That casually delivered "Finished?" was like an invisible key, instantly opening the floodgates of fear in Ai Hayasaka's heart.
The torrent rushed in.
In an instant, every trace of color drained from her face. The armor of "professionalism" she had forced herself to wear was as fragile as paper before this single question.
"I..."
Ai Hayasaka's lips parted, but her throat felt as though it had been stuffed with a wad of scalding cotton. She couldn't get a single word out.
She had prepared countless contingency plans.
For questioning, for anger, even for an outburst of punishment on the spot.
The one thing she hadn't anticipated was this... almost lazy, cat-and-mouse amusement.
Seiji Fujiwara hadn't even... taken her "report" seriously at all.
Just as her mind went blank from fear, the man in the darkness finally moved.
Seiji walked to the desk and picked up a black tablet.
Then he came to stand in front of her.
A scent that mixed the rich aroma of top-shelf whiskey with intense male hormones washed over her, wrapping around her in an instant.
Ai Hayasaka instinctively took half a step back, only for her back to hit the wall.
Seiji ignored her small movement. He pushed the tablet in his hand toward her.
The screen was lit.
On it streamed real-time data flows, green and glaringly healthy.
"Shinomiya Conglomerate, Project Prometheus, Internal Audit System, Real-Time Data."
That cold heading branded itself onto Ai Hayasaka's retinas like a hot iron.
There were the true flow-of-funds charts, the origin and destination of every yen recorded with utter clarity, without a single trace of "embellishment."
There was the latest cell induction success rate curve from the core laboratory, holding steady above seventy percent, even climbing slowly.
There was also a personnel dynamics report marked "Top Secret," showing that every core technical staffer was deep within the high-end "green" safe zone.
Healthy. Perfect. Beyond reproach.
"The report was wonderful."
Seiji's voice was soft, like a lover's whisper at her ear, yet it carried a chill cold enough to freeze the soul.
"But the 'risks' you spoke of..."
He paused, his gaze rising slowly from the tablet to settle on Ai Hayasaka's paper-white face.
"Where are they?"
A roaring blast.
Ai Hayasaka felt her entire world collapse in that instant.
All of her careful scheming... had become a colossal joke before this man.
He knew everything.
From the very beginning, he had known everything!
He had merely sat quietly in the darkness, as though watching a farce, and watched her on the stage all alone, performing herself hoarse.
"I... I was..."
Her lips trembled violently, her mind utterly blank. All she could rely on was the last shred of instinct as she tried to mount a feeble, hollow defense.
"This was... a worst-case projection..."
"It was... a stress test... to better serve you..."
Her voice grew smaller and smaller. Even she felt how absurd her excuse was.
Seiji smiled.
He flicked the tablet's screen off, reached out, and gently pinched Ai Hayasaka's smooth chin, forcing her to lift her head and meet his eyes.
"No."
His voice grew gentler, and crueler. "You weren't predicting risk."
"You were afraid."
"Afraid of becoming 'useless.'"
The words were like a sharp scalpel, dissecting her chest with surgical precision, exposing the deepest fear in her heart, raw and bloody, beneath the spotlight.
"You wanted to go from being a pretty 'gift' back to being a useful 'tool.'"
"Isn't that right?"
Ai Hayasaka's pupils constricted to their limit.
The strings called "reason" and "dignity" snapped completely.
Her body lost all its strength, her legs gave way, and she nearly collapsed to the floor.
But Seiji's hand still gripped her chin, forcing her to maintain this final eye contact in a humiliating half-kneeling, half-standing posture.
Tears burst the dam.
Not from grief, but from the ultimate shame of having been seen through completely, of having been played with so utterly in the palm of his hand.
Every disguise of hers had been torn to shreds.
Seiji savored the broken expression on her face, the mixture of terror, shame, and despair, and felt a surge of supreme pleasure in his heart.
Ai Hayasaka was completely broken. She slumped to the floor, burying her face deep in the crook of her arm, her shoulders shaking violently, yet she didn't dare let out a single sob.
Seiji looked down at her from above, as though gazing at an amusing toy that had finally been tamed. He pronounced her "judgment."
"Since you so enjoy being at my side, reporting on your work..."
"Then stay. Forever."
His voice was flat, yet brooked no doubt.
Ai Hayasaka jerked her head up, her tear-blurred eyes filled with disbelief as she stared at him.
Forever... stay? What did that mean?
The next second, she had her answer.
In front of her, Seiji took out the black encrypted phone, found a number, pressed the call button, and switched it to speakerphone.
The phone rang only once before it was picked up.
From the receiver came a voice, aged and ingratiating.
It was the head butler of the Shinomiya Family.
"Mr. Fujiwara! Good evening! What can I do for you?"
Seiji ignored the greeting and spoke in a tone as casual as if he were discussing the weather. "The liaison the Shinomiya Family sent over. I'm very pleased with her."
"For convenience's sake, she'll be living here with me from now on."
"There's no need for her to return."
On the other end of the line, silence fell.
Then came an outburst of overjoyed reply.
"Yes! Yes! Of course! This is her honor! And the honor of our Shinomiya Family as well!"
"Please, use her as you wish! Use her as you wish! For this girl to win your favor is a blessing from eight generations of good karma! We will immediately transfer all of her records and her entire personnel registration over to your name!"
"Thank you, Mr. Fujiwara! Truly, thank you so very much!"
Seiji didn't bother listening any further and casually hung up.
A soft beep.
That single soft sound, in the silence of the study, rang like a funeral bell, striking again and again against Ai Hayasaka's heart, which was already in pieces.
This phone call had severed the last thread connecting her to the Shinomiya Family.
From this moment on, she was no longer "Ai Hayasaka of the Shinomiya Family."
She was merely... Seiji Fujiwara's private possession.
