Chapter 74: Evening Ball (3) – Yukishiro

Evening Ball (3) – Yukishiro

What a dreamy dress. It makes you believe that it’s jam-packed with his yearning for his beloved maiden, doesn’t it…Aoi-san?

The dress definitely feels slightly childish with its pink color, but I’m sure Yuuta-sama has chosen that color for you.

How enviable. So enviable.

My ugly heart, you see…it’s lamenting that it’s deeply jealous of you.

Forgive me. I’m truly sorry. And thanks for getting angry for my sake.

Yuuta-sama, thank you very much for likewise paying attention to a disgusting person like me and even sharing some of your gentleness, which you usually reserve for Aoi-san.

Moreover, let me congratulate you. You two are a truly wonderful couple. Please allow me to bless your relationship.

Indeed…staring at each other yearningly while dancing…both of you are beautiful.

Takuya-sama invited Layla-san to dance with him. The information that he’d invite me first was wrong after all, I guess. Or maybe he decided otherwise right before the ball.

Takuya-sama didn’t hear about me having introduced Akari-san to Yuuta-sama. And even if he had heard about it, I just introduced Akari-san. There’s no insincerity towards Takuya-sama to be found in there, but there’s no need to deliberately inform him of it either.

Layla’s thoughtless actions luckily ended without turning into a major incident thanks to Yuuta-sama timely assistance. I thought Layla-san understands the culture of Nihon, but it’s clear that she only understands the parts that suit her own goals.

She doesn’t intend to support Takuya-sama with me. Then again, I had never expected that she wanted to lead a luxurious high-school life with the money of the Minato family through Takuya-sama.

I mean, I wouldn’t mind my family using its money for the sake of Layla. As long as she felt like properly supporting Takuya-sama with me.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to immediately realize Layla-san’s ulterior motive. The idea to use a man as a tool to extract money without caring about his wellbeing at all is impossible to find in Nihon…

But I was finally able to notice it because of the matter with the dress. But whatever Layla-san’s motives might be, Takuya-sama has chosen her over me. This fact has become clear to everyone participating in the ball tonight. I’m sure tomorrow the city will be abuzz with funny rumors.

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“Yukishiro-sama…,” Akari-san called out to me in worry.

Forgive me…it’s all because of my worthlessness.

“Sorry that things have turned out like this. It would have been better if I had come here alone.”

“No way! Yukishiro-sama, you haven’t done anything justifying an apology! T-This isn’t your fault at all!”

“Akari-san, calm down. I’m alright…”

The boys and girls were dancing in the center of the hall. Layla with her conspicuous dress and Takuya-sama were among them. Going by their expressions, you could tell that they were dancing while enjoying themselves, but compared to the other couples, theirs was an indecent dance.

Especially if you compare it to the dance of Yuuta-sama and Aoi-san.

It’s not a piece of music where you have to be glued to each other so closely, you know?

For the girls, this ball was an event of yearning. They’d dance on this day, get a confession from their boy, and become his girlfriend. Even if they already had a romantic relationship, the boy would use this ball to confess his feelings anew.

Then they’d be blessed by everyone as an official couple of lovers… Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

It was a day that would make the wish of the lovestruck maidens come true.

I believed that I had deepened my exchange with Takuya-sama well up until junior high. But, in reality I don’t know what Takuya-sama thinks about me. Maybe he wasn’t all that happy about interacting with me. If I consider him trying to make a move on Aoi-san on top of that, it’d make sense from him to not have been satisfied with just me.

And then he met Layla-san, causing the 『dissatisfaction』 in his heart to start stirring. Layla herself has probably thought nothing of it. She likely doesn’t even care about the changes in Takuya-sama. She’ll be happy as long as she can have fun.

However, those changes in Takuya-sama are a huge problem for us. Fundamentally changing the thinking of Takuya-sama, who changed, might be too difficult at this point. No matter how insistently I talk to him and no matter how much my family and I try to move for his sake, Takuya-sama’s dissatisfaction won’t be resolved.

But, at this rate, Takuya-sama will be…sent to the 『Small World』. The state will surely do just that once Takuya-sama graduates after growing up like this. Perhaps the boys following Takuya-sama right now will be sent off together with him.

Though, that’s something that cannot be changed.

After being sent to the Small World, Takuya-sama will be kept alive as my husband. I suppose that will be my life.

After all, it’s impossible for the next head of the Eternal Minatos to not marry. Also for the sake of everyone who follows and adores me…

Unlike in the past, nowadays even a man’s girlfriend can call herself a high woman as long as she gives birth to his child. This must be a last resort which has been created by the limitations of the social system. A system solely existing for the sake of allowing high families to be high families.

And unlike as it’s handled with marriages, you don’t need to inform the state about being the girlfriend of a man. If you’re accepted as a girlfriend by the man and give birth to his children, you earn the right to call yourself a high woman.

Only if you want to call yourself a second- or third-generation high family, you must marry a man. Akari-san comes from a second-generation high family. If she manages to become Takuya-sama’s wife, her family will be a third-generation high family.

But, does Akari-san really wish to marry the current Takuya-sama? Whenever I asked, she only told me that she wanted to marry him. That’s because she’s working towards my marriage with Takuya-sama.

What about me then? Do I want to marry Takuya-sama from the bottom of my heart?

During junior high…I’ve certainly thought that I’m going to marry Takuya-sama who possessed the charisma to bring the other boys together under his leadership. Doing so would be for the sake of the Minatos, Mother, and everyone who has been idolizing me.

