"There's been no new movement on Seiji Fujiwara's end."
"Since Ai Hayasaka was sent back, he hasn't contacted us, and he hasn't summoned the girl again."
The atmosphere in the meeting room grew heavier.
A middle-aged man with a Mediterranean hairline spoke up cautiously. "Family head, could it be that... Fujiwara-kun has already grown tired of Ai Hayasaka?"
"Isn't that obvious?" Another man with a fleshy face cut in, his tone unfriendly. "A little girl like that, no matter how exceptional, is still just a maid. To a man at the summit like Fujiwara-kun, one taste is enough. Did you really expect him to keep her in his thoughts?"
"The problem is, if he's tired of Ai Hayasaka, why hasn't he made a new request?" the Mediterranean man countered. "What we sent over was a living, breathing 'gift of introduction.' By accepting her, he tacitly acknowledged the relationship between us. Ignoring us like this, what's that supposed to mean? Is he insulting our Shinomiya Family?"
"He's putting us on notice."
Gan'an Shinomiya, who had remained silent, suddenly spoke.
Every gaze in the room turned to him.
"He's telling us," Gan'an Shinomiya said, a deep wariness flashing through his eyes, "that goods like Ai Hayasaka are nowhere near enough in weight."
"He doesn't think our Shinomiya Family is worth a glance!"
The words struck every heart in the room like a boulder.
For days now, they had been studying Seiji Fujiwara.
The deeper they dug, the more afraid they became.
"Family head."
A clansman in charge of intelligence reported in a parched voice. "Seiji Fujiwara's private military company, Black Shield, conducted what they called a 'counter-terrorism drill' in Africa last week. The target was a local armed warlord. That warlord had nearly a thousand armed men under him, even a few aging tanks."
"And the result?" Gan'an Shinomiya asked.
"...Total annihilation." The intelligence officer swallowed. "Black Shield deployed a single team of sixty men. From start to finish, the operation took less than an hour. The warlord's compound was leveled."
A round of sharp inhalations rippled through the meeting room.
"On the business front, he hasn't been idle either." Another clansman in charge of economic affairs wiped cold sweat from his forehead. "The pharmaceutical company under him suddenly announced a breakthrough patent on a cancer-targeting drug. That patent alone is enough to turn several mainstream drugs currently on the market into worthless junk. And two of those are key projects our Shinomiya Group has poured tens of billions into..."
One piece of chilling intelligence after another was laid out on the table.
Their wealth, their connections, their power, all of it looked fragile in the face of the absolute violence and incomprehensible business genius that young man had displayed.
To have such a monster as a neighbor left the Shinomiya Family unable to eat or sleep in peace.
"Family head, what do we do now?"
"Yes, if Fujiwara-kun has developed any dissatisfaction with us, the consequences would be unthinkable..."
An uneasy commotion broke out in the room.
"Quiet."
Gan'an Shinomiya cut them off with a cold rebuke.
His gaze, sharp as a hawk's, swept across every face present.
"If we don't have enough weight, then we'll send a gift heavy enough."
He paused, then said without emotion:
"Kaguya. It's time for her to play her part for the family."
...
In the study, the encrypted private line suddenly rang.
Seiji Fujiwara glanced at the caller ID.
It was Gan'an Shinomiya.
He raised an eyebrow and signaled for Saeko Busujima, behind him, to pause.
Saeko Busujima understood at once. Without a sound, she withdrew to one side and knelt down again in proper seiza, eyes lowered, like a doll without feeling.
Seiji picked up the call.
"Good evening, Family Head Shinomiya." His tone carried a hint of amusement.
"Good evening, Fujiwara-kun!" Gan'an Shinomiya's voice came through immediately, almost excessively warm. "Forgive me for the imposition!"
"Not at all." Seiji gave a soft chuckle. "What occasion has the head of the Shinomiya Family calling so late?"
"I wouldn't presume to instruct you!" Gan'an Shinomiya lowered his posture as far as it would go. "It's like this. Our Shinomiya Group has an important new-energy project in the works, and we'd like to seek a partnership with you. The project documents are already prepared. Would tomorrow be convenient for me to send someone over to deliver them?"
Understanding flickered through Seiji's eyes.
Delivering documents?
That was a remarkably unoriginal excuse.
