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The anticipation of Christmas and New Year’s celebrations mixed with the sense that something would come to an end for the students.

Their lengthy second semester was sent off with a closing ceremony, and Kou with her classmates were officially free..
At home there was also an unusual change. Her mother, Amari, had prepared lunch, and the whole family of three…actually four, sat at the table together.

“How is it, do you like it, Rouge?”
*”Yes, it’s very delicious!”*

There was a steaming omelette with daikon garnish, alongside a rich miso soup with cabbage, seaweed, and fried tofu.
Those same dishes were in front of Rouge, who ate and enjoyed them just like everyone else.
Obviously she had not somehow materialized in real life, Instead, Sora had completed a program to digitise real food, allowing VR pets to enjoy it.
When Kou first heard that her father had completed yet another ridiculous program in his spare time, she could only shake her head and mutter “I’m not even surprised at this point…”

“Tell me, Kou. Do you have anything in mind for New Years?”

Amari switched topics, startling Kou who was busy swishing around some natto…who suddenly remembered something.

“Oh right, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”

All the events after that conversation had pushed it to the back of her mind, so she only remembered her conversation with Hinagiku now, and told her parents about it.

“…I see, a stay in the mountains, you say. This Hinagiku you mentioned is Kikyo’s offspring, isn’t she?”
“Hahah…that’s a funny coincidence.”

When they heard Kou’s idea, they chuckled a little before searching through a nearby bag.

“What’s going on?”
“As it happens to be… We were planning on inviting you on a trip too, and funnily enough to the same place.”
“A friend had the idea of a gathering between old friends, and we decided to bring you along if you wanted. I think it could end up being quite amusing.”

Surely enough, the pamphlet Amari showed Kou was of the same vacation house that Hinagiku had mentioned.
The company managing that site, Sea Breeze, also rang a bell. It was growing a trading company established around ten years prior, which recently had also entered the hospitality and sightseeing market.
They were owned by a married couple that were friends of Amari, and Kou had met them a few times too.

“Well, we’re going to the same destination either way, and that part time job you mentioned could give you valuable experience, so do as you wish. Feel free to invite your friends so you can go with them too.”
“Actually, I think you’ll only need to invite the Kudo family, your physiotherapist, and that Gotou girl you always call prez. All of your other friends are connected to our friend group in one way or another and will be there already.”
“…Seriously?”
“Mhm. We were really surprised when we looked at your guild’s roster too.”

That was a curious fact Sora brought up, and Kou was once again reminded of how small the world was sometimes.

***

“…So that’s what we have planned. Do you want to go, Lycoris?”
“I’ve always wanted to see Hinagiku’s home, so I want to go! I’ll go tell papa!”

Lycoris replied with excitement before her body went limp and sprawled on the table, an AFK symbol blinking above her.

…They were currently in Castle Seyfert. Crim had logged in on a whim, and found Lycoris was there as well, so Crim told her about the trip.
Next she opened her messages and wrote to Kasumi, who was currently offline.
With that done, she began walking around the castle while waiting for Kasumi’s response, when she noticed the castle was unusually loud.

“It’s really gotten lively around here…”

Children would not stop laughing in the castle’s garden, making it unusually loud.

“Why do they have to be so troublesome all the time…”
“Hm? Da’at?”

Then she ran into Da’at Seyfert, who looked oddly exhausted. There was also someone riding along awkwardly on her shoulder…the fairy Fia.
The ‘they’ she said referred to the fairies playing with the children in the garden, which also explained the increased laughter.
That was another result of the Warp Spot Crim opened in the Fairy Village.
The repairs to the small shrine had just finished that morning, allowing plenty of fairies to pass through to visit.
While it was true that the fairies were taking care of Da’at Criferd as she slept, and the kids enjoyed their company, and they never meant any harm…
Just seeing them so close to the children prompted Crim to whisper to Fia.

“If any of the kids gets harmed just a bit because of those fairies…”
“I’m aware of that too. I’ll be keeping a close eye on them at all times.”
*”P-Please don’t be too harsh…okay? They aren’t bad at heart…”*

There was a bulging vein behind Da’at’s smile, which terrified Fia.
Nearby there were also multiple fairies with dazed eyes, already strung up by her vines, which almost looked like dangling fruits.
…All of them had already taken things too far in one way or another. Overall fairies really liked being around children.

*I’ve never seen Da’at get this angry before…*

As Crim tried to pretend she was not seeing anything, yet another playful fairy was caught and restrained, adding to the bizarre scene… Da’at Seyfert was also starting to get pushed to her limit, the air around her freezing to complete stillness, while Fia knelt down and apologized profusely.

Afterword:
We’ll be entering the next volume, The Demon Lord’s Winter Break next chapter. That volume will heavily reference my previous work “Worldgate Online ~Sekai no Tsubasa~”, serving as a sort of epilogue to it, so be mindful of that.
…That work also has a completely different mood to this one (especially the first half) so be careful if you can’t handle heavy or gloomy topics.