Though it may have been nothing more than a party in name, this event was being held by the business behemoth Ushio Kitagata, who was Shizuku’s father. The venue was naturally very well attended.

Despite that, it didn’t give the impression of being crowded. There were certainly a lot of people gathered, but—

“This place really is big…”

—the Kitayama mansion it was hosted in was so large it made even Tatsuya give a genuine sigh.

But his impression found no match in those with him. Miyuki simply gave an insincere smile and nodded. Beside her, Minami looked slightly confused, as though she were about to tilt her head. It seemed there was a gap in perception among the three of them stemming from their upbringings—Tatsuya, who oftentimes mingled with “commoners” in the military or laboratories; Miyuki, raised as the next leader (or a candidate) of the Yotsuba; and Minami, who despite being a servant had grown up in the Yotsuba main house since a young age.

The pretext for today’s party was the homecoming of Shizuku, who had finished her short-term study abroad program in the USNA. The party doubled as a grade-advancement celebration. It had been two weeks since she’d returned to Japan, and as for why the party was only happening now, it was because she’d been swamped with having to make the rounds and say hello to people of all sorts.

Shizuku was an honor student at the National Magic University’s First Affiliated High School, a talented magician-in-training in her own right. But she had another face: She was also the daughter of a major business leader. Socially, she actually had to prioritize her standing as a company president’s daughter. In an extreme sense, she possessed a position as a future magician, but with it came added responsibility as the president’s daughter toward her family, employees, stockholders, and clients.

That was why her family (?) party had been pushed to the eve of the new semester.

The Kitayama family comprised five people: father, mother, grandmother, Shizuku, and her little brother. But her father had a younger brother and five sisters—for someone of a wealthy class, a family of that size wasn’t too unusual—and because he’d married late in life, almost all of Shizuku’s cousins were older than she. Over half of them were married and had brought their families with them, while the unmarried came with fiancés and fiancées and those they’d be engaged to in the coming days. That was why the family party had ballooned into such a crowd…and thus the story Tatsuya was currently hearing from Shizuku’s mother:

“Ushio comes from a family of businessmen who have prospered since the last century. I know there are many things he can’t afford to neglect, but…”

Tatsuya nodded along politely with what she was saying, but inwardly he sighed for the tenth time. He didn’t know what her aim was or what she liked about him so much, but as soon as he’d said hello to Shizuku, Benio Kitayama—maiden name Naruse, an A-rank magician who had once been famous for her oscillation-type magic—had accosted him and locked him in as her conversation partner. Miyuki and Minami had already fled to where Shizuku and Honoka were.

“That doesn’t mean I feel right about brazenly bringing total strangers to a private family party. When it comes to business, even my little Ushio is soft on family.”

Still, thought Tatsuya, Shizuku’s mother seems to have a very sharp tongue.

Of course, even though she was a company president’s wife, the business wouldn’t have survived if she let her sharp tongue run loose all the time (though acting that way in the world of riskier business was another story). She probably chose carefully the time, place, and person—but why on earth had she chosen him, someone she’d essentially just met? No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with an answer.

This wasn’t the first time Tatsuya had come across Benio. He’d said hello to her the day Shizuku invited him and Miyuki over to tell them all the information she’d learned in America. But it really had been just a hello. He had no recollection of her ever choosing him to have such a candid conversation with.

“My little Ushio,” huh…? Is it okay for her to call him that, considering these people’s status in society? remarked Tatsuya to himself as he tried to escape reality, fed up already with Benio’s complaining.

Tatsuya knew the ages of Shizuku’s parents. Her father went without saying, but it hadn’t been hard for him to gather personal data on her mother, either, because she had been quite famous in her day. (Still, in an era where personal information was very strictly protected, no normal person would have been able to do it.) Despite the way she referred to her husband, she wasn’t as old as he. Ushio dressed younger than his age, and Benio’s features were appropriate for hers, so at a glance, they didn’t seem to be very far apart. But supposedly, Ushio was actually nine years older.

Must be well loved.

Even in his thoughts, he hesitated to use words like pampered about his friend’s parents.

As though she was satisfied she’d gotten that string of discontent out of her system, Benio’s glare mellowed out. In exchange, of course, she began to look at him as though sizing him up. Sizing up not the total stranger a relative might have brought, but Tatsuya.

He kept a calm expression, but when it came to feeling uncomfortable, Tatsuya was the same as anyone else. He wanted to go back to Miyuki and the others as soon as possible, but Benio didn’t seem about to allow that.

“By the way…”

Before Tatsuya could politely remove himself from the conversation, Benio began again. Despite his desire to be polite with his classmate’s mother, he considered this a most regrettable failure—well, it wasn’t all that serious, but that was how uncomfortable it made him.

For Benio, though, things were getting to the important part now. If Tatsuya had tried to make his escape, she would have found a way to keep him there.

“Would you happen to be the object of little Honoka’s unrequited affections?”

An ambush—but Tatsuya immediately understood what was behind it. Only in hindsight, though. This verbal attack was one he should have predicted.

“Whatever ‘object’ I am aside, yes, something like that.”

Still, he resisted in no small manner simply nodding and saying yes to the “object” part. Maybe it was a trivial hang-up, but it was a small bit of self-assertion that Tatsuya couldn’t yield on.

“You’re not getting flustered. You seem dependable.”

But apparently that oddity only gave him extra points in Benio’s mind. Or maybe she scored him high because he hadn’t tried to lie about it. The smile she was giving him suddenly turned from a formal, courteous one to a friendly one.

“But why didn’t you say yes?”

Still, she might be “friendly” in the sense of a person being friendly toward a pet.

“She may not be as beautiful as your younger sister, but she is cute, isn’t she?”

That being said, this was closer to someone watching a small animal running for its life in a hamster wheel in enjoyment. Tatsuya had skillfully withstood her opening move, but he could see in her eyes anticipation that he would start spinning his wheels.

“I do think she’s cute. Not just in looks, but in personality, too.”

Tatsuya’s attitude was haphazard, but a large part of it was for appearance’s sake. Behind his gaze, which made it hard to know where he was looking, he was very attentively observing Benio for even the slightest change in expression that might clue him in to why she was asking him about this.

“Oh, well…then I understand even less. Her face, body, and personality are all A-plus, but you still turned down her confession.”

Tatsuya didn’t remember saying anything about Honoka’s body, but he rationalized it by assuming Benio probably meant it figuratively. He considered what to say to ignore it, but he didn’t need to.

Because Benio dropped the bomb on him first:

“And she would be a great help. She would serve you faithfully.”

If that wasn’t a bombshell remark, he didn’t know what was. Her words were far too inappropriately serious to be teasing her daughter’s classmate. As a comment from one magician to another, it was indiscreet and imprudent.

A normal magic high school student wouldn’t have known what Benio was talking about. And if someone had understood it and possessed the natural emotions of a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old boy, they wouldn’t have been able to hide discomfort.

But Tatsuya simply looked back at Benio impassively.

Her smile didn’t falter—she really was the wife of a major businessman.

“…Ah. So you know, and yet you can still act like that.”

But evidently, she couldn’t stop her voice from stiffening somewhat.

“I don’t intend to feign ignorance.” Tatsuya’s voice certainly couldn’t be called amiable, either. Whatever Benio’s reasoning was, she should never have delivered that comment. He refused to think he should be cordial with her just because she was his new friend’s mother.

“I see… You know how valuable it would be to use an Element’s power, and your position is to neither accept her nor push her away.”

Honoka’s bloodline—the Elements. She was a descendant of prototype magicians, developed in an attempt to recreate traditional magics, from before the modern magic system of four families and eight types was established. For those in high positions of authority, her blood had much value. Tatsuya knew that, and that was what Benio was commenting on.

The insincere smile fell away from her face. Her stiff voice turned into a hard, cold one. “A calculated move, perhaps?”

