This was prepared to prevent the memories within the door from suddenly disappearing. Even if they really vanished later on, Shirou could still use the text in his notebook to recall these events.
Shirou also recorded real-world happenings, though much less frequently. After all, most of the time was spent buying groceries, cooking, and doing housework, while Penguin Logistics and the others mostly used their time for work.
Although he would go out to work with them later on, according to the boss, he just needed to keep doing things like before, and he only needed to go out with Penguin Logistics for long-distance trips.
As for what specifically to do and what to prepare, he would just have to wait for Isv to contact him.
After recording everything, Shirou put the notebook back and then got up to wash and freshen up.
Even though his mood had been messed up quite a bit, Shirou still finished all the chores that needed to be done for the day.
Because Penguin Logistics was heading out quite early today, Shirou had put all the food into insulated bags for Sora to take with her, giving the others an extra meal while clearing out the refrigerator.
According to a certain unnamed red-haired woman, in the morning she saw Shirou brandishing his kitchen knife as if he were hacking at a mortal enemy, so she asked Sora to go pick up breakfast instead.
After finishing his busywork, Shirou went out for his usual run. The morning's events had left him very depressed, and he needed to find something to take his mind off it.
"Hey, isn't this Shirou?"
Shirou was suddenly called out to while running.
Turning around, Shirou saw the owner of the voice—it was none other than Sir Swire, who had brought him to the Knights of the Round Table a few days ago.
"Sir?"
Looking at Sir Swire before him, Shirou thought of the three giants of the Knights of the Round Table that Penguin Logistics had told him about.
They were Sir Swire, Hoshiguma, and Chen. Exusiai had said he could call them Sir Swire, Sir Hoshiguma, and Sir Chen.
However, from Shirou's perspective, he must have been played by Exusiai. After all, he could clearly see that after he called her "Sir," a number of tick-mark anger symbols seemed to appear above the head of the Sir Swire in front of him.
"It seems the people at Penguin Logistics introduced me to you properly! But my surname isn't Sir, you know."
Adjusting her emotions, Sir Swire quickly figured out the cause and effect. It was definitely the people from Penguin Logistics talking behind her back!
"Uh... yes. Is there something the matter, Sir Swire, that you stopped me?"
Shirou, who had almost called her "Sir" a second time, caught himself just in time and asked about her purpose.
"Nothing much, just happened to see you while I was out and wanted to say hello."
Seeing that Shirou no longer called her Sir, Sir Swire let the matter go, considering that Shirou was a first-time offender.
Today happened to be her day off, and she wanted to check out the shop that had been burned down by that infected criminal a few days ago. Although the possibility of obtaining relevant evidence or clues was very low, she still had to make a trip.
After all, compared to aimlessly searching, wandering around related places first would yield a higher possibility of obtaining clues.
It was just that she seemed to have gotten lost, searching around here for quite a while before she spotted Shirou running and came over to say hello, hoping to ask for directions.
"Is that so? Then if there's nothing else, I'll..."
Seeing that she wasn't here to arrest him, Shirou thought about slipping away. Although he hadn't done anything wrong, facing Sir Swire, who belonged to the Knights of the Round Table, still made him feel uneasy.
"What's the rush? Seeing you out running at this time, you must have the day off today, right? How about going on a date with me?"
Seeing that Shirou looked like he wanted to slip away, Sir Swire grabbed him by the arm. Originally, she had just wanted to ask for directions, but seeing that the other party seemed very afraid of her, Sir Swire decided to change her approach.
Surely no one could refuse an invitation from a beautiful girl!
"...Thanks for the invite, but I'll pass."
Faced with Sir Swire's inquiry, Shirou thought about it and decided to imitate Croissant's method of escape.
Seeing Shirou turn and prepare to walk away, the expression on Sir Swire's face froze slightly. Rejecting a woman's invitation like this was far too impolite, wasn't it? Could this fellow in front of her be a blockhead?
"Wait right there!"
Growing more irritated the more she thought about it, the little tigress stepped forward and blocked Shirou's escape route.
37 Any interest in joining the Knights of the Round Table?
"Sir Swire, this is it."
Through Sir Swire's explanation, Shirou finally understood that she only wanted him to lead the way; the date talk was pure boasting.
Shirou was familiar with the place Sir Swire wanted to go—it was the restaurant where the fire had happened last time. Leading the way was a request Shirou wouldn't refuse.
"Sigh... it's already being renovated? Finding anything like this should be impossible."
Brought over by Shirou, Sir Swire looked at the building before her. Indeed, it was the same one from the photos, except the interior had already been cleared out and renovation work was underway. The clues that could be obtained from this would be very limited.
"After all, the interior furnishings were all made of wood originally, and the fire back then burned up pretty much everything."
Hearing Sir Swire's words, Shirou explained the condition of the interior to her.
"You come to this shop very often?"
"Not really. I just happened to be passing by when the fire happened a few days ago."
"What a coincidence! Then did you see the person who rushed into the burning building to save people? I heard that person disregarded their own safety and rushed into the fire to save someone!"
Hearing that Shirou was at the scene back then, Sir Swire grew interested. The files she had obtained stated that someone had rushed into the burning building at the time, and then jumped down from the second floor with the people inside.
It sounded utterly dashing! Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to find any relevant information.
"...That person seemed to be me."
Recalling the events of that day, Shirou felt that the person Sir Swire was talking about must have been him.
After all, he was the only one that day who had been lectured by Axia with a long rap for quite a while. At the time, he even wondered if Axia would run out of breath while talking.
"..."
Sir Swire fell silent for a moment. Come to think of it, that made sense. The Shirou in front of her had been arrested by her precisely because he acted courageously for a just cause. If he had been at the scene, then rushing into the fire to save someone was only logical, right?
"Any interest in joining the Knights of the Round Table? We're desperately short on talent like yours, you know?"
Sir Swire, representing the Knights of the Round Table, attempted to poach some talent.
"No thanks, everyone at Penguin Logistics is pretty great."
Sir Swire's recruitment attempt had no effect.
Shirou refused Sir Swire's invitation. If she had invited him before he accepted the help of Penguin Logistics, he might have agreed.
"Is that so? It seems you really like Penguin Logistics."
Faced with Shirou's rejection, Sir Swire wasn't annoyed. From their first encounter, she knew that Shirou must have his own reasons for staying with Penguin Logistics; she was merely extending a tentative invitation.
There was no harm in trying—what if it actually worked?
"Everyone at Penguin Logistics is a good person, and moreover, they helped me when I was in my most difficult moments."
"Hm... hard to believe. Those people at Penguin Logistics would actually help someone?"
Listening to Shirou's words, Sir Swire fell into thought.
That Penguin Logistics—the very people who spent their free time in Lungmen blowing things up, street-racing, and engaging in armed brawls—would actually help people?
And they even pulled an SSR? His luck was Lungmen Curses good!
"Though I can probably imagine the image Penguin Logistics has in the Knights of the Round Table, everyone actually really is a good person."
After thinking it over, Shirou decided to put in a good word for Penguin Logistics to see if he could salvage their image a bit. If she knew what Penguin Logistics usually got up to, he probably would have chosen to keep his mouth shut.
"Penguin Logistics, good people... I can't picture it. Let's not talk about this. Shirou, did you notice any strange people around here that day?"
Sir Swire, whose brain nearly broke trying to connect Penguin Logistics with the word "good," decided to change the subject, asking instead if Shirou, as a witness at the fire scene, had noticed anything unusual.
"Strange people? Not really, I didn't pay special attention at the time."
Recalling the situation back then, Shirou hadn't noticed the surrounding people; upon hearing someone calling for help, he had just rushed right in.
"Is that so..."
Seeing that searching for clues was hopeless, Sir Swire's plan fell through.
She could be certain that the fellow who had caused trouble at Dagu Mall was being directed by someone behind the scenes. The only problem was that the suspect wouldn't say anything, leaving her with no clues whatsoever.
Without evidence and clues, her ideas could only remain mere speculation and guesswork, preventing her from taking any further steps.
"However, that day at the market, I seemed to hear some people talking about how there would be gunshots and explosions near the Lower City District at night."
