EPISODE 3

LET’S CURSE BIG SIS!

“All right, today I’m going to splurge on the most expensive tomatoes. I hope you’re ready for this!”

“Yeah…”

“I’ll make more tomato consommé soup than I usually do. You can have as much as you want.”

“Yeah…”

“Hey, are you terminally ill or something? What’s wrong?”

Despite all the tomatoes he purchased at Freshmart Warakia, Shiren was still in low spirits.

She would typically get all excited and say something like, Excellent, minion! I shall offer you praise! But unusually, she didn’t look like she was having much fun.

“Great… Yaaay, tomatoes.”

“You must be seriously ill.”

There was a problem if anyone thought she was happy like this.

“Okay, here’s a question: Explain Zoroastrianism.”

“It is a religion established by Zoroaster in ancient times… Fire is considered holy… It sees this world as the battleground between the holy lord Ahura Mazda and the angry spirit Angra Mainyu… The scripture is called Avesta… Other religions such as Manichaeism were established due to its influence… There are people who still follow this faith in India and other places today…”

“That was one hundred percent correct. You are ill.”

Shiren normally wouldn’t be able to answer that. She was taking makeup classes for just about all her subjects.

But she was perfectly energetic not that long ago, so she doesn’t seem sick…

Still a little uneasy, they returned home to their run-down house on the castle grounds.

“I’m tired… Sigh, I don’t feel like doing anything. Nothing at all…”

Even once they got home, Shiren collapsed on the living room couch like a seal.

But that might have given her a bit of energy back.

“I understand you don’t want to do anything, but you have more makeup classes tomorrow, so maybe you should study a—”

“NOCANDO”

“How did you just say no with new embellishments?!”

“Ryouta. If you make me study, then I won’t be me anymore. My identity would crumble.”

“I’m okay with leaving that part of your identity by the wayside.”

He thought it was unusual for someone to resist studying this much.

“People usually do things they need to do when they’re cornered.”

“I’m not cornered yet at all.”

“Just study.”

“Ryouta, do not use that word in front of me. I’m busy right now; I have plenty of other things that I need to think about. Oh, busy, busy, so very busy, busy, busy.”

Someone who was actually busy wouldn’t repeat the word so many times.

“Then what do you have to think about?”

“Urgh…” Shiren cradled her head. This was definitely the pose of someone in a predicament. “Hey, Ryouta………………………………………………………I want to check something with you.”

It sounded like she was having a lot of trouble asking.

“Sure, what is it?”

“The entire population of heaven and earth all know that you, right now, are my minion.”

“How much do you need to emphasize it? Sure, yeah, I’ll acknowledge that.”

“And your first crush was………………………………………………………my big sis, right?”

There was no doubt about it. It was embarrassing having someone say it straight to his face, but there was no doubt about it.

“Well, y-yeah.” He nodded slowly.

Everything was true up until that point. There was nothing there for him to refute.

Shiren wouldn’t confirm the truth without a reason, of course. That was why what came next was important.

“So what do you want to ask?”

Once she broached the topic, she must have some kind of question about it.

“We’re…having hamburg steak for dinner tonight, right?”

“Don’t change the topic. Ten out of fifteen people would think you were skirting the issue.”

“Who was the mastermind behind the assassination of the third Kamakura shogunate, Minamoto no Sanetomo?”

“You only ever talk about Japanese history when you want to avoid the subject.”

“Ahem, ahem.”

Shiren made a deliberate cough.

“Then…………………………………………………………………………do you like anyone right now?”

“………”

“………”

An uncomfortable silence fell over them.

They say that silence is golden and that eloquence is silver, but silence right now was terrible.

“Nah, not really right now…”

It was probably better that he responded like that for the moment. He hadn’t really considered anyone as a serious crush. He’d had way too many weird encounters to be able to think clearly.

“Really…? Big Sis is your classmate now…………………………………………………………………………………………………… What about that?”

“What about what?”

“I mean, like, did you have a sudden revelation that you like her after all or something.”

