"If you say so, junior, I can rest easy."
Mayumi Saegusa looked as though she had survived a disaster. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought she had finally escaped some terrible ordeal.
"Can you finally stop worrying now, my dear president?"
Chiba Yeyou rolled his eyes at Mayumi Saegusa in exasperation.
Not to be outdone, Mayumi Saegusa blinked and stuck out her little pink tongue. Her playful, adorable expression brought a faint smile to Chiba Yeyou's face.
"Is she always this mischievous?"
Chiba Yeyou turned to Mari Watanabe and asked.
"Pfft! Pretty much!"
Mari Watanabe couldn't help laughing. She thought Chiba Yeyou's choice of "mischievous" was excellent-he had hit the nail on the head.
"Junior, is that any way to talk about your senior?"
Mayumi Saegusa pouted, looking as though she was saying, "I'm upset, and you need to coax me."
"The problem is, he didn't say anything wrong. President, you really are mischievous!"
Suzune Ichihara twisted the knife, freezing the expression on Mayumi Saegusa's face.
"There's a traitor among us!"
Mayumi Saegusa rolled her eyes at Suzune Ichihara in annoyance.
"I'm only telling the truth."
Suzune Ichihara wasn't buying it at all. She was keeping it real.
"Now you've achieved your goal, and I even recommended two talented people. We're done here, right?"
Chiba Yeyou stood up and asked the girls.
"That's everything!"
"Then I'm leaving!"
"Goodbye!"
"Bye!"
"Click!"
After saying goodbye to them, Chiba Yeyou finally returned home and entered his little room again.
"Ding..."
The blue screen reflected a handsome face, and then a bar chart and a precision chart appeared before him.
Chiba Yeyou began working away at the computer, feeding the final simulation results into it and starting more precise tests.
After a long stretch of work, the tables and bar charts on the screen had disappeared, leaving only a small bracelet.
"Phew..."
"Finally finished!"
Chiba Yeyou let out a long breath. A trace of a smile appeared on his previously somewhat serious face, and his mood improved considerably.
"Now it's up to her!"
Chiba Yeyou leaned back in his chair and murmured.
"Forget it. I'd better give her a nudge. Otherwise, with that woman's personality..."
After thinking it over, Chiba Yeyou still felt it would be better to hurry her along.
"Ring, ring..."
"Hello?"
"Who's this?"
An elegant, pleasant, mature feminine voice came from the other end of the call.
"My lady, when will my big shipment arrive?"
"You haven't forgotten about it, have you?"
Chiba Yeyou asked with some concern.
"Fuck!"
"Chiba Yeyou!"
"So it's you!"
Well, upon hearing that it was Chiba Yeyou, that previously elegant, mature voice instantly became utterly furious. Elegance went straight out the window.
"Um..."
"You've got the damn nerve to contact me?"
The woman on the other end was clearly angry.
Well, no-that wasn't quite right. Hearing that it was Chiba Yeyou had immediately set her off, maxing out her rage.
"Just tell me this: what are you going to do about standing me up?"
Her voice was three parts anger and seven parts accusation.
Clearly, the woman on the other end was absolutely furious with Chiba Yeyou.
"Well, I haven't finished making it yet, have I?"
Chiba Yeyou said, feeling somewhat guilty.
In truth, a certain someone hadn't made anything for her at all. Everything had gone into experiments.
"Phew..."
"Fine. I'll have this batch of materials sent over in the next couple of days!"
With that, she hung up.
"???"
That woman had actually left it at that?
Not normal!
Not normal at all!
Although Chiba Yeyou felt that something was off with her, he couldn't figure out what.
Every time he asked her for help, she would hem and haw, finding all sorts of excuses to drag things out. But ultimately, he was the one in the wrong here. His research consumed far too many resources, after all, and one careless moment was all it took to use them up.
Taking the approach of dealing with whatever came his way, Chiba Yeyou stopped dwelling on it.
The person on the other end was a very good friend of Chiba Yeyou's, a beautiful woman with long purple hair. Her identity was also very unusual, and she had a powerful magician family behind her.
Under normal circumstances, every country's controls on magical resources were extremely strict, let alone those of a major family.
But this woman controlled the entire family. She held genuine power, which was also a major reason why her transfers of magical resources to Chiba Yeyou went unnoticed!
Far across the ocean lay Paris, France, in Europe.
Skyscrapers towered over this bustling city. Beneath the shadow of the Eiffel Tower lay not endless darkness, but the colorful glow of neon lights and nightlife.
Amid this dazzling display of colors stood a vast estate in the northeastern corner. Inside a building in a classic, minimalist European style, a tall woman watched the screen before her slowly go dark, the corners of her mouth curving slightly upward.
