CH 33

I had caused trouble for Azami-chan. She must’ve been through a lot because of my unthinking and condescending behaviour. As I thought that, I lowered my head towards her, but, for some reason, Azami-chan hugged me while she was crying.

What? Why? Maybe I had done something wrong?

I didn’t know what to do at times like this. I didn’t know how to comfort a girl in elementary school or why Azami-chan was crying in the first place, so I couldn’t do anything. I just patted her head and rubbed her back until she calmed down.

The words the slightly-calmer Azami-chan was saying were quite difficult to understand. I didn’t know what happened first or last, how the events were correlated, and who she was even talking about. It was hard to understand what she was trying to say. Even so, I listened carefully and gradually grew to comprehend some things.

Basically, Azami-chan’s mother had insisted that the family wished for her to marry into the Konoe family. Azami-chan then got unreasonably obsessed with that goal, thinking that she absolutely had to marry into the family. As that was happening, she committed an error at the Konoe family’s party.

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Everyone could spill food. In terms of good manners, not spilling food would clearly be the first priority, but everyone occasionally did it. That was why you used napkins when you ate since anyone could spill food or sauce. The spilling itself wasn’t the issue, but your response to the spillage.

But it looked like Azami-chan had blanked out and couldn’t think of how to properly respond. That was why I thought of pretending that I spilled it and then cleaning her dress, but… it seemed that Azami-chan’s mother didn’t care whether it was her or I who had spilled the food. She told Azami-chan to make use of the incident so that her reputation wouldn’t be ruined.

I didn’t mind if she did that. If I had just made the mistake of spilling food on Azami-chan’s dress, I’d take it in stride. But it looked like Azami-chan’s mother thought that the matter could also be used in Azami-chan’s engagement to the Konoe family.

Mbl qkapv-tayela Ggyxk-nbyd’p lmrzydyvksd oyp rssa yde ekpsatydkple. Fbl oyp naukdt yp olzz, ps R eked’v iwkvl wdelapvyde obyv pbl oyp pyukdt, cwv R jdlo vbyv kv oyp psxlvbkdt zkjl vbyv.

R eked’v iwkvl wdelapvyde obu vbl qynv vbyv R kdvldvksdyzzu prkzzle qsse sd Ggyxk-nbyd oswze kxrashl bla xyaakytl rasprlnvp okvb vbl Isdsl qyxkzu, cwv…

Jypknyzzu, obld Ggyxk-nbyd’p xsvbla tsv xye yv xl yv vbl ryavu yde rwpble xl ypkel vs rasvlnv Ggyxk-nbyd, pbl oyp fwpv ‘qyjkdt kv’.

Ggyxk-nbyd’p xsvbla oyp vbkdjkdt ycswv vbl pkvwyvksd. Tsolhla, R nswzed’v blzr cwv vbkdj obyv jkde sq ryaldv pbl oyp kq pbl eked’v nsdpkela bla nbkze’p lxsvksdp. Fbl lhld qsanle vbl kxrsavydv vsrkn sq xyaakytl ps xwnb ps vbyv Ggyxk-nbyd osaakle scplppkhlzu shla kv. Jwv vbyv oyp dsaxyz kd vbkp osaze; kv nswzed’v cl pyke vbyv Ggyxk-nbyd’p xsvbla oyp vbl sdzu sdl obs eke vbyv.

Jlpkelp, vbl Msjweykfkp’ ryaldv-nbkze alzyvksdpbkr oypd’v psxlvbkdt R nswze vyzj ycswv. Xdzu vbl rlsrzl kdhszhle nswze alpszhl vbspl rasczlxp. R nswze tkhl yehknl kq R oyp ypjle qsa psxl, cwv kv oypd’v xu rzynl vs kdvlaflnv kd vbkp pnldyaks.

Gzz vbyv R nswze es oyp zkpvld vs obyv Ggyxk-nbyd oyp pyukdt yde ydpola kq pbl oydvle yd ydpola. R fwpv bye vs alrzu yp Ggyxk-nbyd oydvle xl vs.

