novelThe Third Bride/ The Third Girl
| ← Ch.066 | Ch.068 → |
The fight was finished in the blink of an eye.
Seeing those thugs reach their hands out towards Yurikago in a distasteful way, Taiyou leaped into the fray and literally wiped the floor with at least ten men who was surrounding her; it was instant kill.
The only weapon in Taiyou's arsenal was his fists, in comparison his opponents held knives and batons in their hands but he had the overwhelming strength to overpower them.
Not only that Taiyou snatched the baton off one of the guys and bent the whole baton right in front of them, and this added an element of mental damage to their mind.
If an outsider were to look upon this scene right now, they wouldn't see a fight....... It was a one-sided massacre.
At the very least, this is what Junishima Yurikago was seeing in front of her.
After making a heap of corpses pile behind him in less than one minute, he briskly turned to face Yurikago.
「Are you alright?」
She was quite calm, even though she was in this kind of situation, under the light of the moonlight, her face was cold and collected.
「Nastuno Taiyou」
「Hera-chan is also here ya know~?」
Yurikago murmurs Taiyou's name. Somehow as soon as Hera showed up, Yurikago's face blushes grandly.
Taiyou was wondering why she was acting like this, but he soon understood.
She was able to see Hera. This is because Kohaku made her forcibly kiss Taiyou. He guessed that she remembered that event and that's why she was acting like this.
Though he understood it, he thought it would be better if he didn't touch that topic. He turned towards Hera and wanted her to fly away so that Yurikago wouldn't feel embarassed.
「Hera, can please you go back first?」
「Yes nanodesu~」
Hera obediently listened to Taiyou request without any complaints. Unlike the time where she seemingly appeared in front of him via teleportation, this time around Hera flapped her wings and flew into the evening sky.
After watching Hera depart he faced Yurikago once again and asked if she was alright.
「Yeah, I'm fine, it's not like they were able to do anything」
After Hera left, Yurikago's blush also disappeared.
(She's really cute)
「Well... I wasn't planning on letting these types of guys do something to me」
「Naturally, there isn't any girl who would want something like that to happen to her.... 」
As he was talking, Taiyou remembered a certain thing. Looking at the expression on her face, Taiyou had a bit of a doubt.
「By the way, just as an off-chance......but what if they did something to you? What if I didn't make it here in time?—」
「self-destruction」
「Isn't that way too exaggerated?!」
Last time they were working together, she also said that in the case of an emergency she would rather die than get caught.
After remembering this fact, Taiyou started to wonder if she was the type of person to use 'suicide' as her back up plan... he honestly thought that her way of thinking was far more extreme than when he first imagined.
「You think? Well don't you think it would be irritating if I just let them do as they pleased? Dying in vain is also something I'd rather avoid, in that case my only option is to self-destruct isn't it? 」
「No, let's not talk about the subject of death. Why is it that you have such a cute face but your views are so extreme I wonder?」
「Cute?」
Yurikago laughed scornfully.
「Are you referring to this face of mine? The last time we met, I was wearing a masquerade mask wasn't I?」
「Yeah, now that I think about it, something like that did happen between us」
After saying this, Taiyou took a long hard look at her face. Although it was a dark alley in the middle of the night, they were standing quite close to each other and he was observing her face closely. And just like that, he asked the question he had on his mind.
「Although I thought about this before, I've always wondered how you looked underneath the disguise. I mean—」
「You are way too close!」
He was looking at her too intently as he drew near towards her, Yurikago reacted by suddenly thrusting out her palm.
Taiyou was in a totally defenceless position and his jaw was hit with the palm of her hand! The sound of impact resounded.
Immediately his vision twinkled. His jaw was aching and he held on to it as he protested to her.
「What are you doing?! When people are speaking, don't just suddenly strike them in the chin! What if I accidently bit my tongue?」
「It's cause your face is too close, don't you agree?」
「No, well I mean that may be true but still! I just wanted to confirm how much you disguised yourself!」
「That's totally unnecessary, a disguise is just a disguise. it's obviously different from my real face!」
Did she perhaps get angry? her cheeks were red as she blurted out the words.
「In that case let me see the proof」
「The proof?」
「Yeah, do you have a picture of your real face or something? Even if it's blurry it's fine」
「A-as if I'd show you a picture like that」
「Why not?」
「What does it matter?!」
Continuing in this manner she seemed to have remembered something else.
