Chapter 44: All I did was say my name, why are you kneeling!?
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -
Steady, calm, and unruffled. That was the impression Michirou Juumonji got from the boy he knew as Seigo Harano.
Even now, he remained unsure about what attitude he should take with this youth.
If the boy was truly someone with mystical powers, he would be willing to treat him extravagantly, but it wasn’t absolutely confirmed yet, and... since this boy was invited here successfully, that lowered the chances he was a mystical ability user.
Michirou believed that it would be incredibly difficult to successfully invite a real person with mystical powers.
As mystical ability users were arrogant and haughty, they would look down on ordinary people, which included their mafia group. It was doubtful that they would even want to be seen associating together with them... at least on the surface.
When Michirou heard that the invitation was successful and this boy had agreed to meet him, Michirou actually frowned and lowered his expectations.
The development he expected was that if the boy had been a mystical ability user, Kaede would be rejected, perhaps even warned and threatened, and he would ultimately have to personally invite the boy in the most polite and formal manner.
But the current situation was completely different from what he anticipated, so he felt like there was a lower chance that this boy was a mystical ability user...In other words, it was a delicate situation.
After meeting him personally, Michirou could tell that the boy was quite self-assured.
So, was this boy a mystical ability user or not?
Michirou Juumonji felt helpless when faced with these types of uncertain situations.
So, when the boy directly asked him what he wanted to discuss, he contemplated the situation at lightning speed in his mind while mentally frowning. In the end, he decided to use the direct approach.
"What I’d like to discuss is strongly connected with your identity... Could you tell me who you really are?"
‘Who I really am?’ Seiji raised his eyebrows.
"You haven’t investigated?"
"No, we haven’t done a deep investigation of you. We only know that your name is Seigo Harano, and that you recently transferred to Genhana High School as a first-year student... We know that you have some connection to the student council president there, Natsuya Yoruhana... as well as the fact that you’re far more adept at martial arts than any normal person. That’s the full extent of our information," Michirou informed Seiji calmly.
"You invited me over with just this knowledge?"
"We considered the fact that you might be a person with mystical powers, so it would be rude of us to pry with a deeper investigation. We’re inviting you with sincerity, not because we wish to do harm to you."
The room remained silent for a while.
‘I thought that they’d be able to find everything out about me already in such a short time... It turns out they didn’t even bother to investigate deeply; they only invited me over because they were certain that I was the masked person,’ Seiji thought to himself, ‘well, that would only be normal as the martial arts abilities I showed off that night were incredulous.’
Honestly, Seiji didn’t expect either that his fighting ability would become so ridiculous immediately after activating the [Fighting] card—he felt almost as if he had become the main character of a fighting video game.
Just kidding. He still wasn’t as outlandish as a fighting game character would be in real life, but if he kept increasing his strength through his system, maybe reaching that level would actually be achievable. Come to think of it, he would soon have access to a technique called [Bullet Time]...
‘Cough cough, let’s stop getting sidetracked—after all, there’s a mafia boss sitting across from me!’ Seiji stopped himself from going off on a tangent.
"My true identity... even though it’s nothing special, I hope that you guys won’t spread it around," Seiji said in a normal tone of voice as he gazed directly at Michirou Juumonji.
"Seigo Harano is a fake name—my real name is... Seiji Haruta."
Haruta... after taking a few seconds to absorb it, Michirou’s gaze towards him instantly changed!
"Haruta... Are you talking about the Haruta from the ‘Seven Great Families...’"
‘The Seven Great Families?’ Seiji blinked, and he recalled that Natsuya Yoruhana mentioned this phrase before, so he nodded in confirmation.
Michirou’s entire expression distorted. This boy claimed that his real family name was "Haruta," and acknowledged being from one of the Seven Great Families... Could he be lying? Michirou didn’t think that was the case... since he couldn’t detect any telltale signs of lying from this boy at all. As the leader of the Juumonji Group, he was quite confident in his own judgement regarding other people!
Not only that, considering the out-of-the-ordinary skill in martial arts that this boy displayed, even if he wasn’t a person with mystical powers, he would definitely have some connection with those that did and know about them. Anyone that knew about mystical powers would understand the true meaning of the family name "Haruta," and would also comprehend the scary end he would meet if he falsely claimed to be from the Haruta family!
Michirou honestly admitted to himself that even if he had ten lives, he wouldn’t dare to falsely claim the Haruta name. Those people were far above ordinary mortals, and anyone that stained the honor of their family name like that would be punished with a fate in hell far worse than death! The existence of a scammer that could falsely masquerade as a "Haruta" without changing expression was completely impossible!
So the answer was obvious. Michirou Juumonji broke out into a cold sweat.
He maintained his seiza position, but backed away three steps.
"I’m so incredibly sorry..." With a flourish of his oversized sleeves, he placed both hands on the ground and formally kowtowed to Seiji!
