CH 35

“Greetings.”

“…”

“Greetings.”

“——ah!”

Everyone would run away and not reply when I greeted them like usual. I assumed that, at least, but…

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“Hey Sakuya-chan, good morning.”

“Hirohata-sama… greetings.”

Aaah! I met an unpleasant guy this morning. My brother always served as a wall between us, but he wasn’t here now. We’d parted ways at the roundabout and were currently heading to our respective grade level’s classrooms. But, for some reason, Hirohata Mizuki was in front of the first-grade classrooms.

“R byhl psxl cwpkdlpp okvb Rcwjk, ps.”

“Rp vbyv ps? Isdsl-pyxy kp iwkvl vbl lyazu akpla.”

Grryaldvzu vbl iwlpvksd sq “Ebu yal usw blal?” oyp nzlyazu oakvvld sd xu qynl. Ykgwjk vsze xl vbyv, ps R alrzkle caklqzu.

“Ls, Rcwjk bypd’v nsxl ulv. Fs R’x oykvkdt qsa bkx blal.”

“Xb… R pll..”

Tl oypd’v alvwadkdt qasx Rcwjk’p nzyppassx, cwv oyp kdpvlye oykvkdt qsa Rcwjk vs nsxl vs pnbssz. Tsdlpvzu, R oypd’v kdhszhle, ps R oypd’v kdvlalpvle. Fkdnl bl pvyavle vbl nsdhlapyvksd, R kdlhkvyczu bye vs nsdvkdwl kv. Tsolhla, R bye rzyddle dsv vs vyzj vs bkx yde oydvle vs kdpvlye tallv bkx yde oyzj aktbv cu.

R nswzed’v alyzzu elyz okvb vbkp Tkasbyvy Ykgwjk. Tl eked’v yrrlya sa oyp lhld xldvksdle kd vbl tyxl, ps R eked’v alyzzu jdso obyv vurl sq nbyaynvla bl oyp. Jwv bl pllxle… kd sdl osae, pwprknkswp?

R jdlo dsvbkdt ycswv Tkasbyvy Ykgwjk. El’e xlv kd vbkp osaze yde R byed’v kdvlaynvle okvb bkx. R sdzu xyel nsdvynv okvb bkx obld R oyp okvb xu casvbla, ps vbkp oyp vbl qkapv vkxl vbyv ol nsdhlaple yzsdl.

“Sakuya-chan, a lot of tough things must be happening, but you can rely on me, Ibuki, and Enju-kun. We’re all on your side, after all.”

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“Thank you very much?”

I didn’t quite understand what he was saying. Ibuki and Enju weren’t on my side; they were Lady Sakuya’s mortal enemies who wanted to destroy the Kujou family. I couldn’t tell why he said that. It was said that the Hirohata family and Konoe family were on good terms; maybe this was a strategy to make me drop my guard?

“Then, I shall be heading over there; excuse me.”

I said that and immediately got away from Mizuki. I’d be pointlessly standing out if I talked with him forever. I was wondering what he was planning, but I thought it best to walk away and pretend I didn’t know him. Once I’d gotten away from him, I escaped to the Grade 1 Class 3 room.

～～～～～～～

I saw Satsuki-chan sitting inside like usual when I entered the classroom. I came to school relatively early, but Satsuki-chan was always earlier than me. It was really amazing to wake up that early every day.

“Greetings, Satsuki-chan.”

“Greetings, Sakuya-chan.”

I really wanted to talk to Satsuki-chan more, but people might ignore her too if I seemed too friendly with her. I was mentally an adult, so I didn’t mind first-grade bullying. It must be pretty hard to bear for a child of the same generation, though.

Because of that, I exchanged simple greetings with Satsuki-chan, then walked to my own seat.

“Morning!”

“Good morning, Azami-sama.”

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“Morning, Azami-chan.”

“Greetings, Azami-sama.”

