Chapter 63

She pummeled him, and after they left the castle, she pummeled him again with invective. And she wasn’t finished. “It would be easy for me to kill you right here, but then I will go to prison. There are no other possible suspects here on this mountain, so I would be caught immediately. I will forgive you, but I will not stop you from doing the job for me. Shall we go up the tower again? No, perhaps I should change my tune—you know I find burning interesting. Why don’t we test to see which hurts more—immolation or drowning?” He had nothing to say in response. *Also, she put her underwear back on in the castle bathrooms. “Do not tell me this is what you have been planning this whole time. Is this why you brought me to a deserted mountain…?” “You got this all wrong! I’m not that horrible!” “Is the reason you have never gone on a date because you have always satisfied your lust in more cruel ways? Is that why you cannot even imagine seeing a movie or going shopping with your partner…?” “I’m serious—please don’t treat me like a criminal!” “And aiming for the underwear straightaway makes you a—a brute… Typically, you would want to remove clothes slowly, piece by piece. But you only think with your loins, so…” “You can punch me! Twice—three times, even! Just stop insulting my character!” “There is a time and place for everything. Why must such debauchery happen in a public facility? I would rather you at least wait until we are on a deserted mountain path…” Sasara’s mouth froze mid-movement. They were on the mountain path that led from the castle back to the cable cars. A deserted mountain path. “P-please do not get the wrong idea!!!!! I did not mean that I would like for it to happen here and now!!!!! You do anything and I will cut you down!!!!!” “I know! No one’s got the wrong idea, so just calm down! Please put your sword away!” “I had no choice but to go on this date… Mother and Father would remain suspicious if we did not go out together at least once… This was just to fool them, so…I do not think I would be happy if you treated this as a real date…” Sasara gazed out toward the scenery, somewhat regretfully. “Yeah. Our only goal was to make sure you didn’t have to get engaged with Toraha, and it wouldn’t be good if they found us out right away.” That was why they decided to just go on one date and then see how things played out… “I wonder what will happen now. I doubt your family will approve if we tell them our date didn’t go well…” “I—I… I don’t know…” Neither of them made any concrete declarations. “I am not certain, but…I suspect my mother would say, You can’t get to know someone on just one date, so go on more.” “Yeah… You’re probably right…” If that happened, then they would have to do this over and over in the future. “According to my mother, You cannot trigger enough flags to trigger a personal route, so it is important to consistently go after events.” “Your mom sure is…unique… W-we’ll eventually come up with a good idea. Eventually…” “Yes… Eventually…” With that awkwardness lingering between them, they returned to the cable car station. Right next to it was a restaurant. The place was a bit run-down, but at least it was open. “It’s lunchtime now, so let’s eat something,” Ryouta suggested. “Indeed. Simply waiting for the gondola would be a waste of time.” They went inside to find that the first floor was an arcade, while the restaurant was on the second floor. “A lot of mountaintop restaurants come paired with these weird arcades, don’t they?” They first sat down and looked at the menu. Food Tomato Ramen 800 sacred yen Drink Tomato Juice 300 sacred yen “Not much variety, huh?” There was nothing to think about here. “Ah, this must be the Red Tengu ramen shop. I have heard it is quite famous for its tomato ramen.” “Huh. I guess you can find a place famous for just about anything. I had no idea you knew so much about ramen, Sasara.” He had imagined she ate French cuisine every day or something. “They just happened to be doing a segment on it when I was watching TV. This is my first time entering such an establishment…” “Oh, okay. Well, we’ve only got one option, then. Two tomato ramens, please!” “And one of those with a thicker soup, thicker noodles, extra vegetables, no garlic, and red ginger, please,” Sasara added. “You’re a regular?!” You don’t make that kind of order if you don’t know the shop’s rules. “As I just told you, I learned this from TV. Ramen is a commoner’s food, so I am not sure of the details.” “Right. Yeah, I guess so.” “I am glad it is empty here. The owner of this restaurant often closes on the weekend since he attends noodle training on a whim. Those who come typically try to do so on the weekdays. The cable car network here has even gained an increase in visitors because of this ramen spot. The noodles are imported every day from factories in Japan, and they use only the natural spring water that comes from the mountain. He has a contracted farmer send him good, fresh tomatoes, and the seafood base is a perfect match for the acidity of the tomatoes. Unsurprising, considering