Translator: imperfectluck Editor: vb24

  "Editor Yoshizawa, I apologize for the misunderstanding. That was actually…"

  Seiji explained the mistake he had made with his words during their first meeting.

  Saki’s face flushed red as she listened to him explain.

  "So it was like that… I made a mistake, I apologize." She awkwardly averted her gaze.

  "No, it’s my fault for not saying things clearly. There’s no need for you to apologize, Editor Yoshizawa."

  "For you to say something like that, it means that you do hold some sort of interest in Mayuzumi, right?" Saki suddenly brought this topic back up again.

  "Er, this…"

  "Mayuzumi is a beauty with an excellent appearance and figure. As long as she wears some proper clothing, she’s an incredible beauty. She has a gentle and kind personality, and she has a high income as the author and artist of a popular manga that was made into an anime. Even if her future partner doesn’t have a job, that will be no problem as well."

  "She has similar interests to you, the two of you indeed get along pretty well, and I feel you’ll able to take good care of her. From every aspect, the two of you seem quite well suited for each other… so have you ever thought about it?"

  He felt as if Saki was trying to introduce a marriage prospect to him.

  Seiji could only smile wryly as he recalled going to marriage interview meetings in his past life.

  "Editor Yoshizawa, I get what you’re saying. If you directly ask me whether I like Sensei or not, of course I'll say I like her."

  "But it’s not to such a degree yet… even though we’re not new acquaintances anymore, we actually aren’t all that familiar with each other yet."

  "Right now, I’m merely treating Sensei as Sensei… yep, that’s how it is."

  Seiji looked directly at Saki.

  "I like you as well, Editor Yoshizawa."

  Saki was shocked and confused by this sudden unexpected revelation!

  "Those words that you just used to describe Sensei could also be applied to yourself. You’re an editor, and I’m a writer, so we’d make a good pairing as well."

  "I respect you, just like I respect Sensei, and I also like you, but not to a deep romantic degree; after all, we haven’t interacted all that much either."

  "Editor Yoshizawa, it’s the same for you as well, right? I think that you don’t hate me, and like me as well, but have never considered romantic feelings, right? For me, I have the same feelings for both you and Sensei."

  ‘Yep, that was a good explanation. This way, I think that Editor Yoshizawa will clearly understand what I mean,’ Seiji thought to himself.

  Saki was rendered speechless.

  Her face flushed crimson.

  Suddenly being told that she was "liked," caused her brain to temporarily stop working.

  She only heard the gist of what Seiji said after that, although… she felt as if she understood what he meant.

  By the time that she regained her senses, Mayuzumi and Mai had finished solving their riddles and received their emblems.

  Seiji greeted them with a wave. "Let’s get going."

  "Okay…" Saki followed behind him, her cheeks still tinged red.

  Mayuzumi and Mai each took a drink from Seiji and chatted as they drank without noticing the expression on the editor’s face.

  …


  Lunchtime.

  Seiji’s group ate at a ramen store run by students.

  Seiji hurriedly finished his noodles and told the three ladies that he needed to leave for a little bit as he rushed to make it to another confession.

  He had already left like this several times already, so the three ladies had gotten used to it.

  "Harano-kun is so popular," Mayuzumi said with a sigh.

  "Yes, it’s understandable how popular he is. After all, he's extremely handsome and has a good personality. But," Mai said with a complex expression in her eyes. "how should I say it… I think that he has a rather subtle problem."

  "A subtle problem?"

  "Sometimes, to girls… he’ll do some things that are difficult for me to describe, while he himself doesn’t even realize it."

  "Oh…" Hearing this hint made Mayuzumi think of what happened to herself yesterday, causing her to begin blushing slightly. "I can understand… indeed, Harano-kun, he’s…"

  The two of them quietly came to an unspoken mutual understanding.

  Saki was the only one who didn’t understand.

  "‘Something difficult for you to describe…’ what is it exactly?" The editor wondered what it was about.

  The manga author and the maid both turned their gazes on her.

  "Saki probably never experienced it before."

  "Editor Yoshizawa seems to have excellent resistance, so there’s no need to mind this."

  Mayuzumi and Mai both smiled at her.

  Neither of them realized that not long ago, the thing that they thought didn’t happen or would never happen to the editor had already just occurred…


  …


  "Achoo!" Seiji suddenly sneezed.