Benio didn’t say who or what, but Tatsuya properly understood what the implications were—and that criticism and slander were part of them.

“I have no intent to take advantage of my classmate…”

Still, Tatsuya didn’t back down, nor did he let the aspersion irritate him into arguing with her.

“But you were in her company during the vampire extermination, weren’t you?”

Annoyance crept into Benio’s voice—maybe she thought he was trying to play dumb.

“I didn’t have any reason to leave her out, either.” Tatsuya was keenly aware of how Benio was changing. He would overlook goodwill, but he’d never miss hostility. That was how he was put together. And he was trained not to let any hostility or malice, no matter how strong, disturb him.

Seeing that the blood wasn’t rushing to his head no matter how much she tried to rattle him, she changed the topic. “…Honoka is like a sister to Shizuku. Both Ushio and I treat her the same as a daughter. And Shizuku has taken a liking to you, too. The trust she places in you goes beyond regular friendship.”

Tatsuya returned her gaze, his eyes asking what exactly she was getting at. Any diffidence he’d maintained for her as Shizuku’s mother had vanished at this point.

“So I took it upon myself to investigate you, Tatsuya Shiba.” Benio directed a challenging gaze at him.

“That isn’t very pleasant, but I can understand why.” Tatsuya met it with an undaunted stare of his own.

“Who are you? Even Kitayama’s… Even the cartel’s information network couldn’t get any personal data on you.”

“I think you must be mistaken. If I had no personal data, I wouldn’t have been able to enroll in high school.”

Tatsuya’s answer made sense, but Benio could only see it as splitting hairs.

“You’d do well not to underestimate adults. There is a bare minimum of personal data on you out there. It has an appropriate amount of extra information, and an appropriate amount of negative assessment in it. It’s not overly clean. I’d never asked her anything about you, so I didn’t have any particular doubts.”

“Is there something suspicious in it?”

Tatsuya’s tone in response was inorganic, like a machine’s. His attitude made it seem that he’d seen through her, seen that she wasn’t speaking of any real information or evidence.

“No, there’s nothing suspicious in it. That’s why it’s strange.”

As Shizuku’s mother glared hard at him, Tatsuya looked back without saying anything. His honest-to-goodness feeling was that there was nothing he could say to that. At most, he mused privately (and partly to escape reality), that Shizuku’s mother had a much more fiery temperament than he’d thought.

“Just from what she’s told me, you have the abilities of a prodigy—no, a sheer genius. Now that I’m talking face-to-face with you, I’m growing more and more certain that you’re not a normal person. There is no way your personal data could be that normal.”

Even if Benio’s comments were true, they were no more than guesses. And guesses were something he didn’t acknowledge as necessary to submissively admit to.

“P.D. is just that—data. It’s not the person himself.”

Personal data was a mask, a persona, that allowed for distinction between yourself and others. Even if that persona was completely different from one’s true face, as long as the fact that it was completely different stayed secret, one’s persona could remain on one’s face.

“…Are you trying to tell me it’s only natural it would give me the wrong impression?”

“In terms of who I am, if you’re asking my name or personal history, it’s exactly how it is in my P.D. If you’re asking about the impression I give, it’s as you can see. There’s not much else I can tell you.”

In a way, this was how Tatsuya actually felt. Who was he? Someone who wielded large-scale destruction outclassing the most powerful nuclear weapons of the age, someone who could possibly destroy the world—what was he? Those were the unanswerable questions that oftentimes came to mind.

But Benio didn’t take it like that.

“Are you playing dumb with me…?!”

She was keeping her voice down, but her tone had grown very rough.

Those of elite status, save for certain exceptions, tended to keenly pick up on the shifting of emotions those of equal rank or above showed. The sight of the party’s hostess and a guest arguing was beginning to draw attention from those present.

“Benio, please settle down.”

It was a family party, but not everyone here was completely family. There wasn’t any way being seen like this would be good for her. Her husband’s breaking in to cool things off was the right move.

