Chapter 196

After waking up this morning, I made a delicious breakfast for Eri, including my special soy milk. I originally planned to drive her to work, but Eri naturally refused. She didn’t want anyone to see the two of us together so early in the morning.

So I had no choice but to go back to the company alone to see if there was anything I needed to handle. As soon as I got back to the company, I called Yazawa Emi to my office.

“Wait, Mr. Jian, didn’t you call me in to talk about serious business?” As soon as Yazawa Emi entered the office, she was picked up and carried, which made the beautiful wife pat the arms around her waist twice.

“We can talk about serious matters like this. Go ahead, I’m listening.” I carried Yazawa Emi to the office chair and sat down, one arm still around her soft waist, the other naturally resting on her beautiful legs in black stockings.

“Let’s make it clear from the start that you’re not allowed to do anything reckless. At least let me do my job as a secretary.” Doesn’t Yazawa Emi know the personality of this young CEO of the company? Even if she didn’t know him at first, she knows him inside and out after spending time together these past few days, in every sense of the word.

“In my opinion, a secretary’s job is not just reporting.” My secretary’s job is more important than handling reports and answering phone calls; she helps manage my burgeoning sexual desires, a point my beautiful wife is well aware of.

“That’s your own idea, I’ve never agreed with it. In short, don’t do anything reckless.” Of course, Yazawa Emi couldn’t agree with that statement, and she was just trying her best to do the work of a normal secretary. At least she was acting like a secretary, which gave her some comfort.

“No problem, I’ll listen to you, Xiaomei.” I understood what the beautiful wife was thinking, so I didn’t refuse her request.

“Hmph, if only you were really that obedient.” Yazawa Emi gave an incredulous snort, then began to report the information she had accumulated.

While listening to Yazawa Emi’s report, I didn’t make any excessive movements, except that my large hand kept wandering and caressing her beautiful legs in black stockings.

In response, Yazawa Emi just gave me a disapproving look. As long as I didn’t make any further moves, the beautiful wife probably wouldn’t stop me. So, amidst Yazawa Emi’s melodious voice, there was a subtle sound of rubbing stockings.

“Is that about it?” Yazawa Emi reported for about twenty minutes while holding the documents in her hand, and I also stroked her stockinged thighs for more than twenty minutes.

Yazawa Emi stopped the large hand that was trying to slip inside her straight skirt, glared at its owner to signal him to stop, and then continued, “There’s one last thing.”

“What is it?” Usually, the most important thing is said last. I stopped what I was about to do and just continued to caress the beautiful wife’s silk-clad legs.

“It’s about the Shinomiya family’s matter. I’m asking when you can spare the time.” In Yazawa Emi’s opinion, the young man holding her was never busy with work. He was probably more busy with women, just like now, only dealing with work occasionally.

However, Yazawa Emi doesn’t tell outsiders about this. As a secretary, keeping secrets is one of her basic responsibilities. Whenever someone calls to inquire about something, unless it’s an emergency and the person in charge isn’t available, she will tell them to wait for further information, citing that she is busy with work.

“That…” When Yazawa Emi mentioned it, I remembered a suggestion that the Shinomiya family had made before. I only said that I would consider it and then arrange a time to meet up. “Let’s meet today. I think it will be 2:30 pm. The other party can decide the location.”

“Okay, I’ll go reply to them now.” Having received a clear answer to her final question, Yazawa Emi prepared to get up and go out to handle the matter.

“Wait, no rush, since we’re already here…” I pulled Yazawa Emi back onto my lap and snatched the documents from her hand, placing them aside.

“That’s the Shinomiya family. Shouldn’t they respond promptly if there’s any news?” Yazawa Emi twisted her body, trying to get off me.

“It’s alright, the Shinomiya family now is not the same as the Shinomiya family of the past.” The Shinomiya Group, established by the Shinomiya family, was once a large conglomerate with total assets of 200 trillion yen and thousands of subsidiaries.

