CH 3

There was still a little time before I would enter Touka Academy Elementary. Even though I had to attend the academy, I could at least change my relationships with the people around me. At the very least, I had to change my relationship with Konoe Ibuki, my marriage candidate.

Wait, aah!

Uh-oh… thinking about it Konoe Ibuki would grow up to be the “Arrogant Prince”: a high-achiever, athletic, and with the ability to make even delinquents run away… 

The previous incident was my overwhelming victory. That was true. I, an adult who’d reached a ripe old age on the inside, could easily deal with the punches of a kid who hadn’t even entered elementary. My own physical ability had dropped to an elementary schooler’s too, but there wasn’t much physical difference between men and women at this age.

But it’d be different when we became adults. If he continued going like this, Konoe Ibuki would become a monster who could win unscathed against the leader of the high school delinquents. Compare this to Lady Sakuya, a girl whose head was unfortunately empty, had low physical ability and who would grow up into an annoying young lady.

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I was fine for now. I had the advantage of being mentally an adult, and there was only a slight difference in our physical abilities, so I could manage. However, if I continued getting Konoe Ibuki to hate me so we wouldn’t get engaged… the balance of power in our relationship would quickly change.

That included our own families’ balance of power. Even the world-famous Kujou Group was a step behind the Konoe Conglomerate. Also, there were several different patterns in-game where the Kujou Group’s wrongdoings were exposed. The company went into debt, and the Kujou family also fell. If I just stood by and watched, we’d face the same conclusion. I had to avoid that end no matter what.

Alright! With that decided, I’d have to do some begging!

～～～～～～～

R pdlyjkzu yrrasynble xu eye obld bl nyxl bsxl vbyv dktbv. R oyp tskdt vs rlpvla bkx, lmynvzu zkjl obyv R’e vbswtbv ycswv vseyu. Mbld, R nswze nbydtl xu qyvl!

“Vyry~~”

“Txx? Ebyv’p oasdt, Fyjwuy? Zsw ayalzu nyzz xl “Vyry”.”

Mbyv oyp vawl. R eked’v nyzz xu ryaldvp ryry sa xyxy kd xu rypv zkql; ps, yqvla R nyxl blal, R ‘ayalzu’ nyzzle xu nwaaldv ryaldvp vbyv oyu. Tsolhla, R eked’v ‘dlhla’ es ps, clnywpl xu nwddkdt eye zkjle vs cl nyzzle ‘ryry’. Fs, kq R oydvle bkx vs qllz byrru, R’e nyzz bkx ‘ryry’.

“Fyjwuy byp y pxyzz aliwlpv qsa usw, Vyry~~…”

“Ebyv kp kv? Ps usw oydv psxlvbkdt? Vzlypl vlzz uswa ryry.”

Xb~, sb~… yp lmrlnvle sq y qyvbla obs’p ldezlppzu jkde vs bkp eywtbvla. Xjyu… vbkp pllxp rsppkczl…

“Dear! You’re spoiling Sakuya again! Don’t do that! You too, Sakuya!”

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“Can’t I spoil her just a little?”

Tch… I was stopped by mom’s appearance. My dad put up slight resistance, but it was a losing battle.

“No, you cannot!”

See. It was also true in this family that the dad couldn’t win against the mom. But this was also within my expectations. I thought that even if I pestered my dad, my mom would still try to stop us. But I’d also thought of a way to persuade mom.

“Mother, please listen as well. I want to learn something.”

“What!? Sakuya, you want to learn something? Even though you hated the idea so much before? What’s wrong with this kid? You could’ve said so earlier.”

My mom instantly became cheerful. She’d been trying to get me to learn a lot of different things for a while now. Of course, I rejected all her suggestions. It was like that, you know? Anyhow, the things mom wanted me to learn were all things that’d make me into a lady, like traditional Japanese dance, the koto, flower arranging, and tea ceremony. I didn’t plan to do any of those things. 

