An incredibly eye-catching cosplayer walked over.
When Seiji noticed and looked, his eyes instantly bulged in surprise.
This was a long dark red-haired handsome boy wearing extravagant Sakura Island clothing with a silver longsword strapped to his waist. He was a popular male character from the story Chronicles of the Demon Sword ! His name was… no wait, it wasn't important what character he was cosplaying as, the person him was more important - Ryuuno Izawa!
This was Kanna Fujihara's Spirit-branded Retainer that Seiji had gotten acquainted with at the Winter Snow Festival Yin-Yang Master party.
Izawa was actually cosplaying!?
Seiji instantly realized that this must be at the request of Kanna Fujihara.
The red-haired handsome boy walked steadily towards him, with everyone along the way giving him a path while taking photos of him with their cameras or cell phones. This made it seem like he was an idol walking down a red carpet.
Izawa ignored everyone else, and walked directly towards Seiji.
"Shiroysan, I've finally found you."
Seiji blinked as he looked at Izawa.
"Izawsan… how did you recognize me?"
The moment he asked, he felt like he had asked a foolish question.
Izawa smiled faintly and pointed at his own left eye.
"My master said that you would definitely come to the cosplay area, which is why she had me wait here and observe everyone."
"I see, but was there a need to dress yourself up like this?"
"This was a request from my master."
"I thought so as well." Seiji smiled and reached out his hand for a handshake. "Nice to meet you, Izawsan. My name is Seigo Harano."
"Nice to meet you, Harano-san." Izawa shook his hand.
*Click click click…* Many camera shutters kept snapping their pictures.
Seiji let go of the handshake and looked around him, noticing that many bystanders, including even Chiaki and his friends, were taking many photos of the two of them. It seemed to Seiji like they were a group of paparazzi taking photos of a meeting between two celebrities.
"Let's go somewhere quieter to chat," he recommended.
"That's just what I wanted." Izawa had an expression of he couldn't wait to get out of here.
Seiji then indicated to the bystanders that they should stop taking photos now, and then explained to Chiaki and his friends that he was going to step out for a while and meet up with them later.
Something flashed in Chiaki's eyes, Mika had a curious expression, Kaho's eyes were sparkling, and Yukari was all excited.
The four girls watched Seigo walk off with the unknown handsome boy and all fell silent for a moment.
"I want to go spy on them!" Yukari raised her hand and spoke in a spirited manner.
"You're actually saying something like this directly out loud…" Chiaki gave a sidelong glance to Yukari.
"Because I really want to watch! Don't you all want to spy on them as well? Just imagining the scene of Seigo talking to that handsome boy is too much for me!" Yukari kept rubbing her hands in excitement.
'Your image is breaking down a little, Princess.' Chiaki really wanted to say that to her.
But, she was able to understand what Yukari was feeling. Even though Chiaki didn't understand much nor had much interest about boys' love, seeing the scene of Seigo and that extravagantly handsome cosplayer boy smiling at each other caused a small fluttering in her chest.
"I… want to spy as well!" Mika rose her hand and told the truth, causing her face to flush red.
"Me as well." Kaho also rose her hand and blushed red.
The three girls all looked towards Chiaki.
Chiaki smiled.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" She took the lead.
"Harano-san, what's that on your body?" After Seiji and Izawa left the cosplay area together, Izawa asked Seiji about the streaming equipment that he was wearing.
"Oh, I'm currently doing a livestream, but not a typical stream for a large audience… wait a moment."
Seiji told Hana and Shika over voice chat that he was going to turn off the stream for a while, then turned off the camera and removed his headset.
"Harano-san… you're an internet streamer?" Izawa blinked as he asked.
"No, but I was doing it for certain reasons. Please don't mind it," Seiji told him.
The two of them walked to a relatively quiet corner after leaving the cosplay area.
"Fujiharsan is probably exploring the stalls?"
"Yes, Master is currently together with Yoruhansan."
"It's just like her to make you wear all this and wait in the cosplay area."
"I agree completely."
"Your cosplay clothes look like they're of excellent quality, and same with the props. Is that a real sword?"
"It is." Izawa slightly unsheathed the sword at his waist, showing a sharp glimmer.
'He actually used a real sword as a cosplay prop,' Seiji sighed to himself.
But compared to the other prop, using a real sword didn't count as much. He looked towards Izawa's left eye.
The spell formation in Izawa's left eye had stopped rotating, which meant that he was no longer activating his spell.
"Publicly casting Astral Vision out in the open in front of so many ordinary people, and even allowing them to take photos of you! Isn't this… too daring?"
"I objected as well, but my master felt that it would be fine." Izawa said helplessly as he took out an eyepatch and covered his left eye.
"Indeed, nobody there would take it seriously, but if any Spiritual Ability users saw you…"
"This isn't any top-secret technique that's forbidden from being shown to ordinary people."
"That's not what I meant… but it's fine if you don't think it's a problem."
"I think it's a huge problem, but my master doesn't think it's a problem at all."
The two of them exchanged glances before both chuckled.
"Although it may be slightly impolite to say so, I feel that… Fujiharsan is truly a girl who doesn't mind conventions."
"I shall tell that exact quote to my master."
"Don't say that, I was just casually saying it."
"I was just joking."
"You actually know how to joke…"
"Of course. I even know how to perform rakugo ."
"Really!?" Seiji was astonished.
Rakugo was a traditional type of performance similar to giving a solo comedy skit. Apart from a vivid narration by the performer, there would also be exaggerated movements and comic expressions. It could be understood as a type of solo act.
In Seiji's eyes, Ryuuno Izawa was someone who seemed like the serious and reliable type, and a loyal subordinate and Spirit-branded Retainer, being just like Hitaka Shuho who was by Natsuya Yoruhana's side, someone who didn't know how to joke or act comically.
But Izawa actually said that he knew how to perform comedy skits… whoops, rakugo !?
This was too much of a contrast, which astonished Seiji.
Izawa smiled at Seiji's obvious astonishment.
"That was fake."
"Er…" Seiji paused in surprise.
"While I did practice rakugo before, it's not at the extent of being able to perform."
"You really practiced it before!?"
"I was joking about that as well."
"Er…" Seiji paused in surprise once more.
"It's truly amusing to speak with Harano-san."
"You… you're just toying around with me?"
"Of course not. I truly respect you, Harano-san. In order to meet you, I dressed like this and stood in the cosplay area for a very long time, allowing others to take pictures of me and gawk at me, as if I was a monkey caged up in a zoo. I wouldn't have any complaints about such a thing at all. As long as I met Harano-san, everything would be worthwhile." The eyepatched handsome man smiled faintly.
Seiji was rendered speechless.
He felt as if he was detecting Izawa's dark side! It seemed rather bad.
"Although I wasn't the one who made you do this, still… I apologize for making you wait so long."
"Please don't say that. Although wearing this was at the orders of my master, waiting for you was something I wanted to do myself," Izawa said sincerely.
Seiji looked towards Izawa.
"Seigo Harano is actually a fake name as well… no, it counts more as my second name," he told Izawa honestly. "My real name, as well as my first name, is Seiji Haruta."
"Haruta…" Something instantly flashed in Izawa's eyes.
"I'm a famous useless piece of trash from the Haruta family, who's currently in exile, living outside by himself," Seiji said directly. "This is who I really am… Are you disappointed, Izawsan?"