Chapter 113: Their Ulterior Motives

Minamoto Kiyomoto returned to the shrine, holding two branches of golden osmanthus covered in golden flowers.

“I’m back.”

In the living room, Kamibayashi Miko had finished her bath and was reading a book;
Himemiya Izayoi was typing on her laptop, with several books on French literature spread out beside her, preparing a report for this week.

Shirako, the little butterfly, and the golden-haired princess were not here. They should be soaking in the hot spring.

“No one is paying attention to me,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said to himself and walked into the living room.

The rich fragrance of the golden osmanthus made Kamibayashi Miko glance over.

“I picked them in Chiba Park,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said. “I smelled their fragrance from the sky. The fragrance of the flowers is pleasant, and they have a unique, elegant, and tranquil charm, which reminds me of you.”

“Don’t get buried in the ground again,” Kamibayashi Miko withdrew her gaze and continued to read.

“Don’t worry, I’m prepared this time.”

“Young Master Kiyoshi, is there any flower that reminds you of me?” Himemiya Izayoi held a pen and placed it between her lips and nose as if she were smelling it.

“That can only be the crape myrtle,” Minamoto Kiyomoto placed the golden osmanthus on the cabinet.

He sat down beside Himemiya Izayoi and glanced at the laptop screen. The title of the report was “What is French Literature?”.

Below was a blank space, not a single word.

“You’ve been typing for so long, and you’ve only written a title?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked in surprise.

“Once you have a title, the content will naturally come,” Himemiya Izayoi said.

“That makes sense.”

“You write it for me.”

“What?”

Himemiya Izayoi moved aside, patted his shoulder, and gestured for him to sit over.

“Is there any benefit?” Minamoto Kiyomoto moved to the seat she had just been in.

“Young Master Kiyoshi is so handsome, the most handsome young man in the world. Alright, write it,” Himemiya Izayoi sat in the seat Minamoto Kiyomoto had just been in.

“You’re the one who’s beautiful. With just one sentence, you can make the most handsome young man in the world do your homework for you.”

“Haha, you’re annoying~, you speak so nicely. I’m going to fall in love with you.”

“Really?”

“Of course, how could I lie to Young Master Kiyoshi?”

“Prove it to me,” Minamoto Kiyomoto offered his side profile.

Himemiya Izayoi took off the cap of her pen and wrote on it: “Izayoi’s slave,”

“What did you write?”

“Izayoi loves Kiyomoto the most, with a heart,” Himemiya Izayoi said sweetly, putting the cap back on her pen.

“How thick do you think my face is? Can’t I feel what you wrote?”

“There’s not much to say. Hurry up and write!” Her Majesty Izayoi’s expression changed as soon as she said it.

Minamoto Kiyomoto placed his hands on the keyboard and began to type quickly.

“Natsume Soseki is an island country writer—this is an undisputed common sense.”

“But on what basis do we say that Natsume Soseki is an island country writer?”

“The language of writing?”

“In fact, Natsume Soseki could not only create Chinese poems in Chinese, but also create various essays and miscellaneous notes in English.”

“Of all the literary works created by Natsume Soseki, at least five to ten percent of them do not belong to the category of island country literature.”

“Nationality, country?”

“Writers of other nationalities and other countries writing works of another nationality and another country are even more numerous.”

“Not just literary works.”

“‘Ghost of Tsushima,’ a game about an island country samurai fighting against the Mongol Empire, was created by Americans. Is it an American game or an island country game?”

“So, to distinguish by nationality and country seems to have its limitations.”

“As for me personally, the reason why Natsume Soseki is an island country writer, Dostoevsky is a Russian writer, and Balzac is a French writer is because the methods of reading their works are different.”

“Today, I will explain what French literature is and why French literature is French literature from the perspective of reading methods.”

All in one go.

“You have it all planned out,” Himemiya Izayoi praised.

“Not at all. It’s mainly because you came up with a good title. As long as you have a title, the content will naturally come,” Minamoto Kiyomoto replied modestly while typing quickly on the keyboard.

“That’s right,” Himemiya Izayoi nodded.

Then, she smiled charmingly, spun her pen, and continued:
“I was just thinking about dropping out of school, but now I find that doing homework is actually quite interesting.”

“It’s interesting to ‘watch’ others do homework, especially watching others do your own homework.”

“If others wanted to help me write, I wouldn’t let them.”

“If others asked me to help them write, I wouldn’t help them either.”

“Is it because I’m beautiful?”

“No, it’s because I can’t beat you.”

Himemiya Izayoi took off the cap of her pen again, leaned over, and prepared to write on Minamoto Kiyomoto’s face.

“I’m doing my homework,” Minamoto Kiyomoto raised his elbow to block her.

“You haven’t taken a bath. What’s wrong with me writing two words?” Himemiya Izayoi was almost lying on him.

“Are you going to do your homework or not?” To prevent himself from being pushed down by her, Minamoto Kiyomoto could only reach out and hold her firm and shapely waist.

Himemiya Izayoi had just taken a bath and had a moist fragrance on her.

The printed thin yukata she was wearing, because of the roughhousing, half of her shoulder was exposed from the collar.

