“I’ll be off, then. Those people are gone, so you can do whatever you like with the house from now on. I can’t always be home, so you can go ahead and redecorate or hire help or whatever else you want.”
“Okay. Thank you, Yanagi.”
Her brother hurriedly left soon after, but the next morning, he stayed true to his word and returned home to share breakfast with Hazuki.
“I somehow made it in time.”
“Welcome home, Yanagi.”
Among the veteran servants who felt sentimental about Hazuki’s greeting to her brother was Sae, the one who had provided the catalyst for Hana and Hazuki to mend their relationship.
Hazuki’s and Yanagi’s eyes went wide as they took their seats at the dining table.
“Sae, don’t you think this is a bit too lavish for breakfast?” Hazuki asked with a bit of befuddlement in her tone.
While not exactly a feast, the meal before them was still beyond the amount usually prepared for two people. And there were even some celebratory dishes such as red bean rice and sea bream served whole, all prepared for the first meal of the day.
“I wished to celebrate Master Yanagi’s official succession and the start of a new chapter for you both, so I had the chefs spare no effort.”
Sae’s beaming smile seemed to exude joy from the bottom of her heart.
“Is that so?” Hazuki mused. She could accept it after remembering that they had yet to celebrate Yanagi’s succession themselves. “Guess we’ll need to call Hana over sometime soon and celebrate with her, right, Yanagi?”
“If Hana’s the only one we need to call over, that is.”
Hana read between the lines.
“Should we invite the clan lord as well?”
“I suppose we should. Given how much work Saku did during that last ordeal, I don’t think I can go without thanking him.”
“Got it. You’re pretty busy, so I’ll arrange it.”
“Great, thanks.”
Yanagi was a man of few words, so their meal together couldn’t quite be called a lively affair, but the atmosphere was calm and soothing.
Having the chance to be so open with Yanagi and eat so peacefully was a situation that Hazuki couldn’t help but find strange. But thinking about how this was going to be her new normal made the tension vanish from her expression. Yanagi seemed to feel the same way.
“Come to think of it, it’s almost time for the school festival.”
“Yes. Campus One should be hosting it this year, right?”
Once every year, Obsidian High School had all five of its campuses come together for a school festival. The food stalls, the attractions, and more combined to make it one of the biggest, most exciting celebrations of the year.
The location rotated in order from Campuses One through Five. Since the previous year’s festival had been held at Campus Five, Campus One was supposed to be in charge this year.
Incidentally, as Campus One being under Ichinomiya jurisdiction and Campus Two being under Nijouin jurisdiction might allude to, each campus’s number matched the number in each of the five clan names. This indicated to whom each campus belonged. The school festival being held at Campus One meant that the Ichinomiya family would have a large influence on it.
“Yeah. So I’ll be working security on the day of the event. You’ll be in this year’s Campus Cup, right?”
“The members haven’t been announced yet, but I think I’ll be picked.”
One of the events held during the school festival was a series of competitions in which students selected from all five campuses demonstrated their powers against one another. Only the cream of the crop were featured, so being chosen was a distinction that could give one a leg up when they pursued a career later on. However, Hazuki seemed uncertain, which puzzled her brother.
“What’s wrong? Is there a problem with that?”
“Well, Hana’s far more powerful than me…”
Hana, who could summon two human-form shikigami and had even turned an inugami deity into her shikigami, was powerful beyond compare. This was a recent discovery to Hazuki, who had always thought of Hana as weak, as someone she had to protect. She’d felt that way only because she hadn’t known Hana’s power, but it still embarrassed Hazuki in hindsight to think she had made such patronizing assumptions.
“Hana’s in Class C, so we don’t even know if she can be chosen. Ridiculous, isn’t it?”
There was no record of a Class C student ever being selected for the Campus Cup.
“I agree, but if Hana were chosen, I figure she’d drag her feet, and I know she wouldn’t be happy about it.”
“Good point.”
Hazuki could imagine it. The two girls had kept their interactions to the bare minimum since they turned ten, so Hazuki honestly knew very little about Hana, but she could still see it quite clearly. Perhaps this was a sign of the special bond between twin sisters, but who could say for sure?
“On that note, Hana says that she actually wants a career at an Ichinomiya company instead of becoming a practitioner. What do you think about that, Yanagi?”
Hazuki feared that Hana’s grades might make it difficult for her to apply to typical companies, but she also thought it would be such a waste if Hana did not put her incredible talents as a practitioner to good use.
“Not much. That depends on Hana…or I should say Saku.”
“The clan lord?”
“Joining the Association or starting a career would all take a back seat if they have a child.”
Well, that was a bombshell. If Hana were within earshot, she’d probably have screamed loudly enough to get the neighborhood dogs howling along.
Hazuki was speechless. A pregnancy would certainly make Hana’s plans for her future go up in smoke; that much was true. Hana was still planning to divorce Saku, but Hazuki knew that he was opposed, so she couldn’t rule out the possibility.
“…………”
Hazuki kept her thoughts to herself. She elected to pretend that she hadn’t heard anything, and she forcibly changed the subject.
“S-so, Yanagi, you’ll be coming to see the Campus Cup? I’d like you to come see it at least once.”
Her parents had attended the Campus Cups before, but more often than not, it resulted in them chewing her out for not doing better rather than praising her. Hazuki was always doing the best she could, but not once were her efforts ever acknowledged.
After a moment of silence following the question, Yanagi nodded.
“Yeah.”
Taking that response to mean the worst, Hazuki furrowed her brow.
“Is it hard to say for sure? You don’t have to go out of your way, okay?”
“No, I don’t mean that. It’s just that it’s been more than ‘once.’ I went when you were in your first and second years, too.”
“You did?”
Hazuki’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Yeah. It’s only natural for an older brother.”
“It is, huh…?”
Hazuki’s lips curved into a subtle smile.