After I rejected those, I got the piano, violin, and flute lineup, which made me want to ask where they wanted to take me. So, I rejected every single one of mom’s suggestions. When someone like me said “I want to learn something”, mom must’ve thought she should just go along with it.

“What do you want to learn then, Sakuya?”

“Hmm~… I am thinking of cram school, swimming, and one other thing.”

First, in-game Lady Sakuya was, to put it bluntly, an idiot. She couldn’t study, but the bigger problem was that she was fatally ignorant of the ways of the world, and her way of thinking was too outlandish for ordinary people to understand. Even in-game, you could say that her sole achievement was being the lowest-ranked person in the school year.

I’d graduated from university in my past life, but I couldn’t rest on my laurels because of that. Touka Academy was a prestigious school where only really high-achievers, students who’d come from advanced courses, gathered. I didn’t need to aim for first place, but it’d be nice if my grades weren’t too bad. At the very least, I could keep them above average.

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To that end, I decided that getting a private tutor or going to cram school to study now would be a good idea. I got the feeling I shouldn’t get a private tutor, though.

First, even if I were to learn from a private tutor, there wouldn’t be any point in me, a graduate from a decent university, learning at the first-grade level. Having said that, if I suddenly started solving highschool level problems easily, people would think that something’s up. Furthermore, going one-on-one with a private tutor at home didn’t make much sense.

Lady Sakuya was raised as a lady ignorant of the ways of the world, so I needed to get out and learn about it. I might’ve been a member of society in my past life, but I didn’t know anything about this world. I thought it was basically the same as modern Japan, but it’d be better to actually go into the world.

Also, with cram school, there were places that offered different classes to match the student’s level. With a private tutor, I might get a weird teacher, or one who decided that even if they didn’t teach me, my grades would be decent and just lazed around. I didn’t have to worry about that in cram school… probably?

Then, to train my body, I wanted to do a sport. I remembered hearing that it wasn’t good to exercise too much when you were just a kid. Swimming didn’t have much strain and could be done from a young age to adulthood. I thought it’d be good for developing stamina and training my body.

Lastly, I wanted to learn one more thing. Previously, I’d gotten Konoe Ibuki to hold a grudge against me. Well, I brought it onto myself, so I had to suffer the consequences, but I wasn’t planning to just watch and do nothing. I needed to learn self-defense techniques so Ibuki, who was going to be stronger than the leader of the delinquents, couldn’t hurt me.

I knew that, but the problem was in what I should learn. If possible, I wouldn’t want to learn something that required weapons, since I wouldn’t always be carrying a weapon around. So kendo, naginata, and kyudo were all out1.

“Well, it’s hard to discount naginata, but… what about sambo or systema2 ? Or should I just do jiu-jitsu or aikido? Which should I pick…”

My ideal image would definitely be military hand-to-hand combat. I could survive in every conceivable situation by using many different items. The ideal situation would be rule-free military hand-to-hand, which used weapons as well as bare-handed fighting. But would military martial arts developed for strong soldiers really work for the delicate Lady Sakuya?

The sports where the weak could overcome the strong, jiu-jitsu and aikido, came to mind. Judo was a game from the union, so it was a no. Also, you’d immediately know from seeing any recent judo matches that they were wrestling. It was just wrestling, but with the rules changed.

I wasn’t trying to make fun of judo at all. I was just worried about the current situation, where foreign fighters just tackled each other instead of fighting, or they modified their collars to make it harder to fight; it had changed towards that kind of tackling wrestling. And if I learned judo with those kinds of opponents and with that kind of trend going on, I’d just be learning a game where strong guys tackle each other.

Instead, jiu-jitsu, which was designed to be used in all kinds of real combat situations, even those where the opponent had a weapon, seemed like a good choice. But both jiu-jitsu and aikido were mainly focused on passing down forms, so I was worried if it’d be useful in actual combat.

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Of course, it’d be amazing if I did master it, but I was worried that if I went to a jiu-jitsu or aikido dojo, I’d just be doing exercises similar to tai chi. In the end, I couldn’t decide which one was better, or which martial art to learn.

