Fantasy Library.

Chapter 512 Rumors about the Bride
In the following days, Aize's life returned to normal and peaceful.

His morning workouts with Yoshino Asahi have been going smoothly, and things at school are progressing as he expected. Classes are short, he has plenty of free time, and the coursework is not heavy at all. Apart from some of the courses in Japan that he finds a little difficult to adapt to, he is satisfied with everything else.

The classmates were quite enthusiastic, and there was no bullying or xenophobia at all. Perhaps it was because they were curious about foreign countries and big cities, or perhaps they were curious about Aize pulling out the divine sword. The students often chatted with Aize, especially the girls, which made Kurama Rentaro extremely envious.

"This is impossible! How could I lose to someone with such autism... Where did things go wrong?!"

Kurama Rentaro, who frequently failed to strike up conversations and was shunned by the girls in his class, would often hold his head in his hands, looking like he was having a terrible breakdown.

Actually, Aize was also quite puzzled.

Although I don't really approve of Kurama Rentaro's habit of flirting, he's actually not bad looking. Even if he fails to flirt with foreign tourists, there's no reason why he should be shunned by the girls in his class.

Even though this guy seems a bit frivolous and likes to flirt, even a spirited young man riding a ghost fire has spirited young women who love him, so there's no reason why Kurama Rentaro would be unanimously shunned by his female classmates.

Yes, all the female classmates were unanimously ignoring him.

Apart from Yoshino Asatake and Mako Hitachi, Aizawa saw disgust and loathing for Rentaro Kurama on the faces of almost every female classmate, as if they were seeing something dirty, which he found incomprehensible.

To find out what was going on, Aize consulted Hitachi Mako.

Then, Hitachi Mako told Aizawa the truth.

"Well... Mr. Rentaro actually had a girlfriend before, in our class, but they broke up quickly, and then... the very next day, Mr. Rentaro announced his relationship with another girl in our class..."

Upon hearing this, Aize understood everything.

Is it because this guy has a shameless history of messing around with women that he's been despised by everyone in the class?
Hitachi Mako also told Aize that the atmosphere in the class was terrible at the time. The two girls each had their own cliques in the class and were competing with each other, which almost caused chaos throughout the entire academy.

As a result, not long after, Kurama Rentaro broke up with that girl again, and then started casually flirting with other people again...

So, the two girls who were fighting tooth and nail suddenly found common ground and not only became good friends, but also joined forces with all the girls to isolate Kurama Rentaro, making the boys less likely to get too close to him.

how to say……

"He deserves it."

Kurama Koharu, who happened to be visiting Aize during her break, gave this cold comment, which made Aize's lips twitch slightly, and she decided to ignore the matter.

Originally, he thought that Kurama Rentaro had been treated unfairly and was even planning to stand up for his cousin.

But now... well, Xiaochun is right, he deserves it, so it's best not to interfere too much.

Of course, Aize wouldn't isolate Kurama Rentaro like everyone else because of this; he would continue to act as usual.

Surprisingly, the classmates were very understanding in this regard.

"After all, they are cousins, so we can't make things difficult for Ai."

"Student Ai comes from a major country, so I guess she wouldn't care about such trivial matters, right?"

"That guy, he better not lead Ai astray. Ai is the one who drew the Divine Sword, and she and the Priestess are always going to and from school together."

"Ignore him. If he goes too far and the priestess dislikes him, he's finished and won't be able to stay in Suiori anymore."

The group discussed it for a while, but then quickly dismissed it.

The fact that everyone was so warm and tolerant towards Aize was largely due to the fact that he was always seen with Yoshino Asagi.

Even at school, in her class, all the students from Suiori were particularly respectful and held great reverence for Asatake Yoshino. It was said that those who were disrespectful to the shrine maiden would even be punished by their parents when they got home. They were all repeatedly told by their elders to be polite to Asatake Yoshino.

Therefore, even at school, Yoshino Asatake was treated like a princess, adored by everyone, and others were not very willing to approach her casually.

Under such circumstances, it is surprising that someone could be seen with Yoshino Asagi all the time, and this person was of the opposite sex. Coupled with various special events, Aizawa's status in the class also became special.

In short, nobody wants to go against Aize, and nobody wants to offend him.

Thanks to this, Aize was able to have such a relaxed time at school, without getting into all sorts of messy things.

However, because of this, rumors have begun to circulate that Aize and Asagi Yoshino have a close relationship and that Aize may be the husband chosen by the current shrine maiden.

In particular, many people saw Aizawa and Asagi Yoshino going home together, and it seemed more like they were staying at Asagi's house than Kurama's or Shina's house, which made the rumors even more credible.

As time went on, Azer not only became more and more special at Pelican Academy, but also attracted increasing attention.

Finally, after some time, some people couldn't hold back any longer.

"Are you really not the priestess's fiancé?"

A male classmate who was usually close to Aize and Kurama Rentaro sneaked up to his seat and whispered something to him, as if to say, "Don't worry, as long as you tell me, I won't tell anyone else."

And this isn't the first person to come to Aize in a secret way to ask him questions.

"You guys are a bit too curious, aren't you?" Kurama Rentaro, who had also encountered people sneaking around asking questions before, chided him, "Who comes up here asking these kinds of questions right away? It's their privacy, isn't it?"

"Well, there's no way around it, it's related to the shrine maiden after all." The male student scratched his head, somewhat embarrassed, and said, "Wouldn't any Hoori person be curious and concerned about the shrine maiden's fiancé?"

