Edited by Gaby.

The two separated at the crossroads.

Dark returned to his dormitory and then went to Claire's office with the gift before evening.

Claire was indeed in the office struggling with how to pack her things.

Her office was not messy, but there were too many books.

Many of them were borrowed from the library, and they all had to be returned one by one.

Others were bought from Traveller Street, and they needed to go through a review process if she wanted to take them out of the academy.

However, with Claire's status, she had probably already obtained a permit from Principal Arte.

"Let me help."

Dark put the gift aside for a moment, and rolled up his sleeves, starting to help Claire.

Claire, who was looking like an adult not long ago, couldn't help blushing. She sighed in her heart that time had flown by so quickly, but she didn't reject it.

After half an hour, Dark sorted out the books marked with the library's label. He summoned Gatomon, let it carry the books, and walked to the library.

Claire on the other hand left the office with the rest of her belongings.

...

Although Dark came to the library less frequently recently, he was still familiar with every corner of the place.

He asked Gatomon to move the books that were as tall as a hill to the counter, and after explaining the matter to Pandora-senpai, they registered the books together.

Every time Pandora registered a book, she would use the administrator's authority to power the library's magic circuit to return the book to its original location.

As the books grew wings and flew away automatically, the stacks of books on the counter became smaller and smaller.

Both people also had the time to speak.

Pandora sighed: "Are these books all borrowed by Professor Kate? I really wonder if she has a special way of reading books."

Dark said, "Maybe this is why she's a sage."

Pandora: "How's your [Fusion] Magic Charm going?"

Dark: "I made some progress, but it's still difficult."

Pandora: "It's normal to be hard. [Fusion] Magic Charm is very hard to master even in our fourth-year curriculum. So it's very rare that you can make so much progress already."

Dark shrugged. "Maybe it's because I'm good at calculation."

Pandora was also curious; "I always think your arithmetic level is better than mine. Did you come up with the Column Calculation Method and the formula table on your own?"

Dark: "It's all just small tricks."

...

After finishing sorting the books, Dark said goodbye to Pandora-senpai and went straight to Claire's dormitory.

As soon as he opened the door, he found that it was full of animals jumping around inside.

Dark covered his forehead helplessly, feeling that Aunt Claire was even more unreliable than Alvette.

She had obviously deployed the field spell card in the dormitory, but there were clearly too many animals released to organize the luggage. Those animals did everything to compete for favor. There were even two monkeys each grabbing a sleeve of a piece of clothing in a tug-of-war.

Dark originally wanted to help organize it, but he didn't expect it to be like this.

"Looks like she doesn't need my help."

So he closed the door and wanted to run away.

"Wait!"

Claire's cry for help came from inside.

...

It was not until most of the items were sorted out that the two went to the cafeteria for a relatively hearty dinner.

Dark let go of his restraint and gave Claire enough face while enduring the [Gluttony +1] prompt.

"Eat more, eat more so you can grow taller."

Claire kept stuffing food into his bowl, but she herself didn't eat much.

Although not particularly obvious, Dark still felt that the feeling she gave people now was somewhat different from when she first came to the castle.

But anyway, it was a good change.

Dark was less worried.

Satisfied with the meal, they went back separately.

Claire needed to hurry up and visit the professors for various subjects.

Dark also had his own research to do.

The nights were cold in winter, and the stars were sparse in the sky.

Dark studied on the laboratory table until nearly ten o'clock, and finally made some breakthroughs.

He breathed a sigh of relief, and came to the balcony.

When he bent over, picked the cow grass that had come up, and raised his head to look at the moon, two bats flew past his field of vision, making him a little surprised.

There were bats in the castle, but as the winter got longer, the bats should be less active.

But that was the habit of common bats.

There were also some special bats that did not follow this hibernation rule.

However, Dark didn't pay too much attention to it after the initial surprise. He turned his eyes slightly and looked in the direction of the teachers' dormitory.

Having such a relative in the academy still gave people a very different feeling.

The night of learning the prerequisites of making the [Zoo] card with Claire was busy, but the fulfilling feeling was easy to get used to.

After a week's relaxation, Dark felt a little empty.

He felt like he had lost in the race against time.

He shook his head, holding back the growing feeling of loss in his heart.

...

Coincidentally, Claire was also looking at the castle under the night sky from the balcony of her dormitory.

Her expression was in a trance, but her eyes were always focused on a certain range.

That was an area where secret passages were concentrated.

Only those who had gone deep into the secret passage knew that there was a phenomenon of space folding in the secret passage, and if the area was unfolded, it was actually larger than the entire castle.

Claire had also gone deep into the secret passage once.

However, she did not have the same childlike innocence as the Brave One and Valkyrie, and did not leave so-called treasures in the secret passage.

Moreover, at that time, their exploration of the secret path was still superficial.

They only knew that the secret passage was magical, but they never knew that the secret passage could be so magical!

Halloween.

The resurrection ritual of the Moon Goddess!

Even though this incident has been published in the newspapers, there were still only a handful of people who knew the details.

In addition to just wanting to find a place to relax, this was also one of the reasons why Claire agreed to Arte's request.

After traveling around for many years, even though the beauty, wonders, and cultural customs of various places were indeed impressive, after converting those experiences into pictures and texts, the emptiness in her heart not only couldn't be filled, but it had become worse.

This had led to several violent outbursts, causing a little mess.

Claire's mouth curled up slightly.

This trip to the academy really made her calm down.

And she also found some, clear goals.

She realized that she needed to do what she wanted to do.

Not what other people wanted to do.

Those who passed away were already gone.

Those who survive should continue to live.

After all, one cannot always live in the past.