Long purple hair, exquisite features, a shapely figure, and an intensely mature feminine air surrounded her. Yet all of it paled when that smile blossomed on her face!
"Little brother, you think you've come out ahead, but your big sister certainly isn't losing out!"
"Your big sister is very greedy!"
"I want a lot!"
"More!"
"Even everything!"
Her melodious voice echoed through the room as the smile on the mature woman's face grew broader and increasingly unrestrained.
"My lady, that person is here again."
Just then, a voice came from outside the room.
"How many times has it been?"
Upon hearing the voice outside, the smile instantly vanished from the purple-haired woman's face. Her expression abruptly turned icy before immediately settling into indifference, and she coolly questioned the person outside.
"The third time, my lady."
The person outside clearly knew exactly how many times "that person" had come. Upon hearing the purple-haired woman's question, he answered without a moment's thought or hesitation.
"Little brother did say once or twice was fine, but never a third time!"
"Oh!"
"Right, it's called the rule of three!"
"Little brother, I think you've reached three times too!"
The purple-haired woman played with her fingers, murmuring to herself with a smile.
"Break his legs!"
"Throw him out!"
"Ask his family whether they still want to keep their crest!"
The woman smiled as she spoke of beating him and throwing him out, then threatening his family, plainly showing no regard whatsoever for "that person's" family.
"Um..."
"My lady, are we really going to do that?"
The person outside suddenly grew hesitant, losing his earlier obedience.
The young lady said nothing, merely gazing out the window.
The night, which should have been pitch-black, gradually began to take on a faint purple glow.
That purple glow grew stronger and stronger, beginning to stain the entire sky over this part of the estate, until even the person outside the room sensed something unusual.
Outside the door, a black-haired man in a suit was sweating profusely, his entire body trembling continuously, as though he were facing a life-or-death calamity.
"I'll see to it right away!"
The man answered at once.
But after answering, he didn't leave immediately. He remained standing respectfully in place.
"Mm!"
"Get lost!"
The young lady's voice inside the room was very gentle, even giving the impression of a pleasant spring breeze. Yet the man outside began trembling even more violently.
"M-my lady..."
A hint of pleading even crept into the man's voice. He simply didn't dare leave like this.
"Ever since I took full control of the family at fifteen, no one has ever dared question me in the slightest!"
"You really are brave!"
She seemed to be talking to herself, then offered the person outside the door a word of praise.
"N-no, I wouldn't dare..."
"I wasn't questioning you."
The man denied it repeatedly, his whole body swaying.
"This is the first time, and it will be the last. Do you understand?"
After a long while, just as the man was nearly too nervous and frightened to remain standing, a voice came from inside the room that felt like a pardon.
"Thank you, my lady!"
The man immediately withdrew from the building, let out a long breath, and went to carry out his task.
"Ah!"
"New people just aren't as good as the old ones!"
She sighed to herself.
"But training new people is rather interesting too, isn't it?"
"Little brother!"
The young lady held a photograph in her hand, murmuring to herself.
There were a boy and a girl in the photograph. The boy was a little younger than the girl, and the girl was a little older.
The little boy wore a gray top and black shorts. The girl wore a blue dress, her long purple hair cascading like a waterfall over her shoulders and back.
The instant of the two running hand in hand along the seaside had been captured on this small piece of paper.
The little girl in the photograph looked no different from the person holding it. The only changes were that she had grown a little taller and her bearing had become more perfect, while the little boy bore a ninety-percent resemblance to Chiba Yeyou.
"Fei'er, get a plane ready for me and arrange the itinerary!"
"My lady, are you really going?"
A young woman in a long robe came out of the adjoining room and asked somewhat helplessly.
After all, this woman was the head of a family!
Was it really all right for her to run off like this?
"Everything over there has been arranged, hasn't it?"
She glanced at Fei'er, although she knew that whenever something concerned her, Fei'er would personally handle it and strive for perfection.
"Everything has been arranged!"
"Mm, good."
Then she rose from her seat and flopped facedown onto the bed. Fei'er tactfully returned to the adjoining room to await her lady's next summons.
The purple-haired woman rolled over, still holding the photograph as she lay on her back on the luxurious bed, her gaze fixed unblinkingly on the somewhat frail figure in it.
"It's been almost two years since we last met, hasn't it?"
"Little brother Chiba Yeyou!"
"It's already been two years since we last met!"
"Big sister Tiffany!"
Far away in Japan, Chiba Yeyou also lay on his back on his bed, looking at the identical photograph in his hand, at the same people, and couldn't help murmuring to himself.