“Miss Minami Reiko, we’ve come here this time with no ill intent — we merely wish, on our employer’s instructions, to invite Mr.
Minami Yuji over to the family residence for a little catch-up.”
“Oh really?
No ill intent…?
This is what ‘no ill intent’ looks like for you people?”
Lifting her eyes, Minami Reiko swept her gaze over the shambles of the room and spoke in an icy voice.
When Minami Reiko and Minami Yuji had first arrived in Tokyo, the money on hand had not been at all generous, so what they had rented was a rather cramped and shabby one-room dwelling.
The walls of the room were thin — so much so that one could even clearly make out specks of mildew in the corners that no amount of scrubbing could quite clean away.
But even so, this place was the home in which she and Minami Yuji had settled down in Tokyo.
And yet now?
The other party had arrived uninvited, and had even barged into the room without so much as a by-your-leave.
The futons that had been neatly folded away in the cabinet had been yanked out in a tangled mess, the floor she had so carefully cleaned was now smeared all over with footprints, and there were signs of everything in the room having been rummaged through.
And this was what they called ‘no ill intent’?
“For this we are deeply sorry.”
A formally-suited man who looked to be the one in charge spoke up: “Whatever losses have been caused to you this time around will all be borne by the Toyokawa Family.”
As he spoke, he even lowered his head, in sync with the two or three bodyguards standing at his side, who lowered their heads at the very same moment.
On the surface, it seemed to give off some indescribable air of sincerity.
But—
From start to finish, there was not the slightest trace of apology in the other party’s voice!
Minami Reiko clenched her teeth tightly.
What he had was nothing more than the cold detachment of business-as-business.
That utterly through-and-through coldness in his words — far from being any sort of apology to her, it was more like contempt for everything she had striven for, for everything she had worked so hard to build up over the years!
But, unexpectedly, Minami Reiko did not fly into a rage — she herself was even taken aback at her own composure.
Yet she very quickly came to understand why this was — because she had grown used to it.
That’s right.
Grown used to it.
This kind of unsolicited ‘visit’ from the Toyokawa Family was, in fact, no longer anything close to the first time.
She remembered that the first time the Toyokawa Family had brought their people over to the Masayama Orphanage, it had been just like this too.
Uninvited.
Talking past everyone.
Hard-line in their attitude!
As if in this world, so long as one had money, anything and everything could be solved.
She remembered it clearly — back then, the other party had laid out some rather generous terms for Minami Mao.
So long as Minami Mao agreed to let the Toyokawa Family adopt Minami Yuji, they would take responsibility for every expense the Masayama Orphanage incurred.
To tell the truth, the Minami Reiko of that moment, upon hearing this news, had honestly been so overjoyed she’d nearly leapt into the air.
Because that was the Toyokawa Family we were talking about — a genuine, bona-fide colossus of a conglomerate, a family-run enterprise; if they really did get their backing, then the Masayama Orphanage would surely never have to worry about food or clothing again! Follow the newest chapters on novelping . com.
Those dresses she had once never been willing to spend the money on — now she could buy one and toss it, buy another and toss that!
That absolutely wouldn’t be some far-off dream.
However—
The Minami Mao of that moment had not agreed.
The answer she gave was also very simple.
Minami Yuji did not want to become an adopted son of the Toyokawa Family, and the Masayama Orphanage was an orphanage that belonged to the children — it had to be a place where the children’s own wishes were what came first.
The Minami Reiko of that moment had been full of incomprehension.
She’d felt that Director Mao was perhaps being just a bit too high-handed about it — no matter how you looked at it, they ought to have accepted the Toyokawa Family’s assistance.
But only today did she come to understand even a little of the meaning behind Minami Mao’s words.
The Masayama Orphanage was an orphanage that belonged to the children.
It had never, ever been the kind of place that ‘sold off’ its children to the outside world in order to seek out economic aid from the outside!
Were they — these so-called adults — really going to make these abandoned children get abandoned all over again?!