"You were actually an important member of the Haruta family... Everything we’ve done before has been overly disrespectful to you; I deeply apologize and hope for your forgiveness!"
Seiji was astounded. What the hell, all he did was say his name—why was this guy suddenly kneeling and kowtowing to him!?
By the way, were all mafia members so used to doing such gestures!? His movements seemed too practiced!!
After remaining in a state of shock for a dozen seconds, Seiji finally recalled the words that Natsuya Yoruhana told him before—he had received the impression back then that his family was incredibly powerful. The original Seiji didn’t have any relevant memories about how powerful his family was, so even Natsuya’s explanation didn’t leave much of an impression on Seiji originally.
Only now did Seiji realize the true might of the "Haruta" name. It was ridiculous!
Just saying it out loud could scare a mafia boss into such an action...
‘Oops, he’s already been in that pose for quite a while.’
"Juumonji-san, none of this is necessary, so please get up first." Seiji forced himself to speak as calmly as possible, "Even though I’m from the Haruta family... I was exiled from my family, so there’s no need for you to be so tense."
‘Exiled from his family? A boy who was able to single-handedly defeat one-third of the members in the Juumonji group by himself with a single punch each time, including Furu-chan who was armed with a gun, not to mention my own son who’s the number one fighter in our group? He... he’s only someone who was chased out of his family!?’ Michirou, who only had a blurry impression of the "Haruta" family name before, instantly felt what he imagined to be the family’s terrifying nature!
If someone who was exiled from his family had such power, what about a member of the main Haruta family? Perhaps just a single person could easily destroy the entire Juumonji group!
After coming to this realization, Michirou Juumonji had a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"No... even if you... have some special circumstances, you’re still a ‘Haruta,’ for people like me that are part of the underground society, we must look up to your existence." He slowly raised his head. "I’m truly.... truly apologetic for everything that we’ve put you through."
Okay, having been apologized to so many times, Seiji was beginning to feel awkward.
"I’ll accept your apology, so no need to keep repeating it." He scratched his face. "Seeing your behavior... I think I don’t need to explain anything further about my real identity, so... just what was it that you wanted to discuss with me?"
"Before that, please allow me to show you the courtesy of the Juumonji group." Michirou Juumonji bowed again, then lifted his arms and clapped his hands. Instantly, two young and beautiful women wearing traditional Sakura Island clothing entered the room. One woman was holding a large tray that contained many small plates filled with a dazzling array of desserts, while the other woman had a tray with a teapot, teacups, tea leaves, stirring spoon... and so on. After the two of them entered, they kneeled by the table and placed the plates on the table one by one. After placing the dessert tray on the table and the tea items next to Michirou, they bowed and left wordlessly.
"Allow me to make some tea for you. Please enjoy some desserts first." Michirou indicated to Seiji.
Seiji could tell that Michirou Juumonji definitely didn’t seem to harbor any ill intentions towards him, and even seemed to respect him a little too much, so he relaxed his guard slightly as well, stopped exchanging pleasantries, and picked up some sweets that caught his eye.
‘Mm, delicious! They were probably made by a skilled baker—the taste is even better than what the Divine Taste confectionery store produces. Well, after all, the store mass-produces sweets in bulk.’
A thought suddenly popped into Seiji’s mind: how good would the desserts that Rika Amami personally baked with care taste? Not only was she the owner and store manager, all the desserts in their store were personally designed by her.
As an employee working in the front, he’d never had the opportunity to taste her cooking before. Most likely only those working in the kitchen would have that chance. Seiji thought about all this as he tasted the sweets laid out before him.
Meanwhile, Michirou Juumonji was doing something with the tools to make tea that Seiji didn’t really understand. He boiled some water, added tea leaves, and stirred... All his actions seemed serious as he went about the tea ceremony.
‘This probably isn’t a real tea ceremony... It’s just enough to act pretentious and fool some young girls into falling in love with him, if he had actually been a college professor,’ Seiji casually thought.
After some smooth and pretentious... no wait, tea ceremony actions, Michirou held a cup of hot tea in his hand for Seiji to take.
This was the first time that Michirou had ever respectfully offered such a young person a cup of tea personally brewed by him; even his own children had never received this from him before!
Michirou didn’t think of all this as insulting at all, but rather considered it his honor to do so. That was because there was a "Haruta" in front of him!
Even if Seiji was exiled from his family... no, Michirou received this opportunity exactly because Seiji was exiled from his family.
This was the answer to his earlier doubts. He assumed Seiji wasn’t as arrogant as he expected and agreed to the invitation because he had been chased out of his family.
Otherwise, he might not ever get the chance to meet someone with mystical powers during his entire lifetime!
"Please, have some tea."
"Oh... thank you."
Seiji took the teacup and carefully took a sip.
"Mm, this tastes nice... It’s good tea."
Michirou Juumonji smiled faintly at hearing Seiji’s compliment. He inwardly considered this to be the most glorious moment of his life.