Late at night, the lights were still burning in Leon's manor.
Yukino Yukinoshita, Asuna Yuuki, and Utaha Kasumigaoka were gathered in the living room, sipping tea and chatting.
"Our department head certainly has a flair for leisure. It's been nearly ten hours since school ended, and he still hasn't returned. Could he be so immersed in some 'gentle embrace' that he can't pull himself away?"
Utaha Kasumigaoka spoke with a cold sneer, her tone laced with a hint of irritation. It was clear she had grown impatient from the wait.
"Mr. Leon... I mean, the Department Head... what exactly is he doing?"
Asuna Yuuki was also puzzled. She had sent Leon several messages, but he hadn't given a straight answer about his activities. He had simply told them to head back first, not to wait for him for dinner, and that they could fulfill any summons if they were called—everything else would be discussed upon his return.
"Hasn't the Senpai already said it? Our Department Head is likely out with that 'Angel' from the first-year class." Yukino Yukinoshita held a book in her hands, her fingers turning the pages steadily, though it was unclear if she was actually reading. Her voice remained as calm as a deep well. "Perhaps he took a liking to her and wants to recruit her as a retainer."
While Yukino appeared composed on the surface, she was no less vexed than the others.
He had claimed he wasn't specifically picking out "flowers on a high peak" like them, yet here he was, targeting the "Spring Flower" of the first year?
He had said it himself: excluding Asuna, who was a mid-term transfer, Sobu High originally only had her and Utaha as Artifact Users. Mahiru Shiina and Eriri Spencer Sawamura were just ordinary, albeit popular, campus idols.
Now, he had set his sights on another untouchable beauty—and one without a Sacred Gear at that. Yukino was curious to see what her "Master" would have to say for himself this time.
"I say, don't you two want to stop him?" Utaha sat with a pastry before her, stabbing at it repeatedly with a spoon. She said quite unhappily, "He is clearly planning to sweep up every 'flower on a high peak' at Sobu High. He's practically starting a harem in broad daylight. Are we just going to watch?"
"What else can we do? We are merely his retainers and servants. Whatever the Master decides to do, we can only obey." Yukino didn't even lift her head from her book, her voice devoid of any inflection. "Besides, this isn't exactly 'starting a harem in broad daylight.' We became his retainers, not his women."
Doesn't that make it even worse?
Utaha couldn't help but grumble internally.
If they were his women, they would at least have a legitimate right to complain. As his retainers and servants, they arguably didn't even have the right to object.
Though Utaha didn't consider herself Leon's woman either, she was better than Yukino at coming to terms with things. She vividly remembered something Leon had once said in passing:
"From the moment you became my retainers, we became an inseparable community of shared destiny."
"The lifespan of a demon is very, very long—so long that some demons even descend into madness out of boredom. That is why we all need emotional and spiritual anchors to maintain our sense of self through the long ages."
"In my view, the relationship between Master and retainer is exactly that. After all, in the future, our families will slowly age and pass away, and our friends will one day become history. Only we will remain, accompanying each other for a long, long time, through thousands and tens of thousands of years."
Those words had struck a chord with Utaha.
As a literary girl, she could easily project herself into such a scenario and feel its weight.
Yukino and Asuna had been moved at the time as well, but their reaction certainly wasn't as intense as Utaha's. Consequently, Utaha was the one who took Leon's words most to heart.
Under these circumstances, Leon, Yukino, and Asuna had long since risen to a status in Utaha's heart that was completely different from before.
Thus, she felt it necessary to voice an opinion—at the very least, to get Leon to show some restraint.
The future was long, and a group where women congregated was bound to produce all sorts of complex issues and troubles. She didn't want to spend the next ten thousand years living in a constant battlefield of conflict that turned her life into a mess.
"I want to voice a few complaints to him, to tell him to be more discerning when picking people. He shouldn't just be moved because someone is cute or pretty," Utaha said bluntly. "At the very least, he shouldn't recruit people we can't get along with as retainers. If trouble arises then, it won't just be him who is annoyed."
Hearing Utaha's words, Yukino looked up, and even Asuna was momentarily stunned.
"Does Senpai Kasumigaoka not like Shiina-san?" Asuna asked in surprise.
