The moon.
A blood-red moon.
A blood-red moon hanging above an ancient castle.
How many times has it been now? Seeing this kind of scenery in my sleep.
A sea of flowers with a faint scent of blood, an ancient castle standing firmly in the middle of the sea of flowers, and a blood-red crescent moon above the castle.
Since when did I start dreaming about this kind of scenery?
Blurred memories, consciousness also seems to be disturbed by something, resulting in chaos.
[Who are you?]
As if someone's voice came from the castle.
No, the expression "came out" is not quite right; it should be that the voice was directly projected into my mind.
This should be a very familiar voice, although we might be strangers, but this voice gives me a certain feeling.
I know the owner of that voice.
[Why are you here?]
Yes, why?
The reason and so on are still being searched for; at least I shouldn't have come here in a normal way. Even for me, this is just a dream; after waking up, I will only remember a little bit of the remaining illusion.
*CREAK—*
A sound like gears locking together, or the faint sound of chains rubbing, could be vaguely heard in my ears; I could also seem to hear a low growl, mixed with the sound of friction and the scent of flowers. Clearly, several unrelated sounds, but hearing them at this moment felt very natural.
[Naoki]
That person spoke once more.
[I know, your name is Naoki]
Naoki.
This is indeed my name, the family name Natsukawa, the given name Naoki.
"Then... what's your name?"
Naoki tried to ask. He felt he should know who the owner of the voice was, but the name was as if covered by a mosaic, unable to be clearly remembered.
[Arcueid]
*BANG!*
As if something exploded, a powerful rumbling sound suddenly pierced both of Naoki's ears, and the consciousness that was still slightly dazed instantly became clear!
And just as he regained consciousness, that mysterious sea of flowers instantly disappeared, and what appeared before him was a large, somewhat dim classroom, and on the podium not far from him, a lemon with an angry expression.
Seeing his hand hitting the table, he must have been the one who hit the table just now; after all, he was sitting in the front row, no wonder the sound was so loud.
"How dare you sleep in my class? Do you think my lessons are boring, that you can't absorb them at all? Naoki."
With a tone clearly showing anger and dissatisfaction, Kayneth asked loudly.
Rubbing his eyes, Naoki stood up and shook his head, "No, Professor's lectures are excellent; sleeping was due to my personal matters. I apologize."
"Managing and arranging your time well is also a compulsory lesson for great Magus and nobles."
"Yes."
"Sit down. Then, let's continue the lesson. We were just discussing the structure of barriers, the materials for building barriers..."
Sitting back down to listen to Kayneth teaching, Naoki's ears didn't take in the content of the lesson at all; his mind was full of the scenery he had just dreamed of.
'That place, without a doubt, is Millennium Castle.'
Millennium Castle.
The castle where the True Ancestors used to live, the place where Arcueid confined herself to sleep. Since returning to London, Naoki had occasionally dreamed of that place, although he had never counted, but it should have been around ten times.
'Why do I dream about Millennium Castle? Does this dream imply something to me? Or is it just that my consciousness accidentally arrived at Millennium Castle for various reasons?'
'If it's a coincidence, almost ten times a coincidence...'
"Arcueid..."
Whispering the name of the Moon Princess, Naoki took a slight breath.
'In a few more months it will be 1999, precisely the timeline of the Old Moon Princess; there should be time to go to Misaki Town. After all, my affairs here are almost finished.'
Naoki had been back in London for five months. In these five months, the things he wanted to do before returning were almost completed; roughly, everything would be finished around January next year.
Passing all the basic courses and completing the 'Festival' rank promotion.
After these two things were completed, he could officially transfer to the Department of Spiritual Evocation and return to Japan to continue studying dolls under Aozaki Touko.
'If I go to Misaki Town, later after returning to Japan, I'll choose a time to go a few times.'
Just as Naoki was thinking this.
*DONG!*
A melodious chime of a bell echoed throughout the Clock Tower. And hearing the bell that signified the end of the lesson, Kayneth, who had also just finished delivering the lesson material, tidied up his lecture notes and said the lesson was over, then left the classroom.
"With this, there are no more classes today... let's go back."
After tidying up all his belongings, Naoki stood up and left the classroom, just planning to jump onto the roof to parkour back to the apartment when the corner of his eye caught a figure that was somewhat rarely seen.
No, it couldn't be said to be rare; for others, it might be so, but for him, that figure was someone he could see several times every month.
'That's right, it's the end of the month now...'
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
Carnaby Street.
One of the largest shopping centers in London, with a history of more than one hundred and fifty years. Normally, Naoki probably wouldn't come here; he didn't particularly like shopping, nor did he particularly like the atmosphere here.
However, despite this, every end of the month, he always came here for two or three days.
Because of the woman currently sitting in front of him.
"Hmm, the taste of the cakes here is still as good as ever, unfortunately, the parfait filling is too much, too luxurious, it actually spoils my appetite."
"Then don't order so much in the first place, Miss Riddel."
Riddel.
May Riddel Archelot.
Lord of the Department of Botany, one of the twelve departments of the Clock Tower, a world-renowned Magus idol, a boss who handed over ninety percent of the work to her subordinates, and traveled around the world to hold concerts herself.
Every month she worked abroad for three weeks and only returned at the end of the month, and every time she returned, she would directly drag Naoki out for a stroll.
Slightly frowning, Riddel spooned a bit of parfait and directly put it into Naoki's mouth, "How many times have I told you? In social events, it's fine, but when it's just the two of us privately, just call me Riddel."
Isn't a mall considered a social event?
After swallowing the ice cream, Naoki asked, "Then Riddel, how was this performance? If I'm not mistaken, you went to America."
"Hmm, as a farewell performance, perfect."
"That's good—eh?"
A word that came out of Riddel's mouth made Naoki suddenly stunned.
Farewell performance?
"You're retiring? Not being an idol anymore?" Naoki looked at her with an incredulous expression, "Why?"
"Are you so surprised that I'm not being an idol anymore? By the way, didn't you know it was my farewell performance? I explained it during the show; you definitely didn't watch my live broadcast!"
Naoki raised both hands, "Where would I have the time to watch? Think about what I've been doing all this time; I've been almost dying of busyness for the 'Festival' rank; today is a rare day off. By the way, why do you want to retire? Isn't your idol career doing well?"
"It's not for that reason, purely because I don't want to anymore." Riddel explained, "I'm almost thirty years old now; this age is really not suitable for being an idol. Besides, the affairs at the Clock Tower are also increasing, making it difficult to balance idol work and Clock Tower affairs, so I decided to just retire."
"The retirement ceremony was also completed after the concert, and the contract with the agency has also been successfully terminated... now I finally feel relieved."
"The fans might have a hard time accepting it, and the media too."
"Who cares about them." Riddel said with a laugh, "Instead of that, can I have dinner at your place tonight?"
"Sure, I'll call Merlin first and tell him to buy more groceries."
"Please."