At Jumonji Hayato's urging, Uchiha Naruto arrived in the classroom half an hour before the first elective class after lunch began. Almost all two hundred seats had already been snapped up.
The two of them only managed to find empty seats in a corner with considerable difficulty.
Over the next half hour, people from outside the history department, and even from outside the University of Tokyo, trickled in to audit the class. The aisles, corridors, floor, and windowsills were packed with people, inside and out.
"There must be at least five hundred people here. Professor Nagayama's classes are as popular as ever," Jumonji Hayato said, clicking his tongue.
Riding the wave of the supernatural era, Professor Nagayama, who had once merely scraped a living in the obscure field of folklore, had transformed into an academic celebrity sought after throughout Japan and even the world. He had been appointed a special adviser to the Supernatural Konoha Military Police Force and a visiting professor in the University of Tokyo's history department.
Even a relatively niche elective like monster folklore now had scarcely a seat to spare.
When the bell rang, a tall, thin, bespectacled man with a scholarly air entered the classroom, escorted by several black-suited men serving as both assistants and bodyguards.
"Hello, everyone!" Professor Nagayama greeted them, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.
Uchiha Naruto wore a somewhat peculiar expression.
He had heard of Professor Nagayama, and knew more about him than his classmates did.
Professor Nagayama had a considerable store of knowledge about folklore, strange tales, monsters, and mythology, along with a sufficiently rich imagination. After each incident, he could always use the clues Uchiha Naruto left behind to dream up an explanation that was both fantastical and meticulously constructed.
In a sense, he had been giving Uchiha Naruto an