him once more when she heard him state that in a calm manner. She saw that he had quite a serious expression.

"Spiritual Ability user…" Yukari muttered to herself.

"It must be difficult for you to accept, but—"

"Amazing!" Yukari's eyes began sparkling even s.h.i.+nier than when she received the present earlier. "Seigo, you're actually a Spiritual Ability user… no wonder you're so strong!"