Shiren seemed very uncomfortable with this topic.

“Well, I say ‘first crush,’ but that was back in elementary school… It was such a long time ago, so I think there might be some distance now…”

Nothing he’d said was a lie. He was repeating himself now, but he had been in way too many weird encounters for him to think clearly about Ouka. And since she was the emperor now, there were a lot of problems regarding status…

“You don’t have to hold back, you know?”

“Ha-ha-ha, who do I need to hold back from?”

“Y-yeah, you’re right… Well, I was just wondering, you know, just a bit…”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha.”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha.”

This was awkward…

“Well, I guess I better get started on dinner. We’re having hamburg steak tonight, and that takes a little while.”

Ryouta withdrew with his excuse.

What did he think of Ouka?

Ryouta pondered this as he washed the mountain of tomatoes.

He didn’t hate her, that was for sure. But he didn’t know if he still liked her after all this time…

All he could say was I don’t know. That answer made him feel like a politician trying to hide a bribery scandal, but he just didn’t know.

Maybe if it had been only a year or two of separation, his crush on her would have rekindled. But it had been almost seven years. That was a long time.

And if he really did like her, then he might have moved in with her as a royal minion when he could. But he chose to continue living with Shiren. Of course, that would have happened only if there were various other factors at play, too.

In conclusion, he didn’t know what he didn’t know.

He suddenly felt someone looking at him.

“Shiren?”

No, it wasn’t Shiren. It wasn’t like there was anyone else in the kitchen anyway.

“I guess I’m tired… Stay calm, stay calm… Cooking comes from the heart, and an agitated heart will affect the flavor of the food…”

That was mostly true.

“Ryouta, this hamburger is rather sweet.”

“Are you nitpicking my seasoning…? Wow, that is sweet.”

It was embarrassingly so for him.

“Wait, don’t tell me you mistook the sugar for the salt?”

“Hey, that’s a mistake for people who really suck at cooking… But I guess I did.”

He cooled his head as he did the dishes. His concentration had definitely been interrupted as he was thinking. That was the only reason! But conversely, that meant he had been so deep in thought…

If he had stayed in touch with Ouka, then seeing her again surely wouldn’t have left him reeling.

But there had been way too many weird encounters before their reunion. Yeah, all the weird encounters…

Both Tamaki and Alfoncina had drank his blood, he’d made Sasara drink it, he already knew Kiyomizu so she didn’t matter, and he was now living with Shiren.

“Huh…?”

He felt someone’s eyes on him again—Shiren was approaching. She had probably come for some tea.

“Shiren, were you staring at me?”

“What are you talking about?”

“It felt like someone was watching me…”

“Aren’t you just tired?”

“I’m not. It’s your imagination. You need to get back to normal, too.”

They just needed to refresh themselves a bit.

“I’m going to take my bath a little early today.”

“Okay. I have to read the manga Big Sis lent me, so I’ll take a bath later. I really want to read the new volumes of It’s Me, Basho Matsuo, and I’m Tired of Haiku and Elena the Sea Slug.”

“You still haven’t given them back…? You’re way too into manga, by the way.”

Ryouta decided he was going to take a soak in hot water and refresh his mind.

When he was done washing the dishes, he took his change of clothes and headed to the bathroom. And Shiren was reading manga on the couch. Did she know she had makeup lessons the next day?

When he entered the changing area before the bath, the first thing he did was lock the door. He had to be careful of these things, since he was living with a girl. After that, he got undressed.

The light in the bathroom was already on. Maybe he’d forgotten to turn it off when he filled the bath earlier. It wasn’t very good for the environment, but it wasn’t an unusual thing to forget.

“All right, let’s get back on track! Tomorrow, I’ll go straight to Ouka’s without any unnecessary thoughts!”

From here on out, he would do his best to relax. Even if it was just for half an hour, he would pretend to be royalty.

And then he whipped the door open with great gusto—

And there was Alfoncina in the bath, for some reason.

“Oh, I hope you don’t mind that I got in before you.”

