Past Events

"Young Master, what is your relationship with her? It looks like the two of you are quite close."

Chisato Nishikigi was the first to break the slightly heavy silence in the dormitory.

She tilted her head slightly, her lively eyes filled with undisguised curiosity and a hint of scrutiny that even she herself hadn't noticed.

With her elbows resting on her knees, she leaned forward, as if waiting for the opening of an intriguing story.

"Yes, tell us about it, Young Master." Runa Inoue followed up immediately.

Her tone remained calm and steady, but her fingers, gripping her pen, tightened slightly. Her gaze shifted back and forth between Mazumi Mami and Karuizawa Kei, clearly sharing the same intense interest in the question.

"I think..."

Walnut tapped lightly on her computer keyboard.

"This must be information worth collecting. It's a valuable reference, both for understanding the Young Master's past and for evaluating the future standing of this student, Karuizawa."

The gazes of the three girls fell squarely on Mazumi Mami, creating an invisible pressure.

Sitting on the sofa, Karuizawa Kei couldn't help but straighten her back. Her fingers tightened around her water glass, leaving faint fingerprints on the glass surface.

She subconsciously held her breath, waiting for Mazumi Mami's answer—although she already knew what had happened between them, she was eager to hear how he would frame that memory.

Mazumi Mami felt the weight of four pairs of eyes focused on him, yet he remained composed.

He picked up the glass of water in front of him, took a small sip to moisten his throat, and then set the glass down before beginning his story.

"It's really nothing much."

He waved his hand, his tone as casual as if he were describing a trivial matter.

"Her name is Karuizawa Kei, and we met in middle school. At the time, I was carrying out a mission assigned by my family, and for various reasons, I happened to stay at her house for a while. That was when I just happened to help her resolve a few things."

He paused, as if recalling the details of that time.

"Because I was on a mission, I didn't stay long. When I left, I didn't even leave my name; I just told her—my name is 'Savior.' I thought it was just a chance encounter, and I never expected we would meet again here."

He spoke with such lightness, as if it were merely a mundane event from the past.

But Karuizawa Kei, sitting beside him, couldn't sit still. She jerked her head up, her violet eyes instantly welling with tears. Her voice trembled with urgency as she blurted out a rebuttal.

"No! You're making it sound too simple! Lord Savior—you didn't just 'help me resolve a few things'! If it weren't for you... if it weren't for you..."

Her voice choked with emotion. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself, but the gratitude and reliance welling up from the bottom of her heart could not be suppressed in every word she spoke.

"...I wouldn't even exist in this world anymore!"

The moment those words fell, the air in the living room seemed to freeze.

The playful smile on Chisato Nishikigi's face faltered, Runa Inoue's hand holding the pen stopped in mid-air, and even Walnut, who had been focused on her computer, ceased her typing and looked up at Karuizawa Kei with a grave expression.

"What is this about?"

Chisato Nishikigi dropped her teasing tone, her voice becoming serious.

She looked at Karuizawa Kei's slightly reddened eyes, realizing that this was far from a lighthearted story.

"..."

Karuizawa Kei fell into a subtle silence.

She lowered her head, her gaze fixed on her hands holding the glass. Her long eyelashes cast faint shadows over her eyelids.

Her lips parted several times, then closed again, as if those memories were too heavy to be easily expressed in words.

It was a struggle of wanting to tell her story but not knowing where to begin.

"Could it be..."

Runa Inoue watched her expression, her tone filled with cautious speculation, "Is it something difficult to talk about?"

Walnut silently observed Karuizawa Kei's micro-expressions and body language. After a moment, she spoke slowly, her tone carrying a note of certainty.

"This reaction... as I thought, things aren't as simple as you made them out to be, Young Master. It's clear that your influence on student Karuizawa is far more profound than you've admitted."

"Is that so?"

Mazumi Mami raised an eyebrow, a look of confusion on his face, as if he didn't think what he had done back then was anything remarkable. "I just thought I was helping out; I didn't do anything special."

