“Hey, you must have gone through a lot for this, huh?”
If only you had just beaten me up like usual, at least I could have cursed at you.
Now I’m feeling way too soft-hearted.
“H-Hey, if you don’t like it, you can just give it back…”
Rin closes her eyes and bites her lip as she speaks.
“No, I’ll use it. Thank you for the gift.”
Japan is a country where you end up using coins a lot, what with separate consumption tax and only accepting cash payments.
I was actually thinking of getting a coin purse, but this gift is quite useful.
Her gift-picking skills are commendable.
“…Really?”
Rin’s eyes snap open.
Her dark blue eyes shake with anticipation.
“Yeah. So from now on, when you’re sewing, use a thimble! What’s going on with your hands, huh? You’re clumsier than an elementary school kid learning to sew for the first time.”
A sigh escapes me.
Rin’s face turns bright red upon hearing my words.
She fiddles with her injured hand and lowers her head.
“Y-Yeah… I get it… Th-Thank you for your concern. I’ll take your advice to improve my femininity and become a model wife in the future!”
Model wife, my foot.
Rin is rambling like she usually does.
Seeing her like this, it seems all her points have been made.
“Are you done with your business? Then I’ll be going. I’m a bit tired.”
“N-No, it’s not over yet! Kim Deok-Sung!”
Yikes.
Rin points at me and shouts.
“What now?”
Her face is flushed again as she shouts.
“About the wish you promised that time… You need to tell me now!”
Wish?
Could it be about that thing in Kyoto?
Am I dreaming?
Thud, thud.
Rin’s heart is pounding as if it could explode.
Her eyes waver.
‘I said it out loud…’
The wish.
The promise I made at Kiyomizu Temple.
Rin honestly didn’t expect me to keep it.
After all, I’m generally indifferent to girls.
Not just dull, but completely uncaring. I clearly know, but I don’t show any interest.
Especially to Rin and Nishizawa Eri, since I didn’t have a good first impression of them.
Recently, I’ve been slightly kinder to Olivia, but that’s about it.
“Ugh…”
Rin bites her lip.
She braces herself for the cold rejection I might give her right then.
“What wish? Just so you know, I can’t grant anything too outrageous.”
In her ears, unexpected words echoed.
Rin’s eyes widen.
“Say it quickly. I need to rest a bit since I’m tired.”
My words continue.
Rin closes her eyes.
She shouts.
“L-Let’s go to my family’s home together…!”
“Family home?”
I frown and ask.
Rin nods and adds an explanation.
“M-My father said he wanted to meet you…”
“Ah, my father said he wanted to see you…”
“Is it okay to use that wish for the Association President?”
With Kim Deok-Sung’s indifferent remark, Rin’s face turns red.
She bites her lip.
“It’s… it’s fine… I just…”
It’s true that her father wants to see him.
But that’s merely an excuse.
In reality, Rin wants to go on a date with him.
Just the two of them, without any interruptions from other girls.
She wants to show him the place where she grew up.
“It doesn’t matter… That’s my wish… after all.”
“Alright. When are we going?”
“How about this Saturday?”
“Okay, then. Contact me that day. I’m going.”
Kim Deok-Sung waves his hand as if he’s too bothered and disappears.
Watching his back, Rin places her hand over her heart.
It feels like her wildly beating heart is transmitting its rhythm to her hand.
The conversation she had with Kim Deok-Sung floats around in Rin’s mind.
[No, I’ll use it. Thanks for the gift.]
Even she herself can’t say that the coin purse she made isn’t impressive.
That’s why she was prepared to have it returned.
But Kim Deok-Sung gratefully accepted it and even thanked her.
[Next time you sew, make sure to wear thimbles. What’s up with your hands? So clumsy.]
And those words of concern he had for her.
Rin’s face turns an uncontrollable shade of red.
“You, you’re… a bad man…”
Rin murmurs in a small voice.
If he were totally indifferent to her, it might be easier to hate him, but she can’t help but feel more affection because he keeps showing concern.
Instead, her feelings for him are only growing stronger.
“Ugh…”
Rin bites her lip.
This time, she’s absolutely going to win his heart on their date.
