Hey, hey, hey, it's more of a punishment than a reward, bastard!

So, in fact, I'm a young master who is not related by blood? Foster child? No, but the middle-aged man's attitude towards me just now was obviously that he regarded me as the heir to the family. Didn't anyone know about it? Anyway, how did a guy who has no blood relationship stay in such a big aristocratic family.

Yuma Ichinose was eager to pull the game screenwriter by the collar and ask for clarification.

- But the answer may be that there is a "game setting".

"What are you kidding, which screenwriter wrote such an outrageous plot setting! The final main quest won't make me a bloodless guy become the head of the family, hey! ”

The more Yuma thought about it, the more outrageous he felt, and he couldn't help but scold. After saying that, he regretted it, instinctively covered his mouth, looked around nervously, and was relieved to confirm that there was no one.

However, since the game has arranged this setting, it will definitely become a foreshadowing hidden danger in the future.

It's like a □□ hanging on the wall of the living room, and it always has to shoot a bullet at the end.

Yuma Ichinose immediately put the matter on her to-do list.

At the beginning of the game, in addition to exploring the Tsushima family map and completing the [Family Lessons] arranged in the game, he began to try to secretly find out any information about his identity.

However, the content of the information he gathered was not much different - "Tsushima Yu" was very popular with his father, the current head of the family, and his biological mother had been dead for a long time, and the current mother was the stepmother who married the successor after the head of the family, and the relationship was not related by blood, and the relationship was not lukewarm.

So no one knows about this matter now except for himself? This also means that as long as he can hide this secret, he may be able to snuff out the foreshadowing left by the game script mother in the cradle in advance.

Ichinose Yuma breathed a sigh of relief and calmed down a little.

However, he seems to have forgotten someone.

- Oh, that younger brother named Shuji Tsushima, it seems like I haven't seen him for a long time.

Since the first meeting with Murona, more than a month has passed, and Yuma Ichinose and Shuji Tsushima have not met again.

In the past, they would only get together for dinner when their father was around, but the head of the family probably had something to do and hadn't been at home for a long time, so they also ate in their respective rooms.

Shuji Tsushima didn't even show up in class, and the head of the house seemed to have forgotten to arrange a teacher for him.

He was like a forgotten ghost, with no sense of existence.

……

Today is a cloudy day, and the sky is covered with dark clouds, and there is no light as a curtain.

In the morning, I was pressed to a bunch of classes, and my body and mind were already exhausted. Ichinose sighed as she walked down the hallway of the house to return to her room.

He didn't know if he had come to play games or to read books—the kind of aristocratic education—or even to have a course in imperial studies.

…… In a sense, I made it, right?

He was thinking wildly when the sound of the maids laughing and playing sounded in his ears. Ichinose Yuma paused, and couldn't help but glance in that direction, a little curious.

After all, after this period of exploration and understanding of this copy, in this mansion where the atmosphere is so serious that it is suffocating, the rules of the servants are not small, and even they usually speak softly, as if they are afraid of disturbing the master, and they are even more afraid of the master's punishment.

"It's a rare ......"

Yuma muttered, originally wanting to ignore - after all, meddling in the past did not match the image of his young master, and managing people was the job of the head maid.

But soon, after hearing someone's name, he changed his mind in an instant—

"Ah, the young master of cultivation ......"

Yuma Ichinose's ears suddenly stood up, and then she turned around on her toes and walked in the direction of the maids who had gathered.

Perhaps it was too relaxed, and the maids didn't notice the approach of Yuma Ichinose at all, and laughed to themselves, so it was not lively.

They were gathered in a heap, dressed in grass-gray kimonos, white aprons, and no ornaments on their hair buns. They chatted to themselves, completely noticing, or rather not caring about the paleness of Shuji Tsushima's smile, and from time to time they raised their hands to touch each other's cheeks, and then withdrew their hands to cover their lips and laugh.

This attitude is not at all like respect for the owner, nor does it seem like it comes from the heartfelt love for cute children, but more like looking at porcelain that you have never dared to touch before, and treating pets like a pet.

"I'm just a child who doesn't get taken seriously."

Even if the words are not spoken, people's actions will reveal the truest thoughts in their hearts—micro-expressions, which are much more honest than their mouths.

And the dark-haired boy in the center, Shuji Tsushima, seemed to be used to it, maintaining a masked smile and staying quietly in place, not resisting, let alone reacting to other things. That cute face makes him look like a delicate Japanese doll.

"Young Master Xiuzhi doesn't look like a master at all...... I guess my mother must be very beautiful and moving. "Ah, will you look better than your current lady?" "Hey, don't talk about it." "Shhhhh

In the face of the maids' teasing, Shuji Tsushima just smiled obediently and did not speak.

"Young Master Xiuzhi is so cute......"

One of the maids reached out and gently twisted the curls on the side of the boy's face with her fingers, running them down the side of the face, trying to touch the boy's round earlobe. The overly intimate contact made Shuji Tsushima's back tense like a stone statue.

"It's disgusting......

The smile on his face could not be maintained, and the boy's already white face became more and more pale.

He scanned his surroundings with his peripheral vision, pondering the rhetoric of leaving. However, a black figure flashed in his sight, which made the expression on Tsushima's face change a little.

The iris-colored eyes lit up, like a candle flame suddenly lit in the haze, shaking tremblingly.

He opened his mouth, as if to call the other person's name, but stopped in hesitation.

Yu Tsushima - He should call him brother.

He saw it.

…… What will he do?

So, he closed his mouth, with a hint of mixed emotions, waiting expectantly for the other party's choice.

Yu Tsushima was standing at the edge of the corridor not far away at this time, staring at this side with inky eyes, and his face was always cold and arrogant. The black-haired boy frowned, a hint of disgust flashed in his eyes, as if he had never been here and had never seen anything, and turned away without hesitation, and the hem of the kimono quickly disappeared around the corner.

Little by little, the light in the iris's eyes went out. There was darkness and indescribable gloom in his hollow eyes that had lost focus, and he opened his mouth, his throat feeling like a ball of cotton was stuck, and all the sounds disappeared in it, only to close again like an idiot.

Ah~ah, I didn't understand this kind of thing a long time ago.

The women around her are like characters from old-fashioned black-and-white movies, with no voice and can only express the meaning of the owner with exaggerated limbs. Shuji Tsushima looked at their faces, but nothing was reflected in their eyes.

So, he just smiled, bent his eyebrows, and the corners of his mouth went up, hiding the emotion in his eyes.

He felt a cold loneliness in his heart. Where does this inexplicable loneliness come from?

"Isn't human nature always like this? It's normal to be able to disguise yourself for your own interests and selfishness, and make yourself look like a noble person."

"So, what exactly are you expecting?"

"—'No one will come to my rescue.'" 」

"Whoa—"

The sound of the water breaks the silence and pulls Shuji Tsushima out of his own world. The surroundings were recolored.

Tea trickled down his cheeks, and the dark brown spread little by little on his clothes and floor.

In the air, the unique bitter fragrance of tea fills everyone's nostrils. It's a pity that no one has the heart to appreciate and taste this fine tea fragrance at this time, and they are all frightened by this sudden scene.

Shuji Tsushima's eyes widened in astonishment as he looked up at the person behind the maid.

The dark-haired boy in dark feathered weaving stood expressionlessly behind the outstretched maid with a cold face, his slender white fingers clasping the completely poured teacup.

There was not a drop of tea left in it, and it was poured clean.