“…I’m confused.”

He’d just seen her breasts and a whole lot more, hadn’t he? No, everything was covered with bubbles, so he was safe. Yep, he was calling this one safe.

“Oh, I’ll let you use it in a moment, so hold on, would you?”

Alfoncina held the showerhead above her to wash herself off.

“Wait! Just wait! Let me explain! Actually wait, why are you in our bathtub? Why are you here, period?”

He would just talk facing the wall for now. He was looking at the wall. Just the wall. Wall, wall, wall.

“Oh, well, I thought Shiren might be at the end of her rope, so I decided I should give her some advice. And I just happened to use the bath (without permission) while I was here.”

“Your house is definitely bigger than ours, so why don’t you just use your own…?”

“If I hugged you now, she would get mad, wouldn’t she?”

“I hope you get excommunicated.”

This holy woman was way too wild.

“I’ll just…leave…”

Honestly, this was a tremendous shock. This might even become a source of trauma for him.

“If you suddenly pounced on me and yelled, would she get mad?”

“The whole house would come down, so please stop!”

It goes without saying, but he couldn’t bathe.

Shiren was—as one would expect—reading manga on the couch in the living room.

“Shiren, let me say this again, but you have makeup lessons tomorrow. Get to studying.”

“Studying? …Pfft. I might have time to read manga, but I have no time to study.”

“You need to take your life more seriously.”

If she hadn’t been his master, then he probably would’ve knocked her upside the head.

“Well, if you want a real response, I did open my textbooks to check what I didn’t know beforehand but I didn’t know any of it so I didn’t know what parts I didn’t know so I threw my hands up in defeat and I think I almost cried.” Shiren raised both her hands in a casual admission of surrender. “To be honest, I thought I’d understand just a little more. I thought I just wasn’t trying my best and that if I put a little more effort into it, I’d get, like, a sixty or something. But I didn’t even understand ten percent of it.”

Her eyes really were brimming with tears.

“Yeah, I sort of understand how you feel, but all the same, I wonder what you should do… I can’t really say I totally understand what’s going on in class, either…”

It was more like he couldn’t study in an environment like that. Kiyomizu’s face was always right in front of him, he had Ouka and Shiren on either side, and he could feel Sasara’s bloodlust coming from behind him. If he could concentrate under those circumstances, then he could probably reach enlightenment and start a new religion.

“Oh, right, Alfoncina was just here, so why don’t you have her teach you…?”

“Alfoncina is smart, but it’s because she’s so smart that she’s not really good at teaching the hopeless. You know how it goes— Wait, hopeless?! Me?!”

“Hey, you’re just defeating yourself!”

Thirty minutes later.

“Phew~. What a lovely bath! Coffee milk just after a bath is simply divine!”

Alfoncina was drinking her coffee-flavored milk in the kitchen, which meant the bath would be open. Ryouta hadn’t bought milk in a bottle like that, so maybe she’d brought it with her just for this moment.

“Then I’ll be heading into the bath. Oh, and please don’t try to come in while I’m in there.”

“Awww~. You don’t trust me?”

She was the type to do something like that with a straight face, so he had to give her a warning.

He could finally take his relaxing bath.

The light was still on in the bathroom. Alfoncina had probably forgotten to turn it off.

“Sheesh, she could have at least turned off the lights. The powerful sure don’t care about the environment at all.”

This electricity bill was coming out of the Fuyukura household wallet, after all. To put it bluntly, it was hard to believe a member of the royal family would be living in relative poverty.

“All right! Now I can finally relax! I’m gonna relax, whether they like it or not!”

And then, when he opened the door—

For some reason, Sasara was washing herself.

“Hmm-hmm~ Lady Ouka~ Lady Ouka~. We’ll rendezvous till the ends of the earth. We’ll have our affair at the ends of the universe. I love you from the bottom of my heart. Oh, Lady Ouka, mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah~. ”

“Song for Lady Ouka.” Words and lyrics by Sasara Tatsunami.

