The Former Swordmaster Who Pretends to Be the Worst, and the School’s Top-Ranked Chairman’s Daughter Who’s Way Too Sweet in Public, It’s a Real Problem
“Well… when I got home, I certainly didn’t expect to find Saito-kun resting his head on Rika’s lap.”
“Um… Ryotaro-san. There’s actually quite a story behind this, you know?”
“No, no, I’m not saying it’s wrong. I just thought you might have forgotten your duties as a bodyguard for a moment!”
“…………”
――Right now, I’m being confronted with a smile by Ryotaro-san, who’s just returned home.
And no wonder. After all, the person I’d asked to protect my daughter was sound asleep with his head resting on her thigh. Although he’s speaking with a constant smile, it’s clear—just like when we spoke in the chairman’s office earlier today—that he’s far from at ease.
After sending Rika off to take a bath, he began pointing things out to me in a matter-of-fact yet persistent manner.
“……Well, I suppose she’s relatively safe while she’s staying at this house.”
“I’m truly sorry.”
“Ha ha ha! Saito-kun, you’re being way too apologetic!”
And since this was my own lack of awareness, I couldn’t argue back.
While Ryotaro-san sat on the sofa, I was kneeling on the floor. After a while, it seemed he had finally forgiven me.
He urged me to sit across from him, so I did as he asked, enduring the numbness in my toes.
Noticing this, my childhood friend’s father gave a slight nod.
“Let’s get this report out of the way before Rika gets out of the bath.”
“…Did you find out anything?”
I shifted my mindset and asked him back, and he replied with a solemn expression.
“Ah… I found traces of someone tampering with the school’s database, albeit very slight. I don’t know who it is yet, but they seem to be quite cautious.”
“Wait a minute, the school’s database…?”
And I furrowed my brow at the information that came out.
The fact that the school’s database was tampered with means that the suspicious person is already—
“I think it’s exactly as you imagined, Saito-kun. We don’t know yet if it’s the same person who masterminded the recent attack. Even so, a dangerous individual is already inside the academy.”
“…………”
It seemed Ryotaro had come to the same conclusion.
Speaking in a tone that suggested he was confirming this, he leaned forward, covering his mouth with his hand as he exhaled. On top of that, he seemed to be hesitating about something.
I should be the one to bring this up, shouldn’t I?
With that in mind,
“What kind of data was tampered with…?”
I asked him straight out.
Ryotaro paused for a few seconds before speaking.
“Saito, could you ever suspect a friend?” he asked.
I pondered that question for a moment.
I had a vague idea of what he meant. Still, I couldn’t understand why he was making such a point of it.
But this was to protect Rika.
For that reason, I needed to consider every possibility.
“…No problem. Please tell me.”
“Alright. Then brace yourself and listen.”
When I urged him on with that in mind, Ryotaro seemed to have made up his mind.
After confirming once more that his daughter was still in the bathroom, he began to speak about the subject in question.
“There were several suspicious points in the information regarding one female student. From her place of origin to her age, and even her family structure and current address—some of the details didn’t seem to correspond to any real person.”
And finally, he spoke the girl’s name.
“Her name is Takanashi Azusa. …She’s a friend of yours, Saito-kun.”
◆
—Meanwhile, at that very moment.
In a dimly lit room, a man and a girl were talking. The man was trying to blend into the darkness, but a faint light illuminated the girl.
She had golden hair and childlike features.
The man addressed her, asking,
“…Azusa, I think it’s about time you made yourself useful.”
The girl called Azusa—that is, Takanashi Azusa—remained silent.
She stared blankly in the direction of the man. She didn’t answer, but perhaps whether she did or not didn’t matter to him at all.
He continued, chuckling softly.
“That’s good, Azusa. Now you’ll finally have a ‘place’ of your own, won’t you?”
While those words sounded like a congratulation, they also carried a mocking tone.
And as if to prove it, the man told Takanashi:
“Even a disappointing ‘failure’ can be put to good use,” he said.
Faced with what could only be described as a contemptuous insult, the girl said nothing.
—No. In the first place, she had no right to retort.
“Well then, shall we begin…! To build our ideal world!!”
As proof of this, the man reveled in his own delight, laughing in a voice that seemed to crawl along the ground.
She gazed blankly at him and murmured:
In a voice so small it was almost inaudible—
“…I’m sorry, everyone.”
Her tearful words reached no one, drowned out by the man’s laughter.
Maiban