Translator: Silver Editor: Namorax

「20」

Ah, it was the son of a n.o.ble family.

I was a bit disappointed when I realized that it was Suwa.

This scion was looking like the main character of a popular anime.

It’s a shame that Suwa didn’t share the character trait of feigning ignorance like said anime character.

Either way, this person he was was still part of a n.o.ble family!

He wore a short-sleeved Y-s.h.i.+rt with a light grey tie and dress pants of a similar color.

The mono-colored uniform was similar to s.h.i.+nonome's uniform.

I tended to think about unnecessary things when I wanted to escape reality.

“I tried to call out to you earlier…… but when that commotion came up I decided to wait. I'm sorry.”

I paused for a moment at his is quiet tone and meek appearance.

“Commotion……?”

“The one with the daughter of the Tojo branch family.”

“Tojo? That’s a house I don’t recognize.”

The name Tojorin crossed my mind, but I was drawing a blank on Tojo.

I tilted my head to think, but eventually just shook my head.

“It’s natural that you’ve never heard of them. They are far from being  the most prestigious family.”

“Then why did the daughter of a Tojo branch family come after me?”

“Currently, the Tojo main family has no successor. Also, the branch family only has that woman. Therefore it has been decided that the next head of the family would be the man she’ll be engaged to.”

“And?”

“I believe they call it fis.h.i.+ng for men? She tried to attract a man of a prestigious family at this party, at least that's what it looked like.”

So, what did this have to do with me?

The look in his eyes said that Suwa didn’t want to say what came next.

“That fool had been told that a man from the top families would've been suitable to become the next had of their main family. Wouldn't it have been better for her to aim for someone from the Leaf clans instead of someone from the Golden and Divine Clans? Especially since all of them are hoping to be chosen by the daughter of the Sagara.”

“……Huh?”

Was the empress mistaken for the queen?

Well, sometimes the situation did look like a reverse harem.

In the empress’ case, she was depicted in a white robe.

“a.s.suming that, do you think she attached herself to s.h.i.+ori-sama, and spoke ill of me, in order to impress you?”

“I grew accustomed used to all the daughters at s.h.i.+nonome. Do you really think something like that would be enough to make me take note of such an unimpressive woman??”

“It hasn't even been two days since the last time i was attacked. Quite pitiful, isn’t it?”

I averted my eyes from the frowning Suwa and started to think.

There wasn’t any problem with marriages between the top four clans, but the same couldn’t be said if someone from the four divine clans married someone from the leaf clans.

The leaf clans were partially composed of branch families bestowed new surnames.

In most cases, unsuccessful branch families were forced to join the leaf clans.

Even the leaves descendant from the Fujiwara, which were considered prestigious among the leaf clans, were seen as a joke to those in the know.

That’s because most leaf branch houses made their fortune by selling the family registry.

Upstart merchants, not belonging to a n.o.ble family, would often adopt or marry children from the branch families to bolster their status.

The merchant family would pay remunerations to their new in-laws.

What value do such houses have?

The four clans looked down upon the leaf clans because of this.

n.o.body would like being targeted by such an unlikable person.

It must have been especially true for Suwa, who only had eyes for s.h.i.+ori.

Being stuck with a person like that would only worsen his mood.

“That’s why I intended to intervene, but then s.h.i.+ori stepped in and I figured she could handle the situation better than I could.”

“I see.”

It must have been too difficult to face her.

Should I overlook that?

“Well, it’s quite hot out here, should we take this inside?”

“Sorry. Are your injuries all right? Did the heat worsen your condition?”

“They’re old wounds. The heat doesn’t bother them. Or rather, the heat no longer aggravates the wounds.”

Suwa’s expression hardened at my comment.

His complexion paled slightly.

He couldn’t stop himself from imagining my wounds worsening.

While having a fertile imagination is praiseworthy, you should have some awareness of where you indulge certain things.

“There are various things I’d like to discuss with you. Somewhere with few people……

“Would you like to go to my room? It is a place uncle prepared for me, on the second floor.”

“Lead the way.”

Suwa obediently followed after me.

The entrance stairway was too exposed, so we didn’t go to the second floor from there.

Instead, we moved into a private area, which had been closed off to the guests.

We walked through an isolated corridor and climbed a stairway to the second floor.

My room was the closest to the stairway and had full view of the courtyard.

When I accompanied grandmother here when I was younger, I would occasionally doze off, so uncle had this room set up.

Now I stayed here whenever I accompanied Nanami to a play.

The wallpaper was a calming pattern of light blue and white.

The room’s furniture had been tailored to the wallpaper.

I’d dare to call it a country-style room.

I’d wanted a similar feel to Anne of Green Gables, but that color pallet didn’t suit me, so I changed it.

“This is unexpected.”

