I really don't want to be reborn.

The beautiful girl with twin ponytails laughed out loud at the entrance of the maid shop. She laughed shyly at first, as if she was about to drink a large glass of barley wine in one go after laughing. She drank too fast and didn't forget to cough twice to show her tsundere attitude.

She then realized that her laughter was too stupid, and she was annoyed that Kousaka Kyosuke was looking at her with the eyes of someone who was mentally challenged. So she laughed in an affected way, and the laughter sounded like a hand shaking a silver bell that stretched out from her chest.

"Sawamura, be normal, I'm scared."

The two left Akihabara and came to the streets of Shinjuku. It was similar to Shibuya, but the atmosphere and architecture were nothing like Akihabara. Like Kirino Kousaka, Eriri Sawamura had two identities.

Outwardly, she's a fashionable, romantic, and seemingly successful young woman who also seems to be a fan of celebrities...

"Huh? I'm a fan of celebrities? No, I have absolutely no interest in that."

After casually picking out a winter outfit, Ms. Eriri Sawamura crossed her arms and said with a mocking expression, "Some people would rather care about the mundane details of a mediocre movie actor than understand the rich and colorful world of anime."

Although these words, full of resentment and sarcasm, were not as widely circulated and bizarre as the Prime Minister's scolding of Wang Situ, they were as sharp and insightful as Zhang Yi's scolding of Mencius, who was a virgin and a prostitute. They were thought-provoking and made Kousaka Kyosuke think they made a lot of sense. He thought he would repeat them to his mother when he got back, because it seemed that Yoshino's mother was a fan of celebrities.

As evening approached, he suddenly remembered something: "The house I bought in Tokyo is nearby, and I'll be moving to Kasumigaoka next year. Feel free to visit anytime."

Eriri became interested—it seemed like she was interested in everything about her best friend.

That's probably what friendship is all about.

Even though she thought her love had dried up in her chuunibyou (adolescent delusions of grandeur), there was always something that could touch the strings deep in her heart, so she curiously went to see Kosaka's new house.

"Hmph, I'll definitely come over and have some fun, I'll eat you two out of house and home!"

This is a classic example of using friendship to dilute the pain of love.

Not only that, she was also pleasantly surprised to find her father's car parked not far away.

She skipped happily over, wanting to give her father a surprise—oh, this is family love!

After her failed love affair, Ms. Sawamura was like a drowning person clinging to anything on the shore to keep from being swept away, so she valued friendship and family ties even more.

Mr. Sawamura Spencer came out from next door to the Kousaka residence and was talking to a beautiful girl with long, straight black hair who followed him out.

The elderly gentleman from England sighed and hugged the beautiful young woman, who looked reluctant—a scene very much like the one he had shared with his young mistress.

"..."

Eriri's steps froze abruptly, her face showing a look of astonishment as if she had just realized that what she had just grasped was not kinship, but a razor blade...

"dad……"

Old Sawamura, standing at the entrance of the Touma residence, also had a stiff expression, never dreaming that he would run into his daughter at this moment.

Kyosuke Kosaka, walking behind her, noticed this amusing scene and, unable to contain his joy, let out a strange laugh.

------

Phew, finished at midnight.

I need some razor blades, chugging them down...

Chapter 44 This is actually the basic routine for sending a daughter away.

"Seventeen years..."

On the street at dusk, the streetlights flickered, and an old man squatting by the roadside uttered such a sigh.

He was thinking that the moon seventeen years ago was just a reddish-yellow, damp halo, because that was in Vienna, Europe, and the moon in foreign countries wasn't necessarily much rounder.

He still remembers that the full moon that night was like a teardrop that a woman had dropped on a letter, slowly spreading out, not very smooth.

I'm getting old, I'm an old man now.

Therefore, the memory seems old and blurry, even though the moon seventeen years ago was joyful and wild, there was one in the sky and two in front of me, both big, round and white, and I couldn't tell them apart.

However, looking back through seventeen years of ordinary life, the moonlight that night inevitably carried a touch of melancholy.

He let out this heavy sigh, and someone next to him offered him a cigarette.

Do you smoke?

"No need... Seventeen years have passed in the blink of an eye."

Kousaka Kyosuke was squatting on the street with Mr. Sawamura, angrily grabbing his hair: "Damn it, if I had known this was going to happen, I would never have brought Eriri here to visit."

"It's okay. Eriri will find out sooner or later anyway. I can't hide it forever."

He straightened his expression, glanced at the Touma residence where his eldest daughter was, and then at the car where his youngest daughter was.

"Yes, the black-haired girl you just saw, Touma Kazusa, is my illegitimate daughter."

"what……"

Kyosuke Kosaka didn't know what to say.

This dramatic conflict came too suddenly; he wasn't prepared at all. Illegitimate daughters are normal, and beautiful girls are not uncommon, but the main reason for his astonishment was "Touma Kazusa" herself.