"It's not quite that. I've heard plenty about that first-year 'Angel.' I know she has a good personality and is easy to get along with." Utaha shook her head. "However, having a good personality doesn't necessarily mean we'll click. Especially for girls like us who are constantly under the spotlight and easily compared to one another—the slightest trifle could destroy a relationship, couldn't it?"
Yukino and Asuna both fell into silence.
As girls, and particularly as high-profile, beautiful girls, no one understood better than them how exhausting it was to be constantly observed and compared by those around them.
They didn't hold any resentment toward each other over such things, but there were plenty of people at Sobu High who were unhappy with them. Seeing them praised as "flowers on a high peak" bred envy, jealousy, and even inexplicable hatred.
Because of this, they hadn't formed deep connections with anyone before. They understood that no matter how well you got along day-to-day, you could be backstabbed over the smallest thing.
Girls are complex like that. There is a reason for the saying that a woman's heart is a needle at the bottom of the sea.
Furthermore, the saying about "the most poisonous heart being that of a woman" exists for a reason; it certainly isn't mere slander. When a girl truly becomes ruthless, it can be terrifying.
If a random group of girls could be like this, then a group of beautiful and exceptionally talented girls was even more prone to trouble. In ancient times, the emperors had three thousand beauties in their harems, each a peerless treasure of the world, and thus the infighting in the palace was the most vicious. Even if they had never met, they might find ways to kill one another in the shadows for various reasons.
"It truly is time to give him some feedback," Yukino agreed after her silence. "I don't want to fight side-by-side with people I can't stand in the future."
If Yukino Yukinoshita were the type to compromise on interpersonal relationships, she wouldn't have been friendless and alone all this time.
"I, for one, would love to make more friends." Asuna thought about it and finally gave a helpless smile. "But if I don't get along with them, it would indeed be difficult to spend a long time together."
At her core, Asuna was a gentle person, a "Yamato Nadeshiko" (personification of an idealized Japanese woman) type. However, she had been controlled by her mother for so long, her life planned out so strictly and weighed down by studies, that she had been unable to express her true self.
Yet, she was also an unexpectedly strong-willed girl. Once she made a decision, she displayed extraordinary resilience and persistence, refusing to compromise with injustice.
In the original timeline, when trapped in the death game, Asuna had initially shut herself in a hotel room, terrified of the world and of death. But ultimately, she walked out on her own because she didn't want to rot in that room, and she was unwilling to wait day after day for a rescue that might never come.
She would rather die outside than continue in fear and numbness. Thus, she took up the sword and eventually became one of the top players on the front lines, the famous "Flash" Asuna, and the feared "Demon of Operations."
At that time, her only goal was to beat the death game, so she cast aside all emotion and walked her path alone. It wasn't until she realized that the true meaning of life isn't changed by a mere death game—that one should live for oneself regardless of the environment—that the girl completed her transformation.
The post-transformation Asuna was essentially the perfect marriage partner in the eyes of any man. She possessed the most sincere love for her partner and could show the most genuine maternal affection to a sudden AI girl just because of the word "Mama." Though she was only seventeen, she had awakened a textbook level of motherly love and kindness; she was the most impeccable wife.
She hadn't reached that point yet, but now that she was seventeen, that gentle yet resilient side of her heart was slowly awakening. Consequently, she was beginning to show her own convictions and would no longer simply compromise as she had before.
"Then it's settled." Seeing both her fellow retainers supporting her, Utaha's confidence surged. She pounded the table and made the final call. "When that guy gets back, we'll..."
Before she could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by a strange voice.
"What will you do? Rebel against me?"
The moment the voice rang out, the air went silent for several seconds.
Immediately after, the three girls stood up in unison and saw Leon standing outside the living room doorway.
He was leaning against the frame with his arms crossed, squinting his eyes and looking at the three retainers with a faint, knowing smile.
Master's Pressure.jpg
"Y-You're back?"
"W-Welcome back!"
"When did you get back?!"
Yukino, Asuna, and Utaha all spoke with varying degrees of awkwardness.
Seeing this, Leon smiled—a smile that made the girls feel quite guilty.
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