Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 37 - Chapter 1

Episode 1: Everyone’s Secrets

Two days had passed since the final showdown against Vandarion, and Koutarou was now faced with a challenge of an altogether different sort—a crisis brought about by Clan’s carelessness.

“Where did I put my glasses...?”

“This is what happens when you don’t clean up your room, Clan.”

“I didn’t ask for nasty comments! Just help me find them already!”

“Just whose fault do you think this is?”

Indeed, Clan had lost her everyday glasses. When she had work to do, she switched to a specialized pair, so she and Koutarou believed she’d misplaced them during the switch. Accordingly, they knew the glasses had to be in her room somewhere. Most likely buried in a pile of research material.

“Since we’re in the palace, why not just call for a maid or attendant?” Koutarou asked.

“No way!” Clan adamantly refused. “I’d never humiliate myself by dragging a maid of the Mastir family into this!”

“Then don’t drag me into it either.”

“You’re different! This is just how things have to be!”

With an emergency meeting coming up, Koutarou wanted to find Clan’s glasses ASAP without wasting any more manpower on the task. And Clan was too embarrassed to ask anyone else for help. While she’d grown in many ways, she was still terrible with people. Inviting strangers into her room would be bad enough, but then having to explain what they could and couldn’t touch would simply be a royal pain.

Koutarou was different, however. He and Clan had known each other for a long time now, so like it or not, she had no choice but to rely on his assistance. He also conveniently already knew what was off-limits in her room. Clan wouldn’t have minded letting any of the other girls into her room either, but they weren’t as familiar with her research and the relevant precautions. They were also busy with their own schedules.

“I can’t believe the girl who had me wash her underwear has suddenly developed a bashful side.”

“Don’t bring that up! That was back from before I knew better!”

“Yeah, I guess so. You were still a sheltered princess treating me like a neanderthal back then.”

“Ugh...”

Clan knew she couldn’t argue. She was the cause of the problem here—and there was an easy way to fix it, but her personality kept her from acting on it. That just made her look selfish, which only made her feel more uncomfortable about the situation. As she stewed over it, however, there came a friendly voice and a knock at the door...

“Satomi-kun, Clan-san, how is it going?”

Clan had few friends who were so polite as to always knock, but her best friend was one of them. It was none other than Harumi, of course, who’d shown up with refreshments for Clan and Koutarou.

“We still haven’t found them,” Koutarou reported. “Clan’s sloppiness is coming back to bite her.”

“Harumi, Veltlion is being so mean to me!”

“Oh my...” Harumi giggled as she stepped into the room with tea and snacks on a tray. Despite her best friend’s desperation, she was enjoying herself. “If I make a mess in my room, would you clean up after me too, Satomi-kun?”

“C’mon. You never leave messes, Sakuraba-senpai.”

“I’m sure I will if I stop cleaning up after myself starting today!”

“I’m sure you’ll buckle after two or three days.”

“You’re so unfair. Come over and clean for me even if my place is already clean!”

“What’s the point...?”

Harumi was envious of how much attention Koutarou always paid to Clan. Harumi had never had to ask Koutarou to help her find anything, which she knew might be embarrassing... But when she saw how much fun Clan and Koutarou were having together—no matter how much Clan might try to deny it—Harumi just couldn’t help being a little jealous.

“If you want Veltlion, you can have him,” Clan offered sulkily.

“If I leave you alone, you’re never going to get anything done,” Koutarou objected.

“I’m not like Yurika!”

“You’re the only one who thinks so.”

Clan was secretly envious of Harumi too. Koutarou trusted her and treated her more like a princess than anyone. Instead, he treated Clan more like a troublesome little sister, and she couldn’t stand it. She wanted to be treated like a princess too, so the disconnect was a great source of frustration.

In the end, it was Harumi who located Clan’s glasses. They were sitting on a sink shelf, right where Clan had probably left them while cleaning some laboratory equipment. Once found, Clan restored them to the bridge of her nose where they rightfully belonged and, crisis solved, was able to participate in the emergency meeting regarding Folsaria without any issues.

“...Besides, Veltlion doesn’t even see me as a woman!”

Yet despite how much time had passed, she was still miffed at Koutarou. She was currently venting to her best friend Harumi accordingly.

“That’s just Satomi-kun’s way of being bashful.”

“It is not! He enjoys bullying me!”

“Must be nice...”

“There’s nothing nice about it!”

From Harumi’s point of view, Koutarou did see Clan as a princess—a special one that he’d decided to keep close to him. Otherwise, the sword wouldn’t have shone with all nine lights in the decisive fight against Vandarion. She knew that, deep down, Clan and Koutarou were connected, even if it didn’t seem like it on the surface. The way they expressed their feelings just never aligned. Clan wanted to be pampered, while Koutarou couldn’t be upfront with her. Harumi’s intuition told her that this was the result of Clan’s personality and Koutarou’s extraordinary shyness for a boy his age... But her intuition also told her that pointing this out wouldn’t fix Clan’s mood. So instead, she changed the topic.

“I have an idea, Clan-san. Why don’t we take a look around while we’re here?”

Since the emergency meeting concerned Folsaria, they’d come out to Veltlion’s special territory. It was about the only place where Folsarians could be received for the time being, but it was also a very meaningful location to Harumi. That was really why she’d suggested touring the place.

“That’s a good idea,” Clan said after a pause. “We did come all this way.”

And just as Harumi had hoped, Clan’s attention turned away from Koutarou. Veltlion’s special territory was just as significant to her.

“Do you mind if I ask about the official designation of this place, Clan-san?”

“This is, er, Veltlion’s dominion. He supersedes the law here, so it’s basically like its own country.”

“So it’s extraterritorial, like an embassy or something?”

“I suppose it would be closer to Vatican City on Earth.”

This was particularly meaningful to Harumi, as Alaia had established this inviolable domain for Koutarou’s sake. And for Clan, she remembered it as the place where she and Koutarou slept for two thousand years before meeting their dear friend Elfaria. They both had a strong connection to it, so they both wanted to see what it looked like in modern times.

Harumi only knew a little bit about Veltlion’s special territory. She’d inherited Alaia’s memories, but only up to the point she parted ways with Koutarou. That was why she had to turn to Clan now for supplementary details.

“So, legally speaking, this place must be complicated to deal with, mustn’t it?” she asked.

“That’s right. If a wanted criminal were to flee here, the authorities would need Veltlion’s permission to go after them. But since he would never be present to make such a call, the territory was deemed inviolable.”

“It seems Princess Alaia put a lot of thought into this.”

“Of course. Any woman would.”

Though Harumi had questions for Clan, the reverse was also true. There were certain things that only she could answer. When it came to the world of two thousand years ago, no one knew it better than Harumi.

“Say,” Clan began, “wasn’t there a tower standing here?”

“Indeed. There’s a small hill just over there. You couldn’t see it back then because of the outer wall, but a tower was necessary to survey anything beyond it.”