Seeing Sir Swire's disappointed look, Shirou thought of the conversation between women he had overheard while going to the market to buy groceries that day.
Though he hadn't listened closely at the time.
"Lower... The Slums? Interesting, the market you mentioned is the one close to the Lower City District, right?"
Hearing Shirou's term for the Lower City District, Sir Swire's impression of Shirou rose a bit more.
She had always wanted to urbanize and plan that area, but reality never permitted it.
Now, encountering someone who didn't use the term "Slums" to refer to the Lower City District, she instantly felt a sense of familiarity.
"Mhm, that's right, that's the one."
Shirou nodded affirmatively.
"If it's over there, we can go take a look. Shirou, do you have anything to do later?"
Pondering the geographical location of that vicinity for a moment, Sir Swire felt it was worth checking out.
If it were in the Slums, things would get a bit more troublesome, as it wasn't suitable for her to show her face directly over there.
Yet she wasn't familiar with the people there either, so she had to ask Shirou. If it wasn't convenient for him, she would simply have to add it to her list and ask Hoshiguma about it later.
"I don't have anything going on. What's up?"
"If you're free, would you mind accompanying me to the market again? I have some things I'd like to check out over there."
Sir Swire didn't beat around the bush. Through several conversations, she had already determined that when talking business with Shirou, one shouldn't circle around—going straight to the point was the way to go.
As for potential danger over there? She was a member of the Knights of the Round Table! Besides, no matter what, Shirou belonged to Penguin Logistics; given their habit of fighting three square meals a day, it was impossible for Shirou to be weak.
"Um... I suppose that's fine, but I need to go back and grab some things, and change my clothes by the way."
Faced with Sir Swire's invitation, Shirou thought about it and felt there was no major issue. Since they were heading to the market anyway, he might as well buy today's ingredients all at once, especially since he had cleared out the fridge this morning.
The fish he bought from the boss last time had tasted pretty good.
"Then I'll wait for you at the coffee shop over there. Make sure you don't just disappear and stay home after going back, alright? Otherwise, the next time I see you, I'll bite you straight on!"
Looking around, Sir Swire designated a coffee shop as their meeting point, verbally threatening Shirou at the same time to prevent him from running off.
"Alright, alright, I'll be right over in a bit."
Faced with Sir Swire's threat, Shirou wasn't flustered at all. Anyway, he hadn't planned on standing her up in the first place.
38 Why are you so practiced at this?
More than half an hour had passed since Shirou left, and Sir Swire was already starting to wonder if he had skipped town.
Fortunately, shortly after that thought popped up, she spotted Shirou's figure in the distance.
After all, red hair was particularly eye-catching, and Shirou didn't have any race-related traits on his head.
"Sorry, sorry. I was just thinking about the things I needed to prepare, so it took a little longer."
When Shirou went back earlier, he started pondering what to buy, and only came back to his senses when he remembered he wasn't going alone this time—he was going with Sir Swire, and she was waiting for him at the cafe right now.
Thinking of this, Shirou stuffed a new shopping bag into his side pack and bolted out the door.
"It's fine. After all, I'm the one who dragged you into this suddenly; I can at least afford to wait this long."
Seeing that the first thing the other person did upon arrival was apologize, Sir Swire found it hard to say anything else. Besides, since she was the one asking Shirou for a favor, naturally she couldn't complain much.
"That's good, then."
Seeing Sir Swire's reaction, Shirou let out a breath of relief. He had been worried she might complain about his tardiness.
Even though it truly was because he had zoned out that it took so long—which was indeed his fault, and being complained to would have been only natural.
"Then let's go! Sorry to trouble you with leading the way, Shirou."
Without waiting for Shirou to react, Sir Swire pulled him along as she walked.
Following the memory of the path they took last time, Shirou quickly led Sir Swire to the market.
The market hadn't changed much since last time, except that the prices at various stalls seemed slightly different. Looking at the prices displayed, Shirou had already begun pondering what he should buy.
"Where did you hear that news last time, Shirou?"
Arriving at the market, Sir Swire asked the person beside her, wanting to know where Shirou had gotten his information.
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