“Oh, Lady Ouka, mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah~. Oh, Shiren, you’re here to bathe with m— What?”

When their eyes met, both Ryouta and Sasara totally froze.

They both felt like they had just seen something they shouldn’t have.

“Wh-why are you…here…?”

“I had something to deliver to Shiren from Lady Ouka (slap), so I decided (wham) to take a bath while I was here (squish).”

* The sound effects were of Sasara beating someone up.

“Don’t beat me up in the middle of a casual conversation! And you keep hitting me straight in my ribs!”

“But I need to knock you out quickly and give you amnesia; otherwise, my purity—”

“Stop! I kind of get how you feel, but you’re turning our bath red!”

In fact, he was doing the opposite of forgetting; he was catching glimpses and peeks here and there while she was whaling on him, so he honestly wanted her to stop moving. He stayed quiet because he thought she might actually kill him if he said anything.

But of course, even though her body was well toned from working as a swordsman, not everything was flat. Well, if he said that, she would definitely say, Would you rather go to the afterlife or the afterlife? Or would you prefer the afterlife? so he kept quiet.

“You guys seriously need to bathe in your own homes… Okay, I’m leaving!”

Just as he whirled around, she grabbed his arm from behind.

“Wait just a moment. I have something important we need to discuss.”

“What could you possibly want now…?”

“………Did you see?”

He did. “I didn’t.”

“………You saw, didn’t you?”

He sure did. “I didn’t.”

If he accidentally swapped his inner and outer voices like an idiot, death would be in his immediate future, so he managed to lie about it.

No one had specified what he had seen, but he understood what she meant. In a way, they were great communicators.

“Lying will be of no benefit to you.”

“I didn’t.”

“A-answer honestly. You really didn’t see? Like, m-my boobs or anything?”

He’d seen them clear as day. He had no idea she’d have such a great figure. If he told her she looked much slimmer in her clothes, she’d kill him.

“I didn’t.”

“Did you see?”

“I didn’t.”

“You saw, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t.”

“Did you think they were rather on the large side?”

“Yes, I thought they were— No, no, I didn’t see anything!”

“F-fine, I don’t mind. You don’t have to leave. Why don’t you go ahead and use the bath?”

What?

He had expected their argument wouldn’t lead anywhere (well, except maybe the bath), but things took a strange turn at the end there…

“It would be much too rude of me to use someone else’s bath and then chase the owner out of their own house. That would be unacceptable for me as someone of the Tatsunami household. I suppose it’s all right as long as you didn’t see anything. A-and there is something important I need to talk to you about!”

“Oh… That wasn’t about if I saw anything?”

“That is inconsequential! I mean, it is not entirely inconsequential, but we are finished talking about that! We’re moving on to the next topic!”

If she said that much, then he couldn’t ignore her anymore.

He removed his clothes, wrapped a towel around his waist, briefly rinsed himself off, and then soaked in the tub.

But he spent the entire time staring at the tiles.

Sasara said she had something important to talk about, but she just silently washed herself. This was incredibly awkward, and her behavior was making everything even worse.

Just as Ryouta was about to ask what she wanted to talk about, she finally spoke.

“So who is it you like?”

Her straightforward question struck right to the point.

“Well, I really hope that we reach an era where everyone in the world loves one another. I hope war will one day be a thing of the past.”

“Keep joking around and I will stab you.”

“It’s not funny when a knight says it!”

The sound of the shower echoed throughout the bathroom. For a brief moment, he caught a glimpse of silver hair that glinted like a needle.

“I will ask you again. Who is it you like? Well, I suppose you don’t have to say it’s me. But if you do not come to a straight answer on the inside, things won’t go well for you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It may lead to a fight between sisters.”

“A…fight…?”

He had a feeling that would happen. Shiren and Ouka had been constantly bickering these past few days.

And he wondered if one of the reasons for that was himself.

“Hey, let me be honest with you. I don’t know if I like anyone. I mean, I’ve only been in this country for a little over two weeks. It’s been, like, ten days since I reunited with Ouka. I’m still just trying to get used to life here…”

There was a pause before Sasara responded.

