“…Tatsuishi?”
“Oh, Kudou. And Mr. Nobleman’s Son whose name I’m not supposed to say.”
“It’s Tsuruki.”
Kazushi Tatsuishi, the newly installed head of the Tatsuishi family, reacted to each of them with a cheerful smile, waving to beckon them over.
“Now, now, come on over and take a seat. Plenty of room for four here.”
“Noooooooo thank you!”
Sake cup in one hand and wearing his gaudy, brightly-colored kimono as loose as always, the playboy slid up to them and pulled a reluctant Godou to the empty seat.
Kiyoka was convinced Kazushi was just as sloshed as he looked.
Sighing at the spectacle of his two incorrigible subordinates, Kiyoka headed toward the seats with Arata.
“…Okay, time to start our little get-together I guess…”
The man behind this whole night immediately addressed the table, but his expression was far gloomier than usual, suggesting his spirits were low.
Conversely, Kazushi squinted with glee, while Arata maintained his usual genial smile.
The addition of Kazushi made their group look even more dubious than before. However, none of the other men took even the slightest notice.
…What about this is a team-building get-together, exactly?
Kiyoka was the only one who couldn’t help but feel suspicious about the group around him.
For the initial table appetizer, they were served cold tofu drizzled with a specially made sauce. From there, they were brought shochu and sake, as well as their own individual servings of the grilled meat dishes, the pub’s famous simmered seasonal vegetables, and more, one after another.
By the time all the food had just about disappeared from their plates, the mouths of the four men had grown much looser than when they’d first arrived.
“Seriously, why are you even here in the first place, Tatsuishi?” Godou grumbled quietly, to which Kazushi shot him a gleeful sidelong glance.
“What, am I not allowed here?”
“Playboys should just go to those places with the pretty ladies in them like they’re supposed to.”
“Everyone needs a change of pace now and then, don’t they?”
Kiyoka knocked back his shochu before he tried to ply Kazushi, happily squinting as he replied to Godou, for information.
“You’re taking your head of family work seriously, right?”
“I suppose, though I’m not really thrilled about it. It’s annoying, and I’m very lonely being by myself in the house.”
Although in essence admitting to laudable work, Kazushi shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
All of Kazushi’s family had been sent off far away after the spring incident involving Miyo and the Saimoris. The previous head of the Tatsuishis and his wife had retired to the countryside, while Kazushi’s younger brother was training in the old capital. That left Kazushi to live in the relatively large Tatsuishi estate by himself.
Kazushi was carefree and single, so Kiyoka had assumed he would lose himself completely to entertainment, but that wasn’t quite the case.
For even when his family had lived in the manor, Kazushi would often wander about enjoying himself and staying away from home. In other words, he wasn’t new to leading a carefree lifestyle.
“Actually, what about your family, Godou? I have a bit of hard time imagining what it’s like…”
Arata was the one to ask the question.
“My family? Well, we’re a rowdy bunch, that’s for sure.”
“Rowdy…you mean you have a lot of brothers and sisters?”
“I have an older brother and a younger sister, sure, buuuuut…”
Three children didn’t constitute a very large family. But Arata, who was unfamiliar with the Godou household, cocked his head, thinking that perhaps this meant Godou’s brother and sister were quite talkative.
However, Kiyoka understood what his aide meant, of course. The one who caused the most trouble in the Godou household wasn’t Godou or his siblings—
“My mother’s the rowdiest of us all, actually.”
Godou turned his ruddy face to Kiyoka, seeking his agreement.
“Why are you looking at me?”
“You know just as well as I do, don’t you Commander? What our house is like.”
“…Well, sure, I guess.”
Godou’s mother had a wide range of interests, and she would often move from one hobby to the next very quickly.
She would try her hand at music, painting, and other artistic pursuits, and attempt making challenging foreign dishes and sweets; Kiyoka had even heard of a time she had grown fond of traveling and would leave the house for several months at a time.
Kiyoka remembered that the Godou family home felt small despite its size, packed with the mistress of the house’s collectibles and creations, along with tools for her various hobbies.
Her personality could be described as “spirited,” a little bit strange, and extremely pushy at times. However, she wasn’t a bad person, and she was far more well put-together than Kiyoka’s mother.
“I’d say she’s a good mother, myself. She’s always looking after you.”
“More like ‘dragging us into her messes,’” Godou murmured with slurred speech, looking quite intoxicated.
“She sounds like quite an idiosyncratic person, then.”
Arata nodded, and Godou continued.
“Oh yeah, definitely, if it wasn’t for my older brother, I don’t think a Gift-user like me would’ve had as much freedom as a student.”
“Really now? Your school years were that carefree, were they?”
Kazushi raised an eyebrow and perked up at the word “freedom.” Kiyoka sipped from his sake cup without adding anything unnecessary.
“I was free all right. Free to study a whole bunch, seeing what a diligent guy I am and all.”
“Wait, free to study?”
“I studied abroad in England. I saw the clock tower, the whooooole deal.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
Kazushi’s and Arata’s eyes both went blank. They must have been unable to reconcile their idea of Godou with the fact of him studying abroad. Looking at the man now, it was a natural reaction.
Kiyoka was the only one who found it nostalgic, keenly reflecting on the past.
When Godou was a student, he had studied abroad in an island nation in Europe.
That country was the center of Western magical practices. Even Gift-users, who used a completely separate system of arts and supernatural powers, could get a lot out of learning the magical arts of another nation. Still, even in this day and age, there were very few parents who would actively push their children to go abroad.
Ultimately, there was still a deep-rooted mental diffidence toward the countries across the sea.
“You? Study abroad? Color me surprised,” remarked Kazushi, in a rare show of honest admiration.
“Really?” Godou asked.