He turned to look at Karuizawa Kei, who was still keeping her head down, and asked gently, "Kei—may I share this past? If you feel uncomfortable, I don't have to go into too much detail."

Hearing this, Karuizawa Kei looked up, her tear-filled violet eyes meeting Mazumi Mami's gaze.

Her eyes held an unreserved trust and reliance, as if she were willing to accept and obey anything he said without question.

She nodded firmly, her voice carrying a slight nasal tone but sounding exceptionally resolute: "It's fine—because you are my Savior. You were the only one who reached out to me during those dark days. So, you don't need to have any reservations in front of me; you can say whatever you like."

"The title 'Savior'..."

Mazumi Mami smiled helplessly and scratched his cheek with his finger. "It always sounds a bit like a case of 'chuunibyou.' You don't have to be so formal; just call me by my name. My name is Mazumi Mami. You can call me Mazumi, or Mami—whatever feels natural to you."

"Yes, I understand..."

Karuizawa Kei lowered her head slightly, as if savoring the real name she had searched for so long to find. Then, she looked up, gazing at him with earnest eyes, and called out, word by word, "Lord Mami."

Mazumi Mami was left between laughter and tears by her solemn tone: "There's no need to add 'Lord' after my name either. It sounds too formal, like you're addressing some big shot."

"No, this is my insistence."

Karuizawa Kei shook her head stubbornly, her tone carrying an unshakeable resolve.

"Because you are my 'Lord Mazumi'—you are both the 'savior' I knew back then and the 'Lord Mazumi' standing before me now, whom I have finally found. To me, these two are the same person, and this person deserves to be addressed in the most respectful way possible."

Karuizawa Kei stated.

Mazumi Mami looked into her eyes, which were filled with stubbornness and sincerity, and knew she would likely not back down on this matter.

He sighed helplessly, though he did not continue to insist. "Fine, since you've put it that way... suit yourself."

"So, Young Master—"

Chisato Nishikigi seized the moment to steer the conversation back on track, her gaze carrying a rare sense of seriousness and curiosity.

"What exactly happened when you were carrying out that mission? Why were you severely injured? Why did you happen to appear in that alleyway? Given your personality, you shouldn't have intervened in someone else's business for no reason—what exactly is so special about this Karuizawa Kei that made you step in for her?"

Her questions came one after another, each one hitting the mark.

Mazumi Mami leaned back against the sofa, his gaze drifting upward as if peering through the ceiling at a distant past.

A moment later, he spoke slowly, his voice lower than before, tinged with a sense of reminiscence.

"That was back when I had just started out. At the time, my strength was nowhere near as refined as it is now, and my control over my own power was still immature."

"During a mission, in order to achieve my objective, I forced myself to exert power beyond my limits. As a result, I suffered a backlash, and my body sustained quite severe internal injuries."

His gaze flickered slightly, as if the memory still carried a hint of pain. "To evade pursuers and the eyes of my enemies, I had to find a remote place to hide and recover. I chose the suburbs, far from my family's sphere of influence, and laid low in an inconspicuous old apartment, barely scraping by on my meager savings."

"Then, one evening, I had to go out to buy food and medicine, and I passed by a nearby alley—"

His voice paused there, as if the scene were still clearly branded into his mind. "That was where I saw Kei—being harassed by a group of delinquent students."

His tone remained calm, but Chisato Nishikigi and Runa Inoue both keenly noticed a flash of extremely sharp coldness deep in his eyes as he said this.

"Although I was injured at the time, dealing with a few thugs who only knew how to bully the weak was more than enough for me. I helped her take care of those guys and chased them off. But my injuries were indeed serious; after dealing with that group, the strain of exerting force caused my internal wounds to flare up, and I nearly collapsed on the spot—"

"...It was Kei. She wasn't afraid of a stranger covered in wounds; instead, she carefully brought me back to her home, bandaged my wounds, and provided me with food and shelter. I stayed at her place to recover during that time, and it was during those days that I slowly came to understand her situation."

