"Thud..."
In the faint sound of sliding doors, Rozen closed the Japanese-style door, leaving Natsume in a suitable resting space.
Harutora, on the other hand, was struggling in Rozen's grasp.
"Let... let go of me! Akikan! Why are you dragging me!? And why do you always have so much strength at times like this!? You can barely run a few steps normally!" Harutora protested vigorously.
"Hmph," Rozen sneered, ignoring Harutora's questions.
He loosened his grip while canceling the enhancement of his "Rigid Body," allowing his physical abilities to return to normal.
The reason for his sudden surge in strength was naturally due to his "Rigid Body" technique.
(Too bad, compared to my virtual self in SAO, even with the use of "Rigid Body" in this body, it's only slightly stronger than an ordinary person, nowhere near as powerful.)
Rozen sighed with a hint of nostalgia. Only at times like these did he miss the days when he could freely wield a sword in SAO.
However, swordsmanship was merely a hobby, while magic was Rozen's true pursuit. Besides, as mentioned before, even though it was a bit troublesome, Rozen could still use sword techniques with his current body.
So, while he felt a bit helpless, he didn't consider it a great loss.
Rozen shifted his attention back to Harutora. "Listen, Bakatora..."
Harutora immediately got emotional and objected vehemently.
"How many times do I have to tell you! Don't call me 'Bakatora'! It's 'Harutora'! Haru! Tora!"
Rozen remained indifferent. "Sure, Bakatora, got it, Bakatora."
Harutora clenched his fists, seemingly wanting to regain his dignity, but in the end, he gave up and slumped his shoulders in dejection.
There was no other way; the same scene had happened countless times before, and Harutora had considered standing up for himself, but he always ended up on the losing side.
After all, even without using magic and jujutsu, Rozen, who possessed "Mind's Eye," could easily defeat a kid like him.
If he couldn't even handle that, he might as well go home and sleep instead of trying to save anyone.
So, every time this happened, Rozen would lazily dodge Harutora's punches, tease him until he was exhausted, and then give him a good scolding.
It was a case of "Learn from your failure." If Harutora still couldn't learn his lesson, he would truly be a "Bakatora."
At the moment, Harutora could only hang his head in resignation.
"Anyway, you just take advantage of the fact that I can't see spirits and can't learn jujutsu."
Seemingly indignant, Harutora made this complaint. It appeared that he believed Rozen was using some mysterious jujutsu to dominate him.
Rozen didn't bother to explain and simply shrugged. "Let me ask you something," he inquired of Harutora.
"When did Natsume become like this?"
"Just now," Harutora answered honestly. "Mom and Dad had just gone to see Uncle, and Natsume suddenly started coughing heavily and then collapsed with a high fever."
"I see," Rozen nodded and continued, "So, you didn't inform Uncle to come and check on Natsume?"
Natsume's illness was due to the disruption of her spiritual energy, which weakened her body. As an onmyo doctor, Harutora's father should be able to help Natsume restore her spiritual energy immediately, allowing her to recover relatively quickly.
So, Harutora should have gone to find his parents first instead of coming to Rozen. Otherwise, Natsume's problem would have been resolved earlier.
Rozen's gaze towards Harutora became somewhat dangerous.
"Don't... don't look at me like that! You're scaring me!"
Harutora immediately sensed the danger and began trembling all over.
Since a while back, Rozen had always been very protective of Natsume. Whenever Harutora acted recklessly and made Natsume run around, Rozen would give him a good scolding.
Naturally, Harutora was afraid of such situations.
Harutora didn't know, or rather, didn't understand that Rozen had awakened to this kind of protective behavior ever since he had a cute daughter.
He treated Natsume as if she were his own daughter, shielding her from anything harmful. However, if this reason were known to others, Rozen might find himself in a police station, so it was best not to talk about it.
But children's hearts are the most sensitive, and Rozen was well aware of his indulgence towards Natsume.
Perhaps this was the reason why Natsume felt closer to Rozen.
Harutora was unaware of this point, or rather, he didn't understand it.
Still, he knew that his mistakes would lead to trouble, so he hurriedly spoke up.
"I also wanted to go find Dad, but before Mom and Dad came, they warned me not to get close to the main house. They said there were very important guests coming today, so I had no choice but to come to you."
Upon hearing this, Rozen was slightly taken aback.
"Very important guests?"
Who could that be? In this era of Tsuchimikado's decline, were there still any significant figures who would visit the main house specifically?
"Could it be the branch families?" Families like the Kurahashi and Wakasugi, which had separated from the Tsuchimikado main house, did visit every year. They also performed rituals during the annual festival. So, it might be one of these branch families.
"I wonder which branch family it is," Rozen pondered.
However, Rozen had already guessed who the visiting guest was.
"No wonder Uncle and Aunt have been coming over here so often."
If it was someone from that family coming to visit, it justified the solemnity of the situation.
When meeting guests of such a high level, even though they were from a branch family of Tsuchimikado, proper etiquette had to be observed.
However...
"They didn't even inform me. Quite an irresponsible father," Rozen expressed his opinion casually.
Even Harutora had been warned, but Rozen, the son of the main family, hadn't received any information.
This indicated that Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi, Rozen's father, didn't prioritize this matter at all.
In fact...
"Unless it's necessary, there's no need to notify, right? That's probably how that man thinks," Rozen said, his lips curling.
Little did Rozen know; the so-called "necessary" had indeed arrived.
"Chirp chirp chirp!" Accompanied by a pleasant birdcall, a sparrow flew in from outside. Seeing this, Rozen raised an eyebrow and extended his hand toward the sparrow. The sparrow perched on Rozen's finger like it was communicating and chirped.
Upon seeing this, Harutora couldn't help but exclaim, "What's going on?"
It seemed Harutora didn't understand the significance of this scene, but he couldn't blame him; after all, he couldn't see spirits.
Rozen had to explain it to him personally.
"This is a simple shikigami my father made to notify me to come over."
Rozen waved his hand, letting the sparrow depart, and then spoke to Harutora.
"I'll go take a look. You stay here and take care of Natsume, make sure to watch over her properly."
With that, Rozen immediately followed the sparrow and left the room.
"Wait..."
Harutora was about to say something, but Rozen had already left, leaving him feeling frustrated.
"I want to go out and play too..."
Harutora sighed helplessly.