It seemed Benio hadn’t realized how excited she’d gotten. When Ushio reproved her, she caught herself before responding, surprised.

“Shiba, I apologize for my wife’s rudeness.”

“Not at all—I’m the one who said several forward things. The words of an inexperienced youth, as I’m sure you know, so I hope you will forgive me.”

As Ushio bowed to him, Tatsuya politely returned the apology. It was quite an arrogant thing to say, though—a masterfully scathing backhanded stab.

Fortunately, Ushio didn’t seem to mind Tatsuya’s acting as if it had nothing to do with him. Without creating any more tension, like a tide going out, the other attendees began averting their stares from Tatsuya and Benio.

“If it’s all right with you, I’d like to excuse myself from your presence for a while,” said Tatsuya to Ushio rather than Benio, probably thinking it was a good chance.

“Ah, yes. I’m sure my daughter wants to talk to you.”

Ushio probably figured his wife would need some time to cool down, too. Tatsuya bowed and headed for Shizuku and the others as Ushio put a hand on Benio’s back and led her to a seat near the wall.

“I’m sorry, Tatsuya.”

As soon as Tatsuya got close enough that she wouldn’t have to raise her voice, Shizuku apologized and bowed before he could open his mouth. When she looked up toward him, he could see a little bit of shame in her usually expressionless face, as if she didn’t know where to put herself. Her mother had picked a fight (in Shizuku’s view) with a classmate she’d invited to her party—anyone, not just Shizuku, would definitely have been pretty embarrassed.

“No, I can understand where your mother is coming from. I’d probably worry too if a strange man were close with my daughter. I don’t mind, so you shouldn’t, either.”

“…Okay. Sorry.”

Shizuku refrained from objecting to one thing or another, not because she was quick to change gears (though that aspect wasn’t wholly absent), but because her reticent nature had worked against her. She wanted to apologize about so much more, but she could only manage a couple of words. That overlapped with her embarrassment, and she gave an awkward look.

Tatsuya realized just in time that his right hand was reaching out to pat her on the head. Her being blameless but caring too much and getting down about it reminded him of how Miyuki looked sometimes, making him reflexively use his head-pat response.

He kept his bitter grin at his own carelessness to himself, then smiled a little and shook his head as if to say that the matter was over with.

Shizuku, Honoka, Minami, and Miyuki: a ring of four girls in gorgeous dresses—and one boy in a plain suit and tie among them. Normally this would be the time to start feeling uncomfortable, but Tatsuya didn’t have those nerves. Honoka began talking to Minami out of consideration, with Shizuku pressing the brakes at times so that she didn’t go too far, while Minami gave restrained answers to questions with support from Miyuki. Tatsuya was relegated to watching their conversation proceed as a listener, when suddenly a voice addressed him from behind.

“Umm, you’re Tatsuya Shiba, right?”

Tatsuya turned, but the boy seemed to think he hadn’t heard what he’d said, and when he repeated the question, Tatsuya told him yes.

Tatsuya didn’t need to ask the name of the small boy, who was probably still in elementary school.

“Wataru.”

His name came off Shizuku’s lips.

“Sorry, Sis. Am I getting in the way?”

The boy’s identity had been revealed from his own mouth.

“No, but introduce yourself properly.”

Shizuku, a girl of few words, sounded quite curt, but her eyes were gentle as she looked at her much younger brother.

Wataru knew what he was doing, too, so after doing his best to fix his face to look serious—it was quite heartwarming to see him almost stand on his tiptoes—he gave a proper bow as his sister had told him to.

“I’m Wataru Kitayama. Pleased to meet you. I’ll be in sixth grade this year.”

Wataru introduced himself, turning fully toward Tatsuya. He was already in a relationship that could be called friendly with Honoka, so it could be called only natural that he wouldn’t look in her direction for a greeting. However, he didn’t turn to look Miyuki’s way—evidently so that he wouldn’t get (too) excited. As Miyuki was returning the introduction once Tatsuya was done, the boy looked away slightly, clenched his teeth, and put his strength into his whole body, so there was little doubt.

