Judging by the cold wind that whistled down the hallways in the schools, the heating wasn’t on this late in March. She could hear the school brass bands practising, and the cries of the athletics teams, urging on their teammates. Underneath, she caught the sound of students her own age happily chatting and laughing. It made her tense. She knew it wasn’t possible, but still she felt like they might be laughing at her.

She hadn’t worn school slippers in a while, and her toes, sticking out at the top, were feeling chilly.

Her mind wavered.

She still felt some reluctance about leaving Yukishina No. 5. Fear that she wouldn’t fit in, that the others would soon find out what had happened.

There was still a little time left before she had to decide.

She thought how nice it would be to see the others on the last day, the thirtieth, and share her decision.

TODAY SHE FELT LIKE MAKING a trip to Careo.

She was keen to buy some cakes for tomorrow’s party. It might be good, too, to take some of those cool paper napkins like the ones Aki had once given her. It was the spring holiday now, and even if she failed to make it all the way, she could at least get to the convenience store.

Once she’d got back from her shopping excursion, she also wanted to make it to the castle. She had a feeling the others, too, wanted to be there as much as they could.

From the day after tomorrow, she’d never be able to go to the castle ever again.

It was hard to grasp.

Kokoro smiled wryly to herself. When she’d first arrived at the castle, she questioned its very existence. How times had changed.

As the final day loomed, she began to consider things more carefully: perhaps all the kids in the world who’d dropped out of school were, like Kokoro, invited over to the castle?

Kokoro was in junior high, but perhaps any school kid who wasn’t going to school had spent time with the Wolf Queen. The reason it remained a mystery was because they’d found the key and their wish had come true, and their memories were then wiped clean.

They’d simply forgotten about it.

If that were the case, then it made all the more sense for them to cede the castle to the next group. Since they hadn’t managed to find the key, in the Wolf Queen’s eyes they were probably a bunch of failures. But that meant they were allowed to keep their memories of the castle. Someday, she thought, we and other kids might be able to share our knowledge that the castle really existed – that we’d all been there together once.

BUT TODAY OF ALL DAYS, her mother asked her to stay at home as she was expecting a delivery.