The reason I say “in the past” is because three years ago, during a business competition, the Shinomiya Group had a conflict with my group company. At that time, the Shinomiya Group did not take this up-and-coming group company seriously.

However, it was precisely because the Shinomiya Group was underestimated that it lost slightly to my group in that business competition. At that time, my group needed to show its strength, so with this clash as the starting point, a comprehensive competitive plan with the Shinomiya Group as a stepping stone was launched.

The Shinomiya Group, being a large conglomerate, quickly discovered this and immediately launched a counterattack. They had hoped that with proper preparation, they could defeat or even swallow up this upstart conglomerate, but instead, they suffered a series of defeats.

In the commercial sectors such as beauty, catering, and wholesale, and in the manufacturing sectors such as automobiles, processing, and electronics manufacturing, the other party in the energy sector has even introduced new clean energy utilization methods. As a result, the Shinomiya Group has been suppressed or even swallowed up in many industries in multiple fields.

It wasn’t until that moment that the Shinomiya Group realized that this upstart group it considered to be a super-powerful entity lurking in the shadows, containing energy that could easily change the world’s economic and technological landscape.

Once the Shinomiya Group realized what was happening, or more accurately, after my group had demonstrated its strength and partially surfaced, I stopped competing with the Shinomiya Group. By then, the Shinomiya Group had already lost nearly a third of its total assets and businesses.

Although the head of the Shinomiya family, Shinomiya Kan’an, managed to stop the decline of the Shinomiya Group in time, another multinational corporation that seemed to have been eyeing the Shinomiya Group for a long time seized the opportunity to strike. According to the investigation, it was a company controlled by the Shijo family behind the scenes. The other members of the Shinomiya family were one family decades ago, but were exiled due to internal strife.

The aftermath of the defeat was not only that the opposing group took the opportunity to attack, which caused the situation that had been finally stabilized to waver again. It has only recently eased, but after this series of events, the Shinomiya Group has been severely weakened.

That’s why there’s talk of the Shinomiya family not being the same as before, and the suggestion the Shinomiya family made to me not long ago.

“Alright, now I know your company is powerful.” That was Yazawa Emi’s personal perspective. Even though the Shinomiya Group isn’t what it used to be, it’s still an unparalleled force for most people, which made her forget the power of the group behind her own company.

Although she had only heard some of the incidents from her senior female colleague, it was enough for Yazawa Emi to realize the power of her own company group, which could even defeat the Shinomiya Group.

“So now, is it okay to…” I unbuttoned Yazawa Emi’s suit jacket, turned the beautiful wife to face me, and spread her beautiful legs in black stockings.

“Even if we don’t need to reply to messages for now, this isn’t the time to do that kind of thing, is it?!” Although it wasn’t the first time the young man in front of her had done that to her in the office, Yazawa Emi still had to protest.

“Xiaomei, you know that this is the time for me to do that kind of thing. Do you want to wait until after get off work to come?” After unbuttoning the beautiful wife’s suit jacket, I began to unbutton her white shirt.

“Damn it, I know, hurry up.” Come after get off work? With the man’s sexual prowess, who knows how late he’ll keep going? Although she could use overtime as an excuse, she couldn’t always use that excuse. Yazawa Emi was afraid Nico and the others would get suspicious.

“I’ll try my best.”

“What do you mean, um…”

Just as I was sealing Yazawa Emi’s lips and beginning an office lovemaking session, my decision was about to bring about an irresistible change in the lives of one or two girls at a school called Shuchiin Academy.

A knock sounded in the classroom during class. The school’s female head teacher was standing at the classroom door. “Kaguya Shinomiya, there’s a phone call from home. Please come out and answer it.”

“Yes.” A pretty girl with her black hair tied up blinked her red eyes, then stood up and walked towards the classroom door with her white jade-like hands holding the hem of her knee-length black school uniform skirt. Every move she made showed the elegance of a young lady.

