“We’ve got a liar here!”
“Someone get the truth serum!”
“Who’d trust a manwhore like you?!”
“It’s definitely a shotgun wedding!”
All the criticism of his classmates pierced him like arrows.
“Quit making stuff up about people!” Kyouhei yelled, but he was outnumbered, and his protests were overwhelmed by his classmates’ voices.
Among them was Mizuhito. “I misjudged you, Kyouhei! To think you’d lie for attention!” he shouted.
“Why are you joining in too?!” Kyouhei demanded, pointing at Mizuhito.
But...
“At this point...” Mizuhito began.
“...At this point?”
“I’ll have sex with my girlfriend, climb the stairs of adulthood, and get on TV!” After he finished his shout, Mizuhito let out one of those cries that made bullies want to bully the bullied. He raced away, making the pitch change with the Doppler effect.
Although, as he tried to leave through the door, the electric guitar on his back got caught in the opening and slammed him back, but let’s ignore that. Let us also ignore the fundamental problem of whether he could have sex with his girlfriend, get on TV, and so on.
Then...
“...‘Girlfriend’?” Kyouhei muttered with a frown.
● ● ●
“Humm, so that happened?” asked an adorable blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl while nodding.
She had milky-white skin, golden hair, and sapphire eyes, almost like she was the masterwork of some doll craftsman. There were no flaws in her appearance, and even when you stood by her, she was somehow otherworldly. She still fell under the adjective ‘cute’ now, but in a mere five years that would change to ‘beautiful.’
This was Pamil.
Since the reinstitution of the Bergmann Kingdom, she was a true princess, but her behavior was... Well, she was a sheltered princess, and a foreigner, so many of her words and actions were still odd from a Japanese perspective. At this point, Kyouhei would have been uneasy if she suddenly started acting completely differently.
“Mizuhito has a strange personality,” she said, folding her arms.
“And you can hardly talk,” Kyouhei retorted.
Incidentally, they had swiftly returned home after school had ended. This was, of course, a countermeasure against the media. If they tarried overlong, then cameras and microphones would descend upon them and things would get crazy. They would have liked to stop for a breather and a cup of tea, but gave up on that too as they reached the Corvette.
“I’ve always wondered...” spoke another cute girl from across the low table, sitting next to Pamil.
She wore glasses and a bob hairstyle, with a timid expression in her eyes. Those features were practically synonymous with being plain, but on close inspection, you could see that her eyes were wide and beautiful behind her glasses. Her features themselves were pretty, and she was fair-skinned.
She was Pamil’s classmate and Kyouhei’s second wife (to-be), Sanae.
The reason she was in the Nanbu household as well was that she couldn’t possibly relax at the Murata household. The media were surrounding the area here as well, but the Nanbu household was a warehouse, so it had few windows and the like, meaning that there were fewer chances for someone to peek in. Coupled with the military-grade security, here she could at least relax somewhat.
Her parents, by the way, had long-since been talked to by Shuuhei and the Bergmann Kingdom’s ambassador, so when she returned to Japan, they’d just asked her why she was still attending school from their home. Apparently, despite it only being an engagement at present, it felt like Kyouhei and Sanae were already married in her parent’s eyes.
Well, that aside.
“...What’s so good about standing out...?” Sanae asked uncomprehendingly. “If your name becomes known, you can be cursed more easily during the witching hour and such...”
“Sanae-chan, there are probably only ten people in Japan that worry about that,” Kyouhei assured her. There probably weren’t 12 at least, or so Kyouhei wanted to believe. “Oh, are you worried about that?”
“Ah, it’s okay,” she answered with a timid smile, “Nanbu-senp—” She stopped there, and shook her head vigorously. “I mean, Kyouhei-san. I made sure to prepare countercurses in case any of us is cursed...!”
Kyouhei sighed before answering. “R-Right.”
Well, Pamil’s oddity—being descended from aliens—was a thing, so he could hardly scoff at the occult.
“What I’m surprised at is that Mizuhito has a girlfriend,” Kyouhei said with a tight smile. “It’s not like Pamil said, but he’s enough of a show-off that it could be considered a disease.”
So if Mizuhito had a girlfriend, Kyouhei was sure he’d already know. The boy made it his life’s work to draw attention, so it was hard to believe he’d date someone in secret.
“She’s not imaginary, right?” he asked himself.
“Hm?” Pamil tilted her head.
“Like, you know, she’s invisible, and he’s sure she’s there... and that other people can’t see her.”