Once I become Takuya-sama’s wife, I will have him eventually marry Akari-san, and also have him turn many of the indirect affiliates into his girlfriends. Takuya-sama will contribute to society through Service Activities related to the Minatos.

That’s how I’ve imagined our life…

But, what about Takuya-sama? Did I think I’ll be able to make Takuya-sama happy by marrying him? Did I consider his happiness from how Takuya-sama sees the world, and not from how I see the world?

I did…I believe. I made his wishes come true as far as I could. And I thought that Takuya-sama surely thought the same way about me.

But, I was wrong. Completely wrong.

For me to only realize this after suffering such a disgrace…what a fool I am. Why…? Why didn’t I want to admit it? Why couldn’t I understand that the things I did for him and the heart I offered to him weren’t desired by him, that I was actually rejected by him?

Takuya-sama is rejecting me. And on top of rejecting me, he sees me as a convenient tool to reform the society as he wishes it to be.

I’ve finally understood that he’s trying to use me and the Minatos as convenient tools. Of course I also know that the men living in this society regard women as such, But, deep down I couldn’t accept that I was being rejected.

After having been allowed to talk, meet, and become his direct affiliate, I didn’t want to consider the possibility of him rejecting me.

I don’t know whether Takuya-sama has been comprehending my feelings. Emotions are difficult and even though they’re my own emotions…why are they so difficult to understand? Even the contradicting inconsistency between yesterday’s and today’s feelings is part of the whole.

Even though I’ve been assuming that I think like that…

I guess I have to accept my own feelings. Even if I can’t know about Takuya-sama’s feelings, I can still understand and accept my own feelings. And the fact that I’ve been rejected by Takuya-sama. It’s also not about how Takuya-sama actually feels about this, but it’s my heart believing it to be so. After all, I won’t ever be able to understand the heart of someone other than myself.

I wonder what I should do…?

Even if I’ve been rejected, I’m still Takuya-sama’s direct affiliate. And it doesn’t change the fact of me being a candidate for becoming his girlfriend.

Takuya-sama will likely offer a dance to me after this. In order to make me his girlfriend and use me as a convenient pawn.

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The music, which had been filling the venue with its soothing, melodic tunes, finished its first piece. Yet, the second piece didn’t start right away.

Currently the girls were receiving their confessions from the boys in the center of the hall. Aoi-san is also receiving her confession from Yuuta-sama.

“Aoi-san, I love you. I truly love you from the bottom of my heart. Please go out with me as my girlfriend.”

Yuuta-sama confessed to Aoi-san with a gentle voice that carried well into the deepest corners of the venue. Aoi-san reacted by leaping into Yuuta-sama’s chest with tears in her eyes.

What should one think about this as a lady?

But, whatever. Those are Aoi-san’s feelings. Her body moved like that because she really felt like it in her heart.

Other boys and girls also became lovers. Among them were also Yuuji-sama and Yuuko-san. Yuuko-san was smiling all over her face.

Come to think of it, since the event of that day…the fate of Aoi-san and Yuuta-sama started to turn, didn’t it? If Yuuji-sama had accepted Moe-san’s request back then…the fate of Aoi-san and Yuuta-sama might have taken a different turn.

No, I guess I’m wrong. They’re such a happy couple. I’m sure Aoi-san and Yuuta-sama would have been drawn to each other, no matter the world or fate.

Everyone applauded to congratulate the boys and girls who had officially become lovers during the ball. But, it wasn’t as though all the dance pairs had become lovers. The boys, who didn’t confess, had immediately vacated the center of the hall. Among them were Takuya-sama and Layla.

Takuya-sama didn’t confess to Layla-san. For him, Layla-san is no more than a woman who lets him do with her body as he wishes. She’s the same as his caseworkers who had been replaced one after the other.

I hear his current caseworker doesn’t spread her legs for him like her predecessors, so he’s probably venting his accumulated sexual urges on Layla and her friends all the more so.

The second piece of music started to play in the hall. It was a very romantic piece, because now only the pairs, who had become lovers after the first piece, were dancing.

Takuya-sama was next to Layla-san and her friends, watching the boys and girls currently dancing. His eyes were fixated on Yuuta-sama and Aoi-san. He likely can’t stand their harmonious relationship after he had looked down on Yuuta-sama so much.

Oh my, now he turned his eyes to me.

If you haven’t danced during the first song, you can’t dance during this song either since you haven’t received a confession. You invited Layla-san to dance with you first while knowing that, didn’t you? So why are you looking at me with such an unhappy expression?

The second piece for the lovers didn’t last overly long. Yuuta-sama danced while tightly hugging Aoi-san’s body. I too…wanted to show such a happy smile to Takuya-sama.

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Once the second song finished, the couples retreated to the wall. And then the boys offered their hands to the girls with whom they wanted to dance next. If they were to confess their love after this song, another song for the lovers would follow. Just like moments ago.

Yuuta-sama invited Manami-san for a dance. The other men also invited their indirect affiliates.

Takuya-sama…is apparently going to dance with Emily-san. I guess he plans to neglect me.

If the ball ends without me being invited to a dance by Takuya-sama…that in itself is nothing I can change. But, what if I was invited to a dance by someone…?

For the sake of the Eternal Minato, my Mother, and the many girls, who adore me, so that they can become high women.

I would…