The students and even the teachers in the class had little to say about being interrupted by the headmaster during class. Even in Shuchiin Academy, where many students came from wealthy and famous families, the Shinomiya family was still considered a top family, so they had no objections to it.

Besides, who knows what kind of emergency might be happening at home? Although the classmates could hardly imagine what kind of emergency the wealthy Shinomiya family could have, except for a girl named Hayasaka Ai.

Hayasaka Ai was listening to the teacher’s lecture with her chin resting on her hand when the sudden arrival of the female headmistress and her words caught the girl’s attention. The Shinomiya family wanted to see the young lady? They didn’t say anything this morning, so why are they calling now? Is it some kind of emergency?

As a maid in the Shinomiya family, and specifically assigned to serve Kaguya Shinomiya, Hayasaka Ai probably knows more than Kaguya herself, but lately there seems to be nothing… Wait, could it be that matter!?

Hayasaka Ai seemed to remember something, and her previously languid sky-blue eyes suddenly became serious. Combining this with the situation and words of Shinomiya Kaguya after she returned from the phone call, Hayasaka Ai felt that her guess might be correct.

“Teacher, I need to leave early because of something at home.” After finishing her call with her family, Kaguya Shinomiya returned to the classroom and politely told her teacher.

“Ah, okay, no problem.” The head of the teaching department is still standing outside and she has no objections, so what else can the teacher say?

“Then I’ll take my leave.” Kaguya Shinomiya returned to her seat, packed her bag and textbooks, and left the classroom.

On the surface, Kaguya Shinomiya seemed no different from usual, but Hayasaka Ai, who knew her well, could tell that the young lady’s body language was a little unnatural, and her bright red eyes seemed to reveal a trace of panic and unease.

No more than two minutes after Kaguya Shinomiya left the classroom, Ai Hayasaka’s phone, which was placed in the drawer under the desk, vibrated slightly twice. The girl, who had been paying attention to the drawer ever since Kaguya went out to answer the call, immediately noticed this.

Hayasaka Ai quietly put her right hand into the drawer and picked up her phone. The girl leaned her back against the chair, her gaze lowered as she watched her fingers, painted with light blue nail polish, unlock the phone’s screen. New messages were displayed in the upper right corner and on the bottom of the screen.

“Make sure to stay close to the young lady and ensure that her appointment is successful.” The text message contained only a short sentence and the meeting place, but this sentence almost confirmed Hayasaka Ai’s guess: the young lady had probably been called to meet her fiancé.

“Teacher, I’m not feeling well and need to go home to rest.” The blonde girl with a side ponytail put her phone into her shoulder bag and ran out of the classroom without waiting for the teacher’s reply.

“Ah…” The teacher pushed up her glasses speechlessly. The student ran out of the classroom quickly, and there was no indication that she was uncomfortable. However, the head of the teaching department, who was still there, nodded to her and was indifferent to Hayasaka Ai’s early departure, so she didn’t bother with it.

When Hayasaka Ai came down from the school building to the ground, she saw Shinomiya Kaguya get into the black car that was used to pick her up and drop her off at school. This car was usually used to pick up and drop off Shinomiya Kaguya, but the destination of the black car was not the Shinomiya family home, but the meeting place mentioned in the text message.

The blonde girl with a side ponytail watched the black-haired girl close the car door. She didn’t rush to follow. The task given in the text message was clearly not to directly accompany Kaguya Shinomiya to her meeting with someone, but rather to secretly observe everything. This was a task from the Shinomiya family, but…

Hayasaka Ai raised her hand and touched the blue hair tie she used to tie her side ponytail. It was a hair tie that Kaguya Shinomiya had given her, and she had been wearing it almost ever since she received the gift.

No one understood Kaguya Shinomiya’s current situation better than her. Hayasaka Ai took a deep breath, and then it became crystal clear what she needed to do.