“Sakuya… what kind of movies have you been watching?”

“No, Papa. I’m not planning to copy a movie.”

Apparently, dad thought I was trying to copy something I’d seen in a movie. I really wished that was why. But my life was on the line. That arrogant prince now held a grudge against me, and I’d be in hot water if I couldn’t even protect myself.

“There’s no way I’m letting you learn that!”

“Aah!”

Mom flipped out suddenly… what was wrong with her? Was she that touchy now that one of those days had come?

“Sakuya, go to your room!”

“Ok~ay…”

At times like these, I couldn’t go against mom. First, I should try to convince dad in someplace where mom wouldn’t be able to hear… I exited the living room, wondering what I should do, and saw my brother standing there, holding in his laughter.

“What is wrong, brother?”

“Ha, haha… no… it’s nothing… hehe… just, Sakuya, why’d you say something like that all of a sudden?”

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It doesn’t really come up in the game, but Sakuya had one older brother. This was the guy in front of me currently holding in his laughter, Kujou Yoshizane. He looked like a sheltered rich kid spoiled by his parents, but he was actually pretty smart. Even though he was still an elementary schooler, his grades were good and he could get on in the world.

I knew he’d been doing some pretty shady things behind the scenes, but he hid it well from my mom and dad. My parents trusted my brother, so if I asked him to help me, he might be able to convince my mom.

“Brother, I am being targeted by Ibuki-sama of the Konoe family, who holds a grudge against me. It is imperative I learn self-defense to protect myself. Please convince mother on this, brother.”

“Ibuki-kun? What happened?”

Had my brother met the arrogant prince? My brother, Yoshizane, was 5 years older than me, so he would be in sixth grade when I’d enter Touka Academy. We’d only be taking the elementary course together for one year. Anyhow, he was 5 years older than me, so it wasn’t strange that he’d interacted with other families. If I could convince my brother, then my mom might be convinced too.

“That boy told me to “get out of the way”. However, I asked him if the heir to the Konoe family, a person who’d be attending Touka Academy, could not practice the concept of ‘ladies first’. He then flew into a rage and attempted to hit me, but I managed to dodge and trip him.”

“Oh… so that’s why mother was so…”

Hm? It looked like he knew a little about that time we went to Touka Academy’s interview. It might work like this.

“He resents that and may counter-attack in future. While there may be no difference in physical strength between boys and girls now, it will widen. So, I must arm myself with techniques so that I can handle him, even if said difference does get bigger.”

“Oh, I see…. Got it. Then, I’ll go convince mother.”

“Thank you very much!”

Ooh! It was worth asking him! Unlike me, my brother was deeply trusted by mom. And he was a good talker. He’d be able to convince mom somehow.

“Then, go return to your room.”

“Yes, brother. I will take my leave now.”

I lowered my head towards my brother and left for my room. I’d convinced my brother, and if I could go to cram school, swim, and learn that one other thing, I wouldn’t be so easily beaten up by the arrogant prince Ibuki. The problem was what to learn… Something that didn’t require much physical strength or a good physique would be nice.

In the game, Lady Sakuya wasn’t blessed with that much of an excellent physique. Well, she was a normal rich lady, so it was only normal, but… in the first place, if the dating sim’s villainess was a gorilla girl, then it’d become a different game entirely. But, in-game Lady Sakuya was a complete idiot. She would challenge the protagonist to fights, and would always get beaten up.

I didn’t think that I was physically weaker as of now. So, I thought the problem was Lady Sakuya’s upbringing and personality. If I train hard, I should be able to improve. What should I learn… so much to worry about… 

～～～～～～～

“Huh~~~?! You’ve already picked what I’m going to learn!?”

When I woke up the next day, I headed to the living room, looking forward to seeing how my brother’s persuasion came out. Then, the reply I got was that they’d already decided where and what I was going to learn.