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The time was passing late afternoon, and the sky had already entered twilight due to the season having just transitioned from autumn to winter.

As I observed the outside crepuscule from behind the window glass, Sophie tapped my shoulder from the seat beside my own. Turning my head to her, she spoke.

"Hey. They want to ask you something."

My glance followed her gesture to the twins who were staring at me with expressionless faces. Despite that, I could tell that the look their eyes bore was as if they wanted something.

"What?"

As if taking my question as a go-ahead, they immediately opened their mouths one at a time.

"Ciphy..."

"Are we almost there?"

...What? Aren\'t they getting a little too excited?

"Yes. Just wait."

""Okay...""

After that short disturbance, I returned to my original position for about thirty seconds before I heard one of their small voices again.

"Ciphy..."

Sana called me.

"What now?"

"...How close are we?"

To her question, I sighed inwardly.

"We\'ll be there soon. Don\'t ask again."

She nodded and remained silent. Then, I resumed looking out the window for another thirty seconds.

"Ciphy..."

This time, Sona was the one to speak.

"Didn\'t I tell you not to ask?"

"...Not me. To Sana."

What\'s this, isn\'t she becoming a bit of a smartass all of a sudden...?

"I was addressing the both of you."

"Oh..."

Seriously, where did that come from? It can\'t just be because they\'re excited about visiting the Christmas Market they\'ve never seen before... Is it behaviour they picked up from the other kids at their school?

「Yes」

Ah. In that case, I suppose it makes sense. Well, I\'ll just have to show them that such an attitude is not going to fly.

"Pft."

Hearing a snicker from my side, I turned my head with furrowed brows to see Sophie swiftly covering her mouth and avoiding my gaze.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Heh. Nothin\'~"

My frown deepened. Her arched lips and risen cheeks could be clearly seen by how her hand only sloppily managed to conceal her face.

"What?"

I lowered my tone, to which she looked at me with an expression of delight in her eyes, still covering her smile.

"I said it was nothing~ Why\'re you so grumpy~? You look like an old man, y\'know."

I didn\'t respond to her provocations and simply turned my attention away.

"Aw, is gwanpa suwlking? Listen, this\'s s\'posed to be a fun, family trip, right? So, why don\'t ya―"

As I tried to ignore her, however, she wrapped her arm around my shoulders and yanked me over to her seat.

"―come relax a little more!?"

Thud-!

"Here, ain\'t this better? Stop tryna detach yourself from the rest of us \'n have some damn fun."

Out of seemingly nowhere, I found myself lying horizontally across the whole back seat of the car and on top of Sophie\'s lap.

"..."

When did she grow that strong?

No, more importantly, when did everyone become this unruly?

These people, they are supposed to listen to me, aren\'t they?

For them to do something like this to me; it\'s nothing short of preposterous...

"T-Truth, are you okay...?" The abrupt commotion at the back of the vehicle having seemingly interrupted their conversation, Selina and Emir turned to us with concern.

I stared back at them without a reply, and my gaze alternated between the faces of all who were looking at me.

"..."

Finally, I tilted my head up, where the sight of Sophie looking down at me entered my eyes, grinning mischievously.

Since I had been pulled down to her lap, my expression naturally transformed from an unentertained frown, to completely blank.

With the feeling of their gazes glued to me in silence, waiting for my response.

The only noise that could be heard was the low, subdued growl of the limousine\'s gliding across tarmac roads.

In this kind of atmosphere.

Just like now, when they are doing something knowing I will dislike it.

In the future.

If I remain too lenient.

If I do not do something to correct this sort of behaviour soon...

I had a premonition.

"Uh... Wait, are you actually okay? It shouldn\'t have hurt or anythin\'..."

"..."

A scene of what I dread the most emerged in my mind.

❖─────❖─────❖

We parked a short distance away from the entrance of the Christmas Market, at a previously reserved parking spot.

Abandoning the interior warmth of the vehicle, everyone donned their thick winter jackets to shield themselves from the wind and below-zero temperature as they stepped out of the car.

Even though Sana\'s primary Supernatural Ability was something along the lines of Thermal Manipulation, it obviously wouldn\'t be a smart idea to be flaunting such a thing so blatantly in public, so we always had to camouflage ourselves by wearing fitting clothes like this.

"Don\'t run off."

Sana and Sona were quick to rush ahead first, but I called them to stop before they could get themselves lost. Even just here at the entrance to the marketplace, there was a seemingly endless flow of people coming to enjoy the holiday festivities.

We had VIP fast passes that allowed us to skip the entrance queue and go right into the Market, so there was no need to wait.

The two eager girls were just in front, with the enthusiastic Selina and Emir also joining their side as I and Sophie stood behind the four of them.

""Ah...""

Exclaiming at the sight of the dazzling festive lights and cheering everywhere, the twins appeared almost overwhelmed by it all; needless to say, they had never experienced the social intensity of events like Christmas before.

Their fervour wasn\'t at all surprising, but it was still tiring to deal with. Excited, kids were only all the more likely to get into trouble.

I had no lack of confidence that they would be able to handle themselves just fine, but risking their Supernatural Abilities getting leaked is unnecessarily dangerous, and such trouble should ideally be prevented before it even has the chance to occur in the first place.

Likewise, in any case, Emir was also curious. Having not been involved in something like this since his very early childhood, I doubt he even remembers more than a scant few memories about the outside world prior to being turned into the Order\'s test subject.

Furthermore, although Selina had been to similar events in the past along with Minami and some bodyguards, it would never have been such a lively and authentic one as this.

Minami didn\'t want to keep the girl imprisoned for her entire childhood, after all, but she couldn\'t allow even half as much freedom as an ordinary parent due to a sense of responsibility for Selina\'s safety.

Hence why she was turning her head frantically to take in all the fascinating and unusual sights she was seeing, as if spellbound.

"Emir, look, look! Over there! What\'s that giant wheel?"

She pointed at a glowing Ferris wheel not too far away in the distance, dotted all over with bright lights and festive decorations. Similarly, she gestured to many other miniature events and minigame stalls, incessantly inquiring.

Of course, as he was raised in the Hirane facility for so long, Emir also had no idea what most of these things were, so, rather annoyingly, they ended up asking me.

After I quickly answered their questions, the twins randomly paused in their tracks as they gazed at something, suddenly swirling around to tug on my coat.

""Ciphy, look...""

They each held onto me with one hand, and with the other, pointed their fingers towards a series of stalls with prizes if you could win.

They had a bunch of more minor, basic rewards that most people would be able to win simply by participating, but the most prominent ones by far were certainly the large Arctic-themed animal plushies, with each stall offering a different animal as its main prize.

"Ciphy, white bear..."

"Ciphy, white fox..."

Their eyes gleamed as they stood on their tiptoes and stared at me, announcing without shame the prizes they wanted me to win for them.

Glancing from their faces to the stalls, I thought there were only positives for doing this for them, and it wasn\'t going to be very difficult anyway, so I first approached the closer stall with the bear as the prize.

"Welcome! Think yer a good shot? Well, why don\'tcha try yer hand \'n aim for the grand prize!?"

A red and white-dressed bearded man shouted jovially from behind the long stall where a fake gun sat atop the front desk with multiple targets at the back and a line of available prizes with varying point requirements.

Handing over a single note, I said to the man.

"I\'ll have one attempt."

"Ohoh, confident, are ya? Well, good luck!"

I looked at the poster on the side that stated the bear required 800 points to win.

There were five targets at the back with a bullseye equalling 200 points, so I only needed four bullseyes to win the desired prize. Of course, the number of pellets I was given per attempt was 5; one per target.

The targets were roughly four-and-a-half metres away, so it wasn\'t a difficult range.

The only potential issue was that this plastic gun was undoubtedly rigged in some capacity, and upon confirming this, I found I was right.

Well, it didn\'t matter.

All I had to do was ask how I should posture myself and where to aim; I was already somewhat of an experienced marksman, so it wasn\'t hard to adapt.

Gripping the gun with two firm hands, I raised my arms and took a moment to aim.

And then.

Pop-!

"Woah! An actual bullseye! Well, yer certainly more skilled than I thought, ain\'tcha, kiddo?"

First target done. It was only a practice shot since I was allowed one miss, but as expected, there was barely any room for error.

I moved to the next target.

Pop-!

And the one following, and the one after that.

Pop-!

Pop-!

Pop-!

"Wha--..."

In the end, I scored the absolute maximum of 1,000 points without a hint of trouble.

As the flabbergasted stall owner fetched me the fluffy polar bear plush I requested, I claimed it and swiftly handed it to Sana, who accepted and proceeded to squeeze it tightly.

"Thank you..."

Her voice was slightly muffled as she spoke into the toy that was almost half the size of her whole body, but I could see the swelling smile on her rose-tinted face as she buried her head into the bear; an expression I had never seen on either of the twins before.

"Ciphy, Ciphy, the fox..."

Seeing her sister\'s prize up close, Sona grew ever more impatient and repeatedly tugged my clothes to get her prize next.