CH 18

I’d completely forgotten. No, I hadn’t forgotten at all! I remembered, but just put it off. I couldn’t do anything about this setup, though. Well, I should just give Ibuki the return gift already.

“Konoe-sama, this is a return gift for the other day. Please accept it.”

“Yeah!”

Huh? Hadn’t he been saying nothing but “Yeah” since earlier? Well, alright, but… and also, what was with that slight smile? It was gross…

Well, that was also alright. Ibuki had gotten the return gift I gave him. Yeah, in front of the Five Norths Association members too. That was important. I had bought the present yesterday, but I waited until the next day so everyone could see me giving it to him. It should’ve become clear to anyone that I didn’t owe Ibuki a single debt now.

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“Then, I shall…”

While everyone was talking about Ibuki and looking over at him, I tried to slip away from the Five Norths Association salon…

“Sakuya, where are you going?”

“Jasvbla…”

Mnb, Zspbkgydl-jwd nywtbv xl. Pked’v vbl jkdedlpp sq y casvbla xlyd vbyv bl’e shlazssj kv, vbswtb? R’e yzalyeu tkhld Rcwjk bkp alvwad tkqv, ps R eked’v byhl ydu xsal alypsd vs cl blal. R oydvle vs lpnyrl yzalyeu, cwv…

Ohld kq R eke pzkr swv sq vbl pyzsd, R’e pvkzz byhl vs oykv qsa y nya vs nsxl rknj xl wr. Ls xyvvla obyv R eke, R’e byhl vs jkzz vkxl psxloblal, ps R nswze fwpv pvyu blal. Ls… R oydvle vs ts psxloblal okvbswv Rcwjk sa Odfw, cwv kq xsx blyae vbyv R’e awd yoyu qasx vbl pyzsd, vaswczlpsxl vbkdtp oswze byrrld.

Yu casvbla nywtbv xl, yde R wdokzzkdtzu pyv esod sd sdl sq vbl plyvp kdpkel, yzsdl. Rv oyp kd vbl cynj yde ds sdl bye nsxl vblal, ps kv nywtbv xu kdvlalpv. Mbkp kp xu plyv! Ls sdl nsxl blal!

“Mbydjp, Iwfsw-pyd.”

“…obyv?”

Gp R oyp eakdjkdt vly yde pkvvkdt kd vbl plyv R’e vyjld yd kdvlalpv kd, Odfw bye nsxl shla. Jwv R eked’v jdso obyv bl xlydv yv yzz. Ebu oswze Odfw cl vbydjkdt xl?

“Rcwjk’p alyzzu byrru. Rv’p clld y obkzl pkdnl R’hl plld bkx vbyv tzye.”

“Is that so…”

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No… I won’t care if you say those kinda things… that’s not related to me…

Ibuki liked chocolate from that particular store that much? In “Love Flowers”, he definitely said that nama chocolate reminded him of when he received chocolate from his first love. If he liked it that much, then he could just go buy some himself…

The chocolate was definitely slightly expensive. It wasn’t priced ludicrously high, but just a little more expensive than normal chocolate. It wasn’t limited in quantity, so he could’ve bought it at a regular store without going through any special procedures.

I glanced over at Ibuki and saw him holding the package like it was something important. I thought that he would’ve immediately opened it, checked the contents, and eaten it right there, but this was slightly unexpected. But there was chocolate in that package, so he definitely should’ve held it in a way where his body heat wouldn’t transfer to the chocolate.

“Takatsukasa-sama, there is chocolate inside that package. If Konoe-sama holds it like that, the chocolate will melt and it’s flavour will be ruined. Please tell him that.”

“If you say so, then okay, but… well, it’s fine. I got it. See you, Kujou-san.”

Enju said just that and left. Thank goodness. It was finally peaceful again. Now I could relax and enjoy my tea…

“Hey, Sakuya-chan, what about me?”

“Hirohata-sama…”

Why would I give you any presents? I only gave Ibuki a gift because he’d given me one, so I had to give him a return gift right away. Were you watching us? Then you should’ve known immediately that it was a thank-you gift. Why would I ever give you a gift when I didn’t even owe you anything, huh?

“Oi, Mizuki… I told you not to lay a hand on my sister, right?”

“Brother.”

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Go, Yoshizane-kun! Drive this guy away! He was my enemy! A normie bastard! He was the natural enemy of a non-normie like me! This womanizer! The enemy of all women! In the first place, girls who get fooled by a guy like this were also at fault! They ignore the honest, quiet good guy type like me, but when a playboy like this guy asks them out, they go along with it! 

“I really didn’t put my hands on her, you know?”

“What’ll you do if Sakuya gets corrupted by you? Don’t do weird things.”

