For some reason, Izumi was in the middle of the living room, posing like a horse!
It was utterly incomprehensible.
At that sight, Meina and Hakua, who had been at maximum tension, suddenly became dead serious.
Even if it was his own room, why was he on all fours? It was a rowdy pose completely unimaginable for the usually serious Izumi.
Of course, there was a reason.
There was someone sitting gracefully on Izumi’s back.
Seeing that person, Hakua’s eyes widened.
“W-Why are you here…!?”
It was Izumi’s younger sister, Kasumi Sumie!
To Hakua’s shocked question, she only smirked boldly. In her hand, she held a folding fan with “Lifelong Loyal Retainer” written on it, using it to fan herself.
And Izumi, noticing the intrusion of Hakua and Meina, turned pale and became flustered.
“H-Hakua-neesan! Meina too!?”
“Izumi-kun. What is… this?”
Hakua asked timidly.
In response, the words that leaked from Izumi’s mouth were pathetic excuses.
“T-This is different…!”
However, as things stood,
no one knew what was “right” or “different.” In fact, Izumi, who tried to assert his innocence as his first move, was basically confessing that he was in the wrong. The “sloppy romantic brain battle” was accelerating!
Unable to bear the heavy atmosphere, Izumi screamed.
“Stop! Don’t look at me like this!!”
The two watched Izumi, who was getting worked up all by himself, with unreadable gazes.
Meina put her index finger to her cheek and nodded as if troubled.
“I see… so that’s why even though My Lady looked after you so devotedly, you didn’t yield at all~.”
“I’m not a masochist! It’s seriously different, so stop it!”
His plea, while throwing persuasiveness to the far side of the ocean, only served to dig his own grave deeper.
“Fufu. Two unauthorized intruders together, what a pair of stupid faces. It seems you’re shaken by my foolish brother’s disgrace.”
Watching this scene, Kasumi-sama sat back with a smug face. While theatrically stroking her lustrous black hair, she declared with a triumphant air.
“Honestly. For the next head of Shiragiku Confectionery to be shaken by this level of thing is disappointing. To think you were so easy to deal with… hmm?”
There, she suddenly noticed the rolled-up red and white fabric Meina was holding. Feeling a bad premonition, she pointed the tip of her folded fan toward it.
“Hey, you ‘Vixen.’ What’s that you have in your hand?”
“Eh? This, you mean~?”
Meina, without any hesitation whatsoever, spread it out with both hands.
At the custom-made see-through lingerie, Kasumi’s face turned bright red and she sputtered.
“What is this insolently shaped cloth!?”
Meina answered with an extremely serious expression.
“Naturally, it is the sacred Hagoromo (feather robe) meant to nurture the love between Izumi-sama and me~”
“D-D-D-Don’t mess with me! Who gave you permission to try and force such a naughty development!?”
“Hmm. At the very least, I don’t think your sister’s permission is necessary~”
The important thing was the feelings of the person in question… Well, in this case, the person in question was also slightly weirded out, so Kasumi’s outburst seemed to be the more correct reaction.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
Kasumi gripped her folding fan with a look of loathing. At that moment, the frame snapped with a loud crack.
“I told you to stop playing with fire!”
“Oh, how rude. Since we are being serious, it’s certainly not playing with fire, you know~?”
“You really are a first-rate brat when it comes to quibbling! I’ve been irritated beyond belief whenever I talk to you since the old days!”
“Kuhuhu. For the next head of the world-renowned Sumie Group to be so easily shaken by this level of teasing… you really are quite easy to deal with~”
“Shut up, shut uuuuuuuuuuup! Maybe I should actually turn this woman into fox stew!”
It had only been thirty seconds since they met, and the scene was already becoming uncontrollable.
──Chaos.
Izumi, the only human capable of settling this situation, was thinking with a serious face while still stuck in a “horsey” pose.
(This is bad. Kasumi alone is one thing, but having Hakua-nee here too is extremely bad.)
To put it bluntly, they had been on bad terms for a long time.
Izumi didn’t have the slightest clue why, but every time they met, they had been prickly with each other like this. And seeing this behavior, it seemed Kasumi was also acquainted with Meina and similarly didn’t get along. Various things must have happened in places he didn’t know about.
Sadly, Izumi had never been able to stand up to his brilliant sister, Kasumi, and at the same time, he couldn’t act strongly in the face of Hakua’s “older sister aura.” Either way, the opponents were too much for him.