Veltlion’s special territory was the birthplace of the Reborn Forthorthian Army, meaning it was originally a fort in Pardomshiha territory. Even long after the fort was gone, the Pardomshiha family was still in charge of managing the land. Clan had stayed there for a while herself, but Alaia was much more knowledgeable about it as a member of the royal family at the time.

“I remember now,” Clan laughed. “Charl-san was always wanting to climb it.”

“And in the end, she had Koutarou-sama take her up there. Oh, Charl...”

“But it’s thanks to her that morale never wavered. Hahaha.”

The two girls stood looking up at the sky together. The tower they spoke of was no more, but they could both see it clearly in their minds—including Koutarou climbing it while carrying a young girl. Even with the monument itself gone, those memories were forever etched into their hearts.

“The soldiers guarding Charl did get pretty worked up, though.”

“She would run off to find Veltlion whenever she got the chance, after all.”

“Halfway through the war, I decided to station some of her guard directly with Koutarou-sama.”

“I thought you were increasing security around him... So that was your real goal, huh?”

Clan and Harumi continued to tour Veltlion’s special territory, fondly recalling various memories and chatting away with smiles on their faces. They’d only stayed here a short time in the past while raising an army, but it had left a profound effect on them.

“It’s changed a bit since the old days. Although, I suppose that’s inevitable since it has been two thousand years...” Harumi sighed.

“I should apologize for that,” Clan confessed.

The girls’ final stop was a cave halfway up a certain small hill. The cave itself was considerable in size, and its entrance was several dozen meters wide. Even Alunaya would have been able to come and go freely without any trouble.

“Did something happen?” Harumi asked.

“I may have crashed the Cradle when we landed.”

“Goodness! Was everything okay?!”

“Well, it was already broken to begin with...”

This was the cave where Clan and Koutarou had hidden with the Cradle for thousands of years, protected by Alaia’s decree. It was truly thanks to her that they were able to slumber undisturbed. In the modern day and age, Veltlion’s special territory was overseen by a regent, so entry to the area wasn’t as strictly forbidden as it had been in the past. Nevertheless, the territory had gone nearly untouched for two millennia. It wasn’t exactly hospitable to visitors. That seemed to be evident in the cave as well, whose depths extended well beyond the sunlight of the entrance.

“Just a minute. I’ll brighten things up...” Clan said. “I hope this still works.”

She tapped her bracelet to issue a command. The next moment, lights all over flashed on and banished the darkness. Fortunately, the lighting Clan had installed two thousand years ago was still functional.

“So this is what it’s like inside,” Harumi remarked.

“That’s right. You’ve never seen the inside, have you?”

Harumi beheld the illuminated cave with great curiosity. The memories she’d inherited from Signaltin only went through Alaia and Koutarou’s parting, meaning she had no recollection of what had happened afterward. This was indeed her first time seeing the inside of the cave for herself.

“Clan-san, where was the Cradle buried?”

“Over here. I made sure it was out of sight from the entrance.”

“Haha, of course. That was smart.”

The girls continued deeper into the cave, relying on Clan’s lights. A few were broken here and there, but not enough to obscure the way. Before long, they arrived at their intended destination.

“Right here in this cavity,” Clan said, pointing.

“Ah, I see. It does look like the Cradle would fit in there perfectly.”

“And you watched over us here for so long.”

As Harumi inspected the cave wall, Clan showed her an old stone plaque nearby. Etched into it was a snowy crest and an inscription: May the knights who departed for the other side of the sky slumber soundly. Let none disturb their rest. At first glance, it appeared to be a memorial to fallen soldiers. Next to Alaia’s crest, however, the message took on a whole new meaning. Alaia had known that Koutarou and Clan were resting here, and she made sure that nobody would interfere as the years wore on.

“This is...” Harumi faltered. “I... I...”

The moment she’d entered Veltlion’s special territory, the Alaia within her had begun stirring. Even without those specific memories, Harumi could easily imagine what she must have felt two thousand years ago. There was nothing in it for her, but she did her utmost to ensure that Koutarou could return to his own world as thanks for protecting both her and Forthorthe. She wanted him to be able to go home and fulfill the promises he’d made to the girls of his world—just like a true knight should. But it hurt Alaia to send him off when she wanted nothing more than to wake him.

“That’s why Veltlion and I owe you more than we could ever repay. That’s why I want to let you do what you couldn’t back then,” Clan said quietly.

She knew how Alaia felt, and she could imagine what must have gone through her mind when she found the Cradle frozen in time here. Alaia just wanted to live as a normal girl. To fall in love like normal. To build a normal family. And if that just so happened to be with Koutarou, Clan wouldn’t get in the way. Nevertheless, she had no intention of backing down herself. She was determined to continue looking after Harumi’s health and working on the PAF to support her.

I get it. This must be why Veltlion...

Clan was struck by a sudden realization about why Koutarou treated her and Harumi so differently. It wasn’t just because they’d always had that kind of relationship, but because he too felt he owed Alaia more than he could ever repay. That meant even though both girls were equally precious to him—as the crests on their foreheads proved—there was a difference in the way he expressed his feelings for them. A perfectly natural one, even, given how indebted they were to Alaia.

“You needn’t feel that way.” Harumi wiped away the tears in the corners of her eyes and gave Clan a bright smile. She then pointed to the stone monument. “I think I built this in hopes of fulfilling my own wish to relinquish the past in favor of moving forward alongside you and Satomi-kun.”

“Harumi... thank you. But when you say it like that, you sound more like Alaia-san than ever. I think it’s going to take a little longer to let go of the past.”

“Then I’ll try to look at things in a more Harumi-like fashion.”

“I believe in you,” Clan said with a chuckle.

Alaia would have wanted nothing more than for Harumi to be her own self. There was no need for her to forget her past life as Alaia, but she still wanted Harumi to be Harumi. She wanted Harumi to live for herself—for everyone’s sake.

The cave held more mementos of Clan and Koutarou’s time there than just the Cradle’s hiding spot. Since only twenty years had passed since they’d emerged, artifacts of their life here still lingered.

“The remains of a campfire? That’s right... You and Satomi-kun lived here for a while, didn’t you?”

“We did. We made do here twenty years ago while I got my hands on the parts that we needed.”

Harumi had discovered an old campfire as well as a simple table, some chairs, and other daily necessities. They were all thoroughly caked in dust, however, suggesting they’d been undisturbed for years.

“So you were cooking back then, Clan-san?” Harumi asked with a smile, picking up a half-open container and dusty pot. As the rather domestic sort, she looked right at home holding them.

“Ugh...”

Clan, however, groaned when she saw them and looked away. Seeing this, Harumi cocked her head. It wasn’t the reaction she’d been expecting, although the reason for it suddenly hit her.

“So you weren’t, were you?” she asked.

But Clan had no response.

Harumi had heard that Koutarou handled all the housekeeping chores. Clan was a princess, not to mention occupied with her research, so it was out of necessity. Even so, Harumi hadn’t thought Clan had done nothing during their time together. She’d always imagined that she’d lent a hand whenever Koutarou was busy.

