"What does he mean? What does he mean by 'leave some room for others'..." As Umaru Doma grumbled to herself, Kazusa Touma also got angry. Sogo Doma's words had made it abundantly clear that he thought her piano skills were inferior even to the little dumpling in her arms...
"Filter, right, that's it—a filter. Onii-chan has a filter when it comes to Umaru..." Fortunately, Umaru had plenty of experience handling situations like this. Before Kazusa could finish speaking, Umaru's eyes darted around and she started bluffing. "Even if Umaru's playing is terrible..."
"A filter?" Kazusa took the explanation to heart. So that Great Demon King had his own biases, too. No wonder he wouldn't come judge. Come to think of it, that line about leaving some room for others so they could meet again later—what if he hadn't been talking about the dumpling in her arms, but about her? If so, then she...
Watching Kazusa's expression soften, Umaru put on an awkward smile, but inside she was relieved to have bluffed her way out of another mess. Now, all she had to do was hold back during the competition, and Kazusa's attention would surely shift to Onii-chan. Then Umaru could go back to being a couch potato! Heh, hehehe...
"No, Master plays the piano very well!" Mashiro Shiina suddenly said from behind Umaru, who was busy hatching a scheme. "Better than lots of people..."
Umaru, experiencing the full force of Mashiro's friendly fire for the first time: "..."
"M-Mashiro, it's not as good as you say! Besides, you've never heard Umaru play the piano, have you?"
"Mm..." Mashiro shook her head. "I heard you at school."
Umaru: "..."
ヾ(ゞ)
What kind of ungrateful disciple was this? Was she trying to ruin her master? Umaru had performed on the piano in