“I see. Then…does that mean anyone has a chance?”

“If by ‘chance’ you mean ‘a chance with me,’ then yeah, I guess.”

“Oh, I’m entering the bath now, so please move over.”

He was about to protest, but he was too slow.

They were facing away from each other, of course, but their backs were still touching…

“What on Earth are you thinking?”

“Oh, well, I’m not finished talking to you, and if I stay here chatting naked, then I might catch a cold. Oh, let me ask you one more thing, Ryouta Fuyukura.”

“Uh, okay, what is it?”

He was insanely nervous with just their backs against each other. Even though the water wasn’t that hot, he felt dizzy. It was tough enough to control himself.

“You mentioned that you didn’t know who you liked. But what would you do if someone said they liked you?”

“Honestly, I’ve never thought about it.”

He felt an intense desire to kill radiating from her, so he immediately supplemented his reply with an explanation. In other words, an excuse.

“I mean, listen, when I was in Japan, people would tell me they liked me all the time because of the curse… I turned them all down. They only liked me because of the curse, so I could just say sorry without worrying too much about it, and that was that. So that’s why I’ve never seriously thought about it…”

“Now that you mention it, Lady Ouka said something similar to me. But the curse does not affect the people of this country, correct?”

Correct—Kiyomizu aside, everyone in this country was Sacred Blooded, which seemed to neutralize the curse.

“Yeah… I guess in this country, I could finally give serious thought to the idea of a relationship…”

“I see.”

He thought he heard Sasara’s tone grow just a touch lighter. He might have been imagining it, though.

“I understand how you feel. But either way, please be careful of the dispute between the two sisters. Part of the responsibility will be yours.”

That was obvious. If his presence worsened a relationship between sisters who both had Imperial blood, then everything he had done so far would all be for naught.

“I shall be leaving soon. I still have not yet delivered what Lady Ouka sent.”

“Do your job before getting in the bath.”

“I get so sweaty from walking around in armor! It isn’t easy!”

“Right, I guess we are on castle grounds… You are a part of the Imperial Guard, so I guess you have to wear your uniform, which is your armor…”

“No, I wear it for weight loss.”

“So it’s just a personal goal?!”

He had reevaluated her as a knight devoted to her job, but now he was back at square one.

“Well, if I stay here, it will only cause a misunderstanding, so I will leave promptly.”

“We’ve been at risk of that for twelve minutes now, so just get out of here ASAP.”

What would happen if Shiren came in now?

The commotion and misunderstandings would only increase threefold. There was no way he would be able to bring that situation under control.

And then the door to the bath opened.

It was the worst feeling he’d had all day.

It wasn’t just a feeling—he was certain that things were going to take a turn for the worse.

“Whew… Time to wash all the day’s troubles away!” Shiren came in, towel in hand.

Of course it would be in her hand, but that meant nothing was covering her body…

She didn’t have any underwear on.

She didn’t have a towel around her.

She didn’t have anything on.

“R-R-Ryouta?”

If Ryouta was to accurately express how complicated his state of mind was at the time, it would be like this:

Oh no, what should I do? This is bad enough for me to start reciting my death poem. I should explain why I’m in the bath with Sasara first, huh. And I saw everything, all clear as day. I thought she had no boobs, but I guess… Wait, that’s not the problem here. God, I can’t think about anything, so I’ll just laugh. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

There was the first severe shock since the establishment of the Fuyukura household.

“Right, okay. So basically, you were sitting back-to-back, just chatting. Right, okay. I bet that was a lot of fun. Right, okay.”

“Please just believe me…”

She had given him a good punch after that. Several times. She had pummeled him plenty of times before he even got the chance to explain himself.

They then moved to the living room, and his trial was underway.

In a corner of the living room, the accused Ryouta and Sasara sat on the floor.

There were stones sitting on Ryouta’s lap—weight stones for pickles, apparently, because Shiren had considered making pickles one day.

