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I:
Princess
“Good morning, Wakaba-san. Sorry to bother you in the morning, but I have some questions I’d like to ask,” Yukari said calmly.
“About?”
“It’s regarding Seigo’s adopted younger sister, Shika Kagura.”
There was a momentary silence. Then, Chiaki started chuckling.
“About that
 Let me guess, you wanted to ask Seigo out on a date, and you were rejected politely, which led to you learning about her. Am I correct?”
“That’s right,” Yukari admitted directly. “I want to know more regarding her.”
“Why don’t you just ask Seigo directly?” Chiaki suggested. “As long as it’s something he can say, he’ll tell you.”
Yukari fell silent for a moment.
“I want to know about the part that he won’t tell me about.”
“Eh
 this doesn’t seem like the Princess’s way of doing things?” Chiaki raised her voice questioningly.
“I know that this may not be good, but I still want to know. That’s just how I feel,” Yukari said. “But I also know that you won’t tell me, as it’s not for me to know.”
“Then why did you contact me?”
“I want to understand Shika Kagura better, and you’re skilled at seeing through others. I can gather the most information possible from you without having to invade her privacy.”
Chiaki Wakaba was a famous detective
 whoops, outstanding at deductions. Yukari had personally experienced this for herself.
Chiaki would definitely know more about things than Mika would. The prerequisite, of course, was her being willing to tell Yukari.
“Is this praise? Or sarcasm?”
“It’s praise. I’ve personally tasted what it’s like to go up against you, so in this regard, no matter how I personally feel, I’m truly impressed by your deductive abilities.”
“It’s my honor to be praised by the Princess,” Chiaki said with a chuckle. “But why should I tell you anything? Do you think that I’d tell something as important as information about Seigo’s cute adopted younger sister to you just because you praised me a little?”
‘It’s here,’ Yukari said to herself. ‘This is the critical junction—this decides whether or not I can convince this tomboy.’
“Of course I don’t think that. In order to get information from you, I should trade something of equal value. But before that, I’d like to confirm, have you truly given up on Seigo?”
Chiaki fell silent for a moment.
“If you’re not saying that you’ve completely given up, then that probably means that you haven’t. In that case, we can make an alliance against Natsuya Yoruhana.”
“Oh? What are the specifics of this alliance you propose?”
“We’ll help each other out on certain things. For example, as you told me about Shika Kagura this time, next time you can ask me for some information, or request my assistance, or even
 request that I not do a specific thing one time.”
“Oh
? So it’s something along the line of establishing a diplomatic relationship?”
“That’s correct. I believe that this shall be beneficial for both of us, especially when our opponent is someone as strong as President Yoruhana.”
“What a surprise. I never expected the Princess to take such a course of action.”
“I don’t feel like there’s anything bad about what I’m doing, No, I should say that you should be the one who isn’t surprised. You must have guessed that I would do this, otherwise you wouldn’t have given me such a message to begin with, Chiaki Wakaba,” Yukari said in a serious voice.
Chiaki fell silent for another moment, before she chuckled once more.
“I’m beginning to like you even more, Princess. Alright, you’ve convinced me. I’ll tell you about that cute adopted younger sister of his, although I don’t know that much either. In exchange, when I need something from you in the future, please remember your promise.”
“Of course,” Yukari replied. “Since I was the one who brought up the idea of allying, I’ll definitely keep my promise.”
“You sure sound reliable.” Chiaki chuckled and said, “Now then, where should I start? About Shika Kagura
”
The next morning, some time after Yukari called and said that she was on her way, Seiji heard a knock on his door and went to open it.
He saw the purple-haired beauty. She was wearing a dark windbreaker and was holding a bag in her hands.
“Welcome,” he greeted her with a smile.
Yukari smiled as well. “Please excuse my intrusion.”
She handed Seiji a box of confectioneries as she entered, which Seiji accepted politely. He then led her to the living room.