Mazumi Mami's gaze grew distant.

"I only found out later—in elementary school, Kei was actually a cheerful student with excellent grades. She was well-liked and had many friends. But after entering middle school, because her grades remained at the top and she was exceptionally beautiful, she began to attract the jealousy of the girls at her school—"

His voice dropped a notch.

"That jealousy slowly evolved into exclusion, then into bullying, and then—into a malice that sought to destroy her completely. The group that cornered her in the alley that day weren't ordinary street thugs; they were hired specifically by the girls at school who were jealous of her. Their goal wasn't just to scare her... they wanted to ruin her entirely."

The statement was delivered calmly, but the depth of malice it contained made all three girls present furrow their brows slightly.

"As for Kei's parents, due to certain family factors, they had been living apart for a long time. She was bullied at school and had no one to talk to when she got home. She had to bear the malice and pain that shouldn't have belonged to someone her age all by herself."

Mazumi Mami sighed softly.

"Once I knew all this, I naturally couldn't just sit by and watch. So, during that time, I used the gaps when I was able to move to 'arrange' for everyone involved in the bullying—whether they were the masterminds or the accomplices."

"Some were caught with evidence and sent to the police station, some were forced to transfer schools, and others were left with unforgettable lessons through some 'special means.' In short, after that, no one dared to bully her again."

"Before I left, I told her—be a good girl from now on, and don't let anyone have the chance to hurt you again. Then, I left."

At this point, Mazumi Mami's gaze fell upon Karuizawa Kei's striking gyaru attire, and a teasing smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"However—this outfit of yours doesn't look like something a 'good girl' would wear at all. Could it be that after I left, you ended up going down the wrong path after all?"

Upon hearing this, Karuizawa Kei suddenly looked up, waving her hands urgently to explain. "No, no, no! I didn't go down the wrong path! Lord Mazumi, I really didn't!"

She took a deep breath, her gaze sincere and urgent.

"Because you left without saying goodbye, I didn't even know your name. I searched everywhere I could, but I could never find you."

"I could only use this way to remember you—because in my memory, you were wearing those slightly worn-out yet still stylish clothes, radiating an unrivaled confidence and power. That feeling was deeply branded into my mind."

Her voice trembled slightly, carrying an almost devout emotion. "I felt that only this look could help me recall how it felt to have you by my side—so majestic, so omnipotent, as if nothing could ever stump you. I wanted to become like you, and I wanted to use this way to bring myself closer to you..."

"I'm not a real gyaru; I never was."

She shook her head vigorously, her tone as firm as a vow. "Everything I've done until now was just to miss you, and to—find you. Now, I have finally found you. So, starting today, I will go back to being normal, back to the 'good girl' you wanted me to be."

She shifted forward, moving closer to Mazumi Mami, her violet eyes fixed on him without blinking, as if she wanted to carve his face deep into her soul.

She reached out and instinctively grabbed his arm, her knuckles turning white from the force, as if she feared he would disappear again the moment she let go.

"So, please..."

Her voice dropped, carrying a hint of pleading, yet even more of an unquestionable firmness.

"Please don't leave me again. I want to stay by your side and become your maid, just like these three young ladies. I can learn anything, I can do anything, as long as I can stay by your side—"

Her voice choked up slightly, but her gaze remained as firm as ever.

"...Without you, I really, truly cannot go on living. The only pillar keeping me alive right now was finding you. If you disappear again... I really don't know if I can hold on anymore..."

Her words were like a stone cast into a calm lake, stirring ripples in everyone's hearts.

The emotion revealed in those words was too heavy, too sincere, making the air in the living room feel significantly thicker.

Mazumi Mami felt the trembling coming from his arm, felt the obsession and reliance burning in those violet eyes, and remained silent for a long time.

The girl's words were sincere. The girl's emotions were real. The girl's resolve was heavy.

He knew that this bond was far deeper than he had ever imagined.