「Taiyou’s Castle?」


  Taiyou was the first to react and question Hera’s idea. His eye brows were puckered up and he had a dubious expression on his face. This reaction wasn’t just from Taiyou, even Kohaku and the three sisters had similar confused expressions on their faces. Seeing their reaction, Hera proudly puffs out her chest as she began to explain.

  「Yes desu?, Taiyou-chan is the king of this castle so, it should be Taiyou’s castle desu. Taiyou’s fortress and or Taiyou’s tower are also really good names desuyo?」


  「Why is it that you always like to joke around so much」


  Taiyou reprimanded her resolutely and gave her a slap on the back. Although she flew away quite far whilst spinning around the air, she returned almost immediately whilst flying buoyantly towards the group as if nothing had happened.

  Seeing Hera act like this, Taiyou was starting to experience a headache. Taiyou was thinking to himself…..”Lately the amount of women around me that like to joke around with this kind of thing was becoming way too commonplace”.

  Although it was overly apparently that Hera and Kohaku were both quite straight forward in their conversations, even Sakura who liked to play around with her words quite often used borderline inappropriate jokes. Not to mention Shirokiyami, although she didn’t really speak much words, some of the things she says can be unfathomably destructive.

  They all had their own frightening implications. If things were left as they were now, Taiyou was afraid that sooner or later, people around him would start saying that, he was some sort of dark evil-doer. He secretly thought to himself that he must remain even more vigilant from now on.

  「Umu. I also agree with the suggestion jya」


  Taiyou was still thinking about such things, when the eldest of the girls Kohaku had already declared her agreement with Hera’s suggestion.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?” Taiyou was looking at her in this kind of manner.

  「Isn’t there a saying of, “A man needs to aim to become the head of the household”? Back in the day, it had the meaning of becoming the feudal lord of a castle and whatnot, but these days, it has a more comely meaning of……Owning your own cozy home. If we base it on the more recent meaning, I think that this name will really suit the building jyaro」


  「Nono, this is the place that you own」


  Kohaku was staring at him as if asking “What are you talking about?”.

  Whilst Kohaku was speaking as if this was already Taiyou’s mansion, in actuality the owner of this building was Kohaku and it didn’t have any relation to Taiyou. If he was forced to clarify his position it was to the extent that he had only stayed in this building for one night, and in terms of owning rights to the house he definitely did not own such a right. And yet, Kohaku was looking at him as if what he said didn’t make any sense.

  「Umu? If you are worried about the ownership rights of the land, I don’t mind it if I present it all to you, if you’d like?」


  「Aren’t you using the wrong vocab here? What do you mean “present” it?」


  「No, I didn’t use the wrong words nojya」


  Kohaku happily said so.

  「Even if I look like this, I’m quite the old fashioned woman」


  「Rather than saying you are old fashioned, isn’t your age–」


  Just now he realized what he was about to say to Kohaku and he stopped his own sentence mid-way. He knew it was something he shouldn’t say—-Even in normal human society it was something that you shouldn’t touch, or so people would say that this was a taboo topic to talk about with girls. Naturally, the criticism he was about to receive would also be boisterous.

  「Taiyou-san!」


  「You can’t talk about a girls age like that!」


  「It’s the most basic of manners!」


  The three sisters who had only showed goodwill towards Taiyou up until now suddenly spoke up for Kohaku.

  「Ah, Ahh. I’m sorry Kohaku-san, I was just—」


  Taiyou faced towards Kohaku and bowed his head in apology. Although it was true that he was being scolded by the three sisters, when he thought about it properly even more so than the average person, talking to Kohaku about her age is probably an even bigger taboo.

  They were existences who stopped aging after the age of 10 branded as the eternally little. They were destined not to have a companion for their whole life and were also known as the leftover old maids. To someone like her Taiyou felt that it was very insensitive to talk about their age.

  Therefore, Taiyou was bowing down his head, however the person in question didn’t seem to be bothered by it in the slightest.

  「Oh, don’t mind it. I already know that it’s a fact that I am already an old lady jyakara」


  Hearing her say such a thing, everyone in the room became silent. When someone self-depreciates themselves a little too far it can create this kind of atmosphere, it was that kind of awkward silence they were in. Noticing the awkward atmosphere….Kohaku spoke with an even more mischievous smile on her face.

  「Considering the average lifespan of the eternally little I still have approximately 40 years left to live, that’s about 1/3 of my life remaining jyana」


  「Isn’t that actually a really long time?!」


  Taiyou spurted the words out without thinking. This was a surprising discovery for Taiyou.

  「Umm….If there is 40 years left to live this means….」


  「Then is means that you will be able to live to around 120 years old?!」


  「Or more like, is that really the average life span of the eternally little?」


  Just like Taiyou the three sisters were bewildered and each of them was asking Kohaku questions, this was a naturally thing.

  I mean if she said that the oldest known eternally little has lived up to the age of 120 then the reactions would at most be “Wow that’s so amazing” but, she actually said that the average lifespan is at least 120, meaning that there is a quite a good chance she may live beyond 120 years, this was something that you couldn’t help but be surprised about. Kohaku seemed to be pleased at their reactions and she started to explain in more detail.