Determined, Rin leaves the room.
The red evening sun settles on her shoulders.
*
Saturday.
The day she promised to meet Rin is approaching.
[Partner, hey. Get up. It’s the day you have plans with a girl.]
Waking up as the Black Prince’s voice echoes in his mind every morning, he gets out of bed.
After washing up and changing clothes, he has breakfast with toast delivered by Han Seo-Jin.
“Mr. Kim Deok-Sung, here’s your breakfast.”
“It’s delicious.”
As expected from Han Seo-Jin, who has great cooking skills, the toast she made was pretty good.
Slurp.
As Han Seo-Jin pours cola into a glass with her usual expressionless face, she asks,
“Are you spending time with Shinozaki today?”
After finishing the cola, he nods in response.
“Yeah.”
“…Understood.”
Her gray eyebrows twitch.
Han Seo-Jin nods.
“If anything unusual happens, please be sure to contact me, Mr. Kim Deok-Sung.”
He leaves the dormitory while receiving her send-off.
The meeting place promised with Rin is the parking lot in front of the academy’s gate.
Arriving at the meeting place, carrying Durandal and listening to the Black Prince’s nagging, he sees Rin standing there.
“Wow, you came…?”
Shinozaki Rin scratches her cheek with an awkward expression, her face flushed.
Wearing a blue kimono that matches her hair color, her ample bosom stands out today.
Behind her, a black luxury limousine is visible.
It’s a Rolls-Royce Phantom, the same car Han Seo-Jin prepared.
As his gaze shifts to the limousine, Rin waves her hand.
“Um, about that. Ah, I told my father about you, and he said he’d send a car… so I couldn’t refuse… I’m sorry, Kim Deok-Sung.”
Yeah.
Sometimes, due to her somewhat silly demeanor, it’s easy to forget, but Shinozaki Rin is the daughter of a prestigious family in Japan.
It’s a lady.
Riding in a limousine is just expected.
“Since the car’s here, let’s just hop in.”
“······Alright.”
We board the limousine together.
With a smooth sound, the limousine departs the parking lot.
Tokyo’s cityscape zips by outside the window.
‘Shinozaki Mansion······.’
It’s only in the 16th volume that the Shinozaki Mansion finally reveals its true form, unlike the depiction in anime that portrays it day in and day out.
Sure, it gives a glimpse in the 2nd volume, but that’s just a snippet before the full spectacular display kicks off in the 16th volume.
The scenario where Ichiro, the daughter’s doting father, invites the protagonist over to the mansion for a son-in-law proposal.
The oblivious protagonist heads to the mansion with the entire heroine squad, leading to a titanic catfight before the story takes a twist as Messiah suddenly ambushes the Shinozaki Mansion to snatch the Black Stone.
This part aired as the final episode of the third season of the anime.
‘It was massive, wasn’t it?’
Both the novel and anime have one thing in common—the Shinozaki Mansion’s ridiculously gigantic scale.
It’s hard to believe this mansion was built in Tokyo, known for its sky-high real estate prices; I remember it being unreasonably huge.
Only possible because it’s a light novel, right?
But now that this crazy light novel has become a reality, it makes sense that the mansion’s surreal size has become tangible.
[I haven’t been here in ages either, partner. But you seem like you’ve been here before?]
The Black Prince rambles nonsensically in my head.
No need to respond.
I ignore it.
“······We’re almost at the mansion entrance.”
I hear Rin’s voice.
But why is it so close?
When I turn my head, Rin is sitting right next to me.
Her navy-blue eyes meet mine directly.
“Kuh······.”
Rin blushes and looks down.
“Here······. Your favorite, colada. I asked the driver to specially keep it in the limo fridge······.”
She carefully hands me a 500ml bottle of cola with both hands.
I glance at the label.
Red K-Cola? She knows what’s good.
I take it. It’s just the right temperature for me.
“Thanks for the cola. I’ll enjoy it.”
“Ah, got it.”
Suddenly, she darts away to sit far from me.
What’s with her?
[This lady is more bashful than her dignified first impression suggests.]
The Black Prince’s unsolicited commentary rings in my head.
The announcement that we’ve arrived at the entrance isn’t just for show.
