147 Lets Work Together on a Story! (1/2)

‘Why are they looking at me like that? All I did was...’

Seiji thought back to what he just said and realized that they must have misunderstood his words.

He hurriedly tried to defend himself. ”No, no, Senpai! What I meant was that anyone who married you would be lucky to be with you! I wasn’t talking about me... er...”

Shika’s expression didn’t change, while Mai narrowed her eyes.

”I understand... Haruta-san, you fool all the girls with this act of yours.”

”Er, fool?” Seiji was confused. ”I’m not trying to fool anyone; I’m just stating my honest opinion.”

Mai’s face reddened even further as she averted her gaze.

Shika blinked cutely. ”Brother Seiji... is a playboy?”

”Why did such a word suddenly appear here!?” Seiji asked in disbelief.

‘Just how was I acting the part of a playboy? All I did was make a mistake with my words; is it really necessary to brand me as a playboy!?’

”Shika-chan, you can’t just go around casually calling people ‘playboy,’ especially your brother. I’m a righteous, chaste man!”

The girl that he forcefully recognized as his younger sister and the embarrassed maid reacted with nothing but silence.

Seiji continued sipping tea after he finished his serious performance.

”Kagura-san, as you see for yourself, Haruta-san... is an idiot.”

”Yeah... Brother, his mind works... in a subtly different way from other people.”

*Cough cough!* Seiji almost choked on his tea.

What was all this? Why was he being looked down upon!? Forget about the strange maid saying weird things about him, even Shika-chan...

If this was a manga, there would be numerous question marks popping out above his head right now.

Shika and Mai both ignored his presence and merely drank tea as if they were long-time friends who had reached a mutual understanding.

The atmosphere seemed a little strange.

‘Forget it. It isn’t necessary to argue over every word’s meaning with them.

‘Being together with girls means that I shouldn’t care about every little detail. Yep, I’m such a magnanimous fellow.’

Seiji inwardly praised himself for his tolerance.

After a period of silence.

”Houjou-san, is there a printer in this residence?” Seiji asked the question that he wanted to ask originally.

”A printer? Of course. What do you want to do, idiot… whoops, junior?”

Seiji’s cheeks twitched violently. ‘You must have said ‘idiot’ on purpose! You must have!’

Once again, he reminded himself to be magnanimous by not arguing over every little word. Otherwise there would be no end to it…

”I wanted to print a contract for a story I wrote...” He continued to explain that a publishing company had picked up his story.

”I was just fortunate,” Seiji replied with a humble look on his face.

Suddenly he noticed that Shika was looking at him, her eyes sparkling with light.

After a while, she expressed her desire: ”I’d like to read... the story that Brother wrote.”

That’s right; she was originally a literature-loving girl.

Seiji smiled. ”Of course. I’ll send you the file in a bit, Shika-chan.”

Then he thought of something.

”Shika-chan, you read books often, so have you ever considered writing your own story?”

Shika paused in surprise before shaking her head.

”No...” Her face gradually darkened. ”Even if... I wrote one, I don’t know... if I could show it to other people...”

There was a brief period of silence.

Would the [Reaper’s Curse] ability even affect those that read Shika’s stories?

Seiji didn’t know. But as long as Shika was worried about that, she wouldn’t even want to pick up a pen due to her gentle nature. She would hate to harm others, even if it were only a possibility.