Chapter 94: Homeless Child/ Veteran Beautiful Girl (2/2)

「……….The chances are about, 1 to 1,000,000….? 」

「The probability fell! Or more like it fell way to much!」

「You can rely on me Yami, at that time I will be husbands assistant and make sure you thoroughly fall jya」1

「Eh? You will help Natsuno-kun?」

「Okay, I’m counting….on you.」

「Ehhhhhhhh? You’re also fine with that?」

Aoba was shocked and seeing this Taiyou sighed with relief as he thought “Ahh, now that’s a normal reaction”.

Taiyou went for a walk with Aoba. The inn within the mountains showed a different type of scene during the day and Aoba was looking here and there with curiosity.

On the other hand, Taiyou was not too interested in the scenery.

Ever since he left with her on the walk, Taiyou was only concentrating on Aoba who seemed dazzling to him. Although he was frequently looking at her, when their eyes were about to meet he would also look away. The thing making him worry so much was Aoba’s hand.

(I want to hold her hand)

It was a really junior high school like thought to have.

「This hot spring has quite the beautiful scenery within the mountains doesn’t it? Have you ever been here before Natsuno-kun?」

「No….. this is my first time here.」

「I see, this is also my first time. In the past I also went to a hot spring within the mountains along with my family and it was quite common for monkeys to appear. The monkeys were really friendly, look, it’s kind of like how there are pigeons in the park, they aren’t afraid of humans and they don’t attack us either.」

「Oh, I see.」

「They were extremely cute, and also we were able to buy some of the monkey food which was being sold from a nearby store.」

「You mean food like rice crackers?」

「Yeah, those kinds of snacks. Hmm, do you think some monkeys will appear in this mountain?」

「Perhaps.」

Chiming in the conversation, he continued to walk together with her.

Taiyou wasn’t even the slightest bit interested in monkeys. The only thing in his mind right now was, how he was going to be able to connect his hands together with Aoba.

If he was just to ask her permission straightforwardly, although she may be embarrassed she would likely agree to such a request. If she was the three sisters or Kohaku, he probably wouldn’t have hesitated doing such a thing. The three sisters were also his classmates but since the beginning they had already confessed straight up to him. In Kohaku’s case the first time they met, they met with a kiss and then after that she always held goodwill towards him.

Comparing to the other girls, Aoba started off hating Taiyou. Since the time she left her home, furthermore, there was a period in their relationship that was worse than just being classmates and this continued for quite a long time before the settlement of her family issue.

Therefore, even though they had already confessed to each other saying they want to be together for a long time, there was still many things that Taiyou couldn’t say to her upfront.

(But that wouldn’t be good of me, right?)

Thinking that the hesitation was unnecessary he became determined.

「H-Hey Aoba.」

「What’s wrong?」

「The thing is――」

「Geez! That again?」

Just when Taiyou was about to ask the question, he was interrupted by the hysteric voice of a woman from a long distance away. Because the girl spoke out with such a voice of indignation and anger it completely destroyed the atmosphere that Taiyou was setting up and Aoba’s attention was attracted to the scene.

「I wonder what’s wrong? Natsuno-kun, let’s go and take a look.」

「Y-Yeah.」

Although he was discouraged by the fact that things did not proceed as planned, he realized that he wasn’t going to be able to get a good mood again so quickly. Reluctantly he followed after Aoba.

The voice came from the direction of the inn. There was a large entryway and a Japanese style sliding paper-door that opened widely. On the inside of the room, there was multitudes of people in what appears to be a banquet.

Although there were some low tables lined up and all types of cooking on top of the tables, near one of the tables was a waitress with a resentful face looking down on the table.

「What’s wrong?」

「The customer….. Kohaku-sama. No, there’s nothing wrong.」

He was curious as to the unique way Kohaku’s name was called with the “sama” attached to the end of her name, but even more so, he was curious as to what was going on near that table. On top of the table, there was food lined up and only one person’s portion was eaten.

「This is?」

When he asked a question, the waitress answered him with a face of resignation.

「It was stolen.」

「What was stolen?」

「Yes, I was just going off to prepare for the cooking and when I took my eyes off for an instant, it was gone. Recently, this kind of thing occurs quite frequently.」

「You mean by some monkeys or something?」

Aoba asks.

「I don’t know, we never see who actually steals the food. But I don’t think it’s monkeys, if it was the food would also be scattered across the floor.」

「Certainly, it would be strange if they only purposefully took a person’s portion of food away.」

Looking at the state the table was in one more time, Taiyou was convinced it wasn’t a monkey. Just like he said, the only thing gone was a single person’s portion of food. The food right next to it wasn’t touched in the slightest, it was unlikely that any type of animal did this and it seemed like a person’s doing.

「Do you have any camera’s used as surveillance?」

「We regard the customers privacy highly, besides this inn doesn’t have such a thing installed in the premises because it may ruin the scenery….」

「Ahh, I see, so you don’t want to spoil the elegance of the building.」

This was something he could understand. If you knew the background of this place, this was an inn with nearly 100 years of history behind it. If they set up camera’s here and there to keep a close eye on the customers, it wouldn’t really reflect well on their inn’s reputation.

「I’m very sorry, I will go back to the kitchen and prepare another meal in a rush.」

After saying that the waitress rushes away with half a run. Taiyou was alternating looks between the dishes on the table and the waitress who left to the kitchen.