-1152- The turmoil

Soon, the last week of October arrived.

Tomorrow, the Harurouin Festival will officially begin, and Itogami Island will be filled with joy, welcoming the biggest celebration of the year.

Today, the eve of the Harurouin Festival, various activities will take place starting from the evening, causing a surge of travelers from outside the island. The stations of the monorail and the shuttle routes to the airport will be crowded with travelers dragging their luggage, making it extremely congested.

Naturally, Saikai Academy will begin its holiday from today to avoid the conflict between the crowds of students and tourists caused by attending school, which would be unbearable.

During the Harurouin Festival, major enterprises, research institutes, and companies on Itogami Island will also have holiday from today, except for businesses in tourism, catering, and clothing industries, which will take advantage of the opportunity to make a profit, making Itogami Island extremely lively starting from today.

In this situation, Rozen was fortunate enough to avoid all invitations from the school's faculty and students, thus avoiding getting involved in any bloody incidents or troublesome situations.

However, Rozen still had commitments during the Harurouin Festival.

For example, Rozen and Natsuki planned to watch the fireworks display, which was Rozen's most valued commitment.

Also, Nagisa previously mentioned that everyone should go together to explore the festival, which was the second commitment.

In addition to these, there was a third commitment.

It was a commitment received late at night yesterday.

Last night, Rozen's phone suddenly received an email from an unknown number.

"The eve of the Harurouin Festival, hope to see you at the usual place, you must come, okay?"

Rozen received such an email from an unfamiliar number without a signature, and the content of the email seemed particularly intimate, as if they were already very familiar with Rozen.

Seeing this email, Rozen almost immediately confirmed the identity of the sender.

"It must be her, right?"

Rozen sighed softly, but still intended to keep the appointment.

In summary, during the Harurouin Festival, Rozen had to keep three appointments.

When Rozen told Kojou about this, Kojou only said one thing.

"If the boys at school find out, you'll definitely be killed."

Who asked so many people to not even have one appointment during the Harurouin Festival?

Being a winner in life, in any world, at any time, is cursed.

Thus, the time came for the eve of the Harurouin Festival.

Early in the morning, the living room of the Minamiya household became noisy, as it seemed that the girls had already woken up early and were preparing and discussing something.

Rozen was awakened by the noise, and could only shrug his shoulders and climb out of bed.

"Hmm?"

Upon waking up, Rozen suddenly felt an indescribable strangeness.

"What is this?"

Rozen couldn't help but frown.

Using the power of Mind's Eye, Rozen felt very clearly.

"The space... is disturbed...?"

Yes.

In Rozen's perception, the surrounding space seemed to be completely disturbed, like ripples appearing on a constantly undulating water surface, appearing very disorderly.

This kind of disturbance wasn't too severe, but no matter how you thought about it, it wasn't a normal situation.

"... ...?"

Rozen frowned tightly, got up directly, and went to the direction of the window, opening the curtains and looking at the cityscape outside.

Upon seeing this, Rozen's expression changed.

In Rozen's field of vision, the entire Itogami City seemed to have been thrown into an invisible vortex, and space was distorted everywhere.

The feeling was like looking at the entire Itogami City through a kaleidoscope, causing occasional distortions.

"What's going on?"

Rozen was bewildered.

At the same time, a cold, sword-like voice directly sounded in Rozen's mind.

"It seems that the space of this island has been influenced by a powerful force."

This voice was emitted by Altera.

However, Altera did not cancel her spiritualization, but continued to maintain her spiritualization, communicating directly with him through the contract between them.

Altera should have discovered this anomaly early on and only reported it to Rozen now, right?

"A powerful force?"

Rozen almost reflexively looked towards the direction of the Keystone Gate.

Because, in that direction, the distortion of space was the most severe.

"Is the source there?"

Rozen's eyes flickered.

And Altera spoke indifferently.

"Perhaps, this is the invasion of the civilization from the other world that you mentioned before."

It seemed that Altera thought so.

Rozen and Yukina had previously mentioned that during the Harurouin Festival, the continuity of time and space would become quite unstable, which could lead to the arrival and intrusion of visitors from other worlds or times.

Perhaps, now was the time when such a situation occurred.

However...

"The previous Harurouin Festivals never had such anomalies."

Rozen directly denied this possibility.

"Moreover, even if the time and space are unstable, it would only refer to a specific location, like opening a passage to another world or time, it couldn't possibly be like now, where the entire Itogami City's space is affected."

In other words, this anomaly wasn't something that occurred every year during the Harurouin Festival.

The appearance of this anomaly must have another reason.

"Do you want to go and check?"

Altera's voice continued to resonate in Rozen's mind, expressing concisely.

Regarding this...

"Even if we want to go, we can't directly teleport there due to the unstable space. Randomly teleporting now might lead us to a dangerous place."

Rozen took a deep breath and calmly spoke.

"With space being interfered with to this extent, even the Ley Lines may be affected, so it's not safe to use the Far Step directly to infiltrate the Ley Lines."

In short, if they wanted to go, they could only go there personally.

The problem was...

"With space being so chaotic, I don't even know if we can get close to the Keystone Gate."

Rozen took out his phone and made a call.

"I wonder what Natsuki-nee has to say about this."

The famous "Witch of the Void" couldn't possibly not have noticed the space becoming like this, otherwise, it would be a disgrace to her as a Witch specializing in space manipulation magic.

Natsuki must have already noticed this situation, and may have even taken some action.

That's what Rozen thought.

However...

"I can't get through..."

Rozen held his phone, looking at the screen, his brow furrowing tighter.

In his heart, a sense of unease began to arise.

Altera also remained silent.

Perhaps, Altera also had the same sense of foreboding?

Rozen gazed in the direction of the Keystone Gate.

"What on earth is happening?"

Muttering to himself like this.

Thus, this day also became the day when Itogami Island began to descend into chaos.

From this day on, the turmoil sweeping across the entire island was about to unfold.