Hayasaka Ai hailed a taxi at the school gate, but instead of heading immediately to their meeting place, she went first to a large shopping mall nearby that belonged to the Shinomiya family. There was still some time before the meeting, and she needed to prepare some things beforehand.

“Get up! It’s almost time for our meeting, which you said you’d agree to.” In the luxurious office’s inner room, on the large bed, the beautiful wife, Yazawa Emi, nudged my shoulder and said.

“It seems so. Holding Emi, we both didn’t want to get up.” I kissed Emi Yazawa’s slightly flushed face and rubbed my body against the beautiful wife’s alluring body.

“Haven’t you done that long enough? Get up now.” Yazawa Emi remained unmoved and continued to urge her. She had been working from morning until noon. Fortunately, she had things to do afterward, otherwise she probably wouldn’t have been able to get out of bed.

“OK, OK.” Urged by the beautiful wife, I put my clothes back on and then took out a new pair of stockings to help Yazawa Emi change.

“You don’t need to help me, I can put them on myself.” Yazawa Emi saw right through what I was trying to do. The beautiful wife blushed and tried to snatch the stockings from my hand, but I easily dodged her.

“Let me do it. Emi, your body hasn’t fully recovered yet.” I held the new stockings in one hand and used the other to pull off Emi Yazawa’s black stockings, which were stained with her love juice, semen, and saliva.

“Whose fault is it that I’m like this?” Yazawa Emi said irritably, raising her foot to kick the culprit.

“So now I’m helping you get dressed, Emi.” I grabbed Emi Yazawa’s delicate, bare feet, kissed them, and then helped her put on her stockings.

“Wear it if you want, but don’t touch me.” Yazawa Emi felt a tingling electric current run through her toes from that kiss, probably because the effects of their long period of lovemaking hadn’t completely faded yet.

“Then, Xiaomei, you’d better behave and not move around.” I helped the beautiful wife put on the stockings on her right leg, and then I lifted her left leg. When I lifted her leg, the wet flesh between her legs made my heart and my crotch jump.

“Don’t look around, put it on properly.” Yazawa Emi, noticing my gaze, covered her private parts with her hands in embarrassment.

I suppressed the desire burning in my lower abdomen, gave an OK sign, and quickly helped Yazawa Emi put on her clothes. The beautiful wife, now dressed, went into the bathroom and washed her pretty face with water, saying that she wanted to make the blush on her face fade away as soon as possible.

“Alright, I’ll go out first. You can come out later.” Yazawa Emi finished tidying herself up. Although it’s rare for someone to come directly to the company’s young boss, what if someone does?

“Understood.” I certainly wouldn’t refuse such a small request from my beautiful wife. I left the office about eight minutes after Yazawa Emi left.

As soon as I stepped out of the office, I saw Yazawa Emi at the front desk. I winked at the beautiful wife and got a roll of my eyes in return. After that, I took the elevator to the parking lot and drove to the meeting place, a high-end restaurant under the Shinomiya Group.

I arrived fifteen minutes early, but the other party had arrived even earlier. I spotted the person I was meeting today at a glance: the eldest daughter of the Shinomiya family. I had seen her picture before, so I recognized her immediately. She was even more beautiful in person than in the photo.

The black hair has bangs on both sides at the front, and the hair at the back is tied into a ponytail, folded twice, and then tied with a red cloth and decorated with a bow.

Beneath her bangs were clear, bright red pupils, arched eyebrows, long eyelashes, and thin lips as delicate and luscious as cherry blossom petals. Her face was fair and clean, and her skin was soft and smooth.

The girl was wearing a school uniform skirt, mainly black with a white collar. Below the collar, a red ribbon was tied into a bow as a substitute for a bow tie. The skirt had long sleeves, black with white cuffs that extended outwards like maid’s wristbands.

The black school uniform skirt is above the knee, and a glimpse of fair skin is revealed between the skirt and the girl’s black knee-high cotton socks. Further down are the pure white school shoes on the girl’s feet.