Thanks to my brother stepping in, Mizuki started talking to him instead of me. But I wanted them to stop talking near this seat. My peaceful, calm time was destroyed…

In the Five Norths Association salon, even Azami-chan and Satsuki-chan didn’t come near me. That was weird… they always clung to Lady Sakuya in-game. Even though this wasn’t the game, it wouldn’t have been too strange for us to sit at the same table and talk… 

I thought our conversation at lunch had gone well, so it wouldn’t be too strange for us to sit at a table here and laugh together. Then, why weren’t we?

Well, it couldn’t be helped… rushing didn’t equal good results. We still had plenty of years together. Let’s try getting just a little closer to them.

～～～～～～～

At the salon, I had erased my presence and sat unobtrusively as my brother and Mizuki talked. Now, I was inside the car with my brother, heading home.

“Brother… I should actually learn etiquette somewhere, right?”

“Huh? Why? I thought you could already do it perfectly, Sakuya?”

Huh? That wasn’t true, though? Satsuki-chan had made some sorta weird face. I hadn’t learned etiquette from anyone apart from Master Momochi, so maybe that ninja gramps had taught me something weird? I thought learning the real thing somewhere else was a great idea.

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“I was actually with Saionji-sama at the school cafeteria today, and…”

I told my brother about the exchange that happened between Satsuki-chan and I today. If it was my brother, who really didn’t seem like an elementary student, he’d surely be able to understand something from that. Also, I should probably fix my etiquette if something was wrong with it. There would be more parties and events I had to go to as the daughter of the Kujou family, even if I didn’t actually want to attend.

If I attended those and my manners and etiquette still weren’t up to par, I wouldn’t be the only one embarrassed, but the whole Kujou family. Also, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that said embarrassment might be a flag for the fall of the Kujou family. I should definitely avoid failures and unnecessary risks as much as I can.

“Hmm… if you’re that worried, then you could take a look at other places, but… I don’t think you need to worry about it.”

My brother seemed to be thinking of many different things as he said that. This brother was definitely reliable. He was so reliable that you wouldn’t think he was a sixth grader… and speaking of that, you wouldn’t think that Azami-chan, Satsuki-chan, and the other members of the Five Norths Association were kids that young… that thing called education really was important.

Anyway, leaving it all to my brother made me feel relieved. So now, I won’t worry about those things and head home… yeah, I can’t do that. After this, I’d be sent to the Hundred Earth dojo and get harsh training from Master. Maybe I shouldn’t have called him gramps…

～～～～～～～

I didn’t have to go to the Five Norths Association today and could head straight home! Well, not straight home, but the fact I didn’t have to go to the Five Norths Association today made me happy.

Since earlier, or rather every day since I’d entered the school, I’d been forced to go to the salon. I sat there in a corner, staying quiet while staring at people. But today, I had mom and brother’s approval to go straight home! That was because…

“Brother, will you be accompanying me?”

“Yep. I’m going to take a look too.”

I was supposed to have an etiquette teacher who wasn’t Master Momochi observing my etiquette today. I wouldn’t have had time to do that on days when I had training with Master Momochi. If I was even a second late, my training increased 1.5 times in intensity, so I didn’t dare come late.

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Raihoukai classes had a set time too, since it was only a cram school. The teacher in charge, Ms. Takatsuji, was also watching other students’ lessons, so I couldn’t just change my own time slot…

So, the remaining one was swimming at the fitness club ‘Grande’, which was the only time I could change. I told Mr. Kohori that I might be late. There wasn’t anything saying that I couldn’t go to the fitness club outside of a specific time.

Mr. Kohori was a popular trainer, and there were a lot of madams who wanted to receive training from him. I felt bad for abusing the convenience a little, but if I was late at Grande, there wasn’t any decided time for our lessons, and Mr. Kohori could do what he wanted as well.

I didn’t go to the Five Norths Association salon today and instead headed out the moment classes ended so I wouldn’t be that late. I wouldn’t be learning proper manners today. The teacher would just be looking at how much I had already learned, so it wouldn’t take too much time… apparently.

“Kujou-sama, we have been waiting for you. Please come inside.”

“Yes.”

Woah! Now that was a woman who seemed like a very capable teacher. She must’ve been middle-aged, but her back created an attractive line and her gestures were beautiful. I wasn’t that amazingly old in my previous life and I’d never really been interested in mature women, so she unfortunately wasn’t my type. But, if I was a bit older, a woman this stunning would’ve definitely been in my strike zone.

“Then, put this kimono on first…”

“Ah, I am fine.”

I was still wearing my Touka Academy uniform, so I had to change first. The teacher offered to help me put the kimono on, but I rejected her offer and did it myself. It took me less trouble to put it on myself than for another person to help me.