Ggyxk-nbyd, obs bye nsdvkdwle naukdt qsa iwkvl y obkzl yde bye alzlyple yzz vbl rykdqwz vbkdtp kdpkel bla, bye nyzxle esod iwkvl y zsv. Fbl pllxle vs cl qkdl dso.`

“R yx psaau… R pbswze byhl pyke psxlvbkdt xwnb pssdla, cwv…”

“It is fine, that sort of thing. But… I am sorry for doing such unnecessary things and making you suffer like this, Azami-chan.”

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“No! You didn’t do anything wrong, Sakuya! I…”

Azami-chan apologised for some reason. I didn’t know why she had to do that. It was my fault for intruding, and the people around us’ fault for taking advantage of that. It was also the fault of the people who gossiped and irresponsibly dramatised the story, hoping for something strange and interesting. It wasn’t her fault at all.

But the both of us kept saying “I’m wrong,” and “No, no, I am,” without conceding to the other. That was kind of funny…

“Pfft.”

“Fufu.”

“Ahaha!”

Before I knew it, we were laughing. Oh, this was absolutely great… it felt like I had truly become friends with Azami-chan. It wasn’t like our superficial relationship up until now, but instead, one where we trusted each other from the bottom of our hearts…

That’s right… this was what Azami-chan was talking about when she said “If you’re friends, go ask what’s going on, even if you have to force your way through”. Because I’d forcibly asked Azami-chan, we’d become friends…

I… had grown up to be an adult in my past life, but I still didn’t know anything. Growing older didn’t mean that I had become an adult. This… I had really known nothing, so much so that I was learning things from a first-grade girl. I had only interacted with people below first grade.

I hadn’t grown up in an upper-class environment in my past life, but I could sort of understand how the kids attending Touka Academy felt. In my past life, the people around me were my competitors. They were just obstacles creeping up on me, and I would kick them down to climb higher.

Compared to the competitions in my past life, these kids’ competitions required different skills. It was more important for these kids to marry into good families as well as maintain a reputation that was better than other families. In my past life, I’d be fine if I studied hard, got just one rank higher, and passed the entrance exams.

My contact with others was rare and limited to the bare minimum. Now, I couldn’t remember the faces of my classmates or of the people attending the same cram school as me. I… didn’t have any friends in my previous school life…

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I wasn’t aware of that. I thought that I was doing reasonably well with the people around me. But could you really call those relationships true friendship? Didn’t I just match up with the people I saw in school?

A true friend was someone who treated you like how Azami-chan treated the people around her. I had acquaintances in my past life, but no one who I could call a friend. Now that I was in my current life… I had finally realised that. The first person who I could truly call my friend… in both my past and present lives… was Azami-chan.

Azami-chan was too good a kid. She was also too cute! I wanted to take her to my home and stay with her. I just wanted to sniff, lick, and be with her forever!

No… calm down… I knew that I would get really nervous after making my first real friend, but I had to calm down. That was definitely a crime. 

I wasn’t a p*do or a lolicon in the first place… I would never dirty the pure and innocent Azami-chan with my own desire.

Right, this was that. It was a precious thing. Something that I had to kneel and worship, not defile with desire. In order to achieve a true laughing and chatting future, I couldn’t contaminate it with male desire. I had to be cautious so that I wouldn’t do that. 

Then… I had been laughing with Azami-chan, but… I suddenly looked to the side and saw Ibuki entering the balcony.

“Oi!”

“Huh…?”

He quickly approached Azami-chan and sent her flying… wait, what?

What… what was he doing now? He couldn’t… My head wasn’t working. My brain wouldn’t work for a moment and I remained dumbfounded. Azami-chan fell to the balcony floor.

“Sakuya! It’s alright now!”

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“…what?”

Ibuki constricted me for some reason. It looked like he was planning to crush me with a bear hug. But honestly, I didn’t care about that. This guy… this guy sent Azami-chan flying! When my brain finally started working again, blood rushed to my head.

