And how though he was also from 2006, Rion, who was actually studying abroad, was still included in the group.

‘I think it’s because I really wanted to go to Yukishina No. 5,’ Rion muttered. Exactly as the Wolf Queen had said to him before. ‘Maybe she summoned me here because I wanted to make friends in a Japanese school. To let me meet Kokoro.’

‘We really might have met,’ Kokoro said. Rion raised his head. Kokoro explained, ‘In the nurse’s office back in January, at the beginning of the third semester.’

It warmed Kokoro’s heart to think that she and Rion were from the same period. Hawaii and Japan – if only the distance hadn’t separated them, she might really have met Rion in the nurse’s office that day. And yet if he hadn’t gone abroad to school, Rion might have been an ordinary kid attending Yukishina No. 5, and would perhaps never have been invited to the castle. You never knew how chance could change things.

‘Well, we’re all going to forget all this anyway,’ Kokoro said.

Even if Rion came back to Japan and they passed each other on the street, neither would remember who the other one was.

The very thought was painful to her.

‘Wolf Queen.’ Fuka turned around and looked at the Wolf Queen, who had been sitting silently in front of the fireplace for some time. ‘How much time do we have left?’

‘I’ll give you just under an hour,’ the Wolf Queen said, as if thoroughly bored by them all now. They watched as she got to her feet, the hem of her dress swishing.

‘So you’d better get ready then.’

THE WOLF QUEEN HAD ARRIVED among them, gently applauding, and appeared as collected as ever.

Now that Aki had been rescued, the Wolf Queen’s dress, which had been in tatters, was back in its usual pristine condition. Before they knew it, the darkened castle was now suddenly bright again.

‘Well done!’ she said, with a touch of sarcasm.

No one knew quite how to react.

Only Kokoro was brave enough to speak. ‘Wolf Queen …’ she said.

The others stared at the Wolf Queen, a look of fear frozen on their faces.

Kokoro hadn’t seen the version of the ‘huge wolf’ for herself, so she didn’t know the details of what it had done to them, but it was clear the others had experienced something unearthly before they were ‘buried’ underneath their X mark. Just from the intensity of the howls, she sensed it was indescribable, and the kids themselves were not fully conscious of it.

‘Why all the grimacing?’ the Wolf Queen said dismissively. ‘Don’t worry. Nothing will happen to you. I didn’t really want to have to do it, anyway, and I never would have had to, if somebody hadn’t broken the rules.’ The Wolf Queen cast a glance at the newly rescued Aki. ‘Think about what you did!’