...
...
Kaguya Shinomiya waited the entire night.
She sat on the sofa in the Student Council Room with the lights off.
Beyond the enormous floor-to-ceiling window stretched the never-extinguished lights of Tokyo, but that splendor could not illuminate a single corner of her heart.
The black tea in her hand had long since gone cold.
Again and again, she dialed Ai Hayasaka's number. What she heard was always that cold, mechanical recording: "The number you have dialed is switched off."
From dusk to deep night. From deep night to dawn.
Ai Hayasaka did not come back.
The next day, Kaguya, with heavy dark circles under her eyes, rushed straight to Ai Hayasaka's dormitory at the school.
The moment she opened that door, her heart sank to the bottom.
The room was empty.
No, rather than empty, it was... too clean.
The bedding had been folded into a tight block like in a military barracks.
There were no books or stationery on the desk.
In the wardrobe, all the clothing had vanished, leaving only a few mothproof camphor balls giving off a lonely scent.
Every personal trace of Ai Hayasaka had been wiped away without exception.
As though this person had never lived here. As though her very existence in this world had been thoroughly "erased" by an invisible great hand.
A bone-deep chill rose from the soles of Kaguya's feet straight to the crown of her head.
In terror, she pulled out her phone and found a number she did not lightly dare to dial, one belonging to the main house.
When the call connected, she asked urgently:
"Where's Ai?! Where did Ai Hayasaka go?!"
On the other end, there was a brief silence. Then came a cold voice, devoid of any emotion, as formal as an official statement.
"Ai Hayasaka, having performed her duties poorly and provoked Mr. Fujiwara, has already been 'disposed of' by Mr. Fujiwara."
Disposed of...
Those two words plunged into Kaguya's heart like two poisoned daggers.
And the cold voice on the other end continued.
"Lady Kaguya." That voice deliberately emphasized "Lady," carrying every shade of warning and admonition. "From now on, you must serve Mr. Fujiwara with greater devotion."
"To make up for her failings."
With that, the other party hung up without mercy.
Kaguya Shinomiya walked back to the empty Student Council Room in a daze.
The sunlight slanting in through the window fell on her body, but brought not the slightest hint of warmth.
She buried her face deep into her knees. Her shoulders shook, but she made no sound of crying.
Because she knew that from this moment on, she had lost even the right to cry.
Ai Hayasaka.
The one who had always been by her side, handling everything for her, who in her most helpless moments would comfort her like an older sister, her one and only pillar... had been pulled away from her.
Casually "disposed of" by that man.
And she, Kaguya Shinomiya, was not only unable to do anything for her, she would even have to "make up for her failings."
It was the first time. In her seventeen years of life, this was the first time she felt despair so clearly.
...
...
The main residence of the Shinomiya Family, in a deep, secluded tatami room.
More than a dozen senior members of the family sat in formal posture.
Seated at the head, Gan'an Shinomiya tapped the table lightly with his finger.
"That is how things stand," he said, his voice low and hoarse. "Seiji Fujiwara, citing 'convenience for handling business,' has officially detained Ai Hayasaka at his estate."
"This is no longer a hint," said a middle-aged man with a balding pate, his voice dry. "This is a naked slap on the wrist!"
"Exactly!" said another man with a fleshy face, slapping his thigh, terror written across his features. "He must be displeased with the 'gift' we sent earlier!"
"That girl Ai Hayasaka, while capable, is in the end only a servant. Her weight isn't enough!" A thin elder stroked his goatee, his eyes cold and grim. "Kaguya... Kaguya was clearly showing resistance toward Mr. Fujiwara before! That, too, must have been seen by that man!"
"We've... we've angered him!"
"What do we do? Patriarch, what do we do now?!"
A wave of uneasy commotion rose through the meeting room. These figures who summoned wind and rain in the business world were now like prisoners awaiting judgment, each man fearing for himself.
They had interpreted Seiji Fujiwara's action as a higher-order warning, the kind a sovereign issued to express dissatisfaction with his vassals.
The gift you sent, the quality wasn't up to standard, and neither was the attitude.
I am most displeased.
So, I'll confiscate one of your tools first, as a small punishment.
And if you still cannot satisfy me...
At the thought, every person present felt a chill run through them.
"Quiet."
Gan'an Shinomiya snapped coldly, cutting off the discussion. In his eyes glittered the cunning sharpness of an old strategist.
He knew that the moment of decision had now arrived.
If small gifts could no longer satisfy that lion's appetite.
Then...
"Prepare a grand gift."
Gan'an spoke slowly, his voice cold and stripped of all emotion. "A gift he cannot refuse. One that demonstrates the greatest sincerity of our Shinomiya Family."
His gaze swept over every person present. "Since he favors Kaguya, then let him possess her completely. Not just her body, but her status as well."
Everyone present drew in a sharp breath at his words.
"Patriarch, do you mean..."
Gan'an Shinomiya said with iron finality, "I am going to take Kaguya, completely and absolutely, as the wedge of the alliance between our two houses, and nail her down on his bed!"
This decision was far more serious than sending over a plaything.
It meant that the Shinomiya Family would be binding itself, in the deepest possible way, to Seiji Fujiwara, that rising colossus.
"But... Kaguya, she..." someone hesitated.
"She has no choice." Gan'an's gaze was as grim as a hawk's. "For the continuation of the family, this is the fate she must bear. Starting tomorrow, have her move out of the school dormitory and officially take up residence in Seiji Fujiwara's estate."
"To the outside world, we'll announce it as deepening the cooperation between the two houses, with a period of advance cohabitation to grow accustomed to each other."
"Tell her that this is an order."
"If she refuses..." Gan'an's face was cold. "Then tell her that Ai Hayasaka's fate is something she can go and experience at any time."