It was clear he didn’t hate her and that he wasn’t trying to ignore her, so Miyuki only found Wataru’s attitude charming. However, Minami didn’t seem able to prevent her own displeasure at the lack of manners shown toward her mistress.

“It is an honor to meet you, Master Wataru. I am Minami Sakurai, Big Brother Tatsuya and Big Sister Miyuki’s cousin. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Minami’s behavior was excusably courteous, but in it one could glimpse the emptiness of a businessman’s smile. It wasn’t quite offensive politeness, but it certainly still felt like empty politeness.

The one who moved to dispel the uncomfortable air about to drift in was Honoka.

“Wataru, didn’t you have something you wanted to ask Tatsuya?”

Still, it wasn’t a forced change of topic. Wataru had indeed been acting as if he wanted to ask Tatsuya something earlier.

“Oh, right.”

Wataru’s attention immediately focused on Honoka, which seemed less like a reaction to the mood and more just an expression of his age.

“Shiba…”

There were two Shibas here, but nobody misunderstood which one Wataru had addressed, nor was there anyone who would purposely interrupt what he was saying—Minami included.

“There’s something I’d like to ask you,” Wataru continued, managing not to choke on his words, his nervousness apparent.

“Sure, if it’s something I can answer,” replied Tatsuya in a familiar tone.

“Umm, well, can you still become a magical engineer even if you can’t use magic?”

The question itself was nothing strange, but coming from the son and heir of the Kitayama family, it sounded odd. In fact, Shizuku and Honoka both gave surprised looks.

“I’d say no. Magical engineers are technical experts with magic faculties. A technician who can’t use magic wouldn’t be called a magical engineer.”

But Tatsuya didn’t even pause, much less struggle to answer.

“Oh…”

Wataru’s shoulders drooped. But it was still too soon for him to feel down.

“Of course, magical engineers aren’t the only technical experts in engineering fields related to magic.”

“Huh?”

As Wataru looked up at him hopefully, Tatsuya gazed down with a calm smile. Wataru’s eyes sparkled with anticipation as he waited for the next words.

“You can still study magical engineering without being able to use magic.”

Tatsuya didn’t affect a pompous, self-important air. He might have been a bad person, but that didn’t mean he was callous—at least, not if you asked him, anyway.

“It’s difficult to tune CADs if you don’t have a magical sense, but you can create them even without magic. The same goes for other products with magical technology in them. If you study hard, you should be able to learn what you need to and acquire the skills to help your sister out.”

“I—that wasn’t what I was…”

However much he denied it, the embarrassment on his face made his true intentions clear.

And the look he was giving Tatsuya also switched from caution and fear toward a strange adult (from an elementary school kid’s point of view, high schoolers were adults) to respect mixed with aspiration.

The adults, unfortunately, were unable to adopt the same innocent attitude as the children.

As she watched the siblings, both now attached to Tatsuya, from afar, Benio began to feel like heaving an excessive sigh.

“What could be the matter, Benio?”

Even when Ushio, sounding worried, addressed her, Benio’s expression was too fixed in its sigh-stifling state for her to reply. All she did was glance at her husband after he’d said it, then return her gaze quickly to the children having a pleasant chat.

“What on earth rubs you the wrong way about Tatsuya Shiba?”

Ushio Kitayama was a loving husband, but he wasn’t henpecked. Actually, certain parts of him might be better described as submissive, but their relationship was not one where he couldn’t air what he wanted to say.

“…Ushio dear, you seem to like him quite a bit,” she said, finally looking at her husband directly.

“I think the kid has a lot of promise. Above all, he’s talented.”

Ushio’s answer was straightforward—or, put more negatively, utterly frank.

Benio felt a reflexive burst of emotion, but she didn’t lash out at him in hysterics. “…He’s too talented.”

But her tone of voice revealed that she was straining to clamp down on those emotions, betraying her mental state as a far cry from cool and composed.

