After parting ways with the girl in white, Ryuto and the others continued forward along the small path towards the hotel.

Luckily, the incident just now was resolved peacefully. It's best to stay away from strange occurrences. Peace is truly the best.

According to this distance, hmmm, we aren't far from the hotel now.

Finally, we can return safely. Hooray!

While cheering in his heart, Ryuto turned the corner ahead.

But in the next instant.

"Ah-"

Ryuto, who was running ahead, collided with someone again.

Oh no...

Again?

While thinking this, Ryuto looked at the person who fell to the ground before him.

It was a girl, around twelve or thirteen years old, dressed quite plainly.

...Oh no, she's getting younger with every collision. Next time she might be five.

"Are you okay?"

Ryuto reached out his hand to the girl on the ground.

Like the previous girl, she didn't grasp Ryuto's hand. However, something was different this time, because...

"Hey, hurry up and get up."

A middle-aged man standing next to the girl kicked her in annoyance.

The girl who was kicked didn't complain at all. Instead, she immediately stood up in a panic, not even paying attention to Ryuto in front of her, nor the wound on her knee from the collision.

"Move faster."

After standing up, the girl was roughly pushed by the middle-aged man, who seemed impatient, and scolded him.

"That thing is about to start. Don't waste my time."

"Yes...yes."

With a nod of submission, the girl, urged by the middle-aged man, started walking again.

At this moment, a loud voice came from the small alley.

"Wait."

Ryuto turned around.

The middle-aged man, called out, turned around impatiently.

"Are you calling me? Young man, what do you want? I'm in a hurry."

Facing the rather impatient man, Ryuto laughed softly.

"Nothing? I just have a doubt in my heart that I need you to answer, no matter what."

"Doubt? What do you want to say? I told you, I'm in a hurry."

Although the man's words sounded annoyed, Ryuto remained calm and unhurried.

"Sir, maybe I'm just overthinking, but... this little girl shouldn't be your daughter, right?"

"..."

"What?"

Hiyori and Miyuki looked very surprised upon hearing that.

With no response from the man, Ryuto continued.

"And I guess you and this little girl don't have any blood relationship. Although it may sound rude, in my eyes, you two don't really resemble each other."

Perhaps feeling guessed correctly, the middle-aged man angrily said, loudly.

"So what?"

His attitude was very firm.

But Ryuto remained very relaxed.

"So what? If there's no blood relationship, then in this situation, I can only assume that you are kidnapping this little girl. Because if you and this little girl have no blood relationship, why would she listen to you? Although it's possible that you are her foster father or something, your behavior just now seemed to go beyond that. To put it bluntly, it could even be considered as abuse. If that's the case, I think we need to take a closer look at your identity as a foster father. But if that's not the case, then I can only assume that you are kidnapping this little girl. If I'm mistaken, besides my own stupidity, I can't think of any other reasons."

"Hehe, whether it's abuse or kidnapping, the charges are quite serious, you know," Amiyuki added.

And Hiyori, although not quite understanding, nodded along at the side.