However, in this situation, there was another cause for concern.
He took a quick glance at the time on his smartphone.
It was just before noon.
The time they had promised was slightly past.
At that moment, a third party’s voice rang out.
“Oh. Everyone’s already here~♪”
It was Nanao Nanase.
She was peeking her head out from the living room door. While her eyes widened at the disastrous state of the room, she was calmly trying to grasp the situation.
At the appearance of yet another intruder, the two clashing factions reacted. Kasumi knit her brows in annoyance, while Hakua let out a cry of surprise.
“Nanao Nanase…”
“Nanao-san!? Why are you here!?”
Nanao gave the two of them a troubled smile.
“Because I’ve been messaging for a while and they weren’t being marked as read… But, what kind of situation is this, exactly?”
On one side, a sister making her older brother play “horsey.”
On the other, a master-servant duo barging into the room with extremely naughty lingerie.
An ordinary girl would likely scream and run away, but this was Nanao, the “mental monster.” She probably just felt a sense of, “Well, it is Izumi-kun, after all.” Even though it had only been about two months since she transferred, she was already beginning to grasp Izumi’s ecology.
A situation where “strong medicine” was being injected into a carnage involving his sister and former fiancée.
Normally, it wouldn’t be something to welcome, but for Izumi, it was an opportunity. At the very least, while he was being forced into a horsey pose by his sister, he couldn’t stop the fight between Hakua and Kasumi. If things went poorly, there was a possibility he would be dragged into the bedroom right in front of his own flesh and blood. No, it’s not like it would be okay if it weren’t in front of his family, but in any case, he wanted to avoid such an outcome.
To escape a future that was far too painful, Izumi stared at Nanao.
“N-Nanao…”
At Izumi’s clinging gaze, Nanao smiled brightly.
Furthermore, she gave a thumbs-up, showing her confidence. It was an attitude that seemed to say, “I understand everything, leave it to me!”
A sense of security like a partner of many years… usually, his stomach felt like it was going to have holes poked in it because of being jerked around by the “bomb girl’s” words and actions, but today, Nanao looked like a goddess. He even felt like a divine light was pouring down from behind her.
And having firmly received Izumi’s will, Nanao pumped her fist cutely.
“Alright! In that case, let’s all go get lunch together~!”
“The lack of reading the room!!”
Kasumi-sama couldn’t help but retort.
As for Izumi, he hung his head as if to say, “Yeah, I had a feeling that would happen.” Love is an emotion far from understanding.
Her mood completely destroyed, Kasumi crossed her arms in indignation.
“Even if this is my foolish brother’s temporary residence, this is the property of our Sumie family! Why are you, an outsider, crossing the threshold without permission!?”
“Hmm. For the record, I had a promise with Izumi-kun…”
Parrying Kasumi’s intimidation with a wry smile, Nanao explained the reason she was there.
“Izumi-kun hurt his arm in the scavenger hunt yesterday, right? So I thought if he wasn’t feeling well today, we’d go to the clinic together.”
The sports festival yesterday.
In the final scavenger hunt, for some reason, he had been sprinting around the track at full speed while playing “train” connected to Nanao and Hakua. After that, he was seen by the school nurse in the infirmary, but to be safe, he was supposed to go with Nanao to a specialized clinic she had started attending.
Recalling that incredibly embarrassing sight, Hakua’s face turned red in spite of herself.
“I-I see. If that’s the case, it can’t be helped.”
Since she was part of the cause, she had no choice but to back down here.
On the other hand, Kasumi.
Even toward Nanao, whom she was meeting for essentially the first time, she didn’t try to hide her hostility at all. She pointed the tip of her bent fan sharply at Nanao.
“It’s unnecessary. My foolish brother’s mishaps will be handled by the Sumie family.”
A sharp gaze—one could feel a chilling pressure. If an ordinary person were here, they might have lost consciousness from such overwhelming spirit.
“Unrelated women should leave.”
Rejection was declared clearly.
For Nanao, she was being turned away despite having made a promise. Normally, if someone is told “bye-bye” by a family member, it’s natural to withdraw. As long as one possesses common sense, that is a fate even Nanao shouldn’t be able to escape.
As if sensing this… she was unusually serious and lost in thought.
“I see…”
And after taking plenty of time to deliberate—
Nanao hugged Kasumi with a beaming smile!
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