I think I know her!

Why haven't we made any contact in these dozens of chapters?

That's because you were blocked by the other party...

So why was I blocked?

It seems that I sent an email to Touma-san on the night of my school trip in Nagasaki, asking, "Do you have feelings for me, Touma-san?"—and then I was ruthlessly blocked by her.

What a unique girl! Ha~ve a sex!

So when he discovered that Touma Kazusa seemed to be caught in some complicated ethical dilemma, he was actually quite pleased...

I'll let you block me!

The moment Eriri bumped into Osawamura, his expression, so abrupt it was like a heavy snowfall in June, reminded Kyosuke of his own feelings in August when Kasumigaoka Utaha told him she was going back to her hometown from the Tokyo Tower.

We're all men, life isn't easy for anyone, so empathy... what a load of rubbish!

Those who are life winners with wives, daughters, and mistresses, let's explode!

So, with the two pleasures combined, he pointed even more gleefully to the entrance of Touma's house: "Touma-kun... seems to be standing there glaring at us."

The tall, slender girl with long, straight black hair stood in the twilight, bathed in the dim light.

At first glance, it was thin and frail, looking from a distance like an unaddressed, upright envelope.

One more look, and its proud stance suggests it's coldly watching you, like a lone pine tree on a cliff overlooking the setting sun.

Take one more look...

"How the hell are you going to look? It's not enough that you're eyeing Eriri, you also want to lay a hand on my eldest daughter? I'll fucking kill you!"

"Watch your mouth, Uncle Spencer. Eriri and I have a purely platonic relationship."

"Male-female relationship?"

"...Let's postpone this topic. Tell me about your family matters first, and what you plan to do about them."

Old Zecun glanced back and sighed again.

Love might be something that can be secretly divided up in a corner, but family ties should be a blatant robbery. So there must be a reason why Touma Kazusa doesn't live at the Sawamura house.

“Besides political image, it also involves reputation back in my hometown in England, so I can't bring her to live with me.”

Touma Kazusa's true identity could never be revealed. To avoid suspicion, she was entrusted to her mother's care and thus took her mother's surname.

"Of course she never cared about these things. On the contrary, she preferred her mother's surname and never gave me, her father, a kind look."

"If I may ask, how often does Uncle Spencer usually visit her?"

The old man silently gestured with his hand: "Once every six months."

Kyosuke nodded, indicating his understanding: "If I were her, I would have stabbed you to death long ago."

There must also be Mrs. Sawamura's influence involved.

That seemingly gentle, even unconventional, wife actually came from a prestigious Japanese family and was a well-bred lady. Her tolerance of her husband's mistress and illegitimate daughter was already the limit.

"I also want to bring her to live with me and pamper her, to care for her and let her be as carefree as Eriri, but I can't, I have a lot of difficulties."

The sex scene is coming!

Kousaka Kyosuke remained expressionless, but he had already begun to be on guard.

He gave a forced smile: "Then what's the point of telling me all this? Someone as insignificant as me can't be of any help."

It was probably only at this point that he would belittle himself as a nobody: "If there's anything I can help with, I'll do my best, after all, Eriri and I are friends."

This is tantamount to a preemptive rejection.

Unfortunately, he was facing an old fox, a golden fox at that, who looked at him with a half-smile and let out a low laugh: "The creative investor of Fujimi Shobo, the mastermind behind XEBEC's turnaround, and a well-known bestselling light novel author—when did you become a nobody?"

"Don't say that. It's just small business. Uncle Sawamura, you think too highly of me."

"Just state your terms."

The nobody, Kyosuke Kosaka, touched his nose, feeling a bit chilly. He really didn't want to get involved in other people's family matters: "So, Uncle Spencer, what exactly do you want me to help with?"

"Isn't the house next door yours? Take care of her for me when you have free time. She resists the people I've arranged for her to live with."

Old Zemura paused for a moment: "And no one can tolerate her temper for more than three days, but she seems surprisingly tolerant of you..."

Wow, that's weird? You noticed that?

"Ah, it's my honor that Uncle Spencer asked, and it's just a small favor..."

He lowered his head, quickly calculating the gains and losses in his mind, assessing the risks, and decided that he could agree: "My conditions are actually not difficult, but this matter is not in Japan."

"I didn't know your business had expanded overseas."

Kyosuke Kosaka leaned slightly forward: "Well, what I really want to ask is a personal matter. Do you know anyone in America...?"

In which aspect?

"Regarding track and field training..."

He briefly mentioned that his sister was going to train in the United States this year, and Sawamura Spencer readily agreed to such a small matter.

The two squatting men exchanged a smile; the transaction was complete.

"Ah, if you didn't already have a girlfriend, I really would have liked to set you up with Eriri, but alas..."

The old man warned him, "You're not allowed to have any designs on Kazusa. That's the bottom line."

"..."