Lena-san stutters for quite a while before she could finally form a coherent sentence.

‘Of course. Do come in.’ she tells her ex-husband.

Principal Morifuji came here while wearing a suit and a tie. It’s like he’s going to a press conference, not the birthday party of his ex-wife. He’s also holding a bundle of primrose and a rectangle box wrapped in present paper. For some reason, both Sakuya and Lena-san gasps softly when they saw the flower.

He nods at us when he saw Sakuya and I. We nod back formally.

‘Seriously, what was that Agito-san?’ Lena-san chides Principal Morifuji. ‘That’s our own daughter and our future son-in-law. At least give them a hug or something.’

‘Um, no thank you.’ I refuse. ‘You can go ahead, Lena-san.’

Lena-san’s expression brightens up at once.

‘Can I? Don’t mind if I do!’

Lena-san proceeds to lunge towards Principal Morifuji’s chest without his permission and gives him a huge hug. The latter looks over here helplessly.

‘Hug her back.’ I mouth to him.

He does as I say and hugs Lena-san back awkwardly. Lena-san suddenly pushes him away as if she remembers that Sakuya and I are still here.

‘Um, do sit down.’ she tells her ex-husband.

‘Thank you.’

‘Sakuya-chan made us dinner. Would you like to try some?’ Lena-san informs him while showing him the fish and chips Sakuya made.

Principal Morifuji couldn’t believe his eyes and ears. ‘Did you really make this, Sakuya?’

‘Yes, father.’

‘Surprisingly, it’s actually edible. I think it’s going to snow tomorrow, even though it’s not winter yet. Ow. Ow. Please stop stepping on my foot, senpai.’

Lena-san giggles at us. ‘The two of you sure get along.’

‘We don’t really, mother. He enjoys making fun of me like the big bully he is.’ Sakuya tells her mother.

‘Can you blame him, Sakuya-chan? It’s because you’re so cute when you get flustered.’

‘Whose side are you on, mother?’

While we’re having the exchange, Principal Morifuji took a bite out of the fish and chips.

‘Kagenashi-kun is right. This is indeed edible. Well done, Sakuya.’ he compliments.

‘Thank you, father.’ Sakuya says bashfully.

Lena-san starts to tear up again. ‘Finally, Sakuya-chan can cook something decent after all these years. I’m so proud.’

‘You’re overreacting, mother.’

‘Am I really? After being served those abominations all those years?’

Sakuya has nothing to say back to that.

‘I guess we really have to thank Akira-kun for that, don’t we Agito-san?’

Principal Morifuji nods in agreement. ‘Yes. Thank you for not giving up on our daughter.’

‘There’s no need for thanks, sir and madam. She’s my precious girlfriend, after all.’

Sakuya’s face got all red when she heard that.

Lena-san squeals in delight. ‘My my~! The youngster these days are so daring! And I told you to stop being so formal Akira-kun.’

‘Oh, right. Sorry about that, um, mother.’

Lena-san pouts at me. ‘Geez, you’re not going to call me mommy either?’

‘Please give me some time for that.’

‘All right~.’

Principal Morifuji suddenly remembers the presents he got for Lena-san. He hands them over to her.

‘Um, this is for you, Lena.’

‘Oh my, you shouldn’t have Agito-san.’

She accepts the flower first and takes a good sniff from it.

‘A primrose, huh?’ she smirks knowingly at him.

Principal Morifuji looks away awkwardly. I wonder what this is about. I need to study up on flower languages after this.

Next, Lena-san opens up the present. She gasps and widen her eyes in surprise as she finds a necklace inside. It’s made of silver and has an emerald on one end. Sakuya seems to recognize it as well.

She looks at Principal Morifuji. ‘You…you actually looked for it?’

‘Of course. I promised you, didn’t I?’

Lena-san sobs loudly and hugs Principal Morifuji once more. This time, they hug each other for quite some time.

‘I’ve missed you so much, Agito-san.’ Lena-san tells Principal Morifuji between chokes and sobs.

‘I know I have no right to say this after asking for a divorce, but so do I, Lena.’

He takes a deep breath before saying the next sentence.

‘Will you, will you give me another chance? This time, I swear that I will protect both you and Sakuya no matter what happens.’

Lena-san nods her head vigorously. ‘Of course I will! Do you know how long have I been waiting for those words of yours?’

