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Inside the room, Rias still lay quietly in Hanakain Reiji's arms. With the silver-haired maid gone, she was finally able to emerge from her ostrich state, raising her head to look up, the young man's face reflected in her emerald green eyes.
"Idiot..." Rias lightly scolded, but it wasn't a rebuke. It felt more like the affectionate pouting of a girlfriend. She let out a soft sigh, feigning helplessness. "Now I'm completely ruined~"
"Why?" Hanakain Reiji raised an eyebrow in confusion. Rias had been the one to initiate everything—being dragged to the student street, entering the hotel, booking the room, and suggesting what to do. Logically, this outcome was exactly what she had desired. Why the sudden shift to ruined?
"What do you mean 'why'!" Rias pouted, exhaling a breath, and rolled her still-moist eyes. "We did... that... right in front of Grayfia-nee! Now Grayfia-nee has gone back to report to Brother. If this news gets back home... Reiji, put yourself in my brother's shoes. If your sister did something like this outside, what would you think?"
"Ugh~" Hanakain Reiji thought about it seriously. "Setting the engagement aside, I would eliminate that bastard (XBZZ) that very night."
"Why would you set the engagement aside?"
"Because if there was an engagement, I would eliminate the bastard and the fiancé too."
"...?" As if severely shocked by this sister-complex declaration, Rias immediately sat up despite her physical exhaustion, looking at the young man so close to her with an expression of disbelief. "Reiji, are you saying..."
"My sister is only thirteen." Hanakain Reiji looked askance, then raised his hand to indicate a height of about one meter thirty to one meter forty off the ground. "She's only this tall right now."
Hmm? Thirteen years old? Rias paused, thinking to herself, That age is just finishing elementary school and starting junior high, so that's fine.
But the next second, she heard Hanakain Reiji add another sentence.
"But it would be the same even if she reached eighteen."
???
Rias instantly turned into the cat-head question mark again. So, he is a sister-complex, after all!
After a brief silence, the red-haired girl spoke again softly. "So... we are officially an item now, right?"
"Mhm?" Hanakain Reiji's pitch rose, then dipped into an affirmation. "Of course. Why? Is something wrong?"
"I don't have a problem with it, but Akeno..." Rias hesitated, faltering slightly. "Although I don't know why, Akeno definitely likes you. You know that, Reiji, right?"
"Mhm, I know." Hanakain Reiji acknowledged. He wasn't a block of wood. He could clearly tell during the argument between Akeno and Rias in the old school building last time. After all, if that didn't count as having feelings for him, what would?
"How should I put it... maybe it's just my imagination." Rias shook her head. "I've always felt Akeno knew you from before. After all, Reiji, if you think about it, your usual contact at school isn't much. Even when we first started missions, Akeno and Koneko were a team, and you and I were a team... What do you think, Reiji?"
"I don't think so." Hanakain Reiji was also slightly hesitant. Logically, his memory wasn't bad. He usually wouldn't forget anyone he knew and spent time with, especially a girl as "broad-minded" as Akeno. How could he possibly forget? Impossible, absolutely impossible.
"Well, if you can't figure it out, then don't worry about it." Seeing the confusion deepen on the young man's face, Rias gently consoled him. After confirming their relationship, even the tone of her voice seemed to have undergone a subtle change, every word laced with gentleness and consideration.
But then, she changed the topic.
"Anyway, that's not what I wanted to ask."
"Huh? What is it then?"
"What I really wanted to ask was..." Rias paused, shifting her gaze and lowering her voice. "If Akeno doesn't give up and still wants to pursue you, Reiji, would you agree?"
"..."
Just established a relationship and immediately hit me with this nerve-wracking, life-or-death question? Is that appropriate?
An average person might think that, but Hanakain Reiji only pondered for a second before giving his answer.
"Probably, yes."
"Hah?!"
Now it was Rias's turn to lose her composure. What do you mean, "probably yes"? Shouldn't he give a firm answer like "I will refuse" right now?!
"How should I put this..." Hanakain Reiji mused. "I read a book once, and there was a passage that I found very insightful. Although I've mostly forgotten the original words, the general idea was: 'If you refuse a girl, you refuse not just a wedding that should have been yours, but you also reject the entire life of that girl.'"
"But what if you've already accepted the entire life of another girl before that?" Rias frowned. She was actually getting angry now. This was a matter of common sense; even a Devil should know this. The matter of love is inherently selfish. To say he would accept the pursuit of another woman right in front of his girlfriend—even the most even-tempered person couldn't tolerate that.
"Then that brings us to another issue." Hanakain Reiji looked sideways. "Life choices are like encountering a fork in the road while climbing a mountain. There are always some choices that are objectively correct but will certainly be regretted once you make them, just like your engagement, Rias."
"If you choose to accept that engagement, the result would naturally be more beneficial than detrimental: the prosperity of the Underworld, the stability of the family's status, and so on. Everyone would get what they want, and everyone would be happy and willing to see it happen..."
"Except for you, Rias."
"But that's a completely different matter from Akeno's situation!" Rias couldn't help but interrupt.
Hanakain Reiji shook his head again. "It's actually the same thing. Or, conversely, what would happen if I refused Akeno?"
"Then it would..." Rias opened her mouth, then suddenly froze.
Right. If Reiji refused Akeno, with Akeno's intelligence, she would eventually realize that it was Rias getting to him first that led to this, especially in the selfish matter of love. At that point, a complete breakdown of their friendship was not impossible. If that were to happen, Rias would lose a friend she had known for years, and Akeno would lose not only her chance at happiness but also her friendship. Reiji would lose something too. In this zero-sum game, who would benefit in the end?
The answer was that no one would benefit; all three would lose.
"Besides, if you must say so, it's not entirely selfish." Hanakain Reiji's tone suddenly shifted to a lighthearted one. "Based on my analysis, jealousy is essentially caused by something that should belong to one person being distributed to another. You shouldn't even consider it from the perspective of 'not suffering poverty but unequal distribution'; rather, it's 'suffering both poverty and unequal distribution.'"
"...So?" Rias was slightly stumped by the string of ancient Chinese sayings and instinctively pressed for an answer.
"So, wouldn't it be fine if everyone received enough?" Hanakain Reiji shrugged. "More specifically, it would only be a problem if I had to work a little harder."
"Huh? What does that have to do with your workload?" Rias was even more confused.
However, the moment the words left her mouth, she saw the young man look at her with a look of affectionate concern.
"Well, maybe not hard work, since you, Rias, can't even last two hours right now."
Two hours? Two hours of what?! A spinning buffer icon appeared above the red-haired girl's head. It wasn't until a long moment later that she suddenly realized. He meant two hours of that!!!
Her forehead throbbed with a vein about to burst. Her blood pressure shot over 180 mmHg. Rias felt like she was about to spit out a mouthful of old blood. But when the words finally left her mouth, they came out as a soft whisper.
"Fine. I don't care about anything else, and I can't talk you out of it. But you must be good to me in the future. Don't forget your old love just because you found a new one, understood?"
"Mhm."
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