Unconsciously, Himemiya Izayoi’s crisp laughter became charming, and her cheeks also turned slightly red.

“You two,” Kamibayashi Miko looked over, “if you want to flirt, go next door. Don’t do it here.”

“She’s angry,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said to Himemiya Izayoi. “Hurry up and get up.”

“You want me to get up, but you’re not letting go of my hand,” Himemiya Izayoi said with a smile.

“…” Minamoto Kiyomoto let go of his hand.

Himemiya Izayoi sat up straight, not bothering to fix her slipped collar. She propped her elbow on the table, supported her chin with her hand, and watched Minamoto Kiyomoto continue to do his homework.

From an angle that Kamibayashi Miko couldn’t see, she looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto’s pants with a smile on her face and mouthed silently with her alluring lips:
“Naughty boy!”

“Clap, clap, clap, clap!” Minamoto Kiyomoto wrote on the computer: “Whose fault is it? The witch! The demon!”

Himemiya Izayoi laughed lightly again.

Kamibayashi Miko looked over here coldly.

Minamoto Kiyomoto realized that he had been tricked.

Even if he publicly announced that he was pursuing both of them, he couldn’t flirt with one in front of the other.

As for Himemiya Izayoi, he couldn’t relax at all.

“By the way,” after writing for a while, Minamoto Kiyomoto remembered something. “Itomi Yuki is going on a school trip to Kyoto in October. I plan to let her meet her sister. Miss Kamibayashi, if there are any missions in October, if there are any near Kyoto, try to choose that one.”

“Got it,” Kamibayashi Miko approved.

“Why are you so good to her?” Himemiya Izayoi asked.

“Because Miss Kamibayashi is good to me,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said.

“You don’t have to take her on this path,” Kamibayashi Miko said, raising her eyes. “Don’t you refuse pretty girls?”

“A person with a temperament like yours asked me for help. How can I refuse? I don’t understand.”

Himemiya Izayoi reached out and pinched the back of Minamoto Kiyomoto’s hand.

“…Pursuing two people at the same time is really not something an ordinary person can do,” Minamoto Kiyomoto realized a truth in his pain.

“I advise you to give up. You might not even succeed in pursuing one of us,” Himemiya Izayoi poured cold water on him.

“We’ve already kissed, haven’t we? And…”

Before Minamoto Kiyomoto could finish, the voices of Shirako and Noi came from the veranda.

“Ah, that was comfortable!”

“I should have built a hot spring bathroom in the Rose Palace back then.”

As they spoke, a tall and a short golden-haired girl walked in. The little butterfly sat on Shirako’s shoulder.

Shirako was wearing a tank top, her small chest rising and falling slightly. She was wearing shorts;
Noi was wearing a court-style black dress, a tube top style, revealing a large area of snow-white skin on her chest.

The little butterfly… there was nothing much to say.

Minamoto Kiyomoto glanced at them and stopped talking about the “private matters” of the three of them.

“The matter of Lake Shikotsu has been resolved, and we have saved so many people. Hokkaido has a reward, and Kanto and Kansai should also have one. You two help me ask.” He said while writing the report.

“When you weren’t here last night, your little water sister came,” Kamibayashi Miko said. “The money is already in my account, and there’s also the title of an earl. Izayoi rejected it for you.”

“Why?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked Himemiya Izayoi.

“You’re from Kansai. How can you be a noble in Kanto?” Himemiya Izayoi replied as if it were a matter of course.

“I don’t have any regional discrimination… forget it, it’s rejected. What about the reward from Kansai?” As he said this, Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at her with a smile.

He was helping the “Lord of Kyoto” write a French literature report. The reward from Kansai was worth looking forward to.

The other people, including Kamibayashi Miko, did not know Himemiya Izayoi’s identity.

Minamoto Kiyomoto’s own matter, it was fine to tell Kamibayashi Miko everything, but as for others’ matters, especially Himemiya Izayoi’s matter, he had to get her consent no matter what.

Himemiya Izayoi looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto and said with a smile:
“The decree has reached my hands. I haven’t looked at it carefully, but it probably says something like ‘enough to cover a generation, surpassing a thousand years, outstanding as a master of curses, the crown of cultivation’.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto couldn’t help but laugh twice. He knew it wasn’t that she ‘hadn’t looked at it carefully,’ but that she had made it up on the spot, so there was only this one sentence.

“That’s a compliment. What about the reward?” he asked.

“The reward… Rending Thunder?”

“I need the ‘Lord of Kyoto’ to reward me for this? I can just ask Izayoi for it. At least I should be made a prince and have my salary increased, right?” Minamoto Kiyomoto complained to the “Lord of Kyoto.”

“Take Kyoto’s money and let you help the Divine Miko pay off her loan in Kanto?” the “Lord of Kyoto” tilted her head and asked him with a smile.

“That’s right. More money is useless. Then give me Shodoshima?”

“You just saved more than a thousand people, most of whom are from Hokkaido, and you want a fief? You wish.”

“Is it okay?” Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at Himemiya Izayoi with eyes that only the two of them understood.

