283 Allow Me to Tell You Some Unfortunate News… (2/2)
”I'm currently eating lunch together with my friends.”
When he heard the heavy and serious voice of the man who called himself the head editor, Seiji felt an ominous premonition.
”Head Editor Hattori… is this about the publication of my novel? Where's Editor Yoshizawa?”
Head Editor Hattori fell silent for a moment.
”Head Editor Hattori?” Seiji's furrowed his brows.
He heard a deep sigh on the other end.
”Shore-san, allow me to tell you some unfortunate news…” Souzo Hattori's voice was filled with sadness. ”Our company's excellent editor, Saki Yoshizawa-san… has passed away…”
Seiji's expression instantly froze over.
”Passed away?” he muttered.
”Yes,” the head editor said in a low voice, ”it was quite unfortunate…”
His tone definitely wasn't a joking tone. Nobody would use such a topic as a prank!
Why… How was this possible!?
'Editor Yoshizawa…'
”Why did she pass away!?” Seiji recalled the female editor's appearance and smile, and his volume went up several notches as he asked this question.
Mika and Chiaki both widened their eyes when they saw Seiji's reaction and heard the question he asked.
”Please calm down, Shore-san,” Head Editor Hattori said in a heavy voice. ”I shall explain.”
”…My apologies, I was rude just now.”
”It's alright… when I learned about this from the police, I was shocked as well… it was just too sudden.” Head Editor Hattori sighed. ”It happened like this…”
Seiji quietly listened to his explanation.
After the head editor told Seiji what he knew, he changed the topic to Brother Monogatari. After a long silence, Seiji finally spoke and indicated that he would prefer to talk about this topic later, before hanging up the call.
”Seiji, what's the matter?” Both Mika and Chiaki were looking at him with concern.
Seiji remained silent as he looked for Peach-sensei's number in his contacts list and dialed it.
Nobody picked up the call.
Seiji slowly put down his cell phone.
He told Mika and Chiaki in a soft voice that he was going to go to the restroom.
Then, he turned around and left.
While on his way, Seiji opened up his system and chose to load.
The world around him darkened, and everything vanished before lighting up again.
...
Early in the morning, Saki Yoshizawa woke up due to her cell phone's alarm as usual.
After she shook off her sleepiness, she softly pushed away her good friend Mayuzumi, who was still clutching on to her while sleeping, as she got out of bed.
She was just about to go wash up when her cell phone started ringing.
When she checked it, she saw that it was a call from Seigo Harano.
'Why is he calling so early in the morning?' The editor was somewhat mystified.
When she picked up, she heard him greet her politely, before he went directly to the main topic.
”It's about Brother Monogatari; I have something important I'd like to discuss with Editor Yoshizawa face-to-face. Where might you be currently?” Seigo asked after greeting her.
”I'm currently at Mayuzumi's home.”
”At Peach-sensei's home?” he asked.
”Yes, I stayed over here last night.”
”Then I'll come over there right away.” He hung up with that.
'Something important to discuss face-to-face… what could it be?' Saki was still somewhat confused.
Well, she didn't think too much of it, as she figured she would find out when he got here, so she put down her cell phone and left Mayuzumi's bedroom.
Meanwhile, Seiji told Shika that he was going out before leaving hurriedly.
He hailed a taxi and had the driver speed to Peach-sensei's apartment at top speed.
He hoped that he would arrive in time.