"Oh? A new-energy project?" he asked with feigned surprise. "Sounds important. May I ask who Family Head Shinomiya plans to send to deliver such important documents?"
A brief silence on the other end.
Then Gan'an Shinomiya spoke again, his tone even more humble, weighted with obvious implication:
"This project has been overseen all along by Kaguya, of our family."
"So tomorrow, I'd like her to deliver the documents to your residence in person."
Seiji smiled.
He hadn't expected the Shinomiya Family to come forward so eagerly.
He had been planning, once he'd finished dealing with what was in front of him, to slowly weave his net around that ice-mountain heiress.
He hadn't expected the other side to package her up and deliver her right to his mouth.
A flicker of surprise rose in his chest, along with an even deeper delight.
Saeko Busujima, kneeling at his side, also heard the name "Kaguya."
Her body did not waver in the slightest.
But in those lowered eyes, a glint of comprehension passed through.
She knew.
This house was about to welcome a new "collectible."
"Since Miss Kaguya is coming herself," Seiji said unhurriedly into the phone, "then of course, I'll always have time."
...
...
Shuchiin Academy, Student Council Room.
Afternoon sunlight poured in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, filling the entire room.
Fine motes of dust drifted in the air, along with the faint fragrance of black tea.
Kaguya Shinomiya sat at her own desk, working through a mountain of paperwork.
She wore a well-tailored black uniform, her glossy, smooth black hair tied back with a red ribbon.
The lines of her profile were exquisite, sculpted as if from the finest white porcelain. Her skin was so pale it was almost translucent.
The girl simply sitting there was a scene in herself.
Cool, noble, like an ice lotus in full bloom on a snow-mountain peak, beautiful from a distance and impossible to reach.
"Um... President Shinomiya."
A boy in glasses, clutching a stack of documents, walked up to her desk on trembling legs. He was a first-year officer in the Student Council.
"This is the preliminary budget report for next month's school festival, but... several of the clubs' budgets are seriously over the limit, and I... I'm not sure how to handle it."
Kaguya didn't even raise her head.
She simply took the report from him.
Then, with the fountain pen in her hand, she circled and annotated it at lightning speed.
In less than a minute, she pushed the report back.
"Reject every portion that's over budget." Her voice was as cool as her person, without a trace of feeling. "Have them resubmit a reasonable budget within three days. If they can't, their qualification to participate in the school festival is revoked."
"Ah... yes! Understood!"
The boy fled the Student Council Room as if pardoned from execution, document stack and all.
As the daughter of the Shinomiya conglomerate and the President of the Shuchiin Academy Student Council, Kaguya had long grown used to being the center of attention.
She had grown used to the looks turned her way, a tangled mix of admiration, awe, and envy.
Everywhere she went on campus, she could hear the hushed, excited chatter rising around her.
"Look, it's Vice President Shinomiya..."
"She's so beautiful... it's like she walked right out of a painting."
"Right? Not only gorgeous, but top of the year academically, and her work ethic is amazing too... She's perfect to the point of not seeming real."
"What kind of guy do you think would even be worthy of Vice President Shinomiya?"
"Stop dreaming! Haven't you seen that icy look she usually wears? Anyone who tried to confess would be frozen into an ice sculpture on the spot!"
"Yeah, true... I guess there's no one in this world who could win Kaguya Shinomiya's heart."
Kaguya overheard remarks like these now and then.
Whenever she did, all she felt was speechless irritation.
Her heart?
Romance?
Did these people have nothing in their heads besides such pointless things?
In the cold, elite education that had been drilled into her from childhood, emotion was the most useless and cheapest thing of all.
It served only to trip up the strong on their path.
She had no interest whatsoever in so-called "romance."
She couldn't even imagine engaging in so-called "intimate contact" with a member of the opposite sex.
Even the thought of it brought on a physical revulsion.
In her view, with enough money, power, and ability, a person could live perfectly well.
Men were nothing more than creatures who brought trouble.
She was lost in such thoughts when her private phone, sitting on the desk, suddenly buzzed.
It was a call from the family.
She frowned and picked up.
"Lady Kaguya." A cold voice came through. "An order from the family head."
"Set aside everything you're doing right now and deliver a set of documents to Mr. Seiji Fujiwara's residence."