“Right, okay. Male and female classmates were in the same bath together, but nothing dirty happened. Right, okay.”

“Erm, I was the one who asked him to. That is why Ryouta is innocent. I am sorry for causing this misunderstanding…”

Sasara must have thought this was bad, since she was behaving unusually modestly.

“And you—if I tell Big Sis that you were trying to create such a scandalous affair, then you will be demoted from Imperial Guard to royal toilet cleaner.”

“I am sorry… I have acted indecently for someone who serves Lady Ouka… Please do not tell her this happened! If she finds out, I might truly be demoted to toilet cleaner! At worst, I may even be relegated to eternally transferring water from bucket A into bucket B, then transferring the water from bucket B back into the empty bucket A!”

“That’s ridiculously pointless! After enough times, that would drive you insane! That’s terrifying!”

“My, Shiren, why don’t we suspend their sentence for now?”

Help finally came from Alfoncina. She hadn’t gone home yet and was apparently still just lounging around.

“Shut up.”

“Boys shy away from girls with short tempers, you know. It’s good that you’re honest with your feelings, though.”

“I said shut up, Matsuko Kimura!” Shiren called Alfoncina by her real name. It was mundane and embarrassing, so Alfoncina wanted to keep it buried.

“Oh! If you’re using my real name, that’s proof that you’re truly angry! Calm down, calm down! I’ll give you a case of the highest-quality tomato juice next time!”

“Hmm, I suppose I have no choice.”

Ryouta’s immediate thought was What do you mean, you suppose? but things would only get more complicated if he brought it up. He chose to stay quiet.

“Okay, Sasara, show me whatever it is that my big sis asked you to give me. If that satisfies me, then I’ll let you go. If you’re lying, then I will demote you until your job is digging a hole in sand and then filling it up again for eternity.”

“Sure, here it is.”

Sasara brought over a rather large paper bag. It was big enough for someone as small as Kiyomizu to hide in.

It said BLOOD LAKE BOOKSTORE: BOOKS! CDS! DVDS! MENSWEAR! VEGETABLES! MEDICINE!

“That bookstore has too many subdivisions!”

“You don’t have to comment on the mundane. Now bring it out. What’s inside? Books? Or tomatoes?”

Blood Lake Bookstore apparently dealt in both books and vegetables, so she wasn’t joking when she said that.

“In a word, I believe these are most essential to you right now, Shiren. The sun of my heart, Lady Ouka, is so sharp.”

“Tomatoes it is, then.”

If someone needed tomatoes most at a time like this, then that was a problem.

“They are not tomatoes.”

“A fruit tomato, then?”

For a brief moment, Ryouta wondered how Shiren could afford to be so dumb.

“Here is your answer.” Sasara turned the bag upside down.

A mountain of books poured from the inside. They were of different sizes, but they were all rather big.

“Wow, a mountain of books! How generous of you, Big Sis!”

But when Ryouta looked at their designs, he knew what they were right away.

In a way, they were the things that Shiren needed the most right now.

“What kind of books are these? Hmm, there’s Live Coverage of World History, Ready Answers for English Vocabulary, Math Charts, How to Get Five Extra Points on Your Center Exams, Classical Japanese for Monkeys, First Grade Math Workbook… There’s about thirty of these.”

Finally, a message that was apparently from Ouka fluttered out of the bag.

To my dearest and below-average little sister, Shiren—

Study some more. Go through at least two of these before your makeup classes tomorrow.

From the reigning emperor, Ouka

“Yes, this is a big sister’s love, yes.”

First Grade Math Workbook was probably meant for the youngest kids in elementary school, but if he ignored that particular insult, he could believe she was trying to help Shiren.

“I can’t do any of this… I can’t do it! I can’t do it!” Shiren screamed, like a customer who decided to try out a super-spicy dish and ended up getting angry with the waiter for it. “Waaaaaah! Waaaaaaah! This is a human rights violation!”

“Uh, it hasn’t gone that far. You wouldn’t buy these books anyway; you should be at least a little grateful for what Ouka’s done.”

