This hot spring inn is one of the Symboli Family's properties. In the end, no actual payment was made. For the wealthy Symboli Family, it was merely entertaining a group of guests.
This hot spring inn is located on a relatively quiet mountaintop. Due to its price, it doesn't usually attract many guests. It is typically used when the main family invites guests. After all, with so many profitable ventures, maintaining a loss-making hot spring inn is not a problem.
After ushering everyone inside, a serious problem arose.
Room assignment.
Although it's a hot spring inn, such establishments, usually catering to families, don't have an abundance of rooms. Instead, each room can accommodate a larger number of people, but the number of people a single room can hold is still limited.
After a series of discussions, the first decision was the rooms for the two Trainers, which were directly assigned together. At the same time, Fuji Kiseki and Gold Ship, acting as intermediaries, went to help the extremely tense duo relax a little.
Next, Symboli Rudolf, Air Groove, Maruzensky, and Representative Chiaki shared a room. In Rei Zai's words, this was the "Student Council's old four-some." (After saying this, Rei Zai was caught by Maruzensky and thoroughly ruffled for a while.)
Then, El Condor Pasa and Grass Wonder, who were already roommates, were joined by Special Week and Silent Suzuka, who were also roommates. This arrangement would allow Special Week to understand firsthand how dangerous Grass Wonder truly is.
During the Werewolf game in the car, she had clearly seen Grass Wonder's true nature. This child is definitely a schemer, with a danger level equivalent to those squinty-eyed characters in anime and manga.
Then, Daiwa and Vodka, along with their seniors Narita Brian and Hishi Amazon, shared a room. Having these two together might barely prevent arguments from causing trouble.
After that, Tokai Teio, Mejiro McQueen, Opera O, and Taiki Shuttle shared a room. These four could get along in every sense, making it a relatively reasonable grouping.
And Rei Zai… "Symboli Rudolf… I hope you can tell me what this 'Rei Bo's Private Room' means." Rei Zai stood with a darkened face in a room that the Emperor claimed was specially prepared for her.
Her gaze swept to the other side, where everyone was stifling laughter.
After glaring fiercely at them, Rei Zai's gaze returned to the Emperor.
"Hmm? Is something wrong? I think it's very suitable, actually?" The Emperor's face also carried a clear smile.
The room was spacious enough for a single person, but… it was filled with her merchandise.
Her plushies, her albums, her videos, and even interview photos, and so on and so forth.
For her fans, this place could even be considered a pilgrimage site, but for her personally, it was completely challenging her tolerance limit.
It was utterly a humiliation play.
'You little rascal, you usually talk back to me, did you think I wouldn't remember?' The Emperor's eyes clearly conveyed this meaning.
However, when the Emperor saw Rei Zai subtly reveal part of a voice recorder to her, her expression also changed.
'You said you deleted it!' (The Emperor's gaze)
"You never said I couldn't make backups!" (Zero's response)
"You're playing word games with me!"
"Heh, hurry up and get me a normal room, or we'll both be socially dead!"
"You're ruthless!"
A series of unspoken glances, incomprehensible to outsiders, were exchanged in mere seconds. Rudolph then arranged for staff to prepare a normal single room for Zero.
Everyone else put their luggage into their rooms, while Rudolph entrusted Air Groove to take her belongings. Then, using the excuse of "taking Zero to her room," Rudolph left with Zero.
As soon as Zero had put away her luggage, she was immediately pushed down by Rudolph and floor-slammed.
"That, right now, destroy it." Rudolph's expression was not good; she had been holding it in for a long time.
The recording pen didn't contain any top-secret information, just some of a certain Rudolph's embarrassing past, personally recounted by her grandmother.
That day, for some reason, Zero was helping Rudolph with something and went with her to the Symboli Family to retrieve some documents. While waiting for Rudolph to come down with the items, she chatted with Rudolph's grandmother and gained a lot of good material.
Things like Rudolph being extremely rebellious as a child, constantly scaring her mother, and thus being chased and beaten by her grandmother; or her 'Luna mode' when she was trying to be cute... Zero couldn't have been more thrilled. When she sensed that the other person was about to share some embarrassing stories, she quickly exchanged for a recording pen and put it in her pocket to record.
Later, after challenging Rudolph to the Arima Kinen in their third year, she destroyed the recording pen in front of Rudolph. Unfortunately... the first thing she did after recording was to upload the recorded pen to the system store. If she wanted to, she could buy a recording pen with that audio on it at three times the original price.
"Here." Zero pulled out the pen and handed it to Rudolph.
Rudolph naturally snatched the pen, broke it directly, and crumpled it into a piece of scrap metal.
Ah, the strength of an Uma Musume is truly impressive.
"And, delete those backups too!"
"Impossible. I don't have anything to ask of you right now."
"You fellow #"
Rudolph herself knew very well that what she did today was a bit too much, as Zero's skin had always been quite thin. However, she hadn't expected Zero to play word games with her.
"Tell me, what will it take for you to delete them completely? You know threatening me won't do you any good."
"No, no, no, threatening you certainly does good, for example, looking at your expression right now."
"#" This fellow.
Both of them had faces they had 'covered up' due to 'maturity,' whether it was Rudolph's arrogance or Zero's pathological obsession.
Rudolph's methods back then were not as gentle as they are now. One must know that when Oguri Cap was scouted from Kasamatsu, it was not done in an ordinary domineering way. Even Oguri Cap still holds a bit of dissatisfaction towards Rudolph from back then. Rudolph's words and actions at the time indeed caused a slight debt to Oguri Cap, which is why she has always allowed Oguri Cap to eat as much as she pleases.
As for Zero, she herself knows very well that once she latches onto something, her level of obsession is clearly pathological, such as her hostility towards Rudolph. While it doesn't reach the point of direct confrontation, in private, with just the two of them, she doesn't mind making the other person's blood pressure rise.
"Alright, that's enough for today's venting. Don't do something like this again today. If you don't do something like this again, I won't bring it up." Feeling sufficiently satisfied, Zero naturally knew when to quit while she was ahead.
"Tsk, the socially anxious you back then now seems like an angel." Rudolph also understood that the other party was backing down, so she didn't press her advantage.
"So, how much longer are we going to maintain this pose?" Zero was naturally referring to Rudolph's floor-slam.
Rudolph's height is 165cm, a full 17cm taller than Zero's 148cm. Also, because Rudolph slightly lowered her voice due to a guilty conscience, their faces were quite close.
"To be honest, my left hand is a bit numb right now." Rudolph said with a slight embarrassment.
Because she had used her right hand to take the recording pen, she was naturally supporting her body with only her left hand. The confrontation just now also took some time, and supporting her body with only her left hand for so long had made it a bit numb.
"Then you stay numb, I'm going out first..."
"President! Let's go play ping... pong... right?" The one who opened the door and came in was Teio, with Air Groove behind her, looking like she wanted to stop Teio but hadn't managed to.
At this moment, both of them were staring blankly at the scene in the room.
Rudolph was supporting herself with one hand on the ground, pinning the petite Zero beneath her, and in her right hand, she held an indistinct long, strip-shaped object... "Teio, call 911. My apologies, President, I'll bring your favorite Umaibo when I visit you in prison."
"Oh..." Teio blankly took out her phone.
"Wait!" It's a misunderstanding!" Even Rudolph broke character at this moment.
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