"Now this is my home. Why can't I be here?"
Uesugi Tetsu calmly questioned him back, making Tokugawa Haruhiko, who stood at the doorway, look rather awkward.
But the intelligence clearly showed that Tokugawa Ririko was living here. "They" wouldn't get something this simple wrong.
Tokugawa Haruhiko's hand tightened slightly around the letter, and countless thoughts flashed through his mind.
"Where's my Fifth Sister?"
Tokugawa Haruhiko shook the letter sealed with red wax bearing the Tokugawa Family crest—the Three-leaf Hollyhock—and said in a deep voice,
"I have to personally deliver this handwritten letter from the family head into her hands. If you know what's good for you, don't meddle."
He deliberately emphasized the words "family head."
"I don't care about your family head or whatever." Uesugi Tetsu sneered and repeated the words mockingly before extending a hand. "Leave the thing, then get lost. That's all there is to it."
"Uesugi Tetsu..."
Tokugawa Haruhiko's expression turned grim as an invisible, intangible aura of danger surged around him.
"Don't think that joining some insignificant Special Affairs Division and earning a little favor from my Fifth Sister means you can do whatever you want. I'm telling you, in the end, she's only stringing you along for fun..."
"Do whatever you want? So the Tokugawa Family is the law and the heavens?" Uesugi Tetsu laughed. His hand had already settled on the hilt of Kaga Kiyomitsu at his waist.
Tokugawa Haruhiko narrowed his eyes. "I told you not to be so ungrateful..."
"—Didn't you hear what Uesugi-kun said? Get lost. No one here welcomes you."
The girl's cold voice came from the courtyard. A Sword Heart as brilliant as the blazing sun hanging in the heavens dropped directly into Tokugawa Haruhiko's pupils.
Tokugawa Haruhiko's face stiffened and twitched slightly.
*Her Sword Heart is manifesting.