Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist Editor: Weasalopes
【Episode 1: Mansion and the Murder Case, Part 5】
As for senpai's room itself, it was the same high standard as the rest of the rooms in this mansion, but I feel that this one sentence is not doing it enough justice. I mean, for a guest room, it had a fully furnished and equipped living room area, as well as a small kitchen and dining area, not to mention a spacious bedroom and a high-class bathroom. It was probably on par with Shiinamachi-senpai's suite at the school's clock tower, or maybe even slightly better than that.
This 「Hachihoukan」 villa owned by the Yatono family was a two-story western style octangular-shaped building. The first floor was comprised of an entrance hall, dining area, a large bathroom, and the separate restrooms for men and women, and the second floor had seven guest rooms on it. They were situated on the northern side of the building, while the stairs connecting this floor to the first floor's entrance hall were on the southern side. Now that I had the chance to see how senpai's room looked on the inside, I was certain that not only that, but probably every guest room was arranged like the one you'd find in a five star hotel, complete with king-sized beds, leather sofas, large plasma wide-screen TV's and computer desks. In short, they had everything to ensure that the guests could have the most enjoyable stay here. On the first floor there is also a neatly maintained courtyard filled with greenery and complete with a fountain fish pond. All the corridors on the second floor were arranged in such a way that it could be perfectly visible once you left your room; all in all, it was a nice, calming touch.
「This really looks like something that's befitting of a queen, or perhaps an empress.」
Fujisato exclaimed as she was looking around with sparkling eyes. For some reason, she was also groping every inch of one of the walls. Or, to be more specific…
「Are you perhaps looking for some hidden door?」
「Not exactly. Your room is right at the other side of this wall, right, Monjiro? I was just looking if there are any kind of peepholes you could look through.」
「Well it would certainly be nice if there were any, but that would be quite troubling for senpai.」
「S-So you were going to try and peek at me?! Jiro-kun, you leecher! Villain! Perv!」
Shiinamachi-senpai shouted at me while covering her chest with an embarrassed face. Nicely done, Fujisato. Thanks to you senpai must now think that I am some kind of a deviant.
Instead of being apologetic, Fujisato just gave me a really smug look. I swear, sometimes she's even more of a schemer than Shiki! As much as I love watching embarrassed senpai, so much so that I could do it for hours, that was going a little bit too far. I I did that, I would've been reported as a pervert and taken by the police for sure. In other words, this was a cunning trap laid by Fujisato, a one calculated up to the point where she could enjoy seeing senpai's embarrassed reaction to her hearts content without being suspected of such evil intentions. All she had to do was to rope me up into such a situation and make ma a scapegoat later! I see now, so that's how it is. But you know, Fujisato, two can play that game.
Using my middle finger I fixed my glasses on my nose, looked straight into Shiinamachi-senpai's eyes, and declared firmly:
「Let me put it this way: I'm curious about you, senpai, and I'd like to get to know how you spend your free time, what your hobbies and interests are, and what do you like to do to relax, but not to the extent of peeking on you like some kind of sick vouyer. So you can rest assured, I will never do anything that would hurt you, or make you sad. My only goal, and my greatest wish, is to always be by your side and to make you happy.」
「Hou……ehhhh?! Ah, eeeeeehhh?!!!!」
Hm? That was… not the reaction I was expecting, to be honest.
For a second there it looked like senpai was relieved, only for her to turn into full-blown otome mode, complete with apple-red face and frantically holding her face with both hands. Now that I think about it, Yugao-chan had a very similar reaction earlier. How peculiar.
「Uwaaaah, way to go, Monjiro, delivering such swaggy lines with a straight face like that… that's actually kinda cool.」
「Uh-huh, as expected of Monjiro-senpai. To think about something so noble even if he had such a golden opportunity in front of him. It's simoultaneously satisfying… and a little disappointing, actually. But I guess that's just a part of his charm.」
What were those two even talking about? All I said was that I want to always be by senpai's side, and make her… happy…
F*ck….!
I… I might be reading between the lines too much here, but… have I just… indirectly proposed to senpai? If I did, then its no wonder that she looks so troubled, but…
「W-W-Well, that was a little sudden, b-but… I appreciate the thought… Jiro-kun. I… I promise I'll think it over.」
「You'll think… it over…?」
Much to my astonishment, senpai didn't seem to be hating the idea. Knowing that, I breathed a sigh of relief. If I could really spend the rest of my life together with Shiinamachi-senpai, then there'd be nothing else that I would've wanted from life.
「Looks like you're going to see some action with Kaguya tonight, Monjiro. So before that happens…」
Shiki loosened up her yukata, reveling her slender neck.
「STOP RIGHT THERE SHIKI!!!!!!」
I tried to stop her with one hand and keep my glasses from falling off my face with the other.
「Why should I, Monjiro? Is something wrong?」
「There is! Namely, you've been too aggressive lately! Can you please tone it down a bit?!」
「You want me to only take my yukata off a bit? That can be arranged.」
She nodded affirmatively, and lowered her yukata further down, exposing her shoulders and collarbone for me to see. This sight was so sexy that I almost forgot how to breathe. Of course, there was no way for Shiki to rival Shiinamachi-senpai's bombshell body's godly proportions, but there was something so alluring about her appearance that I just couldn't turn my eyes away from her.