“Grateful? After this act of cruelty, you’re telling me to thank her?! I could never do that. I can’t use these study books!”

“Don’t give up! At least finish the free trial!”

He was honestly impressed with how adamant she was about not studying.

“Well, my work here is done, so I’ll take my leave.”

While that was all going on, Sasara dashed out of the house. Her warrior’s instinct had likely identified the best moment during the interaction to flee, and she had taken full advantage.

Shiren’s own heroic battle began after that.

She started with world history because that subject seemed the least mentally demanding, but she still didn’t understand it at all.

Ryouta and Alfoncina did stick around to help her along, at the very least, but she was more clueless than either of them thought, so it took forever.

“Why is Tokugawa Ieyasu establishing the Roman Empire?! Take this seriously!”

“I am being serious! All the foreign names look the same; I can’t remember them at all!”

“That’s just ’cause they use different writing systems!”

Ryouta started yawning shortly after that. His whole day had been rife with chaos.

“Oh, why don’t you go back to your room and sleep, Ryouta? I can take it from here,” Alfoncina said.

“I’ll do that. I can’t be late meeting Ouka.”

“Ugh… Right, that’s tomorrow…”

For some reason, hearing that Ryouta would be meeting Ouka bothered Shiren.

One hour later.

Studying was much less effective the more time went on. The time that humans could genuinely concentrate was only about thirty minutes. Not even breaking up the time would really help.

“I guess we’re near our limit now. And it seems like you’re thinking hard, too, Shiren.”

“I-I’m not thinking or anything!”

Even though Alfoncina hadn’t even hit a nerve, Shiren still got angry and denied it.

Ouka and Ryouta’s appointment tomorrow was weighing on her mind.

“I’m not making any more progress for today, so this is fine. But why did you come here anyway, Alfoncina?”

“I just wanted to offer some support. I thought that perhaps the only thing you could focus on was Ryouta and Ouka’s meeting tomorrow, you see…” Alfoncina was always sharp when it came to things like this. “And I brought a necklace specially made by the archbishop just for you.”

A cord had been pulled through a small blue stone. The cord was long enough to fit around her neck.

“I knew I could count on you, Alfoncina. You have great taste.”

“But this also has practical advantages.”

“Practical?”

She had never thought that a necklace could be practical. Maybe it had rejuvenating powers like in an RPG.

“This necklace can curse others by ruining their romance!” Alfoncina cackled like a witch. “By praying to it, the person you want to stay single will absolutely fail in their romantic endeavors. Absolutely.”

She was really emphasizing “absolutely.”

If you looked closely, you might have noticed that her eyes weren’t smiling.

“But there is a side effect. As they say, curses, like chickens, come home to roost—your own romantic prospects will be negatively affected, as well. I suppose you’ll have to choose…”

“This is a cursed item…”

“If you want it, I’ll give it to you. Of course, if you don’t want it, then I’ll take it home…”

Without giving it another thought, Shiren practically snatched the necklace from Alfoncina.

“I—I don’t think the side effect will be a problem. I don’t have anyone I want to be romantically involved with! I mean, it’s not like there’s any romance out there I need to stop in the first place anyway!”

“So you don’t want it?”

“Well, I mean, you brought it all this way for me. I graciously accept your gift! It’s a pretty necklace in its own right.”

“Please take it. Of course, it’s up to you whether or not you offer it your prayers. You don’t have to use it for the rest of your life. But having more options gives one peace of mind.”

With that, Alfoncina commented on the late hour and got a ride home in her minion’s car, leaving Shiren alone in the living room.

After staring at the necklace on the table for half an hour—

“Please help me!” Shiren grabbed it and prayed to it. A moment later, she grew frightened and whirled around.

What if Ryouta had seen her doing that?

It was just a groundless worry. No one else was in there with her.

What a relief.

But why did she wish he had? Why had she hoped he was there to scold her?

And not only that—

She had felt like someone was watching her for a while now.

Maybe that was another one of the necklace’s effects…?