"Young master, what's your relationship with her? You two seem unusually close."
Chisato Nishikigi was the first to break the somewhat tense silence in the dorm.
She tilted her head slightly. Her lively eyes held undisguised curiosity, along with a hint of scrutiny that she herself hadn't noticed.
She rested her elbows on her knees and leaned forward a little, as if waiting for an intriguing story to begin.
"Yeah, tell us about it, young master," Runa Inoue chimed in.
Her tone was still calm and steady, but her fingers tightened slightly around her pen. Her gaze shifted back and forth between Mazumi Mami and Karuizawa Kei, clearly just as interested in the question.
"I think..."
Walnut tapped lightly on her keyboard.
"This must be information worth keeping. It could help us understand the young master's past and assess what role Karuizawa might play in the future."
The three girls fixed their gazes on Mazumi Mami, creating an invisible pressure.
Karuizawa Kei, sitting on the sofa, straightened up without thinking. Her fingers tightened around her glass, leaving a few faint prints on its surface.
She unconsciously held her breath, waiting for Mazumi Mami's answer. She already knew what had happened between them, but she wanted to know how that memory looked through his eyes.
Mazumi Mami felt the weight of four pairs of eyes focused on him, yet remained perfectly composed.
He picked up the glass of water in front of him, took a small sip to wet his throat, then set it down and began his story.
"It wasn't anything much."
He waved a hand, speaking so casually that you'd think he was describing something insignificant.
"Her name is Karuizawa Kei. We met in middle school. At the time, I was carrying out a task my family had given me, and for certain reasons, I happened to stay at her house for a while. While I was there, I helped her sort out a few things."
He paused, as if recalling the details of those days.
"I was busy with my task, so I didn't stay long. When I left, I didn't give her my name. I only told her to call me 'Savior.' I thought it was just a chance encounter. I never expected we'd meet again here."
He told it all so casually, as if it were nothing more than an ordinary memory.
But Karuizawa Kei, sitting beside him, couldn't stay still. She raised her head abruptly, her violet eyes misting over. Her voice trembled with urgency as she blurted out a protest.
"No! You're making it sound far too simple! Lord Savior—you didn't just 'sort out a few things' for me! If it weren't for you... if it weren't for you..."
Her voice caught with emotion. She drew a deep breath, trying to steady it, but the gratitude and dependence rising from deep within her still spilled into every word.
"...I wouldn't even exist in this world anymore!"
The moment the words left her mouth, the air in the living room seemed to freeze.
The playful smile on Chisato Nishikigi's face faltered. Runa Inoue's fingers stopped in midair around her pen. Even Walnut, who had been focused on her computer, stopped typing and looked up at Karuizawa Kei, her gaze turning grave.
"What happened?"
Chisato Nishikigi dropped her teasing tone, her voice turning serious.
Seeing Karuizawa Kei's reddened eyes, she realized this was no lighthearted story.
"..."
Karuizawa Kei fell into an uneasy silence.
She lowered her head and stared at the hand holding her glass. Her long lashes drooped, casting a faint shadow over her eyelids.
Her lips parted a few times, then closed again, as if the memories were too heavy to put into words.
She wanted to tell them, but didn't know where to begin.
"Could it be..."
Watching her expression, Runa Inoue ventured a careful guess. "Was it something difficult to talk about?"
Walnut silently studied Karuizawa Kei's subtle expressions and body language. After a moment, she spoke with quiet certainty.
"From the way she's reacting... it really wasn't as simple as you made it sound, young master. It's clear that your influence on Karuizawa went far deeper than you're willing to admit."
"Is that so?"
Mazumi Mami raised an eyebrow, looking a little confused. He didn't seem to think what he'd done back then was all that remarkable. "I thought I'd just helped out while I was there. It wasn't anything special."
He turned to Karuizawa Kei, who still had her head lowered, and asked gently, "Kei, can I tell them what happened? If you're uncomfortable, I don't have to go into much detail."
At his words, Karuizawa Kei looked up. Her violet eyes, glistening with tears, met his.
Her gaze held complete trust and dependence, as if she would accept and obey anything he said without question.
She nodded firmly. Her voice was a little nasal, but resolute. "It's all right—because you're my Savior. You were the only one who reached out to me during those dark days. So you don't need to hold anything back around me. You can say whatever you want."
"That 'Savior' title..."
Mazumi Mami gave an awkward smile and scratched his cheek lightly. "It sounds a little chuunibyou. You don't have to be so formal. Just call me by my name. I'm Mazumi Mami. You can call me Mazumi or Mami, whichever comes more naturally."
"Okay, I understand..."
Karuizawa Kei lowered her head slightly, as if turning over in her mind the true name she had searched for so long and had finally learned. Then she looked up at him and called to him, each word deliberate: "Lord Mami."
Her earnest tone left Mazumi Mami at a loss between laughter and tears. "You don't have to add 'Lord' to my name. It sounds too formal, like you're addressing some important person."
"No. I insist."
Karuizawa Kei stubbornly shook her head, her tone firm and unyielding.
"Because you are my 'Lord Mami'—both the 'Savior' I met back then and the 'Lord Mami' standing before me now, the one I finally found. To me, they're the same person. And you deserve to be addressed with the utmost respect."
Karuizawa Kei said.
Mazumi Mami looked into her eyes, filled with stubbornness and earnestness, and knew she wasn't going to budge on this.
He sighed helplessly, but didn't press the point. "All right, if that's what you want... call me whatever you like."
"So, young master..."