「Oya oya? So now we're having a Monjiro Seduction contest, huh? Fine by me. Come on Nagi-chan, we absolutely can't lose to Shiki-chan when it comes to sex appeal!」
「Couldn't have said that better myself, Fujisato-senpai. Yatono Shiki, this time I won't lose to you! Undressing in front of everyone is embarrassing, but if I can get Monjiro-senpai to notice me thanks to it, then so be it!」
「No, you three, you can't! How can you be fine with doing something so shameful?!」
Shiinamachi senpai did her best to stop Shiki and company by yelling at them and flailing her hands about.
「Now now, senpai, don't be such a prude! A little fun and skinship never hurt nobody, right?」
Fujisato thought there was nothing wrong with the current situation, but senpai obviously thought otherwise. Her jealousy was really cute, and it reminded me of my sister's words, that she was also jealous of me being surrounded by so many beautiful girls. So that what she was talking about. But you know, jealousy is complicated, similarly to a maiden's heart. If it's a small, harmless one like the one senpai is displaying right now, then there's no problem. But if it's something that nestles in your heart and keeps on spreading to one day consume it and turn into envy, then it must be dealt with as soon as possible to prevent both the one feeling it and the objects of said jealousy, be it people, countries or even the world from getting harmed. No wonder it's listed as one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Since my soul and feelings were technically still in the process of growing, I hoped that I'd never have to experience such a terrifying emotion firsthand.
「Okay Shiki, I think that's enough fooling around. Now can you please fix your yukata? I'm having trouble deciding where I should look, and it makes me feel uncomfortable.」
「As you wish, Monjiro-oniichan.」
「Waitwaitwait, oniichan?! What's up with that?!」
「Explain yourself, Yatono Shiki!」
Ignoring both Fujisato and Kuhoh, Shiki finally fixed her yukata, which was kind of regretful, but also the best for the sake of my emotional stability. Proper behavior in situations like that was one of the things that I still needed to learn if I wanted to be the exemplary ordinary high-school boy.
「Ekhem! Have you calmed down now, everyone? Great. If possible, I'd like not to try to seduce Jiro-kun like that in the future, can you promise me that? Oh, and the same goes for you, Jiro-kun. No mindless flirting with other girls, you hear me?」
Shiinamachi-senpai reprimanded the four of us like that. She might be saying that, but the truth is that she was the one who seduced me first, and it all started with that one sentence on that fateful day:
『Today is my safe day, so please pay me a visit in my room.』
Those words were the ones that stole my heart in an instant. Words shared between lovers, serving as the cornerstone of deepening the relationship between them, as the affirmation of crossing a certain line together. I have to admit, when senpai invited me to her room that day, I had some hopes that it might've been about 「That」, and for that purpose I even bought 「That Thing」 at the convenience store, but ultimately, nothing of that sort happened between us. Well, we did take a bath together, and it was more then enough for my heart to explode from happiness, but…. Ugh, you get the point, right?
「A question, Kaguya. We cannot flirt with him, but how about bathing together? After all, you already did it once, so…」
「Ehhhh? W-Well, I mean… technically it's not seducing, so…」
Just as I was remembering that, another outrageous (wonderful) idea left Shiki's mouth.
On that fateful day when I went to visit Shiinamachi-senpai in her room, we were both killed and then brought back to life. Then, to help me understand the circumstances of what actually happened, senpai allowed me to borrow her bathroom, and even helped me clean myself from all the blood I had on me at that time. And while she was scrubbing my back, she was wearing nothing but a bath towel! But the it turned out she was wearing a swimsuit underneath it, so that kind of killed my boner, but at the same time made me feel at ease.
「Hm? You took a bath together?」
Fujisato's ears twitched when she heard Shiki mentioning that we bathed together. For some reason, I tried to imagine Fujisato with legitimate twitching cat ears as she stared at senpai, clearly demanding an explanation.
「Ah, that… that was, I mean we… awawawawawawawa!」
No good, senpai's pure mind overheated, and she was unable to make a single coherent sentence. Now, in order to avoid her saying something that she might end up regretting, there was only one thing I could do, being the true gentleman that I am.
「Yes we did. Want to join me next time, Fujisato?」
「H-How can you ask something like that to a lady, Monjiro-kun?! You want me to bathe together with you?」
This time it was Fujisato's turn to turn bright red. Good, that means I have succeeded in switching the focus of Fujisato's attention from 「Monjiro and Shiinamachi-senpai took a bath together?!」 to 「Kyaa, Monjiro asked me to take a bath with him?!」
「It's a bit of a letdown that you don't want to, but I won't force you. Now, senpai looks like she wants to say something, so why don't we listen to her? We can always resume from where we left off afterwards.」
「Ah, okay. I'm sorry, Shiinamachi-senpai, Monjiro. I got too carried away here.」
「Oh, there's no need to apologize for something like that, Fujisato-san. I lost my cool there for a bit too.」
Putting the matters of yukatas and co-ed bathing aside for the time being, we turned towards senpai to listen what she had to say.