After a long trek through the gate, we finally reach the main building of the mansion.
It’s been ages since I finished the cola.
I thought riding the car from the gate to the house was a joke, but the scale is no laughing matter.
‘Just how big is it?’
[The Shinozaki Mansion is said to be larger than an average palace. Must be due to the pride of Japan’s foremost noble family.]
Just as the Black Prince’s friendly explanation ends, the car stops, and the door opens.
“Welcome, Miss.”
“This is your gentleman, Miss.”
A Japanese-style maid squad, dressed in black kimonos with white aprons and a flower in their hair, comes out to greet Rin.
“I’ll guide you from here, so you all can leave.”
“Understood.”
“Miss, do your best!”
“We’re on your side!”
The maid squad cheers weirdly from behind.
Classic light novel situation, right there.
Anyway, despite my initial impression, it seems that Rin really is a lady.
All of a sudden, Rin in her blue kimono looks slightly different.
“Kim Deok-Sung······.”
Rin stutters as she tries to speak.
She mumbles nervously.
She extends her hand towards me.
“The inside of Shinozaki Mansion is wide… You might get lost. So, why not take my hand and move along?”
She bows her head.
[When a lady offers like this, it’s gentlemanly to pretend not to notice and take her hand.]
The Black Prince is nagging unnecessarily.
‘I was going to do that even without you saying it.’
I know Rin’s personality very well.
If I don’t take her hand, she isn’t going to move an inch from here.
I have no choice but to hold her hand, even if reluctantly.
“Why are you such a mess every day?”
“I’m sorry…”
Rin mumbles with a small voice while bowing her head.
I take her hand.
“K-Kim Deok-Sung…”
Rin’s eyes widen.
“What are you doing just standing there? Aren’t you supposed to guide me?”
“Ah, got it! I’ll take responsibility and guide you!”
Rin grips my hand tightly, showing a determined expression.
The splendidly built traditional Japanese-style house passes by our view.
“This is the pride of Shinozaki Mansion, the strolling garden…! To the south, there’s also a highland water garden.”
Led by her hand, we arrive at a garden with a large pond at its center, large enough to be mistaken for a small river flowing here and there.
Multicolored koi swim in the streams and pond, surrounded by lush greenery, stepping stones, hills, stone lanterns, pine trees, and jagged rocks – it’s a traditional Japanese garden.
It was indeed quite a beautiful spot, as she said.
‘This is the place that was featured in the anime.’
Scenes of the protagonist and harem members sitting in the pavilion and chatting flash through my mind.
“…This place… was where I used to come whenever I felt down since I was young. I would feed the koi while listening to the sound of the water, and my gloomy feelings would slowly disappear.”
Rin speaks in a sentimental tone.
Her gaze turns towards me.
“I wanted to show you… my memories…”
Just as Rin was about to tell me something.
“Wow, Rin. Look at this damn girl. Who let a strange guy into the house? Making some acknowledgment from Dad lately must have made her feel invincible.”
“Huh? Holding hands now? Is it alright for a lady of the Shinozaki family to be so loose with a strange guy?”
A nasty voice echoes in my ears.
I turn my head.
There stand two identical guys with dark green hair, dressed in yukatas with Japanese swords at their waists, glaring at us with crossed arms.
One is chewing gum while the other is giving me a contemptuous glare.
Both look like typical delinquents with earrings, piercings, and a tan.
I recognize these guys—they’re the troublemaker twins of Shinozaki Ichiro. The older one is Taro, and the younger one is Jiro.
Naming them ‘firstborn and second-born’ was clearly a lazy naming choice for extras, and who could blame them for being so generic?
Regardless, with the grand setup of ‘Children of Shinozaki Ichiro,’ in the original work, their presence was more disposable than Kim Deok-Sung himself.
In the latter half of the original volume 2, they were the mid-bosses blocking the protagonist’s path to rescue Rin from Shinozaki Mansion. Fueled by inferiority complex towards Rin, they charged at the protagonist only to be swiftly schooled.
And afterward, they were wrapped up in a single line about being sent to the association’s infamous rehab training camp known for extreme recovery training under Ichiro’s wake-up call.
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