Chapter 68 - The Hiiragi Family’s Circumstances – 1 (1/2)

Since Hiiragi-chan was heading back to her parent’s house, her apartment would be empty for two days. She told me that I could freely use anything in her apartment, but the idea of going there without Hiiragi-chan being there gave me a weird feeling, so I decided to obediently wait for her to return to her tidy apartment.

We were keeping in contact through texts and phone like usual, but that day, the phone call that came was not from Hiiragi-chan.

“Hello? Thief-kun?”

“Eh? Natsumi-chan? Why are you calling from Haruka-san’s cellphone…?”

“It’s because I didn’t know your phone number, so I borrowed Haru-chan’s cellphone. More importantly, it’s terrible!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Haru-chan—she might be getting married!”

“Haaaaaaaaaaaah!?”

What’s with thaaaaat!?

“Ah. Is she marrying me?”

“Nope. That’s completely wrong.”

Well, of course.

“Wait. What’s happening?”

“You knew that Haru-chan really didn’t want to go back home, right?”

“Eh… What?”

“If you don’t know, it’s not really something I should be saying so I won’t tell you… Anyways, it’s been decided that there will be some marriage interview.”

Hiiragi-chan never really seemed to want to talk about her family, or her parents. I didn’t want to force her to tell me, since I believed the time would come where she would tell me about it. However, it seems that it came in an unexpected form.

“Still, she’s with Thief-kun, so she strongly refused. However, she was forced to accept.”

“What about Haruka-san? What is she doing right now? Is she close by?”

“No. Right now, she’s under house arrest… I think she doesn’t want Thief-kun to know about it.”

House arrest? What is going on? She’s like a damsel in distress.

Natsumi-chan’ve voice over the phone seemed more panicked than usual, as she repeated over and over again, “What should I do!?”.

“Calm down. The marriage meeting, when is it going to happen?”

“Tomorrow!”

Will it go from a forced marriage meeting into actual marriage? If I wait, Hiiragi-chan will some come back—No, but if she refused, wouldn’t she normally be put under house arrest by her family again?

“I’ll go tomorrow. Do you know where it is?”

“Y-yeah. I heard that the person was a servant that liked to talk.”

Is Hiiragi-chan’s family perhaps a really rich one? Natsumi is even going to a rich girl’s school after all. She just said servant without any hesitation at all.

Now that I think about it, I don’t know Hiiragi-chan’s alma mater. Maybe it’s the same as Natsumi-chan’s…?

“The location is Youto Hotel, the 32nd floor. The time is noon at 12! Sorry, that’s all I know.”

“That’s enough. Thank you.”

Ending the call, I closed my cellphone.

Youto Hotel should be a luxury hotel in the next prefecture over. From here, it should take about 2 hours by train.

I said I would go, but what can I do by going there. Run off with Hiiragi-chan? Just like a hero in a story?

At a marriage interview, the parents of both sides would probably be there talking to each other. If I act as the bad guy and run off with Hiiragi-chan. What about after that—what about the future?

If the me right now were to say my greetings to Hiiragi-chan… There’s no way for their impression of me is going to be good. There’s the negative element of me being a high school student right now and her being my teacher.

Still, I can’t just stand by and watch. These are parents, who even in this age, insist on having a marriage interview, and force a house arrest if refused. If I just leave it alone, I don’t know what would happen to Hiiragi-chan.

Spending a sleepless night, I stuff as much money as possible into my wallet, and left the house.

It’s a good thing I worked part time.

[Thief-kun, you’re going to stop the marriage interview, and then what?]

I received a text message from Natsumi-chan. It seems that she copied my phone number that Hiiragi-chan had entered into her cellphone.

If I stop it here, in the end, the same thing might just repeat again.

[Even so, I can’t just bite on my fingernails and watch.]

A specific way to counteract it really doesn’t come up in my mind though.

I tried to refute Natsumi-chan as much as possible. My future with Hiiragi-chan would fall into a bad place, but if I don’t do anything, it’ll become even worse.

[That’s nice. Haru-chan, is quite loved.]

Nishishi, Natsumi’s laughing face floated into my mind.

[Thief-kun, do your best! I’ll be cheering for you!]

After getting on the train and arriving at the closest station, I soon found the hotel that was set to be the venue.

It was a tall building that you would have to look up at, and once I entered, I looked at the hotel guide. At the top-most 32nd floor was a high-class restaurant. The view below was probably also really nice.

It’s a good thing I didn’t come in my school uniform. I knew that it was a hotel beforehand, so today, I secretly borrowed a suit to wear from my father. If you just take a quick look, it doesn’t feel out of place. Looking at my face though, I can instantly be recognized as being too young.

I’ll grab Hiiragi-chan before it starts and ask her about the situation.

While I looked around the lobby for my beloved goddess, even though the time was approaching, I couldn’t see her at all.

She’ll definitely pass through here though. It’s now passed 12.

I hope not, but maybe there’s some special path or elevator for VIP’s… For instance, an elevator that would allow you to go from the underground parking lot to the top-most floor.