  It was good that this happened only after the confession. He felt that it would have been impolite if he sneezed while he was being confessed to.

  After dealing with so many confessions, he felt that he was actually getting accustomed to it… this was something impossible for the previous him to imagine.

  Although maybe it wasn't a kind thing to think, all of the girls that had confessed to him after Yukari Asamiya hadn't even made half of the impression that the "Princess", Yukari, had left him with.

  Seiji wasn’t even shaken by any of these confessions. Of course, he still thanked them for their feelings and politely rejected each of them. He felt that he hadn’t been rude towards anyone.

  After all these comparisons, he was now deeply appreciating how special the girl named Yukari Asamiya was.

  He recalled the scene where she placed the glasses on him in the morning… and felt his heart beat slightly quicker.

  He decided to stop thinking about it and hurried back to meet Sensei and the others.

  Just as he was about to quicken his pace, he suddenly saw a girl in front of him.

  He instantly froze in his tracks.

  This devilish-seeming girl had curly dark green hair. A demon face mask was diagonally strapped over her head. She was wearing a tight one-piece dress with a red jacket on top, and black fishnet stockings covered her legs.

  She was holding a chocolate-covered banana, and she smiled faintly, took a bite, and even licked her lips lasciviously when she noticed his gaze.

  It was quite obvious that she was doing it on purpose.

  If Seiji had been an ordinary person, perhaps he would have been dazed by her beauty, and overcome by a stream of fantasies, but currently, Seiji had no such train of thought at all.

  That was because this green curly-haired girl who was obviously waiting for him was—


  "Oh my, it seems that you remember me, even though we only met once at the Grand Spring department store."

  The girl chuckled as she sauntered closer to Seiji.

  "This is our first meeting, Seiji Haruta… Young Master."

  Seiji noticed her abnormal tone of voice when she said this. "There's no need to call me by that title. Before I was exiled, I didn’t even know that I was a ‘Young Master.’"

  "That’s your own fault… well, anyway, I was just going through the motions. After all, Milady refuses to acknowledge that you’re a Haruta anymore, so I’m going to call you Seigo Harano from now on." The girl with the curly green hair took another bite of her banana.

  "Ah, I forgot to introduce myself: my name is Iroha Hasegawa, and I’ll be in your care~" She waved her hand lazily before licking her lips again.

  "I’ll be in your care." Seiji eyed her calmly. "You—no, I know that Yui Haruta sent you to find me— but for what exactly?"

  "You’re so direct. I like that." Although the girl named Iroha chuckled, her eyes shone with an icy light. "Milady asked me to ascertain what you are thinking, as well as check on your current level of strength… another way to put it is that I’m going to ask you some questions and then beat you up."

  "…That’s all?" Seiji caught unprepared by her answer. What about the streaming… about Flying Fish?

  "What else do you want? Would you like to die?" A smile remained on Iroha’s face despite the chilling look in her eyes. "If Milady gave the order, I’d be more than happy to carry that order out, but she’s such a softie~"

  "Oh, right, don’t directly call Milady by her name. You should address her as Haruta-sama."

  Seiji was rendered speechless by this.

  "At the very least you have some self-realization, and didn’t call Milady ‘sister.’ Otherwise, I don’t know if I’d still be able to stop myself from taking care of you right here and now."

  "Seigo Harano," the girl said in a clear, cold voice, "honestly speaking, I have no idea what you’re thinking at all. You were a piece of garbage to begin with, so you should have stuck to your role as garbage and just died off! But, instead, you’re jumping around chaotically like a grasshopper and making even more trouble for Milady."

  "From talking to you face to face, I have realized that this is more of a disgusting ordeal than I imagined. Damn it, I really don’t want to have to even see you, but I still have to do what I must." She finished off her banana before casually tossing the peel accurately into a garbage can that was over ten meters away.

  "Tonight at eight o’clock, come to the Nagawa amusement park in the west side of town," she said in a cold voice as she walked past Seiji. "Don’t be late… otherwise I’m going to be quite angry."

  Iroha walked off as she left that sentence behind.

  Seiji stood there, rooted to the spot, as he watched her leave.

  After all, this was inevitable.

  Since it came for him, he just had to deal with it properly.

  He walked onwards with steady steps as always.