The next morning dawned bright.
Sunshine, birdsong, flowers in bloom, as if nothing had happened the night before.
The Chitanda estate received an honored guest.
Seiji Fujiwara's black Rolls-Royce pulled up at the entrance to the main residence.
It parked there openly, beneath the awed gazes of every member of the Chitanda Family, gazes mingled with fear and gratitude.
Tetsugo Chitanda himself led every core member of the family in a reception line at the gate.
All of them wore their most formal kimonos.
When Seiji stepped out of the car, Tetsugo bowed deeply at the head of the line, his posture nothing short of reverent.
"Fujiwara... sama." He didn't even dare speak the name directly. "Your visit is the greatest honor the Chitanda Family has known in centuries."
Seiji merely gave a faint nod and walked inside.
His daughter, Eru Chitanda, followed close behind him, step by step.
The girl had changed into a clean, pure white dress.
Her long hair had been carefully combed.
That fair, lovely face still wore its placid expression. Only when she looked at Seiji's back did a complicated light occasionally flash through her eyes. A light mixed with fear, dependence, and confusion.
Tetsugo watched his daughter in silence.
But in the end, he had accepted the reality of his daughter becoming this man's "handmaid."
...
That evening, Tokyo.
The Fujiwara conglomerate headquarters, the top-floor study.
Behind the enormous desk, Seiji was reviewing a proposal.
A document on the next round of global expansion following the integration of the Irisu Group.
To his left, Fuyumi Irisu knelt on the carpet, dressed in an exquisitely tailored black lace maid uniform.
The dress was suggestive in every detail.
She was meticulously grinding ink for him on an antique inkstone.
Her movements were professional and graceful, as though she had been born for this.
To his right, Eru knelt in the same position.
Eru wore a white cotton dress so pure it seemed untouched by dust. Quietly, page by page, she turned the leaves of a thick old volume for him. Her expression was focused and hollow, as if her entire world had been reduced to this single task.
Two girls of incomparable beauty, once unreachable daughters of heaven, now flanked their shared master like the gentlest of tamed pets.
They didn't speak. They didn't even look at each other.
But while grinding the ink, Fuyumi would occasionally glance sidelong at the hollow look in Eru's eyes.
A faint, indescribable pleasure would rise in her chest. A pleasure mixed with superiority and a kind of fellow-feeling in misery.
And Eru, while turning pages, could feel the aura the woman beside her gave off. Mature and dangerous. It made her feel an instinctive rejection and unease.
This silent atmosphere, with its undercurrents, gave Seiji enormous satisfaction.
...
At the same time, Shuchiin Academy.
The Public Morals Committee activity room, attached to the student council office.
Miko Iino, the Public Morals Committee member famous for her rigor, was sorting through recent news materials.
Her eyes locked onto two items that, on the surface, had nothing to do with each other.
One was the headline of the financial section.
The accompanying photo showed Seiji's handsome, cold face at a press conference: "Fujiwara Conglomerate Crushes Foreign Capital Giants With Lightning Tactics, Saves Japan's Economy From Crisis."
The other was a strange-news piece in the regional section.
The photo showed charred trees in the Kamiyama Region, snapped clean by lightning: "Rare 'Localized Anomalous Weather' Strikes Kamiyama Region Late at Night, Suspected of Repelling Unidentified Armed Personnel; Experts Cannot Explain Its Formation."
Fujiwara conglomerate...
Seiji Fujiwara...
The Kamiyama Region...
Armed personnel...
Inexplicable localized lightning storms...
Miko's brain, brimming with a sense of justice, raced.
She connected these seemingly unrelated events with an invisible thread.
Then she arrived at a conclusion.
A conclusion that made even her own skin crawl.
Solemnly, she opened her notebook and wrote one line in heavy strokes:
"Seiji Fujiwara: lawless, corrupting public morals, suspected of possessing means of violence beyond the national level. A figure of extreme danger requiring top-priority surveillance!"
She stared at the line and clenched her fists.
In her small body, a fierce fighting spirit ignited.
She knew that she might have set her sights on a true demon king.
But she, Miko Iino, would never sit by and let it pass.
Justice would be carried out!
...
...
The Tokyo night was dyed into a sleepless white day by the neon of power and money.
The top floor of the Fujiwara conglomerate headquarters blazed with light.
Fuyumi had just finished a transnational video conference.
Her exquisite face carried a hint of fatigue almost too faint to notice. But deep in her eyes shone the light of a victor.
