One day, some time after Miyamoto got launched into orbit.
Fieldwork finished, I settled onto a tree stump and sank into thought.
—Come to think of it… everything started with Miyamoto, didn’t it.
Miyamoto abandoned me, and the survival arc began.
Eating snakes, filtering river water… those first days were genuinely brutal.
Then the palm-top rabbits arrived, then wave after wave of women, then one absurdly convenient development after another.
—Culminating in Skill: Emperor of the Night.
Honestly — girls who wouldn’t have glanced at Japan-era me if I’d done handstands now launch nightly raids on my bed.
Life is a deeply strange thing.
“Well then…”
I stood and headed for the house.
On the way, I spotted Katia leading the elf women into the forest, construction materials in tow.
“Hm? What’s going on, Katia?”
“Oh, it’s the we—”
Katia slapped both hands over her own mouth in a panic.
“I-i-it’s NOTHING!”
“Eh? ‘Nothing’ meaning…?”
“Anyway — Onii-chan, you go THAT way! Shoo!”
“Uh…?”
Well — no idea what that was, but I’ll comply for now.
I continued toward the house, and en route ran into Arisa unloading a garment case from the kei truck.
“WAH! Tatsuya-bro!”
“Hm? What’s with the case?”
“This is, uh… it’s… it’s… it’s THAT!”
“‘That’?”
“It’s NOTHIN’, is what it is!”
Arisa: also visibly panicking.
These people are DEFINITELY hiding something.
And then it clicked — “wait… I know this pattern.”
They pulled exactly this routine before my birthday.
Back home, I tried Sonya and Ouroboros. Results:
“Ufufu~♪ I have no idea what you mean~♪”
“Master, I believe that is your imagination.”
A unified wall. Airtight. Insultingly so.
The cover-up is COMPLETELY blown, for the record…
Wondering what to do, my eyes landed on Atomu-kun.
I called him outside, confirmed nobody was in earshot, and asked.
“Boss… you’re the ONE person I can’t tell.”
That was his answer — and there, I stopped digging.
They’re clearly building me a good surprise. Prying further would just be boorish.
So that day, I performed the role of a man who suspects nothing — ate dinner, took my bath, and went to sleep.