“You did help a little, right?”

“Um, n-no comment...”

If Clan was avoiding the question, that could only mean one thing: she really hadn’t ever lifted a finger. This shocked Harumi.

“H-How on earth were you living?!” she exclaimed.

And she genuinely wanted to know the answer. She couldn’t imagine living together with the boy she loved for months and letting him do all of the chores. It was unthinkable. Yet in spite of everything, Clan had forged a deep bond with Koutarou. Harumi both respected and admired that.

“I was just, um, living like normal...” Clan stammered. She could feel Harumi staring at her admiringly for all the wrong reasons. She couldn’t help blushing and averting her eyes.

“Clan-san, please teach me how to live normally too! It’s very important to me! It’s exactly what Alaia and I couldn’t do!” Harumi pressed Clan with sparkling eyes. This was a most unexpected outburst for such a modest girl—it was just that important to her. This, she thought, might be her chance to get Koutarou to treat her more like Clan.

“S-Say what you will, but...” Clan hesitated.

Harumi was essentially asking her to lay bare her bad side. If possible, Clan would personally prefer never to bring it up or even think about it ever again. Yet when her best friend begged her so, she could hardly say no. She felt she owed Alaia at least this much.

“F-Fine...”

“Thank you so much, Clan-san!”

Thus Clan proceeded to tell Harumi everything about living together with Koutarou in the past. It was an embarrassing story she’d never told anyone else before. A secret she’d intended to take to her grave.

Harumi’s first questions were about how Clan and Koutarou had managed upon being thrown into the past. She recalled meeting them and how they’d behaved around Alaia, but the princess was none the wiser about their former relationship as enemies. Harumi was curious how the two of them had come to team up together.

“It was right after you tried to interfere with the school play, wasn’t it? So how were you able to reconcile so soon?”

“Th-That’s... um...” Clan looked down and blushed with all the bashfulness of a little girl.

It was a telltale sign that she still didn’t have much experience opening up to people. Had she been talking to anyone else, they likely would have noticed and backed off. But right now, Harumi was utterly fixated on Clan’s relationship with Koutarou.

“Um, I think I was lucky,” Clan finally squeaked, still avoiding eye contact. Right now, she wanted to run away and hide somewhere.

“Lucky?” Harumi asked.

“Yeah. What happened after Veltlion destroyed my Super Space-time Repulsion Shell was so dire that we were in no position to fight. The incident may have been unfortunate on the whole, but the circumstances were also lucky in that they forced us to cooperate.”

When they were initially shunted to the past, Clan and Koutarou believed they’d prevented the Blue Knight from meeting the Silver Princess. They’d accordingly entered into an emergency truce in an attempt to get history back on track. Clan couldn’t leave Koutarou, let alone kill him. They had to work together.

“If something less dire had happened, like we were simply stranded in space... we might still be fighting,” Clan confessed, forgetting her embarrassment as she shuddered.

As she was now, she understood just how nasty she’d been in the past. Imagining what she would be like today if she’d stayed that way upset her. She was sure she’d have become the kind of princess to wreak misfortune on Forthorthe, or even the empress herself—and if that’s how things were going to turn out, she would’ve preferred dying at Koutarou’s hands. Thinking through it, Clan felt she was truly lucky to have been sent to the past.

“So you were reluctantly working together at the start. I didn’t think you were any ordinary knight and servant myself...” mused Harumi. Clan and Koutarou in the past popped into her mind courtesy of Alaia’s memories. They’d claimed to be a knight and his servant, but there was a palpable tension between them in the early days.

“We were enemies, so it’s not like we trusted one another right away.”

“I can see how there would be plenty of friction. So, how did you live back then?” Harumi and Alaia were both curious about what kind of life they’d shared upon going from enemies to reluctant allies.

“Ugh...” Clan had looked serious for a while now, but her expression abruptly stiffened as she blushed, once again turning away to avoid eye contact. “Well, that’s, u-um... I was busy with work... so Veltlion ended up doing things for me...”

“Satomi-kun helped you out from the start? Even with the laundry?”

Harumi could understand helping with cooking and cleaning, but the washing was a different story. She couldn’t imagine the courage it would take to ask a boy to launder her clothes—much less her undergarments.

“U-Uhh...”

Clan’s face was beet red, and it was all she could do to nod in answer. She then hung her head low. She now understood how big of a deal it really was.

“I’m honestly surprised you let your enemy wash your clothes,” Harumi remarked.

“I was just so sheltered and busy with work. Besides, I only thought of him as some neanderthal, and... um...”

“And what?”

“I thought it would be fine since I was just going to kill him once we got back...”

“Oh my!”

At the time, Clan had planned on finishing off Koutarou once they safely returned to Earth. In that light, it didn’t matter to her what he saw since dead men tell no tales. This revelation came as a surprise to Harumi, who sat there with her mouth wide open in disbelief.

“I-I realize how pathetic that sounds now! I even do my own laundry these days! I’m not that person anymore, okay, Harumi?!”

“Pfft!” When she saw how flustered Clan was getting, Harumi quickly recovered and broke into a laugh. “Hahaha! Don’t worry, Clan-san. I understand.”

“Y-You do?”

“Of course. Everyone was inexperienced at one point. I couldn’t even talk to people until I started acting, remember?”

“Really? Phew...” Clan sighed in relief.

After all this time and everything that had happened, Harumi was Clan’s best friend. She was loath to reveal past indiscretions that might make Harumi dislike her, but Harumi bore no such ill will. To the socially awkward Clan who’d practically grown up in a laboratory, this was a huge relief. Once she collected herself, Clan turned her attention back to Harumi to discover that she was still laughing.

“Haha! Ahahaha!”

“Harumi?”

“I think I understand why you get angry when Satomi-kun teases you so.”

“Huh?”

Now it was Clan’s turn to sit there with her mouth wide open in disbelief. She’d never confessed the real reason to anyone before.

“You’re worried that he does it because of your behavior in the past.”

At this, Clan gasped. She felt like her heart was being squeezed. Harumi had hit the nail on the head. Clan had always worried that Koutarou only teased her for how she’d carried herself when they first met—especially because he was so quick to bring up their time in past Forthorthe together.

“W-Wait, Harumi!”

With the truth exposed, Clan was panicking. Kiriha might have already realized the truth and simply decided to keep quiet on the matter, but this was the first time Clan knew for certain that she’d been read like a book. That meant both her deepest flaws and her deepest affections for the boy she loved had been revealed—things which, if possible, she didn’t want anyone to know about.

“Please don’t worry, Clan-san. I’ll keep your secret,” Harumi assured her.

“I, uhhh...”

“I’ll also do my best to help you get over that nervousness someday.”

“Harumi...”

“In exchange, please help me with my frustrations too.”

“I’m no match for you, Harumi...”

