by Sato Tsutomu
"Giving appropriate advice to our guests is also part of the job description."
Being answered with such a straight face, Tatsuya felt the urge to apply palm to face. Her "work" aside, Tatsuya knew there was another reason for Erika's words.
Honoka was waiting for Tatsuya's invitation.
He knew exactly where she was without needing to be told.
But he had absolutely no idea what to do after that.
After all, he had no experience whatsoever in "inviting" a woman.
"Sir? There really isn't any need to think so hard about all this."
Erika had only been here for her amusement earlier, but gradually a note of amazement crept into her voice.
At this rate though, that amazement would soon turn to irritation.
Thinking that would be a bit, no absolutely unbearable, Tatsuya decided to bite the bullet.
"......Honoka."
"Yes!"
Tatsuya made his preparations.
"......want to dance?"
It took a comparatively long time to get those words out, due to his lack of self-confidence.
"Gladly!"
Yet, Honoka seemed more than happy enough.
After that, Tatsuya was put through his paces with Shizuku, then Eimi, then Mayumi, until finally he slumped against the wall exhausted.
Mayumi was particularly tough.
Her sense of rhythm was quite unique.
Even as a compliment, it couldn't be said that Tatsuya was a terribly good dancer. Since he had never practiced, it was only to be expected. However, he never made a fumble such as stepping on his partner's foot. On the contrary, his steps were impeccable.
During their dance, Shizuku had muttered that he "danced like a dance machine," words which could be taken as a compliment or not either way.
Stringing together observed behavior then reproducing and adding some bits Tatsuya's dancing was, beauty or elegance aside, perfectly and technically accurate.
In a sense however, Mayumi was the exact opposite.
Her execution and steps were completely off.
Rather than tone-deaf however, it was more that she had an ingenious sense, such that despite her movements being subtly off for each sound, her dance still elegantly moved along with the flow of the song.
Because of that, Tatsuya was forced to match both Mayumi and the music, going along with the rhythm of the two and shunting his steps as necessary.
Any normal person would simply try and match their partner and simply hope everything works out one way or another, but since his body didn't know the dance and Tatsuya was simply reproducing the movements in his head, doing something like that was too much.
Yet even after Mayumi left Tatsuya exhausted, going off to look for another partner in high spirits, numerous girls started hanging out before him meaningfully.
He wasn't nearly comparable to Miyuki, who after her dance drew partners like a shining star, but after his success in Monolith Code there were quite a few girls who took an interest in him.
Looking at his drained appearance however, they uniformly gave him sympathetic looks.
Unfortunately for him, although he himself probably didn't realize, just as he was considering going back to his room, with impeccable timing a glass was held out in front of him.
"Tha......thank you."
He suddenly stopped talking, because that person was completely unexpected.
"You seem tired."
"......haah."
"You don't attend events like this often?"
"That's......it's as you say. This may be presumptuous, but Chairman doesn't seem like the type who bothers with this much either."
"I've gotten over it."
The person speaking to him was Katsuto.
He held a non-alcoholic beer in his hands.
Somehow feeling like he had to go along with him, Tatsuya took a drink from the glass he was passed.
But the real deal came after.
"Shiba, come with me for a bit."
Handing his empty glass to a waitress passing by (not Erika), Katsuto turned around.
It meant he wouldn't take no as a response.
Dropping off his empty glass the same way, Tatsuya followed.
In the same garden where they had caught the intruder on the opening night of the tournament, the two of them silently stood there with not another figure in sight.
It wasn't a complete silence.
It seems someone had opened a window.
The sound of music could faintly be heard.
That soft sound lent the atmosphere a serene air.
"Is this alright? I think the celebrations are about to begin soon."
As Katsuto stopped with his back facing him, Tatsuya threw a casual remark.
After the party, a victory celebration in honour of First High was scheduled.
This privilege was given to whichever school won the overall championship.
As both an executive and key player, Katsuto's attendance was of course mandatory.
"Have no concern. We'll be done shortly."
Looking back, Katsuto replied.
Did he mean this wasn't a weighty matter?
If that had been the case, there should have been no need to take him out from the midst of the party.
Or perhaps — he simply meant it wouldn't take long.
......From the looks of things, Katsuto meant the latter.
"Shiba, are you from the Ten Families?"
At that sudden question, Tatsuya was almost put on the defensive.
Not in the sense of being lost for words, but rather preparing for battle.
It was still forbidden for his identity to be leaked out at this stage.
"No. I'm not."
Katsuto's look indicated he would not forgive any dishonesty.
The reason Tatsuya was able to deny Katsuto's assertion however, was because that was true.
He was not one of them. Even though the blood of the Ten ran through his veins, he was never considered one of them.
It was a simple fact.
"—I see."
After watching Tatsuya in anticipation for a while, Katsuto nodded impassively.
Tatsuya did not know whether Katsuto had been convinced with his answer.
"Then, as discussed in a family meeting, here's my advice to you as the vice representative of the Juumonji house.
Shiba, you should join the Ten Families."
"......"
"Hm......how about the Saegusa?"
"......by how about, would you be referring to, how about marrying in? Or the like?"
"Indeed."
Katsuto's magic "Phalanx", as opposed to Tatsuya's original magic "Decomposition", are like natural enemies.
The moment one barrier is pierced through, another takes its place.
It would be endless.
Whilst watching the finals, Tatsuya recalled the unpleasantness of what would be a war of attrition should it come to it......but these words now, utterly unexpected, brought with them a whole new set of horrors.
—This sempai is without a doubt, my natural enemy.
—In many, many ways.
"......in regards to being President Saegusa's partner, was Chairman Juumonji's name not considered as well?"
"That was certainly brought up too."