I walked straight toward the black-haired girl and immediately felt a gaze fall on me. Judging from the gaze, it didn’t seem friendly. Interesting.

“Is this Miss Shinomiya?” Putting aside the issue of gaze for now, the main focus should be on the pretty black-haired girl in front of us.

The girl seemed to have been lost in thought until I spoke, at which point she snapped out of it, turned her gaze to me, and stood up, bowing slightly in greeting. “Mm.”

Although it was very subtle, I could sense that the girl paused when she heard my voice and stiffened when her gaze fell on me. Kaguya Shinomiya’s expression was as cold as ice, but in reality, it was probably not like that.

“I believe Miss Shinomiya has seen my photo and can confirm that I am the person you came to meet today.” I gestured for her to sit down, and only after Kaguya Shinomiya sat down did I pull out a chair and sit down myself.

“I’ve seen it.” Kaguya Shinomiya’s reply was concise and indifferent.

“That’s good. Let me briefly introduce myself. My name is Ken, and you can call me Ken, Miss Shinomiya.” The girl’s attitude didn’t affect me much. She was just indifferent at the moment. I still have a seemingly indifferent but sharp-tongued head maid at home.

“Kaguya Shinomiya.” Kaguya Shinomiya’s self-introduction was even simpler than mine.

“I believe Miss Shinomiya understands the purpose of our meeting.” I called the waiter and ordered two drinks. I ordered iced milk tea, and Kaguya Shinomiya ordered a strawberry milk.

“I understand roughly.” Kaguya Shinomiya pursed her thin cherry lips. She almost couldn’t maintain her “Ice Kaguya” persona because the purpose of this meeting was a complete shock to her. When she first heard her father tell her the news at school, she was stunned. It took her a while to regain her composure and return to the classroom.

“So, what are your thoughts on the purpose of this meeting, Miss Shinomiya, regarding our engagement and our becoming engaged?”

The Shinomiya family’s previous proposal was to marry their eldest daughter to me, a marriage alliance. It’s not hard to see that their aim was to stabilize the current situation and then seek new development.

As for the Shinomiya family, although there had been business competition before, we defeated them with our strength. Whether the Shinomiya family was truly convinced of their defeat is unknown, but judging from their actions, they were certainly convinced verbally.

In business, when there is clear competition, they can be enemies. But now that there is no open competition, there is a possibility of turning enemies into friends and changing strategies to become partners in interests. The way the Shinomiya family chose to do this was through marriage.

Actually, I’m not very interested in other collaborations. Our company group can manage on its own now, so there’s no need to cooperate with the Shinomiya family. That’s why the Shinomiya family chose another form of “cooperation”.

As for me, I became interested in this “collaboration” as soon as I saw Kaguya Shinomiya’s photo, so when the Shinomiya family brought it up again, I agreed to meet them.

“No…” Kaguya Shinomiya uttered a single word softly, then stood up again and placed her white hands on the table. “I don’t want to agree!”

“Miss Shinomiya, please calm down. Although this is a restaurant under your family’s ownership and there aren’t many people here at this time, it’s still better to keep your voice down.” I raised my hands and made a downward pressing motion to signal the girl to calm down.

“Hmm…” Kaguya Shinomiya’s face turned slightly red. The girl stiffly sat back down in her seat. She hadn’t expected to break down so quickly. Was it too late to turn back into “Ice Kaguya”?

“It seems that you are not as cold as you look, Miss Shinomiya.” Now I can confirm that Shinomiya Kaguya’s cold demeanor is not her true nature, or rather, it is just another way for a young girl to treat others.

“I…” The main thing is that this matter is too important. Even if Kaguya Shinomiya tries to remain calm, it is difficult for her. This is a major event in her life, and more importantly, it is in her heart… At this moment, a figure flashed through Kaguya Shinomiya’s mind.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s common to treat different people differently.” The girl’s indifferent demeanor just now was actually quite nice. Of course, her slightly embarrassed blushing appearance now is equally nice; they’re just different styles.