Harumi likewise considered Clan to be her best friend. That’s why she showered Clan with kindness. Above all else, Clan was grateful to have such a friend.

After that, Clan told Harumi more about her past with Koutarou. Ancient Forthorthe was like a foreign land to her, so it had been a huge boon to have a comrade from the future with her. That was how her feelings for Koutarou had first come to evolve.

“I first noticed the change when that happened... I mean, when Maxfern poisoned the water and got people sick.”

“I see... Did something happen that I wasn’t privy to?”

“When the virus broke out, I was prepared to look the other way. But Veltlion erupted with rage...”

“Hahaha! That sounds just like Koutarou-sama.”

Clan had had a change of heart about Koutarou during the virus incident. Letting people die just so they could return to their own time was wrong. It certainly wasn’t royal behavior. Koutarou’s stand left a strong impression on Clan—he’d shown her how to be a better princess. And ever since then, she’d seen him in a different light. In her eyes, Koutarou was a paragon of knighthood who always followed the righteous path.

“But didn’t that pose a problem?” Harumi asked. “What about him washing your underwear?”

“It made my life a living hell. Even if I’d demanded to do it myself at that point, it was too late and unnatural...”

“I can imagine. So in spite of yourself, you still let Satomi-kun do your laundry?”

“Aaaaahhh! Someone please erase my memories from those daaays!”

Clan clutched her head and writhed in agony. After acknowledging Koutarou and backing off of her plans to kill him, she’d wished she’d never let him do the laundry. Worse still, telling him to stop would have only been a backhanded way of admitting her feelings had changed.

“But I think you’re the only Forthorthian in history who’s done that,” said Harumi.

“Huh?” Clan asked, puzzled.

“I mean you’re the only Forthorthian in history who’s had Layous Fatra Veltlion wash your underwear.”

“N-Noooooooo! Won’t someone please wipe my memory?!”

It was the biggest blunder of Clan’s life. Not only was Koutarou a legendary hero, he was also the man she had feelings for. Yet she’d made him do all sorts of chores for her—including, tragically, washing her underwear. It was a dark past she wanted nothing more than to run from. It was no small wonder she was sensitive about Koutarou teasing her. She wasn’t just worried about their past as enemies; she was worried he didn’t see her as a woman at all.

“Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the Reborn Forthorthian Army was established,” reminded Harumi.

“A-And thank goodness for that,” sighed Clan. “Otherwise I might’ve put myself out of my misery already.”

Right around the time Clan began to see Koutarou differently, Alaia and her cohort reached Pardomshiha territory and formed an army to retake the country. Thanks to that, all daily necessities were provided for them and Koutarou no longer needed to wash her clothes personally. So in the end, Clan’s ordeal had only lasted for about a month.

“Ahaha,” Harumi laughed. “So what did you do about cooking and cleaning?”

Seeing Clan’s embarrassed desperation, Harumi decided to move on. With that, Clan was finally able to breathe a little and relax.

“The cooking situation wasn’t as bad as the washing,” she began. “But Veltlion still did most of it. He had a hard time with the unfamiliar ingredients, although he managed to make do with them.”

Clan had successfully been able to contribute in terms of meals thanks to the rations she had stored aboard the Cradle. She had a little pride in that, and her expression subsequently returned to normal.

“What kind of things did Satomi-kun make?”

“Hmm, mostly simple ones. To be expected, I guess, seeing as how he’s not a chef or anything.”

Clan proceeded to tell Harumi about all of the dishes Koutarou had made. She recalled him cooking with ingredients that were easy to get their hands on, such as vegetables and poultry. They were also able to procure fish from time to time, but their staples were primarily lightly browned potatoes and bread. Since they were constantly on the move, they had limited seasonings and other pantry supplies.

“We quickly made our way to Pardomshiha territory, and the military provided our food after that, so the lack of variation didn’t bother me too much.”

“I see. If Satomi-kun is that good at cooking, I’ll need to be more careful about what I serve in the future...”

“He continued to work with the army after that, so I’m sure he improved even more after I stopped eating his cooking.”

“Good to know.”

What exactly Koutarou could do in the kitchen and his food preferences were critical pieces of intel to Harumi. She thought it would be fun to let him do his thing while she helped out. She wasn’t interested in spoiling him completely. She thought it would be more enjoyable if it were a two-way street.

From there, Clan ended up telling Harumi about most everything about the past. Events had unfolded quickly in Ancient Forthorthe after the Reborn Forthorthian Army was established, and that turmoil was followed by meeting Elfaria and then Kiriha. By the time Clan got to the end of it all, Harumi had one last question for her.

“Um, Clan-san,” she began hesitantly. “May I ask you something rather forward?”

“I don’t mind. What is it?” Clan nodded without thinking too hard about it.

She then noticed that Harumi’s cheeks were a little flushed, but by the time she realized what she’d walked into, Harumi had already asked: “Um... Wh-What did you do for sleeping arrangements?”

Not only were Harumi’s cheeks flushed now, but her eyes were darting this way and that as she restlessly fiddled with her fingers too. Anyone who knew her would have been surprised to see her like this. Her calm demeanor had evaporated, leaving her fidgeting bashfully.

“W-Well, that’s...” Clan stammered, shaken to the core. It had been a hard question for Harumi to ask, but it was just as hard for Clan to answer.

“You two were always together during your travels, even sharing the same room...”

“Th-That’s just how things worked out! We were pretending to be a knight and his servant after all!”

“Even so, you were alone together at night... I don’t know what you did or what you talked about... It’s something I have no memories of, so I’m curious...”

It was true that Clan and Koutarou had spent many an uninterrupted night together. Of all the Corona House crew, Clan had spent the most time with him in that regard, period. It was only natural that Harumi was interested in what it was like.

“When we first agreed to a truce, we didn’t even speak that much. Then we started discussing how to resolve our never-ending spate of problems—nothing more than that! Nothing special happened... ever...”

At first, they’d even set up a divider between their beds because Clan hadn’t wanted Koutarou to see her sleeping face.

“Nothing at all?”

“...Maybe a little something...”

As time passed, they’d used the divider less and less. It stopped seeming worth the time and energy it took to set up. As Koutarou and Clan came to trust each other, she’d even started to take comfort in being able to see him.

“I may have moved my bed so I could see Veltlion’s face...”

“I can understand that. I discreetly moved our chairs in the club room too.”

Eventually, Clan had begun slipping out of bed at night to sneak a peek at Koutarou’s face from up close. She’d even seriously considered going to bed with makeup on in case he did the same.

“At night, I’d tiptoe over to his bed and... um... get close enough to feel his breath...”

“Considering Satomi-kun’s sleeping habits, that was dangerous. It would’ve been terrible if he caught a hold of you.”

“...”

“Did... you want him to catch you?”

“Ugh...”

There, both Harumi and Clan blushed. But in spite of the awkwardness, they continued to chat away. This was a special topic near and dear to both of their hearts.

