Private Toyogasaki, Principal's Office.
Principal Yamamoto stood carefully before Sogo Doma as if delivering a work report, wearing a fawning smile. "Young Master Doma, are you sure plain drinking water is all you need? There's no ice, but I have chilled soda and juice in the refrigerator..."
"No need, I didn't come here to..." drink beverages! Sogo Doma still did not get to finish before Principal Yamamoto fawned again.
"Oh, right, Young Master Doma, do you still smoke? I have premium cigars freshly air-shipped from the Soccer Nation..."
"You even knew that?" The corner of Sogo Doma's narrowed eye twitched again.
"You mean smoking cigars? I actually saw Young Master Doma's dashing form smoking a cigar at a banquet once. At the time, I thought that if a talent such as yourself could attend our school, it would surely bring great honor to this humble institution and give it a whole new look..." Principal Yamamoto once again unleashed his specialty of shameless flattery.
"Who lit my cigarette back then?" Sogo Doma asked without changing expression.
"The head of the Kotobuki Family, Chairman Kotobuki." Principal Yamamoto answered without a moment's thought, clearly still remembering that scene vividly. "Of course, in terms of status, he couldn't possibly compare to you, Young Master Doma..." Otherwise, he would not have been so cautious even while lighting a cigar, as though terrified the person before him might lose his temper. What had been hardest for Yamamoto to accept at the time was—
Not only had the big shots from other families not looked down on the Kotobuki Family for it, they had all looked at Chairman Kotobuki with envy, as if they wished they could replace him as the cigar-lighting lackey!
"Uh, the pickled-radish family..."
"Pickled radish?"
"Don't you think their eyebrows look like pickled