CH 106

No matter what, I still felt stressed… A few days had passed since… I’d stepped into the Konoe house.

Momiji didn’t say anything as usual and just served me exactly the same as before… She didn’t act differently or say anything differently… She just calmly…

I felt gloomy and couldn’t calm down. If she was dating my brother, couldn’t she just say that? If my brother didn’t have a partner and she was just serving that purpose, couldn’t she just say that? Why was she still saying nothing?

When my mom returned from the Konoe house, she told me to keep being “marriage candidates” with Ibuki. It seemed to be something like “The Konoe family had only decided on their own that I was his “marriage candidate”, so I didn’t need to complain”.

Could I agree to that? In this world… everyone at the academy thought that Ibuki and I were already engaged. Everyone part of Lady Sakuya’s group didn’t think so, but that was because they guessed that I hated Ibuki.

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They couldn’t say it out loud, but everyone in Lady Sakuya’s group didn’t think well of Ibuki. I didn’t know if that was because I hated Ibuki or because they knew his true personality from interacting with him a lot. It was just that everyone around me didn’t think well of Ibuki.

But the students I didn’t talk to at all in the academy didn’t know that. They just assumed that talks had gone quite far because the announcement was made so officially at the Takatsukasa family’s party.

I wanted to refute it. I thought that refuting it was the better option.

Rq vbl xyvvla oyp zlqv yzsdl zkjl vbkp… kvp nsdnzwpksd xktbv cl vbl pyxl yp vbl sdl kd vbl tyxl “Nshl Wzsolap”. Gde kv’e akzl wr Nyeu Fyjwuy’p byvlap.

Rq kv oyp alqwvle dso yde vbl qynv vbyv xyaakytl vyzjp bye dlhla byrrldle oyp pyke, vbyv oswze awkd vbl Isdsl qyxkzu’p alrwvyvksd. Yyjkdt yd yddswdnlxldv vbyv ckt yde byhkdt yd kdhszhle ryavu alqwvkdt kv oswze alpwzv kd y nsxrzlvl zspp sq qynl. Rd lmnbydtl, vbspl obs eke vbyv raydj okvb vbl rspvla—ds, Nyeu Fyjwuy’p byvlap—oswze byhl ds alypsd vs byvl bla. Mblu eke vbspl ynvksdp clnywpl vblu vbswtbv vbyv R oyp pvlyzkdt Rcwjk yoyu, ps kq R oyp ds zsdtla alzyvle vs Rcwjk, vblu oswze byhl ds alypsd vs vyatlv xl.

Jwv… kv rascyczu oswzed’v cl vbyv lypu. Rq vblu olal vs jdso vbyv R pvsrrle clkdt bkp xyaakytl nydekeyvl, vblu’e vyjl kv yp xl “vwadkdt esod Rcwjk” yde vyatlv xl clnywpl sq vbyv. Mblal oyp y rsppkckzkvu vblu’e byvl xl clnywpl R lxcyaaypple bkx sa elpvasule bkp alrwvyvksd.

Mbld obyv kq vblu nydnlzle vbl yaaydtlxldv? Ebyv oswze byrrld? Yap. Isdsl pyke vbyv kv oyp dlnlppyau vs jllr vbl Rnbkfsw qyxkzu kd nblnj. Mblu oswzed’v nydnlz kv clnywpl sq y jke’p qllzkdtp, ds xyvvla bso xwnb R rzlyele.

Gqvla xu xsx alvwadle bsxl, pbl pyke vbl pyxl vbkdtp yp Yap. Isdsl. R eked’v jdso obyv jkde sq ekpnwppksd vbl vos sq vblx bye, cwv R jdlo vbyv vblka rszkvknyz fwetxldv oyp vs pbso vbyv vbl Isdslp yde Iwfswp olal yzzkle.

R nswze xyjl Rcwjk byvl xl, cwv vbyv’e cl byae. Mbyv x*psnbkpv oswze nbypl xl ds xyvvla bso qya R ayd. Rq R valyvle bkx nszezu, bl’e qszzso xl yaswde. Eypd’v vbyv pvyzjlakpb?

…ds, oykv?

Yyucl… ds oyu… R bye pyke kv ps nypwyzzu aktbv dso, cwv… oyp Rcwjk y x*psnbkpv?

Ibuki in the game “Love Flowers” was a self-censored arrogant-type prince. He was good at studying, at sports, at anything; he had no weaknesses. The girls always squealed whenever he appeared; the guys all accompanied him like they were his henchmen. When he got into fights with delinquents from other schools, he’d obliterate them alone.