"But you also need to be careful not to cause trouble for others." Kurama Rentaro squinted, waving his hand dismissively like she was herding ducks, and said, "Maybe things haven't been settled yet, and they don't want to say more? Your constant questioning is just causing trouble for my cousin!" "Yeah, sorry." The other person scratched his head again, then couldn't help but complain, "But you, who's always flirting with foreign tourists and making the class a mess, don't have the right to talk about causing trouble for others, do you?"

"Hahaha……"

As soon as the man finished speaking, a burst of laughter immediately came from the side.

Clearly, even though they were keeping their voices down and acting furtively, quite a few people in the class were still watching and had overheard the conversation.

"Shut up! Go back now!" Kurama Rentaro, annoyed and embarrassed, chased the people away before complaining to Aize, "These guys are so rude."

Upon hearing this, Aize rolled his eyes.

"Who told you to be so shameless? In Xiaochun's words, you brought this on yourself."

"Tch, even you say that?" Kurama Rentaro said with a sneer, "He must have been corrupted by Koharu."

...Do you, the worst example, have the right to say that?
"By the way, how many people are there today?" Kurama Rentaro gestured towards the group next to him who were asking about something from the people who had just left, and said, "The rumor has spread so far, why don't you just make it public?"

"Don't tell me that." Aize picked up the water glass next to him and drank it as if it were none of his business, saying, "It's the woman who said she wants to keep it a secret for now."

Upon closer inspection, a group of girls were cautiously approaching Asagi Yoshino and Hitachi Mako where they were, seemingly asking them something.

Although Yoshino Asagi's identity is special, it's not to the point that others don't dare to even speak to her. So, driven by curiosity, some of the bolder female classmates still led the group to Yoshino Asagi and were asking her questions.

Aize could vaguely see that Hitachi Mako was smiling bitterly, while Asagi Yoshino seemed somewhat at a loss.

Unfortunately, Aize was very open-minded about the engagement, or rather, he didn't take it seriously. So even when asked, he could act indifferent. But Asagi Yoshino was different.

She's probably very troubled right now, unsure whether to just tell the truth or stick to her original plan and keep it a secret for as long as possible.

The main question is, if she were to reveal it, how should she approach the engagement?

Previously, she had always viewed the engagement with a negative attitude, believing that it was merely a temporary measure. She thought that once she figured out a way to resolve the situation where Aize was forced to get involved in her family's troubles after pulling out Congyu Maru, the engagement could be dissolved.

However, the current situation is that, not only can he not find a way to extricate Aize from trouble, but he also has to rely on others to help him exorcise evil spirits and purify filth, and even ask them to train him. This is simply a matter of getting deeper and deeper into trouble.

If things continue like this, the dissolution of the engagement is nowhere in sight.

If the engagement is not dissolved, wouldn't it be inappropriate to announce it like this?
Asatake Yoshino felt very complicated.

"This is really troublesome," Kurama Rentaro remarked. "If this continues, the riots will probably only get bigger."

"If you ask me, you guys are just too idle." Seeing the whole class making a ruckus, Aize immediately said, "Why are you so concerned about whether a transfer student who just arrived in Suizhi has an engagement?"

"Come on, we're still high school students. Normally, high school students would attract a lot of attention if they had one or two couples around them, let alone someone who's engaged. You practically don't see that in this day and age, okay?" Kurama Rentaro sighed and said, "Besides, you're a transfer student who just arrived, but don't you even know who your fiancé is?"

“That’s the priestess, Princess Hoori, the daughter of the former ruler of this land.”

"Not to mention us, even the adults have been closely watching the priestess's marriage. Some of the elders are worrying about unnecessary things all day long, fearing that the Asabu family and Kensuke Shrine will have no one to carry on the family business."

Kurama Rentaro's words made Aize silently continue drinking water.

He didn't know if those so-called old people were worried that the Asabu family would have no successor and that this land would no longer be protected because they knew about Suiori's curse.

However, based on his current understanding of the Asabu family, he felt that even if those people did not know about Suiori's curse, they would still be afraid that the Asabu family would have no successor.
Even in modern times, the Asabu family remains a representative of this land, a pillar and backbone in the hearts of many.

Families like the Hitachi family, to which Hitachi Mako belongs, have had someone protecting the shrine maiden for generations, and the Komagawa family, to which Komagawa Mitsuha belongs, have had someone serving the Asatake family as a doctor for generations. There are actually quite a few families in Hoori. Even if they are not as closely related to the Asatake family as these two families, they still maintain the past tradition of being mainly represented by the Asatake family.

These families even owned a lot of land in Suizhi, which was originally allocated to them by the Asahi family.

Therefore, these families have always acted in accordance with the will of the Asabu family, thus influencing the entire Hoori community and causing them to more or less follow and pay attention to the Asabu family, making the Asabu family's status increasingly transcendent.

It's quite normal for the elders in such a family to worry that the former head of the household will decline and have no successor.

As the saying goes, "the emperor isn't worried, but the eunuch is," and as the only heir of the Asabu family in the current generation, Asabu Yoshino's marriage is finalized every day, they probably won't be at ease for even a day.

Now that rumors about Yoshino Asagi's engagement have surfaced, it's easy to imagine how excited and concerned these people will be.

At least, as far as Aize knew, many elderly people from the town had come to visit Asabu's house or Kenji Shrine these days, chatting with Asabu Ansei about something, probably also inquiring about and confirming the marriage agreement.

"...Why does it feel like this engagement is really getting out of hand?"

Will things really escalate to the point where we're forced to get married?
In any case, Aize had already sensed that things were starting to get out of hand.

After thinking it over, Aize finally decided to ignore it.

"I'm not the one who should be worried."

The person who should really be troubled is Yoshino Asagi, who is currently showing a genuinely distressed expression.

"...Seriously, what am I going to do now, Dad?"

Asahi Yoshino secretly complained.

(End of this chapter)