“That’s unfair, Clan... I wish I could do that too...”

“Wh-What about you, Harumi?! I bet you’ve seen a lot of Veltlion that I haven’t! I want to hear all about your club activities and the harvest festival in past Forthorthe!”

“U-Um... well...”

Clan had now shared all her embarrassing secrets with Harumi, and she wasn’t going to leave until Harumi shared hers too.

Clan hardly knew anything about Koutarou prior to her arrival on Earth. She’d shown up just before the culture festival in his first year of high school, meaning she’d known him for half a year less than everyone else. Clan was always curious about the time she’d missed, as the Corona House crew often reminisced about the past she wasn’t a part of. She was hoping Harumi could help fill her in on that. She was also curious about the time Koutarou had spent alone with Alaia. She wanted to know more about that too.

“I first met Satomi-kun when I was recruiting members for my society at school,” Harumi began, just like Clan asked.

She’d already pestered Clan about the details of her past with Koutarou, so she thought it was only fair that she shared too. Moreover, she wanted her friend to know the story of how she’d met Koutarou. She figured this was a good opportunity to tell Clan what she was like before they met.

“You mean... your knitting club, was it?” Clan asked.

“That’s right. Satomi-kun stepped in to save me when a boy was bothering me.”

“Bothering you?”

“Er, well... he said he’d join the knitting society if I went out with him.”

“So there are people like that all over the universe... Couldn’t you have just beaten him and chased him away yourself?”

“Ahaha, I couldn’t use magic back then.”

“Then I imagine it was a difficult situation to be in.”

“That’s why when Satomi-kun came to save me, I, well...” Harumi hesitated. “He looked like a dashing prince to me.”

“Hahaha, even though he’s just a knight.”

“Well... Hahaha.”

Harumi blushed, but Clan was smiling brightly. She’d gotten over the nerves of sharing her own secrets with Harumi, so she was fully able to enjoy her friend’s.

“So, how big was this knitting society of yours?” Clan asked.

“Well, it was just me and Satomi-kun.”

“Oh? So you got to spend plenty of time alone with him, didn’t you?”

“We were only working together on club activities...”

“I get that. He and I were basically only working together too.” Clan was keenly interested in Harumi’s tale. It was the story of a romance from another planet, and also the story of how reserved Harumi had come to be the girl she now was. “Did you ever make any moves on Veltlion?”

“No way! I’d never! I fell for him after everything that happened, but boys are like a totally different species!”

“I know how you feel... Except in my case, it’s not just boys. I felt that way about everyone.”

“I mean, I did try... but my methods were so roundabout that they hardly produced any effect.”

Even now, Harumi could clearly remember having a hard time getting her feelings across to Koutarou. Just last year she’d given him a valentine—only to insist in the end that it was an obligatory gift that didn’t mean anything special. She just wasn’t used to dealing with men, and her naturally shy personality worked against her. She’d since confessed her true feelings to Koutarou, but a year ago, she’d spent every single day wondering what to do with herself.

“After what he went through as a child, he subconsciously came to believe that he would lose everyone he cared about,” Clan explained. “Or perhaps it was completely conscious and he simply ignored it.”

“Perhaps. I felt like he’d built up a wall that kept him from ever truly getting close to anyone,” Harumi agreed.

“Yet we all managed to break through it together,” Clan said with a smile.

As she grinned, her forehead began glowing. Harumi had once been the only girl who bore the sword-shape crest, but now all nine of them wore the honor. They’d each broken through the wall around Koutarou’s heart, and the mark upon their foreheads was a sign that he’d accepted them. One could say that the crests symbolized their relationship.

“We sure did. That’s why I’m so happy the impatience of the past feels like just a dream now,” Harumi said with a smile of her own.

She was now convinced that her feelings had reached Koutarou—but it wasn’t because of the crest on her forehead. She was certain she’d feel the same way even without it.

“I’m jealous,” Clan confessed. “I wish I had your confidence.”

Unlike the beaming Harumi, Clan now wore an uncertain expression. Even with the crest on her forehead, she wasn’t as sure of her relationship with Koutarou.

“Don’t be silly, Clan-san. Satomi-kun loves you too,” Harumi assured her.

“That’s not what I’m worried about... I just don’t think he sees me as a woman.”

Clan understood that she was precious to Koutarou, but she questioned the exact nature of his affection for her. Such doubts were nowhere in her mind during the decisive battle against Vandarion, but they’d blossomed once things had settled down after the fact. She and Koutarou had started off as enemies, after all, and she was exceedingly immature. Even now, he still treated her like a little sister.

“Aren’t you just overthinking things? Satomi-kun did say that he loves us all.”

“It’s not like he would’ve admitted it if he felt differently about me when he said that.”

“Clan-san...”

Harumi was concerned. Clan’s worry was far more serious than she’d imagined. The rocky start to Clan’s relationship with Koutarou left her feeling anxious to this day. She loved him, and he loved her—but Clan wasn’t convinced it was the kind of romantic love she wanted. That was precisely why she hated him treating her like a sister. If she could just be certain of his feelings for her, she’d be much happier.

“Anyway, that’s enough about boring ol’ me!” Clan said with a smile when she saw the worried look Harumi was giving her. “I want to hear more of your story!”

“Clan-san...”

“I might be able to learn something from you.”

“Okay... Then what would you like to hear next?” Harumi acquiesced with a gracious smile. If she could help Clan, she wanted to do exactly that.

“We’ve talked about the past a little, but why don’t we go further back? Tell me about Alaia-san.”

“So you want to know more about me, do you? Let’s see...”

Clan was precious to Harumi and Alaia, albeit in a different sense than Koutarou. She was a dear friend who shared memories of their distant past. In a way, that brought them closer together. Talking to one another was easy.

“From my point of view, Koutarou-sama was most mysterious back then.”

“He did come from two thousand years in the future.”

“That was part of it, but while he treated me like a princess, he was also very familiar... You could say he was friendly.”

Alaia was mystified by Koutarou’s behavior. He always carried himself like a model knight, but there were times he went far above and beyond his chivalric duties. The best example was when Alaia had considered abandoning her fight against Maxfern in order to preserve the peace of the land. Any normal knight would have asserted the legitimacy of their liege and insisted on fighting for their honor, but Koutarou had heeded Alaia’s hesitations and told her to follow her heart. She knew of no other knight who would have put her feelings first.

“I think that’s the byproduct of his intense dedication to Theiamillis-san and his genteel care for his Princess Harumi,” volunteered Clan.

“I think so too now, though I didn’t know any better back then...”

“So you ended up falling for him?”

“I think I first felt it when I saw him running around with Charl on his back...”

It hadn’t taken long for Alaia to realize the knight of her dreams had come to her. The longer she looked at Koutarou, the more her affection for him grew. She had strong feelings for him, and seeing the way he interacted with her loved ones only inflamed those feelings. Meeting him was like seeing a missing puzzle piece fall into place in her life.

“So that part of the legend is true then, huh?”

