Vol 3 Chapter 21 (1/2)

Volume 3, Chapter 2: Everyone’s Respective School Festival

Part 1: Pages 113 - 138

For the ic academy’s school festival, I, Keith Claes, as a e of the area displaying inforical research

As I greet the never-ending streauardians with a friendly smile, I wait for ht away yet still isn’t here

It’s been quite some time since she said “Once I look around at the booths, I’ll buy some food for you and come back”

Mary Hart, who’s a friend, a student council e of this area, seeinning to look rather depressed

Well, if I’ve read the situation right,totally captivated by the food at the booths

And then in the end, long after noon, the awaited person finally arrived On seeing us, Katarina ss As I had predicted, Katarina had been distractedfood at the booths and so came late

“… I’ downcast

In response Mary just says “Do not worry yourself over it Theis that you’re safe,” but…all over again if spoiled

“I agree Nee-san, you’re way too excited today Please be a bit et wrapped up in trouble as it is,” I say with a strict face, even as I feel a bit sorry for her

Since ere small, Katarina has often ended up in trouble thanks to fraudsters and scaot wrapped up in last year was even life-threatening And yet despite that, this carefree, worry-free stepsister of otten about that - lately she’s been particularly in high spirits

Noto h one ear and out the other She nonchalantly tries to go to his room on her own

Katarina appears to be lacking self-awareness that she’s a grooman who may be looked upon with desire That’s why in this way I have to keep uard up every day, eyes peeled In order to protect her as well

Even though she probably ate tons at the booths, she ended up having tea with us as well I naturally co too much, but I was actually pretty happy that she would be sitting at a table with me

In truth, I would’ve preferred to walk around with her at the school festival, but thanks to my duties as a student councila student council member I wondered why I did

“Wow, it looks so good!” says Katarina happily as she sees the sandwiches laid out on the table

Her expression when her eyes are sparkling is very cute

“I concur It looks very good Thank you verylike she’s having fun as she laughs

However, I still can’t not say it

“Nee-san, you just ate a lot, so keep it to just a little You’ll get a stomach ache if you eat too much”

“Okay…”

Katarina looks downhearted again at my words I feel sorry for her, but if I don’t lecture her properly she’ll eat toois for

her sake

For a while she an thinking about so as she looked about

Ah, this is probably – just as I thought that, sure enough –

“Hey, Keith Do you want to split with me?”

Katarina said what I had expected

“… Yeah I thought you’d ask that Sure”

“Yay!”

Katarina loves eating And at ti certain unusual things or things that caught her eye It also see she touches

Other nobles barely touch food before leaving it on their plates on an everyday basis, so I really think Katarina is strange

However, before being taken in by the Claes faiven minimal portions of food Thus as I learned that food is precious, I like what Katarina is doing

I feltshe touched and ended up getting stomach aches And so I eventually said to her a number of years back: “If you want to eat so s then you should split with me I’ll eat the remainder”

Katarina was even more overjoyed than I expected atas we’re not in public

Splitting food is like a privilege only given to family members I was very happy that the only person Katarina split food as me

“Here you go, Keith”

Having gotten my approval, Katarina halves a potato salad sandwich and holds one half to my mouth

“What’s the matter, Keith?”

Katarina looks at

Don’t say “What’s the , please

“Ah, um, nee-san Why don’t we not do this in front of others?” I say mildly, but –

“In front of others? But you said that it was alright to split things with you so long as it wasn’t in public You said it was okay a second ago, right?”

“No, it’s not about splitting with you… I mean…”

She just doesn’t get it at all… Mary’s stare pierces me

“Oh? So long as it’s not in front of others, you two do this all the ti with just her onistically

“Ah, yeah When I want to eat so but can’t eat it all, we split it and I have him eat the other half”

That’s true What you’ve said so far is fine, so why don’t you just stop there, nee-san?

“I see And Katarina-sama, you always take his half in your hand and offer it directly to Keith-sa I didn’t want her to hear

I look at Katarina, trying to soundlessly convey to her to stay quiet… but naturally, she’s not the type of person to notice that kind of look

“Yup I didn’t do that before, but a little while back Keith said that he wanted s”

She revealed everything Mary’s glare increases in ferocity all at once

It’s true Originally, I was satisfied in being the only one to split things with her… but Jared’s aggressive contact over the past couple years awakened greed within me

I live in the same house as Katarina and interact with her the most in the first place To be honest, if I wanted to do so, I could do it easily

… I could do it easily, but unfortunately I don’t have that kind of guts

And anyways recently I haven’t been able to casually touch her since she’s become much more like a wo close to her, my heart beats faster,

In recent years, I haven’t knohat to do with myself

And during my turmoil, Jared steps in calmly and touches Katarina

Even though I want to touch her too! But in the end, even as I think that, I can’t touch her like Jared does And so, I thought to then fight back by having Katarina feed me e split food

I did considerKatarina to reach out to me because I couldn’t touch her But I still felt very happy when she easily agreed to my request and held out her hand to my mouth

Given that she’s dense and hasn’t realized the feelings I’ve held for her for years, it see of her actions Still, I secretly felt superior for being the only one being fed by Katarina in this way

To think that it would all be revealed in this way

“Keith-sa faly

It’s true that Mary and I, united before our coreeive me for this much in comparison to Jared

But in response to my excuse –

“Please do not use Jared-sama as an excuse He’s just unusual! … I ht that he had so many hidden plans that I could not lay a hand on him”

She responded with a cold gaze and a sharp voice

When I o, she was just a little girl with little self-confidence… how did she becoressive woman today? Well, a certain somebody’s influence is probably one of the reasons why…

“I apologize, but I heard that second part even though you said it in a s the sa her and all sorts of things”

Loving Katarina as she does, Mary touches Katarina even more than Jared This is because they’re the saht that they still touch too much

“My, how rude of you to say that I’e’ We are the same sex, so it’s perfectly normal for us to embrace and touch each other Eventually, perhaps we’ll even bathe together…”

“U, Mary, it isn’t normal”

“My, is that not an issue on your side?”

Even having coiven that Mary and I like the sah, I’m still not entirely sure if Mary feels the same way as me or if she just feels friendshi+p), once we let our dissatisfaction towards each other free, our abuse of each other just wouldn’t stop

Further resentful that ere stuck in a place like this thanks to our student council duties - and unable to walk around the school festival with Katarina Thus, our abuse of each other worsened And yet

“Keith, Mary If it comes down to it, I promise to stand by the two of you, so don’t worry! I won’t let it end in tragedy like with Romeo and his lover!”

We stopped at Katarina’s sudden words

Just what is she thinking? Well, I can kind of understand what she’s thinking, but I can’t understand how she came to that conclusion at all

“Nee-san I don’t even want to knohat you’re thinking, but… I am absolutely certain that you’re mistaken,” I say calmly to Katarina, who looks towards us all fired up