“Wh… what are!”

“Huh?”

I slid out of Ibuki’s bear hug. Master had done many things to me as we trained, so escaping from a situation where I was gripped was easy. I didn’t know if it was an anti-m*lestation measure or what, but I had received harsh training involving escaping from being grabbed or tied with ropes. It was easy to escape from a kid bear-hugging me. 

“You!”

“Agh…”

Once I had slid out, I drove my fist into Ibuki’s chin from his blind spot. Because of that, Ibuki saw stars, which created an opening. I immediately took him by the collar and carried him.

“Doing!”

“Argh!”

I threw Ibuki over my shoulder and he hit the balcony hard, trembling quite a lot. He could get back up and counterattack, but I didn’t care about that. I had probably bought a little time. Right now, I had to help up Azami-chan… 

“Azami-chan! Are you okay!?”

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I rushed up to Azami-chan, and she was rubbing her bottom as if she’d fallen on it. She didn’t have any outer wounds apart from that. It was great that she didn’t skin her knee.

“Um… Sakuya… is that Konoe-sama?”

“Ibuki was already knocked down, so it’s fine! Let’s run away before he gets up! We don’t know what he might do!”

Ibuki… What were you planning to do so suddenly? You couldn’t kill me socially at the party, so you decided to go out and use force, huh? He might throw us off the balcony if we stayed here. Anyway, I had to protect Azami-chan!

“W-Wait! Sakuya… you did something like that to Konoe-sama…”

“That’s nothing. He did horrible things to you, my precious Azami-chan! Honestly, I want to hit him more!”

I thought that it’d turn out bad if Azami-chan fought with the Konoe family, so I hit him instead. This was legitimate self-defence, and if I stayed silent on that, Ibuki would destroy the entire Kujou family. If I was going to do it, I had to do it thoroughly.

“…that.”

“Hm?”

Azami-chan lowered her head and shook. Was something hurting after all? That bastard Ibuki! He sent a girl flying! I should’ve attacked him more, right?

“I’m… that much more… important than… Konoe-sama?”

“Of course you are! You are much more important than Ibuki! And also, sending girls flying without any explanation is the worst! I cannot forgive him!”

He sent my cute Azami-chan flying! I got mad just from remembering it! I definitely should’ve messed him up more…

“Sakuya! No, Big Sister Sakuya! Azami… Azami is very touched!”

“Huh? Wait! Azami-chan?”

Just as I was thinking of attacking the already-fallen Ibuki and messing him up, Azami-chan embraced me. I was confused and didn’t understand what she meant, but Azami-chan didn’t stop speaking.

“You chose to protect Azami despite making an enemy out of Konoe-sama… aah, my big sister Sakuya! I will never leave you! Big sister Sakuya~! You are amazing! I love you!”

“Hold on… Azami-chan! Calm down! We’re the same age, so I’m not your big sister, right!?”

No, this wasn’t the time to go along with her joke, but… I was confused, so I didn’t know how to respond.

“Oh… so I cannot call you big sister Sakuya…?”

Azami-chan had suddenly looked very sad… I thought she looked a little cute, but this wasn’t the time. What had happened to her so suddenly? Well… being hugged by a cute girl didn’t disgust me, and if Azami-chan came up to me herself, then I’d welcome it, but…

“It’s strange to be calling your classmate your big sister, right?”

No… that wasn’t it. That shouldn’t have been it, but… Azami-chan was pressing me, so I didn’t know what to do… Anyway, I first had to do something about this, so I could only say that.

“Hmm… understood! I shall then call you Sakuya-sama! But… it is okay to call you big sister Sakuya when we are alone, yes?”

“Aah…”

I couldn’t say anything after she stared at me with her wet, upturned eyes. This kid… was scary. She knew exactly what she was doing. She was still a first-grader, but she used being a woman as a weapon!? Azami-chan was someone to be reckoned with!

“What on earth has happened!?”

Then… while Azami-chan and I were talking about that, the Five Norths Association members came from the school building and entered the balcony in droves.