Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 1 - Chapter 4.4

☗ TRAGIC MORNING

Ka-sha! Ka-sha!

That sound wakes me up.

“………… Nh? Already … morning …?”

We must have kept playing until everyone collapsed from exhaustion and ended up sleeping in a pile in the tatami room. Charlette is right in front of me, her innocent sleeping face in my line of sight and one of her tiny hands clinging to my shirt.

I give one of her angelic cheeks a gentle poke. Jiggle. Warm and satisfyingly squishy.

“………… So this is love …………”

No sooner were those blissful words out of my mouth than ka-sha! I look up toward the noise and see——Big Sis holding her smartphone.

“Ah ………… Big Sis? What are you doing …?”

“Preserving evidence.”

“Hollup.”

Hold up——it’s not what it looks 1ike——is what I wanted to say, but Big Sis’s fingers dance across the screen before I can make any excuse.

“The Shogi world has a new title: Loli King has just been born … I’ll message everyone that needs to know, okay?”

“DOOOON’T! Please don’t seeeennnndddd!!”

That’ll be my alias for all eternity! I’ll be known as the Loli King forever!!

“This is a practice group! We were doing research!!”

“Researching little girls?”

“No, no, no! Not research on little girls, research with little girls! That’s important!!”

“Both sound sick to me.”

“I realized that the moment I said it, but!!”

I can’t deny that this looks bad, really bad. That’s why I’m desperate.

“But why?! Why are you here, Big Sis?! We didn’t make any plans for versus today——.”

“Keika called me. Said she got a message from you, bragging that you didn’t know what to do now that three little girls had taken over your room, and asked me to check on you, that something seemed fishy.”

“KEIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

Mio and Ayano start waking up, rubbing the sleep from their eyes as I lament on top of the futon, then their eyes suddenly shoot open.

“Fmuu … heh?! Oh, wow! A-Are you … S-Sora-sensei?!”

“Th-that’s really her! That’s the real Lady Snow White of Naniwa!!”

“……”

Big Sis gives them an annoyed glance, but there’s no anger. She’s extremely shy and not good at dealing with children. Without Shogi, she’d have zero communication skills. Then again, the Shogi world is full of people like that.

Amazed at their situation, waking up to find their two-women’s-title-holding idol right standing over them, Mio and Ayano rush Big Sis in a frenzy, asking for autographs and handshakes. Big Sis silently obliges with a handshake.

Ai and Charlette woke up soon after. Groggy, Ai looks up at Big Sis and says, “Ah! Auntie!!” While Charlette wipes the drool from her chin on Big Sis’s clothes, stressing her out to the max.

And that stress was all pointed at——.

“Kuzu Loli King … Couldn’t you just die …”

“… Yes. My apologies. I’ll go die now. Sorry.”

Me. All of it. Yes, yes. Checkmate, checkmate.

Big Sis made two demands, the first being that the Grade Schooler Practice Group came to an immediate end and two, she said, “You need to be reconditioned. The two of us will practice Shogi at the association for three days straight starting tomorrow.”

With that, the elementary school girls’ Shogi sleepover came to an abrupt end.

“Can I come again?!” Mio askes, smiling innocently on her way out the door, but all I could do was give her a vague smile in return.