「ah, my real face is a guarded secret! As a person who will become the next master of the Junishima family, it won't do if my face is exposed to the public」
「That's a little exaggerated don't you think?」
「This is not exaggerated at all, my great-grandmother died from being assassinated」
「Eh.... ? is that for real?」
Taiyou's eyes were bewildered. He thought that she was surely just being way too exaggerated, but unexpectedly there was some truth in the matter and this surprised him.
「It's true, my 25th great-grandmother was poisoned to her death」
「What a minute! what exactly do you mean by saying your 25th great-grandmother?!」
「It's because my great-grandfather had 49 concubines」
「What period are we talking about here?!」
「This was in the 19th century of the Meiji era, what? you got a problem with that?」
「........ Sorry, I don't」
Taiyou was going to go into a debate with her, but after hearing about that he decided to tone it down. After all, Yurikago's story was of the Meiji era and it was a period of time that was at least a century ago.
In that time period, Taiyou could agree that a man of power having plenty of concubines was an acceptable thing.
After toning it down and reaching a point where they could settle down, the both of them walked side-by-side out of the alley way and left the ruffians moaning and groaning on the floor.
She was somewhat leading the way as they walked in the direction of Taiyou Castle. Taiyou didn't have a problem with this. Considering this was Yurikago, it wouldn't be strange if she knew that he moved from his old place to this new place. While walking she voluntarily started talking again.
「I mean, even if I disregarded the story about my great-grandmother, there is another reason why I can't show my face to another man」
「To men?」
「That's right, for a man who sees my real face, I either need to kill them or marry them」
「What are you? some kind of a saint..... ?」
Taiyou stared at her in wonder.
「Does that sort of custom still remain even now?」
「That's just the kind of household I live in」
「Hmm, wait a minute? Then are you telling me that you always have some sort of a getup whenever you go out? Otherwise you wouldn't be able to meet with anybody right?」
「Have you ever watched any historical dramas? For example, do you know something called the inner harem chambers?」
「Hm? I guess I know a little bit」
Where is she going with this? As he was thinking these thoughts, he was waiting for her to elaborate.
「In that case you can imagine it right? For instance, when you enter the room of the legal wife of the shogun, or meet with an important woman in that era, you would normally have bamboo blinds that covers the room, right?」
「Well, I do remember something like that....... but don't tell me?」
「It's exactly as you thought. I also usually meet people in that kind of setting, where I am behind a bamboo blind」
「Are you saying people need to be granted an audience just to meet with you?!」
「Is that what you got out of it?」
Yurikago raised her voice.
「Ah, it's because those words were too shocking」
「After all, aren't you underestimating me too much?」
「No no no, this isn't about whether I am underestimating you or not, it's just that in the 21th century Japan we currently live in I just don't hear the words 'audience' used in normal conversation, that's all」
「..... Well, I guess you might be right」
「Even so, you really are an amazing person aren't you?」
「Isn't that what I've been telling you? Why don't you show a little more respect around me?」
「Umm..... 」
Taiyou made a difficult expression on his face and as he looked at Yurikago. Although she told him to show a little more respect, for some reason Taiyou just didn't feel like it was appropriate for him to do so.
If the person in front of him was Kohaku, then it might be that he could show her respect.
After all, as part of the eternally little, her true age was quite advanced, and the words she spoke, the subject along with her facial expressions indicated that on a whole she had this really mature atmosphere around her.
Or possibly, if this was Shirokiyami, it may have been easier for him to show respect and honour. She possesses a fairytale-like beauty and she boasts an overwhelming aura and is told to be one of the strongest girls in the world. And that strength is something that is worthy of reverence.
And although her personality isn't perfect, but even Sakura might be a target worthy of respect. She wore a tight pantsuit, and she had this adult like sex appeal and is accompanied by many subordinates so it wouldn't be strange if she was respected as an adult woman.
However, the girl in front of him known as Yurikago didn't really inspire any particular feeling. On the contrary――
「Just a little」
「Hyan! Wait, why are you pulling my hair?」
Yurikago stops walking and protested. Taiyou suddenly grabbed on to her long and slender twin-tail hair like he was pulling a prank on her.
It was only a light pull but because she was already advancing forwards the tug on her hair caused her neck to get pulled backwards.
| ← Ch. 066 | Ch. 068 → |