‘I’m sorry for making you wait.’

‘You better be!’

Lena-san starts to cry, and this time she’s not acting. It took her quite a while to stop crying.

‘I’m so sorry for that.’ Lena-san apologizes to us once the tears have stopped flowing.

‘There’s no need for apology, mother. It’s absolutely understandable.’ I tell her.

‘Well then, let’s start packing up so that I could move back to our house.’ Lena-san announces.

‘Right. And tomorrow we’ll have to register ourselves as husband and wive once more.’ Principal Morifuji says to her.

‘Oh, there’s no need for that.’

‘What? Why not?’

Instead of answering, Lena-san gets up and walks to a drawer. She takes out a piece of paper from there. It’s a form for finalizing divorce.

‘I’ve never handed this to the City Hall, you see. Technically, we were never divorced.’ she tells him while tearing the form in half.

‘I-I see. Well, that’s good in a way, I guess.’

We quickly finish up the meal Sakuya prepared for us and help Lena-san with cleaning up the plates and packing up her belongings. Which isn’t a lot, so we didn’t take very long.

I bow at them when we’re done. ‘Well, it’s getting late, so I have to leave for the night.’

‘Oh, don’t be such a stranger. Come to the mansion with us. I’ll give you a tour and everything.’ Lena-san tells me.

I look at Principal Morifuji. He nods his head. And so, we left the apartment and head to Principal Morifuji’s car.

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‘It’s been too long ever since I saw everyone in the mansion. Are all of them doing well?’ Lena-san asks Principal Morifuji.

‘Yes. And all of them miss you dearly.’

‘Oh, only them?’

Principal Morifuji clears his throat. ‘Well, so do I.’

Lena-san chuckles happily. ‘I missed you a lot too, Agito-san.’

I’m really glad that their relationship is back to normal but man, this is so embarrassing and awkward to listen to. It’s even worse than seeing Miyahara and Takayama flirting with each other, if that’s even possible.

Principal Morifuji drives his car towards a large mansion on top of a hill. It’s not as big as the one the Yamagatas used to live in, but it’s still large nonetheless. It also looks kind of old. It must have been built quite a while ago.

When the car stopped right in front of the door of the mansion, all of us got out while holding the stuff Lena-san brought form her apartment and go inside.

‘Everyone, I’m home~~!!!’ Lena-san declares loudly the moment she passes through the door.

A few seconds later, three maids, one butler and a cook come out running. All of them are pleasantly surprised to see that their mistress is finally back after all these years.

‘Madam, you’re back!’ the butler’s who’s probably in his fifties says happily.

‘Yes, Nibutani-san. I’m back and I’m back for good.’

‘I’m really glad to hear that!’

Lena-san spent the first few minutes to catch up with the servants. The rest of us wait patiently for him to finish. One of the maids suddenly notices Sakuya.

‘Oh my, is that ojou-sama? She’s all grown up now!’ she exclaims.

‘Indeed she has!’

‘She looks just like madam!’

‘Are you going to move back now that your parents are back together?’

‘Honestly, I’m not sure. I do have to attend the Academy, so I prefer to live nearby.’ Sakuya confesses.

‘Oh, that’s too bad. But do come to visit us once in a while. We’ve missed you so much!’

‘Yes, I most definitely will.’ Sakuya assures them.

‘Akira-kun, can you come here for a while?’ Lena-san suddenly requests to me.

I slowly walk to her while everyone’s eyes are on me. Lena-san goes behind me and places her hands on both my shoulders.

‘Everyone, I would like you to meet Kagenashi Akira-kun. He’s Sakuya-chan’s boyfriend.’

‘Oh, ojou-sama has found herself a boyfriend?’

‘Huzzah!’

‘Ojou-sama has really grown up to bring her man back to the house!’

‘Um, nice to meet you everyone.’ I say to them stiffly.

After the pleasantries have been exchanged, the servants go back to work, leaving only the Morifujis and myself.

‘Moving back here aside, you’ll at least spend a night here right, Sakuya-chan?’ Lena-san asks her daughter.

‘Of course I will, mother.’

‘Splendid.’

Next, it’s finally time for the tour Lena-san promised me. She decides to start from the basement. Sakuya said that she’ll be staying at her old room, while Principal Morifuji told us that he’ll be at his study if we need him.