he has trained at Ikkaku, one of the most famous establishments in Tokyo. This is a soup that anyone would want to drink down completely, and it has a reputation for attracting so many repeat customers.” “You really know a lot.” Not just anyone could drop all that at once. “Why do you insist on this? I hardly know anything. Oh, we may serve ourselves water here. Here, this is yours.” Sasara poured Ryouta a glass from the pitcher. “Oh, thanks.” “Many restaurants have started adopting the meal ticket system of ordering, but it does not seem to be the case here.” “You know, adults usually go for ramen after they go out drinking. What do you think about that?” “I am not particularly interested. One cannot truly know the taste of ramen if one does not eat it on an empty stomach. The same goes for soba and udon. And one may not realize the subtle differences between establishments while one is drunk. You may as well settle for instant. On the other hand, we cannot yet shrug off instant ramen. Some of them are so delicious it is impossible not to say so. However, most of them use chemical seasonings that can numb the tongue, so it is not best to eat it too often.” It sounded like she was extremely picky about her ramen. People had all sorts of hobbies; a noble could be well-versed in common food if she wanted. As they chatted (well, as Sasara chatted), their order arrived. “Wonderful! Look how the curly noodles hold the broth! Please do slurp as you eat them. You will miss out on the superb flavor if you bother eating it too elegantly.” “Y-yeah… Okay…” “The flavor of the broth truly has a great reputation. This shop even did a collaboration with a snack company to make The-Ramen-Shop-Everyone-Lines-Up-For–flavored chips.” “Hey, now that you mention it, they do taste similar!” Ryouta had no idea that he would be thinking of those chips that he had at the convenience store here, of all places. Life was full of surprises. Both of them had cleaned their bowls out a few minutes later. Ryouta wondered why the shop owner came out with a piece of colored paper after they were finished eating and said, “You’re Rourou, the ramen writer! I would love your autograph!” But Sasara insisted he had the wrong person, so this was probably a case of mistaken identity. I was surprised when I found out Alfoncina was a manga artist, but Sasara can’t be a ramen reviewer or anything, right…? Right… Ha-ha… Ryouta decided not to overthink it. “That was pretty good. Let’s head to the arcade downstairs while we’re here.” “Indeed. I rarely ever come here, after all.” “Have you ever gone to an arcade, Sasara?” “Oh, heavens no. I would never go to any place that would attract delinquents.” Considering the Tatsunami lineage, that sounded reasonable. The arcade was generally out of date, both in terms of the games and the building itself. They probably adopted the more retro machines. “Whoa, this baseball game’s from over fifteen years ago.” “And here is Space Invaders. Isn’t it amazing that it is still operational?” Their eyes were drawn to one game in particular—a claw machine. The prizes inside were all merchandise from You’re Rouko, I’m Kouko! It was mostly plushies, but there were rarer prizes in the back of the case, like boxed sports towels. With a look of great interest on her face, Sasara stared hard at it. She was leaning in so close to the glass that her forehead was almost pressing against it. She seemed desperate to give it a try. “Have you ever played this before, Sasara?” “No. I am not familiar with the games the lowborn play…” Hey, this turning into a real date, Ryouta thought. This was territory he knew: he’d let the girl play, then easily snag for her the prize she was unable to get. He’d read about this situation in manga loads of times. Even though he wasn’t an expert himself, he could probably get a hold of the easy stuff if he gave it a couple of shots. “Wanna try it? I’ll pay.” Ryouta held out a one hundred sacred yen coin before she could refuse him. “Oh, you shouldn’t have. I would use my own money if I were—” “Just think of it as a test. It’s just a hundred sacred yen; you don’t have to pay me back.” “I—I suppose you’re right… Then I will give it a go…” Sasara slowly inserted the coin into the slot. She caught two in one. “Ah, that was quite easy for a first go. I got Kanpiko and Kouko.” “Wow! I had no idea you’d get them so fast…” Ryouta had never managed to get two in one in his whole life. I think my chances of showing off are basically DOA… “Oh, it seems one hundred yen affords me another try,” Sasara commented. She caught the arm on the cable and nabbed another two. “How simple. I got Rouko and Sonko this time.” “You actually have played claw machines before, haven’t you?!” “On what basis do you say that? I have never seen a real claw machine in my life. This is a UFO Catcher.” “But you know the name of this type!” Ryouta had no idea if this was actually specialized knowledge, but she was being pretty specific. “It really is that easy. If you lend me one hundred sacred yen, I can get any