“Th-That was fast… have you learned from somewhere?”

“Huh? Um… well…”

I could say that I had… right?

Master Momochi always told me to put this or that on when I trained with him. With swimming training, he made me put a hard-to-move bathrobe on and dumped me in a pond…

And Master was impatient. My training became twice as hard if I was even a little late with changing or preparations, so I didn’t have any time to leisurely change. If I did manage to change quickly but hadn’t put the clothes on perfectly, then that tripled the training difficulty level, so I had to quickly, cleanly, perfectly, and properly get changed.

As I trained, I had also become able to change quickly. But I learned how to wear a kimono the Hundred Earth style way. Maybe the accepted way of wearing kimono was different. I thought of getting them to take a look at things like that and tell me the proper way to do them.

The ultimate changing and dressing method of the Hundred Earth style was probably… taking off your clothes in an instant and changing into a log. No, I said that, but I hadn’t actually seen it happen, so that was just my personal image. I was selfishly wondering if there really was an unorthodox method to wear those kinds of things easily.

“There’s something wrong with the way I am wearing my kimono, right?”

“No, it is remarkably beautiful… (If you can do that much, there’s no need to go learn more, right….)”

For some reason, the teacher’s answer sounded a little offended. Why was she mad? She had muttered something, and I hadn’t heard that last thing she said. Maybe I’d done something to make her mad…

Anyway, I finished changing, so next was training. It looked like there were other students in this classroom, so I’d be joining them today for a trial membership.

“This is Kujou Sakuya-san. She is taking a trial class today, so she will take lessons with everyone.”

“I’m Kujou Sakuya. Please take care of me.”

I entered the classroom where the teacher and other students were waiting. The teacher introduced me to the class, and I introduced myself to my senpais and lowered my head.

But, for some reason… my senpais started talking to each other the moment I’d finished my introduction. When I looked towards the teacher standing beside me, her face had slightly stiffened too.

…no way! Something was wrong with my etiquette, right!? Was it so bad that it ruined the mood, too? What should I do?! Maybe I shouldn’t have learned from Master Momochi after all? But I was just a commoner in my past life, so I didn’t know what to do in these times.

For example, if I’d made a mistake… Anyway, let’s try to do what Master Momochi taught me just this once. If there was something off, then this teacher could tell me. I’d just go with what master taught me so all the mistakes could be identified!

“Alright~…. then, Kujou-san, please show everyone what you are able to do.”

“Yes.”

Huh? What? Without a single explanation or lesson? In front of all these watching students so suddenly? Was this some sort of public shaming…

But I had to do it! No matter what happened, I’d go with what Master Momochi taught me!

～～～～～～～

“Kujou-san…. you had said… ‘There may be something wrong with my etiquette, so I want you to take a look at it’. However…”

“Yes. There is something wrong after all, correct?”

They asked me a lot of questions and made me do this and that. They were all things I’d learned from Master Momochi and could handle, so I just did the Hundred Earth style, but… my senpais were all quiet, while the teacher’s face was twitching slightly. There was unmistakably something wrong with my etiquette. Everyone was containing their laughter.

“Have you… learned the Hundred Earth style, by any chance?”

“Hundred Earth style!?”

“That’s…”

“I thought no one could learn the Hundred Earth style anymore…”

“I asked too, but they rejected me…”

Huh? What? What was this atmosphere… the senpais were whispering to each other. I couldn’t quite hear everything they were saying, but things didn’t look good… Should I just keep quiet? But that was dishonest. I should definitely just honestly say it.

“Yes. I am learning the Hundred Earth style.”

“I am sorry. There is nothing this classroom can teach you.”

“…huh?”

The teacher… lowered her head deeply. Huh? What did this mean? They couldn’t teach anything to someone who’d learned the Hundred Earth style? Was the Hundred Earth style ostracised in the business world? Wh-wh-wh-what should I do? Maybe I wouldn’t be able to learn anywhere else just because I’d learned the Hundred Earth style…

But I couldn’t stand the ‘go home already’ atmosphere of this place, so I quickly left the classroom.

～～～～～～～

After Sakuya left, the classroom fell completely silent.

“Teacher… that kid… was just old enough to enter elementary, right? Is it normal to be that good?”

“Maybe she’s even better than our teacher…”

“Shh! Don’t say thoughtless things!”

She couldn’t refute the students’ whispers. Rather, she thought so too. She knew that what she had just seen clearly surpassed her own ability.

“That is not normal… someone who Mr. Momochi took as a disciple… that alone makes her a special kid. Then! Everyone! This is not the place to worry about others. Everyone can do their own things. Let us all work hard.”

The teacher and students zealously continued their lessons, dismissing what they’d seen earlier as an example from an outstanding teacher.