Chapter 105: Private Conversation

When I got home, I asked my mom for a favour. If it continued like this, it’d be bad. One of those bad things would be Kaya-san running wild. I didn’t have any time to take it slow.

“Mother! Could you make an appointment with Konoe-sama?”

I didn’t have any way to suddenly contact Mrs. Konoe. I didn’t know her phone number, and in the first place, I didn’t know if Mrs. Konoe would reply if I contacted her… Compared to that, having my mom as a point of contact would mean that I should be able to get an appointment with Mrs. Konoe,

“…on what business?”

My mother asked me that question as she sipped her tea, and I looked directly at her. 

“I would like to discuss no longer being marriage candidates with Konoe-sama.”

Trying to no longer be “marriage candidates” in the first place was strange. When the Konoe family decided on Ibuki’s fiance, they picked marriage candidates and then discussed later; it was a one-sided decision made by the Konoe family.

Being made to be his marriage candidate didn’t mean that I had to marry him but that we had to talk first otherwise nothing would happen. Deciding on an engagement and fiancee was fundamentally different from deciding on a marriage candidate to continue talks with. 

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　　～～～～～～～

It looked like my mom was also planning to talk to the Konoe family, so she’d already made an appointment. I took advantage of that and went with her. It was better if Mrs. Konoe herself was there. She might hate me, but there was nothing good about being forcibly married.

Well… a normal household would probably think that, but in this neighbourhood where marriages of convenience were common, it was thought that being in love was a secondary priority… It was hard to think that I wouldn’t be marriage candidates with Ibuki anymore by just saying that I didn’t want to marry him.

“Welcome, Sakuya-chan!”

“Greetings, Konoe-sama…”

She welcomed us with a radiant smile, but we weren’t happy. Rather, my mom responded quite coldly. It was almost a little scary.

Mrs. Konoe led us to the same living room as before and we started talking. Rather, Mrs. Konoe started talking before we could bring up what we came here for.

“I would like to ask what business you have here, but I already know what it is. It’s about the marriage candidate announcement a few days ago, right?”

“Yes…”

There wouldn’t have been any reason why we would’ve suddenly visited her. Thinking about it normally, anyone would be able to reach the same conclusion. That conclusion was correct.

“I’ve said this earlier, but I’m not planning to cancel or withdraw the announcement. Please understand that.”

“Huh…?”

A sudden firm rejection without even listening to what we had to say? What was Mrs. Konoe doing? Why was she using such forceful methods? I didn’t think the logical and bold Mrs. Konoe would use such methods. Was there some reason why she had to use them?

“Then… why use such forceful methods… you did understand that it may cause conflict with the Kujou family, yes?”

“That’s true… well… Because I didn’t want anyone to know till the very end… maybe? If it were known that Kujou-sama and I were having talks, various rumours would spread about both families.”

I understood what Mrs. Konoe was saying. We were the Five Norths families: if both families just went to dine together, it would be investigated thoroughly. To put it simply, it was something like reporters for a publication investigating famous actors and popular idols. It was the same thing as following them around in their private lives and making impossible guesses—no, writing about their lives according to the reporter’s delusions.

The Five Norths families had to watch their every action. Just meeting someone could be construed as both parties having some private conversation. If the Konoe and Kujou families were to frequently meet, that would cause a large stir. I knew that, but it wasn’t the answer to my question.

“Why did you do such a thing? It brings only unhappiness to everyone.”

I asked Mrs. Konoe the question directly so she couldn’t evade answering. Now she wouldn’t be able to dodge the topic.

“Do you want to hear the public reason or the real reason?”

“…huh?”

Mrs. Konoe grinned mischievously; I couldn’t understand what she said and stiffened. No… no, no… what would someone in this situation normally want to hear? I didn’t want to hear the public reason in the first place, though? Hearing the real reason was enough.

“Fufu. If you want to hear the public reason, it can’t be helped. You’re making that face. Then, I’ll tell you the public reason.”

Hey… if you were gonna decide a response for me, then don’t ask… Also, she was telling me the public reason…

“Announcing that Ibuki and you were marriage candidates would keep our enemies in check.”

“…enemies?”

Who were the enemies? Blooming Flowers in Love was just a romance game aimed at girls. So-called dating sims didn’t have any battle elements. Enemies were… if she said there were enemies, then there were, but… were these the rival ladies who would appear no matter the love interest you picked?

Including Lady Sakuya, there were quite a few rivals. Lady Sakuya was a villainess who appeared in almost every route and was hated by the female players, but each love interest obviously had their own scenarios and characters that appeared in said scenarios. 

If the word “enemy” were to appear in “Blooming Flowers in Love”, that could only be referring to the rival ladies, but…

“I think you know already, so I’ll just say it. The Ichijou family is targeting you, Sakuya-chan.”

“――guh!?”