"Your absence from school has already been arranged."
Kaguya froze.
That man again...
The memory rose unbidden of Ai Hayasaka vanishing for an entire night some time ago, then returning the next day looking like the soul had been drained out of her.
Although Hayasaka hadn't said a word about it, Kaguya had vaguely guessed that the incident had to be tied to this Seiji Fujiwara.
A nameless revulsion and resistance welled up in her chest.
But she did not refuse.
In the face of the family head's authority, any refusal was futile.
"...Understood."
Kaguya hung up. The cold expression on her face didn't change in the slightest.
She only grumbled inwardly.
Isn't it just delivering some documents? What difference does it make who goes? Insisting that I deliver them in person...
What a pretentious, perverse man.
She had already made up her mind.
She would deliver the documents and leave immediately.
She didn't want to spend a second longer than necessary on that man's turf.
Kaguya stood up, picked up her bag, and at the same time sent Ai Hayasaka a brief text.
[Family business. I'm heading out.]
Then she strode out of the Student Council Room.
...
On the other side, Ai Hayasaka, in the middle of class, felt her phone buzz in her pocket.
She waited.
Spotting an opening, she quietly slipped out her phone while the teacher's back was turned.
When she saw Kaguya's text on the screen, her pupils contracted sharply.
[Family business]...
[I'm heading out]...
Those words branded themselves onto her heart like a red-hot iron.
She thought immediately of what had happened to her, when she had been sent off to that devil.
Exactly the same!
Word for word, the same phrasing!
No!
Lady Kaguya, she...
Ai Hayasaka could no longer keep her composure.
She shot up from her seat, ignoring the startled looks of her classmates and the teacher, and bolted straight out of the classroom.
She ran, pulling out her phone to call Kaguya.
But when she reached the corridor and looked toward the front gate through the window, her feet froze in place.
A Rolls-Royce Phantom she would never forget for as long as she lived was parked silently at the school gate.
And Kaguya, guided by a black-suited bodyguard, was opening the door and getting in.
The door swung shut.
That dull thud of the door closing struck her heart like a heavy hammer.
Her heart plummeted to the bottom in an instant.
On her phone, she had already dialed Kaguya's number.
But from the other end came only a mechanical voice.
"The number you have dialed cannot be reached at this time. Please try again later."
How could this be...
Ai Hayasaka's mind went blank.
Refusing to accept it, she dialed again.
Still unreachable.
...
The car drove smoothly along the road.
The atmosphere inside was suffocatingly quiet.
Kaguya sat in the back, watching the streetscape rush past the window in reverse. The ominous feeling in her chest grew sharper by the second.
"Excuse me," she finally couldn't hold back, addressing the statue-like bodyguard in the front seat, "why was I made to turn off my phone?"
The moment she had gotten into the car, the man had used a tone that brooked no argument and demanded that she not only power down her phone but also remove the SIM card.
That level of secrecy was already far beyond the realm of "escorting documents."
The bodyguard didn't turn around. He only answered in a flat tone:
"Those are Mr. Fujiwara's rules."
Him again...
Kaguya's brow furrowed deeper.
She tried to glean something from the man's tone, but he was a stone without feeling, and he didn't say another word.
...
Unable to get through to Kaguya, the dread in Ai Hayasaka's chest reached its peak.
Trembling, she found a number she rarely dared to call: a high-level contact at the Shinomiya Main Family.
The line connected quickly.
"What is it?" came a cold, authoritative voice.
"Lord Chikata!" Ai Hayasaka said urgently. "Lady Kagu... Lady Kaguya, she's been taken away by a car! I can't reach her!"
A brief silence on the other end.
Then a frosty rebuke.
"Ai Hayasaka."
"Mind your own duties."
"A maid should not ask questions."
With that, the man hung up on her without a shred of mercy.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Listening to the busy tone in her phone, Ai Hayasaka felt every ounce of strength drain from her body.
She slumped weakly against the corridor wall.
She understood.
Just like her.
Lady Kaguya...
She, too, had been sent as a gift to that devil.
Grief, rage, helplessness, and despair flooded her all at once.
Ai Hayasaka's eyes turned red in an instant.
But she didn't cry.
She only bit down hard on her lip.
Until the salty, rusty taste of iron began to spread through her mouth.
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