  「Umu, the average lifespan of the eternally little girls is about 120 years old, and this figure doesn’t really fluctuate too much. It’s about 1/5th longer than the usual woman」


  “Is that so?” Taiyou muttered.

  「This is quite a famous fact you know? If you don’t believe me in this matter, you can just look it up on the net」


  After hearing her words, Taiyou decided to himself that when he had the time, he would look up the term “eternally little” and learn more about them. If he thought about it, the problems he faced this time was actually quite related to the eternally little and yet he didn’t even know much about them. Although he knew the basic details that they would not age past the age of 10, he didn’t know the more intricate details like their lifespan, or any special body conditions they may have.

  Not growing old has a similar meaning to not growing senile. Going by this speculation, it made sense that they could really only die from either severely physical injury or sickness.

  Well even amongst normal humans who aren’t the eternally little, there are also those rare ones that never meet any misfortunate accidents and die from sickness instead. If it was true that the eternally little would not age a day past 10 years old then, shouldn’t they be able to live several hundreds of years, as long as they didn’t get sick or get into an accident? “In that case, shouldn’t their life expectancy increase even more?” This is what Taiyou thought.

  If she says the average life span is 120 years of age, there must be something else that he didn’t know about… Well he would investigate this matter sooner or later and find out…


  「Let’s return to the conversation. Like I was saying, I am an old woman…..and it is my old fashioned belief that the power of the family should lie with the patriarch of the family」


  「I understand what you are getting at but, the when you say family head…..you can’t mean…」


  「It’s you jya」


  When Kohaku declares this fact, Hera and even the three sisters all raised their voices in agreement.

  「It is a naturally thing nanodesu?」


  「Yes, Taiyou-san is the pillar of our group」


  「Or is it better to call him, our Master?」


  「If we are naming the building a castle, I think it might be more appropriate to call him “King”, don’t you guys think?」


  The women who were speaking unanimously were all very high spirited.

  Taiyou felt like a headache was coming to him.

  He was called their Pillar, Master and King.

  The titles was changing at a rapid pace to become higher and higher, and sooner or later he thought they might go crazy and start worshipping him as a god or something?!

  He thought he needed to do something to stop the madness, but he was helpless.

  Taiyou glanced at the three sisters.

  Well at the very least he did agree that he had to become the central pillar of the group…..and someone worthy of being the family head of the household. And just like that, Taiyou gave up trying to convince them to stop their hype.

  「Well it’s been decided jya, as you can see the it’s a majority agreement and from today forth you shall be the king of this household jya」


  「I’m not sure whether we will be following a royal doctrine, or if this will be a democracy though…」(TL: Taiyou is saying as “king” he has no power to vote right now hahaha)

  Taiyou forced a bitter sweet smile for an instant before he turned serious and looked straight at Kohaku.

  「I will gratefully accept your hospitality to stay here, however, I will by no means accept the ownership of the house」


  When he said this so sternly, Kohaku was surprised and she had a regrettable expression on her face.

  「What is it? Do you not like power when it’s given to you by a woman? In this world there are plenty of success stories where the section chief of a company suddenly gets promoted to become the chairman of a big enterprise, I don’t think this is something you need to worry about jyazo」


  「Like I said, why do you always like to joke around like this so much?!」


  After giving her his usual retort, Taiyou changed his face to a more serious expression again. For a while the two people just stared at each other. It was like the air around them froze after a long period of silence. At this point in time, Hera butted into the middle of their conversation with her usual thoughtless words.

  「Mou, Taiyou-chan is such a block head desu? a big oaf nanodesu?」


  「Um? Why are you saying that?」


  「Don’t you understand desuka?」


  Hera silently shook her head as she answered. Immediately after that, a very surprising thing occurred for Taiyou. The one who was coming to reproach him wasn’t just Hera. That’s because the three sisters standing next to Hera also agreed with her.

  The three sisters had bitter smiles on their faces as if asking him “Why don’t you understand?” it was the kind of look a teacher from an elementary school would give to a child doing a bad thing. Seeing their reactions, Taiyou started to think “Was I the one in the wrong?”.

  He asked the girls with a questioning tone.

  「Can you guys explain to me what’s going on? Why am I a blockhead or an oaf?」


  「Hahh, Taiyou-chan were you born from the groin of a tree or a stone? Or are you imported goods from India desuka??」


  Hera shrug her shoulders and let loose a sigh as if saying, “deary me, what a clueless child”. And as expected the three sisters were also looking at him with similar expressions. Taiyou was getting flustered as he didn’t know what the heck was going on. Hera flew close towards him and Peshito! Slapped him in the forehead as if scolding a student that just doesn’t learn.

  「Kohaku-tan, wants to give Taiyou-chan her everything desuyo?」


  「Eh?」


  「How should I put it, let me rephrase it desu?」


  Hera cleared her throat and started to talk from the beginning again.

  「She wants to dedicate her everything desuyo?」


  Dedicate her everything?!

  That was no longer just talking in between the lines or beating around the bush, this was a Japanese word that could only be interpreted according to the meaning of the word.

  Taiyou was completely shocked as he turned around to face Kohaku. Normally she was rational, a lolibaba who always behaved coolly and with grace. However, this time around, the moment he laid his eyes on her, her cheeks began to blush as she looked down shyly. ()