The purple-haired girl took off her windbreaker to reveal a light, elegantly knitted sweater and jeans underneath.
This was what Yukari went with after a lengthy internal debate about what to wear. Although it seemed somewhat plain, her outfit had its own charm.
Her sharp senses noticed Seiji’s eyes pause on her for a moment, and this made her happy. She felt that it was worth spending so long on picking out her clothes.
Seiji helped hang up Yukari’s windbreaker and had her sit down by the kotatsu. He poured a cup of hot tea for her and brought out the desserts that he had prepared.
Yukari looked around her as she accepted the tea.
“My apologies that my living space is rather simple.”
“No
 I think it’s pretty nice. Did you redecorate this place recently?”
“I indeed did some redecorating, albeit only in the living room.”
Yukari stopped looking around and sipped on her tea.
“Where
 is your adopted younger sister, Kagura-san?” she asked casually.
“She’s in her room
” Before Seiji could even finish his sentence, both of them saw the black-haired girl walk out of her room.
This was the second meeting between Yukari Asamiya and Shika Kagura.
Their eyes shot needles at each other as they locked together.
‘She’s
 so beautiful,’ Yukari exclaimed in her mind.
Last time at the bookstore, although she had been intentionally ignoring Shika’s presence, Shika’s beauty had still left her with a deep impression.
Perhaps it was because Shika Kagura was so beautiful—almost ethereal—that Yukari had unconsciously not wanted to pay attention to her. She instinctively felt as if Shika were no mere mortal—or, at the very least, a presence that mortals shouldn’t casually approach.
Or perhaps, it was because Shika was simply too beautiful, so as a fellow girl, she naturally felt distant from her?
Yukari personally believed that as an artist, she was able to objectively assess other girls’ beauty, like she had with Natsuya Yoruhana. Perhaps there were exceptions, though, such as this girl before her. In theory, Shika would make an excellent model, but Yukari had no ideas about desecrating
 no, drawing Shika at all.
“Hello, excuse me for entering. I’m Yukari Asamiya, Seigo
 Harano-san’s schoolmate from a different class.”
“
Hello,” Shika replied lightly before walking to the kotatsu and sitting down by Seiji’s side.
Yukari was rendered somewhat speechless.
“I apologize. She’s
 shy around strangers and isn’t too good at dealing with such situations
” Seiji had an apologetic look on his face.
“No, it’s okay.” Yukari looked towards Seiji, her eyes expressing that she understood.
It was just like what Wakaba-san had told her.
Shika Kagura had an icy cold personality. She preferred to remain distant from others, hardly ever spoke, and hated contact
 Seigo was the only exception.
The best way to deal with her would be to leave her alone, but it definitely didn’t mean that she should be ignored.
Shika Kagura had a deep attachment to Seigo Harano and would likely fiercely counterattack anyone who she viewed as an outsider capable of threatening her position in his heart.
“Before, when you invited Seigo on a date, she was the one who told Mika, and then Mika told me. That is to say, she’s the main cause of your planned date with Seigo failing; she ruined your goal to spend time alone with him.
“Kagura-san is capable of far more than just this. She has a great amount of influence over Seigo. Just the fact that Seigo promised to temporarily not get a girlfriend due to her request is the best evidence of this.
“If it wasn’t for the fact that she’s still rather young and only in middle school, then she would probably be the scariest opponent of all—perhaps even above Natsuya Yoruhana.
“Let me put it this way, if you’re the ‘Princess,’ and President Yoruhana is the ‘Queen,’ then she can be described as the ‘Demon King.'”
Demon King.
Yukari really had to restrain herself from commenting on this nickname that Chiaki used to describe Shika, but she understood what Chiaki was saying.
If she wanted to conquer the “castle” that was Seigo Harano, then she definitely couldn’t ignore the beautiful, ethereal, ice-cold existence beside him, especially when she wielded such great power.
This was her second meeting with the resident “Demon King” of the castle, Shika Kagura!