Suwa was taken aback he entered the room.

“It’s my uncle’s hobby.”

“……Ah, I see.”

Suwa was convinced when he remembered that this was the Otome’s house.

“Take a seat on the sofa. Apologies, but I can’t offer you any tea.”

“No, it’s alright.”

Suwa shook his head as he sat down.

“I was shocked we you said we weren’t friends.”

Those words left Suwa’s lips after looking around the room for a little bit.

“It was eye-opening. It bothered me to no end, and I didn’t figure out why until now.”

Ah. So he finally understood.

“I noticed my position and realized just how much I’ve been relying on you.”

It was the most vulnerable I’d ever seen him.

Judging by his expression, he was finally at the starting point.

“First off, s.h.i.+ori. It’s impossible for the daughter of a branch family to be engaged to me. I hadn’t realized it till now, and s.h.i.+ori hadn’t either. Her only thinking of me as a little brother was proof that she was unfit to succeed a branch family. Only after I realized that could I understand how other people must’ve seen me. Such foolish stupidity.”

Yes. I had laughed as well.

There was no way a branch family could marry into the main family.

Simply put, Suwa could speak his mind without being hurt.

He had that much sense and reason.

“I’m disgusted with myself for only focusing on s.h.i.+ori after the incident, even though you’d been run over. I thought that gentle s.h.i.+ori was telling you to run away. It’s funny… I knew that you should never call attention to someone when you were already in a dangerous situation. She’d intentionally made you their target. s.h.i.+ori was going to get you killed. You, a bystander who’d done nothing wrong.”

Having everything you believed turned on its head was a challenging endeavor.

It shakes you to your very core.

“You had every right not wanting to see us. Who would want to meet someone who'd tried to kill them? Even so, I’d thought you were being unreasonable for not accepting our apology. That is until I saw your rehabilitation.”

“You saw that? How?”

A flag had been raised.

Something like that wasn’t something a boy should’ve seen.

“I saw it when my father brought me to the hospital. I never imagined that rehabilitation would be so difficult.”

Suwa shook his head as he buried his face in his hands.

Had it been the walking training?

The bars on my sides had been something to lessen the load my legs needed to support as I walked.

However, walking strained numerous muscles, so I had to stretch beforehand to loosen up.

Even with the additional support, it’d initially been impossible to walk straight.

Furthermore, I fell whenever my legs refused to move.

I wasn’t helped up after falling either.

The exercise was also for me to train standing up again.

I didn’t give up and simultaneously learned how to walk and fall correctly.

My progression began to become a point of pride.

I declined the helping hand of those running the rehabilitation center whenever they offered it and stood up under my power.

I couldn’t even use the arm they reached for anyway.

It’d been difficult to lift my upper body without the use of both hands.

I hadn’t wanted any observers because their worries would transfer to me and turn into stress.

“Everyone. I didn’t think it was that difficult. I took pride in standing on my own.”

I enjoyed the rehabilitation days because I could move around, instead of lamenting the fact that I couldn't control my limbs as I wanted.

My rehabilitation doctor even praised me for my att.i.tude.

Receiving praise for my efforts had been pleasant.

So, I’d eagerly awaited rehabilitation.

Just call it a character trait. In fact, I’m not even angry about that part of the whole situation.

“At the time, I saw pain reflected in your eyes.”

“That’s in the past now.”

“I thought you hating me would be unavoidable, but that wasn’t the case.”

Suwa gaze fell to my feet.

It seems that he couldn’t look me in the eye.

“You’ve suppressed the retaliation against the branch family and me by pretending to be indifferent.”

“I’m not pretending. It doesn’t matter to me. Be desperate on your own.”

“I didn’t care either. However, the fact still remains that we were saved because of you.”

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, the Suwa group had been shaken to the point of near collapse.

That was because many people drew away from the Suwa in antic.i.p.ation of the Sagara's retaliation.

In actuality, the Sagara had only targeted the Suwa branch family.

I’d heard that his debt had skyrocketed because of that, but I’d decided to block that out as well.

“The other day, my father purposely included a memo detailing the illicit activities in the doc.u.ments I’d been handling. It’d been easier to collect the evidence than I thought it’d be. Later, I was told that it had all been gathered by the Sagara.”

The current head of the Suwa had tested his son.

Perhaps he’d been ascertaining if his son would have to be disinherited.

“Even my ability to gather information is lacking. It’s understandable if you don’t admit it. I know that you called for it.”

“That’s wrong. It wasn’t me.”

“No, it was certainly you.”

Suwa finally looked at me.

“With such a vast difference, I understand why you don’t consider me a friend.”

I could only sigh as Suwa stared at me with bright eyes.

Seeing how everything was heading towards a certain unshakable scenario, I felt a little bit fed up.