Vol. 4 Chapter 6.2

Translated by SoundDestiny Edited by Kaepinned

[Natsumi Shima’s P.O.V]

“Hiratsuka-kun, I want you to break up with me.”

“…… You must have something on your mind.”

“Yes.”

“……Umu”

‘Scared!? What are these people scared of?!’

It was lunchtime on the day I went to school for the first time in a week, after the medical check-up and all that.

Hatsu-chan said she was saying goodbye to her boyfriend, so I followed her as an onlooker……or chaperone, and we faced each other in the middle of the corridor for just one minute. This exchange was the end of it.

“Hiratsuka-kun is a good man after all. I am proud to have been in love with him, even if only for a moment.”

Hatsu-chan nodded with a clear face as she stared at his back as he walked away.

“It’s so simple……”

“It’s not that simple. Right now, that man does not show tears, but he will probably cry alone in his manly tears.”

‘It’s a difficult thing, isn’t it? …..Men.’

“But, Hatsu-chan. Are you sure you want to do this? Even if you say Confinement King is a good man, you’re one of his many women, right?”

“Well, Shima, I’m glad you’re worried about me, but the number of women is a trivial matter. What’s important is that I can become the woman of the best man.”

“……I don’t get it at all.”

“Hmm, you’ll understand once you meet him. Maybe we can meet him soon and you’re supposed to be my servant.”

I was so worried about Hatsu-chan that I reflexively said, [I’m staying too], but I didn’t understand this position as a servant either. I was just worried.

“Well, in the end, you said he was going to let me come and go freely between this 『room』 and that 『room』, right?”

“Yes, but originally, that’s the privilege of a favoured princess. I was scolded for promising something arbitrary. So, the next time I share a bedroom with him, I will be punished for creating the role of servant without permission.”

“Hatsu-chan…… your mouth is loosening.”

When I turned to stare at her, Hatsu-chan thrusted her index finger at me as if to persuade me.

“It can’t be helped. There is such an expression as [sweet night], you know, Shima. It’s really sweet.”

“You talk to much, you ero girl.”

Hatsu-chan had always been a girl who worked hard at everything, but when her vector turned towards men, she became like this, and I couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

“As for myself, I’m going to have a door installed in my room that leads to that room, so I’ll be able to come and go whenever I want, but for everyone else, you’ll either have to come to my house or ask the Confinement King to pick you up. It’s a bit of a hassle at first, but I’ve heard that once he sets foot in a place, he can open the door at that place anytime. It should be smooth the second time around.”

“Everywhere you go……you know, Hatsu-chan, we’re getting used to it, but…..I know the  Confinement King is a mess.”

“Yes, he’s the Confinement King.”

“That’s not an answer to anything, Hatsu-chan.”

“In any case, Takasago keeps sending me messages saying 『dessert, dessert, hurry, hurry』 and it’s getting annoying.”

“That sweet girl…haa…”

“So, tomorrow is Saturday. Let’s go to 『Room』 together with her, Shima, and me”

×××

[Ryoko Terashima’s P.O.V.]

Inomoto-senpai and I looked down at Inspector Nakamura, who was sitting on a sofa in the investigation headquarters.

“Inspector Nakamura, we are taking you into custody on charges of breach of trust.”

When I told him this, his eyes widened for a moment, then he quickly regained his composure and asked probingly.

“What are you talking about?”

“Anna Kamishima confessed, Nakamura. That you have been intentionally excluding the Kamishima clan from the investigation, taking advantage of your position as Chief.”

Inomoto-senpai said she confessed, but in fact she did not. I didn’t question her, but she started talking on her own, to me.

Anna Kamishima must have known that Inspector Nakamura was my fiancee. And she may have wanted to see me despair out of spite of her arrest.

All of them denied kidnapping the girls in the track and field team and Masaki-sama. Of course they did. In fact, it was not them.

They all said that those girls came out of nowhere, but unfortunately, they came out of the back parlour where there was not even a window.

All the circumstantial evidence indicated that they were locked in by them. The physical evidence alone would be sufficient to prosecute the case. There was not a chance in the world that Master would be suspected.

I quietly told Nakamura, who was staring at a spot on the desk.

“All the investigators were suspicious. Why are you so stubbornly refusing to get involved with the Kamishima clan?”

“……I see. It was all for your sake.”

“For me?”

