As soon as I climbed the stairs of the Kamiarizuki household, my mother, who had been waiting in the temple grounds, rushed toward me with a worried expression.
"Itsuki, are you alright? You didn't get hurt, did you?"
"I'm fine. Nothing happened."
"Thank goodness..."
When I smiled as I said that, my mother let out a sigh of relief and placed her hand on her chest.
"You shouldn't take on too many jobs, okay?"
"...Yeah."
She scolded me gently, and I responded quietly.
I understood my mother's concern, but I wasn't planning on doing anything reckless. I just wanted to move forward.
Besides, it wasn't much different from what I always did. Honestly, I thought both my mother and I were worrying too much.
But there was no point in voicing that out loud. After all, she was worried about me.
As I reflected on my mother's feelings, Akane-san emerged from the building.
"Hey, Itsuki. How was your first job?"
"...It wasn't that difficult."
"I heard you had plenty of energy left. That one told me."
Akane-san glanced at the man in the black suit standing behind me.
When I turned around, the man who had been with me all this time bowed his head.
I was a bit surprised. When did Akane-san find the time to talk to him? After all, we had been together the whole time. But then I remembered how, during the Shichi-Go-San celebration, Akane-san somehow knew I had exorcised a monster without me telling her. She probably has some sort of magic for that.
Honestly, Akane-san was quite the mysterious figure to me.
She's the head of the Kamiarizuki household, which governs the exorcists. Despite the deeply ingrained male dominance in the exorcist world, she, a woman, holds the top position.
And she uses all kinds of magic that regular exorcists don't, like sealing talismans, measuring magic power, and somehow always knowing when a monster has been exorcised.
Really, what is this person?
"Kaede, should I transfer the payment into Souichiro's account?"
"Please send it to Itsuki's tuition fund account."
"Tuition fund? Well, do as you wish."
I was taken aback when my mother casually mentioned the tuition fund.
Tuition fund? For what? College?
"So, Itsuki, how was it? Do you want to take on another job?"
That was my honest opinion.
After all, Nina-chan, aside from the times when she gets anxious in front of monsters, is a skilled exorcist.
She can summon and control multiple fairies like Pixies and Leprechauns, and she's even able to summon other, more offensive fairies.
With enough preparation, I didn't think there was a monster out there that could defeat her.
That's all thanks to Nina-chan being a Fourth Rank exorcist, which means she has a lot of magic power. Thinking about it like that, it's easy to understand why many exorcists, unaware of how magic power can be increased, believe that talent is everything in this world.
"Oh, right."
In the middle of my thoughts, I remembered something I needed to ask Akane-san.
Still carrying Hina on my back, I turned to face her.
"Akane-san, do you know anything about Actors?"
"Actors?"
Akane-san furrowed her brow at my question, looking like it was the first time she had ever heard the term.
"A monster I exorcised today mentioned them. It said the reason for the increase in monsters across Japan was because of the Actors."
"Hmm... A magic calling another magic, huh?"
Akane-san placed a hand on her chin and seemed to think for a moment before pulling out her smartphone from her shrine maiden robes.
She started searching for something. Really, she doesn't act like a shrine maiden at all.
"No, nothing comes up. You said Actors, right? Do you know anything about them?"
She turned her attention to the man in the black suit.
The man, who had been standing quietly behind me, shook his head.
"No, I don't."
"I see. We should have Tsukishima look into it."
"Understood. I'll contact them."
"Good."
Tsukishima refers to a branch of the Kamiarizuki family that gathers information about monsters.
Unfortunately, their records haven't been digitized, so it takes a while to find things. You'd think they'd digitize everything by now, but there's probably a reason why they can't.
"Still... It seems a magic is creating other magics..."
Akane-san muttered, casting a brief glance at Nina-chan before raising her head again.
"Let us look into it on our end. Leave this to us."
With a sigh of relief, I couldn't help but wonder why Akane-san had looked at Nina-chan just now... That thought lingered in my mind.