“It depends on your performance~” Himemiya Izayoi returned a smile that only the two of them understood.

“Is my performance not good enough?” Minamoto Kiyomoto said while typing quickly on the keyboard with his eyes closed.

Himemiya Izayoi laughed so hard that she fell on the table. Her collar opened slightly, and her full chest was pressed down, as if it were pressed against Minamoto Kiyomoto’s heart.

And her slender and enchanting figure, and her pleasant laughter—this was the best reward.

Everyone did their own thing. After a period of silence, Noi suddenly said:
“It’s boring to stay here. Buy me a TV tomorrow.”

“A TV?” Minamoto Kiyomoto’s hands stopped. “Can you get a signal here?”

“It doesn’t have to be a TV. Anything that can pass the time is fine.”

“My room is full of books.”

“I can’t always read.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto thought for a moment, then looked at Shirako and the little butterfly, and said, “Then I’ll buy some games, manga, and novels. Anyway, the school is not far from Akihabara.”

“Akihabara?” Noi asked.

“A place full of maids,” Minamoto Kiyomoto explained.

“Oh,” Noi showed a look of understanding. “Then buy seven or eight more maids. I don’t want to wash the dishes or do the laundry.”

“That’s…” Minamoto Kiyomoto was at a loss for words.

Noi understood his meaning again, “I forgot. You don’t have money.”

“…”

“Hahaha!” Himemiya Izayoi laughed happily, and even Kamibayashi Miko, who was reading, laughed.

The autumn wind at midnight blew in from the veranda, which was very cool. The wind chimes tinkled.

“What’s so funny?” Minamoto Kiyomoto said to the two of them in annoyance. “Your future husband, your future husband, is being called poor by someone right now, and you’re still laughing.”

“Piggy!” Shirako tightened the towel she was using to wipe her hair and prepared to strangle him.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Minamoto Kiyomoto jumped away. “I was joking, Colonel Shirako, don’t be impulsive.”

“Hurry up and take a bath,” Kamibayashi Miko said with a smile and a wave of her hand.

“Oh?!” Minamoto Kiyomoto was excited again. “Is this a hint?”

“After you take a bath, go to bed early. I’ll allow you to have a good dream,” Kamibayashi Miko said.

“Do I even need permission to dream?” Minamoto Kiyomoto saw that Shirako had already come over, so he quickly fled the living room and went to take a bath.

“Young Master Kiyoshi—” Himemiya Izayoi called out coquettishly. “Don’t go straight to sleep. You haven’t finished your homework yet!”

“I’ll think about it while I’m taking a bath. And, that’s your homework!” Minamoto Kiyomoto poked his head out from outside the veranda.

“Thank you, Young Master Kiyoshi! Do you need me to scrub your back?” Himemiya Izayoi called out with a smile.

“No need!”

“Why!”

“Temporary pleasure, permanent happiness. Which one do you think I’ll choose? I’m leaving, hmph!” Minamoto Kiyomoto withdrew his head and went back to his room to get his clothes.

As soon as Minamoto Kiyomoto left, everyone felt that the living room was still the same living room, but something was missing, and it had become boring.

“This guy,” Himemiya Izayoi said to Kamibayashi Miko with a smile.

“You two are a good match,” Kamibayashi Miko said without looking up.

“It’s quite happy to be with him,” Himemiya Izayoi admitted.

“Not just happy,” Kamibayashi Miko continued. “When you see him with other women, or when he hides something from you, you’ll also get jealous, angry, and even throw a tantrum like a child.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“You two should be together.”

“I think you two are a good match too. When you’re with him, you smile more than usual. When you see him with me, or when he hides something from you, you’ll be very jealous, very angry, and even deliberately say some angry words to make him and others be together.”

Kamibayashi Miko raised her gaze from the book and shot it at Himemiya Izayoi.

Himemiya Izayoi propped her left elbow on the table, supported her chin with her palm, and held a pen in her right hand, lazily. She pressed the sharp tip of the pen on the paper and looked at her with a smile.

“Do you agree with his daydream-like delusion?” Kamibayashi Miko asked calmly.

“I don’t agree,” Himemiya Izayoi replied.

After expressing her attitude, she continued:
“Miko, I’m different from you. I have to leave a child. And I’ve kissed him and let him take a lot of advantage of me. I can only be with him.”

After a pause, she raised her pen, pointed the tip at Kamibayashi Miko, and continued:

“So, I can only remove you from his side, and from his heart, completely.”

Kamibayashi Miko looked at the tip of the pen, and at Himemiya Izayoi, who was smiling behind the tip of the pen.

“It’s good to like someone, and it’s good to hate someone,” Noi said with admiration from a high position.

Himemiya Izayoi withdrew her pen, glanced at her, and sneered.

Kamibayashi Miko also withdrew her gaze and looked at the words in front of her, imagining the days when Minamoto Kiyomoto didn’t like her.

There was no expected ease.

A feeling of ‘absolutely not allowed’ surged from the bottom of her heart.

Perhaps, it was really as she had said before. Even if she wasn’t with Minamoto Kiyomoto, she still wanted him to always like her and always be with her.

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(End of Chapter)