‘Can I ask you something, mother?’ I request while we’re on the way there.

‘Of course! Ask me anything~!’

‘What’s the significance of the necklace for you?’

Lena-san lifts up the necklace that she puts on to her neck when we were inside the car. ‘This is my family heirloom, you see. I got this from my deceased mother, just like how she got it from her mother. I lost it when Sakuya-chan and I got kidnapped. Did you heard it from Sakuya-chan or Agito-san?’

‘Yes, I’ve heard it from father.’

‘I see. Anyway, when he told me that we should split up so that I won’t be harmed anymore, he also told me that he’ll at least try to find it as atonement. How silly of him. As if I would ever think that he did something wrong by focusing on his career, or the fact that it took him ages to notice that Sakuya-chan and I were gone. Honestly, I’ve got used to it.’

I blink in surprise. ‘You’re used to being kidnapped?’

‘No, not that part. The part where I got used to his workaholic attitude. That man never changed ever since we were in university together. All he cared were his studies and his work. He was so busy he didn’t have a single friend. Even when I was trying to tease him, I was given the cold shoulders multiple times. That’s why I was very surprised when he confessed to me out of the blue.’

I blink in surprise again. ‘Wait? He confessed to you? Not the other way round?’

‘Surprising, right? He’s such a plank of wood I didn’t see it coming at all. He just told me to come meet him under a tree one day, and then he told me…’

She clears her throat. When she speaks, she’s using a falsetto voice that sounds nothing like her usual voice. I think she’s trying to imitate Principal Morifuji’s voice when he was younger.

‘“Lena, I know I’m not the brightest of men. But I hope I could bring you-”.’

I wait for a few seconds so that she would continue. While I’m waiting, we’ve reached the stairs that would bring us to the basement.

‘Bring you what, mother?’ I prompt her as we’re walking down the stairs.

‘Oh, he never got to finish. I was so happy that he actually confessed to me I interrupted him without thinking by saying yes loudly. I was so loud I was literally heard by everyone who was still in side the university. Because of that, the whole university knew that we were going out the very next day.’

She sighs happily. ‘That was a really good memory. Agito-san sulked for a while since people wouldn’t stop congratulating him, but still.’

She called the place a basement, but it’s actually a freaking miniature weapon museum. Everywhere I look, I see weapons of all sorts getting hanged on the wall. Katanas. Bolt action rifles. Spears. The likes. I can’t see my eyes right now, but I’m pretty sure they’re are sparkling. I also notice that my drools are very close to come out from the corner of my mouth. Lena-san rolls her eyes when she saw my reaction.

‘Boys.’ she mumbles. ‘Even that usually blank-faced Agito-san looked a bit excited whenever he was down here.’

‘Do you know what’s with all these weapons?’ I ask her.

‘The Morifuji family has been fighting against forces of the dark for a long time. The weapons you see here belonged to Sakuya-chan’s ancestors.’ she explains.

‘I see. That’s very admirable.’

‘I agree, but I have a sinking suspicion that this is part of the reason Agito-san is so straight-laced and can’t learn to relax every once in a while. Having long family traditions can sometimes harm the well-beings of their descendants. I’m just glad that Sakuya-chan didn’t turn out like her father.’

‘To be honest, I wish she would learn to be serious even if it’s just a little bit, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who thinks that.’

‘I second that opinion, but that’s one of the many flaws she has that you find cute, isn’t it?’

‘I guess. I’m a bit of a weirdo, after all.’

She chuckles. ‘Is that supposed to be a self-compliment?’

We get out of the basement and head to the next destination. On the way, I ask her about the flower language of the primrose she got from Principal Morifuji.

‘It means I can’t live without you.’ she explains. ‘I wonder where did an insensitive man like him got the idea of getting me that flower of all things.’

‘Flower languages are really complicated, aren’t they?’

‘I guess you could say that. But you need every trick available to keep your girlfriend happy, you know? Or should I say girlfriends.’

I flinch at the last part. So she knew too.

‘It may be a bit too late, but I’m sorry for not telling you immediately.’ I apologize to her.

She smiles at me. For better or worse, the smile is warm. ‘It’s fine. This is not something you can just tell people.’

‘Is this the real reason you wanted to meet me?’