Chisato Nishikigi smoothly picked up the conversation and steered it back on course. Her expression held an unusual degree of seriousness and curiosity.
"When you were carrying out that task, what exactly happened? Why were you badly injured? Why did you happen to show up in that alley? Knowing you, you wouldn't get involved in someone else's feud for no reason. What was so special about Karuizawa Kei that made you step in for her?"
Her questions came one after another, each hitting the mark.
Mazumi Mami leaned back against the sofa and gazed slightly upward, as if looking through the ceiling into the distant past.
After a moment, he began to speak, his voice a little lower than before, touched with nostalgia.
"It happened not long after I'd first started making a name for myself. Back then, I wasn't nearly as capable as I am now, and I hadn't learned to control my power well."
"During a mission, I forced myself to use more power than my body could handle in order to complete the objective. The power turned on me, causing serious internal injuries."
His eyes flickered faintly, as if the memory still hurt. "To avoid the pursuers and my enemies, I had to find somewhere secluded to hide and recover. I chose the suburbs, far from my family's territory, and kept out of sight in a nondescript old apartment. I barely got by on what little money I had."
"Then one evening, I had to go out to buy food and medicine, and I passed an alley nearby—"
He paused, as if the scene remained vividly etched in his mind. "That's where I saw Kei—being harassed by a group of delinquents."
His tone remained calm, but Chisato Nishikigi and Runa Inoue both keenly noticed the razor-sharp glint that flashed deep in his eyes as he spoke.
"I was injured, but taking on a few thugs who only knew how to pick on the weak was well within my abilities. I helped her deal with them and drove them off. But my injuries really were serious. After I exerted myself, my internal wounds flared up, and I nearly collapsed on the spot—"
"...It was Kei. She wasn't afraid of a stranger covered in injuries. Instead, she carefully took me back to her home, bandaged my wounds, and gave me food and a place to stay. I lived at her house while I recovered, and it was during those days that I gradually learned about her situation."
Mazumi Mami's gaze grew distant.
"Later, I found out that in elementary school, Kei had been cheerful and an excellent student. She was popular and had plenty of friends. But after entering middle school, she continued to rank near the top of her class, and she was beautiful too. The other girls at school grew jealous of her—"
His voice dropped lower.
"That jealousy slowly turned into ostracism, then bullying, and finally into malice aimed at destroying her completely. The people who cornered her in that alley weren't ordinary street thugs. They'd been hired by the girls at school who envied her. They weren't just trying to scare her... they wanted to destroy her."
He spoke calmly, but the depth of the malice in those words made all three girls frown.
"And because of certain family circumstances, Kei's parents had been living apart for a long time. She was bullied at school, but had no one to confide in at home. She could only endure, all alone, the malice and pain no one her age should have had to face."
Mazumi Mami sighed softly.
"Once I knew all that, I couldn't just stand by. So, during the times I was able to get around, I dealt with everyone involved in the bullying—instigators and accomplices alike."
"Some were caught with evidence and sent to the police. Some were forced to transfer schools. Others learned a lesson through 'special methods' they'd never forget. In any case, after that, no one dared bully her again."
"Before I left, I told her to be a good girl from then on and not give anyone the chance to hurt her again. Then I left."
At that, Mazumi Mami's gaze fell on Karuizawa Kei's conspicuous gyaru outfit, and an amused smile tugged at his lips.
"But... looking at the way you're dressed now, you don't exactly look like a 'good girl.' Did you end up going down the wrong path after I left?"
Karuizawa Kei immediately looked up and waved her hands frantically. "No, no! I didn't go down the wrong path! Lord Mami, I really didn't!"
She drew a deep breath and spoke with earnest urgency.
"Because you left without saying goodbye, I didn't even know your name. I searched everywhere I could think of, but I never found you."
"The only way I could commemorate you was by dressing like this. The way I remember you, you wore those slightly worn-out but still handsome clothes, and you radiated an irresistible confidence and strength. That feeling was burned deep into my mind."
Her voice trembled with something close to reverence. "I felt that only by dressing this way could I remember how I felt when you were by my side—how impressive you were, how you could do anything, as if nothing could ever defeat you. I wanted to become like you. I thought it would bring me a little closer to you..."
"I'm not really a gyaru. I never was."
She shook her head firmly, her voice as resolute as a vow. "Everything I've done was only to remember you and... find you. Now I've finally found you. So from today on, I'll go back to normal and become the 'good girl' you wanted me to be."
She shifted a little closer to Mazumi Mami. Her violet eyes never left his, as if she wanted to engrave his face deep into her soul.
She reached out and instinctively grabbed his arm. Her knuckles whitened slightly with the force of her grip, as if she were afraid he'd disappear again the moment she let go.
"So, please..."
Her voice lowered, carrying a note of pleading, but an unshakable determination lay beneath it.
"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 and do anything, as long as I can stay with you—"
Her voice caught slightly, but her gaze remained as resolute as ever.
"...Without you, I really don't know how I could go on living. The only thing keeping me going is finding you. If you disappear again... I truly don't know if I'll be able to keep going..."
Her words were like a stone tossed into a still lake, stirring ripples in everyone's heart.
The feelings behind them were so heavy, so sincere, that the air in the living room seemed to grow thicker.
Mazumi Mami felt the trembling in her arm and saw the obsession and dependence burning in those violet eyes. He remained silent for a long time.
The girl's words were serious. Her feelings were real. Her resolve was heavy.
He knew that the bond between them ran far deeper than he'd imagined.