"......is President Saegusa not your type?"
"No? Well Saegusa does have, cute charms, in her own way."
"......"
Tatsuya could no longer find a reply.
"Ah, Shiba, are you perhaps concerned about her age? Mm......then how about Saegusa's little sisters?
The last time I saw them was two years ago, I'm sure the two of them have grown up to be splendid ladies."
"......Unlike the President and Chairman I'm just a simple high school student, so all these talks of engagement and marriage are a bit much."
"Is that so?"
Katsuto lightly turned his head.
"......However, you should not have too much of a relaxed attitude to all this. Winning against one of the next heads of the Ten Families in a head on confrontation is not something as simple as you'd think."
I don't want to be told that by you! Tatsuya almost retorted.
Tatsuya's confrontation with Masaki had been precipitated by Katsuto in the end after all.
"......I suppose I'll be heading back. Shiba, don't take too long."
Rather than not believing, it was more that he didn't want to believe—
(That guy......don't tell me, that was all "spur of the moment"......?)
Watching his back as he pompously returned to the hall, what a terrifying person Tatsuya thought.
"Onii-sama?"
As Tatsuya stood stunned in the dark night, his sister's voice brought him back.
"What's the matter? This is quite rare, for you to be so out of it to not even notice me approaching."
"Nothing......I just saw something strange......"
"Something strange?"
"Ah, no, don't worry about it."
"?"
Tatsuya's words didn't match the situation, but Miyuki simply tilted her head and didn't pursue any further.
"......The party's about to end."
"The celebration is next huh......"
Feeling somewhat pressed, Tatsuya reflectively frowned.
"I guess there's no way for me to pass on that......"
Miyuki covered her mouth to stifle her laughter.
"You'll just have to accept it. Even if you go back to your room, you'll just be assaulted by Honoka and Erika."
"I get Honoka, but......"
"Erika's been captured by the Chairman."
With a suspicious laugh, Miyuki added that the Chairman was quite something.
"Not to mention......"
Her face was still smiling, but her bright voice was tempered by the seriousness in her eyes as she gazed at Tatsuya.
"I won't let Onii-sama escape."
Tatsuya sighed deeply.
Suddenly, Miyuki tilted her ear.
"......the last song is beginning."
"Is that so?"
Tatsuya had also noticed the song change. He wasn't aware it was the final piece however.
"Onii-sama, won't you join me for the last dance?"
Under a dome of moonlight and starlight, wearing a clear smile even Tatsuya rarely saw, Miyuki bowed gracefully.
That beautiful smile brooked no resistance.
"......Then, shall we head back before the song finishes?"
"No, that would be a waste of time."
Miyuki took Tatsuya's hand.
"We can hear the performance from here just fine."
Taking a deep breath, she huddled closer to him.
"These shoes should be alright even on grass."
Wordlessly, Tatsuya placed a hand around Miyuki's back.
As if entrusting herself to his care, Miyuki placed her hand on Tatsuya's shoulder.
Their bodies touched.
Gently wrapping his hand around her back and deeply embracing her, Tatsuya took a step.
The two figures spun under an endless starlit sky.
As they spun, Tatsuya's face was all Miyuki could see.
Miyuki's face was all Tatsuya could see.
The scenery, the stars, the moon, and the darkness,
In all this wide world which was revolving around them, Tatsuya and Miyuki were the only ones in it.
Afterword
This is a story that is purely fictional.
The stage that the story is set in is very similar to the real world.
Although real or historical figures, organizations, countries, districts as well as other names which have significance or names that make reference to something are used, even if the names are similar, there is still no relevance with the real world whatsoever.
Of course, although such a thing is obvious, unknowingly, I just wanted to put this out there, and this turned into the 4th volume.
Did you, the readers, enjoy it?
When I use names that exist as proper names in reality, a small part of my consciousness hesitates because I feel uneasy about killing off all the enemy characters.
...However, I totally understand that saying this feels like a complete lie, therefore I think I should just stop right here.
Speaking of proper nouns, I'm really inept at creating names for characters from foreign countries.
It is precisely because the story is set in a stage that is really similar to the real world that there are even more troublesome matters to consider.
Western European names still have plenty of reference materials so it's still fine, however what if it's names from Southeast Asia, India, Persia, Africa, or even South America.... What am I to do then?
Currently, it seems like it will not turn into a problem, however one day I will definitely hit a bottleneck.
I wonder if there are any good methods to solve this?
...Alright I will stop all my nonsensical complaints here, next I would like to give my thanks to all those who were involved in the making of this book.
To M-sama, thank you for always giving me excellent and appropriate suggestions. M-sama's suggestions have allowed me to make the siblings image that much more well developed.
Ishida-sama, Stone-sama, the extremely tight publishing schedules also gave you guys lots of trouble.
The pre-orders for this volume were quite substantial as well…… I cannot fully express my gratitude for that.
Suenaga-sama also worried endlessly about the scheduling aspects of this volume.
Once again, to all those who participated in the creation of this book, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude.
Following up from last month, I would like to sincerely thank all those who are reading this afterword right now.
It is all thanks to the support of you readers that the 5th volume can also be successfully published. What is coming out in the upcoming volume 5 will be short stories.
There will be a total of 6 short stories. Amongst them, there are 2 "newly written works". As the other 4 have not been published in commercial magazines yet, it would be more appropriate for all of them to be dubbed as "new works" instead of "newly written works".
Both of the new works will be interludes of the daily episodes of their lives. It can be considered as the peaceful (?) times before the brutal battle that is to come. Please look forward to it!
Well, I sincerely look forward to seeing you all once again in the next volume.
Thank you so much.
(Satou Tsutomu)