At Mrs. Konoe’s words, I twitched… The matter with Kuwahara Katsura and Touin Aoki… was clearly instigated by the Ichijou family. I knew that much. I knew, but… I didn’t want to know…

I wanted to think that they were just running wild. Because… if we were to fight with the Ichijou family, then Momiji too…

That was why I hadn’t done anything or dealt with the problem despite knowing that the Ichijou family instigated it. Of course, nothing had happened yet. But if you knew that there were enemies, you should at least deal with it. I had procrastinated in doing that.

Compared to me, Mrs. Konoe was making preparations before the enemies moved… that was what I was talking about.

I didn’t care if the Ichijou family was targeting me or not, but if they really were, then why were they targeting me? If I didn’t know their reasoning or objective, I couldn’t deal with the issue. And if that was known, why was being Ibuki’s marriage candidate important?

“There is antagonism between the Kujou and Ichijou families. You are being targeted to cause irreparable damage… and because you are the weakest point, Sakuya-chan… that’s why.”

Basically… because I was the weakest, I was the Kujou family’s weak point that was the easiest to target…?

“Sakuya-chan, you’re becoming my Ibuki’s fiancee to keep the Ichijou family in check. If you are protected by not only the Kujou family, but also the Konoe family, you will not be as easy to lay a hand on.”

“That is…”

When she put it that way, I couldn’t strongly refute it… If she was saying that she did that on purpose to protect me, complaining would be unreasonable.

“Then the real reason is?”

“I want you to marry into my family, Sakuya-chan! It hasn’t been going well with Ibuki right now, but if you talk as marriage candidates, you two will slowly open up… right? Sakuya-chan! Please marry into my family. If you do that, the Ichijous won’t lay their hands on you!”

Absolutely not.

It was sad that I couldn’t say that… I had already said so many times that I rejected getting engaged to Ibuki. But I couldn’t tell Mrs. Konoe, who worked so hard towards that goal, to stop. I would reject the engagement… but it would be odd for me to say something when she worked so hard for the marriage.

“…Sakuya, go home first. I will talk with Konoe-sama.”

“…yes.”

I had many things I wanted to say, but… all I could do was withdraw from my mom’s gaze and pressure. I dejectedly withdrew.

I expressed my opinion. I didn’t want to marry Ibuki. I wanted the marriage candidate announcement to be repealed. I said that. But Mrs. Konoe had said that it was better to express that there was a promise between the Konoes and Kujous to protect me from the Ichijous. And if it was to protect me…

Her real intentions… making Ibuki and I marry in the confusion… The fact she was saying something like “Even if she hated it at first, won’t she give up and marry him later?” was the worst, but… That was just the Konoe family trying to get it to happen because I wanted it to; if they had to force it to happen, that wouldn’t be a problem.

Oh… there was one problem… I didn’t care if Kaya-san made Ibuki disappear because of that, but… that was their problem… well, I couldn’t say that… I didn’t want Kaya-san to become a criminal…

However, the topic now was one of politics. No one would listen to a kid like me if they thought that I was making a fuss just because of how I felt.

Mrs. Konoe had said it. She had said that I could pretend… The current relationship was just “marriage candidate”, not engaged or married. It was just to show people that the Konoes and Kujous were connected to keep our enemies in check…

If I got closer to Ibuki on top of that and got interested in marrying him, that’d be a great victory for Mrs. Konoe.

I definitely understood what she was saying… but that was… wasn’t that the same as Ibuki making use of Lady Sakuya in the game?

In the game “Love Flowers”, Ibuki hated any and all talks of engagement, so he didn’t openly deny Lady Sakuya’s marriage candidate announcement to make use of it. There were few people who wanted to disrupt marriage talks between the Konoes and Kujous. At the very least, no one wanted to openly make enemies of both families.

I hated the game version of Ibuki. I hated this world’s version of Ibuki ten times, no, a hundred times more… you could even say I detested him. I couldn’t forgive Ibuki for making Lady Sakuya meet this fate.

Even so… I … wasn’t I doing the same thing that the in-game Ibuki did? I didn’t care about marrying Ibuki and instead used the name “marriage candidate” for my own means? I was doing that…

　　～～～～～～～

“Welcome back, Sakuya-sama.”

“――gah! Momiji…”

I left my mom and went home on my own first… then Momiji welcomed me. She wasn’t there after the party. She’d been living like usual, but then suddenly wasn’t at the house for one to two days. I wondered what happened to her, but… she was here all of a sudden.

She wasn’t acting differently at all. She was just calmly wearing a maid outfit as usual. Was she going to say nothing to me? Make some excuses, or state an explanation… nothing at all?

“Momiji… do you not have something to say about… becoming my brother’s partner… at the Takatsukasa family’s party?”

“…I have nothing to say.”

“――huh!?”

When I heard what Momiji said, I ran into my room. There was no way she had nothing to say, right? There must’ve been something, right? Why wasn’t she saying anything?

If she had to serve as my brother’s partner because he didn’t have one, that was fine. If she said that, I would’ve accepted it, you know?

But why wasn’t she telling me? Why wasn’t she saying anything? What was this feeling in my chest?

What was this weight on my chest? What should I do? I didn’t even know that, so I went in my bed and pulled the covers over my head.