“Oh, yes. Kamishima was not involved in the kidnapping of the girls’ track and field team at all, that’s what she said. She said she was……not comfortable being suspected, so she told me that if I tried to get involved with the Kamishima clan, she would have her fiancée……i.e. you, kidnapped by the continental mafia.”

“Continental mafia?”

“As you know, it is nearly impossible to protect an individual who has been targeted by the continental mafia. If Anna Kamishima is arrested, she’ll ask them to kidnap you, my fiancé. It is clear from the scale of the case that the Kamishima clan is not involved in it……or so I thought.”

“They took your fiancée as a hostage and you offered her a favour.”

Inspector Nakamura responded to the question silently.

‘I see, now I understand why Anna Kamishima told me of Inspector Nakamura’s breach of trust.’

In addition to the fact that my fiancée was involved in crime, the continental mafia was going to target me. They tried to make him despair while forcing him to wait in fear.

But that no longer mattered.

“Then……there’s nothing to worry about anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have no intention of marrying a criminal. I will break off the engagement. You and I are now strangers. There is no reason for them to target me.”

“T,tha–why! I, I was doing it for your sake!”

“Then, for my sake, please leave me honestly. I will inform my informant, who is likely to be connected with the continental mafia, that you and I have absolutely nothing to do with each other.”

“….Sorry, Nakamura.”

Inomoto-senpai, with a wrinkled brow and a distressed look on his face, grabbed the shoulder of Inspector Nakamura, who was weakly nodding his head.

×××

[Kasuya P.O.V]

A dimly lit arcade.

In the coin-operated games section, I was piling up coins and mindlessly consuming them.

I was just killing time. I still had a lot of time before my appointment.

To say the least, the past week had been nothing short of a disaster. All I could think about was why I had to go through all this.

If I answered the phone, it would be, [I’m going to kill you, Kasuya!] I was shouted at by members of the soccer club and alumni, and I had a number of rocks thrown at my house window.

My social networking timeline became so full of pranks and accusations that I finally deleted my main social networking account. Now, I was left with only a sub-account that I used exclusively to communicate with Misuzu.

My father beat me, my mother cried, and my brother looked down on me with contempt.

What did I do? All I did was to get rid of the winged insects that were trying to court her.

Looking back, the first time Misuzu went missing was the day after she ran into Kimo-jima, and the last time she was kidnapped was when Kimo-jima was with her. I was being treated in such an unreasonable manner because of my involvement with him.

He was like a plague or something. He must be so unlucky that he was getting everyone around him into trouble. That was what I thought.

During the past week, the only thing that supported my mind was the exchange of messages with Misuzu. Misuzu was the only one who told me it was not my fault and encouraged me.

Today, she was going to school without incident.

And she was supposed to meet up with me today after school.

The place was the same room as before at La Vian Rose. [I have made a reservation there, so please come at 19:00.] That was what was written at the end of the message we exchanged yesterday.

I could see Misuzu again after a long time. I could hold her again. My heart was so excited that I could not calm down. In this hellish situation, she was my only hope.

Of course, going out during my suspension was problematic, but staying at home was just too painful. Eventually, I went to town in the early afternoon, and I found myself in a game arcade behind the station, fretting over the slow passage of time.

I was about to pick up another coin and throw it in when──

“Oi, Jun. What are you doing here?”

I looked up to see a man wearing a light parka with a hood over his head.

“What are you, a hikikomori?”

Under the hood was the face of Masahiro Tachioka, a long-time classmate with long hair.

“It’s not that I want to be a hikikomori. I heard from my little sister that you’ve been in a lot of trouble.”

“Aaa….it wasn’t all that bad.”

“You were framed, just like me.”

“Framed? By who?”

“If I could figure it out, I wouldn’t have a problem. But somehow, through a series of contacts, I’ve managed to get some help from someone who might be able to find it for me.”

“Someone who might find it?”

“If I don’t know who it is, I can’t do anything about it. You’ve heard of Detective JK, right?”

“Haaa?”

No, I had heard of it, but it was kind of a story on the internet. As I recall, they had a special eye for detecting lies.

“Oi,oi,oi……are you okay in the head?　It’s like an urban legend, you know?”

“Well, I’m not surprised you don’t believe me. Call me when you feel like it, because the more allies you can trust, the better.”

Masahiro gave a small shrug and left.

I looked at my watch. It was only around fourteen o’clock.

“It’s going to be a long day……”

I muttered to myself, and put coins into the game again.

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