“And he knows about too much, and he understands too much. Even the direct descendants of the Ten Master Clans don’t feel this heavily guarded to me.”

Finally, a sigh escaped her lips. The doubts she cradled would have gone unspoken otherwise.

“For magicians, being too talented isn’t a fortunate thing. It could even be something that puts you farther away from fortune. Thankfully, Shizuku is only talented. But if she’s close to a magician who is too talented, she could be wrapped up in the misfortune that too much power can draw.”

Ushio couldn’t laugh off his wife’s words as indicating overthinking. Instead, he put a hand on her shoulder. “If you’re right and Tatsuya Shiba does draw misfortune—he wouldn’t bear the blame, right? I wouldn’t appreciate you avoiding him because of an uncertain future he has no responsibility for. If his strength does invite misfortune and it seems like Shizuku will get wrapped up on it, it falls to us to get rid of the misfortune. They don’t call me a tycoon for nothing. You can be sure I’ll protect my family at the very least.”

Benio nodded to her husband’s firm affirmation, finally not arguing.

But it still didn’t seem she was truly convinced.

It wasn’t clear whether it was because of powers too great, but Tatsuya certainly had a tendency—or perhaps character—to summon trouble. Even now, a sort of trouble was sneaking up on him as he had a pleasant conversation with Shizuku’s younger brother.

“Shizuku, I haven’t seen you in so long.”

A young man who looked to be in his midtwenties came up and began casually speaking to Shizuku. He came off as frivolous, but he had good looks. He didn’t seem tawdry, at least. Shizuku simply returned a bow to him, so Tatsuya didn’t know his name, but from the familiar mood, he must have been one of Shizuku’s older cousins.

But Shizuku and Wataru both seemed confused when they saw the young woman standing at his side. She looked about the same age as the man. She had very good looks, but her dress and accessories were conscious of the occasion, so nothing about her appearance offered any outlandishness. The questioning expressions on Shizuku’s and Wataru’s faces indicated that the beauty was not any family member the two of them knew.

“Oh! I’m actually getting married this year. To her,” explained the young man a little hurriedly as Shizuku and Wataru looked at him.

“You’re engaged? Congratulations,” said Shizuku, offering conventional regards for the situation.

“Yeah. Actually, we haven’t gotten the engagement ring yet.” The young man scratched his head, slightly embarrassed.

As Tatsuya looked on, reflecting that he seemed quite like a normal boy for someone who was a Kitayama extended family member, the beauty making a display of herself beside him noticed his gaze and offered him a friendly smile.

This time it was Tatsuya’s turn to look confused. Miyuki immediately picked up on the change, looking to him, eyes asking what was the matter. She looked over to where Tatsuya was gazing.

When she realized what was going on, she probably would have bristled up to her eyebrows, but before she could, the woman began to speak—not to Tatsuya, but to the most important person of the day, Shizuku.

“It’s nice to meet you, Shizuku. I’m Maki Sawamura. I’m quite pleased to make your acquaintance.”

To Tatsuya, the short self-introduction felt like it wasn’t due to a reserved personality unused to preening, but rather to a belief that everyone would know who she was without her having to explain.

As if to confirm his deduction, Honoka, who introduced herself after Shizuku and Wataru, asked her a question, her voice a little giddy. “Umm, Miss Sawamura—are you the famous actress Maki Sawamura? The one who was nominated for Best Actress in a Lead Role in the Pan-Pacific Cinema Awards for A Midsummer’s Ice Drift?”

“Oh, you watched that old thing?” replied Maki Sawamura, still smiling elegantly—though a little bit of pride was mixed in.

“I thought so! I saw it in the theater. You were wonderful!”

“Heh-heh. Thank you very much.”

Tatsuya didn’t watch many movies, but he knew the title A Midsummer’s Ice Drift. He remembered the movie as having been quite the topic the previous summer. Judging by Honoka’s attitude, it must have been an interesting film. At least interesting enough to make her go to the theater instead of watching the VOD (video on demand), which was mainstream these days.