“What part?”

“That you were already in love by the harvest festival.”

“Er, yes... I do believe so.”

“In other words, it was obvious to everyone around you.”

“Oh my...”

Influenced by Alaia inside of her, Harumi had wistfully been looking off into the distance, but now a crimson blush blossomed on her cheeks. Alaia had never realized that she was so transparent. She was embarrassed to be finding out about it now.

“Charl mentioned in her memoirs that she was pretty sure something happened between you and Veltlion when you sneaked out for the harvest festival.”

“Oh, that Charl!”

“It came up in the diaries of various soldiers too. They all said something was suspicious after the battle with the giant, and that it was all but confirmed by the fight against the dragon.”

“To think that’s how they saw it...” Harumi struggled to contain herself and bashfully turned away. Even the legendary princess was just a girl right now.

“So, what actually happened with Veltlion?” Clan asked, pushing closer to Harumi.

“Erk...” Whenever Alaia came to the surface, Harumi seemed almost invincible—but right now, she was unusually vulnerable.

“You made me tell you everything, but you won’t tell me even that much?” Clan pressed.

“F-Fine... Okay, I give!” Harumi wiggled and fidgeted nervously, eventually caving to the pressure. It would be unfair if she didn’t spill the beans too. “We actually opened up to one another about our personal troubles. Koutarou-sama admitted that he didn’t do well with fighting...”

“That does sound like him... What’d you tell him?”

“That I was uncertain about retaking the country when it would put the lives of the very citizens I was trying to protect at risk.”

“Those are on completely different levels,” Clan remarked, her eyes wide. She knew that, given Alaia’s position, she only would have been able to share such a worry with a close confidant. It was proof of Alaia’s absolute trust in Koutarou.

“In reality, they aren’t so different,” Harumi insisted. “They’re fundamentally the same problem.”

“What did Veltlion tell you?”

“He said that even if a knight’s sword breaks, all that matters is that the oath sworn upon the blade is upheld. He said that he wouldn’t mind fighting in the name of peace.”

“Yeah, that’d do it...”

“Indeed... I felt as though he were the one for me.”

Harumi could clearly remember that night even now. Koutarou had understood Alaia’s feelings and assured her that she was doing the right thing. He’d promised that he’d follow her even if she were to lose her position. It was more comfort and support than Alaia could have ever hoped for, and those welling emotions cemented her love.

“But at the same time... that became a barrier between us,” Harumi continued.

“What do you mean?”

“Just like you, Koutarou-sama never treated me like a normal girl. My status always got in the way.”

“I see...”

That was a problem for both Harumi and Alaia—his upperclassman and princess. The respect Koutarou had for them prevented him from getting too casual with them. He might have insisted otherwise, but Harumi could feel the difference. She knew he didn’t treat her the same way he did Shizuka or Sanae.

“That’s why I want to ask you how to get Koutarou-sama not to treat me like a princess,” Harumi put forward.

Koutarou was clearly different around Clan too. He treated her almost like he did his best friend, Kenji. Harumi wanted to know how to get in on that, which was why she’d been curious about how Clan had gotten into her current relationship with Koutarou.

“So one princess is being treated too delicately, and the other too roughly...” Clan sighed.

“I’m glad you shared your story with me, Clan-san. I think we should try to find some middle ground between us,” Harumi suggested. She felt they could get Koutarou to treat them each a bit like the other.

“Find middle ground? Yeah, you’re right,” Clan agreed with a nod. She originally wanted to be respected and loved like Harumi and Alaia. But after hearing Alaia’s story, she realized that finding a happy medium would be for the best. She pensively folded her arms to think on the matter.

Thinking about it, it’s not like I really want to be treated like a princess all the time. Sometimes it’s actually nice to have things the way they are...

While Clan wanted to be treated more like Harumi, Harumi also wanted to be treated more like Clan. If they could swap problems, everything would be solved—but such a revolutionary idea wouldn’t come to them right away. Harumi folded her arms like Clan and began thinking over the matter for herself.

Is there some way to solve both of our dilemmas?

After some time, Clan casually muttered, “If only we could trade places...”

“That’s it Clan-san!” Harumi exclaimed, her face alight. “Why don’t we just trade places?”

“Huh? Wh-What are you saying?”

“We’re going to trade places somehow! If we combine our powers, I’m sure it’s possible!”

Clan hadn’t been entirely serious when she’d said it aloud, but Harumi was gung-ho. And indeed, it should be possible with their combined powers of magic and science. It wouldn’t have to last for long to work, and they’d only need to fool Koutarou. Accordingly, they wasted no time getting to work.

Harumi and Clan’s plan was simple. First, Clan would generate holograms and synthesized voices to change how they looked and sounded. Basically, they’d be wearing very technical costumes. Harumi would then use her magic to round out the act and make it more believable. Rather than casting a full-blown illusion, she would conserve her mana by just altering Koutarou’s perception a little. The only potential problem was just how sharp Koutarou was. Even if the girls’ disguises were perfect, the jig would be up if he got suspicious and used his spirit sight on them.

“It’s not like Veltlion is stupid, so we’ll need to be careful,” Clan said, looking and sounding like Harumi as she put her hands on her hips and glanced forward with a stern expression on her face.

The girls were now standing just outside a guest room at the imperial palace. According to his schedule, Koutarou should be done with his engagements and retired for the day.

“He does have a knack for uncovering things we’re trying to hide,” Harumi said, looking and sounding like Clan as she pushed up her glasses.

The unfamiliar spectacles sat uncomfortably on her nose. Since they would have made the Clan hologram more complex, Clan had chosen to simplify things by handing her glasses over to Harumi for the experiment. But because Harumi wasn’t used to wearing them, she might accidentally tip Koutarou off.

“If there’s anything you’d like to try, make sure you do it early before he suspects anything is up. Just don’t be too obvious,” Clan warned her.

“I’m awfully hesitant with decisions like that. It’s hard for me to make a move...”

“Likewise. But if we don’t take the plunge now, we’ll lose this chance.”

“Then I’ll do my best.”

The girls had exchanged appearances in hopes of finding out what made their respective relationships with Koutarou so different. It was going to take boldness and bravery, but it was a delicate dance. They couldn’t blow their own cover. They’d have to embody each other in spirit—not just looks—to pull this off.

“Let’s go, Harumi. Er, I mean Clan-san.”

“I-Indeed, let us—”

“That won’t do, Clan-san. You wouldn’t normally knock on the door.”

“R-Right. In that case...”

The girls braced themselves and barged into Koutarou’s room. There was no reason to think they’d be discovered so soon, but their hearts were pounding nevertheless. It wasn’t just nervousness affecting them, however. They were both excited about the opportunity ahead of them.

Whenever Clan and Harumi walked together, Harumi generally stayed a few steps behind out of deference to Clan’s position. Harumi was a polite girl, and she thought it was only proper to be respectful with a princess even if they were friends. They’d been walking side by side more often recently at Clan’s behest, but Harumi never dared to walk in front of her... until now, under these most unusual of circumstances.

