Crown 10

Yuzuru: And so, as I have already asked—

Please allow me one glimpse of my master to ensure that he is safe. If he is, I will obediently withdraw for the time being.

Ibara: Nghghh?! What you’re saying and what you’re doing are two complete opposites! I told you I don’t know anything!

Yuzuru: Would you like me to tighten this position a little more?

Ibara: Stop, you’re gonna break it?! Police! This man is guilty of bodily assault!

Yuzuru: Fufu. Were any authorities here to intervene, wouldn’t you, rather, be in quite a bind? In any case, I can always excuse this as a little roughhousing with my dear friend ♪

Ibara: What are you, some fucking playground bully?! When have we ever been friends?!

Yuzuru: Oh, don’t say such sad things, Ibara. After all, we once ate out of the same pot, did we not?

Ibara: Uncle! Mercy! Friends don’t launch an attack on each other while they’re on break and force them into submission!

Like I said, your words don’t match your actions in the slightest! You’re so irritating!

Yuzuru: (Hm... On closer assessment, it seems Ibara really knows nothing about it. Of course, it’s also possible that he’s finally grown a backbone after all these years.)

(Even so, one’s nature doesn’t change so easily. Ibara’s top priority has always been self-preservation.)

(It’s only natural for a child who was never loved by anyone. The only one who can pamper and care for him is himself.)

(As such, he only ever takes his own interests into consideration.)

(He’d happily divulge anything under duress, no matter what it cost anyone else.)

(So then, Ibara likely isn’t the one behind this. If he’d been involved even a little, he would be flaunting it to me.)

(And yet, he looks at me like he’d rather ask for my help—)

Ibara: Stoooooop, you moron! Can’t you at least let me go before you get lost in thought?!

Yuzuru: ...Hm, all right. I have no desire to keep you in such close quarters, either.

Ibara: Wheeze, pant... I’ve thought this for a while now, but you really are a freak, instructor! How do you go through your life like that?

Yuzuru: Fufu. To ensure that my master can lead a healthy and prosperous life, I would rather have no humanity at all.

I would be a mere cog in a machine, selflessly devoting myself to him.

Ibara: That’s why I said you’re a freak. ...Isn’t that the kind of life you always hated, though?

Yuzuru: Surprisingly, I enjoy it. And you? I recall you always declaring you would never bow down to anyone else.

Yet you’ve come to lead exactly that life, have you not?

Ibara: Hah! They’re all nothing but spoiled children incapable of even speaking with others unless they deem them beneath themselves—that’s the Japan of this modern era!

They expect everyone to prioritize them and act conveniently in their favor, like doting parents!

So to get what I want, I become that for them!^[1]

Yuzuru: What you want most is someone who will praise you and love you without condition.

Well, that’s neither here nor there. If you don’t tell me where my master is, I’m afraid the injury you’ll suffer is not one you’ll recover from.

Ibara: Shit, I should have tapped the greenroom, too! I could have recorded the whole thing and ruined you!

Yuzuru: Had you planted a bug, I would simply have changed my voice using the vocal mimicry that Hibiki-sama taught me. Perhaps I could use the voice of “His Excellency” who you’re so devoted to.

Ibara: ......

Yuzuru: ...What on earth is Ran Nagisa-sama thinking?

Ibara: Don’t ask me! That’s what I want to know!

Yuzuru: If you don’t know, then it’s unlikely that anyone else would.

Ibara: Perhaps His Highness Hiyori might? It seems they’ve been working together covertly on that “oracle” nonsense.

What a pain! Thanks to that, the White Team has lost two battles we should have won!

Valkyrie in the first round and 2wink in the second still only lost by a slim margin! They would have taken the victory had they been utilized properly!

Oh, what a complete waste of talent! Watching this from the sidelines is utterly nerve-racking! Why is any of this even happening?!