"Little Touma might be a rather talented child..." Inside the maid café, Katsura Kotaro stroked his chin and said, "But Maki-chan isn't bad either. Besides, there are many areas where Maki-chan surpasses Little Touma, and I already mentioned the most obvious example—Little Touma has never been able to understand Ms. Yoko's good intentions... Take Ms. Yoko refusing to let Little Touma transfer to Toyogasaki, for instance..."
"..." His argument was sound and well-supported. Everyone from Muse, even Maki Nishikino, who had somehow gotten dragged into this while lying down, was left speechless.
Watching Katsura ramble on, Sogo Doma was finally certain—this bastard had been waiting to laugh at him from the very beginning. Great Demon King, my ass... This fake-haired bastard had known who it referred to all along.
"Ah..." Still unaware that he had been exposed, Kotaro Katsura seemed to recall something as he spoke. After sighing, he concluded in a melancholy tone, "A mother and daughter unable to understand one another... Ms. Yoko's achievements may instead become an obstacle blocking Little Touma's path forward. Unfortunately, Ms. Yoko is stubborn too. Even if Little Touma misunderstands her, even with me trying to mediate from the side, mother and daughter still can't be honest with each other. Compared to them, Chairman Minami is much wiser. At the very least, she has always supported Kotori..." Kotori Minami: "..." Was that... really true?
Her mother...
"So..." Just as she was lost in thought, Maki Nishikino spoke with a complicated expression. "This guy... Sogo Doma doesn't actually think highly of Little Touma, does he?"
"I never said that..." Sogo Doma still wore his trademark smile. Even after Katsura and the others had just claimed they were not close, his smile had not slipped. "That's merely the baseless speculation of a certain Cao Cao..."