My daily life of exorcising demons and falling in love with a witch.

"Um... Takagi-san, have you seen this girl?"

Yi Xing pointed to the girl in the corner of the photo and asked with a slight hesitation.

"Huh? There's no one there, right? There should only be animal-eared girls in the photo, right?" Takagi looked at the photo and said with some surprise, "What, did you guys see something special?"

"Yes." Yoshiyuki turned to Erina and asked, "Young lady, you can see it too, right?"

"Hmm..." Erina stared at the photo, somewhat surprised: "This child is also wearing a kimono like Hime, and using spider lilies as hair accessories! But they look completely different, so they're definitely not Hime's sister."

Yaodao-hime tilted her head and thought for a moment.

Then, he wrote the following passage in his notebook.

Long ago, the ancient land of Sakurajima was connected to the underworld by a passage, and was thus imbued with the waters of the underworld. This resulted in the abundance of spider lilies (also known as red spider lilies) growing there. The women of Sakurajima loved to adorn themselves with cherry blossoms and spider lilies as hair ornaments.

"Hime knows a lot." Yoshiyuki nodded. "If that's the case, then it makes sense. Perhaps one of the main reasons Sakurajima set up a barrier in the clock tower library was to suppress the ghosts that used to roam the ruins of the ancient city..."

When Sakurajima was destroyed, not a single person survived. Naturally, no one who experienced it firsthand could tell the outside world what happened.

Therefore, later generations can only speculate based on the ruins and some rumors.

It is said that the gates of the underworld were opened wide, causing the passages of the ancient Sakurajima Kingdom to go out of control, from which a large amount of water from the underworld and evil spirits poured out, engulfing the entire city.

Sakura no Hatsuyuki was powerless to stop it from happening, and for a long time after the Battle of the Gate, no one offered sacrifices. It wasn't until the arrival of the Sakura family that the dilapidated and overgrown shrine was restored.

The explanation from the Demon Blade Princess relieved all three of them.

Erina, in particular, felt much more at ease. She continued to excitedly pet Hime.

The technique is exactly the same as when you knead dough balls.

This naturally elicited a gasp from Takagi.

"Um... I've been wondering about this child for a while now! Who is she?" Takagi Yoyako asked expectantly, looking at Erina and the other woman. "Is she the little princess you were talking about?"

"Yes! I forgot to introduce her!" Erina proudly patted Hime's head and began to introduce her: "This is Yoto Hime, our good friend whom we met yesterday! Now we all call her Hime! Hime, this is Takagi Yayoko~ Come on, say hello!"

Xiao Ji nodded to her.

In reality, this introduction was just a formality.

After all, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Hime would have known Takagi-san long ago.

"Hello, Demon Blade Princess~" Takagi Yayako waved at her with a grin. "Just call me Takagi! I'm a friend of Yoda-chan and Maekawa-kun, okay? Nice to meet you! Oh, by the way, can I call you Princess too?"

Xiao Ji nodded. Then she didn't say anything more using the notebook.

This action reveals a silent but domineering aura.

It's as if you're telling the other person, "I have read it."

"Huh?" Seeing that she didn't react much, Takagi suddenly seemed a little embarrassed: "Um..."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Hime is usually not talkative," Erina quickly explained. "So when she needs to communicate, she uses body language and words to express herself."

"Oh, I see!" Takagi clapped her hands, immediately becoming excited again. "This must be what they call a quiet, taciturn personality! How amazing! This is the first time I've seen one in real life! She's like a girl straight out of an anime!"

"Hmph~ Little Princess isn't just that good!" Erina boasted smugly, "Little Princess is just as amazing as a real 2D anime girl!"

"So, you mean, Hime can turn into a paper doll, right? I get it!" Takagi chuckled. "That's really impressive! She can sneak under doors and commit locked-room murders! I've been seeing that kind of thing a lot lately!"

"What?! Really?!" Yixing exclaimed in astonishment. "Has the trend in the mystery genre reached such a low point? They're using magic to kill people now, what's the point of deduction anymore?!"

"Yeah, right! It's just as boring as those novels where the detective analyzes the whole book, only to say at the end that the person was killed by a ghost!" Erina complained.

"But it really does exist! Recently, all the bestselling mystery novels have featured the method of using magic to turn oneself into a piece of paper to commit murder!" Takagi Yoyako excitedly pulled a book from her pocket: "Like this one!"

Many books in Japan are pocket books, meaning they are only about the size of a palm.

This is for easy carrying and reading.

Takagi took out a novel of this size.

The cover depicts a man who appears to have been flattened as if he had been subjected to a two-dimensional foil attack.

The book is titled "A Once-in-a-Mill-Year Murder Case Involving Painting".

The subtitle reads: "Who exactly is the man lurking in the painting...?"

"Don't tell me that the man in the painting is the murderer," Yoshiyuki asked, pointing to the cover speechlessly.

"Huh? Maekawa-kun guessed it right away!" Takagi exclaimed in surprise. "That's amazing!"

"Oh no, you said it yourself, this involves turning yourself into a paper doll to kill people!" Yoshiyuki clicked his tongue and complained, "This method is so boring! What's so interesting about it? It even became a bestseller, I just can't understand it!"

"Actually, it's quite interesting!" Takagi Yoyako chuckled, scratching her head, looking incredibly goofy. "Especially when the detective realized the murderer hadn't left the locked room at all!"

"So, after analyzing for so long, they finally concluded that this guy killed someone and then hid on the wall and turned into a painting, right?" Yixing asked, covering his face.

"That's right! How about it, doesn't it sound interesting?"

"No, it's still boring!"

"Exactly. And Princess isn't one of those paper dolls that turn into thin paper." Erina hugged the Demon Sword Princess, letting her head fully enjoy the massage from the cushioning pad, and said proudly, "The thing she's similar to paper dolls is that she never ages~ and she never sweats or excretes!"

"What?! That's amazing!" Takagi exclaimed enviously. "Wow...that's incredible! Does she feel cool all over now?"

"Yes, that's right. Because it's so hot, I'm holding her a lot to cool her down!" Erina said, hugging Hime even tighter, looking completely blissful. "It's so comfortable!"

"Oh, is that why you're hugging me so tightly, Miss?!" Yoshiyuki was taken aback for a moment, then retorted, "You're totally using me as a human air conditioner!"