“I’m so sorry, Clan-san...”

“What are you talking about?! Look, Velt— Ahem, Satomi-kun is looking this way.”

As expected, the girls found Koutarou relaxing in his room alone. He was reclined on the sofa watching the equivalent of Forthorthian TV. Harumi and Clan had arranged things with the other girls ahead of time. They’d promised not to interfere, and in exchange, Harumi and Clan had promised to stream what happened live for them to watch. They were on the edge of their seats at this very moment.

“Hey, it’s just you two,” Koutarou called, looking over his shoulder at the girls as they entered. Harumi immediately felt a change.

He even looks at us differently... So this is how Satomi-kun sees Clan-san...

She couldn’t help notice the glint in his eyes. She was used to the kind gaze Koutarou beheld her with. If she were to describe it, it was like the gentle sunbeams of early spring. But the way he looked at Clan? It was more like the strong sunlight of summer. Vibrant and powerful. Harumi just wanted to bask in it, and reflexively smiled at the pleasure.

“What are you grinning about?” Koutarou asked.

“Ah...”

When Harumi smiled, her Clan hologram smiled the same way. So from Koutarou’s point of view, Clan had just walked into his room and started grinning for no reason. He wouldn’t have thought that strange behavior from Yurika or Sanae, but this was Clan of all people.

“I-It’s nothing... Ahem, I mean it’s none of your business! I’m allowed to be in a good mood sometimes!” Harumi insisted, desperately trying to recover. Just talking to him was harder than she’d thought it would be. Hopefully he wasn’t onto her yet.

“Then what’d you walk in here looking all worried over?” he pressed.

If he were talking with Harumi ordinarily, he would’ve let things go there. But with Clan, he expected more of an answer. He felt she owed him at least that much after the lost glasses debacle that morning.

“Er, um, that’s...”

“What?”

Harumi found herself at a loss for words when Koutarou called her out like that. Her reaction was similar to Clan’s normal antics, but their back and forth was unnatural. Koutarou assumed that something else had happened to Clan.

“More importantly, Satomi-kun, there’s something I want to ask you.”

“What’s up, Sakuraba-senpai?”

Fortunately, Clan’s quick thinking saved Harumi. Clan had spent much of her life relying on lies and schemes, so she was much more calm and collected under the circumstances. She also had complete confidence in her disguise as Harumi, her rival and trusted friend.

Harumi let out a sigh of relief now that Koutarou’s attention was off of her. To him, whatever Harumi needed was more important than whatever Clan had gotten up to. And thanks to that, his suspicions about her immediately faded.

Aren’t things happening a little too fast for Clan-san?

Harumi couldn’t help remarking how fast and loose her interactions with Koutarou seemed to be. He was always off the cuff with her and never seemed to stop to think about how what he said might affect her. It was hard on Clan, certainly, but Harumi saw it as a form of trust. Koutarou counted on Clan—in a way that he didn’t on Harumi or Alaia.

Where does that camaraderie come from? Why doesn’t he ever talk to me like that?

Harumi wanted to know why, and she wouldn’t stop until she had the answer. She thus paid close attention as Clan and Koutarou continued talking. It was out of character for Clan, but fortunately Koutarou was none the wiser thanks to her Harumi disguise.

“Would you come with me please?” she asked.

“Is there something on your mind?” he replied, following along.

Harumi was upset at first that Clan had taken him over to the corner of the room so she couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but she ultimately decided that Clan must have her reasons. Thus Harumi continued to watch over them intently from afar.

“Hmm, you could say that, though it’s not really on my mind,” Clan said behind the guise of her Harumi hologram.

“What do you mean?” Koutarou asked.

“The truth is that there is something bothering Clan-san. She’s wondering why you’re so hard on her,” Clan continued, for she really and truly did want to know the answer. She was certain that Koutarou would answer her as long as she was pretending to be a concerned Harumi.

“Dang... Again?” he muttered.

Koutarou already knew what troubled Clan’s heart. Shizuka had warned him of it once before. Ever since, he’d tried to be more gentle with her... though he’d be the first to admit that he hadn’t exactly been that mindful of his behavior given all that had transpired lately. Here and now, he realized that he’d made her worry again.

“Do you really have that much trouble treating Clan-san like a lady? As a woman?” Clan asked with a quick glance over at Harumi.

That was the question she was dying to know the answer to. If she’d looked like herself right now, she probably wouldn’t have had the courage to even ask. It was only thanks to her absolute trust in Harumi and her appearance that she’d managed to get the words out.

“Senpai, can you promise to keep this a secret from Clan?”

“...Y-Yes, I promise.”

“Okay,” Koutarou hesitantly started. He then likewise glanced back at Harumi, who he believed to be Clan at the moment. “I think because it feels lonely.”

“Lonely? What do you mean?” Clan pried.

“Necessity kind of forced us into a partnership. That’s how it’s always been with us, and that’s how I’d always like it to be... But the truth is that I do see her as a woman.”

Koutarou had a long history of clashing with Clan. There were even times Shizuka and Kiriha had admonished him for it. He knew what was in her heart now, and he couldn’t run from it forever.

“She loves me. I mean, for real. She even risked her life for me,” he continued.

Clan and the other girls had staked their very souls to bring back Signaltin and Saguratin. Thanks to their joint effort, it had only cost each of them a small bit of their life force, but that didn’t change what they’d risked. Clan had been fully prepared to die for Koutarou’s sake. And not even he could pretend not to see that kind of blatant devotion. He understood it was a sign of love.

“I can’t ignore that. But I still love the Clan I’ve always known.”

“What...”

“She was sheltered and selfish at first, sure, but she gradually came to realize her own immaturity. And ever since, she’s done her clumsy best to grow,” Koutarou explained. “I feel a kind of kinship with her because of it. I want her to do her best, and I want her to be happy.”

Koutarou had been fighting for years now to change himself. That was why he sympathized with Clan, who’d realized her own flaws and was desperately trying to escape herself too. Koutarou had liked her since the day she decided to change, and he wanted to be there for her like Kenji had been for him. So while he might give her a hard time occasionally, he would always be there for her. That was the only way he knew how to love.

“So I want her to keep fighting, even for just a little longer. I don’t care if Landlord-san says I’m stupid.”

Clan was growing. She was gradually becoming a real woman. That said, Koutarou still didn’t want to let go of the Clan he knew. Maybe that made him greedy or overdependent on her, but he’d be sorry to lose her as she was now.

“Then... she’s worried about nothing...” Clan mumbled.

Koutarou’s confession came as a complete surprise to her. She was loved, and not conditionally. She was loved for who she was.

It’s not just my good sides... Veltlion truly loves me.

His conflicting desires to see her grow and to keep her as she was led to the inconsistent way he treated her. It wasn’t just awkwardness that made him tease her. He was trying to get her to be her old self.