toy for you that you like.” Dammit, she looked really confident when she said that… “Fine, then get me that sports towel in the box over there.” A box sat in the farthest corner, possibly the top prize. “I cannot.” “You were way too quick to give up!” “No, it is physically impossible to get. The arm can only move so far, after all. It’s too deep into the corner for me to knock it down. If it were a smidge closer, I would be able to knock it over in the first run, then grab it in the second, though. I have heard that some stores may make an exception for you if you sweetly say to them, Excuse me, I have spent two thousand sacred yen, but I cannot get it, but I would not be happy to resort to cajolery.” “You play tons of these.” “Why do you insist that I do? Everyone knows this. Oh, and some plushies are easier or more difficult to get depending on the material they are made from. And different establishments have different arm strength. This is a suburban area, so it is configured in a way that makes it easy to win, but arcades in the city weaken the strength of the arm or place prizes out of reach to combat the more advanced users, so please be careful.” “I knew you—” “I have no experience.” She wasn’t going to admit it, no matter what. Well, not that anything would change if she did admit it. Sasara’s more mysterious than I thought… Something must have happened to her in the past, but he didn’t especially care what that was. “Here you go.” Sasara held out the four plushies to Ryouta. “I feel kinda bad taking them…” “I am not interested in this manga, nor will they fit in my bag anyway.” “Right. Then I guess I’ll give them to Shiren as a gi— Ah.” Sasara seemed a little sad. “Oh, I shouldn’t have said that. And this is supposed to be a date…” “No, this is fine. In fact, I’m rather relieved.” Sasara gave a carefree smile—almost too carefree. “Remember when I told my parents about how I drank your blood last week at the matchmaking meeting?” “Oh yeah. I guess that’s what you meant by the final option…” That was how Ryouta had been spared from a deadly battle against Toraha. “I found the resolve to tell them on the first day of our training. Remember when your master came to watch because she was worried?” “Yeah, she did show up. But what does that have to do—” “It told me that a small incident would not shake the relationship you have as master and minion. That is when I realized that even the most explosive declaration would not cause any problems.” Sasara leaned against the old arcade cabinet. “Had I not handled this properly, your life would have changed forever. That was the danger that came with this entire incident. I could not have justified forcing you to marry someone you did not want to marry. At the time, I thought perhaps I should accept the engagement with Masatsuna.” “I’m sorry. I’m just a coward…” Sasara quietly shook her head. “Please do not worry about it—this is my own personal problem. Either way, with you, I can say at least a little more of what’s on my mind.” She was gazing off into the distance, as though she’d given up on everything. “That is why you should dally a bit more with your master. That way, I will not have to get my expectations up. I can talk my parents out of this somehow.” “Expectations? What do you…?” The atmosphere between them was strange, and there was a unique power in Sasara’s words. He couldn’t just ignore what she’d said. “Are you seriously asking me this? I truly have no words to describe you. Insensitive, perhaps.” She gazed up at the ceiling, as though in defeat. “The expectation that, perhaps, living with you would not be so bad.” “That means you…wouldn’t mind marrying me…right?” The shock had nearly shorted out Ryouta’s brain. “You came to the matchmaking meeting as a candidate for marriage, did you not? The possibility of marriage is usually assumed.” “But I thought you liked Ouka. You’ve never really spent a lot of time with a guy, so are you sure you’re not just getting the wrong idea?” “Of course. The one I love the most at this moment is Lady Ouka. There is no lie or falsehood about that. But—” Sasara kicked the ground, took one step closer to Ryouta, and then grabbed his hand and suddenly pulled him into an embrace. “—You are second.” “Second…? What am I supposed to do in second place…?’ “That is why I said I wanted the inhabitants of the Fuyukura household to be a bit naughtier! And then ignore me! Then…my wavering spirit would find peace.” There was a shade of passion in her voice; she probably didn’t even know what she was saying herself. “If you don’t, then I will no longer be able to make excuses for myself to Lady Ouka. I am her personal guard—how could I love someone more than Her Majesty…? How could I say anything to her after all this?!” “Oh, so that’s what she meant by drawing the line…” Ryouta now knew why Ouka had been stern. Sasara couldn’t be both married and a part of the personal guard. She couldn’t walk both paths. And the only one who could make that decision was Sasara herself. But people were weak, prone to taking the path of