A few seconds later, they saw an elderly man with a wrinkly face, tan round-rimmed gla.s.ses, and a black wool hat appear on the screen.

He had a calm expression but there was a sharp look in his eyes, making it seem like he had a faint dominating presence.

"h.e.l.lo… Zhao-san," Mika spoke to the computer screen.

"You can just call me Grandpa Zhao," Zhao Guanlou told her.

"Grandpa Zhao… right?"

The elderly man nodded as he looked at Mika. His expression suddenly became gentler.

"Mika, how old are you now?"

"I… I'm sixteen years old."

"Sixteen… back when I first met Akiya, he wasn't even sixteen yet… and yet time pa.s.ses so quickly. His daughter is sixteen years old already." Zhao Guanlou sighed.

"Grandpa Zhao…" Mika didn't know what she should say to this elderly man reminiscing about his memories.

A period of silence fell between them.

"Are there others with you?" Zhao Guanlou asked after he finished reminiscing.

"…Yes." Mika glanced at Seiji and Natsuya who were beside her.

"Ask them to leave, or go to a place where our conversation can't be heard by others."

"This… why?"

"Because I wish to speak to you alone, without anyone else listening," Zhao Guanlou said in a serious tone.

Hearing this, Mika could only turn to Seiji and Natsuya and ask for their understanding.

"You can use one of the guest rooms, then." Natsuya led Mika to a room and closed the door after her as she herself exited.

Natsuya returned to the living room to see that Seiji was refilling their tea.

"Zhao-san probably wants to tell Ueharsan some secret… are you curious about it?"

"Of course I'm curious."

"I can use a spell to eavesdrop on their conversation."

"There's no need for that."

Seiji and Natsuya exchanged glances and both smiled.

"How was your day with Fujiharsan?" Natsuya changed the conversation topic as she sat down.

"Pretty fun…" Seiji recalled the matter of the cosplay photographs, revealing a subtle expression.

"Did something happen?" Natsuya noticed the change in his expression.

Seiji looked towards her as the expression on his face became even subtler.

"Natsuya… Kanna gave you my cosplay photographs, right?"

The president's expression froze slightly.

"Y-yeah, Fujiharsan sent your pictures over to me. I think that you look quite good… you did a good job cosplaying." Natsuya averted her gaze and obviously had a slightly guilty conscience.

"She also gave me your pictures," Seiji said as he looked directly at her.

The president's body went completely stiff.

A moment of silence fell between them.

Then, she slowly turned to look at him. The expression on her face was… incredibly difficult to describe!

Seiji truly didn't know what words he could use to describe her current expression. If he had to force himself to describe it, she seemed like she had just smashed her head into a wall and received brain damage, together with the emotions of shock, surprise, confusion, panic, and so on.

"My… my picture?" Natsuya asked dazedly.

"Yes, Fujiharsan gave me your pictures of you cosplaying as Freya from Honey Candy Girl in the internet café," Seiji enunciated clearly for her.

The president's face gradually began to redden after she realized what she heard.

"That… those… she… those…" She kept stuttering with a red face, wanting to say something but not saying it clearly.

"I think that they looked wonderful. You looked great as Freya, and it was an excellent cosplay," Seiji told her sincerely.

'Ahhh!'

Natsuya suddenly covered her face as she panickily screamed in her mind.

'I… He actually saw the way I looked when wearing such a s.e.xy lace dress!?

'Fujiharsan! Didn't you promise me that you wouldn't show my photos to others!? You… actually betrayed me!!'

Natsuya felt that she had been betrayed.

However, she wasn't angry… Currently, she was only filled with embarra.s.sment. She was even surprised at herself that she wasn't at all angry at Kanna Fujihara who had broken their agreement.

That was because she perceived why Kanna had done such a thing.

Although she understood, she still couldn't accept it so easily.

That was why she still needed to vent! Although she wasn't able to get angry right now, she would definitely make Kanna pay for it later!!

Seiji felt that Natsuya appeared quite cute when she embarra.s.sedly covered her face with her hands.

Would it be alright to secretly take a picture of this?

'…Let's not do such a thing.' He restrained himself from giving in to his impulse.

"There's no need to be so embarra.s.sed. You really did do an excellent cosplay." Seiji tried to comfort her. "If we're talking about embarra.s.sment, I was far more embarra.s.sed than you were. You were only cosplaying in an internet café room for Kanna only, while I was cosplaying as a female character in the cosplay area and even did a performance, with many, many people taking pictures of me…"

Suddenly, he felt embarra.s.sment wash over him again as he recalled what happened earlier today!

'Just what did I do!!!'

He actually cosplayed as a female character in public in front of everyone! Although the character was a female who disguised herself as male, she was still a female character and those clothes had a few female elements to them!!

'My cosplay as a 'female' was taken pictures of by so many people!!!'

It felt as if all his earlier repressed embarra.s.sment had suddenly exploded… Seiji's face reddened as well as he covered his face with his hands, losing himself to the embarra.s.sment that was difficult for him to accept.

A moment of silence fell between them.

Natsuya felt that it was rather strange how she didn't hear Seiji say anything else for a while.

She opened her eyes and peeked between her fingers, only to see that he had the exact same pose as her!

Natsuya was rendered speechless.

What was going on here?

Seeing how he was, confusion replaced her embarra.s.sment and helped her to calm down.

"Er… What's the matter, Seiji?"

"…I finally realized how embarra.s.sing my cosplay was just now… please don't speak to me for the time being…" Seiji said in a listless tone of voice.

It took Natsuya a few seconds to understand what he meant by that, but then she giggled.

"You did a great job cosplaying a female character. I think it looked great on you," she told him sincerely.

"Wahhhhh!" Seiji received a critical hit to his mental state and made a strange sound.

"For a boy to look so excellent as a girl, isn't that called a 'trap?'"

"I'm not!!!" Seiji received yet another critical hit as he began shaking his head.

"I shall view those pictures of you as a precious memory to me."

"No!!!" Seiji received a third critical hit in a row and collapsed as he pitifully wailed.

Natsuya couldn't stop her own laughter.

She felt that the current him was quite cute and silly.

The cool him, the gentle him, the cute him… she liked all parts of him.

"I didn't want to cosplay as a female character of my own volition… I'm no trap… I'm no veteran at wearing female clothing…"

Seiji who had collapsed on the sofa was struggling with his mental damage.

What he didn't know was that the president was currently looking at him with an incredibly beautiful and gentle smile.

In the guest room.

The laptop computer screen in front of Mika turned pitch-black, then returned to a normal desktop screen.

Her conversation had just ended.

She didn't get up. Instead, she quietly sat on a chair as she slowly lifted her head to look at the ceiling.

"To become stronger…" she muttered to herself.

That was Grandpa Zhao's wish of her.

Either in love, her hobbies, or her Spiritual Power, she needed to grow, which also meant becoming stronger.

It wasn't a question of whether or not she could do it. She had to do it.

Only this would help her s.h.i.+ne brilliantly.