Intermission 2
30.5 Supreme and Melancholy

The athletic festival ended and the board chairman together with the princ.i.p.al saw Toujou off to the school gate.

"Toujou-sama, thank you very much for taking time out of your busy day to come here today."
"Of course. This time was for my own personal interests, so don"t worry about it."

Toujou slightly bowed his head and raised his eyes to the school building.

"It"s truly a good school. Especially the student council executives. I"d heard the rumors, but they do each have their own individuality. I"m looking forward to the future. They"re indeed talented people that my company would welcome with open arms."

When Toujou smiled thinly, the others" eyes gleamed.

With his back to the school, Toujou began to get into the limousine through the door opened by his chauffeur. However, he paused for a brief moment.
With a sigh, he fully entered.

"My apologies, Kotokurkun," Toujou said as soon as he sat down.

In the s.p.a.cious back seats which were separated from the driver"s seat by a barricade, there was someone who had been there previously aside from Toujou.

"Was it enjoyable, President? The sports meet," a squinty-eyed1 man said.

His name was Kotokura Seiya. From his suit and jet black hair that was lightly set with wax, you would think he was in his twenties, but his age was the same as the students in the academy–only 17.

"It was something that made you throw out your plans with me, so I imagined it must be some great happening…"

Seiya"s glaring eyes glittered.

Seiya was the only son of the Kotokura Zaibatsu which was called one of the world"s big three shareholders. It backed the Toujou Group, providing financing and other such services. And he was already succeeding a portion of that Kotokura Zaibatsu"s power.

To put it simply, two of the people controlling j.a.pan were currently sitting in this limousine.

Today, Toujou and Seiya were supposed to discuss about the contract relating to the group"s progress from here on.
Going so far as to hurriedly cancel such important plans to go to the Reiryuu Gakuen athletic festival, Seiya"s anger had reached its highest point.

"But taking a stance of working with this kind of event is important. How they will turn out in the future is reflected in their figures now. Today, I went and saw just what exactly the rumored elite of Reiryuu Gakuen are."
"Hmm. I wonder if it"s really something worth throwing your schedule aside for…?"

He didn"t believe Toujou"s explanation at all. Seiya plainly demonstrated his att.i.tude.

"Well, it"s fine. We can also have the meeting next week."

Seiya said and reclined in his seat.

Finally being able to relax, Toujou thought back on today"s events.

What kind of thoughts had his beloved child whom he hadn"t seen in such a long time had when she saw him? With what kind of memories did she give that greeting?
At that time, Toujou had severely regretted going to the academy.
He was too inconsiderate.

When she collapsed from her injury, he nearly stood up in his surprise.
However, when he saw her smiling with so much enjoyment, his entire body lost its strength.

It was the same smile as his late wife, Rui.2

Toujou was satisfied with just that. Maybe he had left her with unpleasant feelings. It was irresponsible of him, but regardless, being able to see that face was more than worth it.
After such a long time, he had been able to see her gallant figure. For an instant, Toujou was glad that he came to see her.

"Kotokurkun, you go to… was it La Faust Academy?"

Perhaps because he had suddenly been jilted, Seiya didn"t answer immediately. He cleared his throat and answered with a simple "Yes."

"You stand on top even there, no?"
"Of course. Well, as you know, President, money is everything at that academy. The hierarchy is decided based on one"s wealth. In other words, me reigning supreme at the top is the natural course of events."

Seiya said disinterestedly, chin propped in his hand. Toujou could certainly feel a sense of majesty from him, but there was none of the ambition felt from the students he watched just previously. He was missing something. Toujou thought that he was similar to himself.

Toujou and Seiya"s conversation didn"t proceed beyond that, so time pa.s.sed in silence.

The car stopped after hours had pa.s.sed.

They were in front of La Faust Academy which boasted a vast ground area and made one recall a palace from Europe in the Middle Ages. It was a mammoth of a school with the sections from elementary to high all adjoined, larger even than Reiryuu Academy. At the very least, the wall surrounding the school filled one"s vision as far as one could see.

"The academy? Is it ok not to take you home?"
"Someone is waiting for me here. Then, excuse me."

Seiya gave the appropriate farewell and got out of the limousine. It didn"t even allow one to feel the smallest sense of the sadness of parting.
Having seen off Seiya"s retreating figure, Toujou gave the signal to his driver and, with him as the lone pa.s.senger, they left La Faust Academy behind.

Seiya opened the door to the academy. The entrance made of marble ushered him in. Since it was 7pm, there were hardly any students.
It was an academy that the whole country"s prominent sons and daughters went to. There was hardly an occasion when the students would stay at the academy until it was late. If there were those who remained behind, they were mostly those who belonged to the non-interference variety of rich family who didn"t have a restriction on when they returned home or those young masters like Seiya who lived alone.

While intentionally letting the sound of his footsteps echo, he climbed the staircase, ruffling his originally orderly hair and forcefully loosening his necktie.
Like that, Seiya pa.s.sed by numerous lecture halls and arrived at the usual place. Without pause, he opened the big brown doors.