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The game Lady Sakuya was someone who chased after Ibuki. In the official setting… they definitely met in elementary, Lady Sakuya fell deeply in love with him and started chasing after him, called herself his marriage candidate, and talks actually began between the Konoe and Kujou families.

The Konoe Conglomerate and Kujou Group continued talks with the perspective of a merger or unification, and in highschool, everyone had already thought that Ibuki and Lady Sakuya were pretty much married.

But I’m reality, Ibuki didn’t like Lady Sakuya at all; on the contrary, he hated her and always acted coldly towards her. Even so, Lady Sakuya devoted herself to him, but her destiny would change when the protagonist entered highschool.

The protagonist, unlike everyone who always fawned over Ibuki, treated him as a normal person. Ibuki took interest in her and then grew attracted to her… He lastly managed Lady Sakuya, who became a disturbance, by destroying the Kujou family.

He was so strangely thorough that even if the protagonist didn’t take the Ibuki route and didn’t talk to him, she appeared enough that Ibuki always destroyed Lady Sakuya and the Kujou family.

As someone who played the game, I didn’t think much of Ibuki’s interactions with the protagonist on the Ibuki route or even on any other route. But… if… if Ibuki was a m*sochist…

Ibuki wasn’t interested in those who were fawning over him. Far from it; weren’t they just annoying people who stressed him out?

Compared to that, the protagonist treated him normally. If you look at the game from the protagonist’s perspective, Ibuki took interest in the protagonist who treated him normally, but…

If… if by some chance… Ibuki was a m*sochist.. then wouldn’t he feel like the protagonist was treating him more coldly than everyone else? It was that, right? Everyone fawning over him was normal. Within that, the protagonist treated him normally. Wouldn’t Ibuki consider that as really cold?

Basically… to Ibuki… to a m*sochist… he must’ve felt that the protagonist treating him normally was just her treating him coldly. He then felt good…

Then in that case… if I treated Ibuki coldly, throw him down, sent him flying, and verbally abused him… that’d just make Ibuki feel good, right…?

“Uu!”

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Just imagining it made chills run down my spine.

Then… weren’t all my actions having the opposite effect? If… If that was the case… what should I do? Should I treat him nicely from now on? Should I start chasing Ibuki?

…I couldn’t. Ibuki was interested in the protagonist in the beginning because she treated him normally, but midway through they became lovey-dovey. It was too late to treat him nicely now that he was interested. Rather, that’d make our relationship progress further.

No… wait. Calm down. It wasn’t confirmed that Ibuki was like that. I was just thinking about if he was. It was my delusion. There was no basis. The first thing… right, the first thing was to confirm it.

To cancel the marriage candidateship, I had to get to know Ibuki. What did I have to do to stop being his marriage candidate? Would Ibuki hate me? To do that, I first had to know my enemy.

But I couldn’t just make Ibuki hate me. There’d be no point if I overdid it, he held a grudge against me, and destroyed me in the end anyway. At the very least, I wanted him to naturally… unconcernedly…

My idea was… to make someone else for Ibuki to like and get him to be interested in them. Then if I asked him to cancel the marriage candidateship, he had no reason to refuse.

～～～～～～～

At the salon, I casually observed Ibuki. Kaya-san glared angrily at Ibuki often, so much so that I wondered if she was planning to make him disappear later.

“Kaya-san… if you make Konoe-sana disappear and get charged with a crime, I will be sad. Please do not get ahead of yourself because marriage candidate talks with Konoe-sama will not continue, okay?”

“Uu! Uuuuuu!”

I said that and Kaya-san restlessly glared at Ibuki. It felt like she was going to chew on her handkerchief.

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If Kaya-san was arrested for handling Ibuki, I’d be sad. I said that countless times and it seemed I had restrained her. After that, she didn’t lay a hand on him and had unexpectedly calmed down. If I said that at times, she probably wouldn’t do stupid behaviour.

The bigger problem was Ibuki…

As expected, everyone was fawning over him at the salon. The people gathered there were all part of the Konoe monryuu, so you could say that was expected and you’d be right, but…

Speaking of that, only Ibuki’s mom and Enju could give him opinions in the game. On top of that, Mizuki also seemed to be no match for him.

Ibuki was a m*sochist, so did he trust Mizuki and Enju to give him opinions with no regard to himself? Did that make him feel good? I didn’t have those tendencies, so I didn’t understand what Ibuki was thinking.

“Hey! Sakuya-chan. Are you maybe interested in Ibuki?”