“It seems Mr.
Minami Yuji isn’t in residence, then — is he still at the agency?”
On the other side, the suited man in charge in front of her glanced at his watch.
Still wearing that same talking-past-her attitude, that same looking-down-his-nose gaze.
If it had been the average eighteen-year-old girl, she would probably have been thoroughly cowed by this overwhelmingly terrifying aura by now.
But Minami Reiko was nothing of the sort.
“Do you really think I’d just obediently tell the likes of you?”
Her voice was bracingly stern, her gaze raised — yet utterly resolute!
She had been the one to bring Minami Yuji to Tokyo!
Then as his elder sister, she absolutely had to fulfill her responsibilities as an elder sister!
That pure yet utterly fearless attitude of hers even left the suited man in charge momentarily blank.
But…
it really was only momentarily.
No adult was going to lower himself to scrapping with a child, and he was no exception.
After all, every single thing the other party had said was, in truth, perfectly reasonable — they really were the ones in the wrong here.
“In any case, since Mr.
Minami Yuji isn’t in…
might we ask that you accompany us to the Toyokawa Family residence first?”
His voice was even and measured as he posed the question.
“And what if I say no?”
Minami Reiko remained—
“…” the suited man in charge.
Say no…?
To tell the truth, he genuinely did not understand why the other party would say the word ‘no.’
One of the few great financial dynasties in all of Japan that could be counted on the fingers of one hand — an existence that, in the most literal sense, could make the entire Japanese business world shudder simply by sneezing.
And what about Minami Yuji and Minami Reiko?
To put it in flattering terms, they were people the Toyokawa Family had taken a liking to.
To put it in unflattering terms, they were nothing more than bottom-rung people living in this kind of grubby low-rent flat.
Now they had this kind of carp-leaping-the-dragon-gate opportunity dropped right in front of them, and they were actually saying ‘no’?
“How many people would yearn for this kind of opportunity — you have to understand, to be chosen as an adopted son-in-law for the Toyokawa Family, and as a purely external party at that, with no prior ties to the Toyokawa Group whatsoever…
this in itself is already an enormous stroke of good fortune.
Miss Minami Reiko, even if you won’t think of yourself, you have to at least think of Mr.
Minami Yuji…
can’t you be a little more rational about this…”
He shook his head and went on with his persuading.
However, before his words could even finish, a voice had already rung out from outside.
“I think Reiko-nee is already plenty rational — given that she hasn’t kicked you lot out yet.”
“Hm?”
He muttered out a puzzled syllable, then turned his head to look.
And then…
He realized.
At some unknown point, a tiny little figure had suddenly appeared in the doorway.
It was a black-haired boy, and standing beside him was a blond-haired boy who looked nearly his equal in good looks.
Beneath the dim yellow glow of the doorway’s motion-sensor light, those handsome, adorable little faces were trimmed with a faint golden edge.
Behind them, a flax-haired adult woman, taking in the chaotic state of the room along with four or five tall men, looked panic-stricken — she pulled out her phone, seemingly intending to do something.
But the black-haired boy reached out and stopped her.
The black-haired boy first lifted his eyes.
It ought to have been nothing more than a child’s harmless once-over.
Yet for some reason, every single person there present — even including the suited man in charge who had only just been ordering Minami Reiko about — could not, in that instant, help but swallow audibly, and instinctively lower their heads.
The black-haired child’s gaze first swept over the interior of the room, taking in the floor that had been trampled into filth, and the futons that had been pulled out…
and then, at last, came to rest on the suited man in charge inside the room.
“If I’d been here, I wouldn’t have wasted a single word — I’d have thrown you lot out first thing.”
Pulling his gaze back, he spoke just so.
At the same time, his heart was full of speechlessness — these Toyokawa Family people really did have terrible memories, didn’t they?
Here they were again, looking for a son-in-law.
____
👻🔥Read More: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting in The Long Dark with My Waifus
Help us hit our community goals: