The four girls had retreated into the feast's general crowd, casting backward glances that mixed disappointment and residual hope in equal measure. Whether the yokais had acted on their own initiative or under quiet instruction from their mistress was a question that hung in the air between Nathan and Rena without either of them formally raising it.
Nathan glanced at her sideways.
"Look what you've done," he said, swirling wine in his cup with the mild tone of someone noting a minor administrative disruption.
"I did nothing," Rena replied, her chopsticks moving with precise, focused efficiency.
"You ordered your yokais to drive them away from me," Nathan said. Not an accusation — simply a statement of what had clearly happened, presented for acknowledgment.
Rena scoffed with the particular quality she reserved for ideas beneath serious engagement. "You think entirely too highly of yourself."