‘As a matter of fact, yes. I wanted to see what kind of man would make Sakuya-chan think that being part of a harem is fine.’

‘And what is your verdict?’ I ask a bit fearfully.

‘You pass. I’ve never seen Sakuya-chan being that happy while she’s with someone ever since Agito-san and I separated. As long as she’s happy, I don’t have any right to stop her. So please, make her happy. Don’t let the same thing that happened to us happened to you two as well.’

‘I swear on my very life that I will.’

Satisfied with my answer, she nods.

‘Well then, let’s continue with the tour. Do you want to take a look at the kitchen next?’

That got me excited. ‘Yes please.’

She chuckles. ‘Oh, look at you. You look even more excited than when you were at the basement!’

The chef I saw just now is nowhere to be seen when we got to the kitchen, so I really have to control myself from touching any of the equipments here. Similar to every other parts of the mansion, the kitchen looks quite old as well. Even the oven and the stoves are not electrically/gas powered and relies on firewood. I think I spent at least half an hour just to take in everything in here.

Next, the rooms. Lena-san tells me that there’s eight guest rooms in this mansion.

‘You and your girlfriends are always welcome to stay here.’ she also tells me.

‘Thank you for your offer, mother. However, I was thinking of getting a place for ourselves after all of us have graduated.’

‘A shame. Well, know that my offer is always available for you.’

When we pass by a particular room, Lena-san tells me that it belongs to Sakuya. She then knocks on it. A moment later, Sakuya opens the door while only showing her head.

‘Are you settling down in your old room, Sakuya-chan?’ her mother asks her.

‘Yes, mother. The bed’s a bit small, but it’ll do since I’m only spending a single night on it.’

‘Well, you can just sleep at one of the guestrooms that have bigger beds. I doubt a small bed can fit both you and Akira-kun.’

Sakuya looks at me. ‘I think she’s right, Akira-kun. Come find me here when you’re done with the tour, and we’ll just find a random empty guestroom.’

‘Sure thing, senpai.’

Lena-san’s eyes widen. ‘Wait, I was just planning to tease you two. Have you slept on the same bed for real?’

‘As a matter of fact, we have.’ I clarify. ‘Isn’t that right, senpai?’

‘Yes. So it’s nothing new or embarrassing for us.’

Lena-san starts to clap her hands excitedly like a small kid. ‘Well then. I guess I can expect to see my first grandchild being born soon.’

‘Um, mother? When I said we slept together, I meant it literally. We didn’t do anything inappropriate.’

‘I don’t really mind. It’s just a matter of time anyway.’

After the tour finally ends, I go back to Sakuya’s room while Lena-san goes to her old master bedroom. Sakuya was very adamant on not letting me inside her old room where she slept as a child.

‘There’s too many embarrassing things inside.’ she told me.

‘But, you were younger then. Of course it’s full of childish things.’ I point out.

‘The answer is still no.’

In the end, I have to give up on having going inside the room and goes inside one of the guestrooms with Sakuya instead. The guest bedroom is nothing special, just a queen-size bed, a bed-side lamp, a drawer, a closet and a dressing table. Sakuya takes off her jacket, skirt and stockings leaving only her white shirt and undergarments. I also strip myself so that only my undershirt and boxer is left.

‘I really need to thank you for today, Akira-kun.’ Sakuya tells me while we’re lying down on the bed and holding hands.

‘Thank me? Why?’

‘Oh, you know why. I bet you’re the reason father appointed multiple staffs to help him in taking care of the Academy so that he can spend more time with mother.’

‘Well, he was the one who asked me to give him some opinions.’

‘See? It’s thanks to you that our family’s together again.’

‘Speaking of which, how long did you moved away form here? From what I gathered from what the servants said just now, you didn’t come back for a long time.’

‘Not long after my parents separated. I didn’t feel like continue to stay at this house that’s practically empty, so I asked to stay at the school’s dorm right until I reach high school.’

Royal Blade Academy only has high school divisions, so I take it that she was living in the dorms of regular schools before she got enrolled in the Academy.

Sakuya gives me a kiss on the cheek. ‘I’ve never thought I’ll ever come back here again. Thank you so much, Akira-kun.’

‘You’re welcome.’

And with that, the two of us turn off the lights and get to sleep.