“Well…” The young man in front of her seemed quite easy to talk to? Kaguya Shinomiya’s mind raced. If possible, could this problem be solved more easily? “Could we put the engagement aside?”

Kaguya Shinomiya’s bright red eyes revealed an expectant look, a look that could easily soften one’s heart and make them agree to her request. However, this was far from enough to make me give up. “Well, although you, Miss Shinomiya, don’t want to agree to this, I personally think it’s quite good.”

“But we didn’t know each other at all before this, and we got engaged like this. Don’t you think it’s strange? This is a major life event. How can we make such a hasty decision? This is something that should only be done by two people who like each other.”

As expected, it couldn’t be resolved so easily, which disappointed Kaguya Shinomiya somewhat, but it was still within expectations. At least for now, there seemed to be room for communication.

“So, Miss Shinomiya, you really long for romance.” I picked up my milk tea and took a sip. A young girl’s longing for romance is a beautiful thing.

“Is this not okay?” Born into the Shinomiya family, Kaguya Shinomiya always imagined herself as an ordinary girl, able to cry freely, laugh freely, and shout freely, and also wanted to have an ordinary love affair.

“No, this is fine.” Hearing my words, Kaguya Shinomiya’s red eyes lit up. Before her thin cherry lips could speak, I continued, “But I still do not intend to refuse this engagement.”

“Why?” Kaguya Shinomiya swallowed the words she was about to say. Could it be that her previous impression that the other party was easy to talk to was just a misconception?

“Well, the reason is simple: I think you’re very beautiful, Miss Shinomiya.” I put down my milk tea and looked at Kaguya Shinomiya with a serious expression.

“Just this reason?” Kaguya Shinomiya blinked her bright red eyes, expecting the other party to launch into a long-winded rebuttal.

“Isn’t this reason enough for now?” Sometimes one reason is enough to be interested in someone. At least for me, being good-looking is a big plus.

“It’s not that it’s not enough, it’s just…” Kaguya Shinomiya hadn’t expected the other party to answer with such simple and direct words, which made them much more difficult to deal with than she had imagined.

“Actually, as the eldest daughter of the Shinomiya family, you should know that while free love is wonderful, it’s very rare for someone like you.” At least given the Shinomiya family’s situation, it’s difficult to give Shinomiya Kaguya the kind of love she desires.

“Even so…” Shinomiya Kaguya knew this wasn’t nonsense, just like when her father didn’t even ask for her opinion when she received the call today. “Even so, I don’t want to give up.”

“Hmm, not bad, a girl who pursues her dreams is always dazzling.” Kaguya Shinomiya, who never gave up, seemed to radiate a dazzling light, which made me feel beautiful, but at the same time, a sinister thought of defiling her brilliance flashed through my mind.

“So…” Kaguya Shinomiya’s cherry lips parted slightly, and she had only uttered two words when she thought of the previous two situations, which made the girl change the subject, “You don’t mean you have no intention of changing your mind, do you?”

“That’s right. Miss Shinomiya, your dazzling performance makes me less inclined to refuse. Perhaps we can add another reason now.” I nodded in affirmation of Kaguya Shinomiya’s statement.

Well, take back what I said earlier. This young man in front of me has a terrible personality and is not easy to talk to. Kaguya Shinomiya’s fair cheeks puffed up slightly, and the girl felt like she had been amused.

“Don’t look at me like that. How about this: I’ll only agree to the engagement, but I won’t take the initiative to propose a date. That’s up to your Shinomiya family to decide. And during this time, I won’t do anything to force you, Miss Shinomiya. That way, you just need to persuade your father to break off the engagement. How about that?”

Considering the current situation of the Shinomiya Group and the information about the Shinomiya family members obtained from the investigation, I gave the girl this suggestion in response to her slightly wide-eyed stare.

