/
If Seiji attempted to, he could probably devise some excuse to fool them, but he preferred to tell the truth.
Telling the truth simplified everything. Chiaki and Mika left the store and met up with Seiji outside the entrance before they all left the Grand Spring department store together.
“My apologies…”
“You don’t have to apologize for anything. I only feel awkward about not purchasing anything after trying on so many clothes. I feel bad for the store.” Chiaki shrugged as she glanced at Seiji.
“Are you alright, Seiji?” Mika sent him a concerned look.
Seiji smiled at the duo reassuringly.
“I’m fine. I was just slightly shocked at seeing her so unexpectedly. Fortunately, I happened to be outside the store at the time, so she didn’t notice me. Otherwise, that could’ve turned bad, haha…”
Chiaki and Mika stared at him silently.
Seiji slowly retracted his smile as a complex emotion appeared in his eyes.
“I still haven’t… prepared myself mentally to face her. It hasn’t been long since I changed myself, nor have I accomplished anything of note. I’ll continue working hard and face her properly when I feel like I’m ready.”
Seiji looked off into the distance with a contemplative expression.
A hand slowly rose up and heartily slapped him on his back.
“Honestly, you were hiding such a beautiful older sister! When you return, and you reconcile with her and your younger sister, you have to introduce us!” Chiaki grinned as she spoke. “Don’t you agree, Mika?”
Mika hurriedly nodded.
“Seiji… You’ll definitely be able to repair your relationship with them, so be more spirited!” The pigtailed girl raised her fist in a cheering motion in an attempt to uplift Seiji’s mood.
Seiji smiled gratefully at the pair. “Thank you, guys.”
They walked down the street wordlessly for a minute.
“By the way, Seiji…” Chiaki broke the silence.
“Hm?”
“Who was the girl by your sister’s side?”
“I don’t know her. Perhaps she was her… friend?” Midway through his sentence, Seiji suddenly recalled the fact that the green-haired girl had addressed his sister as “Milady.”
“What’s with that uncertain tone of yours?”
“It’s also possible that she could be my sister’s subordinate.”
“Subordinate!?” Chiaki and Mika widened their eyes in amazement.
“Hey, hey, your sister’s status seems to be rather special?” Chiaki recalled the discussions she had overheard from the other customers in the store. “Is your sister a true scion!? Then… are you actually a rich young master!?”
Seiji blinked in response.
“Yep, it would seem so,” he answered affirmatively.
Chiaki and Mika both froze over. The duo were dumbstruck and simply stood there in astonishment, staring at him blankly.
“What’s up with you guys?”
“What did you say…? Think about what you just said!!”
“What I said? All I did was answer your question.”
“That’s the problem!” Chiaki retorted forcefully. “You… you just acknowledged being a rich young master!?”
“Hmm… Probably.”
“What’s with that ‘probably!?’ Explain in more detail!”
Seiji rubbed his chin.
“It’s like this… My family seems to be quite powerful with an ancient history. However, this was just something I recently heard from someone else. Before that, I was oblivious of my family’s prestigious identity. After all, the original me was nothing but a NEET. I only knew how to ask my family for money, and I had little interest in their affairs.”
Chiaki and Mika were rendered speechless as they listened to his explanation.
What the hell!?
‘There’s actually this type of person in real life! He had no knowledge regarding his own family’s identity!?’
‘He only became aware of his family’s status after being exiled and hearing it from somebody else…? Heavens! How could such an abnormal person exist!!?’
The two girls failed to halt the unending stream of mental comments that rushed into their minds.
Seiji awkwardly scratched his face upon seeing the strange expressions on the girls’ faces.
“This isn’t really a big deal. Why are you making a mountain out of a molehill?”
“It’s a really big deal!!!” Mika and Chiaki exclaimed together.
“Mika… Chiaki…”
“I really want to beat this guy up right now! How about you?”
“What a coincidence! Me too~”
Chiaki and Mika cackled maliciously in unison after exchanging glances. Seiji noticed some dark emotions that he’d never previously witnessed were glittering in their eyes as they rushed at him!