"You"re late, Seiya."

It was a special duty room that only those who were specially designated could enter. In the s.p.a.cious room, there was a sofa, circular table, bookshelves and other such high cla.s.s furniture. By no means would one think that that room belonged to a school.

The boy who had called out to Seiya was sitting in a chair and browsing lazily through a magazine.

"Did the meeting drag on?"
"Don"t bring it up, Shin. I"ll beat you. Ahh, I"m seriously tired. Standin" me of all people up, I kin"t believe it, seriously."3

Seiya sat on the sofa with a thud. He spoke completely differently than he had when with Toujou previously. Looking at Seiya"s bad mood, the boy called Shin cackled.

"Not like I would know something like that happened. Well, take a drink."

Shin threw a plastic bottle filled with water over to Seiya.

"Was there anything interesting?"
"Ain"t I here cuz there wasn"t?"

Shin cackled again as though something was amusing. Seiya said, "Your laugh is seriously irritatin"," and drank the water. The iciness that penetrated his parched throat was pleasant.

"Then, what did you do today?"

Shin asked, causing Seiya to look at him reproachfully. He had just said not to bring it up.

"Toujou went ta watch Reiryuu"s athletic festival"n left me ta wait."
"The whole time?"
"…Yep."

When Seiya confirmed in a low voice, Shin cackled again. Seiya got up from the couch and Shin apologized unapologetically saying "My bad, my bad," before laughing again.

"Toujou-san is about the only one who can do that to you, right? Those ruling over the country are different, huh. If my old man could take a ruling place, I"d be able to tease you more."

Shin"s father was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. That was close to having supremacy, but it didn"t match the Kotokura Zaibatsu or the Toujou Group. Thinking about that and looking at the grinning Shin, Seiya shuddered at the thought of him being even more annoying than now.

"Hmm. But what did Toujou-san go there for?"
"He said somethin", but it was so contrived that I don" remember. Actually, what did you do today? You didn" answer my calls"re anythin"."
"Don"t ask something so tasteless."

Seiya knit his eyebrows in response to Shin saying that with a grin. Shin shrugged his shoulders.

"It can"t be helped, right? I won"t refuse girls who approach me. Ah, don"t worry. There"re tons of girls waiting for you, too. Even if they"re called high-cla.s.s ladies, they have their experiences, so it"s seriously amusing."4

Shin laughed. Sometimes, Seiya felt that he didn"t want to make this guy his enemy.

"Ah, but going back to the topic… Does Toujou have kids?"
"Hah?"

Seiya looked at Shin dubiously, but soon realized the intention behind his question. He wanted to ask if Toujou"s kid was going to Reiryuu. If that was so, today would make a little bit of sense.

"He had one. But ten years ago, she died in a kidnapping"s what"s said."

Seiya dropped those words, elbows on his knees. That Toujou had a daughter, and that that daughter was kidnapped was something that only the higher ups were worthy of knowing. Even among them, those who knew were extremely few. In other words, it was natural that Shin didn"t know and didn"t mean that he was ignorant.

"Eh!? Seriously? Toujou-san has that kind of past? Uwahhh, my image of him is majorly changing."

Shin started making an uproar by himself, but Seiya ignored him. He was pondering on what he himself had just said.

Toujou"s daughter was dead. However, not even the Kotokura family was invited to his daughter"s funeral service. It might have been to keep it out of the media"s reach, but there were many other suspicious points related to his daughter"s death.

"Well…it ain"t related ta me."

Seiya murmured those words like he was spitting something out, then slowly closed his eyes.

1 Ok so this is a weird phrase that not even j.a.panese people typically use. The most common thing that came out when I googled it in j.a.panese is that one eye is partially closed which could be an expression of anger or disgust like you sometimes see in anime. The other could be that he"s squinting. Overall, not that important of a detail but just throwing that out there, so pick the image you like best lol.

2 Just as a fun note, the ru in Rui is the same kanji as Meru"s ru.

3 Sudden Kansai dialect. Apparently he comes from the Kansai region of j.a.pan, which is in the south. Anyone here read Conan? Think Hattori. I"ll try to dialect it the best I can, but it might end up close to how a certain person talks when their martial arts switch is flipped.

4 "Experience" as in s.e.xual. Yep.

Been a while again. Sorry about that. Between typhoons and an earthquake that wiped out power to my area and other real life-related things, it"s been rough to find time to do much of anything aside from work, but I am trying! Hopefully soon I can get it back fully on track. Hopefully. Doing my best, I promise.

As a side note, a zaibatsu is a family-owned vertical conglomerate in the industrial or financial sector. Basically, a specialized group that holds a lot of power in their area and multiple inst.i.tutions under them. The thing is, zaibatsu were largely dismantled post-WWII and you don"t hear things being called zaibatsu nowadays, so it"s kind of weird to have them in this web novel which seems to be placed in a fairly modern day fictional world.