Helpless, Asakura could only take the little girl to meet up with Yukinoshita Yukino and Yuigahama Yui first.
"I remember it should be this way…"
Asakura took a few steps and suddenly felt a slight tug on the hem of his clothes.
He looked back and found that the little one was probably afraid of getting lost, so she freed up one hand to pull on the corner of his clothes.
Originally, Asakura had been taking care of the little one, so his stride wasn't too big, and he wasn't walking too fast. The little one was able to keep up, but just now she had been distracted by other things, and her pace had slowed down involuntarily, which was why Asakura felt like he was being pulled.
Asakura looked in the direction of little Eriri's gaze and found that there was a stall selling candied apples.
"Do you want to eat that?"
He asked the little one.
The little girl first nodded instinctively, then paused, as if realizing that Asakura had seen her craving candied apples, so she shook her head with a 'puru puru' sound, and her two golden pigtails trembled, looking quite interesting.
Asakura smiled, took her forward, and bought a candied apple that was a bit smaller than a fist from the stall owner—actually, he was more interested in the stall's treasure, a durian (with shell) covered in syrup, but now was obviously not the time to be curious. Yanami, who eats everything, wasn't here either, so he just bought a normal small candied apple and handed it to Eriri.
The little girl looked at the candied apple, then at Asakura's face, a little hesitant.
"Take it, it's not worth much anyway."
Asakura said nonchalantly.
The little one then timidly took the candied apple, stuck out her pink little tongue, and gently licked it.
Probably because the sugar content was really high, after a few licks, her eyes narrowed happily.
Asakura looked at the little girl's happy appearance, and felt inexplicably healed in his heart, a smile of being charmed appearing on his face.
But he quickly became alert.
'No, I'm not a Loli-con!'
"Ahem, okay, let's keep going."
He coughed lightly and said to the little girl.
Little Eriri looked at the book she was holding in her right hand, then at the candied apple she was clutching in her left hand, revealing a troubled and cute expression.
Asakura guessed her thoughts: the little one probably felt that both of her hands were occupied, and she couldn't continue to pull on his clothes.
"That book..." So he thoughtfully asked, "Do you need me to hold it for you?"
The little one was stunned, and after hesitating for a long time—it was obvious that she really treasured that book—she finally decided to temporarily entrust the book to Asakura for safekeeping.
When Asakura took the book, the first thing he felt was that the touch was different from what he had expected.
He originally thought this was a picture book for children, after all, the Q version of the cover's illustration style was quite exquisite and cute, but holding it in his hand, he could feel that the material of this book was different from ordinary picture books. Not only that, but its weight was also quite light. Apart from the hard cover, he could hardly feel any weight, it seemed that the number of pages inside was not very large.
Asakura curled his lips.
In his previous life, he had seen some picture books for children in bookstores. The covers and binding were exceptionally beautiful, but the content only had a few pages, and they were sold for a ridiculously high price, and they didn't have to worry about sales. He could only say that it was really easy to earn children's money…
Before long, he took the little one to find Yukinoshita Yukino and Yuigahama Yui, the Service Club duo.
"Wow, so cute!"
The moment Yuigahama Yui saw little Eriri, hearts immediately popped out of her eyes.
Although Yukinoshita Yukino didn't say anything, her eyes also changed from the initial indifference to the kind of look she usually had when she saw cats.
Faced with the sudden attack of the older sister, little Eriri immediately hid behind Asakura, only revealing half of her face, looking at the other party warily with the attitude of treating a child trafficker.
"Where did such a cute child come from? Is she Takkun's relative's child?"
Yuigahama Yui didn't feel any displeasure at all at being treated so warily by the child. Instead, she continued to circle around Asakura like a Labrador while asking Asakura.
"Found her."
Asakura replied concisely.
"You're kidding, right?"
Yuigahama Yui said in surprise.
"Is she a lost child?"
Yukinoshita Yukino immediately realized something: "Just now that broadcast…"
"Yes, this child is Eriri Spencer Sawamura from the broadcast."
Asakura nodded.
"She's actually a foreigner? Amazing, amazing～"
Yuigahama Yui seemed even happier for some reason, but the way she wanted to hug little Eriri with even greater force scared the little girl into running away even faster.
"This name doesn't sound like a purely foreign name at all. In comparison, it feels more like a combination of local and foreign."
Yukinoshita Yukino commented, she looked at Asakura: "So the reason for not letting her stay in the broadcast room and bringing her here is?"
"Her parents shouldn't be at the school..." Asakura replied truthfully: "She was probably influenced by 'that' to come to Soubu High School's school festival."
"That doesn't prevent you from leaving her in the broadcast room, does it?"
Yukinoshita Yukino said suspiciously.
This guy was just short of writing the words 'You can't be a Loli-con, can you?' on his face.
"This child doesn't seem to want to stay there."
Asakura spread his hands.
Yukinoshita Yukino rubbed her forehead helplessly, looking at the terrified little girl and Yuigahama Yui, who was still trying to catch her with relish.
"Instead of that, did you two find anything?"
Asakura asked, getting straight to the point.
"A little."
Yukinoshita Yukino nodded.
She and Yuigahama Yui, by asking the surrounding stall owners, followed the movements of the person who had obtained the nervous breakdown stall's Holy Grail, and learned of the two's final whereabouts.
However, Yukino felt a subtle dissatisfaction with the puzzled expressions she always received when asking, 'Have you seen a big-chested girl with pink hair and a cold-faced girl with long black hair?'—expressions that seemed to say, 'Aren't you describing yourselves?'
Of course, what made her even more displeased was when some people, after hearing their description, would deliberately glance at her chest and then inexplicably show a knowing smile…
"According to the last eyewitness's testimony, the two of them entered that classroom and never came out again."
Despite her dissatisfaction, Yukinoshita Yukino was quite reliable when it came to work.
Asakura looked in the direction she pointed and saw a popular shop.
"Japanese style pavilion?"
After reading out the shop's name, he suddenly remembered something: "Wait a minute, isn't this Asagumo's classroom?"