least resistance and refusing to make a choice without some kind of compelling force. Ouka had anticipated this problem, so she told Sasara to draw the line somewhere. “Hey, Sasara, think about this again with a clear head. This is a big choice, one that’ll either take you to the left or the right—” Suddenly, a powerful force ripped him away from Sasara and tossed him to the ground. For a moment, he couldn’t hear anything, but then his lower back took a heavy blow, bringing back both sound and pain. Who was this? “Gimme a break.” Above him stood Masatsuna Toraha, furious and apparently ready to cut Ryouta down at any second. “What the hell, Toraha?! What are you doing here?!” “I could ask you the same thing! You were the one squealing below my house!” “What? When have I ever gone to your house?” “Weren’t you looking at the view earlier?” What? Was he saying he lived in Akinomiya Castle? “Akinomiya Castle is also my house. You saw the no entry sign, right? Everything above that is our living space.” “So that danger I sensed was you, huh…? Why do you live in a public facility?!” “Public facility? My ancestors built that castle five hundred years ago. It only became public in modern times. The place above the observation deck is our house.” “Oh yeah, Masakane Akinomiya, Masatsuna Toraha—your names are kind of similar…” Both names had “Masa” in them, and some families still maintained the old tradition of using a similar element in all their names, so maybe… “I am the twenty-fifth generation of direct descendants from Masakane! The family was embarrassed by the link, so we changed our last name!” “Oh yeah, I did hear that his family is still around…” Ryouta had no idea the guy’s descendants would be so close by. “But I heard your ancestor was a loser… Are you sure you’re really a good swordsman?” “One more word out of you and I will kill you where you stand. My family has worked hard to forget the loser-hood! Don’t such complexes usually drive people to work unusually hard?!” Toraha seemed really aggravated. But then again, Ryouta had never seen him not aggravated. Ah, I guess this is why Sasara wasn’t so keen in coming up the mountain… He almost wanted to blame himself for inviting her up here without knowing why. “Masatsuna, this has nothing to do with you. Leave!” Sasara, being Sasara, had no compunctions about yelling at her cousin. “Yes it does, Lady Sasara. I’ve been listening to your conversation. Right from the moment you said ‘Return my underwear to me at once, lest I cut you down!’” “Stop! Just forget about that! Pretend it never happened!” He had tuned in at a very dark period in Ryouta’s life. “That alone is an unforgivable crime, but let us set that aside for the moment. According to your conversation, I believe this boy is not your fiancé. At the moment, neither of you have any intention of actually getting married. Even if you truly did take his blood.” Toraha’s expression was cooling from anger into something more like distrust. “Well, I mean… It’s still kind of early for us to decide on marriage…” Ryouta interjected. “But you would not mind being betrothed to this boy? Lady Sasara, allow me to battle with him. I, too, have samurai blood. If I am to take you, then I wish to settle this by the sword.” “Please do not settle anything without my permission! Th-this is not about who I like, but…I still cannot yet imagine marriage…” “How do you intend to make Lady Sasara happy, boy?” Toraha turned a sharp eye to Ryouta. “H-how? I—” “If I were to marry into the Tatsunami family, then her relatives will be peaceful and secure. We will also protect the family’s martial lineage. This boy has nothing. And I”—Toraha grinned—“can say with clear confidence that I love Lady Sasara.” That was a huge difference between them. Ryouta, of course, had never told Sasara he loved her. “Please pardon my insolence, Lady Sasara.” Toraha’s hand made firm contact with the nape of Sasara’s neck. “Ah…” Sasara’s head immediately drooped—she was unconscious. Toraha caught her with great gentleness and care. “Sasara! Hey, are you okay?! You can’t do that to a girl!” “Of course she’s all right. I am no amateur.” Toraha lifted her up bridal style, like a prince and a slumbering princess. “At the top of this mountain is a rocky stretch called Senjojiki. I will be waiting for you there. Come when you are ready.” “Yeah, I’ll be right th—” “Really? Are you truly ready? I am not asking whether you are resolved to take another’s life.” Toraha cut Ryouta off. “I am asking you if you’re ready to tell Sasara exactly how you feel about her.” Ryouta froze. Toraha wouldn’t accept a simplistic reason like “bad guy kidnap girl, good guy save her.” “If you feel nothing for her, then do not bother. Report me to the police, to her parents if you will. That would be the proper course of action, and I will not hold it against you.” What Toraha said threw Ryouta’s emotions into chaos. “Farewell. Come, if you will.” With great speed, faster than anyone carrying another person should have been able to, Toraha ran off with Sasara in his arms.