“I think that’s just fine, Satomi-kun.”

“Senpai...”

“The heart wants what the heart wants, as they say. I’ll try to explain it to her.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll go tell her right now, in fact.”

Clan hurried back over to Harumi. Since she already had the answers she wanted, there wasn’t really anything she needed to tell Harumi. Clan had simply run away for fear of blowing her disguise, as she’d been on the verge of hugging Koutarou. It was a tactical retreat.

Harumi and Clan chatted quietly for a time while stealing glances at Koutarou. Harumi, disguised as Clan, then approached him. It was her turn to ask her own burning questions.

“Veltlion, I don’t really understand, but Harumi says that things are fine. So I will forgive you just this once,” she began.

“Hey, I helped you look for your lost glasses. What’s there to forgive?” Koutarou demanded, placing his big hand on Harumi’s head and pressing down.

“Owowow, that hurts!” she yelped.

“That’s the point. It’s supposed to make you think about what you did.”

Such punishment was hardly exceptional for Clan. It was an everyday occurrence for her. But for Harumi, this was her first time. Koutarou had never been rough with her before. He firmly believed in decorum and would never lay a hand on his ladylike upperclassman. Harumi was thus pleased to finally get to experience his adorable breed of tough love for herself, but it also inspired a bit of jealousy.

I wish I had this kind of contact with him on a daily basis too...

“What’s up? You hit your head or something?” Koutarou asked.

While she was enjoying herself, Harumi had let her guard down. Normally, Clan would smack Koutarou’s hand away and demand that he not tease her. Harumi, however, had simply let him do as he pleased. This puzzled him, prompting his confused reaction.

“I-I’m fine! I was just thinking about something!” she insisted as she pulled away, though she was sorry to do it.

“Oh yeah? About what?”

“U-Um...”

Harumi hadn’t put that much thought into her frantic excuse. She hadn’t expected him to press her on it.

I know. This is a good chance to bring that up...

Fortunately, however, she wasn’t exactly strapped for ideas. There really was something on her mind, so she decided to go for it.

“Something’s been bothering Harumi, you see. You treat her too preciously, Veltlion.”

“She is precious, after all.”

“That’s not what I mean. Theiamillis-san and I are precious too, but you treat us differently, don’t you?”

“You’re not gonna break just because I’m a little rough with you.”

“Harumi won’t break either! Anyway, that’s what she’s worried about. She doesn’t get to have as much fun because you’re so delicate with her,” Harumi explained, speaking her heart behind the guise of her Clan hologram.

Hearing this, Koutarou pensively folded his arms. Since he wasn’t intentionally modifying his behavior around Harumi, he had to stop and think about what Clan was saying.

“You might be right. I do have a tendency to be delicate with her,” he admitted after a long moment.

“See?”

“Sakuraba-senpai was always fragile and shy. Moreover, I respect her. How could I be rough with her?”

The biggest reason for Koutarou’s behavior around Harumi was his respect for her. Harumi was introverted and levelheaded, not to mention kind. Kiriha could always find a logical solution, but Harumi could always find a peaceful one. She was the ideal leader for the knitting society, and her weak constitution and timidity only made Koutarou want to protect her more.

“Her Majesty Alaia also rests inside of Sakuraba-senpai. She’s special.”

“Koutarou-sama...” Harumi whispered, unwittingly saying something Clan never would. Koutarou’s words had struck a chord deep in Alaia.

So my existence really is a fetter upon Harumi... Not just physically, but mentally as well.

Fortunately, her whisper was so quiet that Koutarou didn’t hear it. Even if it had, however, it was doubtful he would have paid it much mind. At that moment, he was still lost in thought.

“But the way you treat Harumi makes her lonely, Veltlion,” Harumi explained. “She’s not content merely to be someone you respect.”

“Yeah, I get that...” Koutarou confessed, cocking his head and racking his brain.

At the end of the day, Clan and Harumi were essentially concerned about the same thing. Their feelings for Koutarou had changed, and they wanted their relationships with him to reflect that. Koutarou, meanwhile, wanted things to stay as they were. He understood that was selfish, however, so the dilemma gave him great pause.

“...All right,” he eventually said with a nod.

“Sato— Er, Veltlion?”

“Hang on. Sakuraba-senpai, could you come here for a sec?” he called, beckoning Clan over.

“Yes?” Clan replied, wandering over with a quizzical look. “What is it?”

“Senpai, could you stand next to Clan?”

“Um, sure...”

“Clan, get a little closer to her.”

“Like this?”

“Yeah, that should do it.”

Harumi and Clan were lined up next to each other, both unsure of what Koutarou had planned. When they looked to him for an answer, they caught a glimpse of a most unexpected sight—Koutarou’s face was beet red. Seeing this, the girls looked at each other in confusion.

“Pardon me...”

“Oh?”

“What?!”

Harumi and Clan were astonished when Koutarou leaned forward between them and hugged one girl with each arm. This was the conclusion he’d reached after mulling everything over.

“Let me just say... that I understand why you’re both worried. And I know things can’t stay like this—that I can’t. I’m trying to do better, but it’s hard, y’know? So... will you accept this as an apology for the time being?”

Not acknowledging the girls who’d risked their lives to save him was nothing short of arrogance in Koutarou’s eyes. He knew he’d slighted them for long enough already. Yet even so, it was too much to do all at once. He’d decided to express his feelings to the best of his ability in the hopes that they’d be patient with him. It was the best compromise he could make right now.

“Clan-san...” Harumi whispered, reaching for her friend’s hand when she realized what Koutarou meant.

“I’m here, Harumi.” Clan implicitly understood the gesture and grabbed Harumi’s hand in return.

The girls then shut down their holograms and returned to their original appearances, for they no longer believed they needed the disguises. As a result, they functionally swapped places... but Koutarou didn’t notice. He was staring at the wall, and his mind was racing with other thoughts.

“If possible, though,” he said, “I’d like you both to forget about this for a while.”

“What do you think, Harumi?”

“I think Satomi-kun should convince us.”

“Then how about this?” Koutarou asked, squeezing them both tightly in a great big bear hug. Little did he know it was what they both wanted—it was the perfect way to express his affection without being delicate.

“This isn’t nearly enough, I think,” said Clan.

“I agree. I believe this would be the bare minimum,” added Harumi.

It was a good start, but the girls wanted more. They took full advantage of this situation where their hearts were united, leaning in to give Koutarou a kiss on either cheek. They weren’t sure they’d have the courage to do it ever again if they let this chance slip by.

“U-U-Um, isn’t that a little much right off the bat?” Koutarou stammered.

“Why are you getting flustered over just that?”

“She’s right. You need to get used to it, Satomi-kun.”

Both girls knew they’d been a bit too bold, but they felt they more than deserved it. Besides, Koutarou really couldn’t afford to let this fluster him. He had Clan and Harumi in either arm, but there were seven more anxious girls watching. It would only be a matter of seconds before they came storming through the door to get their just deserts too.