“You… idiot!!!”
The girls vented all their frustration on him.
A minute later.
“Are your hands okay?” Seiji calmly asked the two girls.
“Damn it, it still hurts… Just why is your body so ridiculously strong, you idiot!”
Chiaki rubbed her hand as she complained. Beside her, Mika also massaged her hand as she nodded in agreement.
“You guys were the ones who suddenly attacked me! Why is it my fault?”
Seiji mentally sighed. He felt as if it was impossible to reason with them sometimes.
“Why is the nature of my background important? Why do you guys care about it?”
Chiaki and Mika exchanged glances again before sighing together.
“Mika, Seiji is still a boy in the end.”
“Chiaki, boys are definitely all idiots.”
“You guys are suddenly looking down on all boys because of me…” Seiji was in a state of disbelief.
“That’s because you’re definitely an idiot. Hmph, you failed to comprehend the basic fact that rich young masters are the modern-day version of princes for us girls.”
Chiaki sighed deeply and took a melancholic pose as if she was the main character of a shoujo manga.
“Just the words ‘rich young master’ can cause endless fantasies to sprout in a girl’s heart. As well as being a descendant of a well-known family, they’re handsome and cool, young and rich, gentlemanly, forceful yet gentle, and spoil us yet toy with other girls’ hearts, making us love and hate them at the same time.”
“We’ll become filled with indecision; we’ll be unable to discard them or figure out the proper relationship to have with them, knowing it’s difficult to make him commit and settle down. However, even after considering this, we still can’t make up our minds to leave him… and so on. At any rate, it’s a fantasy for us girls similar to how you guys might dream about princesses or ladies from proper families. However, girls are more emotional than boys are, so we’re more imaginative than boys, and our fantasies will be deeper and more complex.”
Mika’s face was tinged with a hint of red as she nodded in understanding while listening to Chiaki’s explanation.
“I’m sorry, but I still don’t completely understand.” Seiji rubbed his chin: “I now realize that you have unrealistic fantasies towards this concept, but what else?”
“You still don’t understand!?” Chiaki placed her arms on her hips, now taking a frustrated pose. “You’ve been hanging out with us up until now. Apart from being slightly too handsome and rather outlandishly strong, you’ve always been just like a commoner in your eating and dressing habits. You’re also an otaku, so it’s too much for us to cope with when you suddenly proclaim that you’re a rich young master! It’s too difficult to believe that you’re a fantasy so many girls wholeheartedly believe in! It’s just as if me or Mika suddenly told you that we were princesses from another country or even alien princesses that have fled to this planet in order to escape our marriages! Wouldn’t you be shocked!? Wouldn’t you care!?”
“Well… of course I’d be shocked and I would care, if that was the case.” Seiji looked directly into their eyes. “But I don’t know whether it’s your analogy, which doesn’t work too well on an otaku like me, or perhaps my way of thinking is just too abnormal to begin with, I still feel… Even if that was the case, our friendship with each other wouldn’t change, would it?”
“Eh?” Chiaki and Mika were stunned for the umpteenth time today.
“Whether it’s me that’s a rich young master, or if you two were rich young ladies or alien princesses or whatever, it’s still all the same to me: our friendship wouldn’t change, right?”
Chiaki and Mika were lost for words as they mutely stared Seiji’s calm, forthright expression.
“At least for me, I wouldn’t believe I differed from you even if I was a rich young master. I’ve always treated you two as important to me—both before I discovered my identity, and after I discovered my identity as well.”
A gentle smile suffused across Seiji’s face.
“So that’s why something like that… isn’t important—don’t you agree?”
In conjunction with his brilliant smile, Seiji’s heartfelt words, spoken under the brightly lit night sky, left a deep, lasting impression in the two girls’ hearts.
‘Ahh—honestly.’
‘This person, he really is…’
After regaining their senses, Chiaki and Mika exchanged glances once more, and they instantly knew that their thoughts were exactly the same!
‘He’s an idiot!’
‘But he really is a modern-day prince as well…’