Under her command, Richard Anderson's once invincible financial empire was being dismembered and devoured piece by piece.
Her phone screen lit up.
A text from Seiji.
She immediately put down the documents in her hand and opened the message.
[Celebration. Eight tonight. Hakone Tenrai Villa, Block A.]
A single short line.
No extra pleasantries, no explicit instructions.
Fuyumi's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
By habit, she began to analyze.
"Celebration" meant this meeting concerned the wrap-up of the Anderson affair. "Hakone Villa" was a private, informal venue, ruling out any large-scale conference. "Block A" was the building with the highest security and the best view in the Tenrai Villa complex, used only for top-level private meetings.
What gave her a flicker of unease was the message's vagueness.
From what she knew of Seiji, every order he issued was perfectly clear, leaving no room whatsoever for guesswork.
Her mind raced and finally arrived at a reasonable conclusion:
This was very likely a high-level core meeting concerning the integration of subsequent assets.
Seiji needed both her and one other key person present at the same time, for a private summit to decide future direction.
And the other key person... immediately, the image of the girl with smooth black hair and violet eyes surfaced in Fuyumi's mind.
Eru Chitanda.
She represented the vast agricultural resources of the Kamiyama Region, as well as some mysterious arrangement Seiji was carrying out on that land, an arrangement Fuyumi still couldn't fully understand.
Bringing her and the Chitanda girl together to discuss synergistic development after the merger of the two conglomerates.
It was perfectly logical.
The conclusion put Fuyumi at ease.
Without thinking, she still placed herself in the role of "indispensable business partner" and "chief minister."
She opened her briefcase and reviewed once more the business plan she'd drafted overnight.
A blueprint for the new conglomerate's development over the next decade.
At the same time, she straightened her suit in the mirror and made sure her makeup was flawless.
She would meet this "conference" in the most professional, most perfect form possible.
...
At the same time, Kamiyama Town.
Eru sat on the engawa, quietly watching the housekeepers carefully pack the newly harvested rice into specially made wooden crates.
The crates bore the Fujiwara conglomerate's family crest.
This rice would be sent to Tokyo as a tribute of the highest grade.
Her life, after that night, had fallen into an eerie calm.
Seiji had not appeared again. But his presence was like the air itself, everywhere.
From the awed eyes of the family elders to the new crest now stamped on this land, every detail reminded her that she and her home had a new master.
A buzz from her phone broke her reverie.
A text from Seiji.
[Celebration. Eight tonight. Hakone Tenrai Villa, Block A.]
Identical to the one Fuyumi had received.
Eru's heart jolted.
She couldn't accurately judge the purpose of the invitation.
"Celebration." Was it to celebrate that night's "victory"?
To celebrate his successful protection of this land, and his claim on her?
She didn't dare think about it too deeply.
But instinctively, she believed this had to do with her, and with this land. Perhaps the master was going to explain to her some deeper technical application related to the family's territory. Something like that miraculous power that summoned lightning.
Eru still believed that she and the Irisu senpai were treated differently.
Senpai was used by the master for her intelligence and business talents.
She herself, because of this land and her own special body, had become the master's possession.
They were different.
That recognition gave her, in her humiliation, a thin sliver of pitiful uniqueness to console herself with.
She returned to her room and, with her mother's help, changed into a simple, elegant white kimono.
She would receive the new "knowledge" or new "orders" the master was about to bestow upon her in the most humble, most obedient manner.
...
Dusk in Hakone.
Along the winding mountain road, a black Mercedes-Benz S-Class and a black Lexus LS drove one after the other toward the Tenrai Villa at the summit.
In one car, Fuyumi was resting with her eyes closed. Her mind was rehearsing every possible question that might come up at the meeting and her response to each.
In the other, Eru watched the scenery stream backward through the window, tense. Her hands gripped the sleeves of her kimono tightly.
At last, in front of the heavy doors of Block A, the two cars came to a stop almost at the same moment.
The drivers in their black suits opened the doors for each of them.
When Fuyumi stepped out clutching her briefcase, a confident smile on her face, she saw Eru. The other girl, in a simple kimono, was likewise stepping out of her car.
Eru also saw her senpai. Senpai wore a sharp, professional suit, an aura of force around her.
Both of them stopped.
They looked at each other. They looked at the other's clothing, so utterly different from their own. And at the completely different expectations that clothing represented.
A strong, ominous premonition rose in both their hearts at the same moment.
The brief silence made the air around them grow heavy and awkward.
No way...?
[Read 40+ chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/NiaXD]