“Oh, right,” Pamil nodded, “like a girlfriend who can’t be seen by people who are stupid.”
“Are you trying to call me an idiot? Anyway, that’s not it.”
After all, Mizuhito would count as an idiot too.
However...
“Oh!” exclaimed Pamil, punching her hand. “Mizuhito said something about a girlfriend.”
“He did?”
“Indeed,” she affirmed with an exaggerated nod. “It was when you were having snu-snu with Sanae behind my back.”
“How long are you gonna keep that going?!”
“It was a joke,” she explained. “But back then, I’m sure Mizuhito mentioned trying to get snu-snu, and it not going well.”
“Oh?” Kyouhei said with a slight smile.
Well, Kyouhei had read that it often didn’t go well if both people were inexperienced. It was a bit amusing imagining Mizuhito being innocently worried about his first time not going right, though...
“He said something about suggesting doing it on top of a building and charging money to spectators, then getting slapped by her.”
“There’s nothing amusing about that!” Kyouhei roared.
That was Mizuhito, alright. If it would lead to standing out, all of his values were warped.
“Still,” Kyouhei said, folding his arms, “him having a girlfriend...”
What kind of girl would go out with him? He couldn’t imagine it at all.
Well, when you thought of a couple, it was easy to imagine people with the same type of personality, or maybe the exact opposite, with them admiring something the other had that they didn’t...
“...W-What?” Sanae asked, her cheeks darkening as Kyouhei stared at her.
When he thought of the opposite of Mizuhito, a person like Sanae came to mind. If Sanae had gone out with Mizuhito rather than Kyouhei, she’d probably pass out from the nerves, though. While she wasn’t exactly like Kyouhei, she was shy and also hated standing out. Although she probably wouldn’t be able to refuse Mizuhito’s overwhelming demands.
“If she were like Pamil, they just wouldn’t fit together...” he continued thoughtfully.
Even if they were the same type—both completely lacking common sense—he couldn’t think of a way for them to get along in that sense.
“What do you mean?” Pamil asked.
“I was just wondering what kind of girl Mizuhito’s girlfriend is. If she were like Sanae, then she’d get exhausted from not going along with him, and if she were like you... I kinda... can’t imagine you dating him.”
“You needn’t worry, I shan’t cheat on you with Mizuhito.”
“I’m not worrying,” Kyouhei protested with a faint smile. “I’m just wondering about what she’s like.”
“Huh?” Pamil tilted her head. “You’re curious?”
“Hm, well, yeah.” Mizuhito was his friend after all.
If Kyouhei was told to name one person as his best friend, then Mizuhito’s would be the first name he’d give. He might be a moronic pervert, but he wasn’t a bad person. He spoke readily with Kyouhei when he was worried about not knowing anyone in his class, and helped him fit into the group.
“Hmm... I’m somewhat interested too,” Pamil said. “Our first time will be soon, so it should be useful to use other people’s experiences as a reference.”
“Ho—W-Wait, what are you even thinking?!”
“Obviously,” she said proudly, “we’ll watch Mizuhito and his girlfriend having snu-snu!”
“That’s not princess-like!” Kyouhei cried out in despair. “Anyway, it’s not like we could peep on people!”
After all, they were currently in a situation where they’d be under a watch of their own if they gave the media the slightest chance. Though he had a flower on each side with two fiancées, he couldn’t even give them a kiss if he felt like it, so of course they wouldn’t be able to investigate Mizuhito and his girlfriend.
...Or at least, they shouldn’t have been able to.
“It shall be an issue should you not be able to maintain your privacy!” came a grand voice. “The latest technology guards your secrets! Henceforth, you too—”
Wordlessly, Kyouhei fished around next to the table and then fired off a high-caliber pistol. With a sound somewhat quiet to be called a gunshot, the round flew from the barrel—trailing a cord behind it—and impacted one of the many boxes in the surrounding area, spraying sparks.
It was an anti-riot taser.
Then...
“You’re so extreme every time we meet,” spoke the voice again.
“And whose fault do you think that is?” Kyouhei demanded.
The voice belonged to a middle-aged man who had folded himself into an arrow to avoid the projectile.
Incidentally, he was currently wearing traditional casual clothing. If he had a scabbard and sword at his waist, then he’d have been right at home in a gangster film.
Kyouhei hated to admit his relationship to the man, but their similar features made it obvious. Kyouhei would probably look much the same once he reached his thirties.