Kaguya Shinomiya frowned. If the other party was unwilling to refuse, then she could only start with her own family and try to persuade her father to cancel this sudden engagement. If the other party didn’t press her too hard, she should have some time to deal with this issue. But would her father really be persuaded?

I didn’t disturb Kaguya Shinomiya’s thoughts; I simply drank my milk tea quietly and observed the person who still kept their eyes on me.

“Are you really unwilling to refuse?” After thinking it over, Kaguya Shinomiya still felt that it would be best if the young man in front of her could refuse on his own initiative.

“It’s not impossible for me to refuse on my own initiative. Miss Shinomiya, you can try to defeat me. If you can defeat me, I will refuse this engagement and receive an extra reward.” Seeing that Shinomiya Kaguya was still trying to get through to me, I offered another suggestion.

“Defeat you? An extra reward?” Kaguya Shinomiya felt like she was falling behind the conversation. Just a moment ago they were talking about persuading her father, and now it had turned into defeating him.

“Yes, defeat me. If you can defeat me, Miss Shinomiya, not only can you break off the engagement, but I can also help you persuade the head of the Shinomiya family to grant you the right to choose your own partner.”

Why do I sound like a villain with this whole argument? Oh well, I’m not exactly a saint anyway, otherwise why wouldn’t I just let Kaguya Shinomiya have her way?

“Are you serious?” Kaguya Shinomiya’s crimson eyes widened slightly. This suggestion sounded even more appealing than persuading her father. After all, the young woman felt that convincing her father to break off the engagement was already a feat; free love could be a matter of finding a solution later. Could defeating the young man before her be a one-step solution? But defeating him…

“Really, but before Miss Shinomiya decides to defeat me, she’d better ask her father about my situation. You know, I won’t let you defeat me obediently; I’ll choose to fight back, and who knows what will happen then.”

I’m not a masochist. I certainly wouldn’t give up easily if I suggested that a girl defeat me. As for the consequences of Kaguya Shinomiya’s failure, I didn’t say anything. The answer is already clear. Thinking about it, I can give the girl multiple chances, as long as she pays a certain price each time. This way of gradually falling for her is quite good.

The new proposal was very tempting, but it certainly wouldn’t be that simple. How could someone chosen by the Shinomiya family be easily defeated? Kaguya Shinomiya didn’t make a decision immediately. “I’ll consider it.”

“Miss Shinomiya doesn’t seem as nervous as she was at the beginning. This meeting doesn’t seem too bad.” After my direct approach dispelled her cold demeanor, I could no longer sense the initial tension in Kaguya Shinomiya.

“This meeting was a terrible thing in itself, but it wasn’t the worst of it, nor was it the best of it.” Kaguya Shinomiya said meaningfully. Today was probably the worst day of her life. As mentioned before, it was a bolt from the blue for her.

“No matter how much you emphasize it, Miss Shinomiya, I won’t change my mind. You might as well spend more time thinking about what to do next.”

“Hmph, you don’t need to tell me, I’ll definitely handle this.” Kaguya Shinomiya was unaware that she was setting a huge goal for herself.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing what you do, Miss Shinomiya.” I picked up the white porcelain teacup and made a toasting gesture. I don’t care whichever choice Kaguya Shinomiya makes, but the latter would be best.

“You’re not just here for fun, are you?” Kaguya Shinomiya, who was a little thirsty after talking so much, also picked up the strawberry milk in front of her and took a sip.

“How could that be? That’s not true.” I want to be involved in it, not just a bystander.

“Is that so?” To be honest, Kaguya Shinomiya didn’t quite understand this young man named Ken. He clearly didn’t want to refuse the engagement, yet he offered a suggestion to resolve it. Strange, really strange.

Kaguya Shinomiya looked at me with a strange gaze. I noticed it but didn’t care. As long as she couldn’t see through my true thoughts, that was fine. Rather than Kaguya Shinomiya’s strange gaze, I should think about what the owner of that sharp gaze was thinking.