After a while, Azami-chan cheerfully entered the classroom and everyone reciprocated her greetings. Also, Azami-chan was pretty happy today. She looked down yesterday, but she seemed fine now. She must’ve suffered since her family, no, her mother, instilled the idea of “I need to get married into the Konoe family” into her. If expressing her feelings made her feel better, that was good.

“Sakuya-sama! Good morning!”

“Aaah! Greetings, Azami-chan.”

That scared me… I normally greeted Azami-chan when she passed by my seat, and only then would she quietly reply. But now, she greeted me loudly before she’d even passed by my seat. Nothing like that had happened before, so everyone was surprised.

“What…? Why did Azami-sama…”

“She even said “Sakuya-sama”…”

“Maybe she’s using some sort of dirty trick to threaten Azami-sama?”

“Poor Azami-chan…”

Hmm… the people around us were whispering many different things. I couldn’t hear a lot of it, but I was able to hear much of what the people around me were saying. Also, what did they think of me? It was really strange that people would think of me as someone who would intimidate Azami-chan and make her my subordinate. There wasn’t anyone more small and harmless than me…

“All of you! Don’t whisper that nonsense; if you have something to say, say it to her face! I can hear everything you’re saying! So! Go ahead! If you have something to say to Sakuya-sama, this Tokudaiji Azami will fight you!”

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“No… We didn’t have…”

“Right?”

Azami-chan was so cool! …but what was this?

Azami-chan spoke sharply and everyone in the classroom fell silent, but… what kind of situation was this…? I only understood one thing. Azami-chan in the game acted like this.

In the game “Blooming Flowers in Love”, Tokudaiji Azami would do anything for Lady Sakuya even if her opponents were of higher family status. She was the head of the assault troops; a woman who casually blew up at others and didn’t know what fear was. Due to that over-the-top “I’ll do it for Lady Sakuya!” mentality, Sakuya x Azami was one of my top ships. But watching Azami-chan now made me wonder if she’d felt like that in canon.

“I’ll say it once! Listen carefully! From now on, this Tokudaiji Azami is Kujou Sakuya-sama’s bodyguard! Understand that anyone who disobeys Sakuya-sama will become my opponent!”

The classroom once again grew loud. Everyone was having whispered conversations.

“Wh… what does that mean? Azami-sama.”

“Yeah, Azami-chan.”

“Wh-What should we do?”

Azami-chan’s followers all looked flustered. They had a point. Their boss had suddenly declared she’d be serving under someone else, moreover, someone she’d fought with before; what was she thinking? Even if they assumed their boss had lost or yielded to threats, they’d probably be still wondering that.

“Do whatever you want, whether that’s going under Sakuya-sama with me or going somewhere far away from us. Make your own choice. I won’t coerce you; there won’t be retaliation or punishment if you choose to leave.”

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Azami-chan was really too manly… maybe everyone followed her because she was that amazing. …wait, hang on? Azami-chan was overwhelmingly more charismatic than Lady Sakuya, was she not? Why was she working under a trash rich girl like Lady Sakuya…?

“I… I will not acknowledge this!”

“Aah! Akane-chan…”

Higashiboujou Akane-chan said that and stormed out of the classroom. I guess the head of Azami-chan’s followers, Akane-chan, couldn’t let Azami-chan serve under me when I’d appeared so suddenly. Azami-chan’s other followers hadn’t said so, but I could tell from their attitudes that they didn’t agree either.

“You have been shown something unsightly. I shall go talk to Akane for a short while.”

“Oh! Wait, Azami-chan.”

“Yes?”

I suddenly stopped her. I meant to say that I’d go instead. But what would happen if I did that? Would Akane-chan even listen to me? If I, who she thought was the cause of all this, went, then wouldn’t the whole thing become pointlessly complex?

But… on the other hand… I should go and talk with her because she thought I was the cause of all this. Even though she hadn’t immediately acknowledged Azami-chan’s decision, it was important to chat directly with her, right?

“I will go to Akane-chan.”

“Doing such a thing, Sakuya-sama…”

“It’s alright… isn’t it?”