“Hirohata-sama…”

Maybe I was looking too blatantly… Mizuki had come and said unnecessary things. Well, I was interested in him in a certain way, or rather, it was true that I was observing him, but… Maybe I should ask Mizuki about Ibuki’s tendencies?

But, well… What should I ask? Should I say something like “Was Ibuki a m*sochist?” or “Did he feel good when being punched?”. I couldn’t ask that.

Oh! Right! I had another method…

“Hirohata-sama, is Ibuki secretly aiming for you?”

“…huh?”

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“Oh…”

I messed up… that came out somewhat weird… I should think a little more, then ask a question.

But what should I ask? Should I say “Is Ibuki aiming for your butt?” I couldn’t say that, right? I should say something more ordinary. Then what should I ask? Was Ibuki gay? Did he have suspicious relations with Enju?

It was pointless… I couldn’t think of anything…

Or rather, how would I cover up that weird question? I wanted to ask more naturally and in such a way that you didn’t know what I wanted to ask, but I had asked too straightforwardly. This was bad.

“Oh… um… it’s that, you know? Yes… it is because Ibuki and I are normally in matches together.”

“Huh!?”

“Hm?”

Oi… oi oi… This guy declared that so upfront… Did he and Ibuki normally do those kinds of things? And even declaring that in a place like this was…

As expected… Ibuki was gay… Right… so that was how it was. Women loved two men getting together. No, that was from my personal view, but? However, they were happy when those types of male ships got made, right? Those degenerated… people, right?

This was fundamentally a world based on a dating sim. Therefore, there was a high possibility that it’d reflect those women’s preferences. Basically, Ibuki had those relations with Mizuki and Enju… something like that… And being in such a relationship where you could say it so openly… or was this normal in the Konoe monryuu?

“Maybe… is this sort of thing an open secret in the Konoe monryuu?”

“Sakuya-chan knows quite hard words. Well… the Hirohata family’s had that sort of lineage for generations.”

“Huh!?”

“Hm?”

Had that sort of lineage for generations!? Huh? What? Was it something like sleeping with Ibuki while saying that he was protecting his bedroom? Was it that kind of lineage? That was a thing?

I see… Ibuki was of that lineage, and he had that relationship with Mizuki and Enju… When I went to the Konoe’s house, they were embracing with their clothing removed as if it was normal… So that was it…

Then why did he want to be my marriage candidate…

Was it that? He was the type that got turned out by both men and women? He was okay with both? Oh… come to think of it, with male relationships, there was one who attacked and the other who was the one being attacked, right? That meant… Ibuki liked being attacked!? That was why he was below Enju at that time…

Everything… was consistent!?

I see… Ibuki was a gay m*sochist. Therefore, he was a bottom. And he was the worst type who got turned on by both men and women.

So that meant… because I had a masculine personality and attacked Ibuki, he saw me as the ideal bully?

What to do… what should I do? Something… was there no method to run away from this Unfortunate Prince with p*rverted tendencies?

The idea was to force someone to do it. If that person wanted to be involved with Ibuki, that was good. There were a lot of girls who longed for the illusory Arrogant Prince, but was there anyone who’d still chase after him once they knew his true nature as a p*rverted Arrogant Prince…

Oh! And before this, Kaya-san had done some unnecessary things towards Ibuki? Wasn’t that bad? Wouldn’t Ibuki get interested in Kaya-san?

If he was attracted to other people, then I’d be fine with Ibuki dating them, but Kaya-san was a no. I didn’t want Kaya-san to be taken because of my own emotions. Kaya-san would really send Ibuki to heaven. That was bad.

“Kaya-san! Are you conscious that Konoe-sama is a member of the opposite sex?”

“Huh? Aware of that piece of trash? I do not acknowledge that.”

Woah… Kaya-san was looking at Ibuki like one would look at trash or an insect… Honestly speaking, that was scary…

I was happy that Kaya-san seemed to have no interest in Ibuki. After this, I had to make sure that Ibuki didn’t view Kaya-san as a person to bully him and then chase after her…

“Kaya-san. If Ibuki does anything to aim for you, please tell me! I will then do something!”

If he thought of Kaya-san as his queen and chased after her, that’d be a problem. I didn’t know if I could stop it, but I had to avoid Kaya-san ending Ibuki…

“Oh! Sakuya-chan! You are worrying about big sister! But it’s fine! Big sister won’t be had that easily! But thank you! I love you, Sakuya-chan!”

For some reason, Kaya-san was embracing me. Well… if Kaya-san wasn’t going to end Ibuki… it was fine…