The conversation had included that she’d been nominated for an international film award, so she must be a famous actress. Once he knew that much, his interest in her faded. He never had any interest in the entertainment world anyway, and there would be a lot of negatives, given his position, if he were to become acquainted with a celebrity who got so much media attention. He knew it was rude to Honoka, who was quite excited, but he wondered if she’d go away to some other guests soon.

Unfortunately for him, though, the situation moved in a direction he’d rather it hadn’t.

“I apologize if I’m wrong, but…” She trailed off as though about to ask a question—of Tatsuya and Miyuki, who were standing off a bit behind the group. “Would you happen to be Miyuki and Tatsuya Shiba?”

The siblings were both experienced enough not to let any dismay show, but they were both caught off guard, though to different degrees.

He took a step forward to block Miyuki from moving up and introducing herself, then stood directly in front of Maki. “We are. You’ll have to excuse me—have we met before?”

Maki’s answer didn’t clash with Tatsuya’s memory. “No, this is the first we’ve met.”

Then why? asked Tatsuya wordlessly, only to have Maki reveal her hand quite easily:

“He showed me the Nine School Competition broadcast. Since Shizuku was in it.” He obviously referred to her fiancé, who had been standing next to her the whole time. “It struck me how picture-perfect the two of you are.”

Maki lowered her voice so that Shizuku, who was talking to Maki’s fiancé, wouldn’t hear. Tatsuya decided it was so Shizuku wouldn’t wrongly take her praising Miyuki as an implicit smirching of Shizuku. She brought her face closer to theirs as she quieted herself, though, so maybe she had a different intent. Tatsuya had no obligation to respond to whatever it was.

“Do you think so? My sister aside, I wouldn’t think I’d be very picturesque.”

He spoke to her casually in consideration of where they were and whom he was talking to. His attitude was even more aloof than it had been with Shizuku’s parents.

Miyuki was staying silent under a mask of propriety for the same reasons as her brother. They both instinctively sensed something shady about Maki.

“You’re very modest. I’m not the only one who thinks you two each possess beauty. My friends all thought the same way.”

After that, Maki listed the names of several actors and movie directors, but unfortunately, Tatsuya didn’t know who a single one of them was.

“Oh, I know! Do you have plans this weekend? If you can make it, I’d like to invite you to our salon.”

Maki invited Tatsuya with an alluring smile. As she affected a pure air with an innocent expression, sex appeal began to worm its way onto her face as though trying to catch him in a net. It was a move that was fully appropriate for such a young and famous actress.

In all honesty, Tatsuya felt interested. At a glance, the celebrity had nothing to do with magic. What did she want from him? He couldn’t help but wonder. He didn’t believe for a second the nonsense about his appearance having attracted her. The light in Maki Sawamura’s eyes was more thoughtful than that.

“I appreciate the offer, but I’ll have to decline.”

His answer, though, was refusal. His tone was polite, but the will he imparted to his voice left no room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation.

“Oh, I see.”

For an instant, something akin to anger rippled through Maki’s eyes, but an instant later, not even its shadow remained—a testament to her skills.

“In that case, Miss Miyuki…would you be interested in coming alone?”

This time, she directed a smooth smile at his sister. Her previous smile had intimated womanhood, while this one prevented any excessive femininity. She knew what smile to use when. Maybe her acting skills were the real deal.

“My brother has already declined, so I could never intrude on you by myself.”

Miyuki’s response was an immediate refusal, too.

It left Maki with no foothold whatsoever. She looked taken aback. While she was trying to recover her pace, Tatsuya and Miyuki each made a bow, his curt and hers elegant, and walked away toward the food table.

Minami, who had been watching them privately so as not to rouse attention, followed them. She glanced back quickly. Maki had been watching Tatsuya leave with a harsh look, but now she hastily turned away.

As though he’d misunderstood the look she was giving off, her (self-professed) fiancé, who had been talking to Shizuku, returned to her side. Maki welcomed him back with a comfortable smile in which not a trace of ire or unrest remained.