I said that, and Azami-chan, who wanted to say something, hung her head and fell silent. Maybe she’d given me the role of following Akane-chan.

“It isn’t fair that Akane-chan’s the only one who has big sister Sakuya chasing after her! Once you return, I will need to punish that girl!”

Oh… where did the good older sister Azami-chan go… the kids around her were pulling away, too… More importantly, some time had passed, so I lost sight of Akane-chan. Let’s hurry and chase after her.

～～～～～～～

I probably wouldn’t see Akane-chan the moment I entered the hallway… I knew where she went right after she exited the classroom, but I had to rely on intuition to search for her afterwards.

I thought about someplace in that direction where you’d go if you wanted to be alone… a terrace, or further out into the courtyard?

It was morning and students were still heading to school, so there were people walking from the roundabout to the hallways leading to their classrooms. The first-grade classrooms were on the first floor of the lower grades school building. Akane-chan headed in the other direction of the hallway the arriving students were entering from. You’d think that there weren’t many people who’d go to the terrace or courtyard at this time.

So with my intuition and that rough reasoning, I entered the terrace…

“Akane-chan…”

“…what? Why’d you follow me?”

Akane-chan was crouching in the corner of the terrace. She turned her face away when I called out to her and approached her. Maybe she had been crying…

“I’m sorry it’s not Azami-chan. She did say that she wanted to chase after you, but I said no and swapped places with her.”

You’d normally want someone you liked to chase after you. That applied all the more for Akane-chan, who was Azami-chan’s closest follower. But since I, the cause of this whole fuss, chased after her and not Azami-chan, she must’ve been thinking about a lot of different things.

But I didn’t plan to give in. I wanted to get along with Akane-chan. If the head of the faction, Azami-chan, got closer to me, then her followers and the people in her faction would have to obey even if they disliked her decision. But I didn’t want that either. If they reluctantly accompanied me because of orders from above, that’d turn into something bad in the future. So I wanted to become true friends with Akane-chan and the other girls.

“You must be feeling surprised that the Azami-chan you love said something like that so suddenly, Akane-chan. I was surprised Azami-chan did that too… but even though what she said surprised me, I want to become true friends with you, Azami-chan, and the other girls too.”

“…”

Akane-chan kept her face turned away and didn’t respond. But I continued speaking.

“I do think that Azami-chan went a little overboard, but I’m okay if we can become friends. I won’t ask you to become best friends with me right now. Let us get to know each other first? We can start from here. If you don’t want us to be friends, it’ll be rather unfortunate, but I’ll stop here. However, if you do want to be friends, could you please become my friend?”

“…”

Akane-chan, like usual, didn’t answer. But she faced me and stared intently at me. I wouldn’t look away. I stared straight back at Akane-chan, careful not to scare her with my expression, and showed how I felt through my gaze.

“As you’re aware, Akane-chan, I haven’t had many friends up until now, so I’m a little bad at socialising, but… won’t you give me a small chance? Please?”

“…”

Akane-chan avoided my gaze again. But it was different from how she turned her face away before. She looked away as if a little lost. Her gaze also shook a little; maybe she was thinking or worrying. I didn’t force her to reply immediately; I just waited patiently for her to answer.

“I still… won’t acknowledge you… But… it’s true I know nothing about you… so I’ll learn more about that first…”

“Akane-chan! Thank you!”

I hugged Akane-chan, who’d accepted my proposal of getting to know each other better first. Oh, why were girls this cute, soft, and had such good smells? Maybe I should sniff and lick her a little?

“Hold on! Don’t get cocky! I still won’t acknowledge you, okay!”

“Yep, yep. Let’s become friends now, right? Ufufufu.”

I’d made more friends thanks to Azami-chan. Of course, the people around me would all go away if I was too horrible. I had to discipline myself so that people wouldn’t be disgusted by me and leave.

I’d definitely avoid the ending Lady Sakuya got where she acted on her own, turned everyone into her enemies, and got banished and destroyed!