"You're close with Sogo, aren't you?" Facing the somewhat dazed girl, Taihei Doma felt like he'd found what he needed without any effort.
"N-No, we're not close. Sogo and I are just classmates, really, just classmates!"
"You're lying. Didn't you say Sogo was someone you cared about?" Taihei Doma dropped his nice-guy persona and pressed her step by step.
"That's just how I feel personally. S-Sogo doesn't know anything, sob, sob..."
"You're lying. You stayed at Sogo's place before, didn't you?"
"N-No! We're just ordinary classmates, how could we..."
"Sogo Doma is a bastard!"
"You're the bastard!" the girl retorted. Then... she didn't know whether he was a bastard or not. She only knew that she herself was an idiot!
"Hmph, hmph..." Taihei Doma sneered. "Little miss, is there anything else you want to say?"
"..." The girl's face filled with panic. "Don't even think about prying Sogo's secrets out of me! Don't think you can use me to threaten Sogo! Even if I die..."
"Sorry!" Taihei Doma's face darkened. "I really am Sogo's big brother. I wouldn't threaten anyone..."
The girl turned her face away, wearing an expression that clearly said, "You think I'd believe that?"
One difference between this country and the Celestial Empire was that there were no national ID cards! During the Showa era, the government had once required citizens to obtain IDs, but the policy was scrapped after people criticized it for recognizing documents instead of people. Even today, ID cards still didn't exist in this country. If they did, Taihei Doma would definitely have slapped his ID down to prove who he was!
It really was a strange country. People believed ID cards infringed upon their legal rights, yet they had no objection to all sorts of other documents—driver's licenses, work IDs, and so